“Have we been invited to a gathering of megalomaniacs?” Ratcatcher asked with a suddenly dry mouth, horrified at her own words, as if a mere thought of blasphemy against this person could well be the vilest crime imaginable. The perfect head tilted, inviting her to continue, and a warm sensation tugged at her heart. “First, we have this Maximilian dude who wants to destroy humanity, then we have the Chosen Prince, and at last you… Mr. OTG.”
“OTG?” He had no eyebrows. The white skin rose, mimicking surprise.
“Short for One True God,” Vasily explained, licking his lips.
A melodious laugh drove them both into ecstasy. Ratcatcher smiled like an idiot, almost cracking her lips. Vasily giggled and dropped his mace, putting a hand over his helmet. And the laughter continued, cheerful, welcoming, and irresistible. Beautiful roses grew amidst the grass, leaving it dry and withering themselves after sucking in all nutrients. The laughter continued, filling the island with teeming life again, regrowing grass, plants, and even trees that destroyed the circle of paved stone. This splendor died too, surrounding the trainees with white sand. In a short while, life returned.
OTG flapped his wings and the cloud tunnel disappeared, clearing the entire sky to the horizon. Not even a gust of wind hit the teenagers, but the remaining islands and floating pieces of stone in every direction crumpled, carried out of sight by the strongest gust of wind. The sunlight illuminated the figure, creating a halo of golden radiance at the edges of his shape, and he spread hands wide, stepping down on the stairs made of pure sunlight.
Something tugged at the back of Ratcatcher’s head, as if a clawed hand raked through her thoughts, tearing open closed doors, seeking the memories of the past hours, then expanding, drinking deep of her memories, judging her every action, examining her life, and judging it meaningless. Worst of all, she welcomed this intrusion, pleading for a chance to speak all and reveal all her secrets.
“Many pretenders claim my name.” OTG shrugged his shoulders.
Esmi and Eddie hate unpleasant emotions! She remembered struggling to stay herself and not turn into a fanatical worshipper of the encroaching thing. The twins easily endured the most brutal hooks and kicks unleashed in full-contact training, never complaining about a dislocated bone and ever pouting at Augustus when he stopped the training before anyone could be seriously hurt. But a sudden needle sting during a surprise emotional manipulation made both very uncomfortable, so they learned to control their abilities faster than any of their siblings.
Ratcatcher opened her mouth and bit at her tongue, piercing her conscience with a surge of pain. Vasily fell to his knees, picked up his own mace, and hit himself over the hand, shaking his head in an attempt to get rid of an intruding pervert from reading his thoughts. Even in this realm, the pain they experienced was very natural.
Her sharpest fangs bit the tongue in two, and it dangled on a strand of flesh, filling her mouth with blood. The mace broke Vasily’s fingers, pushing shards of bone and meat through the cracks in the gauntlet. The demand to worship lessened, and OTG’s eyes glowed brightly.
“Stop it.” He snapped, and the pain left the teens. Their spilled blood moved in reverse, returning into veins. Vasily’s had his arm fixed, and all the damage disappeared. “Hurting yourself won’t work, and as I said, I have descended to aid you in the most desperate hour. Is this not what a loving deity would do? Why then do you try to guard your thoughts from me? If there is any sin done, I absolve you of it, my servants.”
“What sort of deity would imprison a person?” Ratcatcher pointed at the frozen Echo.
“An absolute one, speck.” OTG put his fingertips together, forming a triangle, and rested his jaw on it. He was a few paces away, coming down from the sky. “My heart bled at the suffering unleashed upon you two; should I endure falsehoods spat at my noble spirit? I could’ve erased the heretic with a thought, yet in my magnanimity, I’ve deemed fit to deal out a more merciful punishment. In time, we’ll set him free. For now, only you matter; there is nothing more important in the entire world than you,” his voice dropped to a whisper. He extended an arm, and it split, creating a perfect copy and inviting each trainee to grab him. The split continued, separating the first arm and then the entire OTG’s body as if two halves overlapped each other. Two OTGs kept their arms outstretched, each coming closer to a trainee, and Ratcatcher found a rift separating her from Vasily. “You can trust me on this, child,” OTGs said in unison. “Why else would I approach you?”
And the world split. Ratcatcher still heard the soft steps of OTG and the rustling of golden leaves growing out of the ground in his passing. His wings flapped, bringing cold air to the trainee as he circled her, never lowering his hands. And another apparition replicated the same ritual around Vasily, but where she could hear the words of the OTG close to her, she no longer heard a sound from Vasily. Not even when a wind flapped his cape. The celestial music slowed its play, letting the white figure speak.
“Should it bother you?” OTG asked. His heart beat like a drum: BOOM, BOOM, BOOM! Thunderous, incredible. His words reached her ear unimpeded, delivering pitying syllables and authority, calling her to action. “Ratcatcher, my poor, abandoned child, ever the last, ever the unneeded. Not even your family cares for you.”
“How dare you?” she growled, trying to raise a hand and kick his nose in. None of her muscles moved; she stood relaxed, breathing calmly, and hearing his voice whispering in her ear.
“Am I wrong? Child, remember the day your brother was born — that accursed creature who stole all attention for himself,” OTG said. “On that day, you braved the tunnels alone. Why hasn’t your family stopped you? Why did they let you be all by yourself? Because they no longer cared. Your brother, this… Liam took everything from you.”
“Lies.” Ratcatcher tried to laugh at these accusations. Left her? All the children sneaked away from the village at a young age! She ran away before, and she’d run off later too, and her parents would’ve scolded her for risking her neck as usual.
“Is it? My poor, deluded child. How many falsehoods has the world fed you?” OTG asked, his voice full of compassion. “Remember the day you met that witch, Eugenia? Why did your mother send you off and keep him close? Why didn’t your father step in?”
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
“Because he was busy.” Ratcatcher tried to raise her brow. What was he getting at? Dad had a good reason to stay behind; their small village had no elder, and he needed to negotiate with the Iternians. Besides, she and Wedge had the time of their lives eating ice cream!
“Are you this easily bought?” Okay, he had to read her mind. Ratcatcher sensed no outsider presence in her mind, but the bastard knew her thoughts. “They tossed you a bauble, and you were satisfied with it? Tell me, why haven’t your parents taken you into their room when nightmares caused by Eight made you scream? They took Liam, after all. Remember all the times he humiliated you…”
The memories of her smashing her nose against stuff during her chase after Liam flooded Ratcatcher’s mind — the times Mom asked her to wait a bit, while feeding her brother, Dad’s tired words of praise at her pictures and him throwing Liam up and catching him.
“He took it from you, and they willingly deny you love and care,” OTG kept whispering, walking circles around her. “The pain you suffered in your limbs after grueling trainings, the disappointment washing over you at the inability to solve a difficult equation, the humiliation you experienced when you said that Ravager invaded the Ravaged Lands with three hundred troops instead of thirty thousand…”
“Okay, that was funny,” she giggled, welcoming the memories of the incident and the booming laughter of the class at the vivid imagery of three hundred soldiers somehow swarming the entire front and almost reaching the Iternian border. The teacher calmed them down, corrected the embarrassed Ratcatcher, and allowed her to continue.
Ratcatcher stood unbothered by OTG’s words. Why should she? It was her life, and she lived it the way she saw fit. He plans to torment her with the memories and choices the other people made? Let him. She welcomes a chance to relive the past with perfect clarity! Cause there was only one thing she truly regretted, and she came to terms with it.
“Do you really think so?” A hint of impatience slipped into OTG’s voice. “How foolish can one person be? Poor thing. Remember all the glances others have given you? Remember the churlish behavior and nasty bullying done by your so-called friends? Rat-girl. Rat. Thing. Ugly. Monster. Inhuman.” He stopped before her, pressing his palms together and making her eyes hurt because of the bright light. “Never will they accept you. For them, you will always be a freak to be amazed at, a fiend to exploit for the sake of building the false image of coexistence between mutants and humans. They made you perform like a circus clown, sing at their command, even your friend, this stupid girl, Nadya, had asked the same of you, and others laughed.”
“Eh, credits are credits.”
OTG raised an excellent point. Why did she stop performing in the park? Oh yeah, Torosian. Seriously, what is wrong with earning some money on a side job? She wasn’t stealing or anything; why in Panet’s name is he banning such a lucrative source of income…
A painful memory tore her out of her pondering. Pulsating memory of a shot hitting her in the shoulder, of the small girl running in the darkness and carrying the life she saved and fought for.
“And how did they reward you for the good deed?” OTG asked. “They shot you. Tried to lynch the entire village afterwards. Never, not in a million years, will humans tolerate those who look different. At this moment of time, law and the pretense of humanity chains them, but you know enough of history to know how vicious Iterna can be. Thousands of smaller lives die unheard every day…”
“And how am I different?” She asked.
“You attracted my attention, child.” OTG didn’t smile. For once, she was sure he answered truthfully. “On accident, you ended up being swallowed by a foolish weakling, a worthless lump of flesh boasting delusions of grandeur. I coveted him in the past, promising him such gifts if he would bow and accept his place, but my offer fell on deaf ears, and he is no longer of consequence. Rise in his place! You are bound to him by flesh; accept me, swear loyalty to me, and I shall grant you the power to dominate him!”
Visions appeared in her mind. She broke out of the factory, no longer wearing her broken body but engulfed in swirling dark clouds, spitting forked thunderbolts. Her tail slapped, leveling the entire factory, and Elina stood at her knees, praying and begging, accepting her inferiority at last. A passing thought rendered the stupid bitch screaming; the infections, now bowing to Ratcatcher’s will, devoured her whole, putting an end to their rivalry.
She pushed out of the clouds, her body covered in sable fur, her eyes shining brighter than a laser beam, and her shadow covering entire buildings. Healthy, in control, perfect. Guided by the absolute deity, she would offer the ultimatum to the world, darken the skies, acting smart, unlike the stupid Chosen Prince, who exposed himself to danger. Her virulent infection would spread across the world, poisoning the very reborn oceans and choking them into nothingness. Torosian, Eugenia, Augustus, Hustler, Ivar — all who ever dared to speak to her without proper respect, covered at the sight of her shadow, begging for mercy. And, finding none, their screams echoed off the bones of her foes. And a single virus would spread all over the world, eradicating the Numbers wherever they hid, turning Eight’s existence into agony stretching to the very heat end of the universe. She will never be afraid ever again.
A crowd of devout followers of the true god tore Liam apart, limb by limb, and Ratcatcher witnessed herself sitting in a grand palace, her parents by her side, loving her and no one else. Eugenia’s carcass dangled in chains over a fire, kept alive by the carefully selected viruses drawing energy out of the flames and never allowing the Elite to recover. A fitting punishment for ruining her home. Everyone bowed to the cruel messiah of God, and for once, Ratcatcher found herself in control of her fate, unfettered by petty morality, punishing the wicked by death as they deserved, reducing unbelievers to dust, and welcoming the birth of a new, better world, basking in God’s glory. She alone entered a brilliant new world, leaving the unworthy, flawed fools b…
“Take it,” OTG insisted. “Take my hand, accept me, and I shall take care of everything. All I ask is that you follow your own natural urges — to hunt when you want and to kill when you are hungry. Is this such a heavy duty? The entire world has failed you; it allowed the Chosen Prince to hurt and devour you. Look, your friend is about to take my hand. Don’t let him steal your destiny! Imagine all the good you can do with such power at your disposal.”
“Good?” Ratcatcher laughed. “All you have shown me is how it corrupts me, inverting my every desire, turning me into the kind of person I despise the most: a tyrant and a bully who hurts the weak. Where is the good in that? If this is what I will turn into wielding such power, then I don’t deserve to wield it to begin with!” The being tried to speak again, but she interrupted him.
“So my life isn’t perfect. Boo-hoo, I still live far better than almost everyone. Elina and the others said and made a couple of nastiness. And I got shot by mistake.” She faced his eyes, gritting her teeth at a flash of supernova in them. It wasn’t just the color or the intensity of the flash; the light itself has tried to make her bow and accept his reasonings. Ratcatcher let it wash over her and continued, “Big deal. Am I supposed to stew in bitterness for the rest of my life, trying to hurt them back? Screw that; they changed, so I better make friends. People give me surprised glances. And? I too gazed unabashedly at the first VI I ever saw, checking his back and front and making the poor officer uncomfortable. Nobody is perfect, but don’t you dare tell me that the world has failed me. A good person gifted me an ice cream when I had no money; soldiers of other countries risked their lives to save mine; and my friends apologized for the mistakes made. I saw civilians risking their lives to save others from danger! Take your vile lies and shove them down your pale ass, faker!”