The Fall of Bastion

I know the darkness of this world better than anyone. I have faced the darkness and I have bled in it. I have suffered in it. No man or beast could tell me about the horrors of living a life of pain and torment because that was my life for every waking moment for eighteen years. Then it all changed.

For most of my life I have been on the run. My master and I jumped from one country to the next without staying anywhere too long. We laid low in every town and we didn’t make friends. It was a lonely existence but we made the most of it. Soon enough, though, the persecution always drives us off.

We live in a world where beasts are captured and used to fight in arenas for entertainment. They were deemed too dangerous for the general public yet it seemed that disposing of them was a waste of a life. Now the Games are the most watched entertainment on television. Those who expose beasts are rewarded and the way to do it was to anger them enough to shift. They were hard to spot because they walked around like regular human beings but beasts, they were a sight to behold when they got angry. That’s how we were discovered in every town. You see blonde hair, blue eyes, and whisker like scars on my face were a dead giveaway. It’s why I wear large sweaters and look down while I walk. But humans are so curious and very quick to condemn.

“Naruto, looks like we’ve run out of time.”

Those were the last words I ever heard from my master, Jiraiya.

“No- don’t do this!”

I struggled against the arms that restrained me. Chains looped around my limbs and one of my captors managed to get a restraint around my neck. My vision became blurred when my eyes filled with tears. They were hot against my skin and my voice was raw from all of my hollering. I fought side by side with Jiraiya. He taught me how to fight. How to survive. We escaped close calls countless times but this time he was the one that sold me out. And for what? How much did it cost to betray me?

“You miserable coward!”

I shouted endlessly and I fought with every breath in me but it was too late. The electricity from their devices surged throughout my body.

“Ahhhhhhhhh!”

They struggled to get me into submission.

“I don’t believe it! This kids taking in so much power he should be dead by now!”

Then a woman with long black hair approached me. Her pale eyes were mysterious and full of sympathy. She reached out a hand and soon I succumbed to the pain and to the blackness and was no more.