Chapter Three
"That's it!" I cried, throwing my hands up. "That-is-it!"
Rem gave me perplexed look. "What?"
"What do you mean what?" I snarled. I snapped up my wrist. "What is this?
Now that I was in the nice privacy of my room and my mom and dad were bringing my sister to her Band practice, I could actually vent without anyone hearing.
"It's the Riddening Seal." Rem replied with an annoyed, monotone voice.
"Yeah." I nodded sarcastically. "It is. And I don't want it!" I waved my wrist.
"Like I already said..." Rem said carefully. "You can't do anything, neither can I. I know you don't want to accept that, but its true! I know you didn't mean to! But neither did I..." Rem's voice trailed off into silence. He bristled and didn't breath.
I cocked my head. "What?" I uttered.
"I might as well tell you about me..." Rem's shoulders sagged. He settled on onto my carpeted floor, his scythe resting against my wall. "Before you start judging me..."
My eyes bulged. Was he seriously going to get soft?
"I didn't want this either... I never wanted this. I was never like this before." Rem began, in a low, somber voice.
Yeah, he was.
"I was just like you." He jab his agile finger at me, not lifting his head. "Some go-happy human that didn't have a care in the world... Until I found my previous Zombie Hoarder; Cerberus. He taught me all I needed to know about zombies. How to contain them, how to slay them... everything." Rem's voice lowered into a whisper, which I had to strain to listen.
"He was a very cruel man... He didn't have any sympathy towards me or anyone else. He never had a real life. Neither did I. I didn't know it, but he trained me as if he were training a Zombie Seeker... I didn't think I was bad or good, I didn't know what to think. It was so long ago.
"I know you think that this is some stupid game that doesn't have any casualties or awards but it does. You could die doing this, its risky business, its dangerous business. But you could get so much out of it too. Not just the bad things..." Rem smiled but the moment of his smile didn't last long. It slowly faded to a mellow frown. "Cerberus did some very violent things to me that I would rather not mention. He transformed me into his own weapon. I hadn't realized it until it was too late. He abused me, he abused my presence, he used me to get what he wanted. I'm not sure if he ever did get what he wanted but I cut him off."
"What'd you do?" I whispered, questioningly.
Rem's head slowly lifted up. "I killed him." Rem's lips barely moved.
My stomach grew cold and my throat dry.
"It was the only thing I could have done. I had no other choice. If you were me, you would have done the same thing. I couldn't bare to live knowing that I was being taught evil... being taught to kill others. I was used." Rem shook his head. "I still can't get over that. And I thought of him as my father figure. Talk about backstabbing. After I killed him, I knew I would have ZRT agents on my tail so I ran. I didn't know where, but I ran. I changed my identity, my name, my appearence, everything."
"Who did you use to be?" I asked quietly.
"I don't want to answer that question..." Rem denied.
"How come?" I snapped.
"You wouldn't know, and you won't care." Rem snapped back.
"You can't just assume that..." I told him, softly.
"Oh. I can already tell this is going to be interesting." Rem sighed, heavily and stood up. He approached me. "I can do something about that seal." He gestured at my wrist. I glanced down at it. "I was just lying to you that I couldn't because you just seemed like you could handle it. Well, I was wrong. If you don't want this, I can change it just like that." He snapped his fingers. I didn't know what to say, I was speechless.
"Obviously, you don't want it." Rem lightly took my wrist and touched it with his index and middle finger. His touch was cold and smooth. "I understand. I'll just go find someone else who will understand. And will handle this."
"What?" I squeaked.
"You heard me." Rem hissed, silencing me.
"Nice meeting you, Alyssa." Rem snatched his sycthe from the wall.
"Wait! Rem!" I shouted jumping after him.
Rem didn't take any notice to me. He simply walked through my bedroom wall, saying, "Good Tidenings." And disappeared.
I ran up to the wall and felt it. What am I doing? I questioned myself. I pounded my fist on the wall. I'm so stupid. I... I... You're speechless, stop rambling. I slammed my forehead to the wall and slid down. I hugged my knees and fell deep in muse.
I can't believe he's gone. Why was I so determined to prove him wrong? God, the saying, 'You never know how much you miss something until its gone...' really comes into play here. What am I talking about? I've known that loon for two days! Two!
I stood up with realization. "Maybe I do want this." I whispered, feeling the wall again.
"What'd you do?" The familiar, rough voice that belonged to Hiemon growled. I spun around. Heimon was standing their on two legs, fur spiked up in an irregular fashion.
"Huh?" I mumbled, my face blank.
"Huh? What'd you do?" Heimon repeated more meanigful.
"To who?" I asked.
"To Rem!" Hiemon snarled. "I've never seen him that somber since I found him. You must have really done something to make him sad."
"I-I didn't mean to..." I breathed, my eyes burning slightly.
"Oh, don't give me that excuse. That's what I always get from you humans." Hiemon spat the word. " 'I didn't mean to!' 'It was just a mistake'. Normally, I would let this one pass but you've got a sick mind. You can't take this seriously, we move on. There's no use trying. Rem's already tried. You know what he told me the other day?"
I didn't dare say anything.
"He said that he felt good about you, that you would make up for his mistakes. Do you know how much of a let down that is to him!" Hiemon roared.
"I know! Stop yelling at me! I didn't know! If I would have known about his past before hand I wouldn't have tried to hard to get away!" My vision was beginning to blurr with tears.
"He told you." Heimon's jaw hanging open, he shook his, his face written with astonishment. "He told you? He must have had a lot of trust and faith in you to tell you that. He hasn't told anyone that besides a few."
"Would you stop making me feel worse! I DIDN'T KNOW!" I screamed tears rolling down my cheeks.
"I didn't know!" Hiemon mocked.
"STOP! If you're just going to make me feel worse, why don't be a little helpful and tell me what I could do to make it better!" I wept.
Hiemon fell silent. I managed to bring my head up to look at him, a smile had ceased him.
"Why are you smiling?" I demanded.
"I have the perfect way to make it better..." Hiemon purred.
"Really?" I sniffed.
"Yeah." Hiemon was lost in his thoughts for a moment before gasping. "That's perfect. He'll be so pleased!"
"Would you mind telling me..." I reasoned, irritated.
"There's a Zombie Seeker that Rem's been mentioning for the past decade that is apparently the one that's been causing a major amount of trouble on a catastrophic scale. He isn't sure if he has a Zombie Hoarder or not, but he's been plotting to find some way to destroy him but he needed a Zombie Slayer of his own to do so." Hiemon explained.
"Don't tell me... You want me to kill him." I panted.
"Precisely. I know that seems like an awful lot to take on, but I'll bind you to me for the time being so you're not powerless." Hiemon got onto all fours and trotted over to me. Even though he was on all fours, he was still just a notch smaller than me. He dressed his paw-like hand on my wrist and a Seal etched across my skin. It didn't burn or numb at all. His Seal was a little bit different from Rem's, his had more a blocky design than Rem's.
"We should do it as soon as possible." Hiemon reckoned.
"I'll do it whenever..." I muttered, examining my wrist. "How powerful... is this Seeker exactly."
"I'm reluctant to say this but, very. He's almost as powerful as Rem. And Rem is very powerful." Hiemon replied.
I swore under my breath. "What abilities does he have?"
"I'm not sure, but he's got a massive army. But the advantage we have is they aren't too bright. Most zombies are smarter than they appear. But his... particuarly are dumb. They're dumb, and there is a lot of 'em. What makes him powerful is that he's fast and he has a massive army. I can almost manipulate time, I'm on the verge of it."
"How are you going to be able to earn that?"
"I'll have to slay or contain some more zombies."
"I have school tomorrow. I'll be gone pratically all day, up until about four."
"It won't take me long to find the zombies. I only need a few."
"You do that while I'm at school. Then once you've achieved it, come and get me. I'll think about an excuse."
"Sounds good. You sure you want to do this."
"Of course."
What ever I can do to make it up to Rem... I didn't sound like myself. I didn't know what possessed me... But, something about this just felt... right...
