The Birth Of A Monster

The slums could be a disgusting place, only the depraved,deprived, and those who have lost there way ended up in such a despicable place. Deep within the old Karakura Town, nestled between two particularly run down buildings was an Alley that was completely silent. Nothing stirred, a thin layer of dust covered the still garbage bags and various debris that lay around. An eerie kind of peace came with an area so lost and left alone. At least that is what the spirit that resided within it thought. He appeared to be a just a hapless young-man, sitting on the rickety fire-escape aside one of the buildings. His eyes looked glossed over, as if he'd been lost within his own thoughts for countless hours.

Suddenly a soft noise caught the attention of what was once a young man. The spirit effortlessly dropped from the fire-escape to investigate the noise. On the ground he noticed several pairs of tiny tracks had entered into the Alley, just as he had expected upon following them it lead him to a box. The very same box was also producing the same noise from earlier. Upon opening the box the spirit was surprised, as he was staring down at two black kittens huddled together.. mewling loudly. At first the noise had been harsh and the spirit wanted to end it, but when he saw what caused it a sigh escaped his lips. As much as the spirit wanted to, it couldn't be mad at innocent creatures.

While he was lost in thought a much louder noise came to his attention. This time a Human was walking into what the spirit decided was his Alley Way. Again the spirit was agitated and moved towards the human, as he drew close however, he saw that it was a woman with messy and wild brown hair. She was tightly bundled in multiple torn jackets, each over-laying another in hopes of covering as much of her malnourished body as possible. Her eyes were gaunt and crows feet had long since found a home of her weathered face. The Spirit stopped moments before reaching out and touching her, she didn't even notice him. Instead the human rummaged about the garbage bags that had been un-disturbed and eventually left, leaving the spirit on his own once more.

The spirit was at this point confused, as he desperately tried to gather his thoughts. For the past however long he'd been conscious he'd merely been acting to stimuli, and now that he'd seen some one it brought his mind onto himself. As the spirit examined his hands he could feel his eyes starting to sting ever so slightly. He looked down at his clothing. It was a simple kind of style, something that some one would wear to a casual business work. The closer the spirit examined the more it realized it had no idea where it had got it's clothes, and further more no idea what it's own name was. All the spirit knew was that the deeper it delved into it's existence, the more something missing called to it. This longing sensation tore at the Spirit until finally tears began to stream down it's face. Even though it was crying, and there was a pain in his chest, he didn't know why.

The minute of pain had stretched into hours, and before the Spirit even looked up again at least several DAYS had passed. When he open his eyes to take in his surrounding, to pull himself away from that immense pain that was deep inside of him, he saw that now there were tiny paw prints all over the once un-disturbed floor. Further more, when the Spirit investigated the Box he saw that the kittens were nursing on their Mother. The innocent sight, for a brief moment, took away the sadness that had inexplicably ailed the spirit. The first smile he could ever remember finally broke on his face.

Time passed as it should, and the Spirit was just as effected by it as the slowly growing kittens were. However instead of becoming more, he felt as if he was shrinking, becoming less of a Human. Days had passed since he remembered smiling, he wasn't sure if it had been weeks at this point. Time moved, but he had no motivation to keep track of it. He wasn't hungry, and he felt no pain other than the immense sadness that would occasionally assault his senses. One day while attempting to escape the crippling depression, he'd attempted to flee the alley. Upon doing so he'd felt a freezing constraint holding him from leaving, looking down revealed dull, heavy, gray chains wrapped around his limbs. As soon as he'd abandoned leaving the chains gave up thier assault and allowed him to return to the center of the Alley.

During the time the Spirit had learned he was imprisoned he also learned of a strange addition to his chest. There was a strange silver plate, on which was a short chain. For some reason the Spirit hadn't noticed this chain at first, and upon further examination he discovered in total five links. During his examination of the chain he suddenly heard a noise, a soft clinking. He reached down and held the chain up and horror spread across his face. The fifth link of the chain had suddenly sprouted tiny mouths, each voraciously eating the chain. At first the shock had over-taken him, but suddenly he felt it. The depression swept through his being like a sickness. This strange sensation he'd felt before forced him to his knees, the spirit weakly lifting the chain as he watched. He was completely unable to stop the chain as it devoured itself and he connected the dots. With each lost link he felt the pain and sadness. It just left one question in his mind... What happens when all of the links are gone? Now only four measly links remained.

Complete and utter nihilism over took the Spirit. He stayed there, kneeling in the dust for weeks. He wondered what was the point of trying to remember if it meant he was losing himself in the process. There was no meaning to anything any more if his time was so limited that he could count the links before... whatever was going to happen, happened. A new sound pulled him from his despair, a soft sobbing noise. It reminded him so much of his own that he couldn't help but turn to gaze into the face of the young girl. The spirit had no idea when this girl had trespassed into his territory. Normally he was on edge, but she had slipped past his defense. She was sitting by the piles of garbage, he knees pulled up to her chest. Tears streamed down her face, and the Spirit wanted to do something, to try and comfort her. He rose from his kneeling position to walk over.

He'd made it half-way across the Alley towards her when once again he felt an emptiness spreading from the very core of his being. It over-took his senses and his thoughts. He desperately clung to the idea of helping this girl, but was utterly powerless to continue forward. The Spirit was completely still, forced to watch as she poured her sorrows out into the alley before standing and leaving him. The Spirit forced himself to look down only to see one more of the links had disappeared. He was forced to say something out loud, " What kind of world would let this happen to some one?" His own voice felt foreign to him, it was deep and scratchy. What terrified him most about it, was how ... angry he sounded.

Before he could speak again and try to discern why his voice had changed so he was surprised to see a familiar face. The joy of seeing a familiar face fell to the way side when the Spirit noticed that it was merely the starving woman he'd seen roughly a month or so prior. He watched as once more she rummaged through garbage and junk. The spirit wondered what else she was planning to find, as if she hadn't already picked it clean. When she left, thats when it dawned on the spirit. The woman had left both times, empty handed. Unlike last time however, she had stayed an hour longer and seemed to have been searching more frantically than the last.

The details of the encounter slowly slipped away from the Spirit over time. Time, Time, Time, the only thing the Spirit experienced aside from a deep sadness. No matter how he felt, or how many times he paced the Alley, the Sun kept moving across the sky over-head. Many days past without either his chain eroding upon itself, or a visit. The only thing that kept the spirit sane during this time was constant interaction with the cats. Something interesting had happened over time however. The Cats slowly began to interact back with him. They rubbed up against his legs on occasion, watched him pace, and even chased the occasional rock or dust bunny he kicked over. This simple, primitive, basic interaction was all he needed to keep himself together, for now.

Just as the Spirit thought that perhaps his chain was safe, as was his humanity as long as he stayed within the Alley and gave up on his past things began to brew. The day had started as any other, with our dead John Doe looking over the now grown cats as they slept together. The clouds had gathered high over-head in mass,and it looked as if the darkness threatened the engulf everything. Days like this reminded the spirit of the sadness, but didn't bring it about. Slowly clouds began to wring out, and was started as a soft drizzle turned into a torrential down pour on the Alley.

John Doe had just started to finally enjoy himself, listening to the beautiful sound of rain. He wasn't worried for the Cats, they had retreated to a small alcove John had constructed at some point out of some broken parts of the fire escape aside one of the buildings and some cardboard. What did worry him however was the sound of splashing and sobbing! The Young Girl, whose face he barely recalled had returned. She was in utter dis-array, her hair was muddy and clumped together. She wore a low cut tank top that must have looked amazing on her before it was ripped nearly down the center exposing a dirty and malnourished frame. In her right hand was a black shopping bag that had atleast partially filled with water on her walk. The Girl couldn't have been older than sixteen, but she shakily started gathering things and moving them about. John merely watched as she placed a trash-can under the fire-escape. It looked to him as if she intended to climb it, maybe to find shelter.

His thoughts quickly changed as he saw her reach into the back, and with a terrifying expression and shaking hands retrieved a braid of rope. She failed her first throw.. attempting to get the rope over the railing of the fire-escape. The second time proved much more fruitful, and before John comprehended what was going on the girl was standing with a noose around her neck. The tin trash can wobbled un-steadily under her feet. The girl's face was streaming with tears, she was attempting to speak but her words were garbled between sobs. After ten minutes in the freezing rain finally she moved her hands up and started to remove the noose. John was glad to see she had made the proper choice, when suddenly a thunderous crashing noise rang out and a blinding flash of light filled the Alley. The girl slipped, the trash can shooting out from under her feet. There was a straining noise as the ropes snapped taunt and the girl began desperately waving her hands and trying to hold herself up. No noise was escaping her mouth, but her eyes were screaming for help.

John broke into motion, but his eyes widened as pain shot throughout his entire body. He screamed inside of his mind, " Please not now... any time but now! I need to ... help .... her... " Again his thoughts trailed off as immense pain over-took him. his body fell to the ground into a puddle. Mud covered his face and matted his hair, he looked up out of the corner of his eye. Thought the pain and sadness was so intense it rendered him un-able to move he could still see what was happening. His eyes made direct contact with hers and for a brief moment he knew she could see him, perhaps not before, but right now as she was she could see him in the puddle and she looked terrified. The pain inside of John had hit a spear head and finally he blacked out, the last thing he saw was the girl standing right in front of her own hanging body. From her chest dangled a broken chain like his own... and she walked away.

The Spirit's first slumber since he had awoken originally had been one of bliss and peace. What he awoke to however was chaos, there were at least ten men surrounding the body. They were wearing uniforms and seemed to all be so sad. The men took the body down and carried it away as well as all of the girls possessions. John stood up and took a moment to take in his own status. From his chest dangled a single remaining link. The Darkness he felt inside of himself was no longer something held at bay, rather it permeated his being. It made him angry that he felt so empty, that so much of him was missing now. All that John wanted was for what he once had, what ever it was he wanted it back.

The Woman didn't visit this month. John waited at the spot she rummaged at within the Alley. He entertained the thought that perhaps the men who had taken the Body scared her off. John tried to convince himself that he didn't care. In his time alone he'd finally taken to talking to himself out-loud, despite the distortion of his voice having only intensified in his loneliness. " I don't need any one here any more... I just want the pain to stop. Anything to make this pain stop. I want to be me... " The Spirit continued listening off things that it wanted, for atleast several days. As he was just about to begin to repeat himself for the seventh or so time, he heard a noise. It was the sound of foot steps...

The brown haired woman had never looked so bad. Her eyes were puffy and red, her cheeks and eyes were sunken. She almost looked as if she had not eaten in the time since he had seen her. the Woman was carrying something with her however, a small brown box. John decided to finally see what this woman was up to and so he stood over her shoulder as she returned to the same spot as before. He noticed that when she moved aside a piece of debris that had been deliberately left there, against he wall of this building was a small stone slab with 'Charles' engraved on it. There was evidence of old decaying flowers surrounding it. The woman opened the box and place the contents in front of the grave stone.

The item placed at the foot of the stone was a framed picture. Contained in the picture was the girl he'd seen take her own life when she'd wanted to live. She was on the left of a tall young man, his face was in a wide smile and on his right was a woman. She stood just a few inches shorter than him. Her face was vibrant and full of life, she had beautiful brown hair. And when the spirit saw the eyes he realized. This was a younger picture of the woman who now sat at the base of the grave sobbing loudly. The moment of discovery was interrupted by the sound of loud hissing coming from the far end of the alley. John looked over and saw the cats... hissing. He turned to the other side of the Alley and saw a shadow looming...

A terrifying monster stood at the front of the Alley! It stood roughly eight feet tall and looked to be a disgusting hybrid of beast and man with a slightly feminine form. Over it's face was a horrifying boar esque mask with vibrant red markings along the tusks and cheek bones. The creature opened it's mouth revealing a black abyss and started to run directly for the huddled over woman. John wasn't going to wait this time. He reached down, grabbed the woman by the shoulders, and hauled her to her feet. For a brief moment she stared in utter dis-belief into the face of the Spirit. He screamed at her, " Run away as fast as you can!" And shoved her down the Alley. The woman looked confused as she stumbled, her face filled with tears as she ran away... only stealing a quick glance back to see the monster running towards the spirit.

Staring the beast in the face as it charged, John was over-taken by emptiness. The action he'd just taken to save the woman suddenly held no meaning to him. There was a loud clanging noise as the last link on his chest had devoured itself, and the silver plate on his chest fell to the ground. This exposed a massive hole inside of John. It was a blackness in the center of his breast that same place that all of the sadness had come from. The beast got closer by the second and as it did John's skin was beginning to turn into a deep gray, spreading over his body like a disease. The creature slammed into John instead of biting him, sending him flying into the wall behind himself. He slid down into a crumpled pile on the ground, exhausted from making the full transition from being a plus to a Demi-Hollow. The other Hollow now loomed over him threatening to end his new existence before John even had a chance to experience it.