As time passed, the boy grew. As the boy grew, the "weirder" he got.

      His eyes grew larger and darker, his skin became pale enough to blend in with paper. And his hands... He had long fingers, yet naturally dark nails. He tried to hide them, to seem normal, and he did. For a few years, he wore gloves no matter what.

      Until his nails grew out of them, people became scared of him. They began the rumour that he had claws instead of hands and that the gloves were only used for hiding the horrible bird-like skin.

      They weren't wrong. His skin became crinkled and hard, almost like a shell, and yet had no colour to them. His nails became longer and curved, he tried cutting them once. He only succeeded in ripping them off, since they were hard as steel.

      The bullying never stopped, it went on and on. He had only one animal friend and it was the cause of more people teasing him. His friend was a raven. Named, ironically, Raven. 

      He would tell his friend everything that happened that day and Raven would be as birdy as a bird could and flutter his wings. He never flew off though, not because he wanted to. But because he couldn't.

      And Soul knew this and never bothered to help his friend out, because he really wanted a friend. Because he really needed one.