Vampire Overlord System in the Apocalypse

Chapter 165 - Sorrowful Past

-----

Specters began to emerge within the darkness she submerged herself into, as memories of the past started to blossom once more within her dizzy mind.

A little girl sits down on the floor, alone, inside what seemed to be a small orphanage.

The place could be said to be the embodiment of poverty, the walls were falling apart, there were spiderwebs everywhere, dust-covered the old and cracked furniture, and the floor was mostly dry dirt.

She sat in a fetal position, glancing at her little white feet, which were all nasty with dust and dirt, her nails were cracking, and several wounds covered her smooth skin.

The girl seemed almost dull as if trying to forget about everything around her but staring at her feet and floor.

She moved her little toes around, without doing anything else.

Although she seemed to be trying to rest or something, the girl was pressing on her little stomach, forcing herself to resist the hunger she had.

In this poor orphanage children were only given a bit of soup with no meat and half of moldy and rock-hard bread.

So hungry…

Every day she would walk to the corner of this room and get into this position, waiting for the night to go to sleep on her cracking bed and then wake up to finally eat again.

Sometimes other kids would approach her and throw stones at her or anything they found, finding her amusing by how she did not even bother to look back at them or even care what they did, it was as if she was a statue.

The stones sometimes hit her little body, making her skin turn purple.

She could not even understand why they were doing this, the kids themselves only found her like a little tool to release their frustration, throwing objects at her, sometimes even kicking her in the face out of nowhere.

All the kids lived their own horrible lives filled with suffering and found someone that didn't resist being abused as a good target to release whatever frustrations they held within this chaotic world that has emerged after the apocalypse.

Sometimes she would cry in silence as she tightly held her stomach with her arms into a fetal position.

"Haha! She really doesn't do anything at all!"

"See? We can hit her, she doesn't mind!"

"Hit her faster!"

"Uwah, she's bleeding. So gross…"

"Why is the orphanage wasting food in this useless girl?"

"If she doesn't even fight back why doesn't she just let herself die?"

"Yeah, why do you even eat anyway Just die and leave some more food to us!"

Like this, she passed many days, even years.

Suddenly, when she was around 12 years of age, a strange flow of energy began to emerge through her little hands, as fox-like ears popped from above her head.

The girl was surprised at first, recalling what she had heard about Hunters, this was without a doubt a Skill, she had finally awakened some type of power.

Suddenly, a holographic window emerged before her sight, showing the girl her stats.

But because she did not know how to read, she was confused at first.

Nonetheless, she ran back to the woman that attended the kids in the orphanage, showing the woman her special ability to create fox ears.

For the first time in her life, she showed a smile, thinking that the stinking abyssal hole she was living in could finally change, that she could finally be given some chance, a better life.

However, the woman glanced at her with disgust, even scorn.

"What? Is this your ability, Iris?! Just… fucking ears?! Are you a disgusting subhuman or something?!"

The woman grabbed the girl's fox-like ears and began to pull them.

"Auuuhh…! Sniff… No… stop! Sniff… Buaaaahh…! It hurts…!"

"You little useless bitch! You are a waste of space here! I give you shelter and food and this is the fucking ability you produce? The government is not going to even give me the food you have been devouring through these years in exchange for whatever power this garbage is!" said the woman, ruthlessly pulling the girl's fox ears until they began to bleed, throwing her into the ground and walking away while leaving her over the floor.

"Sniff… It hurts…"

The little girl started to cry out loud as her little dream, perhaps the first one she had in her entire life was shattered in the most terrible way possible, the light of her eyes beginning to fade away as she delved into despair.

After knowing of her ability, the woman had decided to sell the girl as a slave, deciding that perhaps she could be of some value as a young prostitute.

However, after being revealed her fate by one of the kids in the orphanage that was laughing at her, she decided to escape the place before it could be too late.

Like this, the young girl survived within the streets of Sector D however she could, eating from the trash, catching cockroaches, and sleeping beneath a cardboard box.

Until one day, a group of agents came to the area where she was living and picked her up against her will.

She was then thrown into a facility similar to the Military School, where she was taught how to read and even given two meals a day…

This life… was better than before, but after knowing that she was probably going to be trained as a soldier or something, the fear of dying in a battle against the horrifying monsters that roamed this world began to grow within her heart.

However, as her ability was so completely useless, she was then derived to the Military School where Noah was when she was of age, leaving her to whatever destiny awaited her there, although the higher-ups expected her to die through the "filtering" going on in that place.

Every day she felt like she was no one, she felt like she was not even suitable for anything.

Mocked by her ability and her lower-than-average stats, she delved into even bigger despair, developing crippling depression and as she was bullied, even more, her traumas grew larger, like vicious specters that devoured her from the inside out, making her even weaker than she already was.

Without any parental figure throughout her entire life, she had no emotional pilar, and the only thing left in her life was simply to die…

Every night she cried, recalling her horrible past and the horrifying expectation of the bullies of this school, which would most likely beat her to almost death once more… they was way ruthless than the kids in the orphanage, hitting her with their powerful abilities, the pain she suffered was tremendous, creating powerful stigmas in her mind.

Days after days passed… mocked and ridiculed as a "pig" due to her little belly that she developed after eating more than it was needed due to her traumas and anxiety, the girl delved into more despair…

Despair, despair, despair…

It was all she knew.

And she thought it would be like this for the rest of her life…

Until one day.

Someone came into her life, someone that she sometimes noticed that glanced at her within her classroom but never dared to speak to her…

"Do you want to change your life, Iris?" it asked.

As she had given up everything in her life at this point… she accepted without thinking.

And since then… her life had been turned upside down.

Slowly but steadily, that man built a strong emotional pillar in her life.

And as she developed her strength, her mind developed as well, and as he helps her beat her fears and traumas, and even stronger resolve was forged within her mind.

She wanted to be at the side of this man… the only one that bought a reason to her life, the only one that brought meaning to it.

Her beloved husband… the one that brought her so much happiness…

Without a doubt, she did everything she could to help him, even if it was giving her very soul to him so he could fight against the unpredictable enemies they came across.

For him… anything.

She would die happy if it were for him.

"Noah…" she thought, falling within the endless void.

"Iris, I am here for you," said the voice of her beloved, as he emerged at her side, cleaning the darkness around her, and revealing her a bright world.

"Y-You are here…" she said.

"Of course I am. I will always be there for you, no matter what…" said Noah, embracing her with a warm and tight hug, as she slowly began to wake up.

-----