Nephilim

40

Kirstin's P.O.V.- Present Day

We are but dust and shadows.

I open my eyes, staring at the sky above me. I felt heavier than usual like I have an anvil sitting on my chest. I move to look around me when all at once I'm being thrust underwater. I am sinking fast, despite all attempts to force myself to the surface, seemingly stuck in one spot.

We are but dust and shadows.

My eyes flit around me as I hold my breath, my lungs screaming for oxygen, my eyesight blurred. All around me were dead bodies, strangers, floating next to me, all around me. The water between me and the blank eyes of the dead people around me slowly gets smaller and smaller until there's no space between us at all. Us, and the ones behind them, and the ones behind them. Now I'm not only drowning in water surrounded by dead people. I'm drowning and completely suffocated by them.

We are but dust and shadows.

I give up, letting the water into my lungs, down my throat, no longer trying to swim. I begin sinking again, deeper into the water, the bodies easily filling my space. The light dims, something seems to drag me down faster than the first time, my vision blurring to a point of no return.

You are but a reflection of others.

I fall through the air as I fall, the ground seeming to have disappeared. Until I hit the unforgiving ground, my body screaming with the impact; soaked to the bone and coughing up water. I stand carefully, looking around the room I was in. It was made up of mirrors, the walls, the ceiling, even the floor. The only thing standing out was the sword and the chalice in the middle of the room.

"You are but a reflection of others, печенье. Watching others, studying them and adapting to what you see. Reflecting them, making yourself both opposite and the same together, at the same time. Bending what you see to your will, using it against them." Natasha's voice says softly behind me. She had told me this years ago. We were at the cafeteria, studying people, watching what they do, adapting. This was another lesson I had to practice on strange people.

"So what? I'm every piece of someone they don't want stitched into a broken excuse for a person. That's all this dream has shown me." I snapped harshly, spinning to face her, except her form is gone now, only a reflection.

"With great power, comes great responsibility, or something. The point is that if you think you're a monster, then you probably are." Tony's voice is harsh as he speaks, his face a sneer in the mirror in front of me. I spin to face him, but he's not there.

"That's not how it goes. There's more! He wasn't calling me evil, he was telling me that I'm threatening, that I'm only evil if I decide I'm ev-"

"People don't care. They don't care what you think, what you feel. They see one single shred of darkness on you and they attack, they leach on it and draw it out. You've got a lot more than a sliver, Kirstin." All of us do. That's why hunters stay away from people. I move away from the reflection of Charlie. I grab the cup, chucking it at the mirrored wall. It sinks through it like it was water.

"Violence is the only reaction you can think of, the only one you know. You go for the violent answer, even when peace is possible. You will always pick a sword over a pen. Don't act like its a good thing because, in the end, you're always going to be alone." It's Sam's voice now. He said this when he was soulless. While it was Sam talking, Mason stands there now. I close my eyes taking a deep breath as the tears begin to fall again. I grab the blade, spinning behind me and thrusting the sharp piece of metal through his waist.

My eyes fly open when the painful groan is released. Mason stands there with his hands on the bloody blade.

Kirstin?