The Child may look like one, but he has existed for far longer.

It’s quite surprising, really. Looking at him, you wouldn’t even know how long he’s been around. After all, minus the stitches on his face, he looks almost normal compared to the other priests. Perhaps an accident occurred? That may explain the scarring.

The back of his face–a melting, second face–, on the other hand, tells a different story.

The Child had a family. That’s all anyone needs to know. Nothing good lasts forever, as everyone should know, and this was no exception.

After all, the cult doesn’t just go after adults, remember?

They came for him, and they came for his parents. The two tried to protect their son, but…

Let’s just say, they aren’t around anymore.

He reacted about as well as you’d expect; the crying, screaming, and thrashing was quite distracting for the cultists, even as he was taken to their base. They had dealt with this before, seeing how their victims usually tried to fight for their lives, pathetic or not.

Having no use for the boy, they strapped him onto a table. They left him there for days.

As you may expect, he would have starved… had it not been for one of those beasts, accompanied by many cultists. How many were there? It doesn’t matter, especially since what happened in the boy’s perspective was a blur.

The events, on the other hand, are a much different tale.

The beast, speaking in a voice unlike anything the boy heard before, gave orders. Orders that children should never have to hear. Already weak, he could not do a thing…

Not even as his body was cut into pieces.

By the time they were finished, he was unrecognizable. Broken beyond all belief, but still alive. He wished they stopped right there; that they would put him out of his misery, even. But that was foolish to think about.

He didn’t even react as the figures flipped him on his stomach and started injecting… something unusual into the backside of his body. It was painful, yes, but it didn’t evoke the same feeling he had when they tortured him moments before. Everything hurt, and everything stung…

But when the injections stopped, his back felt fine.

Out of the corner of his eye, the boy noticed the beast holding several strings and needles. He couldn’t even react in time before the creature was putting itself to work…

Stitches.

It took stitches to hold him together; it was as though the boy was sewn into some sort of doll.

However, the beast wasn’t finished; it took steady time to sow his mouth shut as well. And just like that, he could not talk. He panicked, at first, until he started paying attention to the creature in front of him.

Had it just saved his life?

Why was it with his torturers, though?

That’s when his back started to hurt.

The throbbing pain, the swelling… it all put the mutilation from earlier to shame. Something was bulging out of the boy’s backside, and to his inner horror, it was alive.

Or rather… it grew on him. And in that moment, his senses changed.

He could now see behind himself, as an extra pair of eyes grew from behind. He could now breath and talk once more, as a sharp array of teeth also sprouted from the back of his head. It felt disjointed, yes. But perhaps he should’ve been thankful.

After all, the thing above him saved his life.

From that moment on, he was never any more grateful.

Perhaps he was indoctrinated, perhaps he was manipulated… but the cult felt more like family to him than the one that was with him before. He figured they were sorry for what they had done to him, as he noticed them doing the same thing to other children they captured, although they were never blessed with the substances he was given.

Those poor, poor souls, he mused.

…But it’s not as though they were worthy of such a blessing, he convinced himself.

And so that is why you should always carefully watch a child’s back, no matter how ugly their appearance may be. After all, they could be two-faced; one face could be normal at first glance, but the other one could harbor unimaginable evil only the boldest of men would dare to stare at. You may just never know.

As for this one, he may have been around for longer than you, but sometimes he doesn’t think it’s fair.

You may have not even entertained the thought, but to put it lightly, not everyone gets to live a normal childhood.

And so even The Child feels envious that the children brought in this special hell always die young, not knowing what it’s like to be in his position.

-

...So yeah, I think I gave a fair warning for why the cult is so awful. They won't even spare children, let alone spare one from being indoctrinated... or, in this case, put through experimentation and mutilation. It's all for their so-called gods.

This is another one of their priests; a mere child, sewn not unlike a doll in order to be youthful forever, and injected with penilian DNA as the cherry on top. This, however, grew parts of a penilian on his backside, including another face on the back of his head. Then again, the extra mouth might as well be a blessing for him, since his main one was sewn shut. As for his eyes... let's just say, the extra pair of eyes is definitely not something anyone can imagine to have. As for how he's treated by the rest of the cult, he's more like a toy, like a worn-out doll. And sadly, that seems to be the case. He was haphazardly sown together in the first place, with the DNA just acting as "glue" to hold him together.

Does he enjoy this hellish existence? Perhaps in some way, or perhaps not in another. Either way, nobody cared for how he felt. Not even the ones he looks up to (the penilians).

Much like with the last post, feel free to leave any name ideas below for this character if you have any. Also, if you want to make fanart of any of my characters, it's gladly appreciated; only if you want to, of course.

Character without background is here: