Inner Discord

Chapter 1

1500 Years Later

The bell rung. School was out, and I wandered out in the dark night. I would not go straight home. I just did not felt like it. I wanted to walk along the lake, and look at the thousands of stars above me. I could barely see, it was too dark, because it was new moon. The fastest way was through the poor quarter, but that was quite dangerous too. However, I did not feel like making a detour, so I decided to go in. 

This quarter of the village is nearly completely deserted. Most people thought they would have a better life in the Acropolis, the Imperial City. I doubt they were even able to go in so easily. They were probably just killed by the Kallistoi, a race of beautiful elves. They rule the world together with the Kratistoi and Aristoi. Those do not even come close to the beauty of the Kallistoi, who are the judges, but the Kratistoi are excellent guards, as they are giants, and the Aristoi our dumb rulers. These are dwarfs who think they are the best of everyone, and are really ugly. These are all races that mutated out of humans in the Great War, due to the huge amounts of radioactivity. The other races which arose are the Aischustoi, who are even uglier than Aristoi, the Noi, a race of ghosts, and the Sophoi, really smart oracles. Humans are called Anthropoi now. Anthropoi are higher on the social ladder than Aischustoi, but lower than Sophoi, Kallistoi, Aristoi, Noi and Kratistoi. I am an Anthropos. I live in a village of Anthropoi, where only we are allowed, and Aischustoi, who are pets to us. In the quarter where I was then lived the poorest Anthropoi, who could not even afford an Aischustos as pet. They were probably better off dead.

When I came past an old, decrepit house, I thought it must have been real beautiful before the inhabitants left. A little further I saw some ruins of what once must have been a large mansion. It was anyway just destroyed in the Great War, along with so much other kinds of builds. After that war, nothing stood up anymore: the houses, facilities, all had perished. 99 percent of world population had died, all sources on history and knowledge had been lost. There was not a single spot of electricity left, just as was the case with water: the survivors had nothing. After a year, they had all somehow managed to come together and shared their knowledge, and began at the reconstruction of society: builders began building houses, technicians sought for ways to recover some things, scientists tried to summon electricity once again, and all succeeded after two centuries. They thought everything was alright now, but some people had begun to change: they were the base for the races now, it were the people that had been exposed to radioactivity the most. Nowadays, water and electricity are really valuable, and if you want to make legally use of them, you need to go to official instances, such as a tap where you can drink water for a small price on the court in the village.

When I walked past a corner of an old street with houses that were deserted for years, I scared up of a voice behind me that said: 'Give me your money or die.' When I looked behind me, I saw he was no Anthropos, but a creature with huge ears and eyes, a really small, but very long, nose. He had no teeth and six fingers on one, four on the other hand, with instead of nails long, yellow, sharp claws on each finger. He had no toes, his feet were just hunks of flesh, and his knees could bow in all directions. He was an Aischustos. Apparently, this one was not a wild one, but one that is held by someone, because he had a name tag. He was called 'Arthur'. 

When he saw I was just looking at him, and not searching for money or something, he became impatient and began throwing around the knife, in such a manner that it just did not hit me, and screamed: 'Give me your money or I will become less friendly!' I answered him: 'What do you need money for? Shouldn't you go back to your boss?' He replied angrily: 'No, I do not want to go back, I want to be free, like you are free! But for that, I will need some money. Now, shut up and just give me that.' But I was not willing to give my money to something stupid like this, so I said: 'No, I won't. You can't even kill me, stupid!', after which I fled.

But Arthur was far faster than me. He caught up with me immediately and scratched my face with his knife. So, I grabbed a bill of 100 Arguria and threw it away, hoping he would let me escape. Arthur indeed showed so stupid that he ran after the bill, leaving behind his knife. I decided to pick it up and run, but then, a strange thought came up in me: would it not be nice to kill him and be covered in his blood? So I changed my mind and approached him slowly. When he looked behind and he saw me, his enormous eyes showed fear, and he began to carefully back away.

But, unlucky for him, I was very good at throwing knifes; it was one of the official and most known sports here. When I felt the knife slipping away from my fingers, I shivered when I thought of it piercing Arthur. My joy was unstoppable when I saw he tried to ward off the knife with his bare hands; a finger was cut off, the blood spluttered everywhere, and his hair became a mess. The moment he stood still, looking at his cut off finger, I came in action and grabbed the knife. I pierced it through his belly and Arthur coughed up blood. I grabbed him by his shoulders and put the knife against his throat. Arthur was crying from fear and shaking from pain. I enjoyed myself more once again, and right before I cut his carotid, I whispered: 'Remember my name and say it forth in Hell as the one who killed you: I am Phoneus.' He made a sort nodding movement, but I did not care, and one moment later his blood was spouting everywhere. I laughed and grinned.