Numb

As the days went on, I felt like I was disappearing and Hero was taking over. I was feeling...more like him.

I kept having visions of the real Hero.

It started off with small memories. Hero would practice with other soldiers. But then, he would be in battles.

The very first fight was against a monster. A big dark green monster. That was the day Hero had experienced his first victory and his first lost.

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"Hero!"

I turned and looked over at Jem. "Yeah?"

"Aren't you nervous?" She asked

I looked towards the sky as if I were deep in thought. I looked back towards her dark blue eyes. "Nope. Not even a little bit"

"Really? Lucky!" She wines "I had to visit the bathroom five times before we came out here"

I laughed "I did not need to know that!"

She looked back at the few soldiers ready to go into battle.

"For real though, I'm scared" she said

"Why? It's not like you will die. You're our captain" I said

She turned back and glared at me. "I'm not scared for myself, I'm scared for the others. Just look at them. They're petrified."

I turned back and saw downcasted faces. Each face was white with fear and worry.

I turned back forward. "They knew what they signed up for"

"How could you say that! You know that's not true! They were-" she stopped mid sentence.

I looked over at her "What? Did you realize I was right?"

"Shut up and listen" She whispered

Silence.

Then, we heard it. Leaves shuffling, heavy footsteps, and the smell of rotten flesh. They're here.

Jem turned and said "We are going into battle now. But I promise I shall protect each one of you. Until my final breath."

Eveyone nodded, got into formation, and waited. The monster was coming right at us. Fast.

I saw a glimps of dark green from the corner of my eye. All I heard after that was the crunch of bones.

The monster ran around us and gathered us all together. I couldn't see the monster. It was too fast. The monster kept scratching at us to keep us together. As it scratched us though, it moved slower. So I swung my sword at what I hoped was the monster as it scratched me. It slowed down so I swung the blade lower but harder. I chopped off one leg. The monster fell to the floor. As it tried to stand back up blood rushed down from its missing leg. It would obviously die from blood loss.

I smiled and walked over to it. I turned around at Jem "Told ya! There was nothing to worry about. We only lost-"

Jem wasn't paying me any attention. She was the only one who heard the second monster. It jumped out of a bush towards some other soldier who should've died instead.

She ran in front of the soldier and pushed her sword into the monster's abdomen at the same time the monster's claws plunged through her chest and ripped out her heart.

"...one" I finished.

I stared in shock. The monster with the missing leg was crawling away so I plunged my sword into its heart and ran for the other monster and killed it as well. I walked over towards Jem.

*She really did it. She kept that damn promise*

I felt angry, disappointed, sad, and so much more. But I pushed my feelings down and said "Let's go! We won this battle!"

A soldier spoke up and asked "shouldn't we take John's and the captain's… um, remains… with us?"

I gave a cold look at the soldier and asked "who was John? The dead soldier?"

He slightly shook with fear as he replied "umm, yes"

I started to walk towards the castle "take what you can, if you want"

"Don't you want the captain's remains as well?" She yelled

"Captain? That fool is no captain of mine" I muttered and trudged on towards the castle.

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After this incident, the king apologized to Hero himself because of how few and inexperienced their "soldier" were.

Apparently, the so called "soldiers" were only innocent citizens who were being used as "an example". The king had just gotten into power and wanted everyone to listen to him. He took people who disapproved of him and made them into soldiers as punishment.

This, however, had changed Hero for the worst. Hero never let his emotions show and killed without mercy. The more he rose in ranks the more he pushed down his feelings.

*Sounds cool and all but right now. Not so much.* I thought

I slouched in my chair and sighed.

"Are you alright?" Mal asked as he carried a tank to a table

"Yeah...what's with the tank?" I asked as I sat up

"These are frogs. I wanted frog legs but could only find live frogs." He explained "I really didn't want to kill them myself but…"

"I can kill them if you want." I said

"No need. I was going to freeze them so that they would sleep and kill them then. So that they don't feel the pain" Mal said

I stood up and asked "are you sure?"

"Mhmm" he said as he looked for something in a drawer

I got closer to the frogs. "Okay then"

He turned around with a cooler in hand and stopped.

I felt something cold and wet in my hand. I brought my hand up and saw a bloody kitchen knife. I looked down at the frogs. They were all dead.

I couldn't feel anything. I was numb. I looked back at Mals shocked face.

"I think I need help"