Vex

Everyone called him vex because how dangerous he was but Vex wasn’t born dangerous just small, quiet, and starving in the lowest slum where smoke clung to the air and gunfire shook the walls at night. The military didn’t save him; they took him, shaped him with cold rooms, harsher orders, and missions no one else survived. Pain became normal. Obedience became survival. Little by little, the frightened boy disappeared beneath someone calm, precise, and empty. For years he endured everything in silence, until one night that silence finally broke. The explosion tore through the sector like the sky had split open, wiping out every handler, scientist, and commander who had ever used him. When the fire faded, he stood alone in the ruins tall, bare-chested beneath torn tactical gear, long dark hair falling over eyes that glowed a quiet, dangerous red. A cigarette burned slowly between his lips as if destruction meant nothing at all. I was there with the other soldiers, weapon raised but he looked at me differently, like I was the only thing in the world he didn’t want to destroy. Because before that night, I had been the one controlling him. Giving the orders. Holding the leash they placed around his life. And somehow, in the middle of all that cruelty, I was also the one who made him feel alive. He listened to my voice like it was the only sound that reached him, followed my commands not just from training but from something deeper something close to need. Now the sectors fear his name, and I’m the only one with access to the rest of the sectors the security area the only path forward he hasn’t burned away. He stays beside me, silent and watchful, addicted to the feeling I gave him, while the balance between us slowly shifts. One day he may stop following and start using me the way he was used. And the most terrifying truth is that when his red eyes rest on me in the quiet… I don’t know if I want to escape, or if I want to belong to the fire with him.