scream my name | {rave}

It's always worst at night.

The time when the only light comes from that of the hazy half moon and a few shattered stars is most like the dimly lit room, littered with broken souls in cages, too fearful to fight the boys in charge, too fearful to not fight each other. Maximus was the new guy when he had his first fight. The others all whispered their sorrows to him when his cage was opened and he was dragged away. They were all so sure it would be him to lose, gone to their world as quickly as he had arrived in it.

What happened behind those doors is irrevocable, and what happened the next time he was summoned, and the next time, and the next time, and finally he couldn't do it anymore. His knuckles were too bruised, his heart too weak. It wouldn't have taken him losing a fight to mean his death, because his own self-pity and disgust were like poison in his veins.

Like an animal, he clawed at the hard ground for hours and hours until he had made a space large enough to fit himself under. The others all begged him not to, told him it was too risky, to just come back and fight his way out like they were all instructed to do, but he couldn't. (He couldn't, he couldn't, he couldn't!) He wished they would all follow him and run away, but he understood their fear and knew it was him that was the crazy one. He was the one that was risking his own -

His head snaps to the left when he hears a rustle. Ripred, it's been almost a year since his escape, and he is still certain they have their eyes on him at all times. It was growing into quite a struggle. He rarely left his house, though it had taken a while for his mother to even consider letting him do it even if he had wanted to, and as time drug on, it seemed he left even less than he did before.

A wind rustles a branch and he nearly has a heart attack.

Fuck.

He hates this. He hates himself, hates those people for what they did to him. He is hardly even human anymore. What he is doing certainly is not living, but he tells himself it is close enough, and that one day he will be okay again. A twig snaps and he spins around, already half knowing that he won't find anything except his own embarrassment, but his heart stops when there is an actual person standing there.

He is huge. Much bigger than Max, even back when he trained fro his disappearance. He is at least six and a half feet tall, and his face is concealed in the darkness. He looks menacing simply by standing there, and Max knows already. He knows from the moment he sees him.

This hulking boy is one of them, come to take him away again.

No. No no no no NO!