Trying to think back my memories are pretty blurry, I mean we are looking back twenty years ago.

  I lost my mother when I was two years old so it was just me and my father to depend on each other.

  He was loving and caring, always making sure I was fed and looked after.

  When I was five he made the decision to send me to school, I thought it was gonna be horrible but instead it was a life changing experience, learning more about the outside world, how things worked and even made some friends.

  The villagers in my town were also very nice people, offering the homeless rooms and jobs, helping big families out, we were all one big group of good friends.

  After a couple weeks my friends began coming to my house, spending some time reading and talking about stuff, despite being secluded in a town we weren't allowed to leave at all, we still enjoyed our time together.

  After a while I began to build a deep bond with one of my friends, Lucy.

  One day while hanging out, Lucy was always reading this one book on the history of our kind, the Momals.

  "Hey Takemin, did ya know once in every two million Momals is a super Momal, bigger, smarter, stronger, more powerful then us?"

  That book always lit up her face whenever she read it, then the day came.

  All of my friends were hanging out in my house, reading, talking to each other, me and Lucy were sitting on a porch reading that same book Lucy had with her together.

  It was all fun and games for a while until we heard the smell of smoke, and where there's smoke, there's fire.

  We put everything down and ran straight into the centre of town.

  As we got closer, the smell of smoke made it quite hard to breath, like trying to swallow a tube of thick cream, and soon, made it hard to see as well.

  Getting to the centre, we saw as the villagers were running away, looking around we saw some other villagers laying on the ground covered in blood.

  Confused and worried, we all ran back to my house to tell my father what was happening to see if he could help out.

  Opening the door, we looked all around the house yelling his name.

  We soon saw a note on the back of the front door,

  'Hey Takemin, just going out for an hour, stay safe and come back home soon, Dad.'

  I thought he must've thought we were just going to play in town and didn't think he needed to worry.

  We decided to try and wait it out, I mean after all, what could a bunch of six year olds do in a situation like this.

  Before long, a knock came to the door.

  I eagerly ran toward it but before reaching it, someone smashed through my front window.

  Then, a group of men forced their way inside, grabbed me and chucked me outside.

  Worried, my friends quickly ran toward me making sure I was ok.

  After checking no one else was in my house, the men came out, said nothing and began chaining us all up on one singular chain, chaining Lucy up they also snatched her book off her.

  "Listen here you little shits, comply and we won't have a problem, hesitate and you will be hurt, refuse or try to run, you will be killed, do I make myself clear!"

  We all nodded, scared and anxious.

  I was especially scared, no one had ever treated me like this, it was my first time.

  Knowing that, Lucy put her head against my back, acting like an anchor to show me that she was still there.

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  Remembering it was practically snowing, the chains were forcing our wrists red while our temperatures just dropped.

  We were lead into the back of a cage on wheels being led by a horse.

  After a while, more and more children appeared in chains, looking just as dull and frightened as we were.

  Before long, we finally began moving.

  I'd never have known, that cold metal floor our asses were stuck on hurting like hell, was gonna be the most comfortable thing we would experience for the next nine years.

  It took four hours for the cage to finally stop moving, the entire time, we sat there, emotionless, not daring to say a word, so quiet the horses' hooves was the only thing we heard the entire time.

  Upon stopping, we were, one by one, let off the chain and forced to lead a man into a cell.

  When I got into my cell, despite it smelling like shit, I laid on the freezing metal bed, my fingers and toes almost becoming black with how cold it was.

  After hours of just laying there confused and cold, I began hearing screaming and yelling and what seemed to be the sound of whipping.

  Soon after, I was having to piss on my own hands just to keep them warm while also breathing on them, then I finally heard someone coming toward my cell.

  A guard opened it up and gave me a bar of unknown substance and a cup of water with mold, asbestos and whatever other shit they could find to make it unbearable to swallow.

  He left without a word, the bar was so disgusting my mind couldn't even remember how bad it was, like a turd was frozen and shaped.

  Night time was even worse, pitch black, near zero degrees and completely suffocating.

  When going to sleep, I'd strip and use every layer of clothing to warm me up while I laid in bed sacrificing the hard surface for a somewhat warmish nights sleep.

  All I could think to myself was, when will this absolute hell end and what are we even doing here?

  Days had gone by, the cold was nothing compared to what I heard during the day, screams of the children, bones completely shattering, limbs being ripped apart and some kids even going past my cell unrecognisable covered in so much blood.

  Through the whispers of the guards that echoed down the halls I discovered that book Lucy had read about super Momals was actually true.

  We were now forced to be a part of a program, they wanted to see if any of us were super Momals, they feared super Momals the same way humans feared Momals, they didn't want to outright kill it but rather use it and control it, keep it as their pet.

  The outliers, us kids, were killed once the super Momal was revealed, best to dispose of the evidence of this program ever being a thing then to feel sorry.

  Eventually I was finally led out of my cell, I was emotionless, their obedient little pet, I didn't resist, didn't put up a fight like some kids did, I just accepted death.

  They put my hands behind my back, tied them together then rose the chain forcing my hands up and breaking my shoulders.

  They relentlessly kept whipping me, they didn't care how much it hurt, as long as they were having fun.

  Each whip felt like I was getting sliced open, every time I waited, it seemed to hurt a lot less when they whipped a new spot then whipping an already open wound.

  After what seemed to be hours, I was finally let go, they forced my shoulders back into place and led me back to my cell.

  Upon getting back I discovered Lucy was right next to my cell, with this we began whispering to each other.

  Each cell was blocked off using a heavy metal wall.

  She had been going through the exact same thing.

  Two years had gone by, nothing had changed except for adaptation.

  We were so used to everything it didn't even feel uncomfortable anymore.

  Once every month we'd take showers with other inmates, rules being the water was cold during the winter and boiling during the summer.

  As time went by, I became emotionally dead inside.

  I was losing my mind, asking myself the question 'when are we getting out of here?' less frequently and the question 'when will they kill me?' more.

  Every now and again you'd hear the random cry of another child, unable to bear what they did to us.

  Most kids that were here had already been killed, the experiments were too much on their bodies.

  The highlight of the day every day was eating and drinking, even if it was cockroaches and piss

  I still whispered to Lucy every night, some nights we got caught and forced back to bed.

  This went on for another seven years.

  I didn't even bother thinking or worrying about how long we had been here for, it just felt like centuries, not like it worried me anyway.

  The bags under my eyes nearly went to my cheeks, my voice had gotten deeper and my feet were starting to hang off the end of my metal bed.

  By this point we were fifteen years old.

  I sometimes saw some girls being taken out of their cells but never heard them screaming.

  No whipping, no blood dripping, just silence.

  I very shortly discovered what they were doing to them after having a chat to Lucy who seemed to have blood drooling down her legs.

  That night, she stretched her hand out in front of my cell, holding my hand and whispered the five words that made me lose all hope.

  "I can't do this anymore."

  I begged her, I tightened my grip on her hand, at some point so hard I think her hand ended up breaking.

  She snatched her hand back. Tears and snot froze as I listened to Lucy stripping everything off and tying her clothes together.

  The very next minute, everything went silent, she let out a little wheeze while tying one last knot.

  Then I heard a sound of feet jumping off a metal bench, after, a snap.

  That snap, that snap, that singular fucking SNAP, that's all I could hear for the rest of the night, snap, snap, SNAP. That snap forced me into this new state I've never felt before.

  That was the final stretch. I hated that place. I’d endured their punishments, their laughs, the cries of others. Tomorrow… it all ended. Tomorrow was the only thought I could hold onto that night. No sleep. Just pure adrenaline.