HIS HUMAN LUNA - A REWRITTEN VERSION

PROLOGUE

"Out of suffering emerges the strongest souls, the most massive characters are carved with scars."

 Khalil Gibran~

It is over now, he tells himself, trying not to retch at the strong smell of blood, trying not to retch at what he's done. Had to do.

The blood starts to cool down in his newly transformed body. The beast retracts and so does the unnatural thirst for blood that comes with the shift.

And now he stands in the aftermath of what was done.

What he had to do, he reminds himself again.

There was no way he was going to live the rest of his life in peace if he hadn't done it. There was no way the woman who gave him life would find peace in her afterlife if he hadn't done it.

Alec Black was below the gift of life anyway and the barely recognizable face of the woman laying lifelessly beside him on the blood and dirt-packed ground was as much guilty as he was. She was his accomplice.

They both took his mother's life, so why wouldn't he take theirs? After all, justice is taken not offered. And Adrien Odol Black has learned that the hard way. If taking justice makes him a monster, then so be it. It would be just another name in the long list of names attributed to him. Misfit. Mistake. Abomination.

But peace is not what he feels after what he did.

The wind rustles around him, loaded with the stench of blood, and his hands' deeds, but also another unrecognizable scent. Adrien's naked, blood-coated body stiffens. He's always been sensitive to scents. More so than his own unhuman breed, and he is not about to start doubting his talents, especially not with the loud, erratic pants he is starting to hear.

Adrien picks up his body, now heavier than it has ever been. Now carrying a weight, he cannot unload. He moves slowly, not because he can't move faster, but because he is afraid of whom he'll find lurking behind the dark elm tree. Fallen twigs and dry leaves dig into his bare heels as they snap under his weight, but he feels nothing. Nothing but the hollowness in his chest, the numbness he now knows is there to stay. And then he rounds the thick trunk of the tree and teary green eyes meet his own.

They're as green as his. But what Adrien and the boy share is much more than the color of their eyes. They share so much more. Adrien knows what he has to do. He knows that hate and vengeance should not be allowed to fester. His fists bunch on either side of him and he swallows.

He knows what he has to do and yet⸻

He is just a kid, he tells himself.

Shifters do not grow by normal, human standards, but even with that, this kid must barely be past his first decade.

But he's seen. He's seen me slaughter his family and what was left of mine.

He knows better and yet...

Adrien gazes at the sun making its closure, tinting the once soft blue blood red.

The Twilight is upon us.

And with that last thought, he walks away.