Post by Ravyn Crescent on May 28, 2008 16:38:42 GMT -5
Cain walked silently through the woods to the clearing. His black and tan running shoes moved around the foliage on the forest floor without giving a hint that he was there or had been there. No animal made a sound— it was as if sound did not exist for him.
It was different for the man hunting him.
The dry pine needles cracked, rocks crunched, and sticks snapped beneath his heavy brown work-boots. His camouflage pants and jacket were supposed to hide him, but they did little to help. He didn’t belong there, he was an outsider.
The animals knew it. The birds shrieked their alarm, squirrels bustled about, deer ran. They sensed a predator. This hunter was not after them. He was after the monster.
Cain’s own mother had named him after a demon. It was her mistake that had made him what he was, her choice! Cain suffered for it. His mother had joined the satanic cult, she had let it take her in, she had given her soul, her life, and eventually… her son. His mother had done the deed, made her choice, accepted it, and then realization had hit her hard.
She had screamed when she’d seen him. She had screamed and cried and refused to touch him or even name him for months. She wouldn’t be in the same room without shrieking. She wouldn’t eat anything, wouldn’t drink anything, wouldn’t say anything except bawl about it all being a mistake.
Cain had never been in a hospital, no doctors, no birth certificate. No one outside the coven knew he existed. He’d lived with his mother’s coven while they waited for her to accept him. The members treated him like a masterpiece they had to protect from harm. They worshiped him like he was a god, the coven did… and he had known it was wrong. Only the highest ranking members got to see him, to be around him— they didn’t want any negative influence around their precious creation.
Except Mercedes.
He couldn’t even remember his mother’s name… but Cain remembered Mercedes.
She had grown up in the coven, but she was different. She was fifteen when Cain was born, she was kind, and she secretly hated them all. She’d often tell him that. Mercedes would say the people of the coven were monsters, knowing what they did was wrong but too power-hungry to care. She was not like them, and she said he wasn’t either.
She taught him about the world outside, told him none of this was his fault. Mercedes told him of her plans to escape from this life. She went through the motions, did what her parents ordered her to do, she was a very good actress, but she wouldn’t let go of hope. She said she was going to get good grades, get a scholarship, and go to college, and never return. They would go after her; she knew it and said she was prepared. She watched him whenever she could. Mercedes was around him alone more than anyone else. She taught him things no one else would mention, and the best thing was she had a small portable TV. He got to see what it would be like… out there. He was too young to be able to read, the television was his escape. Even if it was very small, Cain liked the TV. The world described there was always so much brighter. People smiled more, acted different. It was a preferred life and it made him want it.
His mother came to him when he was three, with no apology to him for anything. She named him Cain, and then she killed herself.
Mercedes took Cain from the room when his mother died, while the coven tried to bring her back, Mercedes cared only for taking Cain away from the horrible act.
She cried and Cain cried, too, because she was and he felt she was a good judge on proper emotion. She told him it was wrong, suicide was wrong, and she told him why. Mercedes told him that to kill yourself was to torture everyone who ever knew you, and that you would suffer for all eternity for it. She said it was never an option, and forbid him from ever thinking about it.
Mercedes really wasn’t like the rest of them.
When she turned eighteen, she did get that scholarship and she did leave for college for four years. After those four years, she vanished into thin air.
The coven wanted to go after her, contacted everyone they could who might be able to track Mercedes down, but they had to deal with a bigger loss.
Cain wouldn’t let them focus on her; he let it be known that he wanted to go. They tried to stop him, he wasn’t able to just order them to stand aside and let him walk out. He was nine years old when he escaped. A child, but he wasn’t defenseless as a human child would be.
Now he was sixteen and being hunted by some human who thought he’d get easy access into heaven by killing Cain. Maybe he thought it was the right thing to do, maybe he’d been sent for, maybe someone was paying him to hunt the demon down… Cain didn’t know. He didn’t know this man’s name or story; he didn’t care to find out.
The man stepped into the clearing that night armed with a gun that shot silver bullets. He looked around and saw nothing.
“Come on, d**n it… come out here and fight.”
“You don’t want to fight me,” Cain called from his perch up in a tree.
The man kept his gun in front of him and turned, looking for the demon he was after.
“Come where I can see you…”
“You don’t want to see me. None of you humans do. Ignorant creatures, you don’t understand anything, do you?” Cain sighed.
“Where are you, you demon?” the man continued to search, but the voice echoed. He couldn’t understand how it echoed through that little clearing. If the voice had been louder, maybe it would make sense, but it was fairly quiet. It defied logic, but of course it would, it an inhuman creature that didn’t belong in this world.
“Demon… how do you mean ‘demon’?” Cain leaned back against the tree. They often call people who are cruel by nature ‘demon spawn’. They called Cain that, the humans did, and it was true, but they didn’t like that; they didn’t like that he was alive. People will toss around the word ‘demon’ or ‘devil’ till they meet one, then the word becomes a vile curse.
“What do you think I mean?” The hunter spat.
Cain rolled his eyes. “Oh! Finally talking to me? How kind of you. Demon could mean a number of things.”
“Demon, devil, fiend! What else could I mean?” The hunter grumbled.
“Well, the dictionary has a few definitions. An evil supernatural being. A persistently tormenting person, force, or passion. Or do you mean I am persistent and skillful? Thank you; I do appreciate people who admire my work. I am a real demon at climbing,” Cain grinned.
The hunter ignored the hint to where Cain was. “Stop hiding! Come fight me!”
Cain jumped down to the ground, making a slight thud as he stalked forward, but the sound wasn’t loud enough for the hunter to hear, not that it would matter if he did. Cain didn’t fight, he wouldn’t hurt a person without a good reason, and to kill them? No way. He just wanted to leave. He was always hunted, always! The satanic coven responsible for his birth, the humans, the hunters, all of them went after him! He was ‘evil’ though he didn’t do anything evil. Guilty by association, a familiar offence to him.
This hunter infuriated him, and Cain began to wonder… why did he bother? Why did he hide in his cabin in the forest, going into town only when he needed something? He stocked up in the winter, when he could go into town covered head to foot and pretend to be a tourist. He never hurt anyone, but why? He was damned, everyone said so. He was a monster, why fight it? Why not give in and turn evil? Why not kill this man? He was asking for a fight, had initiated a battle… and it would be so easy.
He walked up behind the hunter silently, still debating everything. The hunter turned, looking for his target, but Cain had learned how to avoid being seen. Humans often pushed their instincts away, so as long as he stayed out of sight they would fool themselves into thinking he wasn’t there. It was as simple as sidestepping to stay behind the man who wore camouflage to blend into an area where he didn’t belong.
Cain wore a simple pair of black jeans, a brown t-shirt with different shades of green splotches, and a buck-skin jacket. He approved of the killing of animals about as much as he approved of people hunting him, but he had used all of the deer. The meat became food, the skin became clothing. The bones were the buttons for his jacket, and the wolves ate the rest. It had been the only thing he had ever killed… and it had been an accident.
Cain blended into the shadows around him, but he snarled, losing patients, and the man finally turned to see him.
The man yelped, surprised, and moved back, his brave act faltering. Cain grabbed the gun and snapped it like a twig. The man swung his fists, but hit only air. Cain wrapped his black devil-tail around the man’s feet and pulled back, causing the man to fall. Then Cain jumped forward and sunk his claws into the man’s shoulders.
The hunter screamed as he found himself staring into silver eyes that were the same color as the moon. Cain pulled his lips back, revealing his teeth to be little more than rows of fangs.
Cain could pass as human, and he was attractive as one. His facial structure matched that of a male model’s as did the rest of his body. His tail, his horns, his claws, his eyes, though… he couldn’t hide those, they were always there. As he got older, his tail got longer, and he now had to alter his clothes so his tail was free to sway behind him, unable to hide it any longer. His hair was dark, dark red, blood-red. Yet his skin was a pale grayish-white caused by his flesh having never felt the warmth of daylight.
The man whispered a prayer and shut his eyes. When he opened them the demon was gone.
Cain ran. He was done, he was through! He couldn’t do this anymore and that had been proven by the blood on his claws. He was a freak! He’d never be accepted anywhere… maybe death would be better. He had wanted to hurt that man, had wanted to tear him to pieces! Cain hated that, because that means he really wasn’t meant for this world. He wasn’t an animal, and humans weren’t supposed to kill one another. He… he was a monster.
Cain leapt onto a tree, climbed it to the top and jumped again, pulling off his jacket and revealing long gashes in the back of his shirt. He let his jacket fall to the ground, something he’d never done before, usually taking good care of his possessions.
Cain’s wings erupted from his back and went through his shirt. He took off through the sky, staying just above the trees. He couldn’t fly in the forest yet, he learned he didn’t have enough control and would crash… that was how the deer had died. He hadn’t meant to hurt anything… it had been his very first flight, as his wings had only recently gotten big enough to carry his weight. The ability to fly could be an easy escape and he had wanted to try. Getting up was easy, figuring out how to stay up took a bit of practice, but landing? He had gone too fast, through the forest, and was concentrating on not hitting anything. His wings were ten feet across as well as he could determine, not being able to reach out and measure, and the trees were close together. When he decided it was time to stop, he couldn’t figure out how to land. If he stopped flapping his wings he’d fall, if he didn’t he wouldn’t slow down. Cain had his feet bellow him, trying to run and keep up with his current speed, but he couldn’t. He pulled his feet up and put them in front of him, folding his wings back behind him and trying to stay balanced. Cain hadn’t seen the deer till after he’d hit it. His shoes hit first, his attention snapped to what was ahead of him and he couldn’t stop. The hit had broken the stag’s neck instantly. He still felt bad about it… yet another life he’d ruined.
Now Cain went up, higher and higher into the sky as dawn broke free. He went higher than he’d ever gone before, too far up to turn back in time, and he wasn’t going to let himself turn back. This world was meant for humans, not monsters like him, and that was evident at daybreak. He screamed as the sun hit him, there was no way to hide from its burn this time, and he fell after a moment, unable to move his wings anymore to stay up.
It should have killed him.
It didn’t.
Cain opened his eyes and found himself on the ground, covered by a sheet protecting him from the sun’s deadly rays. Someone was there, dragging him by his wings. He could feel a single pair of hands pulling, fighting to drag his weight. Then he blacked out again, too weak from the fall.
When Cain woke up the next time he was under a large tent. His arms were free, his legs, his tail unbound… but there were weights on his wings— keeping him down, keeping him from running without making him feel tied down, without hurting him.
Who would know to do this? Many hunters had tried capturing him, they all seemed to assume pulling on his wings would hurt him, and seemed surprised when it didn’t. Cain’s wings were designed to lift him up, but none of the hunters ever seemed to grasp the connection to that and pulling his wings. They always tied his hands behind him if his wings weren’t out, or in front of him if they were. They’d bind his legs together, gag him, blind fold him… hardly ever took his tail into account. The sides were sharp, the bone ruptured through the side of the triangle-like tip years ago forming blades. Cain would whip it and cut ropes. Those who used chains hardly ever caught him, the chains weighed them down too much to keep up with his speed. If they did manage to capture him, chains were hard to use when containing a being that wasn’t tied to anything and could break handcuffs as if they were cheap plastic toys. He always escaped, only to be hunted again... some had been close calls, way to close, and recently it had been getting closer and closer, like they were boxing him in inside this forest and were just waiting for the right moment to attack. He didn’t feel like he was in danger now, he didn’t feel trapped. It might have been because he was so ready to die that he hardly cared if it would happen by his own flight or a hunter’s weapon.
He was in pain, horrible agony. Cain felt like he had a bad fever, that his body was boiling from the inside and knew it was damage from the sun.
“I told you never to do that!” A voice like crystal cried.
Cain lifted his head, thinking he’d see a hunter arguing with another, see the faces of the people who would destroy him… and couldn’t believe his eyes. “… Mercedes?”
It was her… the only human who had ever treated him like an equal, the girl who was the closest thing to family he’d ever had. She looked like he pictured an angel would from the stories she used to read to him. Attractive, caring, compassionate, unafraid of him… she was still slender and tall as she’d always been, but she’d grown up, filled out… become even more beautiful. She should have been a model or an actress, he’d always thought so. Such exquisiteness should never have to be hidden in the dark with the likes of him. Mercedes skin was tan and smooth, hair gold like the light he was denied, and her loving blue eyes that could never contain a scrap of evil intent within them.
Was she really there? He had dreamt her appearance a few times. Her soft hair, her gentle touch, her caring eyes… her hair had been dyed many different colors when Cain had been a baby, usually a light nearly white color under black— light hiding under all the darkness. Now it was her natural blond. Mercedes light blue eyes pierced into his as they always had. Her voice was crystal clear and sounded like music to Cain’s ears.
She moved over and wrapped her arms around him, “You don’t deserve to die.”
“Where have you been… why did… why did you save me?” Cain growled, trying to understand this.
He had wanted to die— it would have finally ended it all! No more hunts, no more running… he wouldn’t be a demon anymore, he’d just be a corpse. He hoped there was a heaven, but doubted he’d have a chance to find out. The human priests condemned him; did that mean he truly had been born d**ned?
Mercedes pulled away slightly, enough so she could look at him, “I should have taken you with me. Maybe then you’d understand what I tried to teach you as a child.”
“Understand what?” Cain snarled.
“Life. It doesn’t matter who your parents are, Cain. You are your own person. Life isn’t fair, we can’t do anything about the sins our parents make. But we can make sure they don’t turn into our mistakes. I tried to find you; I had trustworthy friends helping me, but it got too dangerous. The coven is still after us, but I found out they were active in this area, said they had you penned in here. I had to risk it; I had to see if it was true. It’s taken this long to track you down and I nearly missed the chance to tell you that,” Mercedes said. She smiled and there were tears in her caring blue eyes as she gently removed the weights holding his wings down. Mercedes pulled Cain up and hugged him again, changing her voice to a serious tone. “Now you’re going to stay with me, and never think of yourself as a demon again. Okay? I found ways to escape them, and it’ll be hard for us when they realize they don’t have you caged anymore, but I don’t care. We’re going to get out of here, I’ll teach you how, and we’re going to start a new life somewhere safe. And you’re not allowed to ever try hurting yourself again! As long as you’re with me that’s the law; no more hate toward yourself. You remember from when you were a baby? The rule was the same then.”
Cain smiled slightly, still hardly believing this. He had tried to die, and been given a new life.
“I remember,” he promised. “Mercedes Rule.”