Fenrir
I awoke with a start, but ever so slowly at the same time. A repetitive jostling throughout my body startled me enough to open my eyes. I was swept with confusion as the sleep left my eyes and the images came into focus. Burning trees. Destroyed homes. Bodies and blood. I gasped as I realized what I was witnessing, and a sharp pain stabbed my chest, causing me to flinch. Father, who I now noticed was carrying me away from the village, noticed my movement.
"Fen, it'll be okay. I'll get you help. Just hang on, son." He had to shout to be heard over the raging flames and yelling voices behind him. Smoke, which had been filling my lungs ever since I was unconscious I assume, was burning my throat and eyes. I occasionally coughed, which only served to send shocks of pain throughout my torso. I tried to talk back to father, to ask him about mother, but my throat was dry and my body weak. Instead, as the pain in my chest grew, and the fear in my heart multiplied, I clung to my father's shirt and quickly passed out again.
As I opened my eyes, it was a time much later. I stood in front of my father, anger coursing through my veins, hands gripping the daggers I myself had forged not even one year prior. "How could you do that to our home? Our family?" I asked him, tears threatening to spill out of my eyes. "How could you do that to mother?" As he heard the words escape my lips, he let out a sigh. "Your mother was stubborn and refused to listen to me. I tried to save both you and her, but she had to follow the clan's stupid rule. She wouldn't support me." He nonchalantly inspected his blade. "I was supposed to become the Alphamale. I was the strongest. But no, 'father' had to go and choose Adolpheus to be his heir. That sniveling little cub couldn't fight his way past a pack of Beowolves, let alone lead our clan. Tell me, son, do you call that justice? Do you think that was really for the good of the clan?" His gruff voice called out to me, but I barely heard the words. I bared my fangs and slowly walked towards him. "That's it? Jealousy? You slaughtered our family because of jealousy?" My heart hammered in my chest, adrenaline pumping in preparation.
As I neared him, he readied his weapon again pointing it straight at my chest. "I don't want to fight you, son. You are still my cub, and I love you with all that I am, but I will cut you down if you turn your blades against me for revenge." A smirk snuck its way across my lips, which he saw clearly as I neared ten feet away at this point. "You think this is for revenge old man?" His face didn't change, but his eyes reflected confusion. His scent was that of uncertainty. In that moment his arm twitched, just a fraction of an inch, but it was enough. I sprinted forwards, raising the dagger in my left hand and knocking his sword away as my right dagger pierced his sorry hide just underneath the sternum. He hadn't even noticed my movement in the split second it took to do that.
Crimson bloomed from the new wound in his chest and a mix of surprise and fear flooded his face as the pain set in. "Fenrir, I-" "Shut up, traitor." I silenced him. I twisted the knife, enjoying the agony in his pained groans. "You think this is for revenge, father? You think I 'm doing this for mother? No, I'm much more practical than that." I quickly pulled my right dagger from his chest and swept behind him, stabbing his thighs and kicking him to the ground. A dark smile crept across my face as I grabbed his hair and pulled his head back to face me. "I'm doing this because you know nothing of sacrifice for the pack. You could've just challenged your brother to a simple little duel after a month or so, but you had to let your disgusting pride get in the way. Pathetic."
As blood pooled beneath him and his breathing became more and more laboreous, I decided it was time to go. I released his head and fetched his sword. "The pack comes before all, father. Had you known that, you'd still hold the love of your son and the respect of your people. Now you're just a corpse. May the ancestors have mercy on your soul." I took his sword and walked away, leaving his body there to rot as his last breath escaped his lungs. As I reached the edge of the forest, my heart was heavy but satisfied. The clan had been avenged, the traitor punished. All was right in my little part of the world.
At that moment, though, a strange atmosphere filled the air. I heard... something. It was like nothing I'd ever heard before. It was silent, almost impossible to make out, but I heard the lowest thump from the forest if I held my breath. Whatever it was, it had no scent. As it neared, I even heard a very feint heartbeat. The beats were few and far between, but they were there. I turned to investigate, but I turned much too late. I was face to face with what some would call a demon. Its eyes shown white and its fangs were stained in crimson. Its fur, matted and filthy, seemed to be made of screaming faces, twisted and contorted in pain. I was frozen with fear, forced to do nothing but stare at this creature I'd never seen before. "Are you... Are you one of the Ancients?" I whispered, remembering the tales of the elders from my village. As horrifying as its form was, nothing filled me with terror more than its voice. Like thousands of lost souls begging for their lives back, its voice hissed, "No, Fenrir. I am Vengeance." And with that, it rose on its hind legs, reaching several heads taller than me, and forced its claws deep inside my chest.
I awoke screaming in my bed, a cold sweat covering my body and staining the sheets. I jerked my head around the room, looking for the demon, but I found nothing and sighed with relief. "Just a dream. It was only a dream," I panted as I stood up and looked in the mirror. My gray eyes were sunken with bags and my hair was soaking wet as it stuck to my head in odd angles. The red streaks were overlapping and twisting as the rest of my messy black hair reached as far away from my head as it possibly could. I sighed and threw off the dirty clothes I'd slept in and jumped in the shower, attempting to look at least a little decent. I finished, packed my stuff and left the apartment complex. I wouldn't need it after today. I was staying at Beacon now.