Inner Discord

Chapter 18

Seb's face lit up. With an enthusiastic voice he called out to Psyche. 'Come here, Psyche, I found the one whom we were looking for! Let's depart after this.'

Psyche found it weird. 'You just killed her husband and now you expect her to come with us like an obedient lamb? I think you can forget that. And besides, we still have to go get Phoneus, as you promised.'

Seb only smiled after that remark. 'I think Phoneus is enjoying himself at the moment... It's better for him to bloom there than he even can do here. And if I'm right about it, Sophronuste won't even be angry that we killed her husband Eu, are you, Sophronuste?'

Sophronuste agreed with him by heavily shaking her head. 'That's right, my dear Seb. I've used him up fully anyway, and had long since our marriage a few days ago planned to kill him.' The way she was talking implied that she felt something intimate about Seb.

'Now then, let's depart!' Seb yelled, clearly overexcited about this rather superficial encounter. Where do they even know each other from, Psyche thought. And he'd promised that he'd tell me why we need the person as soon as we found her. Not that I'll try. He'll just say it's for later anyway. I'll try to get it out of him when we stop for a while to rest or something.

I lay down in the extremely comfortable bed. After I had killed Boeithe's bully and she saw me doing it, Aphron had taken me off to somewhere. Boeithe had been crying and Ophelimos said he would take care of her. I sincerely wanted to comfort her, but it clearly wasn't a good idea to come close to her then. Aphron had taken me to my room and told me to rest. Tomorrow he'd explain everything. Just before he left, he had been staring in my eyes for a while, kind of hypnotizing me. Then, next thing I knew, I was alone in the brightly lit room. 

I could not keep my eyes opened for a long time, I was really tired. So I let myself slip away in a heavenly sleep.

"I open my eyes again. I'm chained to a wall of some moist, vast, dark, room. The cellar of my house. I try to move my back. Pain shoots through my whole body. This time it wasn't that heavy though. I feel a stream with a soothing warmth coming down from my nose. It's blood. But since I'm already used to these kind of things, it does not really bother me. I wished for the umpteenth time I'd die. But I couldn't. What was the purpose of my life anyway, when it just existed out of punishment and torture?

Suddenly I hear footsteps on some stairs. They must be pretty close to where I am now. Judging from the sound of the footsteps, it must be my dad that's coming. Does he want to hit me again? Have I not gotten enough punishment yet today? Is he going to yell that I'm a demon's child again? I do not want to. I want to stay here, where it's safe. The door of the cellar opens. My dad comes in. 'Because you've behaved so bad last week, you'll have to spend this night outside. Prepare yourself, it's no less than -10 °C there.'

He unchains me. I'm being pushed outside by force. I do not want to spend the night outside again. Inside it's warm, soothing. Outside it's cold. I feel my dad's hand pushing me through our house's front door. He tells me to let him secure the chain around my ankle. Then he leaves. Though this time it's different. A girl I've never seen before is sitting in front of me. 'Hey, what's your name?' I ask her. She does not answer. 'Are you stuck here in this living hell, too?' I try to start a conversation again. She doesn't answer this time either. But she gives me a warm smile, and as she opens her mouth, I understand that she is not able to speak. She had not ever learnt it probably. I tell her I haven't got a name either. For a few hours I could finally talk normally. She doesn't answer, but out of her reactions I can make up she's enjoying this, too. I think I finally felt some warmth in my heart. Before, I had only experienced coldness. My heart was cold. 

But then, it suddenly is over. My dad and the girl's dad come outside, ready to take us back inside. But when they loose the chains, the girl suddenly pushes her dad out of the way. He falls, and my dad bows over him, concerned. The girl grabs my hand and we flee. The sun was rising. For the first time in my life, I feel free. Really free. I do not want to think of the possible ways our dads can react. If they catch us, we will probably be done for. But that is no concern for us now. I just want to enjoy the little time I'll have with this girl. 

Then, a voice pops up in my head. It tells me if it wouldn't be better if we would be the only people left on this world. I am astonished by my own cruelness, but I accept what the voice tells me. I tell the girl that it would be better if everyone except for us would disappear, would just die. Then we could forever be together. I can see she agrees to this because she raises her thumb and nods. We sit down on a rock and hug each other. Gradually, our minds fade and unite and we fall into an eternal sleep."

I awoke with a start. This dream... Could it be a vision? I had never experienced such thing, let alone seen that girl or one of the dads. But it really felt like I myself was that boy. I shared his memories, his thoughts, everything. And they had horrified me. Nobody should go through things like what he went through. But then again, if it had really been a vision, had it already happened or would it still happen? I did not have the slightest of clue. Anyway, since I would not get awake again for some time, I decided to get up and see if Aphron was already ready to tell me everything.