The Tales Of Crowboy The Incredible: Of Ink and Power

Chapter Twenty

Zains POV

I get it. You think I'm the bad guy. You think I'm insane and that I don't deserve Felix and that I shouldn't be in the picture anymore. I've read the comments. I know what you all have said.

But this was just how I was rasied. My family was..... difficult. My life was really difficult.

Tommy is my oldest brother. He's white. He's 24. And he's adopted. He's also really protective. He's defenitly Mom and Dad's favorite. He was only born because Mom and Dad thought that everyone in the Pures would help raise him, but when they got stuck with the responsbilty of a child, they realized they really liked rasing kids. He's not the difficult part.

Then I have Alzero, who's Mexican. Also adopted, but yeah. He's 18. He's like Tommy in the protective sense, but also a little more chill, seeing as we're closer in age. He's really good at the family buisness. Like, scarily good. Tommy was alright, but he worked better in my skill. Luring them in. Both of my brothers acted normal. Like brothers. Alzero's also not the difficult part.

Then, my sister, Zia. She wasn't adopted. We're twins, actually. But we're not close. We've never been close. She got magics. She's a Celestial. And I got nothing. She's always resented the family buisness. Zia's always resented me. We couldn't be more different. And even though she causes problems, she's a small reason why everything was difficult.

My family is one of the main leaders of a group called the Pures. As long as theres been magic, theres been magic. People who think that having magic is wrong. Unpure. And that we should do anything and everything in their power to make sure that it all won't happen. And we, my family, specify in a branch of that of cutting wings off.

I get it. It sounds horrendous. It's horrible. But I really don't know how to feel about it. I know it's bad. I know it hurts people and it kills people and it's all really really bad. But I grew up learning this was how we saved people.This was how we led people, young kids like me, into a better life.

I wasn't one of the kids that cut of others wings though. I wasn't trained in cutting wings off, or the 'family buisness'. Papa was the one in charge of that.

Papa and Mama had an arranged marriage when they were still young. But they were in love. Deep in love. For a little while, I think. I just think that they're together now because of the Pures.

Papa delt with cutting peoples wings off. Or, how he puts it, they're the Bleeders. How to do it, and the ways to do it, and how to make sure that they don't die. But Papa and Tommy and all of that would be useless and without a job if people like Mama and Alzero and I did what we did.

We've been nicknamed the Lures. And it's as sick as it sounds. Mama trained me from a very young age. To be nice. To be friendly. And as I got older, it was to be flirty. To be sexy. And to lead boys and girls home and make them fall for me. Or at least trust me enough to never expect it. Never in a million years.

It sounded horrible. It sounded manipulative and really mean and emotionless. But you know what? I loved it. I loved the thrill of looking that person in the eyes, and seeing that one little glimmer when I know that they're going to fall right into my trap. And I did love them. And I did care. But I loved and cared more about the rush I got when it finally dawned on these kids that they wouldn't escape, and I might be the last face they ever see.

One of my earliest memories was in the cult. Running around the village with Zia when we were.... 6 maybe? The Pures had been evicted from the village that we had lived in in the Alt world, so we had made our own little place in the middle of some weird forest a year ago.

We were happy. I defenitly remember being happy, and knowing that I would grow up and have a great life, because I had my sister and my two older brothers, and that even though we were born wrong and we were abominations, it would be okay, if we all had eachother.

But then, it all blew up.

I developed at a horrible young age. 8 years old. And Mama and Papa didn't want to hurt their first birth child, because the strategy of the Bleeders hadn't developed well enough yet. Everyone expect me to be great. Cause I mean, if I wasn't a sinner, and if I developed this early, than I had to be something incredible and powerful, right?

Wrong.

I had a slow development. Slow, painful, bloody, and with a lot of complications. I was in the hospital a couple times. But Mama and Papa always thought it would be worth it. They would have a powerful daughter, someone who's power was just too untamable for a little 8 year olds body. I would grow into my magic, and into my place as the soul protecter of the Pures.

It took a year for all of my magic to fully develop. At that was just my wings. They were ugly. Really ugly. I hate them a lot. Mama told me that ugly wings wouldn't lure anyone in. So, I dyed them. I'm pretty good at it now, actually. Right now, I have rainbow wings. And I've had them for the past year or so. It pisses Papa and Mama off. They think that I should be hush hush about the whole "gay thing".

And then, the rest of the Pures waited. Waited for me to develop my magic while Tommy and Alzero developed and learned and controled their magic. Waited while Zia started to grow her wings, and waited for when she got her magic and decided that all of this was too, how did she put it? Sick. It was all too sick for her, even though she was a prodogy Bleeder. Practically the best we've ever had. And they kept waiting, even though the seaons changed and years passed, and that great little girl that they hoped would develop never did truley come around.

What I lacked in magic, I made up in skill. I slowly rose the ranks of top Lures. For a while, I had only been doing co-mission with Alzero. Then, I had to stop because of wings, of course, but as soon as I got better, I begged Mama and Papa to let me do solo-missions. And in a week, I had brought home a new friend home, who I suspected had a faint little crush on me. But, she fell easily into the plan.

The first time it happened, she died. I don't remember her name. But I do know that when Papa walked out of the basment covered in blood. I didn't cry. I did feel a little disappointed, of course. But that was soon covered up by the praise I was given by everyone in the Pures, telling me I had saved our world from another little abomination. I was proud of myself. The rush and smile and happiness was just so.... overwhelming. I knew it was incredible.

But the praise didn't last, as expected. So I knew that I had to keep doing it. As I got older, I knew that I could make it easier as long as I made the first moves. Boys especically were even more easy to lure in when you made the first step. A compliment here, a little kiss there, and then they're in the palm of your hand, eating away. Girls would be a little more difficult. They were more judgmental. And also a little more cautious. But I could sway them.

The rush and high just got better and better the more kids I lead. It was glorious. I knew I would dedicate my life to this, and this would be my path. Forever.

Until one day, it just wasn't. People thought it wasn't intresting anymore. You know, because I was 16 more. Six years of perfect strikes, and kids start to think of you as a show off.

I became more isolated. All of the kids called me a try hard, which I was, yeah, but you know, still. I liked to spend more time alone, and rumors started to spread about me. Children do that, you know. I become the kid who all of a sudden was a cautionary tale. My siblings didn't know what to do. They were all powerful. Zia was a fucking Celestial, plus she thought that she was so high and mighty with her fucking Britan job or whatever. Tommy and Alzero got busy with girlfriends and collage and then they had to do jobs with other Pure towns.

All of my prey had dried up. So all of the praise had dried up with it, and I started spending more and more time away. In the normal realm. And more in the forest. There was a little forest that I would wander around when I got a stressed out and upset.

One day, I found this weird playground looking thing. Part of it was well down, while other parts looked crude and messy. It looked peaceful though.

I sat down, and tried to cast out my pheromones. See if I could sense anyone.

Then, suddenly, everything switched.