I am everywhere where shadows dwell like you use to be, but it was taken from you. Was the awakening good for everyone? Do you know how the humans laugh in their fresh air, their open spaces and the eternals are in the dirt like insects.
Grendil clenched his fist together and slammed it in the wall behind him. “I just wanted the best for my people but even my people turned their backs on me. How can I do what Is needed when no one has my back,” he said looking in front of him and staring at a picture of a family of a mother and father with two children. “I was trying to make sure we didn’t cease to exist, so we may prosper in life as humans do.”
Humans were all a mistake, they eat and kill their own with no real goal. They try to show that they have the best way to run the world, but what has that done to this world in the end? More pollution by the day, consuming everything in sight like sloths. Kids who grow up into violence become violent and end up killing. This world was a mistake and you see it with your own eyes, and since the awakening, the humans have been corrupting your people. They stood by looking at you with disappointment, you, their leader who was wounded and harmed.
“I don’t know what else to do, once they find me they will take me in, and they will wonder why I sacrificed those children, they will find out about you master,” Grendil said looking out the broken window, staring at the moon. “Something so beautiful, so alluring, but so evil.”
If they must know they must, they can’t keep us bound away forever. With each passing day, other humans start to wake up and question their world, their lives, and the meaning behind them. Just like you they wanted a better world but were denied it. You hate the almighty do you not? The creator of the world, the universe who couldn’t even bother to make your afterlife mean anything. They just want you to die and be left in the dirt.
He got up from the floor and stuck his fingers on his face and started to scrape his skin away. “Not anymore, the almighty will pay for making a universe that is so evil. I just need more time master, just a little more. I know you wanted to wait, to get more, gather their essence but this will have to do. I will please you and we will fix this poisoned world.”
“Hey, buddy you doing okay? You off your meds too? Don’t worry I got some booze upstairs you can have. Heard you talking to yourself, things must be rough for you?” A man said walking in the room wearing gloves, torn jeans, and a red sweater that was dirty.
“Thought I was alone. Guess your world gave up on you too,” Grendil said looking at his palm.
“Worlds not so bad man, sure I don’t have a home and may have trouble with food, but I got friends and freedom. I was dealt a bad hand and it’s taking me a bit to get back up on my feet, but I just got a job and will be making money. Heck, I’ll probably have my own place with a nice bed and just space to myself. The world can be dark at times, but there is always a glimmer of light,” The man said smiling at Grendil.
“You can keep thinking that, but it’s a cycle that continues and sometimes you can’t break that cycle. I do think you are right about something, there is always hope. Hope to mold the world into my vision,” Grendil said grabbing the man by the throat. The teeth in his palm hooked onto the man's neck and started sucking his lifeforce from him.
He struggled, tried to break free using his hands, and kicking his feet. He starred at Grendil. “Why?” the man said as a tear dropped from his cheek onto the floor.
Grendil tossed the man's corpse to one side of the room like a doll. He looked at his hand, he felt the energy coming back into his body. “For my vision to come true I must step on the ants to build my kingdom,” He said looking at the corpse grinning from ear to ear. “Time to pay my daughter and her friends a visit.”
55
Nick grabbed the handle of the door to Cameron's shop, holding himself up as Veronica held him by her side. He collapsed on the floor breathing heavily. He looked to see Abigail, Jenni, and Cameron rushing towards him, the only sound he could hear was glass breaking on the floor. “Got to stay awake, got to keep eyes open.”
“What happened to him?” Cameron said picking him up and gently resting his head on his thigh.
“My father, we got into a fight with him, almost had him, but I wasn’t able to finish it,” Veronica said rushing towards the back. Jenni held her close and walked to the back trying to soothe her.
Abigail knelt next to Nick, holding his hand into hers. “Nick we have to get you to the doctor or an emergency room. You look like you are dying,” Abigail said squeezing his hand.
“He is, his life force is low. He wouldn’t make it anywhere else, used most of his energy just to get back here. Dammit boy, this wasn’t supposed to happen. I was supposed to protect you, lightborne wasn’t enough,” Cameron said placing his forehead on Nicks, yelling into the empty room.
“I at least found out who killed the aerion, Cameron. I even let to world know of his lies, they wouldn’t die without justice being done for them. If I don’t make it, at least I’ll know the last thing I did meant more. At least I know God doesn’t kill me, all that fear for nothing,” he said looking at Cameron in the eyes and smiling weakly.
“Abigail, get my hammer,” Cameron barked.
Abigail rushed to the back room and brought back his hammer, she could barely carry it and was dragging for the most part on the floor. “I don’t think this is a good time to be using it,” Abigail said laying it on the floor next to him.
“I won’t let you die here today boy. Remember this, keep it with you to get stronger, to be wiser. You have a long life Nick Martinez,” Cameron said grabbing his hammer with one hand and lightborne with the other and pointing them towards the ceiling. “Heal him almighty, let him be saved for you are the one I praise for, heal him, let his life continue. Don’t let this light dim, don’t let the fire go out. Give me this, give him a part of me, let my holy essence enter into him. I find him worthy, find him just.” The weapons and Cameron glowed a bright light of yellow with a small amount of red, his arms did not move, but the glow was coming from inside him and moving its way towards Nick and lightborne. He looked at Nick and smiled.
Abigail stood in amazement seeing the glow in all its beauty. “Nick, don’t you leave us, not now,” she said standing and looking at what was happening to him.
“In this time I give a piece of me, to you. You are part of something more than yourself Nick, use this second chance, use it well,” Cameron said lowering lightborne and placing it next to him. Cameron stumbled back a bit and sat down on one of the benches.
“Worthy, just, so much to live by. I don’t know if I have what it takes to live up to, but trying is better than giving up,” Nick said closing his eyes.
He woke up and starred at Cameron's armor. It was shiny at one point, but now just looked like a giant piece of metal. He thought about Abigail and worrying her, he hoped she would be okay. Seeing him hurt must have made her scared, but he hoped it didn’t worry her a lot.
“Morning sunshine,” Veronica said sitting in a chair next to the bed Nick was sleeping in. “You were out for ten hours, not bad.” She handing him a plate with scrambled eggs, bacon, and two flour tortillas.
“What happened to me? Where’s Abigail and Cameron?” He said sitting up. He grabbed one of the tortillas and placed some eggs and bacon into one and ate it.
“Abigail is with Jenni, they wanted to go to some park together. Cameron went out to meet someone, just said he had some business to attend to. I tried to stop him after he healed you. I could see how tired he was, but the man is as stubborn as you are. Don’t worry though, he said he wouldn’t be long, looks like you are pretty normal, well at least your appetite is,” Veronica said sitting back in the chair and folding her arms. “You sure you are okay?”
“Felt I was dying back there. Made me think if my parents went through the same thing.The last moment before you die and just thinking about the good times in your life, and if there was anything you regretted. Your father had me like it was nothing to
him, just like many others. I never backed down, I would throw myself into danger. That is what my problem was a lot of times, not thinking, only reacting. It just happens without me thinking and I can’t help it, but I would do it again and again. I won’t be okay, for I don’t know how long, but I’m going to keep pushing forward because that is what my father, my mother, and sister would want,” Nick said starring at her.
“It was my fault, I should have ended him but I didn’t. I saw him as still the person I called my father, he took me in when I had no one. He would come to me and ask me how I was doing. Do you know how rare that is for someone just to ask how you are doing? It wasn’t any special occasion but only a Monday,” Veronica said bitting her fingers.
“He can always be your father Veronica, but he has to turn himself in, for what he did to the aerion, to all those kids that had their futures ripped away,” he said leaning back and thinking about those kids, a sea of young ones with no faces in a sea of shadows waiting for the ship of death to come to pick them up.
Nick stood outside of Cameron's shop. He held his phone in his hand and swiped through the images of the dead aerion. “What happens to an aerion when they die,” he said. Wondering about life after death, and how it would feel or even looked like, he could only imagine.
“They get reborn into a human,” Cameron said walking towards Nick wearing a black coat, holding a box of donuts. “A human is what they become, kind of like a gift from God if they want.”
He looked at the old man and smiled. It felt like a long time that he got to see Cameron go out and enjoy himself. “Years of service in the land of light and they pick to be a human, why?”
“Humans have unique experiences, none are the same, many with different stories. When you are with God you know what to expect, you feel more hollow, just a weapon who sticks to their duty,” Cameron said opening the box and offering Nick a donut.
“So you envy humans a bit? Never thought about being human as being something great, you live a life to try and be something to just survive, and some rise to the top but the majority get shoved to the bottom. It’s a scale that benefits few. The loss of loved ones, heartbreak, and just everything on this plane makes me wonder what’s the point?” He said eating the donut. Glazed was always his favorite, he liked to keep his sweets simple.
“I see it as enjoying coffee in the morning, watching the sunrise. Sitting down reading a book, or just getting to see Abigail smile when she is enjoying a good movie. It’s everything and more, and in the land up in the sky, you don’t get those moments. You don’t wonder about how your day will go, or what will you do the next day. The only thing you are focused on is just tending to the keep,” Cameron said leaning his back against the shop's front window.
Nick looked at the old man and he could see the man who was a warrior who would fight on the battlefields, who gave his all for his land, but he also saw a human, truly someone who was human. So many people go through life just taking for granted what they have, they worried so much about what they didn’t, and he saw this person who wanted to become a human, to live among them, and to share in their experiences. “You ever think about what you wanted besides being at the shop?”
Cameron rubbed his chin and smiled. “I’d like to travel a bit, just to see the different places in the world, and just see people interact. But honestly, I just want Abigail to feel more sure of herself. She can fight, the girl has a hard left hook, but I see her hold back, afraid to go all in and it makes me sad because I know she was born a warrior,” Cameron said patting Nick on the shoulder.
“She’s a strong one. She’s better than me at handling emotions. She can be quiet and keep to herself but that’s just her, it makes her unique. How she observes people, listens to what they are saying, I mean listen and just take what they say to heart. Wish I could be that calm and collected,” Nick said scratching his head.
“You know when your father first got his abilities, he was scared to use them at all, didn’t want to hurt anyone especially your mother. He would tell me that sometimes at night he would pray for God to take them away, that why would he be cursed with something that hindered him so much,” Cameron said.
“What did you say to him?”
“I told him that what he was given was a gift, that just by him feeling the need to not use them because of fear of harming others showed that he was the right person to have them.”
“I can see that, power is scary.”
“Ah, but in the right hands of the right being, it can be wonderful. Too much power can corrupt you a course but that is what weaknesses were for and your father always made sure to let his be known, just in case,”
“What was my father's weakness?”
“He was a being that handled dark magic, light was something that hurt him. The great awakening happened and…you can only do so much as a human.”
“I miss him every single day, and I miss remembering my mother.”
“There is not a single day that goes by that I don’t think of them, they were more than friends, they were family. But they would be proud of the person you became. You fight for those that can not Nick, you help those in need and even if you don’t know them you would put yourself in front of them as a shield. You may be sloppy at fighting but you sure have a ton of heart,” Cameron said opening the door to the shop and entering it.
Nick sometimes wondered what he could do about his magic, there were many times where he knew he could use it, but the cost of losing a memory made him push that thought aside. He was grateful to have lightborne, but he knew he could not go against any real danger just relying on a piece of metal. “I’d like to know someday about why my magic does what it does to me, maybe then I can learn to use it and control it,” he said looking at his palm.
56
Veronica looked into a window of a coffee shop and saw Jenni and Abigail sitting down talking. She thought to herself that she really shouldn’t intrude on them, that they probably wanted for it to be just them, but before she was able to move out of sight Jenni saw her and waved for her to come inside.
“Holy hell Veronica, you have to try this shit. It has some sort of vanilla taste, looks like chocolate but it wires me up,” Jenni said chugging down the rest of her coffee.
“Jenni please tell me you tasted coffee before, come on,” Veronica said sitting down next to Abigail. The shop had many people talking and employees that were all chatting amongst each other. A few people typing on their phones sitting down and others were just eating. The walls of the shop had green and white stripes and pictures of different animals hanging around.
“Does drinking wolfsbane count?” Jenni asked placing her coffee cup down.
“How are you holding up?” Abigail said to Veronica breaking her cookie into small pieces.
“I don’t know…I feel that the person I thought I knew wasn’t true, but I just can’t understand what would make him do the stuff he did,” she said rubbing her forehead.
She always thought that what Grendil did for the undercity, he did for the best of them, to keep them safe. What he was doing was out of character to the count she knew. He was the one people went to for guidance, for answers, and just a sense of stability. Now that pillar was cracked and she didn’t know what her people will do now knowing what he did.
“Sometimes I wonder if my vorpal side will ever take over fully, that I will lose control and lose the other half of me. Cameron says I need to embrace it, but it’s hard when I don’t know what will happen if I did. Guess what I am trying to say is that people change over time, some for the better, others for the worse. But you picked to not follow him, you kept Nick safe and drove him away, you are more than just Grendils shadow,” Abigail said looking at Veronica and smiling.
“You were never meant to truly be vorpal, you were always someone who went against the bigger person in the room. I mean you’re not as good at throwing down but hey, you do better than most,” Jenni said getting up from the table. “Be b
ack in a bit ladies, gotta hit the girl's room.”
Veronica sat back and looked around the shop a bit more, seeing people just do what she used to be able to do, which made her felt a bit envious. “Sometimes I miss being part of all this,” she said.
“I never really get to get out much, Cameron is afraid something will happen to me. Especially since me and Nick had that run-in with the god breaker, boy people are so mean sometimes,” Abigail said rubbing her hands together.
“Yea, they ain’t much better in the undercity. We have the same problems just no one cares about them. But we just have to keep on being us, we gotta just keep on coexisting together,” Veronica said looking at a boy and girl coloring at a table near them. “You’d be surprised how much the world can change in a small amount of time. I know now that it’s best to try to embrace what’s different.”
“I wish I was no fear, no holds bar like Jenni. She just seems to have it all together, she's strong, confident, and just being around her lets me know I’ll be safe,” Abigail said looking at the table. She played with a spoon that was next to her hand, focusing on it nervously smiling.
“Let me tell you something about Jenni. The girl you see today, the loud one that’s in the restroom right now is not who she always was. She use to keep quiet, to herself and would try to blend in with people, like most of us I’m sure, and she didn’t have a lot of friends besides me. When people needed her though, she tried to be there. I blamed her for so long for what happened to me, she was like my dirty secret for so long in the undercity. I would see her a course, but not engage, though she couldn’t tell it was me we would always wear our mask. Don’t sell yourself short, you are who you are and one day you will surprise yourself,” Veronica said placing her hand on Abigails.
“Hey, Abigail you think they have a good video game store in this area?” Jenni said walking towards their table. “What’s been going on?”
The God Breaker's Ruin Page 23
