The Silence Consumes Me

Chapter 1

The morning breeze stung my face. I never liked being outside. The smell of the trees, insects buzzing in my face, the annoying bird chirping in the distance. Ironic, considering I lived in the woods. My home of hate. The woods were inhabited with a variety of flora and fauna. And us. The monstrum. Decades past we'd built a Home here. It was a big Home. It was an empty Home. Quiet. Silent. Enough to drive a man insane. I spent more time outside than in. It made me irritable.

Tim carried an axe over his shoulders. It had a worn handle and a rusted blade. It chopped well though. We walked down the dirt path for seemingly miles. No matter how far we walked, the house always seemed in view.

Eventually Tim stopped, eyeing a tall pine. He handed me the axe and pointed at the tree. I went to work, swinging the axe into the tree over and over, each time resulting in a satisfying cracking sound. Like breaking chicken bones.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

The sound was mesmerizing. I fell into a trance, raising the axe over my shoulder, sinking it deeper and deeper into the tree. Eventually, the trance was broken as the tree started falling down. It fell perfectly across the path, blocking the only way into the woods. I took out my boot knife. I carved a basic design into the side of the tree. A large "O" with an "X" running through the center of it, the arms of the X reaching further than the O's reach. I spat in the middle of the X. Suddenly, I felt drained of energy, like an orange violently squeezed for its juice. Tim grabbed me by my shoulder as I steadied myself. I gave him a nod and he released me. We began the long walk back to Home.

The autumn leaves crunched under our feet. It was one of the few things I enjoyed about the woods; the constant change. Flowers bloom, moss covers downed trees, leaves change from green, hell, a few years ago it even snowed a few feet. The change was constant. Shit. It's my only constant. At least, the only one I enjoy. The other one I try not to think about it too much. If that was my only constant... I would have gone insane years ago. Well, more insane.

Tim's stride was longer than mine. He wasn't that much taller than me, maybe six-two, six-three... yeah... about an inch taller. He wore jeans and his tan bomber jacket open, revealing an old Rolling Stones t-shirt. He had medium length brown hair and his eyes were a slate grey. His right ear was pierced with a silver stud. On his right side; a brown, leather satchel, containing miscellaneous field equipment: a multitool, whatever weapon he was carrying that week (he liked to keep a diverse arsenal), and a mask. He'd changed it a couple years ago from a basic white mask with black lips and eyes to an almost reverse; a skull-shaped carbon fibre mask with red mirrored lenses. Basically, enough to make someone shit themselves on a glance.

Crunch. Crunch. Crun-

Suddenly the crunching ahead of me stopped, with me following suit. That's when I heard it. People. They were nearby; less than a hundred yards. We climbed trees in order to get an aerial view. There they were. A family. A father, probably around thirty-five, thirty-six, a mother, maybe thirty-three, and two kids. One boy, about six, and a girl of about the same age. The father was pitching a tent and the mother was playing with the kids. They seemed to be enjoying themselves, with large smiles and laughter erupting from the kids.

'A normal, happy family...' I thought.

I sighed.

'I'm sorry... for what's going to happen next.'

Tim signaled to me as he slipped on his mask. I nodded and pulled my scarf over my lower face and put my hood up. I pulled the knife from my boot sheath, cleaning it off with a glasses cloth. Tim revealed his weapon to me: a long handled karambit. He pointed at the woman and the two children, making a slashing gesture at his throat. I hesitated, but nodded.

I began climbing down the tree creeping away from the family. I found a trap we'd set earlier that week; a bear trap. After taking a deep breath, I slammed my foot into the trap. I let out a loud scream. I heard leaves rustling and suddenly, the mother came into view. She had long blonde hair and beautiful sea-blue eyes. Her face was without a scratch or wrinkle. A depiction of beauty if there's ever been one. After seeing the situation I was in, she rushed over to my aid.

"Oh my god, oh my god," she kept stammering. It was annoying. She began trying to pry open the trap's mouth. I gave her a hand. After a few seconds of struggling, we pulled the trap off my ankle. The area the trap bit into was bleeding rather heavily. I ripped a piece of fabric from my shirt and made a tourniquet around my ankle. The woman was breathing rapidly, clearing more shaken than me. It took me a second for words to form in my mouth. I pulled down my scarf and hood.

"Thank you so much! I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't shown up." The woman's breathing started to steady.

"No- No problem. What were you doing out here all alone?"

"I just like to come out here for the fresh air. It relaxes me. I'd forgotten hunters had started making their way out here. I went off the path, to look at some deer and well... ta-da!" She gave a little chuckle, which quickly escalated into laughter. I matched her response. She gave me a hand up.

"My husband Charles and our kids have a camping spot just through those bushes there. You're welcome to come and stay with us. Tomorrow we can bring you to a doctor. We know one just outside of the woods." I nodded in acceptment.

"Tom. Tom Wright," I said extending my hand.

"Charlotte," she said, shaking my hand. She lead me back to their quiet camping spot. Her kids sat on the ground, drawing pictures with sticks in the soil.

"Sammi! Henry! Come meet Mr.Tom" The two kids came running over to me. They both had big smiles on their faces. They both gave waves at me, which I returned with an equally large grin. Charlotte gave a quick look around.

"Where's daddy?" she asked Sammi. She pointed to a large section of foliage.

"He went to the man in the mask," she said. Charlotte had a worried look on her face as she ran over to the section of uncleared woods.

'Typical,' I thought. 'Always rushing.' I ran over to where Charlotte was. She was busy clearing shrubs out of her way with her hands. That's where she saw him. His throat was cleaning slit, blood oversaturating his shirt. His wife screamed at his sight, scrambling to get away from his body. After her throat went raw from screaming, she collapsed into sobbing mess. It was an understandable reaction. Then she finally put two and two together. She stared me with a terrified look on her face. I gave her a large grin and a wave. She screamed and tried to run away. She was really slow. I quickly catched up to gripping the sides of her head, lifting her off the ground.

"I could kill you right now, rape you, leave your kids for the wolves. But I'm a civilized monster. So I'll just do this." I dropped her to the ground a placed my index finger on her forehead. Then I wiped her brain. All of it, leaving her just her basic cognition. Then I knocked her out with the handle of my knife. I put her on my shoulders and walked back to the campsite. The two kids ran up to me, obviously shaken.

I told them to follow me, which they reluctantly did. I was able to use my ESP to quickly get us out of the woods, shortening the length of the travel dramatically, but tiring me even more. I laid Charlotte down at the edge of the woods and used her cell phone to call 911, saying there was a passed out woman with her kids at the edge of the woods. I watched from the treeline as paramedics picked her and the kids up. They would think she would have amnesia and would be treated for it for the rest of her life. Her kids would grow up fatherless and partially motherless, probably living with a grandparent or uncle. Better than death.

I made my way back to Home alone, Tim waiting for me on the front stairs with a sandwich in hand. He gave a chuckle and handed me the sandwich.

"When you're done, you have to go see Specs before tonight's event," he said. I nodded and hurriedly ate lunch. Birds chirped in the distance. Fuck birds.