A Lion For A Lion

Prologue

"Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility and most people are frightened of responsibility,"

-Sigmund Freud.

Every night before I went to bed, my mother would tell me the same story.
You may be imagining a scenario where a loving woman gently tucks her young boy into bed, perhaps while he clings to his teddy bear.

Well, unfortunately, you have the wrong picture in your head.

Instead, from child to adult, I would sit in a chair made of wood, without the solace of pillows. The chair was placed in an empty, white room. In fact it was so white, it was blinding.

The room I could never leave.

There were no decorations and no comfortable beds. There was simply, me, my mother and the chair.

I'm going to tell you a story of twin boy and a twin girl. She would begin, The twins were a part of the Mercia family. As they grew up, the twins developed a strong bond. Some would joke and say they knew each other so well, that they could hear each other's thoughts.

I knew the story off by heart. In fact, even before she spoke, I could hear the words playing in my head.

Legend has it, when they were children, the twin brother was in training. The girl had been taken to a ceremony to announce her coming of age and she was unable to join her brother as she usually did.

Her brother was tackling his opponent when he fell backwards and snapped his arm. The girl, miles away, let out a piercing cry in the middle of her ceremony.

Thousands of people bore witness to the incident, and, at first, nobody understood why she had screamed. But when her brother came back with a broken arm, they all knew that she had felt it too.

Because they were a part of the Mercia family, it was a primitive time. The twins were taught to fight and kill.
There was one simple rule:
the only enemies was the Karnoi.
The one's whose eyes glowed.

I giggled.

I couldn't help myself. Usually, I could control it but not tonight. Mother gave me a piercing glare before she continued.

Each night, from the age of seven, they were taken on a hunt. At that time, the Karnoi truly did live as what they were thought to be. Outside in the bushes like animals they would stay and in return they were hunted like a buck by a lion.

The twins were legendary, coming home with at least three kills each night. They didn't need a conscience.  They believed without a doubt, that the species were simply worthless beasts, in the disguise of a human.

She looked up and stared at me for a long moment before averting her gaze and returning to her soliloquy.

But as the girl grew up, she began to notice things that she couldn't understand. Sometimes she would see a glint in her brother's eyes or she would pick up an object effortlessly and it would break.