Trophies

I thought I had seen him here in the sullied streets. I know that it could not be but still I'd called to him. I wanted it to be. Everything felt ... real. Something had broken through the impassiveness ...


The bulbous eye visable even from that distance, swollen with the festering of imflammation only superficial as was the writing on his skin.There was something in the avian mannerisms that was familiar. Then there were the symbols, the marks of the Island, the signature of our creator. He wore them as if boasting our beginnings. All that I've kept hidden per the training,

written,

there

for all to see.

I want to carve it from him as a trophy, wear it as my own skin
but if ...

no, I can not allow myself to believe.

If he is not, then was he still kindred? Had he been crafted too in the likeness of our maker? Is he another of Racselis biological warfare?

Or is he the ... next?

I touched my cheek and wiped away a dampness, a brine that has never been mine before. I am not capable of remorse ... I am not ... I am not ...

not ... ( tic) not ... (tic) not

why now

is there moisture on my face,

seeping from my eyes.

Vertigo struck and the world spun in on itself. Bile rose in my throat and my stomach though empty continued to heave until the world went black again.

Lullabies

He came to me, in the variances of lights and darkness. I could hear him crying. I watched as his mouth opened in a scream so deafening that it rent my heart in two. I was reaching for him, reaching out to pull him to me. To hold him once again. To protect him from the monsters that lived in his dreams. My Septus. The ache for him pierced through the icy taloned fingers that held me suspended in nothingness.

A flood of memories raced havok between a long ago and my now. Much my own twin he could have been, not in physical attributes but of mind. The genetic spiralling doubled then split in half. He was a tortured creature, wrenched by the gruesome derivations created within us that only the songs of our sister could soothe. When they silenced her, he could no longer be contained. The keys no longer worked. They took him from me and the tear stained eyes blood red became etched on my own.

I would find a small gift tucked beneath my pillow. Loving signs that he had escaped. An ear, a finger, a sliver of a spleen. Sweet treasures. Then they stopped. They stopped long before I left Acresius.

In my dream, I could hearing him screaming and I reached for him.


Hush little seven don't say a word ...
Sister's going to find you ...


I woke in the darkness unsure of where I was.

I dare not dream ... I dare not dream

I dare not dream sam I am I dare not Dream at all

I'm too afraid of all I see I'm too afraid I'll fall

I saw you dark against a backdrop red

I saw you standing in the midst of the neverliving

There in the alley of the dead

I held you tight I held you true

and whispered in your ear

I dare not dream my little sweet

For when I have awakened

I fear that all I dreamed I will find I am mistaken

and had you for dinner as my treat

There was one more

I felt as if my veins were on fire, the throb behind my eyes pulsing my sight in shades of red. The sleeper was awake and still hungry. There was one more.

I found a writhing slave to send on the errand. She would know who to look for, she had served him before. Her masochistic need would throw her at his feet begging to be allowed to please him this time. I'd given her the anedote. She would tell him his slave had been taken and where.

Finding a darkened spot within the alley of a different district, I waited.
He came alone.

I knew he would.

The anger dissipated from his face when I stepped from the shadows. Relief flooding the squared features as he fell to his knees. The embrace of my waist was almost touching. Tenderly brushing his dark hair from his temple as he buried his face in my belly, I looked down at the man who had been my cruel keeper. Clutching his hair tight, it was a quick wrench of my hands until I heard the crunching snap. It amused me that I'd had enough strength. My thumb held against the side of his throat, counting the fading pulse until I realized it was my own that I felt and nothing more.

My timing had been precise, it was payday and his pouch was heavy with coin. Too, those in the streets would be in a hurry to pay their tabs or celebrate. No one noticed the fair featured slave as she stepped from the alleyway.
Each stride now seemed heavier and the apartment in the Anbar district seemed a million pasangs away.

With the last bit of adrenaline I had, I climbed the firewalk to the roof of an abandoned insula halfway back, crumpling into a small heap.