In a nicely covered wooden bed Lied the boy covered by a blue, comfy blanket.

The boy was Karl, a boy of twelve years old.

It was the dead of night and silence ruled the entire atmosphere. Which allowed Karl to happily dream his dreams.

A beautiful, yellow colored half crescent moon painted the night sky. Illuminating the outside world in its faint golden light.

The child was dreaming, his dream was off his family and of his friends.

But this dream would not last long.

Karl awoke to the smell of wood. Yet even though he had often smelled something like that, it was irritating his nose for some reason.

"What is this smell?"

The curious child asked as he stepped out of his bed, rubbing his eyes until they turned red. His yawning self was curious and wanted to explore.

So, he went over to the door and slowly opened it, curiously checking both sides before exiting.

He had gotten into trouble in the past for leaving his room and wandering in the middle of the night.

On one such occasion he had also accidentally stumbled into what he could only describe as a role play between his mother and his father.

He got into really big trouble that time, which resulted in them locking their doors from now on.

After seeing the coast was clear, Karl headed into the hallway.

The hallway was pretty long, connecting the entire second floor of his house. It allowed passage into his little brother, Daniel's, room as well as his parents bedroom.

As Karl walked towards the stairs leading to the first floor, he could not help but feel like the pictures hanging on the wall were looking at him.

The wall was full of pictures of their family together, or of a single person. And even though it should paint a happy atmosphere in the house, during the night it only awakened fear in the young boy’s heart.

Yet braving past it, he walked towards the staircase leading to the first floor.

As he got closer, he noticed that there was a weird light coming up from down belove.

He didn't know what it was, but he figured it was probably someone from his family.

As he got close to the staircase, the smell became unbearable and Karl ended up coughing up dry air.

"What is this?! Is it coming from down there?"

Deciding to find out where the light was coming from, Karl headed down the stairs. The stairs were in a prime state, much like the rest of the house, but the closer he got to the first floor, the darker the wood seemed to look.

The first floor compromised of the kitchen, living room and a bathroom. Incidentally the staircase led to the living room.

" Honey! Get the kids!! "

He heard a scream come from the direction of the kitchen.

Fear caught a hold of Karl as he heard the voice and he didn't want to budge. But after realizing it was his mother's voice he had to go and see what was going on.

The closer he got to the kitchen, the brighter the Area around him seemed. Even though it was the dead of night he could see the entire living room engulfed in an orange tint.

Furthermore, the aching smell started strangling Karl more and more as he approached the entrance to the Kitchen.

As he took the turn to enter, his heart sank into his chest, unable to believe his eyes.

There, in front of him stood a beast. A monster. A being no human was able to best.

With its sturdy, dusty colored wings and it's overgrown, deformed jaw, it stood there. Eating away at what seemed like a doll. A silhouette of a humanoid form, coated in an opal color all around its body.

"W-W-what's happening here?!!"

Karl stumbled backwards, his legs going numb under him.

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He was so absorbed in the fear of the situation he wasn't able to see his own mother next to him.

She was only about 5 to 6 meters away from him, but his eyes couldn't land on her figure.

"Get away Karl!! Hurry up! Take your brother and run."

Bringing him back to reality, his mother screamed at him, with tears flowing out of her eyes uncontrollably. The fear painted on her face was obvious. She was in the depths of despair.

Her eyes red, her face scarred and her body trembling uncontrollably.

"Mom?! What's happening here? Why is there fire everywhere?"

The kitchen Karl had entered, was completely controlled by sun coloured flames. Every corner one could see, was burning. The floors beneath them the same as charcoal. And the only place not up in flames, was the resting place of that beast.

"Hurry up, run! Get your brother and get out!!"

Realizing his mother was panicking Karl tried getting closer to her and comforting her trembling self.

"No, no! Go, go, take your brother and go!! Listen to me."

Getting shot down instantly, he looked in his mother's eyes and could only see a deep sadness.

"Me and Dad, will come soon. Just wait outside for us."

Trying her best to reassure Karl, she waved him off with a smile barely hanging on her face. Hurrying him with her hands.

And whilst he was hesitant to move, the roaring of the beast spurred him forward.

"Aghhhhgor"

Karl was lucky the beast had not made a move yet out of fear. But he did not know how long this lucky streak would continue for. So he ran with all his might, only looking forward and straining all his leg muscles. The veins had even bulged up, and were visible to the naked eye, but Karl could not notice this as he only had his destination in mind.

After running up the stairs he quickly made a beeline toward his brothers’ room.

"Quickly, Stefan get up. We need to go!"

His brother awoke to the feeling of a very strong shaking by his big brother.

"Yawn~What is it big brother? Why are you in such a hurry?"

Rubbing his sleep eyes, Stefan was barely conscious. Stuck somewhere between a dream and reality.

"Hurry up, we got to go."

Pulling Stefan out of the bed by force, he quickly ran out into the hallway, looking were to leave from.

The house had two exits. One was the front door on the first floor that was connected to the living room through a hallway, the second one was a staircase leading down from the balcony, located on the second floor.

It was clear which one was safer.

"Auu- Big brother that hurts. What are you doing?"

"I told you already. We need to hurry."

Noticing the haste in Karl's words, Stefan’s tiredness got swept aside, as he was ready to follow his brother.

Stefan was still only 8 years old, however his intelligence was unlike for his age. He could quickly grasp and understand situations and even knew what the best course of action was, is what Karl had taught about his brother.

In all honesty, Karl was slightly jealous of his younger brother and often taught about what would be if he were that smart.

But this did not matter right now, as all he wanted to do was get out of here and keep his younger brother safe and sound.

"Where are mom and dad?"

Karl glanced back and without thinking about it he spoke.

"They're waiting for us outside already. They got ready before us."

He showed a bitter smile to his brother, trying his best to quell the young boys fears and get him out of the house.

However, when they got to the door, the boy tripped and fell over on the cracking floor.

Creaaak-

The floor under them already had signs of burning up, as the sound it released after every step betrayed it.

"Come on hurry up." Karl put his open hand out.

But Sadly, it wasn't going to end that nicely.

Suddenly two giant, heat radiating logs fell from the ceiling, cutting off the path between Karl and Stefan. The logs were thick and burning, and the way they fell on one another made it almost impossible to get over to the other side unharmed.

But boys jumped back in fear of getting hit by the logs.

"Big brother help me!" Stefan screamed as he tried crawling under the logs. However, the space wasn't wide enough, so he didn't get far.

"Wait I'll com-"

As Karl looked up at the ceiling, he couldn't believe it. 'Another one....' he thought to himself as he speechlessly observed the beast. It's teeth hideously hanging from its jaw.

"Help me! Big brother!"

The crying for help of his brother brought him back to reality as he pondered what he could do.

Nonetheless his legs could not move forward out of fear of the beast. His whole body was screaming at him to escape, yet he tried fighting it.

"Big Brother, you have to find a way."

In a dire situation like this, Karl lost the taste in his mouth, thinking about someone depending on him.

Yet, the monster did not allow Karl to think about his options for long, as he jumped down and landed on the burning logs in front of him.

"Aghhhhh"

The beast screamed trying to intimidate him. And it worked. Seeing the hideously malformed teeth of the beast, Karl could do nothing but conjure up fear.

His mind went blank, the emotions raged in his head like a storm, taking away Karl's control.

"H-Help me, big brother."

Barely speaking these words, his little brother could do nothing but look at Karl with tears flowing down his face.

This was the end. And both of them knew it. There was absolutely no way for the two of them to get out of this situation unharmed.

As the two of them were not willing to make a move, the beast started moving first. It was like a hunter, choosing which one of its prey it would eat first.

It liked it's dry, rose colored lips as it eyed both Karl and Stefan, deciding which one it would presumably eat first.

"Ah, ah-"

Karl started crawling backwards, his brain deciding it was the only logical thing to do.

He still had so much to live for. He hadn't experienced love or friendship enough, he thought to himself as he backed up.

"Help, help me. Please big brother, I'm scared."

Stefan was in a lying position, covering his head as he wept and coughed dry air.

However, in that moment, the words of his sibling did not reach Karl's ears. The fear caused all his mental ability to malfunction and with that, his hearing, thinking, smelling and almost even breathing were blockaded.

Suddenly the dragon made its move.

With a loud bang the dragon jumped forward, roaring to intimidate his foe. It's long, razor sharp claws cutting the weak wood could be heard for miles Karl thought as he closed his eyes waiting for the end.

However, that end did not come. And after a brief silence Karl opened his eyes. Only to see that the monster had gone towards his Brother.

"I'm scared big brother, I'm scared. Help me. Please." he pleaded with closed, wet eyes.

Despite that, Karl's legs would not move. They were weak and shaking and had even given up on him a second ago. The weight got too much for him and Karl couldn't handle it.

'If only I could....'

Glancing backwards, Karl noticed how close the door was. It was half open, due to all the shock it must have taken.

Karl's eyes were glued to the Door, realizing what was the only thing he could do.

'I have to do it...'

Forcing himself back on his feet Karl looked at the Beast in front of him.

They locked eye contact. The pure, primal instinct the beast was operating under was clear to Karl. The beast was not smart enough to think. Nor was it smart enough to realize what it was doing. It was only mindlessly following its instincts.

Karl's legs were shaking, and his heart was pounding like a moving train. But even despite of that, he had to do it. It was the only chance he had to survive.

With tears in his eyes he turned around and ran out the door.

'I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm a coward. I'm a coward." repeating these words in his mind Karl left the house alone, escaping from danger.

***

"Ahhhh"

Waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, Karl wiped his forehead.

He had dreamt about "that" again. It was a common nightmare which Karl had to experience night after night. He had already accepted that, in a sense this was his eternal punishment for the Cowardice and betrayal he had committed, but he would have to lie if he were to say that he sometimes did not wish for it to stop. An unending nightmare, for which he alone was to blame.

After wiping of the sweat, Karl was ready to go back to sleep. But a sudden buzzing, accompanied by a faint blue light kept him from doing so.

It was his phone again.

'It's the middle of the night.... Who could it be?'

With a frown and eyes barely open enough to see, he grabbed his phone and checked the notification he had received.

It was a message. A message from Markus.

They had exchanged phone numbers on a previous occasion, when they met before a raid, but he had not been contacted by Markus often, so Karl was rather surprised at the sudden message.

After opening it and checking its contents a gleaming smile appeared on his face.

"This is our chance, we have to take it."

The sound in his head, which sounded like it had been watching the entirety of the scene suddenly spoke.

"You're right. This might be the only good chance we get for a while, so let's make the best of it."

Agreeing with the voice, he decided to reply to the message, before quickly going back to sleep.

But before his slumber had taken effect. Karl muttered to himself.

"I'll finally be able to get closer to getting revenge."