Rome - Bad Days (20 years later)

Midnight had already passed. Ater adjusted his bandages. He pulled a small note from his pocket. It had an address written on it. Ater looked around. He chose a direction and started walking.

Klack, klack, klack! The sound of his boots echoed through the empty street. The cold stone he walked on carried the sound far. Ater stopped in front of a wooden door. He knocked. No one answered. He started banging with his fist. Finally, the door opened inward.

A middle-aged white woman with a pretty face greeted Ater. "Ah? Are you… ahhhh… are you selling something?" she yawned tiredly, not even looking at the figure before her. She looked up only when she didn't get a response. She looked up, up, and then even higher. Ater was three heads taller than her. "Mund? What are those banda—" the woman didn't finish her question. Tendrils, darker than the night, passed behind her back straight through her heart. She didn't even manage to scream.

The unknown woman collapsed at Ater's feet. Ater stepped over her and entered the house.

The inside of the house was very dark. One wall was adorned by an expensive-looking fireplace. Ater approached it.

On the fireplace was a framed picture. Ater picked it up and wiped the dust off it with his white glove. Through his bandages, his blind eyes saw an old family photo. A man embracing two children was a Mund. Ater immediately recognized the lush curls and feminine face. The woman in the picture was the same one who lay at the threshold. Ater looked back at her motionless body. She had gained a lot of weight since the picture was taken.

Arbor moved away from the fireplace. In the corner of the room were stairs leading to the second floor of the house. Behind the stairs were doors leading to another room. Ater headed toward them. He placed his hand on the doorknob.

"Dear? Is everything okay?" a familiar male voice came from upstairs. Ater looked up.

Frejo stood in disbelief at the sight of his dead wife. He had changed a lot since the last time Ater saw him. He still had that distinctive lush hair, but his face had rounded. He had a stomach that stretched his nightshirt. 'They eat well,' Ater thought absentmindedly.

"you?" Frejo asked quietly.

"You?" Frejo asked in disbelief.

"YOU!" Frejo shouted, pointing a finger at Ater.

Ater still stood in place, with his hand still on the doorknob. Frejo's eyes sparkled with gathered electricity. Frejo spread his arms wide, making a cross with his body. He clasped them in front of him, and a lightning bolt shot from his fingertips, straight at Ater. The loud thunderclap raised dust. When it settled, Ater was gone.

Frejo was struck from behind in the neck. He collapsed unconscious.

Ater returned to the room by the stairs. He opened the door. Ater's tall figure filled the doorway, letting in very little light. Two children were huddled on the bed furthest from him. It had started raining outside.

When Frejo finally came back to his senses, the first thing he noticed was the taste of cloth in his mouth. He opened his eyes. Both his hands were tied… with something? Something was wrapped around his wrists, holding him suspended from the ceiling. His arms had long since gone numb. How long had he been out?

He was facing the window. It was already dawn outside. He tried to turn to look inside the house. Tears started streaming down his face. Next to the door, his wife's body lay lifeless on the floor. Ater hadn't even bothered to lay her down properly. It looked as if he had just kicked her toward the interior of the house so he could close the front door. Another piece of evidence was the blood on Ater's boot, who sat on the couch next to the fireplace. His two children were tied to the fireplace's iron railing.

His children were some of the first hybrids between Mundi and Europeans. The older one was 19, the younger 15 years old. They had their father's hair and the beautiful features of both parents. The younger one was crying, while the older one glared at Ater with a look full of hatred. Ater sat with his back to Frejo. He stared at the cold fireplace, motionless.

"MmmHHHmmMMMmmMMMH," Frejo cursed Ater through his gag. It caught Ater's attention. He got up from the chair and approached Frejo. He pulled the gag out of Frejo's mouth.

"YOU SCUM! THAT'S MY WIFE! I'LL TEAR YOU APART—" Ater didn't let him finish, shoving the gag back into his mouth. He held the gag while Frejo screamed into it, struggling, trying to escape his captivity. Finally, he stopped struggling, and the screams were replaced by sobs.

Ater removed the gag.

"w… why? why did you… why did you do this? how did you find me? do… do you have a soul? do you have a heart? what did she ever do to you?"'

Ater stepped toward the two boys tied to the fireplace. They were bound similarly to their father, with gags in their mouths and a peculiar black rope around their wrists holding them to the iron grille of the fireplace.

"No! NOT THEM! They did nothing wrong!" Frejo shouted in desperation. Ater raised his hand to calm him. With one hand still in the air, he approached the boys and removed the gags from their mouths.

The younger son was still sobbing, unable to form a sentence. His head was turned toward the fireplace. He couldn't bear to watch the scene unfolding in his living room. The older son didn't take his eyes off Ater. His gaze was murderous. Full of hatred. Ater knew that look well.

"Just so you know, I'm a master of fire and my father is a master of lightning! When I get free of this thing, you'll get yours! And why do you hide your face? Are you scared? Do you fear us that much?"

Ater lowered the bandage over his mouth with one finger, letting it fall around his neck. With a horrifying, scarred tongue full of cuts, he licked his nonexistent lips. In several places, he had no skin on his cheeks, revealing black, decayed teeth in his mouth.

Frejo stopped crying and looked in horror at the ruined face of his former companion.

Arbor removed his hood and untied the knot of the bandage covering his eyes. He threw it on the floor, revealing perfectly white pupils. Blood was dripping from his eyes, slowly trickling down his face. He grinned wickedly first at the older son, then leaned into Frejo's face.

"Dear God…," Frejo whispered soundlessly, throwing his head back in an attempt to distance himself from the monstrosity. "You have to listen to me! We didn't know it would end like this! You were supposed to die! I swear! No one could have predicted what happened! I take full responsibility! Punish me! Spare my children! I am the one who should be punished!"

'Oh, I plan to punish you,' Ater thought. He approached the eldest son again. He grabbed him by the wrist and forced his hand toward the fireplace. He pointed at the freshly stacked wood inside. Frejo hadn't even noticed it earlier: 'Did Ater bring the wood into the fireplace?'

"You want me to light the wood?" the eldest son asked defiantly. Ater nodded.

"IGNIS," the young man shouted, turning his hand away from the fireplace at the last moment and toward Ater's face.

Arbor moved his head to the side, effortlessly dodging the desperate attack. The fireball hit the motionless body of their mother. The body ignited instantly.

The eldest son watched in disbelief as the body burned. Tears started to sting his cheeks.

"MONSTER! MONSTER!" he shouted at Ater.

Blood from Ater's eyes began to drip onto the floor. Arbor raised his hand. Hands made of the same substance as the ropes binding Frejo and his children appeared out of nowhere next to the burning body. They grabbed it by the legs and dragged it to the fireplace. They stopped. The body was too large to fit. Ater raised his hand again. A strong gust of wind and POOF! The burning body was in the fireplace, in the form of a flaming meat cube. The smell was unbearable.

The fire quickly spread to the wood. Ater nodded approvingly. The black hands flew to Frejo. They grabbed him by the chin and neck. He couldn't look away from the fireplace even if he wanted to.

"no, no... please... no..." Frejo begged. Ater ignored him. He approached the youngest son. With one hand, he grabbed him by the neck, and with the other, by the arm. The bindings that held the kid to the fireplace disappeared.

Ater shoved the boy's face into the flames. His screams echoed through the house. Ater didn't move until the screaming stopped. The youngest son ceased to resist. Ater let go of him, and the body collapsed into the flames.

"NO! NO! NO! TONITRU! TONITRU! TONITRU!" Frejo screamed. Lightning started to shoot from his fingers, but only hit the ceiling above him. Frejo's eyes were closed, and tears streamed down his face.

"TONITRU! TONITRU! TONITRU!" the former Prince's Advisor invoked the thunder. He didn't seem to intend to stop.

"TONITRU! TONITRU!" Ater got an idea. He raised his other hand, and two more hands appeared behind Frejo, who was unaware of what was happening.

"TONITRU!" Frejo shouted. At the same moment, the black ropes holding him disappeared, and the hands behind him pushed his arms, pointing them at his older son. Frejo didn't have time to react. Lightning sparked from his fingers, hitting his son in the chest. Frejo fell to the floor. He tried to get up using his hands, but they were completely numb, and he fell again, face down.

"No... No... No..." Frejo cried. Arbor approached him. He placed his blood-stained white boot on the back of Frejo's head.

"No... No... No..." Frejo repeated in a trance. Ater lifted his foot and stomped. Again. And again. And again.