Kill Them All

Indrik

I was scared. More scared than I had ever been in my entire life which was saying a lot because I had spent my entire life living in fear. Fear of never being more than a weak wolf who was the butt of everyone's joke. Fear of always being tormented by my half brother. Fear of dying from a simple cold. Fear, fear, fear, that had always been a recurring theme in my life. Something that I hated but could not do without anymore than I could do without breathing. You would think I would have mastered the art of fear by now. Wait a minute, is there anything like that? Forget that. My point is, now, I felt so scared, it paralyzed me. I had only just started to get my life in order, started to reach my dreams and suddenly, my master tells me she won't be training me anymore? My whole world seemed to be crashing around me and it really wasn't a pretty feeling.

And then, Leon had come along again, reminding me of my weakness and that even if I had my wolf now, I would still always be that weak child who always had to depend on others for help. I had tried to put up a brave front but the truth was I had been scared. Scared that my younger brother would attack me again and as always, I would be helpless to do nothing other than to watch as he bashed my face in, the only difference that I would heal faster, giving him more room to cause more pain.

I lay on my bed feeling tired and exhausted. I wondered if it was all really worth it. All these struggles, the pain, I could still recall how the poison had gnawed at my insides on that dreadful night. I had long healed but even now, I could still feel my gut clench in pain when I recalled the experience yet, I ended up being the loser. I once heard that one of the signs of a strong person is knowing when to give up. Perhaps it is time for me to give it all up? But then again, I was anything but a strong person. I was the epitome of weakness so even that rule could not apply to me. I laughed bitterly. My life was truly sad. My parents must be looking down at me with regret now ashamed to have birthed such a failure.

"You are not a failure." A clear voice rang close to my ears. I sat up, looking around in confusion. Luna was not in the room. She had excused herself to go take care of some maid things. Besides, that voice had sounded nothing like hers. It had sounded dreadfully like the voices I had heard earlier this morning. I shuddered at the memory. I shook my head, trying to dispel the memory but it clung stubbornly, like it had been seared into my brain with hot iron.

"Who is there?" I called out loud. I sounded crazy, even to myself but that voice... That voice had not been a figment of my imagination. That much I was sure of. As expected, no response came but I could not shake the feeling that I was being watched. Paranoia took over as I got out of bed and searched the room, under the bed, behind the clothes rack, the bathroom, everywhere but again, I saw nothing. I looked toward the open window and my heart skipped as I noticed a shadow. I scrambled over but it was gone before I could reach it. Looking out through the window, I saw nothing except trees and flowers. The sun was hot in the sky now but it did nothing to shake the chill that had settled in my bones. "I am going crazy." I muttered shakily and laughed, half expecting a voice to speak again but all that I got was silence. The fact that I even expected to hear a voice only served to prove just how far gone I was.

I stumbled back to my bed and collapsed in it. I shut my eyes and tried my best to block out all thoughts but my brain had other plans. The voices that I had heard earlier started to ring in my head again. "End them." "You are the greatest." "Kill them all." "They deserve to pay for what they've done to you." These were among the many things that they kept whispering. The voices were broken and disjointed, hardly making any sense but they were hard to ignore. The way they kept echoing, each word seeming to be amplified a thousand times over. They made me want to tear my hair out and drown my head in water.

"Go away." I mumbled, curled up in a ball and swatting at thin air. "Leave me be. Stop." I cried, over and over again but the voices seemed to be determined to drive me crazy. I grabbed a pillow and pulled it over my ears. I had no idea how long I remained there but it seemed like I blacked out. When I opened my eyes again, I was drenched in sweat, trembling like I had spent an entire night in a heavy rain but the voices were quiet. Before I could celebrate my victory, I saw the reason why I had woken up. Standing over me in her regal attire of a maid was my master looking down at me with what looked like pity. I turned away from her. I hated pity. What was the use of someone feeling pity for you if they were not going to help you? Over the years, I had come to see it more as hypocrisy than anything else.

"Go away." I muttered.

"Are you okay? Your clothes..." She placed a warm hand on my forehead but I slapped it away.

"Stay away from me." I snarled.

"That's too bad because I was just going to ask you to show me to our new training ground but I guess you don't care about that. I'll leave now."

All my misery flew out the window as I sat up immediately.