Beasts of the Binding Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Skewed by the past

I’m walking through the crowded city streets on a busy Monday morning. The cold steel of the walkway is taking a toll on my leather boots that l bought two weeks ago. The unnatural smell of the processed air around the city is giving me a headache. As l walk among the people that l protected years ago, l remember how I used to see something great in them, now l see only scums with weird taste in music and fashion. I’m not going anywhere specific, I’m just wondering around the big housing area.

All the houses look the exactly same, big silver colored boxes with rounded corners. There are thousands of these plain boxes, one after another, with the only difference being that they have different names on the side of the door. Not saying that the residents are any different, just the names.

I feel like everybody l pass by is giving me a weird look because of my beard that l haven’t shaved in months and my saggy eyelids. Nobody sees me as the hero of the Shedler Wars* anymore, which in more ways than one, is better. Because no matter how important that war was, it shouldn’t be remembered. I myself used to be a great man once, but the war took with it many of my loved ones and my mental health. The constant staring is starting to make me very angry. I’m holding on to a knife under my jacket.

The knife was made and gifted to me by my comrades in the times of war; the handle is made out of a bone of a Gridler*, a four legged beast that has a rocky skin, insides as tough as stone and no spine. My hands start to shake out of anger; the stares of other people turn from annoying to scary. I’m starting to hear voices in my head, my vision is getting distorted. I am getting weaker and weaker by the minute. I can’t go any further and collapse on to my knees. Somebody came to see if l am OK or not. My mind was unclear, so l couldn’t see who he was or what he looked like.

Stranger asks; while grabbing on to my shoulder, "Are you OK? Do you need a doctor or something?"

I shuck the hand off of me and answered really aggressively, "I’m fine! Just go on, don’t bother me. Please!"

Stranger is about to contact the health station with his communication ring, "You don’t seem to be "fine", can l take you to the health-station?"

I make my hands in to fists, closed my eyes and yelled at him, "Just leave me be!"

After that l couldn’t handle myself anymore, l took a good grip of my knife and pulled my hand back; revealing anything that was under my jacket. The moment the sharp edge of the blade hit the sunlight, the metal shimmered; giving the man in front of me a good sense, of the fact that this was his ending. With a gloomy look in the victim’s eyes; I pushed the knife in to his throat, some blood spouted from the wound on to my face. I pushed a little bit more and got thought to the neck. The terrifying sound of him desperately trying to inhale air is ringing down in my ears; the dark red blood bleeding out of his throat is flowing through the engravings of the handle, coloring the abstract shapes in red. His trough spits out some more blood, covering my jacket and shirt with it.

People around me are staring at me and at the slowly dying victim in terror. I can tell that they are confused and scared. They just keep staring at us; with a face of a person that just lost his innocence. They probably haven’t seen anyone die in their entire life, or get hurt for that matter. Everyone’s clueless to what to do and just stand there; stiff like a steel pipe rooted in to ground. While everyone is in total shock, l found an opportunity to make a break for it. So I slid the knife out of his neck; with thick almost black colored blood gushing out. I kept getting flashbacks from the past; seeing the dead bodies of my friends and loved ones; drenched in blood and post-plasma waste.

While l try to stand up, l slip, head first, in to the pool of blood that is bleeding out of the still living body. The blood reeks of rusted iron and it tastes bitter. I struggle to get up on my feet because l keep slipping on the accumulated blood that the now dead corpse bled out. Eventually l got a grip on the ground and stood up. While l was getting up, l see people alerting the authorities with their communication rings.

I’m starting to panic, so l pushed the dead body out of my way and started running. People keep looking at me when I pass them by, my clothes are dripping blood; leaving a red trail behind me. I was too scared to remember where l lived, so l just kept running to the other side of the city. I feel like l am going to die, a feeling of burning in the back of my head is making it so hard to focus. The buildings felt like they were closing in on me as l ran for my life. Every time l take a step, l consider stopping. I hear voices in my head, saying that l am a monster; a freak of nature. As a run to the end of the street, I look back to the see if somebody followed me. To my surprise, it didn't seem like anyone saw where I ran off to. My head is still spinning my vision keeps blurring and I keep going cross-eyed. A woman runs up to me while asking questions. This she's wearing a white suit of metal plated armor, or at least I think so; it's really hard to tell with my vision being so blurry. From the persons way of speaking and the clothing, I assumed she was a peace keeper*; a light equipped soldier, meant to keep people safe, hence the name.

The peace keeper looked at me with a suspicious face; while holding a paralyzing bat, “why are you covered in blood? Whose blood is it? Tell me. Because you seem really suspicious.”

I look back at her with a choked look on my face; “It's my own blood. I think that I have an internal bleeding! I already called the health-station, but I think they won't make it here in time. Please can you help me walk there?”

The peace keeper walks next to me really carefully, seeing that I lied to her; “What did you do and to whom, for real this time”

I saw a chance to strike to exposed part of the helmet. So I took the already blood stained knife out of my jackets pocket and pushed it deep in to her jaw, poking at her brain with the tip. Her eyes open fully and her pupils shrink. I look at her in the eyes and see fear, but also something else. I see something terrifying; something that I knew was there to bring me judgment. I look away from it and relax my hands. She falls in to my arms while twitching and gasping. I try to take my knife out of her, but it is stuck in her. I wiggle the knife a bit and then pull it forcibly out. After that she goes quiet and she stops twitching. I push her to the side, drop my knife to the ground and lean my head in to my hands and start to tremble out of confusion. What did I just saw in her eyes? Whatever it was, it couldn't be from this universe. I slowly stand up, pick up my knife and quietly run away from the scene.

In the times of war l was one of the special troops; soldiers that have been augmented to be perfect killers. Our reaction time was so fast, that we could see time go slower. Our heart would pump at deadly rates at all time; we could use our body at it's limits without any restrictions. But all of that power came with a price; most of the soldiers went insane or died because of their organs failing simultaneously. And l was not one of the lucky ones, who died. A lot of the time, l do things that l don’t want to do. I kill people, I hurt people and do other things that l don’t want to do. It is not my fault that I was made in to a killer; l didn’t have any idea on what I was giving my body for. They said that l would be a hero; they said that the effects of the chemicals would dampen in time and eventually fade away.

I feel something bumping in to me with great force, which made me fall back to reality. Once l turned to see who or what l hit, it appeared to be a woman. She didn’t look like she got hurt from the impact. She laid there for couple seconds; panting in pain. I felt like l needed to help her get up. So I grabbed her hand and started to pull her up. Her hair moved away from her face, revealing that she had bright purple eyes and pale skin. Something about her seems familiar, but l can’t recall exactly what it is. When she saw my face; her vision locked on to it; almost like she knew me and was shocked to see me.

I heard her say very faintly, "Eron…is that really you, h...how are you alive?"

I responded in a confused way, "l…l...l don’t know, what do you mean?”

She hugged me strongly, “I’ve missed you so much”

Her look chanced when she realized that my face and torso where covered in blood, “What have you done, you're drenched in blood!?”

I looked at my torso, which was soaked and red, “Eh…it is hard to explain, you should not think about it.”

She looked at my face and then at my chest.

She whimpered in disappointment, “Why did you leave me behind?”

Still confused as to who she is or how she knows me, l asked, “Seriously, who are you and how do you know me?!”

The glare on her eyes made it seem like she lost something important to her.

Once l saw her looking like that, l got up and said to her, “would you come to my apartment? I really can't talk out in the open at the moment.”

She got up as well; grabbed my hand, looked in to my eyes and nodded.

I don’t remember her at all, but l have a feeling that I am important to her. I took a strong grip of her hand and started running towards my house. I am not sure to what is going on, but it doesn’t stop me from it. I don’t know if l am doing it from my own will or if my body is doing it out on its own; I can never be sure to which it is, so l am just going with it. Skin on her hand felt so rough; almost like she had been going through some tough times. She hardly could stay standing up, let alone keep hold of my hand.

She was panting heavily while saying, “Can we slow down a bit, please?”

I didn’t slow down at all, because l knew that the peace keepers were probably looking for me.

We finally reached my apartment; she was out of breath. I, on the other hand was trying to find my key emblem*.

I checked all my pockets for it and couldn’t find it. I double checked to be sure, but with no luck. I fit the door with immense force and made a big dent. She stepped couple of meters away from me and asked in a scared manner “Hey what are you doing? You are acting so weird!”

I faced at her and cried out “l don’t know what’s going on either. I feel like l know you, but l don’t remember you. You seem to remember me so well, and…I don’t…”

I collapsed on front of the door and started crying “I don’t even know, if I’m doing any of the things that I seem to do. I JUST KILLED A MAN…WHY WOULD I DO THAT; tell me why would a sane person kill another of his own? WHY? I’m nothing but a washed out f**k-up pretending to be a decent person. When I try to save lives, I instead end up killing. There is nothing good that comes from me.”

Whilst I was crying, she keeled next to me, put her hand on my shoulder and dries my tears, “Listen, I know that you can’t help yourself sometimes. It isn’t your fault. It is the doings of something that you did to protect your kind. And in my eyes that makes you a good man.”

After those words I went silent, no one has ever said anything like that to me, no one has referred me as a good man. How can she still thinks of me in that kind of light, after I have done so many unethical things?

I lean my head on to her shoulder and take a deep breath, “Why? Why do you think so innocently of me?”

She sight while smiling, “I don’t know”

I take her hand off my shoulder and look at her; still crying, “We knew each other pretty well, right? Do you possibly have an emblem for my door?”

She thought about it for a second, reached for a pocket of her jacket and handed me an emblem. I looked at the microchip on the emblem; it matched the micro-reader on my door. I opened the door and led her inside.