My bare feet sank into the soft soil as I trekked back home. The hunt had been a good one, and my mouth was watering at the thought of what mom would do with the two rabbits slung over my shoulder. She had a fantastic way of combining random herbs from the backyard into delicious seasonings, and the whole village tried to sneak advice out of her for their own dishes. My soft smile grew wide as I remembered when just this morning Johnny, my younger ten year old brother, snuck half my dad’s breakfast plate while he dealt with a runaway cow. Dad had not been happy when he realized, and now my mischievous brother Johnny was stuck on cow shit duty for the week. I’d make sure to rib him a little when I got back.

Our village was tucked away in a valley near the coastline, but miles from the nearest trading city. We didn’t get much traffic, but the community was tight knit and everybody helped out when hard times struck. Luckily, this year was a good one; the crops came bountiful and everyone’s cattle stayed healthy for the most part. High spirits and plentiful food had put the village in a celebratory mood for the last few weeks, something I was excited to partake in after dinner. 

My game trail started turning back towards town when my nose crinkled as I caught something in the air. A light smell of smoke perforated the air.

“Damn Smith twins probably lighting a bonfire again,” I muttered with a grin. I couldn’t wait to hear about the trouble they’d been getting up to. Frederick and Owen were two crazy bastards I called friends, much to the chagrin of my mom, who would prefer I spent time elsewhere. 

Sizzling rabbits and future stolen liquor on my mind, it seemed right that the smoke was getting more pungent as I neared home. Each step brought me closer to comfort, and also deeper into a hazy fog. I started getting worried for the twins with each breath of bitter air. They had surely fucked it this time, for this was no small bonfire they had put together. 

“They might’ve set the entire village on fire with how this smells,” I mumbled right before panic clenched my heart in an iron grip. I skipped a breath as an icey shriek split the air. My legs churned before a single thought entered my brain, rabbits forgotten on the path behind me. This was no light hearted bonfire.

“No no noooo,” I heard myself gasping as I tore through the undergrowth. My heart beat through the walls of my head as I turned that god forsaken corner. A sight lay before that I would never forget. Like a dream, I couldn’t think. I could only witness.

It was a warzone. No. Not a warzone. It was a massacre. It was a nightmare. It was unbelievable. I couldn’t even focus on one single thing. Fred the blacksmith, Frederick and Owen’s father, lay slumped against the side of a post holding his guts. His entrails steamed as they spilled from a wide slash in his stomach, a frozen scream plastered to his waxy face. Pillars of smoke twisted into the air. A gush of flame flew from Ms. Alabaster’s home. Thick blood oozed down her front steps and swirled into a ruby pool on the ground. Orange flames danced in that ghastly pool, reflecting the raging destruction as it swept my village.

I couldn’t blink.

I couldn’t even move.

My eyes were fixed, thoughts frozen in horror, as the scene attacked my eyes. 

A fresh scream ripped through the air, jerking me from my transfiction.

“Mom!” I let out a startled gasp as I jumped into motion.

I heaved myself forwards, getting a face of gravel for my trouble. I had collapsed to my knees without even realizing, but the fresh cuts on my face were ignored as I sprinted towards home. They had to be ok, they had to be. I would see my little brother’s grinning face again. I would see my dad grumble about our neighbor again. I would see my mom’s smile again. These words swept through my mind in a repetitive mantra as I crashed towards home.

Buildings blurred in my peripheral vision as smoke stung my eyes. I stumbled between the torched houses of my friends, muttering prayers for the bodies I found strewn like trash across the ground. After the tenth, I stopped looking at the lifeless faces and focused solely on reaching my family. 

My momentum came to an abrupt halt as I rounded a burning corner. I smashed into a man wearing spiky black armor, one of the sharp points of his greaves slicing my arm. 

“What do we have here huh,” a cruel voice spat down at me.

The man towered over me in full black plate with red highlights. A knight of Jihad. Our kingdom’s neighboring monarchy. My moment of petrification vanished as I scrambled away from the man on all fours. He brandished a sword dripping with blood at me as he cackled with laughter.

“Now how did you get away in a single piece”

I didn’t let him say another word, jumping to my feet and sprinting away from him. In my blind escape I crashed into a smoldering wall, bouncing off as I glanced back with wide eyes at the specter of death chasing me. His lips were in a snarl as time seemed to freeze. His mass barrelled towards me with hand outstretched, trying to snag me as I turned the corner. I twisted out of his reach, scampering away at the last moment. His momentum carried him into the wall I just smashed against, but this time his armored body crashed straight through the fire weakened boards into the home within. 

There was no time to check what happened to him as the house collapsed in a flash of fire. I frantically whipped around and continued my mad dash towards home. Only a few houses away now. My heart pounded in my ears, blocking out the terrible sounds around me. My whole focus was on the quaint building down the block, my backyard was in plain view. The flower pot my brother had cracked last month was still standing on the back patio. I tore through the back door panting as I heard a crash from inside. 

A scream echoed from upstairs as I rounded the corner into my living room. Tears were flowing from my eyes. A crumpled body lay at the foot of the stairs with a kitchen knife still clutched in his hand. My dad. The man who gave us everything, who worked his ass off to make sure we were comfortable and who taught me to be a man. A vicious chop had nearly separated his head from his body.

“Dad” was all I could choke out through my sobs. A weak whisper all I could give to my hero as he lay still in a pool of blood in my own home. My vision blurred as I made my way up the stairs, stepping over my father’s corpse. Hysterical sobs poured from my parents room. The high pitched voice of my brother Johnny. He was alive. I couldn’t think of anything else or I’d collapse. There was no time to mourn.

“You stay back you bastard! Don’t take a fucking step forward or I’ll gut you like a wretched pig!” My mom’s normally soothing voice boomed from the doorway in front of me. 

I entered my parents room as if in slow motion. My mom stood her ground holding a knife before her closet. Johnny sat inside, holding his legs rocking back and forth as he screamed in hysteria. Two men stood facing my mom, more lightly armored than the knight from before. They both wore black leather and brandished short swords at my mom, cruel smiles on their faces as vicious amusement danced in their eyes.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Oh no… Momma bear’s defending her cub! Everybody knows they’re soooooo dangerous. Better stay back Igzil, she’s gonna stick us” he mocked to his partner with a smirk.

That’s when my mom saw me in the doorway. Her eyes widened and stance shifted as she prepared to yelled to me.

“Run! Run Saigan please!” 

Both men turned around in surprise as they followed her gaze, locking eyes with me. Mom used the opportunity to lunge forwards, sticking her knife in the back of one of the men. He gasped and spun around enraged. Everything happened so fast after that. 

I darted forwards and bowled into the second soldier, knocking us both from our feet in a tangle of limbs and curses. I took a nasty elbow to the jaw which rolled me onto my back, just in time to see what would haunt my sleep for the rest of my life. The soldier my mom stabbed had kicked her to the ground and was mid vicious chop with his sword. I saw the perspiration on my mom’s upper lip and she held a hand up in front of her, as if to catch the blade. Orange light glinted off the blade as it arced inexorably down, down to my mom. The last expression I saw on my mom’s face was one of horrible fear. Beautiful features twisted by the inevitable coming of death. 

Her head toppled. My world fractured. 

The soldier by my side slammed a fist into my stomach. I puked acid and curled into a ball, pain shooting through my whole body. Johnny screamed with fresh horror as he jerked forwards out of the closet to drape himself over mom’s body. 

“Why! Why!” He screeched as he held mom’s headless corpse.

“Oh quit yapping you child” the soldier who just beheaded my mother grinded out between clenched teeth. He savagely bent a leg backyards and snapped a kick straight into my brother’s head, lifting him to the air and throwing him in a lump against the wall. Johnny was silent. 

My mom’s lifeless eyes stared at me. Boring into my soul as I laid on the floor, unable to make a sound. A boot violently struck my side, driving what little air was in my lungs out in a wheeze. I didn’t look away from my mom’s eyes. They didn’t look away from mine. Another blow rained into my chest, and blood dribbled from my lips. 

The soldiers were speaking in the background, one snarling as he pulled the knife from his back, the other cursing me as he lifted his boot for another kick. It sailed through the air and clocked me in the head, snapping my gaze away from those eyes. Those eyes which were still looking at me, gazing at my heart, gazing at my soul. They told me the people who killed her, who killed my dad, who beat my brother, who terrorized my village, they told me those monsters were in the room with me. They were right here. They told me I wasn’t doing anything about it. They screamed at me that the fucker’s who killed my family were RIGHT HERE! They raged that I must do something. ANYTHING! 

I didn’t feel the next blow. I didn’t feel as the soldier stomped on my hand, breaking my fingers. I only felt the fire. The fire that burned behind my eyes. It burned and railed at me. My head turned, looking back at the eyes of my mother which never left my vision. Those eyes no longer held fear. Those eyes held anger, they held rage. They held Wrath. 

DO YOU ACCEPT

They boomed in my head, those words which weren’t words. I didn’t hear them with my ears. I heard them with my soul. 

DO YOU ACCEPT

Those words which were more a feeling than a sound penetrated my being. My mother’s eyes bore into my own, telling me the answer. My mother’s lips stretched into a smile as I began to mouth the words. 

1. YOU. ACCEPT.

“I do.”

The fire behind my eyes lurched to bridge the gap towards the inferno blasting in my mother’s gaze.

Aspect of Wrath Acquired

My fire raged. The heat originally confined to my head gushed through my body, searing every vein, every muscle, every organ. It bubbled through my lungs and into my stomach, where it leapt as if trying to escape. An incoherent scream ripped out of my mouth, almost shaking the wooden walls of my parent’s room. The sound caused the soldier to pause with his boot raised above my side, readied for another stomp.

His friend had turned to look at me, and said with hesitation to his friend, “Just fucken stab him already Mofta, damn. The rear guard has probably already passed us at this point.”

Mofta turned as he went to grab his sword from where it had fallen in my blind tackle.

“You’re right, lets get this done and loot what we can”

As he bent to grab his sword, I jerked to my feet like a puppet with his strings being pulled. I threw myself upon him again, reaching for his head as his partner yelled a warning. He turned just in time for me to push both my thumbs into his eyes, pulping them like berries. His scream hardly reached my eyes as blood ran down his face, dripping to the floor and mixing with my family’s.

He crashed backwards into the wall as I turned to his partner with a feral snarl. The look on my face made him take a hesitant step back and raise his sword in a more serious stance. He opened his mouth to speak, but I didn’t let him get a word.

With a yell, more like a bark than anything human, I bolted towards him in a dead sprint. His words were cut off at a grunt and he swept his sword down at me. I held up an arm to catch the blade on my forearm. It bit deep into my flesh, but lacked true cutting force because of the stab wound in his back. The wound barely registered, all I could feel was rage. Rage at them for taking everything from me. 

My body hit him with full force, and we crumpled to the floor with me on top. I wasted no time, a wild force taking control. Before I knew what was happening, I had bitten into his neck. Bitten deep. Warm blood rushed into my mouth to mingle with my own. Pulling my head back in a snarl, I tore out his throat as he thrashed beneath me. 

“Igzil! Igzil what the fuck is happening?” He frantically turned his head as if to take in the situation. “My eyes dammit! Where are you?”

I rose to my feet with hunched shoulders, spitting gore from my mouth to splatter on the floor.

“I’m right here you mongrel.” The words escaped me in a growl. My eyes were fixed on his empty sockets as Igzil spasmed beneath me, trying to quench the gush of blood gurgling from his neck. 

My gaze caught the glint of steel forgotten on the ground beside Igzil, and I snatched it into my hand. Mofta found his feet, and shook his sword frantically towards the sound of my voice. 

“Stay back peasant, I’ll gut you for this!” He said with a quaver in his voice.

The time for words was over. I padded towards him, sticking my stolen steel in his gut in a swift motion. A screaming wheeze escaped his lips as he slid to the floor, sword forgotten. He wasn’t finished yet. Good.

I bent down and grabbed his head, both thumbs penetrating his sockets again. He screeched anew as I thrashed his head against the wall. Once. Twice. Three times. I kept going until his legs stopped jerking. I kept smashing until his head was soft beneath my grip. I kept hammering away until brain leaked from his ears. Only then did I stop. 

The roar in my head quieted, but it did not leave me. The inferno raging through my body cooled, but it was not extinguished. I took in the room around me. The headless body of my mother lay in a thick pool of blood. Her head sat a few feet away, lifeless gaze no longer holding the wrath I witnessed before. The two corpses of the Jihadian soldiers slumped in their own gore. My brother’s small body was crumpled against the wall.

“Johnny.”

The word escaped my lips in almost a prayer. My feet took me slowly towards him. I checked his pulse with baited breath. Fingers to his neck, praying to whatever was listening that I would feel something. To feel anything emanating from his warm body. 

Nothing. One kick to the head had killed my little brother.

I knelt, feeling something bubble out of my stomach. This time it wasn’t fire, but it burned just the same. I puked and slipped on the blood soaked floor, landing in my own filth. Sobs racked my body, everything I had witnessed thrashed its way through my mind at once. The destroyed form of my father slouched against the stairs. My mom’s last terrified expression. My mom’s bodiless head smiling at me viciously, commanding me to accept. The words which slammed into my head just minutes ago.

DO YOU ACCEPT

“I do.”

What had I done? Who had spoken to me? What had spoken to me? It was too much, far too much. Images continued to flash through my thoughts, drowning out the sights in front of me. The eyeless gaze of the soldier I brutalized. Blood gushing from a torn out throat. A pillar of flame blazing towards the sky. A village set to flame. A fire raging through an entire continent. A man in shining red armor penetrating me with his gaze, judging me for what was to come. 

I brought my gore covered hands to my face, pressing my palms against my eyes as I screamed. I had to leave, get out of this godforsaken room. Before I made the decision to lift my feet I had already flown from the room, jumped over my father’s corpse, and gunned it through my backyard towards the forest. 

Shouts carried through the air after me as soldiers witnessed my flight. I couldn’t care less. The movement helped dispel the scenes that flashed through my mind. My churning legs brought stability to my thoughts.

Just run, I told myself. Run away from this nightmare.

So run I did. I ran through the forest until I could run no more. I ran until my vision faded to nothing and I collapsed in a heap upon the ground, hoping I never woke up.