“Sebastian, can you grab the butter dish please?”

“Sure babe.”

Drying his hands with a nearby towel, the young man stepped away from the sink and walked around the brand new kitchen counter. Navigating his way through the cupboards and trying to remember where they placed their dishes, the butter dish was quickly found. Sebastian picked it up, turned around and walked over to his wife with a smile.

He felt himself hit something solid with his foot and he grimaced slightly, stumbling forward and dropping the butter dish which scattered across the floor with a loud bang. Sebastian winced and groaned out with his eyes closed for a moment, looking down at his foot. He had stubbed his toe on the counter.

“Sorry I dropped it-”

Looking back up with an apologetic smile, Sebastian prepared himself to start picking up the shards until he saw her standing in front of him with some anger on his face. Stunned, he didn’t even move when she reeled her hand back and slapped him hard, leaving a red mark across his cheek.

“Can you not even get me a butter dish?!”

“Hun it was an accident-”

Another crisp slap rang through the air, forcing his head to turn from the force as another red mark was left on the other side of his face. The look in his eyes abruptly dimmed their light, filling instead with a frost. The husband began to talk, as if the woman in front of him wasn’t even there.

“I see. This is your revenge.”

With a sigh, he closed his eyes and the scene disappeared.

“Honey! I’m back!”

The man put his Iced Cappuccino down and placed the bag of groceries on the floor, closing the door behind him and sealing away the cold night air. Gently placing his jacket on the hook, he picked the bag and his cappuccino up before walking towards the kitchen.

“What’d you get?” His wife’s voice echoed down the hall from the living room and was soon accompanied by footsteps. Sebastian smiled and rummaged through one of the bags hiding the surprise, an ice blue dress he had bought with the surprise bonus his boss gave him. Times had been tough, so he wanted to give her something nice for once.

Sebastian took it and held it out in front of him, only for his wife to walk in and stop in place upon seeing it. Her expression darkened and she looked him in the eyes. “What’s this?”

“It’s a surprise. My boss gave me a bonus yesterday so I thought-”

“You thought? Thought what? Why didn’t I know about the bonus yesterday? I could have used it to pay bills!”

“We have enough this month and I thought it would be nice-”

“Nice!? You blew maybe your only bonus on a dress and you think it’s nice!?” She stepped forward, grabbing the dress and reeling a hand back before Sebastian was slapped hard in the face. His eyes grew vacant quickly as he watched her tear up the dress.

“You know I’m supposed to know about all the money! How else am I supposed to manage our finances?” Sebastian smiled wryly and just nodded along, not hoping to continue the argument. “I’m sorry..”

“Don’t be sorry. Be better.”

“Wanna watch a movie tonight?”

Sebastian spoke quietly as he dressed in his pajamas, having long remembered that she hated loud noises around this time of night, particularly if his voice was too loud. It was hardly above a whisper, yet some anxiety still lingered within that it was too much.

“Not in the mood for a movie tonight.”

“Oh. That’s a shame. Sorry.”

“We could do something else, though..”

She closed the book in her hands and placed it on the nightstand beside her, taking off some of the covers and gesturing for Sebastian to get on the bed. His brows furrowed and he felt cold sweat run down his back.

“I’m not really in the mood tonight..”

“You’re not?”

“N-no..”

She smirked; in a way that Sebastian couldn’t quite tell if she wanted to be sultry, mischievous, or menacing. Her eyes though, they shone coldly. “Get on the bed.”

It almost looked like blood and snow, the way it splattered against the white porcelain sink beneath him. Blood dripped down the length of his arms and from the knife in hand and splashed into the water, spreading through the water pooled in the sink like a plague. He needed to first fill the sink so that the blood fell in and was cleaned easily, otherwise he’d mess up again.

Sebastian was tired of messing up. He wanted to be better for her, he didn’t want to keep making mistakes, he didn’t want to say no to her. He wanted to be the best he could be for her, to show his love and do whatever she wanted and needed. That’s what love is, right? Doing whatever they want?

The feeling that compelled him to use his skin like a cutting board was guilt right? He felt guilty for not being good enough for her? For not listening and making too many choices that she should be making for him? The cuts were punishment for that, right? Why else would he feel trapped and useless?

Making sure he didn’t cut anywhere that couldn’t be hidden, he cleaned the cuts, bandaged them tightly and left the bathroom to grab a sponge to clean any blood that missed the sink. The only issue was, he heard the front door open and close on his way back. The footsteps moved towards the bathroom, and then..

“Sebastian? What the fuck did you do to my bathroom?”

It was ironic to Sebastian, almost. He sat there in the endless void, watching the different scenes in his life where he felt powerless, controlled, trapped. Like the CCTV monitors a security guard watched. Were they shown to him in this format like that on purpose? Because he was a security guard and that presence had a sick twisted sense of humour?

His gaze travelled across the different screens, often skipping back and forth between time as he watched scene after scene. If he looked too long, he’d be drawn into a memory. So he had to keep moving his gaze, reliving those years a little bit at a time.

Deep down though, a part of him refused. It refused to look at one specific scene, refused to look at the scene with the crib, the one filled with furious roars and angry screams. Sebastian’s eyes gazed over it once and then pretended it didn’t exist.

While he refused to watch, he also refused to close his eyes. His past was his, no matter what it was. He’d own it. And he would conquer it. That is, if he wasn’t suddenly woken up by a hard smack to the back of his head.

All over the planet, amidst the forests, swamps, tundras and mountains; tall figures appeared with a flash. With burning wings or claws of ice, green scales or rock-like skin, each figure was formed from a myriad of unreasonable traits that no animal would naturally evolve. Their auras alone scared the wild beasts away, though not even they dared to threaten the oldest among those living within the wilds.

The figures all stood solitary, having each appeared alone. Their gazes naturally drifted towards their surroundings where they each eventually settled on a certain direction, in which they smiled in synch, and then bolted off.

The hunt began.

Slowly opening his eyes, feeling slowly returned to him. A nightmare was the best description for what happened, but many worse things could have been shown. He wasn’t sure if he should be thankful he hadn’t been forced, or feel taunted for being so powerless in the face of his own memories. Forced to drudge every single one up to the back of his mind instead of their cold dark prisons they had long been caged in. Whatever that entity was, it fucked with his mind hard.

[Congratulations on not kneeling, Sebastian Albrecht]

[To kneel either means great strength or incredible weakness]

[You have lived up to your name]

Did Scorn just joke? About his name? Sebastian rolled his eyes, ignoring the red text in front of his eyes and dismissing it immediately. With a twist of his wrists and rolling his shoulders back and forth, a moment was taken quietly to stretch and wake up entirely from the nightmarish ordeal. He couldn’t afford to be so.. melancholic, not with the convoy behind him.

The familiar feeling of something slithering up his legs and the sound of a happy hiss brought Sebastian’s gaze downwards towards the form coiling around his body slowly, Therein happily making its way back up and snuggling up on his shoulders, as if it was in its rightful place.

When it was settled in, his gaze was finally brought up towards Dallas. The man now naturally carried a fiery aura to him, albeit it felt unstable to Sebastian. Assuming he just had a breakthrough, he nodded towards him.

“Congratulations.”

“For? I’m still nowhere near you.”

“You’re getting closer.”

“Too close and I might burn up. I wouldn’t be able to handle the fucked up shit you do.”

“What? It was only breaking the seal over earth and resisting the mysterious entity that placed it there.”

“.. What?”

“You heard me.”

“You’re a crazy bastard.”

“Blame my ex.”

Sebastian chuckled and waved his hands dismissively, looking back towards the crowd behind them. He felt a vague force permeating the air between them, and it slowly gathered around his body yet remained unseen to the naked eye. Only through the mysterious connection he had with the world could Sebastian sense it, and that was only given by his profession. Was it belief? If so, that would make sense as to why that connection could sense it. He didn’t feel any different though, so he decided not to bother with it at the moment.

Dallas though was clearly getting impatient, coughing quietly and patting his shoulder to return the bladesman's attention to their conversation. “You.. feeling okay?”

“Good enough to fight.”

“Aren’t you worried about the beasts within..?” He gestured to the Primordial Forest with his eyes. Dallas was clearly worried about the dangers. None of them expected the wall to be there, or that what was beyond it.. wasn’t Earth. Or was it? With an idea coming to mind, Sebastian quickly spoke within his mind.

Scorn?

[Sebastian?]

Mind telling me why there’s an ancient forest beyond the wall and not a road?

[Insufficient Authority]

Rolling his eyes internally- was that possible? Anyways, he shrugged and looked back towards Dallas with some focus. “It’ll be fine. Either way, we have to keep moving. I shouldn’t have issues with anything below Lv. 20, maybe Lv. 19, so as long as we don’t go too deep, we should be fine.”

“You’d rather enter the forest? We could still go back-”

“No, we can’t. The city has become home to new predators, they’re mapping out their territory and they’ll be fighting over it. The forest already has it’s boundaries set, so as long as we clear a weaker area with fresh water, we’ll be fine. Food would be the only issue. We’d have to hunt.”

Dallas nodded silently, his expression eased slightly. Seeing this, Sebastian decided not to tell him he was talking out of his ass. All he knew was that he had a bad feeling about staying within the city, so he tried to convince Dallas not to.

“Come on, Boss. Weren’t we planning to escape West Cairn?”

“We made it.”