He woke up with a start, right from a fresh nightmare. He looked at his bare hands in fear, a bead of sweat rolling down his cheek.

"You're awake?" Someone said. Quickly he closed his eyes, afraid of the person seeing and the world around his was shut out. He heard the person walking towards his bedside softly.

Where was he? What happened? Was he finally kicked out? Many questions ran through his head until he was brought out of his subconsciousness by a warm hand placed on his shoulder. 

Flinching violently, he let out a shriek and desperately pulled himself away. 

"It's okay, I won't hurt you. You're okay, safe." The person softly said, surely reaching out again to touch the boy once more.

"Don't!... Touch.." He whimpered, cowering away from the hand he couldn't see because his eyes were shut. 

At the moment, he didn't know where he was, or what he was doing wherever he was and he was terrified. The white bed sheets covered the lower half of his naked body, giving him just the slightest protection from the man who's face he still hasn't seen.

He heard a sigh before the man started to speak again, "Okay... I won't touch you. I have some clothes for you here that will fit you, so get changed. My name's Xiao Nai by the way." He continued to talk in a soft, quiet voice, maybe afraid to scare him again.

The clothes Xiao Nai was talking about where placed next to him but he never heard the man leave the room. The boy grabbed at the clothes, feeling the material and design so he could put it on.

The pants were normal, underwear too, but the shirts had two zippers on either side and one in the middle, leaving him confused. He continued to feel around them, but he still couldn't figure out what they were for. 

"Can I help you?" Xiao Nai said, and he looked towards where his voice was coming from, hesitating to answer. He didn't want help, he didn't want Xiao Nai to come anywhere near him.

Though even though he wanted to shake his head no, he agreed because he wouldn't be able to figure it out on his own. 

"It's for your wings. The middle one goes all the way down so you can put it on and the other two lead to holes that your wings can go through." He said. The boy nodded, tensing when he heard all the zippers being unzipped and the leather material being wrapped around his torso.

He put his arms through the sleeveless sleeves and Xiao Nai asked to touch his wings so he could put them in the right spot. The boy tensed even further but nodded anyway, flinching when he felt Xiao Nai's hand against his feathers.

Soon enough all of the zippers had been zipped up again and all he had to do was put on the pants and underwear. Xiao Nai left the room, closing the door behind him and then he quickly changed, finding his way to the door and opening it.

"Done?" Xiao Nai asked and he nodded quickly. His legs felt weak and he wasn't sure how much longer he would be able to stand, just getting to the door had taken a large portion of his energy.

He knew he needed to sit back down again.

"Legs..." His knees almost gave out on him once and just a few seconds after the first time, he started to collapse towards the floor.

Before he knew it though, he was being held up by Xiao Nai who reacted on instinct and he started to panic. He pushed at Xiao Nai's chest, wanting to be let go, wanting to get away from him. 

The man once again reacted quickly and set the boy gently on the floor. There was no chair nearby, besides the bed and it was too far away at the moment.

"Let me go get something so you can walk." Xiao Nai said, then suddenly ran away. The boy opened his eyes to see a blurry world before it all came into focus. His world was tainted in black, white, and grays as he looked down the hallway. 

On the right was a giant windows lining the entire wall of the right side of the hall and down below he could see people and a fountain and trees and much more. 

The light was too much for his eyes, it was hard to see and look outside and he would much rather go to a darker place so he could see even the slightest bit better. He thought it was normal, but he wondered why everyone outside seemed to be having so much fun with the light affecting them too. Was it not?

Quickly, he closed his eyes again when he heard footsteps coming closer from the other end of the hallway and he assumed that Xiao Nai was back.

"I brought you crutches. We'll see if they work for you, maybe over time you won't need them anymore." He said. The boy used the wall beside him as support to stand up and the crutches were handed to him, which he put under his arms.

He had no choice but to put almost all of his weight, painfully, onto the crutches so he had even the slightest chance of standing. 

"What's your name?" Xiao Nai asked, starting to walk and expecting the boy to follow him. It took a few moments for the boy to realize but soon he carefully started to ensue him.

He didn't really know. All his years he was never called just one thing. He stopped in his tracks to think about it but nothing came to mind. The boy started walking again only to bump into him, not knowing Xiao Nai had suddenly stopped.

"Umm..." The boy struggled to say something quick as his mind went completely blank. It was useless, he knew he didn't know, so he couldn't just lie about it.

"It's okay, I can give you some time. If you still don't remember, we can just make you a new one, right?" Xiao Nai smiled at him. The boy nodded slightly, a blush glittering his face. He was glad that Xiao Nai understood without him having to say anything.

Once again, the two started walking down the hallway until it got noisy. The boy could hear multiple people talking all over the place and he was sure he would lose Xiao Nai. He didn't say anything though and did his best to stick close to him so he wouldn't get lost.

He thought at one point he might have to open his eyes a bit to see if Xiao Nai was in front of him, but he held firm and kept his eyes closed, trying his best to hear only Xiao Nai and focus on where he was going. 

It was loud. It reminded him of yelling, when he would get in trouble every day and be put down until he believed all the lies that were given to him to be true.

A small whimper left his lips and he stopped again, squeezing his eyes shut. He didn't know if anyone was looking at him or if Xiao Nai kept walking, but he stopped. He didn't want to keep going, he wanted to get out of there and fast so he wouldn't have to remember everything all at once. 

Though when he woke up and didn't know where he was, he didn't mind it because he was positive that he was far from his father. 

Slowly, he started walking forward again, searching for Xiao Nai yet at the same time desperate not to run into anybody. It wasn't very crowded, the chances of him bumping into someone was slim, but he couldn't get the fact out of his head that it was still a possibility. 

"Hey, we're almost there." He was startled by Xiao Nai's soft voice, jumping a little when he heard it. The boy nodded once, focusing only on Xiao Nai and trying to block all the other clamor going on around him.

Luckily, the sound shortly died down to maybe one or two people walking by on the other side of the wall and they stopped at what might be a door. Xiao Nai knocked twice before opening the door and they boy followed, still keeping his eyes closed so no one could see them. 

"Why, hello there! I never thought I'd see you in here, Mr. Xiao Nai." A woman's voice sprung into the room, and he tensed up once again.

"I came here to have you check up on him. He's a new student who just came from a complicated situation." Xiao Nai said. His voice seemed to change when he was talking with her, he seemed more assured and confident than when he had talked with him.

"Of course, I can do that. We'll be right out. Come this way, dear. I'm Mrs. Wrive." She said, her heels clicking against the ground as she walked. He followed her cautiously, flinching when he heard the sound of a curtain closing. "Won't you please open your eyes, just for a second? I'm sure they're beautiful." She said.

Immediately, he wanted to leave, he wanted Xiao Nai to walk him out of the room and somewhere else. He didn't want to show her his eyes, he didn't want to be beaten for looking like such a horrid monster. 

Nevertheless, he pried his eyes open, possibly against his will and looked at her. Light flooded his pupils and he blinked multiple times and looked around. He was in a nurses office.

"Look at me, dear." Mrs. Wrive said. He redirected his attention back on her. She was a pretty woman, with long dark hair and lightly-colored eyes. "I'm going to shine this light into your eyes, okay? Try keeping them open, just for a few seconds." 

Just as she said she would, she shined a bright light into his pupils, blinding him and he was forced to close his eyes only after a second. He blinked open his eyes a couple of times to see his world filled with lighter grays rather than dark. Speedily, his vision returned to normal and he made sure not to look at Mrs. Wrive again.

"I'm sorry. Just a few more things and you're set to go. You can close your eyes again if you want, though it would be such a waste, they're such a pretty and unique color." 

No one had ever complimented his eyes before? How could they be pretty, they were two different shades of gray.

He kept his eyes open, slowly looking at Mrs. Wrive, who small hands reached towards him gently and wrapped around him, unzipping the middle zipper at his back. She motioned for him to turn around and he did, gradually, afraid of what she was going to do.

More than ever, he was tense, flinching and holding back a whimper when he felt her warm hand against his back. He moved his wings out of the way so they wouldn't get hurt when she hurt him and he closed his eyes, awaiting pain he was certain would approach. 

But her hand only glimmered over back, gliding over his bruises and then his ribs and slowly down, when he decided he couldn't stand it anymore and pushed her away harshly, adrenaline pumping, and the fear in his eyes rising.

"S-sorry!" He ducked his head down, scratching at his arms and unconsciously biting his lip to the point where it bled.

"Why are you apologizing? It's my fault. Now let me zip your shirt up." He looked back up at her and nodded, turning back around again to let her zip the zipper back up. "Hey, what colors do you see?" 

He looked at her, questioning why she would ask such an odd thing.

"Black.. gray, and white." He said, turning around after she finished zipping his shirt. 

"Okay, one last thing. Do I make you nervous?" She asked. His eyes widened and quickly he looked back down to the ground, staring at his bare feet. She did. She did make him nervous. But he couldn't tell her that, he would get hit.

So he looked back up again, barely, and with fidgeting fingers he said, "N-no." He didn't want to lie but he was afraid. Certainly it would stack upon the number of reasons why she should beat him there and now.

She looked at him in disbelief, as if she already knew the truth. Mrs. Wrive hummed and walked away, most likely to talk to Xiao Nai. He sat down on the bed behind him and looked towards the wall to see a mirror. 

He saw himself. 

A freak of nature stood before him and nothing would change, that freak of nature would forever be in his sight. He had white hair that slightly covered his face, helping to hide his eyes and black horns that stuck out from the top of his head, winding backwards.

He also had wings. Big black wings that would reach to the floor even when he stood and sometimes he'd wonder how big they would be if he spread them out all the way. Usually he went through a great deal to hide them, often beaten because of them and the horns.

Uncomfortable was how he felt when he opened his eyes and saw himself in the mirror, realizing that everyone could see everything, all that he had worked so hard for just to keep hidden. 

His pale skin was littered with dark bruises that showed he was abused. Scars also lined his wrist going up his arm and stopping just before his elbow. A tear left his eye for just seconds, then he wiped it away and he was called out by Mrs. Wrive.

"Honey, I have some things to tell you. I noticed some things while I was checking up on you, and you should know about one or two things. First is, you're colorblind. It's very rare for there to people like you who only see black, white and gray. The second thing is, well you can talk it over with Xiao Nai, but you have severe anxiety and depression," She looked towards Xiao Nai, "I would recommend taking it slow, if there is something he's uncomfortable with don't throw him into it. Make sure he also eats, he is extremely underweight, it's very unhealthy for a boy his age."

Xiao Nai nodded, taking in Mrs. Wrive's advice and motioned the boy to follow him. 

"I do hope you keep your eyes open, they're so pretty, and next time I see you I would like to hear your name." They both could feel the smile in her voice as they walked out the door and down the hall.

This time he kept his eyes wide, seeing the world for the first time in a long while. Now knowing he was colorblind, he wondered what people with normal eyes saw. What did color look like? Before he never really thought about it but now he was more curious than ever.

The boy was still afraid to speak. He didn't want to get hit because he thought that even opening his eyes was the limit. He wanted to know where they were going.

They walked through winding halls and sometimes they'd see a person or two walking by, minding their own business. Xiao Nai walked directly in the middle of the corridor. He was nervous to follow him while he waltzed through the middle so he just stood directly behind him and kept his head down. 

"We're going to enroll you into the academy, okay?" Xiao Nai said, and they stopped in front of two menacing brown oak doors. He knocked twice before he heard a 'come in' from the other side.

Opening the door, the two walked inside, the boy nervously peeking over Xiao Nai's shoulder to see the principal of the school. 

"Well, it's nice to see you here again! Who's the boy behind you?" The principal asked. Xiao Nai stepped aside so he could see the boy.

He looked up quickly just to look at the nameplate on the desk before looking back down at his feet. His feet seemed to have been the most intriguing thing for a while.

"I'm here to enroll him. With your permission, it can be done quickly and we won't have to go through so much hassle. He can live with us." Xiao Nai suggested, not leaving any room for him to ask about the 'us' part.

"Very well. He fits the standards so there is no other choice but to let him enroll here. Have you lived in the human world all this time, boy?" He asked. He looked up from his feet at the principal before nodding his head shyly and looking back down. 

Mr. Glen hummed before he turned towards his computer and took a second glance at the boy. The room turned quiet for a moment, the only sound heard was the tapping on the keyboard from the principal. His fingers seemed to graze the keyboard just slightly and words were typed in mere seconds. 

"What's your name, boy?" He asked, looking back at him and awaiting for his answer. His voice spread throughout the room and it took a moment for him to process what Mr. Glen had asked. 

This time, he couldn't think of any other names beside one. It was the name that had stuck with him all of his life and that he had been called the most of every other name he could have been called.

"Bitch."