Cursed
Tears streamed down Kaien's face as he ran—yet not away from the undead, but straight toward them.
He had never known surrender. Not when his father was bound in chains, his body weighed with stone and cast into the unforgiving sea. Kaien had searched for him day after day, even now. Not when his mother had lost her legs in a bull-cart accident. And not today.
Half the village was already decimated. Severed limbs lay scattered like withered branches across the blood-soaked ground. Pools of crimson shimmered in the harsh sunlight, chilling the spine of any who dared to witness such carnage. Screams echoed through the air like the wailing of damned souls.
Some villagers barricaded themselves inside crumbling homes. Others ran blindly, driven only by desperation. A few brave souls tried to shield their loved ones by standing against the horde—but it made no difference.
Nothing could halt the tide of death.
The homes were ripped apart like parchment. The village was caged: the Dead Sea of Raya behind them, a jagged cliff on the left, and an endless, merciless desert on the right. The few who attempted to resist perished swiftly and gruesomely.
No element—fire, water, steel—could stem the advance of the undead.
Kaien knew he had no future here. What was left for a boy who had lost everything?
But his mother's final words resounded in his mind like the toll of a sacred bell:
"Survive—and do not bow your head before anyone again."
Fresh tears blurred his vision as he gripped a broken stick and turned, limping toward the grotesque mass of corpses.
They lumbered forward, water dripping from decomposed flesh, the scent of rot clinging to the wind.
Then a voice rang out—shattered, furious:
"It's all your fault!"
Kaien froze and turned, breath hitching.
It was one of the boys who had always tormented him. Amid the chaos, the child's eyes blazed with hatred and grief.
His gaze dropped to the bandages around Kaien's hands—and the cloth covering his right eye.
"You're cursed," he spat. "It all started when you were born!"
The stick slipped from Kaien's hand. His chest heaved. "Wha... what?"
The boy lunged, grabbing Kaien's collar. Though they were the same age, Kaien's malnourished frame made him smaller, weaker.
"Your mother found you near the sea," the boy hissed. "You weren't born—you were found."
He shoved Kaien, slamming him into the ground.
Pain seared through Kaien's leg—his already-broken bone cried out—but it couldn't drown out the storm in his head.
His mother... never told him...
Why?
"You're one of them-" the boy whispered, trembling, pointing to the endless swarm of undead.
But he never got to finish.
A bony hand pierced through his back and burst out from his chest. Blood fountained from his mouth as his wide, terrified eyes locked with Kaien's.
Then the corpse withdrew its arm and the boy fell.
Kaien scrambled backward, heart hammering. His hand fumbled on the ground to find the stick.
The world around him had devolved into chaos. The screams of the dying mingled with the tearing of flesh and the crackle of fire.
All signs whispered one truth: this was the end.
A tall corpse loomed above him. Its eye sockets were hollow—gouged out—but streams of blood wept from where they once were. It leaned in, sniffing the air, guided only by sound.
Kaien stilled his breath.
He couldn't move. Couldn't breathe. Just inches away, the monster's rotted face stared into nothingness.
Snap.
The stick broke beneath Kaien's trembling fingers.
He shut his eyes, waiting for the end.
But then—
"You... Not..."
The groan came from the undead's jaw, twisted and flapping with barely any skin.
The monster turned... and walked away.
Kaien opened his eyes, blinking in disbelief.
He was surrounded by undead—and none of them touched him.
They passed by as if he didn't exist.
A sudden thought sliced through the haze:
"Mother—I can still save her!"
Pain surged through Kaien's leg as he forced himself upright, the broken bone in his right leg now a searing lance of agony. But that pain was nothing—nothing—compared to the storm rising inside his chest.
His home lay near the edge of the sea—far from the village heart. He and his mother had been made to live there, ostracized, exiled... perhaps even feared. Kaien had always believed it was merely misfortune.
But now, the truth gnawed at him.
His mother had found him by the sea.
He wasn't born—he was discovered.
And now... the very beings that butchered the village had spared him.
Every step sent fire coursing through his limbs, but he pressed on, half-dragging his wounded leg through the blood-slick earth.
The villagers saw him—those who were still breathing.
They watched as he emerged from the center of the undead horde, untouched, unscathed.
And their gazes...
The hatred in their eyes froze the marrow in his bones. Fear. Horror. Loathing. As if a devil had walked among them.
Kaien clenched his fists. He refused to meet their eyes, refused to acknowledge their accusations—accusations hurled with hoarse, broken voices:
"Monster!"
"You brought them here!"
"It's because of you!"
But the path ahead offered no comfort either.
The land was littered with twisted corpses. Men, women, children—limbs bent at unnatural angles, eyes glassy, mouths frozen in screams. Blood had painted the earth a deep, glistening red. Flies buzzed hungrily over the wreckage.
He staggered toward his home.
Creck.
The door groaned as Kaien shoved it open. He had sealed it shut before fleeing—but now, it yielded easily beneath his trembling hands.
And what he saw within...
He would never forget.
His breath caught in his throat.
The small bed where Umi had lain—his mother—was soaked in a dark, spreading pool of blood. Her body, barely recognizable, was surrounded by a circle of undead corpses.
They had torn through the wall to get in. Splintered wood, broken stone.
His chest caved inward with a silent scream. Grief bloomed like a knife in his ribs.
A storm of thoughts battered his skull.
It's your fault.
Your mother found you by the sea.
You don't belong here.
You are cursed.
He collapsed to his knees, the pain in his leg now eclipsed by a deeper, more soul-crushing agony.
His vision blurred. His breathing grew shallow. Every limb trembled as a new presence filled the doorway.
A woman—her eyes wild, laughter pouring from cracked lips—stood silhouetted by firelight.
She pointed at him and shrieked with madness. "You brought this!"
Then, in a blink, her head snapped backward—ripped from her body by a monstrous claw.
Her headless corpse toppled forward, collapsing just inches from Kaien's hand.
The boy's strength left him. His eyelids fell heavy.
And with the last of his breath, Kaien whispered,
"God... please... let me die with my mother."
Darkness embraced him.