8 Assertion of Dominance and Revelations

Salem woke up the morning he was required to go back to school with a new sense of clarity. 'I hate humans. They're the reason Natalie died.' Salem dressed himself and walked to school, but on the way he passed by a group of students that just so happened to be in a gang. One that didn't too much appreciate people walking in their territory. Salem had reconnected his blades with his armor before leaving since he wanted to make himself known to the gangsters on the right side of the street smoking marijuana.

"I see you faggots are back at it again, huh?"

The gangsters looked up from the joint at the tall and brooding figure standing on the opposite side of the street. They walked up and surrounded Salem ready to fight.

"And who the fuck are you little boy," one of them said.

"I can be the death of you if you don't back away."

One of the boys saw this as a threat, so he threw a punch at Salem, but he raised his now armored right arm and grabbed his hand. With only one arm armored, only one of his blades was on his back, but he didn't need it.

"You don't want this fight, boy. Leave."

Salem's words and act of crushing the bones in the boy's hand to dust was enough to send them all running. Satisfied, he picked up their forgotten blunt and smoked it on his way to school before burning it away. He walked into the building and was pleased to see many of the inferior humans avoiding him. He heard many rumors, and some even said that he was the one that killed Elena and her family since he told her he would. Salem smiled upon hearing truths such as these and lies of the sort, striking even more fear into the hearts of others. The boys from earlier had begun telling everyone what he had done to their friends hand, and some believed it for the sheer fact that Salem seemed strong enough to do so. He walked into his first period class and took a seat, but something was off. A student walked up to him with no fear in his eyes. It was one of the school's star football players.

"I heard you've been causing trouble, Salem. Would you also like to explain why you're in my seat?"

"The answer to both of those is simple," Salem scoffed. "I don't care, and I don't see your name on it."

The student grabbed Salem by the collar of his shirt, causing the room to stir.

"I don't like your attitude, new kid."

Salem grew angered by this, and he grabbed the student by the throat and began to squeeze.

"Do you really want to try and fight me? If you want to, then you can do it without a throat," Salem said as he squeezed the kid's throat until he passed out.

He sat back down in his seat after another student slapped the sleeping offender awake. He gasped for air and stood up with a fearfully questioning look in his eyes.

"What the hell are you!?"

"The answer there is also simple," Salem said with a laugh as he stared deep into the kid's eyes. "I'm an Archangel."

This answer was so surprising and shocking that the teacher tried to send him out of the room, but he refused. It took the principal coming in and asking him to step out to make him decide to leave the school for the day.

"Fuck all of you! I'm going home because of how disappointing you are to me," Salem yelled as he left the room.

He walked home furious, and his eyes had both turned black by this point. The anger inside him had never felt this way, and he was slightly worried that he may soon lose control entirely forever. His inner voice had become used to the dramatic personality shift, and found it futile to resist anymore, so Salem's darkside had nearly complete control.

Salem walked into his house, but he noticed a figure sitting on his couch. The figure's presence wasn't threatening, so Salem didn't draw his weapons as he walked closer. He flicked on his lamp and saw a chubby mixed teenager with glasses and curly brown hair.

"Who in the hell are you," Salem asked the figure.

"I'm you, Salem," it replied. "Well, the older you to be more exact."

Salem was taken aback at the unfamiliar sight of himself before he had been transformed. 'It's not possible for two of me to exist at once. It can't be!' Salem's thoughts began to swirl, but his younger self began to speak to him.

"You know," he began. "I'm not too fond of how mean you've been. I know you've been treated badly in the past, but do others really deserve the same treatment?"

Salem felt himself grow at ease with himself, and he thought that he might change for the better suddenly, but the rage inside him took over once more, preventing him from reverting back to his normal self.

"I don't give two shits about your half-assed ideology! You're the past me for a fucking reason," Salem yelled as he summoned his new sword and slashed through the apparition before him. It disappeared, but Salem was still left alone with thoughts that contradicted his rage and hatred. He sat on his couch and found himself fast asleep in a dream that revealed to him many possible futures.

The first future Salem found himself in was a bleak one. He stood in the middle of a massive city covered in black clouds with an alarmingly red sun shining through the gaps. Bodies lined the street in various fashions and forms, but Salem recognized the method of killing all too easy. He jumped as he heard a TV turn on in a shop that was all but destroyed, and he walked closer to see what was playing. Salem watched and listened as he saw himself televised killing hundreds of innocents, but he was only visible when he stopped moving since the cameras couldn't comprehend his speed. He was covered head to toe in armor and swinging his blades violently whilst occasionally using his wings to cross long distances.

"This man calls himself an Archangel," the reporter yelled. "It's clear he was telling the truth, as he has been unaffected by gunfire and even nuclear attacks! We might be watching the end of history, people!"

These were the reporter's last words as Salem flew towards the helicopter the news crew was in and slashed down the middle of it as though it were butter. Everything went dark and Salem found himself watching the last person being gutted. When Salem finished the kill, he looked down at his hands in disbelief.

"I did my mission, but at what cost?"

Salem took one more look around before summoning his black sword and shoving it through his own chest. He collapsed to the pile of bodies below him and, as the sun went down and the scene was engulfed in darkness, Salem joined the billions he had killed.

"Is this my future, or one of many," Salem asked out loud as the scene changed entirely.

He found himself standing outside his house, but something was different about the air around it. Salem began to walk into his front yard, but he saw a man with silver hair walk outside with a son and a daughter. Salem watched as the two kids boarded a school bus and the silver haired man was left alone with Salem. The man looked directly at Salem and began to talk to him.

"Ah, I see you're me. It's about time you showed up, Salem."

Salem stepped back for a moment to regather himself.

"You can see me?"

"Yep. Don't exactly know how though. This is the path you take in which we live on in a better life and have a family free from grudges and regrets."

"What do we do to get here," Salem asked the older version of himself.

"I can't really say, but I can tell you something that might make you realize how much wisdom comes with age."

"What's that?"

"Our daughter's name is Natalie, because I think that she would've wanted us to live on if she knew what truly led to her death, and that little boy's name is Josh because, as I'm sure you've seen, Josh didn't mean any harm in getting with Krystal. Hell. They even knew it was a mistake."

Salem sat next to himself on the wooden bench as they both looked on at the morning sun shining through the trees. The smell of late Summer hung on the breeze as Salem realized that he would need a massive change in character in order to procure the future he was witnessing before him.

"We've made a lot of mistakes," Salem spoke to his older self.

"Yes we have," his older self said as he stroked his neatly trimmed silver beard. "But that doesn't mean change isn't an option."

Salem looked on in disbelief as his older self was suddenly clad in his armor, but it and the blades were silver rather than black.

"The future isn't set in stone, Salem, so choose wisely. Make the right choices."

The silver armored man stood up and held his blades on his chest in an X fashion as a clear sign of respect. Salem summoned his own armor and did the same with his blades as the scene faded and he found himself back on his couch, but he was in his armor with his blades in his hands. He noticed something about them was different, and he began to inspect the changes. They were not large, but his weapons and armor now had silver highlights in fashionable places. 'This might be the beginning of what he was talking about earlier. I might can do good and find peace after all.' Salem walked into his bathroom and saw something odd: His eyes were no longer brown, but silver as well. He was excited by the prospect of living a life full of happiness and free from tragedy, so Salem bounced noisily around his house in splendor. When his charade was over, Salem turned on his TV and happily watched Youtube, something he had not done in a very long time. He decided he would give dating one more shot, so he began to act more friendly towards others, except the kid he strangled, and it worked surprisingly well. Many girls asked for his number and social medias, so he gave them out, but the troubling task was choosing one of many.