ALEKSEY
Life is an endless cycle of pain. It builds you up and tears you right back down. Sometimes you find yourself thinking:
"How cruel is it that life lets us know the tastes of something we didn't think to be missing, just for it to be taken away as abruptly and as unfeeling?"
The older we become, the less happiness we seem to feel. Is it in a child's nature to be so overwhelmed by the world that every day could be a joyful one? What changes as we grow older that make life feel so… dull? Honestly, I don't know. I played the cards I was dealt and thought I did well for myself. But I guess not.
***
The forest blurred as I ran, hellhounds snapping at my heels. Massive creatures sprinting on all fours.
They don't have fur exactly, but rather, leathery skin pulled tight against wiry, deformed muscles. I only notice it now that one tried to lunge at me. The stench of sulfur coated their skin, their skulls exposed with bits of flesh holding them together. Literally, they look like roadkill.
Their barks, growls, and snarls made my skin crawl. The downpour accompanying my oh so epic chase did not help either.
It slicked the ground, made me slip, tumble my ass to the ground a couple of times. Whatever distance I gained didn't really matter at all.
At least the rain masks my scent. I'll take any small luck that I might have left. Though I know that if I get caught by the council, an elitist group of powerful witches, mages, shifters, and other high-ranking supernatural creatures that governs our world, I'm truly, extremely fucked.
I don't know if it's the council who sent these men, but I don't know who'd be after me.
I've gained some distance now that the ground beneath me is more rock than muddy soil, but I can't keep this up much longer. I've been running around these woods for about five hours.
The tall trees in the forest feel oppressive as I run deeper; the trees' tall stature feels like claws closing down on me.
My legs buckled, and I clutched my left arm, which hung limp and bleeding from a bullet graze earlier. I kept glancing back at my pursuers. Their flashlights bobbed up and down in the dark. The night that blanketed me is both my ally and my enemy. I could see their lights well enough to gauge the distance, but I could barely see an arm's length ahead of me.
A whooshing sound came from behind me, and I turned around just in time to see a massive fireball rushing towards me. I ducked to the side barely in time as it nearly grazed my head.
A tree, a couple of feet in front of me, got singed. My breathing hitched. Who brings magic into a gun fight!? Not that I have a gun.
I pick myself up and run faster. I don't want to be barbecue. I dodged and weaved through the forest.
"Ugh!" I groaned as my foot caught on an exposed root, pitching me forward.
I thought I would hit the ground again, but instead, I keep falling and falling. Into a… cavern. Just my fucking luck!
It would've been so funny if it didn't hurt like hell. Jagged rocks pummeled my sides—I couldn't tell where the world ended, and my body began. It felt as though I was falling forever.
I covered my head instinctively, but that was a bad idea as my wounded arm took the beating. I hiss. I tried to grab at something to stop myself from rolling. Seriously, how long have I been tumbling and falling into this cavern for? agony compressed into heartbeats—yet all things end.
My breath got knocked out of me when I hit rock bottom, literally and figuratively. I hit the cavern floor with a hard THUD. A new white hot pain coming from my legs seared through my overstimulated senses.
My head spun, nausea making me want to hurl. My eyes refused to open, or if they did, all I saw was darkness.
I felt my face starting to swell. I wanted to scream, but I couldn't—wouldn't dare to. One cry could echo and give me away, and I wasn't ready to face the consequences of my actions just yet. The consequences of… killing my younger brother. He deserved it… I think? I don't want to think. I can't think. And then I dozed off for a bit.
***
Time blurred, maybe a minute, maybe more, who's keeping track of time? I crack an eye open, the one that can only do so anyway. Above me, I could vaguely see the mouth of the cavern that I fell into. It framed the sky nicely as my eye tried to blink the blurriness away.
Dark clouds parted, letting the moon's pale light spill through. Still night… or is it the next day?
My brain kicked and jostled like it was throwing a tantrum inside my skull. Even thinking hurts—no existing hurts.
At least the rain stopped. Well, ain't that swell. I thought, a fleeting reprieve from the whirlwind that is the last few days of my life. A whimper escaped me. A tear slid from my swollen eye.
"What the fuck, man," I groaned to the universe. "How did I get into this fucking mess?" The words tasted like defeat.
Unable to move and wanting to get my mind off the pain, all I could do was think. I don't want to, but I need a distraction for a sec.
Real happiness in my life had been rare across my thirty-one years of life. So rare that I stretched every good moment thin just to keep myself from moving. I hold on to it like a life raft. I kept hope that maybe, just maybe, one day, it would all have been worth it for something.
I thought it did—the, it happened because it is all for this type of moment. Like, establishing a nonprofit organization that lets me help people in need, managing the business my adoptive father built as repayment for the debt of gratitude I owed them, and marrying my husband, Derek.
A weak smile tugged at the corner of my lips as the thought of him flashed through my mind.
I really thought I'd finally stepped into the light. I should've known better. I shouldn't have been complicit. I shouldn't have been too happy. I shouldn't have been…
"Bastards."
I moaned in anger and frustration, tears welled up and stung my eyes shut.
"Well, he's the reason why I'm in this mess… well… part of it, I guess."
I clenched my jaw shut, teeth grinding.
"Fuck you!"
I whispered, seeing his face in my mind's eye.
"Fuck that little shit too."
As my brother's face came in next.
"And fuck you!" I cursed out weakly, my throat hoarse.
The last curse I aimed at the universe itself. The universe could go fuck itself for all I care. When I found my younger brother—no, adoptive brother—the bastard I killed, in bed with my husband, I saw red.
I mean, who wouldn't! But I can admit now that how I reacted was a bit… much.
I thought at that time, life couldn't possibly get more worse than it already has. But apparently, the universe doesn't understand the word rhetorical, or doesn't care. That rhetorical question was not supposed to be a challenge—universe!
Gosh darn it. People say that God, the universe, or whoever's in charge, gives you challenges and tribulations in life that they know you can rise above.
How, and who, do I need to fucking email to express that I, Aleksey Michael Redverse-Wiseman, am not their strongest warrior and would like to just live in peace. Thank you very much.
"Heh." A weak, resigned chuckle escaped me as I blinked my eyes closed. Hoping that I wouldn't wake up from the exhausted demon calling my name—slumber.
I hear footsteps coming from above, towards the mouth of the cavern. My heart raced, and I tried to open my eyes again, but the throbbing sensations of my body faded, lifting like a feather. My body couldn't take it anymore.
No amount of adrenaline could get me out of the exhaustion and sleep my body wants and needs. I hear them say something, but the words were mumbled and static to my ears, but I could hear bits of it.
"My Gods, how is he still… I'm gonna… Help is coming…" My consciousness faded in and out. "Help is here."
My body felt so heavy, and my mind went blank. The fluttering half-closed vision shuts down as I close my eyes. The world goes black. I accept the embrace of nothingness, and nothingness embraced me back.