All Of You

Prologue

"You are a fucking monster, Lucian!"

It's not everyday you hear your best friend call you a monster. But every monster has someone they fear.

The monsters lurking inside our minds, feeding off our fears and then there are monsters who give birth to these fears. The traumas, the pain, the scars. No matter how far you run away, no matter how much you try to break free of their shackles, they eventually find you and consume you whole unless there are no pieces left to build yourself again.

"Did you really think that you got rid of me, Lucian?" His voice was the same, dark, cold and scary.

And it kept echoing in my mind. "I want you to do one last thing for me and then you can live your life freely."

I fought, I tried to block it out but it didn't bulge. "I want the Andrews Enterprises to go back to nothing. I had enough of them stealing the spotlight from us."

He can't order me around. "I will never hurt Calix. He is my best friend."

"You must really care for him. Tell me, if you care for your best friend, would you rather want him alive or...dead?"

"Don't even think of touching him." No one fucking threatens my best friend.

"Then you will do it for me, won't you?"

"I am not your puppet anymore."

"Are you forgetting everything I ever did for you? Fed you, clothed you, sheltered you. Aren't you going to return the favour now?"

"Hurting my best friend is not how I return the favour."

"It's not for you to decide, you will do as I say or you can bid your best friend goodbye."

"Hello, Lucian." Another monster stepped out of the shadows. Her fingertips grazed my jaw. "Look how beautifully you have grown up." She was too close, close enough for her breath to suffocate me, nauseate me.

Her lips inched closer to my mouth and she laughed when I coiled back in disgust. "You don't like me anymore, huh? You hate your mom now?"

"You are not my mom."

"No? If you say so...but tell me, would the world like to know all your dirty little secrets?"

There was a faint buzzing sound and my body tensed as video started playing on his phone. "You don't want this to get out, do you?" He held his phone infront of me. "And you wouldn't like your best friend to die either."

I had no choice. I let those monsters empower me and now I lost everything. Everyone.

I gasped loudly as I was startled awake, my whole body drenched in sweat as I breathed heavily. It wasn't a nightmare but a memory.

I threw the covers off me and got up walking to the floor to ceiling windows and pulled apart the curtains.

And the city of Seattle stared back at me.

Prologue written on: 27/9/22
Published on: 17/10/22