Illusionistical

It is written that couples are made by the Grandfather’s hands, he who lives on the moon and weaves families with his red strings. It is said that until their fates have been met and destinies completed, their strings will forever knot and twist; bend but never break. It is heard that to be tied [...]

The boy raised his hands to clutch at his executioner’s arms, arms that did not know the definition of mercy. Little did he know that the nerves in his body had long been restricted by millions of microscopic needles shot through him seconds before. He heard his own endless scream rise up and out of [...]

They had lived their whole lives for this day; he had waited ten grueling years of his life for this moment to come. He had done everything in his power not to get himself killed and now he stood before his brother in their rundown basement, burnt decades before his birth, with his left arm [...]

Hell. He was in Hell.
“H-E-L-L.” the girl spelled out for him, her scratchy voice rising higher in pitch for each letter.
Great, he thought.This is fantastic. He flinched at the girl’s voice, giving an acknowledging grunt as he rose from the ground. He briefly raised his head to look at where the rip in the sky [...]

I have no idea how long this story will last, but it seems to be too long to still qualify as a short story. So I created a table of contents to keep track of all the so-called chapters.
1. Prologue: The Serene Darkness
2. Chapter 1: The Yellow Spring
3. Chapter 2: The Underworld Prison
4. Chapter 3: [...]

Crash. Crumble. Thump.
Silence.
Crowds gathered around the strange little boy that had dropped out from the rip in the sky, now crouched at the center of the playground. Worried mothers poked and pried as fathers spread out in search of his parents or guardians. The boy curled himself into a ball and clenched his eyes shut. [...]