The Challenge of Life or Death

By MissLadyMinxx

Warning: This fic contains yaoi, vampires, werewolves, blood, gore, possibly lemons in the future and religious statements.

If you feel uncomfortable or easily offended in any way reading this story, please DO NOT READ!


Darkness Revealed: 02

Many things about my situation frightened my mother and father. Though my parent's kept my abnormality secretive, the people of my time had certain superstitions that often lead them to believe one to be cursed by the New Moon. Even though I showed no symptoms yet, my mother and father took precautions, easy enough for them to hide. When I was born my canines were showed through my gums. My mother was lucky enough to have concealed them stealthy. They also made sure that I wasn't exposed to silver. Every day I would attend church under my mother's request. I would pour the holy water onto my hand at the entrance of the church and wondering why it burned so much. My father and mother would beg me to take the water blessing calmly and to try to ignore the burning pain. And so I did without question and tried to hold back the tears from the excruciating burns. I would see my mother and father pray every night under the crucifix that hanged on the wall. For years my parents have done this and I never knew why.

As I grew older, my attitude started to change. I was beginning to feel chest pains every night the moon was full. Men, women and children were found slaughtered in their own homes and outside the village the next morning. Livestock was found half eaten and butchered. Some believed it was something unholy, while others said it was just a rabid wolf. My parent's once found me in my bed wearing a bloody shirt. All these things seemed to have frightened my father and mother more and more as I grew. But no matter what seemed to have happened to me, they always whispered in my ear that they will always love me and I cherished them back. Over the years, my curiosity grew more and more about what was happening to me and why. At the age of 15, I gathered enough courage to ask why. They had simply shaken the fact aside or just change the subject, saying it was nothing. Eventually, I stopped asking.

But I soon learned that the world around me wasn't what it seemed when I was 18. The church discovered how my skin reacted on contact with holy water. They immediately banished me from the church, doing so in front of the whole village. I walked home and told my mother and father what happened. The next morning, my parents came to the door and found me yet again with a bloody shirt on. My mother whispered to quickly come inside and I did so. Somehow, the villagers found out about me coming home with a bloody shirt. The villagers grew angry and began to form a mob. Soon, I could see the lit torches and shouts ran in the air, suggestions of burning me at the stake grew louder, until finally my mother screamed at me to run while my father grabbed a pitchfork, ready to fight. I bid without question. Before I could run out the door, the mob burst into the house and one of the men grabbed me. "Let go of my son! Unhand him now!" I could hear my mother screaming my name as they dragged me away outside.

"Mother!" I screamed with tears in my eyes as one of the men violently pushed me onto the muddy ground. "Stop it! Leave me alone!" But they did not listen. They only listened to the shouts that chanted, "Destroy the monster!" I couldn't see my mother or my father through the murderous mob. I could only hear them scream as the glass of the windows shattered and the house engulfed in flames. "Mother! Father!" I yelled through the shouting crowd, but they did not answer. I could hear one of the men shouting, "Kill the ones who tried to conceal the slave of the devil!" I knew that could only mean my parents.

I groaned as one of the men roughly tied my wrists together with a piece of rope. "Up on your feet, demon!" He yelled as he kicked into my side. I screamed and coughed up blood, but they did not care. One of them forced me to stand by grabbing my hair and dragged me into the center of the village with the mob following close behind.

The agonizing drag took me into another angry mob gathering around the gallows. "No! Please, let me go!" I cried. Someone kicked into my back and I fall onto the stairs of the gallows. I groaned as I slammed onto the edge of the steps. Someone then dragged me up the stairs onto the stand and I weakly stood face-to-face with the angry mob in front of me. More of them chanting "Kill the beast!" or "Destroy him!" Even the people I thought were my friends; people I've known since my childhood were chanting the same words with hate in their eyes and tears in my own as I listened to the insults. What have I done to deserve this? The executioner roughly ties the noose around my neck with no hint of remorse. The crowd grew in silence as the judge spoke.

"Yami Lavitius, son of Christopher Lavitius. For the horrible crime of murdering innocent men, women, children, and livestock and for being under the influence of Satan, you are hereby sentenced to death. How do you plea?"

I was silent, trying to gather my thoughts. "Well? How do you plea?" the judge shouted for my answer. I slowly raised my head to face the judge in the crowd. "I…have done nothing! I have only done right not wrong! I did not murder those people…I cannot take a life! Now, please…let me go so that I may see my mother and father…"

"Then how do you explain coming home every morning with blood on thou shirt?" The judge asked, pointing to my bloody shirt, which was mostly covered in mud.

I was silent. I did not want to answer, but the executioner punched me in the back. I moaned. "I…I don't even know. I wake up every morning with blood on my shirt. I have no explanation."

"See!" One of the women cried out from the crowd. "Tis the work of the devil!"

"I am not working for the devil! I serve only for the good of God! I am not evil!" I cried out.

"Your skin burns on contact with holy water! That's enough proof of your blackened soul!" The priest yelled to me. Jezebel, my family's trusted friend, came out of the crowd. "Jezebel, help me! Please! Tell them I'm not a monster!" I pleaded to her. She only glared at me like the crowd and pointed her finger. "He was born on a New Moon! I was there! His soul was tainted since birth! Tainted by the hand of Satan!" She yelled. Everyone whispered and muttered amongst themselves and to each other, then proceeded to shout even more insults.

"Jezebel…why?" I whispered. My family's so-called trusted "friend"…was now my family's traitor. She broke my trust, my mother and father's trust. People have such a cruel nature. My heart grew heavy with sadness and anger. They forced me out of home, abused me, broke the trust of another and I'm the one who's a monster?

"The devil is surely that of a werewolf!" One man screamed. "Hang him!"

"With all the evidence against you, I know sentence you to death and may God have mercy on your soul. Be eternally damned in the flames of hell!" The judge yelled and the crowd cheered and chanted, "Die! Die! Die!" I only bowed my head and cried. What have I done wrong? Why isn't God here to save me from detriment? All these years have I believed in God and prayed every morning and night and yet…not even he has shown mercy and love to me! I'm beginning to doubt the existence of God, whose being was constantly brainwashed into my head! Have I been praying to what is not there? And these people care nothing for me! I raise my head to the hateful crowd and such tears of rage greatly filled my eyes.

"If you say Satan rules my blackened heart, then so be it! For God has no place in my soul! Damn the crucifix! What does it symbolize! Pallid incompetence hanging on a tree! For I stand forth to challenge the wisdom of the world to interrogate the 'laws' of man and of 'God'! Evil will always control the hearts of humanity, just like it controls mine! Death is upon you all for that is the punishment for your faith in this 'god'!" I shouted in anger and despair as a roar escaped my mouth and bared my long canine fangs. The chanting immediately stopped when they saw the bright glow of my crimson eyes.

"He is a demon!" Someone screamed from the crowd. Everyone got a terrible feeling as the clouds parted to reveal the bright silver moon. Thunder began to roar into the sky and lightning crashed. The crowd grew nervous and frightened at the sudden change of weather and my appearance.

I began to moan, my heart beating faster than it was before. And I started to feel faint. "What's...happening to me?" I said to myself. I screamed as the pain and heat in my body began to increase and began to sweat profusely. I glanced up into the sky to see the clouds parting to reveal a silver full moon. "Was this what they meant?" I thought to myself. My eyes turned black to red again. I yelled as my body began the painful transformation. The crowd began to feel unease, frightened by my anguished screams. I fall to my knees and broke through the rope that tied my wrists together. I tore off my shirt in a frenzy to see my rib cage cracking and changing position. One man dared to stop me, but I growled and grabbed him by the neck with my crushing grip, easily breaking it. I screamed as the pain increased and soon became unbearable.

I roared and my heartbeat quickens. The pain was like my body was being torn apart and I threw myself to the ground on all fours. Long, thin black fur covered my body; the sound of my bones cracking filled the air. The muscles of my thighs and arms began to bulged and firm. My fingers grew into long razor claws, my face was forming into a large wolf-like snout with long drooling fangs in its jaws and my ears became long and pointy and a long bushy tail behind me. I howled into the cold night and the crowd screamed, for I was no longer a young man, but a murderous beast out for revenge.

"Tis the slave of Satan!" One man screamed as lightning and rain fell from the sky.

The sound of thunder was no match for the sound of my shrilling howl as I tore off the noose that was around my neck and chased down the running crowd trying to escape. One by one, I slaughtered them all like livestock. I tore my fangs into their necks, gutted their bodies with my claws and crushed their heads with my grip. Men, women, children, it didn't matter. As long as they were human, they were dead to me. And they deserved it! They deserved every ounce of pain they put me through! I even killed the people I thought were my friends, even those who dared to fight back. Their screams as they died echoed in my ears and how I loved it. I loved how the sound of flesh as it rips open and the blood on my jaws. It was pleasurable.

I glared at the butchered bodies around me. Blood was littered all over the ground and houses. Blood was soaked into the wet ground and flowed into puddles. As I continued to look, I noticed that someone was missing. I sniffed the air in order to find the scent of my prey that tried to escape. I snarled and glared over at a nearby house. Jezebel.

I could hear her scream as I crashed through the window. Tears streamed down her eyes as I had her backed up against the wall frightened by my fearsome appearance. I angrily growled and pushed the table that was in my way to get to her. "Yami, please! Don't kill me!" Jezebel begged. "I'm your friend, remember? I didn't mean to break your family's trust! The judge threatened my life if I didn't speak a word! Please, have mercy!"

Mercy? Mercy? I roared in her face. Was I shown an ounce of mercy when I was dragged away from my mother and father? I snarled ferociously as I grabbed her. I could hear her anguish screams as I sank my fangs into her flesh. I made sure she felt the pain that I felt in my heart. I dug my claws into her chest and at the same time, I ripped the flesh from her neck with my teeth. I watched as her lifeless body dropped onto the blood soaked floor.

I walked outside and looked at the graveyard that was once my home. No life in sight. I noticed the burned house that I once lived in. I hoped that I could find any life from my parents. I walked inside, seeing everything that was destroyed by the fire. My nose twitched at the strong smell of smoke and soot. I stopped when I heard something under my foot crack and as I glanced down, I saw the charred corpses of my mother and father. I began to cry as I let out a loud howl of despair. They did not die from treason; they died trying to protect me. I now truly believed that there was no God, for why take away the only two people that cherished me since birth.

That was when I learned that the world was a cruel place and that God was no exception. I also learned that humans are not to be trusted, but better off dead. Are we not all but predatory animals by instinct? If humans ceased altogether from preying upon each other, could they continue to exist? Of course not. I am now alone in this world and all will tremble when they look into the raging eyes of my fallen heart.

To Be Continued…