I opened my eyes. I thought I was dead.

But this time, I wasn’t sure where I was. It wasn’t back at the cave with Malcolm’s gang, and it wasn’t the ancient ruins with the stranger. In fact, where I was kind of wasn’t a place at all. The sun was black like some sort of evil eye and the ground was gray like burnt coal. I didn’t panic, I didn’t feel much of anything actually. In fact, as I laid on the ground on my back I felt at peace for the first time in years. I didn’t feel thirsty, hungry or in pain. I was just… me.

I sat up, looking around. Wherever I was, it wasn’t anywhere I’ve seen before. The ground was black and the air was eerie. In the distance, I could see a field of flowers. I looked around for any other landmarks but everywhere else was just pitch black.

Walking towards the small field, I could sense that something was wrong. The air was thin, and the air about the place felt alien to me. I was almost sure that whenever I was, it wasn’t Elysium. Approaching the field, there was a wide expanse of flowers. They were all white, and blooming in the shape of roses. A hint of beauty in what seemed to be such a barren and lonely world.

The skies were a ghastly pale purple-black, a color I didn’t see all too often. I kept looking up at it, wondering where the stars were. If this really was the afterlife, then it was different from what I had imagined it to be. Gazing upwards, I was entranced by the swirling mist and dust that seemed to circulate above me. They seemed to be following me, strangely enough. I didn’t think too much about it, I must have been going insane I thought.

I continued walking across the field, towards the center and getting closer I saw a single humanoid figure, standing still with his back turned towards the black sun. It gave off some light, barely illuminating the path ahead of me.

I walked towards the person, hoping to understand exactly where I was.

It wasn’t even before I reached the person that I heard them speak.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” it was a male voice.

I didn’t know how to respond.

“I wonder how long it’s been, since I’ve been waiting for you to arrive,” he continued on.

He turned around, revealing his face. He had one blue and one red eye. The crimson and cyan almost gleamed like jewels in the guise of darkness. His face was rigid, but somewhat pale. He stood tall, confident and back straight, dressed in a velvet red coat. Yet, behind those eyes I couldn’t sense a single sense of humanity. For some reason, I could immediately tell that whoever or whatever he was, he probably wasn’t human.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” it was a male voice.

“Am I dead?” I asked.

“You know, all you humans that come by here always ask me that question. Why is that?”

You humans. He affirmed my suspicions.

“If this was the afterlife, then I’d want to know,” I answered.

He chuckled, like he was amused. It was condescending.

“To answer your question, this area… it’s not the afterlife. At least not yet.”

“So… am I dead?” I just wanted answers.

“Not yet,” he began walking around me.

“Mind telling me what the hell’s going on then?”

“This… is my prison. In a realm where I am lord, in a rift between life and death. You see, there is an afterlife. And more often than not, those that die will often reach the river of death, where they are guided to their own personal hell. But you haven’t died yet. You’re about to die, but your heart still beats. Your mind still wanders, because a spell has trapped your soul and forced you to descend down here.”

“So, what am I doing here?” I grew impatient.

“You have been sent here, just like I was. But unlike me, you weren’t sent here to be imprisoned, no, you were sent here like many before you so that you could release me.”

“And why would I want to do that?”

“You don’t, but the one who sent you here would like to see me free. What he doesn't know is that I have no intention of serving him or any other masters. It’s not even possible for me to be released like this, not anymore.”

“You say that as if you’re some sort of important figure,” I mocked him.

He laughed heartily. “If only you knew.”

“Then I’m stuck here?” I grumbled. Now that I look back at myself, I was pretty calm even though I was in the face of death.

“Not quite,” the man answered. “You see, I’m almost certain that whichever human sent you down here, has no idea who I am, nor what I am capable of. If he did, he would not want me released back into Elysium. However, like I said, I’ve been waiting. And now, I’d like to offer you another chance at life. Not under his control, but to return as yourself.”

“What do you mean, another chance?”

“I’ve been down here for millenia, as I have said, waiting for this exact moment. I cannot leave this prison. This is my eternal home now, and nothing can change that. But nobody said anything about my powers. My body may be trapped here, but not my legacy.” He drew closer, his tall imposing figure standing tall and lean. “What I can offer you… is power. The power to change the world, the strength to defeat your enemies, the tenacity to protect what you own, the wisdom to rule a kingdom. And of course... revenge for your sister.”

As those words left his mouth I glared up.

“I never told you about my sister,” I hissed.

“You didn’t have to,”

“So, how did you know?”

“Like I said, I’ve been waiting for this moment for a very long time. I have been waiting for you. I have seen everything to this point, and how our fates entwine. How your house burned and you were forced to spare your sister a life of misery. How you were in that cage for months, forsaken and abandoned by god. Where God failed to answer you, I can promise you that if you turn to me, I will grant you power and might beyond human comprehension.”

I staggered backwards, my caution and curiosity growing. “Who are you?” I whispered.

He turned around, walking away from me.

“My name will have been long lost in history by now.” His voice was louder, booming across the void. “Erased long ago with the extinction of the demon race.”

The demon race, I read about them a few times. There was very little information on them, but I knew that they were one of the most powerful races until they were wiped out.

“When the demon race was at its peak, I was one of its four rulers. At birth I had been granted power that even my own race feared. As my talent for war and battle revealed itself to the world, I solidified my presence and position among my race. Unlike the others, I wasn’t crowned a lord for my impeccable intelligence or unrivaled wisdom, I was made a lord simply for might. Until the fall of the demon race, I was the most powerful being in Elysium. After suffering our last defeat at the hands of your progenitor, I was unable to be completely defeated. I was trapped using my own magic while the others were sealed away in their own tombs, their locations forever lost.”

I tried to remember when the demons were defeated. It was about three hundred thousand years if I remember correctly.

“I peered into the future with the aid of the power of the dragons. I saw all the paths that I could walk, but none of them led to the outcome I desired. But of course, knowing what the future holds for us changes the future itself. Tricky business, it is. But among all the paths there was one that stood out to me. A path where the powers of my progenitor did not pass to one of us, but a human instead. And so now I arrive here, acting as a catalyst to fulfill my original goal, of which you will learn in due time. I saw the death of my race, and your birth, and this inevitable union between demon and man. I have waited for millenia for this single moment.”

He looked towards me again, the gleam in his eye seemed to have changed colors.

“My name… is Asura the Abysswalker, the fourth Demon Lord, last of his kind,” his voice got heavier as he extended a hand outwards. “And as a monster among monsters, I ask of you, Mangus. Will you accept my legacy?”

It was all too much for me at once. I began to sense just what kind of decision he was asking me to make.

“So you say that you’ve seen our fates entwine?” I asked.

“That is correct.”

“Have you seen anything beyond this point?”

His hand still extended outwards, the expression on his face was neutral. No fear, anger or anything to even suggest that he was nervous.

“Yes,” he answered confidently.

“And if I say no?” I asked, carefully looking for his reaction.

“You won’t,” he smiled. It was my first time seeing his face show any emotion apart from laughter. The way he said it, as if he already knew. Someone that was in control.

For me the choice was obvious. After a childhood of suffering and pain, there really wasn’t much to think of. What did I have to lose anyways? Would I rather die in vain, leaving no markings upon the world or would I come back, only this time with the ability to change my fate?

I grabbed Asura’s hand immediately afterwards. I didn’t care who or what he was, actually. I couldn’t care any less about what he had seen in his visions of the future, because what my twelve year old self really wanted was power. It didn’t even matter what kind or how much, as long as I could have the opportunity to wield it against whoever I wanted.

As our hands made contact, black veins popped out of his arms like slithering snakes. They drilled into my arm, travelling through my body. I didn’t feel anything until they reached my chest, where I could feel them as they drilled through my heart. Yet the pain that I felt paled in comparison to what I had felt before. I dropped onto my knees, feeling something else enter my body. It wasn’t something physical, it was more hazy, like thick wind pressing towards me. Just like the way I would have imagined a ghost passing through me. Something was happening, I could feel it. I just didn’t understand it. My body began to grow slightly larger, the color returning to my skin. I could actually feel my hands regain strength as I shivered. And suddenly, I was pulsating with something that I couldn’t describe, even to this day. Perhaps it was the first time I was being exposed to mana, but it made me feel powerful.

Then I heard something whispering to me in the darkness.

How much are you willing to give for power?

Even to this day, I can still remember discovering Asura’s magic for the first time. Never before did I feel so attuned to something, like it was simply a part of myself that had been missing without my knowledge. That moment, I found something else apart from swordplay that I was talented at. Something that came to me naturally, without guidance or learning.

Cold sweat dripped down my body as I looked up. “What now?” I croaked out.

“Now… let the games begin,” Asura’s body distorted like smoke, and suddenly everything around me began to twist like a bad dream. It was like a second had passed. I saw my heart, ripped clean out of my chest, and the face of the stranger under his hood, laughing like a madman. It took him a second to realize that I was no longer screaming, that I was just staring at him.

“That’s strange… you should be dead. Or the spell worked?” he shouted excitedly. He came close, analyzing me. My heart sank back into my body, and the flesh around my chest rapidly began to close. Watching it for the first time was amazing and terrifying at the same time. The pain though… it was worse than before. The sensation as the flesh came together was the same as every single strand of skin being torn apart instantaneously.

Yet I didn’t scream. Not a single sound, not a squeak.

I understood.

That pain was inevitable. Suffering, on the other hand, was optional.

“I knew it!” the stranger shouted, his shaky hands grabbing my face to look at my eyes. “What the ritual needed someone with stronger willpower. Someone that could endure the pain, someone-”

His ramblings were cut short as I found a sudden burst of strength, and the ropes that tied me down shredded apart. I grabbed his face by the mouth, slamming him onto the stone table where I laid. Blood gushed out of his ear and nose as I got up, stretching. I looked at my body, and it looked as if it was growing…

I watched as the air around me turned a blackish hue, and suddenly a black mist enveloped the room from beneath, bleeding into the room like a fresh wound. Yet I wasn’t scared. I breathed it in, and I could feel my body healing. All of the wounds, my skin, and my nails grew back. The stranger kept staring at me, only now he wasn’t amused. The black mist was dispersed across the room initially, then it began swirling around me like a storm.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

My dull senses came back to me, sharper than ever. I could still taste Malcolm’s blood in my mouth, grainy like sand with a hint of iron on my tongue. In the distance, the sound of crickets chirping under the evening sky and the wings of beetles flapping across the cold air rung into my eyes. Only standing up did I realize that behind the stone table that I laid upon, in the darkness, were dozens of bodies. Some had been reduced to bones, but I could tell by their sizes that they had all been younger than me. The black mist shrouded the bones, like they were eating it before floating over to me. It crawled up my skin the way an army of ants would.

The floor in the middle of the room cracked open with a loud bang, and an even larger cloud flew up into the air, like a tornado rather than a gentle mist. I watched as it took form in the air above me, and suddenly it all came crashing down. The ruins began to collapse, stone by stone. I stuttered away as a boulder dropped down on the table, crushing the stranger’s head. His headless body slid down onto the floor as it crumbled down, and I tried my best to find the exit. The black tornado shook and writhed around like a centipede, the old ruins unable to contain it. I stepped back, only to realize that the floor behind me had been crumbling as well. I tripped down, and as I turned around I saw a pool underneath the ruins. It was pitch black, like expired poison. But something in it called out to me, a smooth gentle voice.

Asura’s voice.

I dove in, the stones from above dropping into the lake as well. I could still breath though, and the black water swirling above me seemed to protect me from the collapsing ruins. I could feel the black matter seep into my skin like an ointment.

And as the ruins above me completely collapsed, I sunk into the void below, slowly, and I learned that day that the closer I am to death, the closer I am to Asura.

* * *

Nearby, a merchant heard the crumbling ruins collapsing. With a rush, he began running towards the site as he felt the massive reverberations from across the ground. Curiosity had gotten the best of him, and he decided to take a look. He had heard that the ruins were empty and that there was nothing of interest there. Although there were some rumors of an ancient and buried treasure in there, nobody had found anything. He thought that perhaps he could scour for something after the collapse.

As his heavy footsteps took him to the site, he put his hands on his knees and breathed heavily, catching his breath. The ruins were completely collapsed inwards, unlike what he had imagined. It was as if there had been a crater in the center and everything had been thrown into the hole.

“Dammit!” he shouted. Another missed opportunity. There was no way that he himself could have excavated everything. He would need to hire a team to completely dig out what was underneath.

Suddenly the ruins began to shake. An earthquake? He thought to himself.

Buried stone began to levitate, almost as if gravity had stopped working. The merchant watched in amazement as thin black blades cut through the stone from below, slicing through the slabs effortlessly with surgical precision. It cut in a circular motion very slowly, and afterwards stones were chugged out from the circular hole. It spat out, some large and some small, all spewing out randomly like something was pushing everything out from the very bottom.

After all was said and done, the merchant fell on his back as a single man, no, a boy walked out, naked and shrouded in black. He wasn’t dressed, but it seemed like he was wearing armor already. The merchant watched as the boy walked up to him, and he expected the worst.

The expression on the boy’s face was cold, emotionless. If anything he resembled a homunculus more than he did a human. He looked around, as if looking for something.

“Wh-who-who are you?!” the merchant managed to ask, although in a frightful tone.

The boy didn’t answer, taking deep breaths. His eyes finally focused on the merchant.

“Do you have any clothes?” the boy asked.

“Huh?”

“Are there any clothes that you can give me? They don’t have to be anything good,” he asked. There was no hostility behind his words, yet something scared the merchant. Enough so that he immediately took out all the clothing he had. The boy carefully grabbed a white shirt and a pair of pants. It was slightly too big for him, but he didn’t seem to mind at all.

“Thank you,” he whispered. “Do you know where Blackpool is?”

“Yeah,” the merchant pointed in a direction. “Just a hundred kilometers West of here.”

Without another word the boy jumped off into the night. He jumped into the trees with inhuman strength and speed, and the merchant was left, wondering if he was dreaming. Little did the merchant know what kind of creature had just been unleashed onto the world.

* * *

I ran through the night air, every footstep I took leaving behind a trail of dust that scattered like a desert devil. Information passed through my body like never before. I could see, smell, hear, taste and feel everything so much better than I could have imagined. My body regenerated, leaving nothing but mild scars remaining on my body. I felt almighty, but at the same time I knew that this strength wasn’t infinite.

Crashing through the trees and rocks, I eventually came into a clearing, where I stopped to catch my breath. There was just too much happening in my head right now. I tried my best to control my senses, but there was just too much to process. I sat down for a moment, trying my best to adjust everything. Only when I sat down to take a breather did I notice that there was something crawling through my skin. Black, thread like matter marked me across my body, like strange ritualistic markings.

Suddenly something black gathered in the air around me, and slowly I felt drained of energy. It wasn’t much but it was noticeable. I clenched my hands, trying to control whatever was going on. Both old and fresh wounds began to heal, which scared me.

I learned at that moment that I inherited a type of regeneration. I wasn’t sure how it worked, but it was surely connected to the mana that I had begun to sense. And the black markings…

“What is this magic?” I asked.

“You’re smart, you should be able to figure it out.”

I remembered reading that magic was the power of transforming energy. Conversation between the elements using mana as a catalyst. So the things that I just did… creating… shouldn’t have been possible. Was it possible?

“Creation,” I deduced.

“Correct.”

My mind was spinning, and I had difficulty trying to control my own body, much less use magic. On top of that my body was going through some rapid changes

As the black markings on my skin settled down, I got up again. This time my senses had settled down a little bit, back to human levels. It seemed that I could amplify the sense I wanted by focusing on it, but it was still somewhat difficult. With that out of the way, I continued running in the general direction of Blackpool again.

I smelled something in the air, like smoke. I could hear people. And in the far distance, across the leaves and trees that shrouded their hideout, I could see them. My newly acquired sight had allowed me to see them across the forest that should have hid them.

Eventually I came to a cave that was ever so familiar to me, one filled with the laughter and smiles of my enemies as well as memories of pain, humiliation and suffering. I didn’t care about thinking much back then. I was too young to understand that walking into the enemy’s den was dangerous. Not that it mattered in this scenario.

Slowly, I walked up to the cave entrance where there was a single guard. He didn’t even bother raising up his spear as I came up to him.

“Lost? Kid?” he laughed in a drunken stupor.

I wasn’t confident in using magic back then. I had only used it to escape the ruins, and that was when I had been pushed into a corner.

As he came closer I grabbed his throat, raising him into the air. It was hard, since the guard was slightly taller than me. Now that I noticed, I had gotten slightly taller as well. As I held up his images of Emery flashed through my head. Memories that had been haunting me ever since that night. But I knew that if I kept dwelling on those memories, then I would never accomplish what I came here to do. I forced those memories out of my head.

He writhed in the air like a worm, at least until I snapped his neck. His limbs went limp as I heard the crack. I dropped him onto the floor, looking at my hands.

“You hesitated.”

“Not anymore,”

I walked inside, two more men standing in the dark hallways by the torches. They were counting coins, their backs turned to me. Walking up, they turned as they heard my footsteps. I slammed one into the wall to the left, the sound of bones being crushed echoing across the cave. The other man, caught off guard, tried to draw his sword. I raised him into the air, tossing him onto the ceiling. He landed back on the ground, grunting. I knelt, taking his sword. The two of them were still alive.

“Do it.”

I still remembered how heavy my sword had been the first time. This time, it was lighter than a feather.

I raised up my blade, cutting both of their necks with two fluid motions.

“I don’t need you to put evil notions in my head, Asura. There’s plenty of them up here already,” I whispered.

Three so far. I kept moving onwards.

Up ahead I could hear more and more people, after the pair of guards near the entrance, the next group I came upon were four men playing cards outside a locked door. They noticed as I walked towards them, one of them got up and came towards me.

“How’d he get past?” he shouted past me, grabbing my hair.

And as he looked at my face, his expression changed.

“Wait,” he began stuttering. “Ain’t this the kid from the back of the cave?”

I grabbed his arm, kicking him in the knee. He knelt as I still held onto his arm. I twisted it right off, and the screams began. These four were unarmed, but to this day I still wondered why I didn’t take a weapon from the guards I encountered earlier. They all came at me, trying to grab me but somehow I was stronger than them. They were surprised by my brute strength, as I tore their limbs off. I had failed to notice that one of them had a dagger, and as I threw him onto the ground he tried stabbing me in the leg. Too bad now the pain was nothing to me. I looked down at me with my cold pitiful eyes, like the way one would stare at an insect. I stomped on his neck, the sounds of bones crushing crackled and he let go of the dagger, leaving it in my leg. I pulled it out, dropping it on the ground. Immediately the hole in my leg began regenerating, the pain still persisting in the wound.

Before I went deeper into the cave, I ripped the steel door. The hinges shattered and I tossed the steel door to the side, sending loud echoes across the cave.

“Let them come,” I thought.

“Your arrogance will be your downfall.”

The room was apparently a storage room, filled with both useful loot and a mixture of junk. Swords, bows, all sorts of weapons and armor lined the walls. But I didn’t care about their loot, or any treasures that were in there. Something immediately caught my eye between one of the swords.

My father’s ornamental sword laid in one of the barrels. I recognized it immediately, even though I had only seen it once. I grabbed it, lifting it out of the container. It was rusted, and had cobwebs on it. It was no longer of any use in its current state.

Images of Emery flashed through my head again like a bad dream. Again, I forced the thoughts out of my head. My hands began shaking, and something acidic crawled up my throat. But I remembered. If I couldn’t forget now, then perhaps I never will. I bashed the sword against the stone wall, the rusted upper half of the sword broke off, leaving behind a shattered sword that resembled a dagger. I held onto it. I never noticed, but the hilt was decorated with intricate symbols that I didn’t understand. Now that I was stronger and half the blade had fallen off, it didn’t feel so heavy in my hand. It was even sharper than before, the jagged uneven edge still gleaming even after dulling in here for months, and back at my mansion for years.

“You say I can make anything out of nothing, right?” I asked.

“Eventually, you will.”

Back at the ruins I felt something pulsating around me. I knew that in order to use magic, one had to use mana in order to fuel said magic.

I tried to focus, black matter in the air began to condense around me. I couldn’t control it very well back then, the air began to fluctuate, black dust circling around me. It gathered around my bade just like I waned, and like building blocks they gathered at the broken edge, restoring the broken blade and reinforcing the lower blade. It was just as long as I had wanted it, and didn’t get any heavier than before. It gleamed in the dark, like a chunk of dark amethyst.

“Beautiful… you learn our magic even faster than we do.”

“You said you’ve seen a bit more of the future, right?” I asked.

“Yes.”

Can you tell me what you saw?

“Unfortunately, I cannot.”

I was slightly curious about the future that awaited me, but I didn’t mind not knowing. It was more so a matter of whether I could trust Asura or not.

I left the cave, this time more people had just arrived.

“Bruc- wait, who’re you?!” one of them shouted.

Blade in hand, I dashed towards him. I was fast, arriving in an instant and surprising everyone.

With grace and without hesitation, I shoved my blade into his chest, making sure I hit the heart. The blade went in so easily it was like stabbing a piece of tender meat with a fork, and just as fast as his body collapsed onto the floor I was already behind the next person. They turned around as I sliced his kneecaps and decapitated his head. One tried to get me from behind but I could hear him very clearly. I grabbed his hand as his dagger came down, crushing his wrist, and jammed my blade straight up his chin. He gargled blood as a waterfall of blood came down from his throat.

I turned around. This time, a rather heavily armored man with a large axe and shield came charging at me. His heavy armor sent clattering echoes as he ran, and as he got close I coiled around him like a serpent. They still hadn’t gotten used to how fast I was it seems. I grappled onto his back like a monkey. The others watched as I bashed his armor in with my bare hands, blood flying from his helmet and my knuckles. As I continued slamming his head he screamed from inside, trying to shake me off and dropping both axe and shield. His arm came up from the side, but I grabbed it. He ran around crazily, trying to throw me against a wall but I held on, my bruises and wounds healing as soon as I got them. The others tried to get close, but couldn’t get to me while I was on top of the large man. I saw an opening in his armor, between the gauntlets and the shoulders. I raised my sword up, stabbing in between the hinges. It cluttered against the steel but I stood up, stepping on the hilt of my sword. It went in cleanly, stabbing him straight in the shoulder. He screamed much louder now, falling onto one knee.

I looked it up, in case anyone else had any funny ideas about trying to get to me while I finish this one off. But already, everyone had been demoralized. A little kid, walking into their cave and killing everyone nearly everyone must have been horrifying. I grabbed my sword by the hilt, cleaving through the large man’s arms, as much as I could. As my sword got stuck in the armor I pulled out my sword swiftly, and pulled his arm right off. I could feel the flesh and tendons stretch as he screamed, falling onto both knees now. I threw his arm to the side with a single hand, and I began work on the rest of his body. I wouldn’t let a single one of them go, I didn’t care how heavily armored they were, I would find a way.

Everyone else began to walk back slowly, as I continued tearing his armor apart just so I could get to him. It was easier now that he wasn’t trying to fight back. I grabbed his axe from the ground, slamming it into his armor with pure brute force. The sound of steel clashing against steel roared louder than before, and I broke his thick chestplate just in time the axehead shattered, revealing his bare back. I picked up my sword again, sending it straight through the chest. I avoided his heart so that he could feel the pain. The sound of his roaring wouldn’t stop, so I took it out and stabbed him again. Then again. Then again. I stabbed him so many times that I lost count. He had impressive vitality for a human. Eventually his cries softened, and he died. But the damage was done by then. I was between them and the exit. They ran deeper into the cave, dropping their weapons as the large man’s body fell onto the floor. I stepped over his corpse, sword in hand.

Then I ran as fast as I could. I caught up to several of them, stabbing them through the shoulder blades and maiming them so that they would slowly bleed to death. Dozens died in the hallways, and I wondered just how many more I had to carve through before I got to Malcolm. The place was like a maze, but if anyone tried to run towards the exit, I could hear them. A rather small man tried to sneak past everyone in the confusion, and he was surprised when I approached him from behind without making a single sound.

I grabbed his throat, raising him up in the air.

“Where’s Malcolm?” I whispered, loosening my grip so he could speak.

“He’s inside! Please! If you want him, take him, but leave us-” I grabbed harder again. He was inside, that’s all I need to know. Right next to him on the wall was a torch. I let go of him, putting my sword down onto the floor. He looked relieved before I raised him up with both hands this time, one hand on the back of his head and the other by his leather pants.

“Wait, I gave you what you-” he shouted before I pushed his face into the torch. Again, the screaming. I waited as his body shook and tried to break free of me in vain. I held him up for a good minute or two, and as he melted his face off I tried to remember the things I would do to Malcolm when I got my hands on him. I shook my head, trying to get my head out of the clouds. I dropped the scout as half of his face was melted off, revealing some of the white skull underneath.

I began to ask myself, what compelled me to put them through such pain? I knew I wasn't one of those cases that got a kick out of watching people in pain. It was only when I took a second to think about why I had been doing this that I realized I only thought it was fair.

Fairness. Now that I look back on myself I realize I was walking a very dark and evil path. But of course, my twelve year old self was far too deep into the rabbit hole to contemplate where one draws the between revenge and pure savagery.

And as I finally walked into the deepest part of their hideout I was faced with around thirty people, all armed to the teeth. I couldn’t care any less about them. At the far back, I saw Malcolm. This time though, he wasn’t looking down at me, and I wasn’t tied down. Now our roles had switched, he was the prey and the hunter. The look on his face as he recognized who I was at that moment, brought a smile to my face.