Crushing Fireflies (TurGre)

Ch. 0 - Crushing Fireflies

In my household, family means everything. Family is your sanctuary, something to protect.

And outsiders, they're not allowed to enter. You must not let anyone in. They're probably trying to break our family apart, take our land, turn us into slaves.

If they insist on crawling closer with their pathetic beings, slaughter them.

Inside the household, you're on your own. If you want to take after your father, you must prove yourself worthy of the throne. You must stay alive.

Your brothers and sisters, they are your enemies. They want to be the next ruler as much as you do, or maybe even more.

You're nothing but a nuisance to them. Your very being is in their way to the throne.

And if you want the throne, slaughter them.

These are the rules to be a good son and not a disgrace to my family. I learnt to kill at a very young age.

I was blinded by fright, and my world could be described with nothing but dark. People I wished sweet dreams would stay awake the entire night.

They were scared that if they fell asleep they would die.

People who I ate dinner with wouldn't touch the food in front of them. Instead, they would sneak some food from the kitchen after dinner.

They were scared that their food might have been poisoned, and if they ate, they would die.

And when we went out, to patrol the town or just to take a simple walk, the mood would become very tense.

He is carrying a sword. She decided to bring her horse with her. He wants to kill us all. She is planning to run away after she's done.

We were blinded by fright, and our world could be described as nothing but dark.

And I saw a light.

It was very small, very frail, very fragile. But it was there, and that was all that mattered.

With long, wavy, brown hair and emerald green eyes, she was my dad's special interest.

And she was the only one who showed me a kindness by saving me from my brothers who were beating me to death.

She gently touched my violet wounds, slowly slid her fingers across my rosy scars as I lost myself in her eyes.

Then I felt her presence in my broken heart.

She gave me strength, she gave me hope. For her, I decided to aim for the very top.

I decided to take the throne and I was going to do anything for it.

And she was going to be my bride.

First, my oldest sister fell, then my brothers followed her. My dad had gone long ago, taken away to Persia, to get tortured and probably to pay for what he had done to them in his very dark past.

I thought it would be the peak of my life when I slit the throat of my last enemy, my last brother, but I couldn't hold my tears back.

My hands, they were dirty with the blood of my own family.

But I had gotten rid of every obstacle, I was the ruler now, I was finally ready to be one with the love of my life, my light.

But she was far away now. And she, my firefly, was flying farther and farther away now.

"You're too young," she said.

"My land is holy, you dirty child shall not reach it," she said.

"You are a monster," she said.

My light was growing dimmer and dimmer, and my world was once again sinking into darkness.

I found out that she was in love.

And it wasn't me.

I couldn't let my firefly fade into darkness, so I did what I could.

I crushed it with my bare hands.