"You were never my father." As I say it for myself something seems to resonate inside of me. This man was nothing to me. He never had a part in my life. He was no part of me at all. The lies, the deception. All those years. It had to be part of his stranglehold on my mother. At the thought of my mother the anger builds. It continues to grow and fester. I would have sworn that my eyes had changed from green to red.
That man, I had no idea what to call him anymore, seemed to sense the shift inside of me.
"You are nothing to me."
***
His eyes drilled into mine. "I am EVERYTHING to you. I have made you who you are." He backhanded me across the face.
I fell back into the ground. He slowly sauntered over to me. "Can you deny it?"
There was no reply I could have given. I didn't know what to say. He had given me my last name, the only name I knew him as now. Had he made me who I was? Was he what defined me? Would I be completely different if he had never been in my life? The answer to the last question I knew was yes. But I had to be separate from him. He couldn't be everything? Could he?
I watched as a grin slowly spread across his face. It was the grin that haunted me in my nightmares. The grin that showed he knew everything, that he was the genius.
As I studied him, I realized something. His greatest pride had been his greatest fault all along. He thought he was an unstoppable genius, that he controlled everything. He was wrong though. He may have been an influence on a part of me. I was still essentially me though. Nothing he could ever do would ever change that. I was me.
"I am me," I said with ferocity.
He cocked his head at me. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"You aren't nothing, but you will never be everything." At that I flipped my body up and knocking my blade out of his hands.
I lunged for it and my hand closed around the handle just as he grabbed my ankle. I was pulled back towards him, the blade safely clasped in my hand. I twisted around and attempted to cut his hand. I barely grazed the skin as he flinched back.
He glanced down at his hand. "I'm impressed. I did not think you would even be able to draw blood."
"I plan on doing a lot more than just drawing a little blood," I replied coldly.
"Well then you need a new plan," he replied with a half chuckle.
"Thanks, but I think I'll stick with it."
"Your choice." A sneer spread across his face as his body tensed up.
I crouched, mirroring him.
"It would seem you have learned well. We shall see just how well."
He lunged at me, taking his own blade out in the process. I easily reacted, blocking his simple attack.
"Good, you have learned the basics."
He attacked again, but I still easily reacted. He continuously moved into another attack with I had to put effort into blocking. As he rounded his attack, I finished with one final block. Attacks come in threes. He had just finished his third.
"Very good. Perhaps that school isn't completely worthless after all. Too bad it could not save your friends." An easy smile spread across his face as his gaze travelled to the trees.
I looked over at the forms against the trees. "Asshole," I muttered under my breath.
He was still looking over at the trees. I had a horrible plan in mind, but at that moment I didn't care.
