Monster. What is the definition of a monster? A creature of nightmares? Or is it something more sinister?

This was the question that plagued me ever since her passing. A heavy iron scent penetrated my nostrils, making me crinkle my nose in discomfort. Looking down at my hands, I noticed they were covered in blood. She smiled as she lay dying, noticing my sudden discomfort. Was she happy that I had finally started to question myself?

Ever since that day, I’d started to watch my family closely, judging their actions. I was especially harsh in my assessment towards my ‘Father’, a man who used his family as a set of personal assassins who did his bidding. Mind you, we were all orphans kidnapped by him. My siblings followed him without question, trying to drown each other just to get his attention.

Slowly but surely, I started questioning everyone.

I remember that sort of desperation. I lied, cheated, and stole just to impress him, like a dog wagging his tail to his master after a game of catch. Was I really that brainwashed? I am not that kind of monster; I refuse to be.

I was sick and tired of that kind of life. Everyday it was the same thing. “Please, my son, release this man from his sins; please, my daughter, protect our family from his desire to separate us,” my father would politely and affectionately ask us to murder people in a way that felt justified. His words were like sweet poisonous honey to everyone. We all wanted his approval. Including me.

When I lost the girl very dear to me, I ran up to him in tears, my knees shaking as my legs collapsed under their own weight, he looked at me like he had a cockroach on his dinner plate.

I tried to tell him about her demise, but as I cried out in front of him, he tiredly sighed as though he simply couldn’t be bothered with me.

That moment was when the scales really fell from my eyes. This man didn’t care about me, much less any of my other siblings. So I decided to escape.

I smuggled a ride out to Alaska the first chance I got. Even though I hated the cold white snow, Alaska had significant meaning to me.

It was her resting place.

Probably not a smart idea, all things considered. It was very predictable for me to go there, but a part of me couldn’t resist going back. I needed to say goodbye to her.

As my boots marked the snow, two of my siblings surrounded me. I had just gotten out of a small hotel building when they pulled out their knives. No guns? I pondered. They wanted to make this quiet.

“Hello Fyodor,” my hand waved at my older ‘brother’ nonchalantly, before locking my gaze with Sonia, my younger ‘sister’, “Been a while, Sonia.”

I looked calm and collected on the surface, but deep down I was sweating buckets. I knew they’d find me, but I didn’t think it would be this soon.

“Nothing personal, just Father’s orders,” Fyodor said, twirling his knife.

“What? Are you kidding me?” Sonia glared at our elder brother, “This woman had the gall to abandon us. I’m making this personal!”

Seeing as I was stuck in the worst possible situation, I bolted straight out of there. Taking on both of them at the same time was guaranteed death for me.

I didn’t make it far before I felt a stinging pain in my ankle. Intense heat swelled from my foot to my leg, making me collapse. Fyodor’s knife breached through the armor underneath my clothes. His strength was always so damn terrifying.

Immediately afterwards, I yanked out the knife lodged in my ankle, catching a glimpse of my flesh mend itself back together as I jumped back up and flung the knife back at Fyodor.

Sonia snarled and charged at me. Instinctively, I grabbed a pile of snow under my feet and threw it straight at her eyes, blinding her.

A crowd started to gather, taking pictures with their visors. Taking this opportunity, I swam into the sea of people, using them to lose my pursuers.

My siblings were right on my tail, even with all the distracting bodies swarming around me. I saw a glimpse of a shining metal at the corner of my eye.

Then, a deafening sound breached my ears; a searing pain ate at my sides. My vision turned red.

I found myself in a forest, running from my pursuers and bleeding to death. My lungs burned as my throat choked on air. What I didn’t know at the time, was that while I was able to escape my siblings, I’d find myself at a much more dire situation...in a whole other world far different from my own.