1
If described by a color, Julian’s life was pitch black.
In that darkness, he’d often thought about one question-
Were love and hate truly distinct?
When his father came home late, past midnight, carrying a box of street food and waking him, he felt he loved his father.
But when his father, drunk and enraged, kicked him full force in the stomach, he hated him to death.
He lived numbly, caught in the intertwining grip of love and hate.
Until his father sold him to Valerie Blackwood’s beast-fighting arena.
At first, Julian was ecstatic, believing his luck had finally turned.
But he soon discovered it was just another hell.
