I sit quietly at a rugged table in a broken-down pub called The Pig Snout. My hand rests on top of a lily carved into the tarnished wood. The warm-yellow light from the candles and lanterns illuminating the musty tavern is dimmed from my sunglasses. I would take them off, but it's best not to. I don't want to reveal myself just yet. Glasses clink together. The multitude of laughs and rustlings of patrons echoes in my ears, amplified to the highest extent like a stew of noises. It used to give me a headache. Even the smallest sounds, unnoticeable to the average person, would sting my ears incessantly. The buzzing wings of flies used to sound like jet engines. But, in my years as a Superior, I've learned to hone my senses. I angle my ears toward the back of the room and focus on a pack of Wolf Superiors. I've been tracking them for days, yet they have no clue. They may be transhuman, but superior beings they are not.

Three Wolf females snuggle close to their leader, Thane. He strikes a cocky smile to show his prominent white canines though a disjointed muzzle. Half of his mouth looks like a gaping maw, constantly revealing his teeth, while the other half protrudes a few inches into a dog-ish snout. The females let out sexy growls under their breath and lick the skin showing between his mangy brown patches of hair. Females love him as he no longer resembles his former self. It's sad. So many of us have lost touch with our human counterparts, that any superior with a hint of human qualities is shunned for being second-rate. In essence, the uglier the mutation, the more attractive you become. This isn't a good thing for me. I still look human. I find no solace at any Superior camp, nor any Inferior camp -- what little is left of them anyway, for so many inferiors are wiped out on a daily basis it's amazing how there are any left. I've been mistaken for an inferior before, much to the dismay of my accusers. I may be human in appearance, but I have a very obvious tell. It isn't long before I'm found out. I pull the hood of my jacket further on my head until it casts a shadow on my face and continue to focus on Thane.

My eyes zero in on him. I have tunnel vision and he is my only target. A stream of drool drips from the gap in his mouth. He grabs an adorable red-headed female by her hair and yanks her back. She yelps and cowers to him before being pushed away. She's lost the battle to be his mate tonight. As she rushes by my table, I calmly reach for the knife hidden in my boot. I bring the knife close to me as memories from long ago begin to fill my head.

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I saw smoke, rising high above a suburb nestled on the edge of a forest. I broke from the tree line and ran. Within a second I was deep in the heart of the blaze.

"Thane!" I yelled. He had baited me there. After failing to kill me for so long, the only way to get me to come to him was to use the one thing he knew I couldn't live without. I darted in and out of smoldering homes in search for him. "Thane! Show yourself!"

"We really have to stop meeting like this," said Thane from behind me. I turned to face him. Flames from a burning home blazed behind him like hell's fire.

"Where is he?" I asked.

He smiled and looked behind him at the burning house. My eyes widened and I dashed inside. I moved so fast my body was a blur. I busted through the front door. Smoke filled my lungs instantly. "Ethan!" I shouted between coughs.

I heard Thane step inside. "Sorry, sweetheart, but you're too late." He held up a floppy leg, freshly ripped from its owner. "I'm afraid this is all that's left of him."

Thane tossed the severed limb into the flames and let out maniacal chuckle. I couldn't believe it. He was lying. He had to be. I looked at the sizzling leg and stared at a familiar check shaped scar on its ankle. My heart sank. I dropped to my knees and screamed at the top of my lungs. The scream turned into a roar that shook the weakening house around me. I closed my eyes to fight back my guilt. I'd failed.

"You know, I still don't understand why you were chosen to lead us," said Thane. He began to circle around me with his hands behind his back. "I get it. You're 'genetically perfect', Zara's little pet project, but come on! You're pathetic."

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

My chest felt tight and my heart raced with each word he spoke. I was angry. Angry at myself. Angry at Thane. But, most of all, I was angry at Zara. He's the reason all of this happened, the reason the world went to shit. He took innocent people and turned them into freaks for his own amusement, hoping to create a new superior race. I was his most successful outcome, the strongest superior. He wanted me to lead his army. To help him take over the world and fight a war he started millions of years ago. I refused. I escaped his control and ran into the arms of something beautiful. Now, that beauty was gone. Zara had to pay.

Thane continued to circle me. "What's happened up 'til now doesn't matter. You see, now Zara wants you dead. He says, that if you're not on our side, you're a threat." He shook his head and scoffed at my broken state. "If he could only see you now, mourning an inferior. Your compassion for them makes you weak." He paused for a moment and licked sticky blood from his lips. "I will say this though, you have good taste in flesh."

I opened my eyes. They shone brighter than the brightest light, their silvery glow ever visible through the thick smoke. I rose to my feet and clenched my fists. A low, threatening growl left my throat.

Thane smiled and motioned with his hands for me to come to him. "Here, kitty-kitty."

I rushed toward him. I grabbed him by the neck and threw him against a wall. He broke through the fragile sheetrock and into a nursery on the other side. I barreled in after him. I looked around. Thane was nowhere to be found. The chime of a nursery rhyme from a mobile played over the crackling sound of burning furniture. I tuned my ears to drown out the excess noise and heard breathing coming up behind me. I gritted my teeth and swung around lightning fast to grab Thane by his neck again. My fingernails dug into his skin. I could feel his bones snapping under the pressure of my grip. I lifted him off the ground. His legs kicked in the air while his hands clawed for me to let him go.

"I'm not as weak as you thought." I tightened my grip.

Thane smiled. "Yes...you are."

He managed to gasp between breaths. His eyes darted behind me. Before I had time to react, several members of his pack came out of the smoky shadows. They fired harpoons, attached to heavy chains, into my legs and arms. The harpoons locked like hooks under my skin. Thane's wolves pulled back on the chains, and I resisted. I wasn't going to let Thane go. I held my grip on his neck with one hand and grabbed hold of a chain with the other. I pulled hard and forced the Superior on the other end to come toward me at an exceptional speed. Just before he reached my position, I dropped the chain and reached my hand out. My fingers entered into his chest and out his back until he was fully impaled on my arm. I held his tranquil heart in my hand. I planned to do the same thing to Thane.

More harpoons entered my legs and one penetrated my wrist, blasting all the way through in a bloody mess. I screamed and lost my grip on Thane. He fell to the ground. By this time, I had nearly sixteen harpoons attached to me. I cracked one of the chains like a whip. A skinny superior held onto his harpoon gun and flew around the room like a kite. I twirled the chain and launched him out of the nursery window. The others pulled on their harpoon guns to try and bring me down. I continued to resist and sent more superiors flying. Walls were knocked down and it wouldn't be long before the crumbling house finally caved in. More of Thane's wolves entered from outside, launching more harpoons. I was weighed down and slow, but I kept fighting. I started to reach for another chain when a piercing pain entered through my back and out my stomach. My roar transitioned into a painful whimper. I looked down. The tip of a harpoon, larger than all the others, stuck out of me. Bits of my flesh hung off the pointed edges. I coughed. Blood spewed from my mouth. Thane's wolves pulled on the chains again and I fell to my knees.

Thane walked up from behind me, triumphantly holding his harpoon gun of death. He passed it off to one of his wolves and traded it for a shotgun. He hit me over the head with the butt of it. I tried to fight back and it took over twenty superiors to keep me down. Thane grinned. The nasty hole in his cheek stretched to his ear.

"Strongest Superior my ass." He aimed the barrel of the gun at my head. "Say hi to lover boy for me."

I spit blood in his face. He didn't even bother to wipe it away before pulling the trigger. The sound of the shot rung in my ears for days. Thane and his pack left me laying limp on the nursery floor. The small suburban home eventually gave way and fell in on top of me shortly after. I was careless. I let my feelings, my anger and guilt cloud my judgment. I should've seen it coming, but I walked right into Thane's trap. I made a mistake that day, but he made the biggest one of all. He should've made sure I was dead.