Halo And Horns

Chapter 15: Wrath

Goosebumps rose and spread through his skin like a river-stream let loose. His chest felt heavy as his heart started pounding away inside of it. He forgot the pain his body was in when his stomach fell into a pit inside his body and the pain in his heart was far greater than anything external.

His infant son cooed happily in Nick's arms and Nick held him close, grinning ear to ear, his cold blue eyes staring a dagger through Sam.

"Please," Sam pleaded. "Please give me my son."

"Nope!" Nick shook his head, cheerfully.

"Please."

Nick laughed, a shocking maniac laugh and pulled his left hand away from the baby, now holding it with one hand which made Sam's heart leap, he'll drop him. But Nick's hand went into his pocket and when it came out, it held a bloody pocket knife. The blood still fresh on it. Blood of three different people, if not more.

He raised the knife up to the baby's face and gently stroked the tip of it across the baby's cheek, leaving a streak of blood at its wake. The baby cooed and wiggled in his arms. He held it tightly, now the tip of his knife under its chin.

"Don't do it," Sam pleaded again.

"Why?"

"Why are you doing this to me? What have I ever done to you?"

"See, that's just it, isn't it? You think you never done anything wrong," Nick stated. "You think you're so great just because you smile and show a kind face but deep down, you're just as selfish as anyone else. You asked me what you did? You didn't do anything. You really didn't."

"Then why?"

"See, when you choose a road like mine, you can't go back. It's a dark road and it swallows you whole. When you start killing, you can't stop. You will find reason to do so."

"I don't get it," Sam said.

"To put it simple, it's your turn to suffer."

"You don't have to do this." Sam took a step inside.

To stop him from getting closer, Nick pressed the tip of his knife harder against the child's skin and as he wanted, Sam stopped in his tracks. "You have had a great life. A happy family. You had great parents and always got whatever you wanted. You were so happy. Free from the suffering this world has to offer while I suffered."

"You could've had a great life," Sam started. "Once you moved away you could've lived however you wanted. You didn't have to kill; you could've just lived quietly and happily."

"You don't know what I have been through!!" Nick yelled and the baby in his arms started wailing. Sam glanced at it worriedly while Nick ignored it completely, looking at Sam, furious, his arms trembled, tiny droplets of thick, wet blood dripped onto the baby's white covers from the blade of his knife.

"It disgusts me to see people like you," Nick continued and Sam looked up at his face again, tearing his eyes away from his son. "People who have never felt suffering or pain out of the ordinary."

"It's not my fault," Sam fretted. "I followed the rules and did my best to live as quietly and as happily as I could. You could've done the same. You could've simply followed the laws, worked for it."

"Simply?" Nick repeated, bemused. "You think it's simple for me just because it was for you? Something which is simple to one may not be as simple to another. It's not very wise to assume things like that." He slowly pushed the tip of his knife into the baby's throat, the point of the knife slid in smoothly and the rest of it followed. The baby's cried turned to gurgles then stopped. Blood oozed around the wound, soaking the white cloth that covered the little boy and drenching Nick's hand in crimson. Blood splattered loudly onto the white tiled floor.