Entry #1 . . . No idea what day it is today

They said that the blessings you receive when you awaken directly correspond to what element is prominent in your life. If you're surrounded by water, whether you live by the sea, love swimming, or had a traumatic experience concerning water, you'll be blessed with a water spirit. If you're surrounded by fire users, or almost died because of your burning house, you get to live with a fire spirit. It's the same with any other elements.

In my case, the earliest I could remember was being dumped in the trash like garbage in the slums when I was two. Being a two-year-old in the slums is no butterflies and rainbows. No matter how hard I cried because of hunger, loneliness, or even because I soiled my pants, no one chose to hear me. It was a hard life.

I spent more than a week in that dumpster, scavenging through the trash, hoping to find something, anything to fill my stomach before it eats itself due to extreme hunger. But I wasn't the only one hungry in the slums, and trust me, the strength of a two-year-old cannot be trusted even if we were all weak and hungry. It was already godsent that my competitors didn't turn to me whenever they couldn't harvest anything out of that dump. It didn't even help that the current generation of humans is already stronger than during the previous century even if they weren't blessed. Life was hard.

After a year of being hungry, being beaten half-to-death most of the time, scavenging for crumbs instead of scraps, and barely sleeping through the night due to fear of being eaten in this dog eat dog environment, I finally knew what I had to do to ensure myself some sense of 'living'.

If the problem was having to share the things being sent to the slums, then the solution wasn't being faster than the rest, but being the only one among the rest. And that's what I did. I started eliminating my competitors, starting from my crumb-hunting.

Because a three-year-old weak kid from the slums barely has any strength, the only way I could pluck them off one by one was by catching them off-guard. I couldn't go straight to the 'boss' of the kids since that would just be a one-way ticket to death, so I had to pick someone a little more my size.

My first kill was a boy who was half a head taller than me. Him being my first kill and me who had no idea what I was doing at the time, picked up a metal shiv in the area, walked up to his sleeping figure as quietly as I could, and stabbed him in the gut - which was a stupid move if you're planning for a one-hit one-kill kind of thing, I know that now. Being stabbed in the gut sure is painful, but it wasn't as deadly as one could hope. And the natural response when feeling something extremely painful is to scream, which he did.

I panicked. I experienced an outright panic attack that I stabbed the kid again and again in hopes to shut him up. A kid releasing an agonizing scream would of course attract other people, regardless of whether they cared enough to stop the killing or just in it for the show. But I wasn't going to risk being discovered, especially when I still aim to be the only kid in the slums.

When I heard other people approaching, I didn't even look back at the boy who turned into bloody swiss cheese and just ran away, my trembling hands tightly wrapped around the metal shiv. It wasn't until I was out of breath from all the running did I realize I was drenched in the boy's blood and that I was leaving bloody footprints on the ground. Stupid right?

Since looking for cloth would be a fool's errand at this point, I did the next best thing, run to the sewers. It may be the sewers but water is still water no matter how disgusting it is, and trust me if normal sewers already make you want to vomit? Wait 'till you get a whiff out of the sewers in the slums.

But enough of that, now, where was I? Ahh yeah, me escaping from murdering a boy and at the same time leading them to the said murderer by leaving a fresh set of bloody footprints.

Living in the slums has more or less built up my immunity to the smell of the sewers, but entering that particular part of the sewers still made me think twice, and I was already desperate to clean myself. Still, my desire for ruling the scavenging areas for kids weighed heavier than the rotting stench of the sewers so I pushed through.

I didn't want to be discovered right away if they ever decided to pursue me in the sewers so I wandered a little deeper before finally washing. I just hope it wouldn't smell that bad once I get out of here.

While washing myself using the sticky waters running through the canals, I heard something aside from running water in the background. If you've lived long enough in the slums, you know that anything is always something. So I hid in the darkest corner I could find and erased my presence as much as I could, considering myself as part of the molded walls of the sewers.

While controlling my breathing, doing my best to not vomit what little food was inside my stomach, I could see something skittering through the floor. With barely any light, and my eyes long adjusted to the darkness in the sewer, I could somewhat make something out of it.

It was big, probably three times bigger than me. It was on all fours, its head lowered down on the ground and a tail sweeping the floor behind it. Now, I know I haven't lived long nor have I been outside the slums to say that I'm knowledgeable, but I knew that thing couldn't possibly be human.

I gasped before covering my mouth as I realized that it really wasn't human. What's more, it turned in my direction because I gasped! I gulped in fear, tasting the mixture of nauseating smells as I swallowed down my flight response. It looked straight at me with its bulging bloodshot eyes.

My stare-off with that monster most likely only lasted for a few seconds, but I swear it felt like that encounter shaved off at least a few decades in my meager lifespan.

After that monster left, I waited for a few more moments until I could no longer hear its sweeping tail before sighing the heaviest breath of relief as I fell on my arse. This place just reached a whole new level of disgust in my book.

Without wasting any more time brooding about my near-death encounter with a monster for the first time, I scampered on my feet and left in a hurry, slipping and stumbling on my way out of the sewer.

By the time I was out, the sun was starting to rise and the dark sky was tinged with a beautiful mixture of orange, yellow, and red. Being greeted by such scenery makes one think how precious life is, only if one saw it anywhere but the slums.

The reality of the situation only allowed me to appreciate the view for half a second since what was really waiting for me was a group of adults. I'm guessing they're the ones who heard that boy's scream.

While my brain was running in full gear on whether I should go back in and risk seeing that monster again, or face the mob and risk being eaten by this pack of hungry savages, a man in the crowd saw me and pointed in my direction. Crap.

I grabbed a hold of myself as I slowly met the approaching group with tiny little steps, literally hugging myself with my left arm as my right clenched on the hem of my pitiful excuse for a set of clothing.

I couldn't really understand what they were saying, my mind was still out of it from processing what just happened and what I should do next. When they were starting to get impatient due to me not responding and my meek appearance, one of them started to shout, which was reprimanded by another one within the group. They started to argue among themselves. Great, continue fighting so I can think about what should I do.

Seeing that one of them was pointing at the bloody footprints, I knew that they really were looking for me - I mean that boy's murderer. Since the minority thinks that I was the one who did it, or at least I know who did - of course I do but like hell I'll tell them that - I put on my best impression of a scared little kid.

It was relatively easy since the figure of the monster was still fresh in my mind. Using my earlier experience as motivation, I started to tear up - haven't used these bad boys since I was left in the dumpster, you better not let me down now.

"I'm sorry, I know nothing. I was just so hungry that I went to the smelly place for food. Been three days since I ate. . . It hurts so much. . . I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. . ."

My tears were so good that the group went silent. My body even cooperated that my stomach screamed just in time to add to the drama. I was even surprised at myself that I was able to think up such a lame excuse in the spur of the moment.

A woman came to me and soothed me. She told me to stop crying and that it wasn't my fault for not knowing anything. She even gave me a half-eaten bread she got from someone in the group. Wow, I'm good.

Though I was proud of myself for scoring food easily, I still had to push those emotions down and stick to the script, else, I'll blow my cover and things could turn for the worse.

I ate the bread while sniffing back up my snot and wiping my tears, but they just wouldn't stop, the bread was so good. . . I mean, sure it was hard and had a little mold but it was still bread, real bread, and not crumbs.

This is life. . .

It was an eventful day. I learned many things. I learned that when killing someone, make sure they can't scream or they'll attract other people when you're doing the deed. I also learned to avoid stepping or generally touching the blood to not leave any trace. There was also that thing with the monster; two-legged savages are better than four-legged ones. And when caught, use tears and other means to look pitiful to get away with it.