"Better go check on my father," I said walking back towards the house feeling quite satisfied with myself. I open the front door and surprisingly find my father with one hand pressing on his bloody neck as he helplessly crawled down the stairs.
"Quit your struggling, your wife is already dead," I said to him casually. With a face full of anger, he tries to get himself up, but then helplessly collapses down the stairs.
"Why do you still have your hand on your neck, did you not hear when I said your wife is dead?" I asked as I walked towards the kitchen to grab a set of knives.
"Do you perhaps believe that you still have a chance to survive this? You're quite optimistic old man," I said laughing as I walked towards him with the set of knives in hand.
"Pain is for all and I intend on distributing it equally," I said to him, then proceeded to stab him in the knee with one of the knives.
"You are even worse than your wife. You knew your parents better than anyone else. So, to some extent, you also knew what could have happened to me when you left me there," I said to him then picked another knife and stabbed him in his other knee.
"No wonder you were always suspicious of me," I said to him as I stabbed him in his right thigh.
"Was all that honor and glory worth it? Was it worth a five year old boy being beaten till his bones fractured, spending sleepless nights being frequently awoken by the pain? Was it worth the nails on his bleeding fingers falling off in search for his food? Was it worth the numerous nights spent starving as a result of not being able to catch his prey? Was it worth him going an entire year without seeing the sky or basking in the light of day? Was It Worth Woof?" I shouted at him as he began to lose consciousness.
I then stabbed him in his left thigh, which woke him up again then said, "You can't go just yet, not until I'm done talking…"
I looked at him with a warm, comforting smile and said as I watched the light in his eyes become dimmer, "Thank you, because what I learned was worth it all."
…
"I've heard enough," The old skeleton said then immediately disappeared into a dark, cloudy void, leaving a dazed Lilith still gazing into a dark cloud where they observed Grayson.
"That...was beautiful…" she said still dazed. It was only after a few more seconds did she wake from her stupor and follow the old skeleton through the cloud.
…
"Damn it, I've got blood all over me. I should go bury the corpses. But first things first, I really need a shower…I've got nothing but time anyways," I say to myself as I walked up the stairs, towards the bathroom. I take off my clothes and leave them on the floor, right behind the bathroom door.
Whilst inside, I felt a chill coming from the bathroom, which was odd because there was no open window in there. This chill was different, yet familiar. It was much more concentrated; much more intense. It felt like billions of corpses were in the room, making it difficult to even breathe.
'I can't-…I need to get out of here,' I thought in panic. I then immediately turned around to rush out, only to see an 8ft skeletal like figure blocking the only exit. It had a dark cloud moving all around it as if it were a cloak in the wind. Its eyes were blazing gold and had a deep darkness about them that could not be described.
'I- I can't breathe,' I thought as I tried my hardest to gasp for air. My back was drenched in sweat and I was completely frozen. The only way to describe everything around me was…. "D-death!" I struggled to say.
"Oh! You're capable of speaking before me?" The skeletal figure said with what I would imagine to be a grin on its skeletal face.
"What does death mean to you boy?" The skeletal figure asked. "F-F-uck o-off!" I struggled to say looking at it dead in its eyes, but the more I looked into the skeleton's eyes, the more I felt my eyes burn.
'Am I going to die here,' I thought to myself in disbelief.
"Interesting…let's finally get this over with," the skeletal figure said, then a thick black cloud began to rush out of its mouth and eye sockets then towards me. The cloud then began to burn off my skin and rush into me through my mouth, nose and ears.
I tried to scream out in pain as I felt my body melt from within, but the cloud prevented me from producing any sound.
At that moment, my entire world was nothing but pain. Slowly, I began to give in and slip out of consciousness. Before I passed out, I could see my life flash before my eyes; a series of painful events; so much that has been left unaccomplished.
'Is this the end?' I thought to myself as I finally passed out from the pain, unaware of the changes to my body taking place.
"Lilith, I will not survive this and I feel as though I do not have much time left. I'm aware that you have yet to approve of this boy, but Theós has chosen him…after so long, Theós has finally chosen my successor; after so long…I can finally rest.
I am grateful for your much needed services throughout these past centuries, you truly made this curse bearable. I ask you to do the same for this boy," the skeletal figure said in a rush...
"For centuries, I was forced to serve because of this curse. For centuries, I had to endure the screams in my head. For centuries, I had to experience excruciating pain...Lilith, it finally stopped…the noise…the pain," the skeletal figure added faintly as the last of the smoke exit his body. Immediately after, his bones began to wither away.
"As you command, it has truly been an honor to serve by your side," Lilith replied with a straight face as a tear rolled down her cheeks. "Cain." she whispered.
A bright turquoise light filled the bathroom as I opened my eyes. I began to look at the familiar surroundings and noticed a brown-skinned, naked woman with a rather long, black, furry tail picking up a pile of sand next to the bathroom door then putting it in a black vase.
"Who are y…?" I tried to ask, but instead, I surprisngly groaned due to the sudden pain I felt all around my body. I looked at my hands and saw what looked like thick smoke rising out of them. What was even more weird was that my flesh seemed to continually burn off, withering away into the air with the smoke.
I quickly get up and look at myself in the bathroom mirror. Each movement I made multiplied the pain all over my body.
I try to forget about the pain and look into the mirror. As expected, it was the same situation with my face. My skin was continuously burning off. The only parts of my body that didn't burn were my turquoise eyes, but they seemed to be brighter, as though they had been set ablaze.
"What happened to me? Who are you? What's wrong with my body?" I asked turning to the only other person in the room, whilst also wondering where the pile of sand and black vase went.
"I'll deal with your questions later. Right now you need to immediately cover the earth with that dark cloud around your body. Feel every life and every death on this planet," she said in a hurry.
"What do you mean? How do you even expect me to do that?" I asked annoyed by this tailed woman…. "And why do you have a tail!" I suddenly added.
"Questions later, just do it; Theós will guide you," she said impatiently. "Who is Theó…." I tried to ask another question before, but suddenly got whipped on the face by a 6ft, furry tail.
"DO IT, NOW!" the tailed woman commanded. I gave her a deep glare and said in a low voice…
"I'm going to kill you!"
Everything around me then began to decay and the house began to tremble. The tailed woman seemed unaffected and kept her impatient appearance. However, her black, furry tail curled up and trembled.
I decided to put the matter aside for now, as I knew nothing about the situation and this actually sounded urgent. I then thought about what she had just told me. Immediately, with nothing but a thought, the thick, black cloud around my body began to spread to all the corners of the world.
I began to feel each and every human being. I could feel their lifespan, their mental state, and images of what each person is most likely to die from. I could see different methods of reducing ones lifespan. I could feel each human, one at a time, at such an incredible pace that it felt like I was feeling them all at once.
The moment I felt a person's lifespan, a part of the black cloud separated from me and a 6ft, shadowlike, humanoid figure, similar to my current appearance, seemed to tie itself to the person's soul. Although, there were a few million exceptions, in which the shadow only followed closely behind and didn't dare go closer.
"There seems to be some other beings dressed in white that are not human. The humans don't seem to notice the shadowlike figures, but these beings in white are looking straight at them. What are they?" I asked as I kept feeling the humans.
"I will answer you, for now, just focus on getting to every human being. The world has stayed almost 5 minutes without death. There have been a couple hundred undead that cannot be explained, souls have been leaving and returning back to their bodies in a loop not knowing where to go," she said a lot more calm now.
I then continued the process which took about 2 minutes. I used most of the time to observe the situation around the world.
"There are quite a lot of people in need of an enlightenment…I don't know what's happening to me, but I can use this to my advantage," I say to myself then turned in pain to face the tailed woman. "Now, how about some answers," I say to her.