To the Death
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I was caught off guard. I was NOT expecting this! I mean yes, I was in Bulgaria for training, but I did NOT expect that Viktor would be my trainer.
"Hi." That was my brilliant response. He smiled and laughed slightly, taking my hand again and kissing it.
"Hermoninny." I laughed slightly. Even after twelve years, he still couldn't pronounce my name. Still keeping hold of my hand, he led me over to his station. He sat down in front of me, grabbing a knife. "Vat are your strenths?"
I thought for a moment. I couldn't really do anything spectacular without a wand. Nothing that would defend me from a heartless killer. I could throw like nobody's business though. But throwing knives? That's a different story.
"I can throw pretty accurately." I said in the voice of a small child. He smiled and handed me the knife. "No, I've never thrown a knife. Just rocks and the occasional frying pan." He gave a laugh, but I was serious.
"Just give it a try." He said. He stood facing my back and took the hand that was holding the small dagger. "You haff to look at your target with one eye open." I did as he told me, focusing my right eye on the middle of the target. "Now cock your arm back like you would throw a rock." I cocked it back just far enough to gain strength from it. "Now just throw it hard at ze target."
The knife made a small dinging sound as it hit the target. I was very disturbed as the realization hit me that I would have to do this to a human being. People that I had grown up with. I had to be a murderer.
As training went on, Viktor got more and more violent with his techniques. As time went on, I began to feel more and more nervous and sick.
There was a moment about 4 hours in, where he was showing me how to gut somebody. I felt as if I were about to vomit as he demonstrated this technique with a test dummy that was all too real for my liking. He took his dagger and forced it into the dummy's lower stomach. I groaned as he dragged the dagger up toward the dummy's chest, the dagger still embedded in the dummy's rubbery skin.
I felt the colour drain from my face as fake blood began to seep from the giant wound. I had to look away for a moment to regain my composure. I began to shake a bit and sweat, feeling as if I were about to vomit.
I looked back down at the dummy to see it start to shake and convulse the way a human being would if this were to happen to them. I guess it was bewitched to act like that. It was like seeing a car crash happen. It's just so horrible that you can't look away. Tears filled my eyes as I thought of the possibility of this happening to me, or the fact that I would have to hurt somebody this way.
I was snapped out of my thoughts as Viktor began to speak. "You see vat I haff don? Zis is vat you haff to do to surfife." He managed to grunt out as he forced the dagger up higher to the dummy's throat. I had to close my eyes and take deep breaths to keep myself from vomiting. I'm dead. I thought angrily to myself. I can't even handle stabbing a dummy. How am I supposed to fight and hurt other people if I can't even handle killing a dummy? I shook my head in utter disappointment with myself. I'm so weak. I'll be the first one to die.
Viktor continued to stab the shaking dummy. My heart exploded with sympathy as the dummy began to still. It began to raise its arm toward me, as if begging me for assistance. It's fake, rubber fingers barely touched my soft cheek before falling to the ground with a loud thud. I was horrified, I was absolutely sickened. I felt as if the remaining innocence left in me had shattered with that one thud. The completely cliché and telltale sign of somebody dying.
Viktor looked at me. I had expected him to understand. To know how hard this was for me. To understand that I had never hurt anybody in my life, and how difficult it was going to be for me to do so. He just stared at me, his brow furrowed in disappointment. What he did next completely shocked me.
He slapped me hard across the face. "You are so veak. You can't even handle killing ze dummy." I looked at him, my eyes bulging from their sockets, fresh tears escaping the corners of my eyes. "How do you expect to vin? Do you sink you can just hide ze entire time? No. You haff to murder. You haff to cause pain. I saw potential in you, but you are just like ze rest of zem. You are a weak, spineless mudblood and you vill die."
He stood up and began to walk away, but not before kicking me in the back. It was at that moment that I stood up and screamed, all my anger and frustration from the past 18 hours exploding from me like lava with that one scream.
"NO!" I screamed. He stopped in his tracks and turned to look at me, seething with fury. "I AM SO SICK OF EVERYBODY SAYING THINGS LIKE THAT! I HAVE BEEN CALLED THAT HORRIBLE NAME FOR MY ENTIRE LIFE, AND I AM SICK OF IT!" His expression softened ever so slightly. He began to walk over to me, but I backed away from him.
"DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH ME! NONE OF YOU TOUCH ME!" The entire room stared at me, but I didn't care. I was so angry, so fed up with being treated this way. "I HAVE BEEN HIT AND KICKED AND HAD THINGS THROWN AT ME! HELL, I WAS BRANDED LIKE SOME KIND OF ANIMAL!"I broke down. I fell to my knees and began to sob deeply. Once I began to calm down a bit, I began to speak again. "I just hate this so much. I just hate being labeled, and then being judged by that label." I paused and looked up.
Viktor strode toward me, fury in his eyes. He picked me up roughly by the collar of my shirt. The guards in the room ran forward to my aid, all of them separating us. The guards held us facing eachother.
"Get used to it, mudblood. Your life is about to get so much vorse." With that, he spat at me and was escorted out. I was shocked. What did I do to deserve this treatment? All I did was get upset and disturbed by the techniques he was trying to teach me. What triggered his explosive reaction toward me?
These questions raced through my mind like a NASCAR race as the guards began to escort me to a room. The room was small, with only a bed and a sink with a toilet in the corner. I was pushed roughly toward the bed. One guard came forward and pushed me gently until I was laying down.
My brow furrowed as another guard handed him something that he kept hidden behind his back. I began to panic as he brought the object forward. It was some kind of vaccine.
"Relax, sweetheart. I have to put all of you to sleep. You should feel a slight pinch. 1, 2, 3." As he said the number 3, I winced at a small pinch in the crook of my elbow. My vision became blurry and began to darken slightly.
"Goodnight." The guard whispered. He turned off the light and left the room.
I felt my heartbeat slow down and my body began to relax as I let the darkness of sleep envelope me once again.