Kai had wished, among other things, that he would never have to set foot inside a church ever again, although the reason for such eluded him.

  Among his wishes was to also live a peaceful life.

  Fate was cruel, however. And not only was Kai's life the furthest from peaceful, but ironically, the only sanctuary in the cursed town was a church, which every masked citizen avoided like the plague.

  This didn't mean that they avoided worship, though.

  Far from it, in fact.

  Every day, once the sun was free from the endless moons covering it. For about an hour, the citizens would all stop what they were doing and proselytize before the uncovered sun overhead.

  Which would have been a welcome occurrence, after all, it was a whole hour where he could do whatever he wished.

  If only the sun weren't so damn hot. Every step Kai took out of the shade would leave Kai's skin screaming in protest, blistering instantly in response to the sun's rays. Which only irritated the wounds present on Kai's skin, left from the glass shards that had scraped his skin after his free fall, which hadn't healed despite the two months he'd spent looking for a way out of this town.

  It was a boon of sorts, however. Since it stopped the almost endless springs of blood that seeped from every wound, which would refuse to clot, removing the idea of healing in and of itself.

  That was probably the debt he incurred as a price for his sight; he healed a wound that shouldn't have been healed and lost his ability to heal in turn.

  Probably.

  Or it could be the town didn't allow for healing. It's not like he'd seen any of the freaks get hurt anyway.

  Besides when a good portion of them died when they whipped their heads around to stare at Kai, snapping their necks in the process.

  The image of hundreds of bodies falling to the ground in an instant, accompanied by a sickening crunch plagued his thoughts, despite all his efforts to remove it.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Even worse was the image of the stone cellar, with the same people in masks snapping their necks to stare at him, which, strangely enough, they lived through.

  It was a strange thought that those in the castle had lived through their necks being snapped, simply walking it off when those outside the city failed to.

  However, the reason for such eluded him; it could be anything after all. Perhaps the castle was isolated from death itself? Or maybe it was a hierarchy, where those who didn't need a functioning body were separated from those outside?

  He felt as though it were the latter.

  But maybe that was just the hope that the things inside could die was making his thoughts biased.

  He was ripped away from his thoughts by the sound of the church's bell pounding at his skull, signaling that it was midday, and the sun was out.

  There was an interesting thing that Kai had found out after much experimentation during these two months.

  While proselytizing, no citizen would take their eyes away from the sun under any circumstance.

  Which meant it was the perfect time for him to find out what was under their masks.

  Making his way to the entrance of the building, Kai tossed up a rock he had picked up much earlier, aiming at one of the citizens.

  It had taken a while for him to build up the accuracy needed to hit anything from a distance. In fact, it took an embarrassing amount of time, almost the entire two months.

  But now, Kai was extremely confident in his ability to hit almost anything from a distance. Even the strap of a mask from 40 meters away.

  Give or take, 20 meters. He wasn't good with measurements, given a lack of knowledge on them.

  He whipped his arm forward, allowing the stone to sail across the air from his palm as he aimed it at the citizen closest to him.

  He missed.

  But that was ok, he had 3 more stones before his supply was cut short, and he'd have to walk in the sun to remove the mask by hand.

  He picked up another, repeating the same process.

  Then another.

  One more.

  As the last stone slipped from his hand, nailing the building across from him, shattering the stone into pieces. Kai belatedly realized he was going to have to just walk outside himself.

  Fortunately, he was in a church. Which held many ceremonial garments that covered every ounce of skin possible.

  He searched around the black garbs for any with a hood on it, so he wouldn't have to worry about the sun's rays, only to realize they all had hoods.

  Eerie hoods.

  But Kai wasn't going to be seen by anyone, so it didn't matter.

  Putting on the robe, Kai made his way to the door, stepping outside into the sun's rays to search for the one whose mask he would rip off.

  He had a lot more freedom to choose now, given that he wasn't limited to the one closest to him.

  But he didn't want to search for long; he could already feel the heat scalding his fully covered back.

  So he settled on the first one that caught his eye, an individual dressed in a long white coat, with a silver device on his forearm that Kai seemed to remember by couldn't quite place. A Bracelet, maybe?

  No, watch, it was a watch.

  Conveniently, the man was the closest to any shelter anyway. So if anything happened Kai would be free to flee in it's direction.

  After that, though, he was at a complete loss.

  Maybe he'd block off the door?

  Whatever.

  What did he care anyway?

  He reached for the man's mask, adjusting the buckle and pulling it off rather easily, all things considered.

  Only for nothing to happen.

  At least he could get a look at the guy's face now.

  At least he could have if he wasn't facing the ground.

  Kai was startled out of his thoughts by the movement that came from the man, who lay at his feet.

  It was still their worship time, right?

  He looked around, only to notice that none of the others had moved at all.

  So why was this one standing up to Kai's level?

  And why did the guy look more terrified than Kai did?

  His mouth moved. Startling Kai even more.

  "Who are you?"