The Tragedy of The Fates

QUIETUS OF KYL FATE

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24 years previous
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Kain stepped through the threshold of the house. It was a sorry excuse of a cabin, four rooms in total. The men got their own room, Elizabeth had her own, and the other two were a family room and a kitchen.

It was pitch dark outside, Kain's face covered in bruises, his right eye swollen shut. If anyone got close enough they could smell the alcohol on him. He had come from the pub, sober from his beating, but his knuckles stung with a pain he didn't know they could experience, and his head throbbed with the power comparable to the sun.

He closed the door behind him, groaning as pain continued to climb through his body as his adrenaline wore off. The sounds of Kyl yelling had been audible from the moment he was within twenty feet of the house. Neighbors had turned over and plugged their ears, and for that Kain resented them.

The others weren't so old. Shuriken was 18, Nathan was 16, and Elizabeth was 13. Kain was at the ripe age of 20. He had helped them keep the house from the slowly, but ever present, tax growth that almost made them homeless a couple of times. Shuriken was away studying under a dragon hunter.

A famed dragon hunter named Mathew Dremwilch. At only 27 he was able to kill a 37 foot tall male dragon. Mathew however had a strange weapon of choice. While most favored a sword and shield, sometimes an axe and shield, and sometimes people didn't care for the shield, Mathew used a scythe. It was boring in all regards, it was a weapon that he forged himself.

He had taken up dragon hunting after he had grown too sick to continue working in the coal mines. All of which he knew because of Elizabeth's crush on him. Kain didn't like his younger sister having a crush on a man older than Kain, but she did as she wanted, and she had already promised her hand in marriage when she turned 18 to him.

Kyl and Elizabeth were arguing, shouting about Mathew. Kyl had decided that since she was going to be married that she was going to learn how to be a wife. Well, not any wife, but one that did anything and everything for her husband. A wife that no one deserved to be.

His own mom was like that, and one cold meal later, and a very loud night, and she had left in the dark full of bruises and leaking blood. The last thing he heard his mom say was her begging Kyl to spare her, to not hurt her.

Those were the words he heard leave Elizabeth's lips.

Kain was not violent by nature at this age. That was a trait fostered by his pride in this moment and the tumor that the Fate curse brought with it. Kain didn't realize he had walked in the kitchen, or that he had a knife in his hands.

The only thing he could think about was the sounds of Kyl's knuckles scraping across his mom's flesh, or the sounds of her screams, and the feeling of Kyl hitting him in his face, sending Kain out of the house, leading Kain to the bar, and then the fight that followed. That was the only thing on Kain's mind.

He had crossed the boundary of Elizabeth's room as Kyl punched her square in the face. Kyl smiled when he saw Kain with the knife. The world quieted as Kyl taunted him. Kain sliced the knife at Kyl, a punch sending Kain to the floor, dropping the knife.

Kain did the only thing he could think of. He grabbed Kyl's leg by the ankle and pulled him down, toppling him. Kain pulled himself on top of Kyl, and swung his fist. He heard the sound of Kyl's nose breaking. He swung again, and again. After the fourth punch he delivered Kain stood up, his knuckles throbbing far more painfully than before.

Kain stood up, leaving Kyl laying there in his own blood as it trickled out of his nose. He grabbed the knife from where it fell and grabbed Elizabeth before pulling her into a hug with his left arm and hoisting her up, carrying her. Kain spoke to Kyl, "We're leaving. Now. Follow us, look at us, or so much as think of us and I'll come back here and finish the job."

Kyl coughed, and spit out blood from his mouth. He sat up, pulling himself as he said, "I'll forever haunt you boy. I'll always be around the corner, I'll always be looking for you, and when the day comes one of us will fight to the death."

Kain slowly put Elizabeth down, and re-adjusted his hold on the knife before he said, "Then let's finish this."

Kain kicked Kyl square in the jaw, the sound of it cracking in half filled the small room as Kain pushed him on the ground, Kyl's head clipping the bedframe, sending blood on the walls and floor before Kain stabbed Kyl right through the right side of his cheek. Kain pulled the knife up, slicing through the cheek. He pulled back and stabbed again.

He kept stabbing. Somewhere along the lines Elizabeth tried to stop him. But Kain didn't. He pushed her away from him and went back to stabbing his father in the face. His muscles burned as he kept stabbing as the sun rose, and he could hear guards approaching. He sliced the knife through Kyl's jaw at the point connecting it to his skull and removed the left side of his jaw, throwing it across the room. Kain quickly cut off the right side of Kyl's jaw as guards burst through the door. Kain stabbed the knife deep into Kyl's eye, ripped it out, and the guards began to pull him away as he tried to stab Kyl in the other eye. Kain fought against the guards, but quickly fell to defeat. He hung there limply as the two guards dragged him away.