I gazed out at my older sister as she stood out on the balcony to our apartment. I always hated that balcony, it constantly showed us a world we could never have, a better, much kinder world. Even if it wasn't nothing could be worse than this hell, I currently live in.
"What are you doing?"
My words made her look back towards me, tears welling up in her eyes.
"I'm sorry, James. This is the only way I can ever be free of him."
Those were her last words as she flung herself off the balcony ledge, plummeting headfirst to the ground below.
I glanced over the balcony to see her lying in a pool of blood, her head cracked open and brains spilling out across the pavement.
I wish I could say I was sad, but the truth is I didn't feel anything. The only thing that hadn't left me was the pain of his constant abuse, though I endured. I may only be five, but I knew what my older sister went through was worse.
She's gone now, it'll be my younger sisters turn next. She's two now. It's only natural. This is the way things are in this house, the way they'll always be.
My eyes snapped open, sweat was dripping down my face.
I'm still in the infirmary. I'd recognise this painfully bright room anywhere.
That dream I was just having, I wonder what it was about? Was it my past life? I can't remember.
That world was hell. Dying was the best thing that ever happened to me.
I get up and head out of the infirmary, through the crowded halls which part as I walk through them.
No matter where I go the people are all the same. Glancing, whispering behind my back, trying to figure out if they can use me for personal gain.
I wander down a different corridor, one leading to a courtyard where I can here voices and a thumping sound like someone being beaten.
I stop behind a pillar and glance at the situation.
"Dirty common whore!"
"You almost killed our prince!"
"We should just kill you for treason!"
A group of nobles where beating a girl who was lying prone in the foetal position not even conscious anymore. I couldn't get a clear view of the face, but I didn't need to.
It's Maya.
As I'm about to step out to help I hesitate. Immediately transported back to my time doing GCSE and A levels where I was constantly in the same state, everyday being beaten by some bastard named Cameron.
Where are these memories coming from? I forced down all the negative memories of my previous life which admittedly is most of them outside of music, video games and other works of fiction.
I'm getting distracted.
I step out from where I was and approach the nobles from behind. I put my hand on the shoulder of one of them and increased the gravity he was feeling to that of three times the normal amount.
"Wha-"
He cried out as he was forced to the ground before my heel stomped on his face, silencing him.
His allies just look on in shock and horror as their companion cried silently beneath the heel of my boot.
"Your Highness! You must misunderstand, we were simply-"
I shot the noble that started speaking up a look that immediately silenced him.
"I don't give a flying fuck what you were doing."
"But she almost-"
"Who gave you permission to act on my behalf?"
"No one, Highness."
I twist my foot on the nobles face before kicking him over onto his front, the gravity forcing his face into the dirt, tears of humiliation running down his face forming muddy puddles beneath his eyes.
"And who gave you permission to be here?"
"Our Fathers did."
What do they mean, and why are they saying it proudly, who actually cares about their family. They're just more noble rats riding the previous generation's coat tails.
"No, who gave you permission to be born into my world?"
I increased the gravity on the two standing nobles forcing them down to their knees.
I stepped towards them and tilted their chins up so that I could look them in the eye.
The paralysis took immediate effect and they instantly dropped, unable to support them anymore.
My eye then applied its poison feature by decreasing the oxygen they breathed and increased the nitrogen.
This confused me at first until I reviewed the poison part of the skill in greater detail.
It works by affecting the air around the target and alters the levels of nitrogen or oxygen to dangerous, possibly lethal levels, effectively poisoning them.
It's not the traditional poison like how a berry might be poisonous but it's still highly effective for torture if I use just enough to keep them from suffering the worst of the effects, such as death.
I pick up Maya in my arms and leave the three nobles to suffer until someone finds them, or the effects of the poisoning disappear.