Past Meets the Present

Chapter 11: DEATH

This title may be a bit confusing, but you'll understand soon enough.

Flash forward to a time you all know very well: World War II.

Samuel took custody of my "siblings" and I when this war started. He did it for every war in fact.

He mainly pulled me because I helped him with strategies. I helped plan every loss and victory each side would have. I didn't have a choice with how many people were killed, let alone who and how it would be done.

In this particular war, my siblings and I were forced to switch between Allied forces and the Axis Powers. Mainly Britain and Germany. You should know by now that Samuel is a sadistic fuck, so he had us pose as Nazi soldiers about 75% of the time.

Eventually, toward the end of the war, I grew tired of taking orders from an overall fucking asshole prick like good ol'Sammy.

So, I came up with a plan to set myself free from him.

With each member, we had a mental tether that linked us with Samuel. Because I was his spy, mine might as well have been as thick as a redwood tree.

My only way to freedom would be to sever that link.

Now imagine trying to saw through a whole-ass tree with a simple piece of wire. It wasn't easy. It took damn near everything I had to saw through my tether.

Once it was severed, I packed up everything I would need from my quarters. I knew that it wouldn't be safe for me to leave Berlin during the daytime, so I waited for night.

I didn't make it.

About an hour til sundown, I got a visitor.

My brother, HABIT.

I invited him in, knowing he wouldn't show up if it wasn't necessary.

"What's up?" I ask once he's inside.

He says nothing. Just staring at the floor. His eyes glazed over as if he wasn't really there.

"Hey. You good?" I ask, tilting my head to look him in the eye.

He snaps out of his stupor and glares at me with distain. The kind of hatred one would have if you killed their entire family, consumed by vengeance.

Without a word, he slips out a short sword, glinting an orangey- pink in the afternoon light. On the flat of the blade, reads my name in the Old Language.

My eyes snap back to him and I back away slowly towards the window, getting faster out of desperation.

"HABIT? HABIT!! What are you doing?!" I yell, still backing up towards the window.

Still not speaking, he raises the blade and slashes at me.

A gash is opened from my left shoulder to my right hip. I can feel my skin burning from the rose gold tearing into my weak point.

I continue to stare into his eyes. There isn't a single amount of remorse. He barely even resembles my brother anymore.

As my body disintegrates, two thoughts cross my mind.

My brother had just killed me.

The other....

Why?

I wouldn't know this for another 75 years, but it wasn't HABIT's choice to kill me that day.

Samuel was the one who made him do it.

When I broke the link, Samuel felt it and grew enraged. So, to punish me and discourage any more mutiny, he took over HABIT's body and killed me.

Sammy took up the role of puppet master for the last time over my siblings and me and forced my brother to do the thing he would never do: kill his family.

Or at least that's what he thought had happened to me.

In reality, I used the last wisps of my power to tie my withering soul to the closest thing near me: a ring.

Over time, the ring was passed from owner to owner, lost in a park, thrown into a fountain, and many more things that I don't feel like sharing.

And now that I'm back

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Everyone who hurt us

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or wants to hurt us

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Will pay.

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