He's here. He's not even trying to hide. He's just watching, waiting. But for what?
The most interesting thing happening is a farmer planting a new type of seed. Why is He here? Unless... Something is going to happen. He knows. He's ready, just biding his time until... What? What is it?
I can hear footsteps upstairs. Tap tap tap. I know they aren't real. He's just playing with me. He does that a lot when He's bored. Books start to fly off the shelves.
My little sister, Alex, screams. I rush into the living room. Her small hand is pointed at the floating table in fear. I forgot, Alex has never seen him bored. I left on a mining trip a year after she was born, came back for a bit, then had to leave again. Whenever I was home, he wasn't as restless for some reason, maybe it's because I was always afraid this would happen, so he left me in suspense.
"Stee! Table!" The three year old rushes over and tries to hide in my belly button.
"It's okay, Alex. It won't hurt you. He won't hurt you." Of course, I have no idea if that's true or not. He's hurt people I love before. But Alex is only a kid, he's can't be that inhumane, right?
Her hold around me tightens. I swoop her into my arms and leave the room, and the table, behind.
I hear a Thump! He's disappointed he didn't get to play with her more. He's planning something else, I can only hope it's not-
Fwoomp! All torches in the house are extinguished at the same time. Alex begins to cry.
"Shh. It's okay, it's okay. I'm right here, I won't let him touch you." I smooth my hand over her hair. Her sniffles quiet, but don't completely stop.
"I wan' Mommy." If only that were possible. Mom... Passed giving birth to her. I squeeze my eyes shut, it still hurts to think about that. She was the best mother, reading to me when I was small every night, letting me sleep with her when I had nightmares. I remember she always smelled faintly of cookies. I really wish Alex had met her, that she would be raised properly instead of having a nanny when I go mining.
"Sweet little prince-... Close your eyes, or- ... Die." Mom's voice floats in the dark around us, reciting broken words from one of my favourite nursery rhymes. I hate it when he does this. It brings back memories that I would rather forget.
"Stee! Stop!" Alex cries. My heart clenches, she shouldn't have to go through this. She shouldn't have to live with me. No one should, but especially not her. I walk faster, I just want out of this house of horror. I know he'll still find a way to mess with us outside, but when Alex is safe I can just come back inside, isolating her from him.
He's enjoying this. He's feeding off her fear. My hate for him grows with each sob my sister makes. It's his fault. It's his fault she will grow up in fear. It's his fault she's an orphan.
A light shines just ahead, the doorway. Alex pokes her head away from my chest slightly at the breach of darkness.
I almost sprint out the door, not because I'm afraid, I stopped fearing him long ago, but for Alex, whom I can feel wiggling, eager to enter the light.
She relaxes when we leave the house, then wiggles more, wanting to be put down. I refuse, and continue walking down the path that leads to the village.
"Down!" She demands, but I ignore her. I need to make sure she will be safe first.
I enter the blacksmiths. A large man trudges up to me. "'Ello there- oh. It's you."
Louis owes me a favour after I saved his dog. He's true to his word, I can trust him to keep Alex away from harm.
"Can Alex stay here for a while, Louis? He's-"
"Yeah, yeah." He takes her from me gently. He likes kids, but doesn't have any of his own. "Now get out o' my shop!"
I smile at him. "Thank you." I call over my shoulder as I jog away.
People stare at me as I pass them. These people have only heard of me. The ones that know me in the slightest turn away and try to pretend I'm not there, while somehow keeping a wary eye turned in my direction.
I can't blame them. After Dad, I don't want me to exist either.
He's nudging the memory. Trying to make me break. But I won't, not again. Never again.
I can see my house. Light shines out of the windows. I'm not worried by it at all. When will he learn? I will never fear him again.
The first thing I do when I enter the house is head for the kitchen. A zombie pops out at me when I open the food chest. Right before it reaches me, it disappears in a puff of smoke. I truly expect more from him. He knows that-
Pressure is painfully pushed onto the memory of losing control. Drilling a hole into my skull. Pain is the only thing I can feel. If I don't remember, my head will explode.
But maybe that would be for the best. Alex would be safe, most likely find a better home. He wouldn't be able to terrorize anyone. And I would be free of this curse.
The pressure somehow increases. I'm losing control. My eyes begin to burn and flash.
I just hope he doesn't hurt anyone again.
"Steve," My father knelt down and hugged me as I sobbed into his shirt. "I know. I miss her too. But we have to be strong for Alex. We have to honour your mother by raising Alex to be a strong young woman."
"Wh-why did sh-she h-h-have to die?" My tears stained his shirt.
"I don't know, buddy. I really don't."
"I-it should have been the baby! N-not her. Never h-her."
"Don't say that. Your mother would be disappointed in you." He grabbed my chin in his hand and made me look at him.
"But she would be alive!" I yelled. My head hurt. My eyes hurt.
Dad's face froze. "Steve?" He whispered. "What's wrong with you."
Shock filled me. Dad thought there was something wrong with me. He thought I was a freak. Mom wouldn't call me a freak. She loved me. She would always love me. But she's gone now, all because of that baby. My eyes began to to burn. I couldn't think. I couldn't move. My hand moved of its own free will and grabbed Dad's neck.
His eyes widened even more when he couldn't escape my grasp. I was a scrawny thirteen year old, he was one of the best mob-fighters, able to wrestle a zombie. "Steve, what are you doing?" He was starting to panic, his eldest was strangling him, and my eyes had changed. He knew I wasn't doing this. My eyes didn't glow.
"Yes, mortal. Fear. Panic more." A voice that was not my own came from my mouth. "This is quite fun, wouldn't you agree?"
"What have you done with my son?" My father demanded. Anger beginning to outshine fear on his face.
"Don't worry, he's perfectly fine." I chuckled. "You, on the other hand..." I tightened my grip. I was screaming at myself to let him go, to stop killing Dad, but I couldn't, my body wasn't obeying. "He's a fighter, I'll give him that. But will he still fight after this-" Dad's neck snapped to the side with loud crack! I watched helplessly as my father's body fell to the floor. "-or give up like a coward?"
"No!" I screamed. My eyes burned in a bright flash of white light. "No no no no no! Not you too." I sniffed.
I could feel a presence in my head. A presence that I knew did this. A presence that murdered my dad.
"You really should let me out more often, Steve." The man stretched and rubbed his white eyes as dread filled me. "Ahh. It's good to be alive. So, what are we doing today?"
I attempt to glare, but my face doesn't move. "Heheh. Still upset about your daddy? Wimp. Say, I've taken almost everything from you, correct?" I am unable to respond, but if I could, I would make his ears bleed. "I'm not going to take her away, don't worry. Not yet." He says as he walks out the door, onto the path leading to the village.
"Look at that, it's night." He snaps my fingers, and the bright blue sky, darkens drastically.
Few people stare as the supposed miner walks down the street, the rest are looking in fear at the night sky. I normally stay far from the village, and showing up twice in one day is extremely rare. I think they want to know if I truly am a host to this demon.
He raises my arm, still walking, pointing it at the closest wall. He flicks my hand, and the wall crumbles.
Screams from the alarmed villagers fill the air as they find the truth of the demon inhabiting my body. He chuckles, I almost want to join him. I hate that when he takes control it begins to change me.
He raises my other arm, and another wall falls. More screams fill the air in a sweet melody of fear and pain. No. Stop it. Stop making me like you. I don't want to be like you. I won't be like you. I won't. Never ever.
He chuckles again at my refusal to become as evil as he. He thinks I'll fail. He thinks I'll become a monster. But I won't. Who would take care of Alex if I did?
His grin widens as the screams become louder when mobs begin to flood over the fallen wall. There are many more than I expected. But the smell of fresh food must have brought them running.
He walks past a women being eaten alive by a zombie. He stops to watch the pretty blood make patterns on the floor.
"Please help me!" She begs, tears streaming down her bloodstained face.
"Your call, Steve." He gives me control of my body once more. I know I should save her. It's the right thing to do. But I don't. I just stand and watch because saving her would mean she would stop crying tears of brilliant red.
The blood reaches her head, dying her once blond hair a light red. The same colour as Alex's hair. Sympathy grows in me as she screams and struggles. Her hair blowing all around her. I move towards her, the zombie doesn't notice me, too busy feasting. The woman with blood hair gives me a pleading look. I reach down, grab her neck, and like he did so long ago for my father, I snap her head to the side. Silencing her screams forever. The zombie doesn't seem discouraged at all by its meal's death, and continues to eat.
He pushes into control again. "Why did you do that?" He yells. The zombie looks up from the noise, grabs the deceased woman, and runs as fast as its rotting limbs will go.
He shoves himself into my dazed mind, and starts digging through my thoughts. "I see." He mutters darkly. He begins to walk again.
He stops before a skeleton torturing a man by shooting arrows into places that won't instantly kill him. Like the woman, he begs for help. Like the woman, he's crying. But not tears of blood. His tears glisten as houses are set on fire from creeper explosions and knocked over torches.
"Stop it... Please...stop." He groans, as the skeleton pulls back another arrow. It looks at me, as though asking permission. 'Yes' I want to say. I want to hear his screams. Crying is not enough.
He laughs in glee, and reaches out my arm. The skeleton cowers for a moment, but relaxes when he touches the bow and not it. The bow shines brighter than the man's tears. He gives me control of my head. I nod eagerly. I'm not a monster if I'm not the one doing the killing, right? Yes, I killed the woman with the bloody hair, but that was mercy. She was in pain. Pain that I shouldn't have stopped.
The skeleton pulls its arrow back a little more. The man's sobs come faster, thinking that it will end soon. The mob made of bones releases the bow string, and the arrow flies into the man's cheek.
His screams float into the sky, adding to the other yells. The popping of the flames only makes them sweeter.
When he becomes silent, the skeleton runs away in fear because now the demon inside me no longer has a distraction. We watch it flee, and move on. There are many people in this area. Running and screaming with no direction. Complete chaos. They all sprint away at the sight of our glowing white eyes. The eyes of the demon named Herobrine. My demon.
We chase one of the villagers into the blacksmith. A part of me says to leave. That something important is inside there. I ignore it, he does too.
The villager grabs a hammer and tries to hit me over the head with it. I recognize him as Louis. I snatch the hammer from his hands, rip it in half, and wrap my hands around his throat. His eyes bulge when I squeeze. He tries to talk, perhaps to beg for mercy. I loosen my hold.
"Steve." He gasps. "This isn't you, stop it. The little boy who played in the fields all day wouldn't do this. You wouldn't do this. You aren't doing this."
"Heheh." I chuckle. But it turns to maniacal laughter when I realize something. This is me. It always has been. I was angry, the day I killed Dad. I was mad that he still loved Alex after she murdered Mom. I was angry at Alex for killing Mom, but I love her, the only part of Mom I have left, so her punishment took a while and was brief. The demon has always been me. I am the demon. I am Herobrine.
Alex. I glance around, and there she is, cowering in the corner, watching me with big eyes filled with fear. Fear that should not be there. Not for her. Never for her. I squeeze Louis's neck until I hear a pop. He begins to gasp harder, fruitlessly attempting to pull air into his crushed windpipe.
I move away from him, and allow him to fall to the floor. I move towards Alex. "Stee?" She whimpers.
"It's okay, Alex. It's okay. Everything is okay. You're safe now. You'll always be safe." I open my arms and she runs into them, crying softly. My hands run soothingly through her hair. "Shhhh. 'Lexie. Shhh. I'm okay. We're okay. The bad people are gone. I made sure they can never hurt you again."
I pick her up and hold her close to my chest. I leave the blacksmith and walk down the road paved in blood. The air is filled with the delicious metallic smell of the red liquid. Bodies litter the ground, in various states of being eaten. I step over the head of Alex's nanny. Alex doesn't need a nanny anymore. I'm happy she's dead.
"Stee, Na'!" Alex points at the head and sobs. I frown. That's not right. Why is she crying? She shouldn't be crying.
I bring her over to a patch of grass without any blood, and set her down. "Eye." She points at my face, momentarily distracted from the death of her temporary caretaker.
"Yes, Alex. These are my real eyes. Dad made a priest take away my eyes and my power when I was born." I remember. Mom and Dad used to fight about it. Mom thought they should have taught me to use my power for good. But Dad was afraid. He was afraid I would turn into a monster. He was wrong. I've only used my powers for good. I punished those who hurt my little sister. I punished him for doubting me.
When the priest burned me, my power separated from my mind, becoming sentient. It didn't know what to do, it didn't like being alone. So it stayed with me, trying to help in the only way it knew how. But now we're together again, and its mind happily faded.
Alex reaches a hand out to touch my eye. I close it to make sure she won't damage it. She retracts her arm quickly and sticks the finger that grazed my eyelid into her mouth. "Burns!" She cries.
I take her hand out of her mouth, and gently blow on it. "There you go, sweetie. All better." I smile as the small burn mark fades.
With the distraction of pain gone, she looks around and screams at the bloodshed. I startle as the noise that should be wonderful, becomes warped when it comes out of her mouth.
"What's wrong, Alex?" I ask her.
"Ded! Ded!" She screams. That's not right. She should be happy they're dead. They mistreated us our whole lives, forcing us to live outside the village where mobs could attack us.
I need to fix it. I need to fix her.
I instinctively gently press my lips to her eyelids. I feel some of my power leave me and enter her. Alex screams louder, but not out of horror, as she had been doing previously, but out of pain. The sound tears at my eardrums.
Alex grows hot in my arms. Her screams grow even louder. Her skin begins to crumble in my hands. I watch in horror as she turns to ash, screaming in pain the whole time.
I stare blankly at the pile of ash that used to be my little sister. I-I killed her... The only person I cared about, gone. Because of me. I'm a monster.
The sunrise is lightening her ashes to make it look like she's still burning. Still screaming.
The undead begin to burn with her.
I sit and stare because that is all I can do. I don't even deserve the ability to sit and stare. I killed her. I killed her. I killed her.
My cheek burns. I'm crying liquid fire. The tears land on her ashes. I try to make them stop, I don't deserve to cry. But they won't. They won't stop. They keep pouring from my white eyes. Her remains are soaked.
I wave my hand over her ruined body, and the wind picks up, blowing her ashes into place. When it dies again, there lies a copy of my sister made of ash. I pick dandelions, and put them on her head in the semblance of hair. For some reason, dandelions were her favourite.
I stand, looking upon her dark form. Another, final tear falls from my face.
"I-I'm sorry, Alex. I'm so, so sorry."
I turn away, unable to handle the sight.
I hear a noise, like dust blowing away in the wind. I don't look. I don't want to see my burnt sister blow away into the air.
A step on grass. I dismiss it as a creeper.
Light breathing makes me stop. Mobs don't breathe. A survivor.
I spin, ready to destroy whomever dares to approach me. But stop. Something I never would expect is looking at me:
Alex.
"Stee?" She asks. "Wha' happen?"
"Alex." I whisper. Then I run towards her and swoop her into my arms. "You're alive! I didn't kill you!" I cheer. My face is burning again. I wipe away the tears of happiness and nuzzle my face into her hair.
I hold her for what feels like minutes, but was actually hours, judging by the sun that's high in the sky by the time I free her from my embrace. I take a good look at her, and notice the whites of her green eyes are brighter, burning with power.
I put her down when she squirms, but still hold her hand. I smile at her in joy. She smiles back with a wide, toothy grin.
"Wer we goin'?" My alive little sister asks when we start walking.
"Somewhere no one can hurt us ever again." I promise. "Somewhere no one will want to hurt us."
Should I make a second chapter with the siblings finding a place to live, or leave this off here? Anyway, I hope you enjoyed!
