I Slay

is chest burned and his arms throbbed all the way to his fingertips as he ran next to the tall raven haired man. Confusion. Anxiety. Stress. It all hit him in different waves of feelings. Quarin took him through the back way to his apartment.

'He must have known. All this time.'

Vincent glanced upward at the 23 year old with his dull gray eyes.
Quarin opened the door to his apartment and walked in, focused on finding something. He grabbed a large black bag.

"I thought I would have to take you away earlier then this... When you were still twelve. "

Quarin spoke in a deep tone as he began to put more supplies in his bag.
Vincent took a deep breathe, "so you knew..."
Quarin looked back it him with his piercing blue eyes, "And you didn't?"
He slowly sat down on the worn out couch in the middle of the dim room, "I don't remember burning anything...especially the factory."
The tall man walked over to Vincent and set the bag down in front of him. He sat down on a old stool across from him, "It only happens with self defense until you master it. How do your hands feel?"
Now that Vincent thought about it his hands felt like they were going to fall off from pain in his bones.
"They hurt...a lot."
Quarin nodded and stood up almost immediately and grabbed a patched leather suitcase. Vince already had bloody, grease covered bandages on his hands. His fingertips were black with soot.

"Give me your hands.."

Vince hesitated and then laid his burnt hands in his, face up. He gently removed the bandages. Vince shortly gasped as the pain zapped up his arms into his chest. His hands were covered in scars and soot, some of them obviously getting infected. Quarin looked at his hands and sighed, "I'm guessing you don't have very much anesthetic at home."
Vince shook his head and looked back down at his filthy hands. Quarin grabbed a bowl and filled it with hydrogen peroxide. He set it in front of him and told him to stick his hands in.
Vince didn't recognize what it was, he assumed it was clean water. He dunk his hands in willingly and winced as foam filled the bowl. He jerked them out. His hands foaming with brown and red foam. He stared at them in shock,
"I'm dissolving!?!!"

Quarin looked at his hands and then looked at him, "not quite...it's getting rid of all the germs and infection in your hands.. I can't amputate you my self."
Vincent took a breath in and nodded. Soon he washed off his hand with some water and rubbed a cream on them. Vince cringed as he touched them. He finally bandaged them completely and put leather gloves on over the bandages.
"Don't take these gloves off until I tell you to."

Vince looked at his hands and slightly moved them, nodding in agreement to Quarin's demand.
"Thank you...but listen I have a sister. She's sick and I have to take care of her. I can't just leave her here with my abusive father."
Quarin started cleaning up, " If we have time we can go and pick her up. But if we don't we have to leave no matter what."
Vince nodded and that was the end of their conversation. Quarin went into another room and walked out with a vibrant colored bird on his shoulder, it's beak was black and it's eyes were a deep purple. It's feather consisted of dark reds, oranges and pinks. Vince had never seen something so beautiful in his life.

They both walked out the back door of the brick apartment building, this time Quarin had a large black duffle bag over his shoulder and Vince had a grayish back pack on his back.

They went to Vincent's apartment building.

He took a deep breathe as he opened the door, his pupils shrank and everything fell dead silent.

Sharp pain struck him in his shoulder and all the lights began to fade to black.

"We have him now...the last Sōzō."