Eh, this is all new and what-not, so my decision was posting stories/other stuff I've been working on. What do y'all think?
Stories Currently Working On: Citizen Cain, Blood Wars, Maybe 16, The Past (finished & editing), Stranger Observation, No Fences, Time Guard.
DeviantArt: www.okamisunshine.deviantart.com
~Okami~
I remember that day, the day years ago when the bomb fell. We had been in the middle of a war, so the bomb wasn’t all that shocking. What it brought with it was. Instead of killing off millions with nuclear radiation, the bomb spilled a lethal virus, which spread like a wildfire in bone-dry brush. Many believed that the government had a cure, since some of their scientists had survived the virus as it ravaged everyone in sight. That was when they started noticing aftereffects to surviving the virus. Survivors began experiencing bouts of psychic ability, preternatural abilities. Some went insane, becoming serial killers until they couldn’t take it anymore, or their power turned inward. Some lived calm lives, thankful that they survived. Since the bomb’s explosion ten years ago, Insanity, murder, or illness has killed off three fourths of the population in the world. Those of us that had survived lived in small clans or in secluded areas. Our children are called the Second Generation, and are under constant supervision, for we fear the Insanity and that it might come to one of our own. The wheel of fate keeps on turning…
“Asuma! Hey, Asuma!” A small boy, one of the Second Generation, ran to catch up to me, his vibrantly blue hair shining like a sapphire in the sun. The Second Generation also seemed to be morphing in different, unexpected ways.
“Yes, Byrne?” I stopped on the dirt path, waiting for him to catch up. Panting, he doubled over, hands on his knees.
“Auntie Carol says to remind you about dinner tonight,” he told me in between breaths.
“Couldn’t she just Tell me?” Rolling my eyes, I started on again, making Byrne walk with me, calming his beating heart. “She’s still in range, you know.”
“Yeah, but she was doing too many things at once, so I don’t think she had the Concentration for it.” He smiled up at me, a picturesque eight-year-old smile. “She’s getting tired more easily, you know.”
I nodded, not exactly knowing, though not wanting to explain that I had been up to my eyeballs in Connections since I had gotten back from New Saint Louis. “I told her I would be there tonight, no matter what, and that’s what I’m going to do. Don’t worry about it too much, kid.”
“I’m not a kid!” he squabbled indignantly, stomping his feet and throwing up a cloud of dirt.
“Alright, but just go remind her that I will be there, okay?” He nodded quickly and went on running back from where he came, Natil. I turned, my eyes following the tan dirt path snaking through the field before my own house.
As I walked up to the wrap-around porch of the rancher of which I shared with three friends, I noticed the door hanging off the frame only by one hinge. I froze in place, sending out a Call. What I got back scared me worse than any one thing could have ever done. A wave of Insanity, consuming one of my roommates.
“Janice?” I attentively stepped through the doorframe. “Xander? Avery?”
A chill shot down my spine, rooting me to the deep mahogany wood floors. Glistening red blood mixed with thicker things was splattered over the living room, as if someone slaughtered a large animal in the house, letting it run around for a while before finishing the deed. I had seen a scene like it only once before, when the Insanity tore at my older brother, sending him into a killing-spree that lasted three days before he finally finished himself in his own bedroom. I was the one that opened his door on the final day.
Sounds of a struggle rang upstairs, bringing me back to myself. I bolted for the stairs, trying hard not to touch the dripping railing. The main hallway that linked the bedrooms was covered in the same sick mixture as downstairs. Crashing of something heavy going through something wooden sounded from the room closest to my left. Charging through the opened door, my eyes widened to the scene.
Xander was pinned to the ground—probably by mental will alone—with Avery looming over him, a feral gleam in his steel-grey eyes.
“Avery, no!” I lunged, throwing myself into Avery, who lost his control on Xander instantly.
“Asuma, get out of here!” Xander’s deep baritone barked, though through a Tell, he said: ~he’s gone too far. Just get out and warn Natil.~
~What are you going to do?~
~Try to stop him.~
We both understood that no single sane person could combat the Insanity of another without being taken out themselves. But if that sane person were to hesitate, only he would die. And I knew for a fact Xander would hesitate to kill his twin brother.
Who chose that exact moment to throw me out the window. I had only seconds before I would hit the ground, and I used them wisely. Focusing, I slowed my own motion so that I hit the ground as if I had jumped, instead of having been thrown, which still hurt.
~Xander…~
He heard my Call, and Told me: ~just get out of here, Asuma. Just go to Natil and…~
He cut off short, and I saw his last moments through the Call. Avery grinning savagely, ripping through Xander with his own Insanity, waking it in his twin just to use it and tear him to pieces. Xander lashed out, trying to do the same, but faltered. But the pain didn’t stop, oh it didn’t stop to the grace of death. No…Avery held onto Xander’s life, not letting it go before he had his fun. Avery slashed again and again, opening Xander up like a child opening up presents. He had the same joy in doing so as well.
“No!” I fought with the Call, but I found Avery keeping it live and well. I would see the end of this.
His hand—surrounded in mental will—thrust into Xander’s chest, digging deep for the beating heart. Xander struggled, and so did I. Avery seemed to like this, and widened the Call so it was now a Connection. My screams laced the twilight with a sinister tune. Then Xander passed over.
“Aw, my fun’s gone,” I could still hear Avery speak through the fading Connection. “But there’s still more fun to be had!”
I looked up just in time to see him streak out of the broken window and land gracefully on his feet only a yard from me.
Yet he didn’t take a step towards me, just looked down with that feral grin. His head snapped up, and I followed his gaze. A flash of blue…Byrne, who had probably come to see where I was.
“No! NO!” I reached out with my metaphysical hand to grab Avery, but he was already speeding towards Byrne. “NO!” I swung that metaphysical hand, feeling the backlash of it landing hard on Avery’s back. He turned to me, a frown now placed on his face. It didn’t reach to his grey eyes.
“Why Asuma, do you want to play first?” The grin appeared, a flash of teeth before he pushed me down with his will. He sauntered over, taking his time.
He picked me up metaphysically and put me to my feet, only to stop inches away.
“Do you wanna play, Asuma? Do you wanna play?” He breathed into my face.
“Avery…” I pushed my will, all of it, into his heart, grasping it tightly. One squeeze and he would be finished. “Avery…I’m sorry.”
Avery Connected with me, as I knew he would. I felt the pain I was giving him, and knew why Xander wavered on that last stroke. He could feel that the real Avery was there, behind the Insanity.
Having no room to hesitate, I squeeze down on his heart—both our hearts—breaking them both.
“Ah, you play the game well, Asuma,” the Insanity hissed, using Avery’s smooth tone as its own.
And we both fell to the ground with a thud, as incoming night covered our dieing forms in its velvet darkness.
Through the Connection, sane Avery smiled his child-like smile, and walked with me past the realm of the living.
