I sat still on the floor for a few long minutes while waiting for my strength to return, I had never felt so empty before in my entire life. I couldn’t help but release a hollow chuckle, for years I had prayed to finally be able to be in a position where I was self-sufficient to finally leave the house and strike it out on my own.

Oh I was so naïve, my thoughts were like fuel for the cold fury I was feeling in my chest; I was angry at the beast that killed my mother, at the asshole and his organization for dragging my family into their mess.

“What about my brother and step father? Are they okay?”

I looked up quickly at the blurred figure in front of me, my eyes widened as images of my little brother’s mangled corpse played in my mind. I felt my sanity slip away a little as I kept envisioning harm befalling my little brother; the world began to spin as I lost myself in my morbid thoughts.

“You need to calm down, Liam. Your brother and step-father are fine”

I felt his hands clasp my shoulders tightly before giving me a firm shake which snapped me back to reality; I shook my head fiercely to free myself from my increasingly darkening thoughts. I rubbed my face with my left hand and used the feeling of rubbing my face as an anchor to keep my thoughts grounded.

“Why don’t we get you back to your room. Get some rest; you can give me your answer tomorrow.”

He helped me to my feet before throwing my arm over his shoulders and walked beside me as we made our way out the room.

“By the way, Mr…….”

I dragged the last word and waited for him to catch on to the social queue. I had to say, it certainly took him a while to catch on to what I wanted from him. I guess I finally found someone who was worse than I was at catching someone’s drift.

“Call me Kiyan”

His name was odd for sure but the pronunciation seemed to just roll of the tongue, like sipping tea that was neither hot nor cold; an odd comparison, I know but it was the only one I could think of.

“Well Mr Kiyan, I-”

“Just Kiyan”

I restrained a sigh at the interruption but continued as if nothing happened.

“Kiyan, what exactly are you training me for?”

I had to put aside my grief for the moment, there would be time to mourn later but right now I had to know what exactly I had been dragged into.

“Well, for starters the creatures you’ll be pitted against are stronger and faster than us but don’t worry, we don’t expect you to overpower them; not right away at least. No, what we’re training you to do is take them down using tactics and sheer ingenuity; what we lack in strength we make up for with intellect so in essence what we’re training you to do is to think in more complex and flexible ways. Or at least that’s what it says on the brochure”

Undoubtedly, that was the worst joke I had heard all day; still, I still couldn’t stop myself from chuckling though. I always was a sucker for terrible jokes; it was one of my weaknesses.

“How do you plan to do that?”

My curiosity was piqued, I knew enough about biology to know that the brain was probably the least understood organ in the entire human body so hearing him say that they had ways to train someone in a way that improved brain functionality was surprising.

“Why don’t we save the questions until after you’re healed up, okay? I don’t want to deprive Dr Manning of flaunting his genius in front of the newbie.”

I frowned at that answer, for one I had no idea who Dr Manning was but from how Kiyan talked about him I’m sure I wasn’t going to like him. I chose to keep quiet for the remainder of the walk back, choosing instead to lose myself in my thoughts.

As much as I tried not to, my thoughts just kept drifting back to my mother; I felt violated, angry and downright disgusted. That disgust wasn’t aimed at anyone but me though; I was disgusted with myself for not noticing that my mother was being worn like a fucking coat by some jacked up creature.

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I knew that I was being hard on myself but I couldn’t help feeling that maybe If I’d noticed then maybe I could’ve done something; sure, it wouldn’t have brought her back but…..I don’t know; I just felt so helpless and…..so darn tired.

“Do not allow guilt to consume you, Liam. Beating yourself up over something you have no control over will only make it harder for you to move on.”

He was right, I knew he was and yet I just couldn’t let it go. Before I knew it we were back in the room I first woke up in, I could make out certain objects from their shape but others just seemed odd. For instance, I knew there was a wardrobe in the corner of the room as well as a dresser while a bookshelf and desk stood beside the window.

Kiyan gently lowered me onto the bed before removing my hand from around his shoulder. I lay down on the bed and closed my eyes; my strength seemed to be rapidly draining away by the second.

“Dr Manning should come by to check up on you either later today or tomorrow. I suggest you try to get as much rest as possible in the meantime, you’re going to need your energy for all the tests I’m sure he’s going to run on you. Nothing intrusive I assure you but he’s sure to ask you many questions, feel free to ignore the ones you feel are too…..odd”

His voice seemed to fade into the background as I drifted further and further into unconsciousness, I barely heard the door open and close before I allowed myself to relax and drift off.

Kiyan’s POV

I briskly made my way to the director’s office, not often had I doubted the work here at the organization but this was wrong and I knew it; no amount of justification from him could change that.

When I joined the organization it was to destroy monsters like the one that killed Liam’s mother not become one, and yet I did what I had to if it meant being strong enough to go toe to toe with them but to do this to someone when there was no need? This was where I had to draw the line.

I pushed open the door with enough force to send it flying off the hinges and tumbling toward the mahogany desk in the middle of the room. Any normal person would have been scared witless but the director didn’t even glance up from the papers in front of him.

“To what do I owe the pleasure, Wolf?”

I detested that name, especially when it was him calling me by it. Sometimes I had to wonder if he himself was one of the creatures we were made to fight, at least that would explain some things. I restrained some of the anger I felt, it would help no one if I was killed because I was careless with my words.

“Was it really necessary to do it this way?”

The words barely managed to make their way through my gritted teeth without the thought of jumping over the desk and choking him till the light drained from his eyes crossed my mind. He lifted his eyes just enough so that he peered at me over the lens of his glasses, the pale blue of his eyes seemed to contain all the frost from the North Pole as they bore into mine.

“What other way would you have had me do it?”

A small, condescending smile crawled onto his face and emphasized the few wrinkles he had despite his age; I wasn’t too sure how old he was exactly but his features had not changed much over the years. My fists trembled as I squeezed them tightly enough to draw blood, dealing with the old man was always infuriating for me; it was like we were playing a game of cat and mouse in an infinite loop.

He looked down at the blood on the floor and frowned, his nose wrinkled as his smile turned to a scowl.

“I do hope you plan to clean that up. I paid too much money for those marble floors for you to be staining them so carelessly”

A growl rumbled out of my throat before I could stop it, at this point I didn’t even care; I wanted nothing more than to watch him bleed right now. I took a step forward, bringing myself closer to his desk but he paid me no mind, choosing instead to return his focus to the documents in his hand.

My anger spiked, this is why he infuriated me so, his casual dismissal of anyone he deemed “inferior” to him, I readied myself to dash toward him when all of a sudden a heavy pressure descended on me. It was like standing in the middle of a gravity vortex, my knees buckled and slammed into the floor while my teeth felt like they would break from being clenched so hard, I felt like an elephant was standing on my throat seeing as how hard it was for me to breathe.

The pressure left as quickly as it came. I took deep mouthfuls of air as the lack of oxygen had me seeing in doubles while the world seemed to be spinning with me pinned in place.

“Do. Not. Test. My. Patience. Boy”

Each word was punctuated by the sound of the cracking floor beneath me, my mouth opened but no sound came out as the pressure returned, threatening to crush me with my own weight. Before I knew it I was sent hurtling out of the room before I collided with a wall which stopped my uncontrollable tumble, I barely looked up in time to see the doors which I tore off levitate and return to their original place before reattaching themselves to their hinges, they then slammed shut with a finality that resounded in my ears like a judge’s gavel.

I struggled to catch my breath as I slowly got back to my feet, I stumbled a bit before I felt my regeneration kick in. It hurt to breathe but I wouldn’t die; I’d have to thank the old man for this curse others would certainly call a gift.

A grunt escaped my lips as I took a step forward, my ribs felt brittle enough to break at the slightest touch. This was always how it ended, me broken but never beaten and him always looking down on me from his castle.

He is going to be the death of me one day, that much I know. I turned and limped away, my determination not wavering in the slightest.

I paused and looked back at the doors, right now they were symbols similar to indestructible objects in my path but soon they’ll be nothing more than splinters under my fists.

“One day old man, one day.”

But for now, I must lick my wounds and bide my time.