A Path of Blood

Chapter Fourteen: Shadows and Tattoos

Chapter Fourteen
Shadows and Tattoos

✵ ✵ ✵

I left Renzo at home and told him I had somewhere to go. I hoped he wouldn't hit on Rhy and make him uncomfortable as he already was whenever my brother was near. I could almost smell the tension between their exchanged glances and Rhy might be trying to hide it, I knew he wanted my brother in more ways than one.

I rode my motorcycle and sped through the streets, dodging vehicles, pedestrians, and awe-stricken faces. As the engines roared like a growling tiger, the wind rushed past me, ruffling my silver locks. I didn't wear my helmet as well as my ruined cloak.

I stopped in front of the dilapidated and crumbling laboratories in the Verginbolt compound. The whole place was surrounded by yellow tapes but the little kids had ignored the warning and played inside, jumping from fallen boulders to fallen boulders and playing knights with the metal rods they had picked from the ruins. Some of them carried sacks while they looked for anything they could find to sell. A little girl stared at me as I hopped off my transport. Her small hands held a sharp shard of glass. I approached and knelt in front of her. A pair of brown eyes bore into mine and when she noticed the unusual color of my irises, her jaw fell to the ground.

"Are you lost, little girl?" I asked and gave her a gentle smile.

"No," she whispered. Dirt smudged her cheeks and dust covered her dark hair.

"What are you doing here then?"

"Are you a Wielder?" she said, ignoring my question.

"Yes, that is correct," I replied and patted her head. "Why do you ask?"

"My mother said Wielders are a special kind of humans." Her eyes glittered with excitement. "She said the Universe chose them to protect the Civilized Lands against monsters!"

The delight in her voice brought a genuine smile to my face. But the stories her mother had told her were so wrong in so many ways. We were not protectors. In fact, we were the monsters.

I never told her any of that and what things my kind had done in the past and would do in the future. Sighing, I nodded to her and tousled her hair.

"I wish I could be like you!" she squealed, stabbing and slashing the air with her glass like a full-fledged warrior.

She was innocent and pure and I saw my young self to her. The difference was that the world took those away and turned me into a murderer, a mercenary. I could only hope the world would not be so cruel to her as it had done to me. But living here in Corona, the chances were slim.

The same feeling I had when the man hiding in the alley stared at me and clawed at my gut once more. I stood up quickly, startling the little girl, and looked around. But to my dismay, I didn't see the face inked with tattoos. Maybe it was only in my head. The man was really nowhere to be seen.

"Be careful with that shard, okay?" I said, pinching her cheek. She nodded vigorously. I turned around and ambled past down the street filled with garbage and pieces of concrete cement.

The wind carried the little children's laughter, making me stare at them for a moment and ponder what it was like to be normal without the burden of being unaccepted. I was so different in so many ways the people I encountered had a hard time understanding what I was. First was how I insisted I was human, second was the strange and unnatural color of my eyes and hair, and third was the peculiar ability I wielded—which puzzled them most and made them look at me with horror.

I never had even the slightest idea of what truly happened to my parents. All I knew was that all the rescued children from the affected areas nearest to the war front had been gathered. An authoritative decree straight from the Supreme Council itself ordered all families with no more than two children to adopt one from the rescued children. A couple in their mid-forties, already struggling to make ends meet for their family of four, had no choice but to take me in. Their unwillingness was shown through the meals they had provided.