Numb: The Genesis

XIII. Power

My stomach grumbled, begging for some adequate nourishment. Anything would've done well. I was alone. Again.

I took out a map and compass from within my coat pocket. My eyes skimmed the browning piece of paper, studying the area. I pointed at where the shipwreck would've been. When I was rowing away from the burning wreck, I remembered directing myself north from the last time I checked the compass. My main goal was to go back home to the Southern Isles but under the circumstances, I had to find someplace nearer since I was suffering dizzying starvation. Squinting, I found a pretty promising place to settle.

"Prime Dock," I spoke to myself, "Not too far away."

Not only was I starving, I was also parched. I wouldn't dare to drink the salt water. "No," I kept telling myself. The sun beamed on my face, causing great irritancy.

My cracking lips were rough and dry. They broke open and blood spewed quite slowly. I avoided licking them, since saliva would make them drier.

"No." My shoulders were straining but I kept rowing. If I should stop now, I would die. "No. No."

Sweat beaded upon my brow. My body's supply of water couldn't retain itself. My eyelids kept drooping. Close. Open. Close. Open. I felt like fainting.

"Almost. There. No. No. Almost." I kept pushing myself. "No. No! No!" I rowed faster and fasting, with blood filling and gushing in my veins. Shaking. Stopping. Crimson filled the cracks of the boat. I felt my skin growing pale. "No." My eyes widened. "It can't be." A corpse rests at my feet, faced up. His scalp was gone, as I remembered. His eyes were as if they were glued open, staring at me. "I didn't do it. I didn't do it!"

"But you did." It's that voice again. It's my conscience talking to me. I swallowed air. "It made you feel good, didn't it? Didn't it?"

"It's wrong!"

"Don't lie to me, Hans. It made you feel... Powerful." I stayed silent. "What great power it is to take a life. Something irreplaceable such as that. Correct me if I'm wrong, Hans." I spoke of nothing. "See? This power of yours... You will do great things. Just like what your mother wanted. A hero."

The horrifying images disappeared into thin air, but not my conscience. I was forever tied to this... Thing.

My hands wrapped around the oars. My famished and thirsty feelings had left me. I continued rowing with the neighboring kingdom in sight. My body became stuffed with happy emotions that pushed me to row faster. Little did I know was what had been put in store for me here at this place I've never been.

Prime Dock.