WITHIN SHADOW: BROKEN BOND

TWIN SERVANTS

I've been in better spirits these past two months. It's easy to get lost in this world. I've met good people and found happiness here. A simple passing smile or act of kindness makes me feel like myself again.

Then I stayed up for three nights trying to track down gang members that did a drive-by. A family in ruin, a child gone for no reason. I couldn't sit by.

I traveled from clue to clue, track to track. Finally, I questioned a witness. Only one witness didn't run after seeing me. She was still shaken up about seeing the drive by. I sat with her for a long while. She complained about her parents, school, boys. I envied her. Even throughout her problems, she still had a bed and people that cared about her. I reminded her of this and it seemed to lift her spirits a bit. She then gave me descriptions of the suspects. I recognized the description of one of them, a guy who's wrists I snapped  eight months back. Old friends...in a sense. I'd have to visit his girl's place downtown.

When I arrived outside the apartment, I could hear people scrambling around on the other side of the door. I kicked it open and moved forward. The living space had been completely wrecked. I noticed blood on the walls just before I saw the bodies. They were both the suspect I was looking for and his girl. They'd each been stabbed twice. Blade wounds, I recognized them well.

Suddenly...something else was in the apartment with me. The darkness I ran from...Servants of the Enemy. I felt them. They were close. Two of them.

I slowly turned and faced them as they stood a few feet away. They were clad in dark outfits and wielded swords. They spoke to me in a language most ears could not understand. To me, I heard and understood. After all...they were apart of me.

And I knew their names. I could feel it within them. The one in a bone mask was known as Eliminator and the other, Incinerator.

"Trimus...You didn't think we forgot about you, did you?" growled Eliminator.

"Why? Why are you still chasing me? I left that place behind. It's all yours." I said.

Incinerator cracked her knuckles. "It isn't that simple. You have been missed by our master." 

"You aren't done with us...and we aren't done with you.", said Eliminator.

"I have a life here." I said desperately, nearly begging.

"Haven't you figured it out?", asked Incinerator. "You aren't cut out for saving anyone."

The anger in me began to rise. Who were they to come back and drag me into this?

"I have saved lives. Nothing you can do will change that.", I said with the hope I once knew returning to me. "But I can try my best to take yours."

I reached out, finding my hand gripped against the hilt of my blade. They began to charge at me. I sliced at Eliminator while Incinerator made contact with my body. I could feel extreme heat coming from him, so much that it felt like I was on fire. He pushed me against the wall. Eliminator ran at me, the force of both of them sent the three of us CRASHING through the wall and into the hallway outside the apartment.

The breathe was knocked out of me. I laid in the rubble in a daze and panic. Pain struck my back and right shoulder. Finally, I regained control of my breathing and I crawled away from the rubble. Eliminator and Incinerator got up and kicked me over and over again. I reached out, grabbed and pulled onto someone in need.

I looked up, finding myself in a warehouse.

Two girls were nearby, they both fled at the sight of me. I felt my right shoulder which ignited it in a new wave of pain. When I looked at my hand I saw my own blood.

Behind me, Eliminator and Incinerator appeared from the shadows.  They could travel just like me. I wasn't fleeing from this fight.

That thought didn't bother me. I wanted them gone. All of them, every Servant of the Enemy. They were my failure. They killed my father, brother, and more than likely my mother too. These two were just the beginning of their continued attempts to kill me. It didn't work before and it wouldn't work now.

I had to end this.

I summoned my sword and ran at them. I swung in a fury. Our swords clashed over and over. I was rusty at sword fighting but I could handle these two.

I got the upper hand and stabbed my blade deep into Incinerator's stomach. Turning, I swiped Eliminator's weapon away just as Vastor did to me in our first encounter. I then PUNCHED Eliminator in the gut and watched him fall. Incinerator fell to his knees in agony. I circled them just as Vastor circled me all that time ago.

I finally tasted victory. No more was I trying to save life's. Taking these monsters down was the best I could do for the universe. They are a plague upon existence, one that I caused.

I kneeled down to Eliminator's level.

"Tell your master...she is now the one being hunted. Go. Travel back to your world. Weakness doesn't belong here." I said.

I got up and walked away. After the battle, I took all my processions and moved to a motel. This would be my last night in the world, at least for a long time. I showered, shaved, and ate. Afterwards I felt new. A new person with my purpose reborn. I was going to return home. To the world I was born into.

I was now the hunter.