10 Bark

There was a deafening silence.

Perception of yells from the 'slaughterhouse' was slowly overlaid by a long and acute beep.

His mind was filled by thousands of screams— agitated, confused, raged, desperate, uncertain, resentful....—, each one as individual as unstoppable that not even the loudest drum in this world could silence.

With the little light reflected on her gaze, he could tell,

She wasn't lying.

'No, no, she has to be lying!'

He looked down…

He looked up…

'She has to be lying…'

But for her, his reaction didn't matter.

Molly squatted again, picking up the pair of eyes from the floor. "Gosh, all the things that I had to do for you, look at it, it's all dirty of mud... and of your own blood, eww."

The woman took a flashlight out of nowhere and started inspecting the two small spheres.

Then her glance was turned to Sebastian. "Take out your tongue and clean your Eva with it, you can make water out of that organ, don't you?"

"Ohhhh! What am I seeing here? Is this what the ones of your kind call crying?" The irony was infiltrated in every syllable.

"Your species is so weak, full of these unnecessary things."

"Or maybe… is this something you humans have for instinct and use to beg for your life from stronger predators? To cause pity on them? I'll be honest, it's working."

"Come on, I'll give you three claps of time, and if you stop these awful noises and clean up what I have here," Molly said as she stretch out the hand with the eyes. "I'll let you see her, not just these, but the entire thing hehehe."

"!!!!!"

'She's still alive?!'

Clap!

"One."

Clap!

"Two."

Before the last applause came, Sebastian's body twisted and reached the object between her fingers, his tongue was found licking the eyeball of his sister with the biggest disgust ever had. Biological repulsion, mental sickness, emotional nausea. The jargons were too fancy but the raw encounter was he avoiding vomiting and eating the dirt if necessary just to please the frisky creature.

After a minute, Molly, gratified, finally started to spin the two eyes on her hands again. She couldn't stop laughing.

"Eh? You're more interesting than I thought, only a few promises can make you lose your dignity! Hahahahahahaha! Also, was this human the dumb or is it you? Its memories showed that your species based all your reasoning on this so-called pride... What the actual hell, where's yours? Did you decide to not be a human anymore? What are you now? A dog?"

The wounded teenager put his head down, no other aim than to avoid Molly seeing his hysteric expressions.

"Yeah, head down puppy, I'll pet you," After those words, the woman really started to gently pat his head. "Can you bark? Oh, silly me, what kind of dog doesn't."

He clenched his teeth, "Woof woof woof!"

"Oh~ Good boy. Who wants to see its Eva, who want to see its Eva."

"Woof! Woof woof woof!"

"Haha, pathetic. Are you listening to it? Human girl?"

'Who else is here?'

Sebastian discreetly turned his head to look in the direction Molly was speaking, it would be absurd if this was a playful joke. But no matter the effort, the teen could only see more and more of that dark forest.

"It was always here, behind you, but you never saw it," Molly spoke, still with that tone that any person would only use to pamper a pet.

Immediately afterward, not giving time for a reply, she took the boy from his upper teeth and dragged his head back. With it, his entire body.

The boy could resist, bitting or spitting, but he didn't, soon he was thrown to the side of a pine tree.

"Aghh!" he winced but made no protest.

Then he opened his eyes, expecting that the first thing to see was the face of his 'mother', but he was wrong…

...

Beyond the conifer, sitting, 'Eva' was there, with her back resting on the trunk.

Right when he thought he was witnessing a corpse, she moved, turning her head toward him.

And he saw…

The place where her eyeballs were supposed to be is empty now, her face, half of it covered in blood dripping from her vacant cavity.

Normally, he would have screamed already. Of horror, maybe, of panic, perhaps. But today, that word became cliche and repetitive.

"Sebastian? Is that you?" The familiar voice of her came out of those red lips.

He felt guilt, unable to bear looking at her face, his gaze lowered to the rest of her body.

Big mistake, because before his eyes: below her wrist, above her angle, after her biceps, under her knees, in front of her shoulder.

Her tendons were… all cut off.

"Yes, it's me!" The teenager forced his voice to not sound like crying, "I'm right here sis."

He dragged himself closer to placed his cheek right over the back of her hand.

"Why I can't see you?"

"Sorry, this…" The boy couldn't prevent squeezing his esophagus, sounding hoarse but yet shrill, "…was all my fault…"

"Sebastian, why can't I see you? Why can't I see?" Her voice started to fill with an unusual sentiment.

"I'm sorry…"

"Why I can't move my hands… and my legs!"

"I'm sorry!"

"Shut up! Stop saying sorry! What's going on with me!" The girl violently shook her body, trying to obtain a signal of movement from her limbs, but the only result she got was losing the support of the tree and falling to the ground.

On it, the attempts of getting up were a complete failure.

"Sorry!" His eyes turned red, for the third time in the night. But this time, he finally had a listener.

Between weeping, following traces of blood, a knife was only a few meters away, whoever did this, did not even bother.

…

At some point, both got tired

"Sebastian, will I be fine?" Eva felt the bones of his brother's cheek with her hands, but also the soft parts of his skin.

It has been minutes since the reunion, no matter the defiance, both siblings started to accept reality,

"I don't know." He answered.

Then silence remained between the two people.

"Would you be fine?" She asked again.

"I don't know." This time, his response appeared quicker, for he had the same fate in store for her.

"It hurts Sebas, I can't tell you how much this hurts. I can't act strong anymore, this hurts. I'm scared, can you hug me? It's so cold. Why did we end up like this? I won't the competition, this was supposed to be a time to celebrate."

'It's all my fault.'

"Did I do anything wrong to deserve this?"

"No, you didn't."

'I messed it up, your plans, your life, dad's life, mom's life.'

"You know Sebas, you're a fool, and you should have been dumber, we could have much more great time together. If you didn't use your time to study, we could watch so many good shows together, on the couch, on my bed, or your bed, eating popcorn."

"If you didn't take the responsibilities of others, doing those people's works, we could play so many games together, for sure I will win, but you'll have fun too."

"If you weren't a workaholic, mom and dad wouldn't have put so much pressure on me, whose fault you think it is for me to train like crazy, medal and medals, trophies after trophies, and you were still their favorite, their pride."

"If you weren't that jealous, I would have gotten a boyfriend already, you're so stupid, really Sebas, I was still going to be your sister no matter who else enters my life."

"If you… if I have been more permissive, I would have convinced you to date, my friend, you wouldn't be a virgin by now, stupid virgin. Carla, you know her, she's a bitch, she would have eaten you alive, but I'll tell you a secrete, she likes you, really really, I never saw her so interested in a guy, I don't know what she saw in a virgin you. But you two have had made a good couple."

"Then if you… if I… if we… Sebastian! There are so many things we haven't done together! You promised me to try again those waffles I messed up once. I promised you to change my sleeping schedule and not stay up late watching the series. I made you make me promise to teach you how to play volleyball. You said that if you entered kick-boxing you wouldn't lose against me again! Prove it! Sebastian! There are so many things we haven't done together! I don't want to die! I don't want you to die either!"

"Sorry… it's all my fault!" Sebastian laid his head over the head of his sister, almost whispering said those words to her ears, because he had no will to pronounce the apology louder.

But Eva received it. She understood her brother's feelings.

"Sebas, if one of us gets out of here, promise me tha-"

BANG!!!!!!

She, could never finish her words, it became a forever matter. As a bullet went through her skull, painting the tree behind of red, the fragile life ended its sojourn on earth.

'E… Eva?' He looked at… he didn't know what to look at.

"Wooooh! So this thing really can kill people!"

Sebastian slowly turned his head.

Watching with agony that familiar face that always had represented thankfulness in his heart.

But until today, he had never hated so much the voice of his mother.

"Impostor! Get out of my mom's body!!!"

Sebastian didn't care anymore, he used his highest volume to scream the harshest insults. Not caring that the words he spoke might no longer be interpreted, they became demonic screams coming from a human body.

She smiled and didn't care that Sebastian went out of control.

Instead…

"You," The woman pointed to the closest minion with the sharpest tooth. "Cut his last leg."

This time, no further explanation was needed for some reason. The chosen one understood and ran to him immediately.

Still conscious of what happened in his environment, Sebastian kicked the minion away, but soon, more of them appeared and grabbed every part of his body that could still resist.

The showman of the night stood up from the ground, approached the boy, positioned right over his leg, and…

"Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!"

This level of pain was not something that somebody could get used to.

Despite Sebastian swore before that he didn't want to experience this one more time. Tonight nothing went as planned, so what with just another unexpected.

"Ahhhhh!!!! Release me!!!"

After a couple of stabs, he again entered that state where everything felt amplified, his last consciousness could only let him hear from Molly saying:

"Oh, Fear! Fear me! Fear them! Fear everything! It'll be tasty..."