Page 100 of Pet: Torment

My breathing becomes choking and I can no longer inhale. I’m dying. My eyes are wide as I stare into the night sky at the unfamiliar constellations. I don’t feel fear as I float near the edge of life and death, however. I feel…euphoric.

I focus on the pulse that isn’t mine, and the more I focus, the more it feels like a physical presence that I can touch. I close my eyes, focusing on it until I am pulling it into me—anything to stop this pain.

It isn’t much, but it works. Though the pain is excruciating, it dilutes just a fraction. I need more…I need…life.

My father taught me consumption at a young age. He wanted me to be able to mature as a Celestivine sooner than anyone before me. And while I learned the basics, we were stillpracticing on smaller things—like plant life. He never warned me how thrilling it was to take lives of living beings.

The world is vivid, shining around me in more ways than one as I walk through the society my mother built for herself. It disgusts me, the trail of lifeless Leviathan bodies, proof of how pathetic these beings are as a whole. One touch from me, and their lives end as easily and swiftly as the wind. It’s laughable.

And as more run from me, I continue that laughter. The terror in their eyes as they scream for my mother to protect them is pathetic. I can feel everything around me. The air, the pulse of life, the ocean in the distance. I can feel it all. Even the planet’s life…I can feel it. My wounds have not only been healed, but I have somehow given myself more energy—more power than I thought possible.

I laugh in excitement, speaking in the Celestivine language.

“Run, hide, and pray to your Aureon that I do not find you! I will consume everything!” I shout.

I flinch as a pulse I’ve never felt before suddenly appears. It’s powerful, and it’s hostile. And as I turn to follow it, it pulls me from the haze that overtook me.

My mother stands over me, a look of horror mingled with fear on her expression as she looks from me to the bodies I’ve left in my wake.

“What have you done?” she murmurs.

I tense as I feel a heavy weight pulse over me. I try to fight it, but I can’t. It’s too powerful for me. My mother looks back to me, her expression shifting to concern for the first time since she took me from my home.

Tears well up in my eyes, spilling over.

“I want to go home, Mommy…please,” I sob.

She furrows her brow, looking up at the sky. I note that her eyes glitter slightly.

“Remus…this is your home. This has always been your home. Is this how you treat the people who took you in?” she asks.

I narrow my gaze, stepping back.

“This is not my home. These are not my…” I trail off, no longer able to voice what my people even are. My mother watches me with a strange expression, and I flinch when I feel a tickle in my mind.

“This…isn’t my home, mom,” I say. It’s all I can say. It’s all I can cling to. She slowly reaches for me, and I let her, enjoying the physical contact for the first time in months. Her touch is soft as she caresses my cheek, wiping my tears.

She releases a soft sigh, her expression chilling.

“This has been stressful for you, hasn’t it? It’s awakened you far too soon,” she says.

Her touch slowly grows increasingly uncomfortable. It feels…draining.

“Mom…?” I murmur.

She smiles, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. It’s to soothe me.

“It’s okay, Remus,” she says.

My body feels heavier, and I stumble, my legs slowly giving out as I collapse. But she doesn’t catch me. She lets me fall to my knees. It takes me a moment to realize the world around me is darkening. It creeps around me, clinging to every piece of my body. And as my mother removes her touch from my face, I notice the glimmer in her eyes. They glow with power as she locks me away.

“Mom…please…I want to go home,” I murmur. I barely have the energy to speak.The darkness is physical as it clings to my clothes, covering me until I can no longer see my fingers digging into the dirt. I’m terrified as the eerie darkness consumes me.

“Please…no,” I say as the darkness continues to creep in. I look at my mother one last time, hoping for at least agentle expression. But I see nothing in her eyes. Nothing but determined hatred. My mother offers me no words of comfort as the darkness consumes me. My mind slowly goes blank, and I can’t even remember why I was so sad in the first place. It consumes me, until I can’t even see my mother’s face any longer.

I am alone in this crushing darkness. It encompasses me, becoming a part of me until I can’t think of anything else. I have nothing else in my mind. I barely know who I am. There is nothing anymore.

Only silence.