FOUR: MATILDA

He averted his gaze and turned away calmly. "Stop there". The child suddenly yelled out. Jace and Kendrick slowly turned their head towards the call. The child was now standing, trying to keep his balance with his left still tied together. "Boss? Why did he yell like that?". Jace asked surprised.

Kendrick threw the last bit of his cigarette and stepped on it to extinguish it then lazily strolled to the child like he had all day. "Hey kid". Kendrick leaned over to his height with a relaxed face. "Eyah". The child furiously headbutted him. "You'll pay for this". He gritted his teeth.

"Boss". Jace was about to run over to him but Kendrick slowly lifted his hand gesturing him to stop. He suddenly felt something warm and sticky on his forehead then reached out to feel before staring at his bloody palm. He lifted his gaze and stared at the child that had just headbutted him.

"You have a strong head. But mine is stronger. It will take you a while to recover that". Kendrick stood upright wiping his bloody palm and forehead with a face towel then throwing it away without looking back.

The child stared at Kendrick's back as he left but his vision suddenly got blurred and his weak body staggered before hitting the ground and blacking out once again.

... Days later...

It turned out they were on a ship, transporting them to another country, for only God knows why. The little child would constantly drift into his thoughts about his mother. Everything around him felt invalid to him. The whining, crying of other kids were worthless but only pissed him off. Couldn't they be quiet. Couldn't they act more matured? What was the use of crying?

He knew they couldn't escape because escaping this room was like jumping from frying pan to fire. Everywhere surrounded with guards and by water. So it was either he stayed still as a captive or jumped into the sea and become food for the fishes and sharks.

More days rolled by... Traveling on sea was a long journey. Just through the journey about 6 children had died from infected injuries, diseases or malnutrition. They had to pass out their waste and still eat in the same room they were locked up. They had lived on fermented hard bread with small crayfish.

The female guard stared at the immobile child laying next to the white haired child. The white haired child stared in a daze into the air. His golden eyes had lost its sparkle. The lifeless child next to him wasn't worth a lot of attention.

"Ahh. Another is dead again". Her gaze shifted from a serious one to a broken one. She knelt next to the child with her hands clasped together muttering some words before carefully picking him up and out of the dimmed room.

...3 months later...

POOOOOOOOM! The horn of the ship echoes over the sea. "We're hereeeeee". Jace yelled happily as he ran up the deck where other members of the group had assembled. "I'm tired of eating seafood". Jace spoke then waved his arms frantically to the other group that were at the seaport.

"MOVE IT". A man yelled furiously at the children that marched slowly out of the ship. Their legs and hands were bound with a long chain that ran through the first child to the fifth child behind. And back to the first child then to the fifth child. They all marched weakly in batches.

"I SAID MOVE THOSE UGLY LEGS". The same man yelled at angrily lashed a slow child with a long whip. "Ahhhhh!" The child fell to the ground and cried in pain. Other children connected with the same chain as him feel to the ground also as they weren't expecting someone will drag them down making them unable to move forward.

"YOU BASTARDS". He was about to lash the children when a bulky woman stepped in, standing between the children and the man. "ENOUGH. You can see they are hurt. Why do you still want to hurt them?". The woman spoke with a cold glare at the man. "STEP ASIDE MATILDA". The man glared back fiercely at her.

The little white haired child slowly raised his head and looked up at the commotion in front of him. It was the same woman that asked him for his name the first time they met on the ship. She'd also secretly sneak some leftovers for the children when it was her guarding shift.

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