Bad Blood - Blood Tied, Book 1(#Wattys2015)

B E F O R E_T H E_N I G H T M A R E

B E F O R E_T H E_N I G H T M A R E

Summer 1864

"Face your reckoning, monster!"

"Watch who you call monster, you traitor!" I shot back. I struggled against my restraints to no avail. They had trussed me up nice and tight, just like they would to a Thanksgiving turkey or a stuck pig.

"I might have considered allowing you to stay with my battalion, so long as you could be persuaded to change careers. However, I cannot condone an unnatural fiend of humanity running rampant in my ranks."

"And what about us?" I threw that tidbit of information out there, and our audience began to mumble amongst themselves. "Did what we share mean anything to you?"

My heart sank as I saw his eyes go dead, and I knew his answer before he opened his mouth. His next three words shattered what was left of my heart, if I even had one anymore.

"It wasn't real."

I jerked as if I had been slapped. He may as well have slapped me because it still stung.

"You tricked me, made me believe you were something that you were not. Monsters can't love, and humans in their right minds would love a monster."

I always knew he would react this way if I ever told him about my condition, so I never planned to tell him. I was going to disappear from his life once he started becoming suspicious of me so he could live the rest of his life in peace, not knowing about the real world. But then that enemy soldier just had to shoot me in the heart in front of him

I knew this would happen, but it still tore my insides to shreds. His words were the final blow and something inside me snapped.

"Well at least I didn't sell secrets to the enemy." The murmuring of the crowd became louder, taking in this new information. "You heard me right - this man asserting himself as your new captain is calling me a monster when he is betraying the cause we are fighting for! What say you, my comrades-in-arms?"

The troops I had once relied on to watch my back shifted uncomfortably in their places, but none of them made a move. For either of us. Fine, since they were not pointing pitchforks at me.

"Are you really going to listen to a deceiver and a monster over a fellow human?" he protested, trying to gain the sympathy of those observing us. They simply shuffles around uncomfortably some more.

"Leave them out of this," I said in a quiet voice. "It's clear from their actions that they don't want to choose sides."

He glared at me, and I mirrored his expression back to him tenfold. I even let my true eyes shine at him momentarily.

He shuddered visibly. In fear or disgust, I couldn't tell. Perhaps both. Those were just two of the many emotions I could identify swirling in his eyes.

Unfortunately, none of them were emotions I was familiar with seeing.

"You don't scare me, so don't bother with any mind games."

Liar. I can sense your fear better than any predator you have faced.

We have been parroting these same lines at each other for a while now, and I was tiring of the game. I was spent in every possible way, I didn't - or couldn't - rise to his baiting.

He caught on to the change in the routine. From somewhere within his clothes, he produced a sharpened stake. I figured this intention from the time I was initially restrained.

"Any last words, monster?"

I sighed. It was a gesture meant to calm my temper more than out of necessity.

"Fine, do what you must," I growled through gritted teeth. "However, know that I curse you for the rest of your miserable life, betrayer."

He narrowed his eyes. "If that is all you need to say, then I have something to say, myself; may your soul find peace in the afterlife."

With that, the man I had entrusted my heart to tore it to shreds with a single thrust of his stake. A bloodstained tear trailed down my face as I fell into the black nothingness of oblivion.