Ruination

41: RUINATION

I would never forget the stench of piscine metal. It was the stench I grew up in, the stench of the person who raised me, and the stench of the people who had to die in order for me to live.

The light never entered the part of the cave where he made me stay for many blue moons. Mere torches aided in giving me a more detailed description of my nightmares. The walls made me remember the screams that rose from every victim's throat.

He would leave to hunt and would often bring back the prey alive just to show me how he would tear flesh from bone and drain blood until they had a deathly skin tone. He preferred to feast on children because their meat was much softer, their blood was much cleaner, and they had less body hair.

"Let go of me! Let go!" the young struggling boy cried before his neck was crushed with a single claw. This was nothing new to me. A part of me wanted to tell them that it was futile to resist but the other part of me wished they could escape in my place just to prove that he wasn't as impenetrable as he appeared to be.

"Are you watching this? This is how it is in this world, boy: eat or be eaten. It doesn't matter how young they are, they'll grow into savage murderers like the rest of us anyway. Better to eat them before they eat us."

He tossed a chunk of meat he sliced off from the boy's tummy into his mouth and chewed. Each day I would witness a new act of murder with each victim experiencing a new sadistic way of dying.

Maybe the cage I grew up in was a blessing in disguise. I never tried to break free, not even once. I never attempted to bend the feeble bars of the cage just to see the light of the day.

At that young age, I already accepted the fact that I would always be his prisoner. I had the same blood and flesh.

"I will eat you...don't think I won't because I will."

He smiled at me with fresh blood coating his sharp teeth. He lifted the head that he had just yanked out from the small body of the boy. He opened his mouth to catch the blood dripping out of it.

Once he was full, he would throw in the thigh part he saved up for me and slumber deeply.

I wasn't scared of this man because I was used to it. He showered me with abhorrence. He taught me the cruel practicality of life. I ate what he ate. I had the same skeletal tail he had. Although he never showed me a single drop of love or affection, he was all I had. He was my beloved father even if I was his unloved son. Staying in this cage was the only thing that pleased him. Being caged here was the only thing that stopped him from beating me into a bloody pulp.

When I was younger and gained awareness of my senses, the very first thing I sensed was the agony. It was just unending pain. He would break my fingers and hit my head against the stone wall until I tasted my blood. He used every cuss he knew and cursed me to the depths of my being.

I didn't know why he despised me so much. I think my very existence in his life irked him. It made him vengeful. It was like he was taking revenge on something and I was the object he could settle his scores with.

"You think anyone would love you? Do you think anyone would save you? You're nothing, you hear me boy? I'm the only person in the world you'll have, you worthless piece of shit!" he snapped at me.

I learned to stop crying over every single wound. Crying only made him give me bigger wounds. The louder I cry the longer he would beat me.

So I just stopped...

"Mama! Papa!" a young girl's voice echoed in the cave. She was thrown right in front of me and then scrambled back once she sensed that Ta was coming.

Ta laughed and hauled her leg up. I never tried to comfort his victims because it was pointless. Why would I even console them when they would leave me here the second that they die? They were lucky that it would end quickly. They wouldn't live as a prisoner.

The rest of the day became agonized screams as he ate her alive. More blue moons passed by and my Ta had fallen ill.

I had no idea how such a strong predator suddenly got taken over by some illness. It just happened one day. He went out to hunt but came back empty-handed.

He was crawling, coughing, and clenching his chest. He was at his weakest. Never in my life did I expect to witness him so defeated, because he had always overpowered his prey.

I thought: 'There was someone as terrifying and merciless as him out there?'

"D-Damn him! Damn that Ancient and his vampire dog!" he screamed.

A chuckle rose from someone; Ta froze in place.

He could tremble like that? He could also feel fear?

A tall man bearing no scent sauntered coolly inside of Ta's domain. This was the territory of the crazed monster. Parents would use Ta as a story to spark fear in their misbehaving children, yet this man entered fearlessly in the monster's playground.

His complexion was as pale as a corpse. His face was covered with a scarf and his eyes were clouded as if he was blind.

Ta scrambled far back away from him, mimicking his victims. My legs spread in front of me and I watched in awe.

"My Master is not pleased with you taking the village's children. Poisoning you is just his way of warning, but he told me to make sure that you wouldn't dare lift a finger on them again..."

Ta spat at him and shakily laughed.

"Pathetic...You think poisoning me would kill me?"

The man hummed. In a flicker of light his long and slender sword pierced through Ta's stomach.

"Of course, I was told by my master not to underestimate Somas, but it is rather disappointing. Are all Somas this weak?" he mocked.

Blood dripped down from Ta's lips but this time it didn't belong to another innocent child.

"You can't kill me. I'm a So-Soma. I'm a descendant of Bahamut. You're just a filthy vamp—"

"I'm a mix," the stranger corrected and withdrew his sword from Ta's flesh. He pulled down his scarf to expose his mouth.

Ta's eyes widened in fear once he saw the entire face of his hunter. He pointed a sharp black nail at him. The stranger opened his mouth ajar, exposing two sharp fangs in amusement.

"You're the Blood King—"

The hunter made a yanking motion with his hand. Every single drop of blood from Ta's body was pulled out from his system through the wound he made in his stomach.

Life was factually drained from him right in front of my eyes and I felt nothing but a new void inside of me.

As he drank the blood of my father, his eyes became fiercely red and sharp. Burgundy veins become visible and bulging underneath his pale skin.

I stared at my Ta's corpse, zoning out from reality.

Ta was dead now.

Should I rejoice?

Should I mourn?

What should I feel?

The man wiped his mouth. His gaze landed on me. The veins settled down under his skin yet his eyes maintained its crimson terror.

"Mne zhal (Sorry), was he a relative?" he asked me, bending down in front of my cage.

I couldn't pull the words stuck in my throat as I tried to find the courage to reply to him. This stranger just killed the most powerful man I knew. He killed the very person who kept me alive and dead at the same time for a long time. He took away the very purpose I had in life.

He freed me and I was lost.

"He was...He was my father..." I murmured.

The man glanced at me blankly; I grew nervous under his petrifying gaze.

Was I next?

"Your father took away many sons and daughters and devoured them. I'm sure you know that yet you are mourning for him."

My tears continued to trail down. The stranger opened the cage where I was detained. He waited patiently for me to come out and I sensed no growing impatience from him.

I slowly crawled out of the cage. With every inch of freedom I picked up, I cautiously watched my father, preparing myself if he would suddenly get up to hit me. I flinched when the stranger moved but no harm befell my way out.

"What name did he give you?" he asked.

I swallowed the hard lump in my throat and stared at my father's face which was etched with fear.

Name? I remember him giving me a name but he never used it frequently. He would just call me boy.

I searched hard in my memories and finally found an answer to give him.

"He called me Rui short for...Ruination," I replied.

The stranger whistled.

"That's mean for a father don't you think?"

I swiped down my Ta's open eyes.

"I don't know..."

I did not know what kindness was like. He fed me, sheltered me, and talked to me, but what he was feeding me was the result of his cruel murders.

The stranger led me out of the cave. Daylight finally reached my eyes. Who knew it could be this intense and annoying? It was bright, blinding, and I couldn't help but narrow my gaze at the mere sight of it. How could people stand being out?

My father's murderer stepped outside and waited for me to follow him. "Is this your first time being outside?"

I wasn't able to respond to him because I started to imagine things. I started to hallucinate. For the first time in my life, I finally acknowledged the fear that I thought I long lost.

Once I take a step outside, Ta will grab me from behind and bite my head off.

Once I try to even place a finger outside, a claw will pierce through my chest and wrench my heart out.

He would leave no bone unbroken.

He would tear my skin and devour my flesh.

"He's dead," the stranger assured me. "He won't come after you because I made sure that I carry out my master's orders without fail."

I looked behind me and felt the loom of darkness that I was going to leave behind. Was I ready? Would I survive outside? I had been his prisoner all my life. What do I know of being free?

How do you live this life?

"Sadly, you're afraid of someone so weak," he sighed.

He raised the scarf to his nose and turned his back away from me.

"Stop depending on him, you're no longer his prisoner. You're on your own now."

"Aramastus, where are you?" another voice of a man popped out.

I sprinted away and finally felt the warm smile of the sun and the fresh air of freedom.

I ran on my fours and heard the man say:

"Huh? Who was that kid?"

I hid behind a tree that was near them and watched them from afar. They were glancing at my way.

"No one for you to worry about..." Aramastus said.

The newcomer had a certain aura on him as he glanced at my way worriedly.

"He's just a kid. Was he a victim?"

Aramastus shrugged. "Perhaps he's...the only surviving conscience of that feared monster. I wouldn't know."

The blonde man rubbed the back of his neck and clucked his tongue. "Oi, chibi (small boy)...you can come with us if you want," he offered.

I took a step backwards and looked behind me. The two adults lingered for my decision but once the blonde man sighed with a smile, he walked away with Aramastus behind him.

I followed them secretly. Deep inside I knew that they were aware of the boy trailing them. I had nowhere else to go, but I was afraid of being near them, especially to the man who killed Ta.

They would take care of me from afar. Leave food for me as they ate and once we arrived at a village, Lucius called out to me.

"Rui isn't it? Wait for us here. The villagers won't be too happy to see a Soma after being robbed by one."

Aramastus threw food at the bushes I was hiding in and I gobbled at the piece of meat he tossed. My bony tail waved behind me while I remained hidden behind the plants.

My bones had always been visible just like Ta but they were not entirely outside. They were still partly enclosed with muscle, fat, and skin with an armored shell protecting our upper torso. Half of our face was protected by an armor of bone and it just felt heavy to move. I never paid much attention to my appearance but being exposed to the outside world made me compare what I looked like to others.

A tingle of electricity coursed through my body when a young and purple-haired boy exited the village. He appeared to be looking for something and he had found it once his eyes glanced my way.

A big smile was smacked to his face and he scrambled towards me. He burst his head through the screen of plants. I was taken aback. I blinked in confusion at his boldness. He gazed at me with astonishment.

"Hi, my name is Buck!"