Prologue - Repletus Est Sanguine

[i]Sigh[/i]

My body hurt so much, it was wet with blood, mine and that of others. This was not how I pictured my day to end, this was not how I pictured my...life to end, but for some reason it felt appropriate.

I was home alone with my sister the night everything changed, our parents were busy with their jobs as usual and would not be home until later. Their jobs usually kept them at night but we got to see them in the mornings for a hearty morning breakfast, it was family tradition to gather in the morning, even I, who had trouble waking early, managed somehow to wake for the traditional breakfast. My sister was downstairs as usual watching Netflix on the television while I was up in my room on my computer.

There was a sudden sound of shattering glass and splintering wood followed by screams and more sounds of things being broken. My mind quickly focused on fight or flight ignoring the fear that I was feeling, my instincts to protect and battle were considerably stronger in me.

Silently rushing down the stairs shoeless there I found a group of six people, four boys and two girls, they had broken into my house and started attacking my sister, the attack was coordinated and premeditated. Not more than thirty minutes after our parents left two boys smashed in from the front while the other four came in through the back, we live on six acres with thick tree lines, no one would see the attack on the house. Their entry path was obvious by the fact that two surrounded her coming from the front and the other four were closer to the back. They wanted to get my sister alone, somehow they even got a sense for my coming and going from the house because I was unusually home, it was a Tuesday and my friends and I like to treat ourselves to a real good meal every Tuesday. My two friends were sick so I was going nowhere that day.

I quickly arrived at this conclusion due to the fact that there was simply too many coincidences.

Like a mad mob they rushed my sister cutting off her screams with the ferocity of their attack. It somehow didn’t surprise me to see her getting thrashed around, she tended to look for trouble and today it came looking for her. Without hesitation I snuck into the crowd by just walking up to the nearest boy exuding no emotion keeping myself a phantom to their senses. Even as I struck the boy with an open palm strike to the lower jaw from behind, they didn’t react quickly enough to his crumbling body. I was already upon the second boy delivering a forward thrust kick to the lower point where his ribs met his hip, a kidney strike. As he doubled over sideways I reached out and grabbed his hair to bring his face forward to meet my knee in a satisfying collision that crushed his nose.

The girl closest to me had a bat and as I stepped back from the second boy she was upon me swinging for my head, she looked like she was screaming but there was a ringing in my ear and all I could do was focus on the things I wanted to hurt. I took two steps forward and brought out my right hand to catch the bat. The blow stung but she didn’t have the strength to truly hurt me. Taking hold of the bat with both hands quickly, I stepped towards her and thrust the bat towards her face, her feeble arms put up an insignificant force of resistance as the butt of the bat smashed into her mouth. She squealed in pain releasing the bat which I then took and twisted, I gave her a spinning blow to the back of her head, she crumbled, unconscious or dead I didn’t really care.

The biggest of the boys by then tackled me, he crushed me against the wall caving in the sheetrock.

I realized that if he managed to pin me I was a sitting duck for the other two and my sister could be taken hostage if I didn’t recover quickly enough. Resolving to even breaking my fingers I stiffened the pointer and middle fingers of my left hand and jabbed with all my might towards the boy’s face. I wanted to stop the attack, it was too brutal, it made me queasy to think of the consequences, but I shut that part of me down and continued. My two fingers struck their target, the boy’s exposed right eye, they met surprising resistance with the eyelids, but that only made me push harder. With slow and sickening resistance my fingers penetrated his eye, the squeal the boy released was sure to haunt me for the rest of my days.

With his eye matter between my fingers I flexed and hooked his eye socket with my penetrating fingers pulling him to one side. As he subconsciously followed to avoid more pain it left him wide open to another severe strike. I released his socket and resolved myself to murder as I moved that hand down to his jaw while I supported his shoulder from the back with the other and gave a powerful push. I felt muscles and tendons do unnatural things as his jaw and neck gave way to a sideward unnatural angle. The boy crumbled to the ground, more than likely dead.

The last of the boys had an actual backbone, he came charging with a knife fully intent on stabbing me to death, but in the way he held the knife told me he had no experience using it. Unfortunately for me the boy was taller than me giving him reach and he was faster, a lot faster and more athletic than I. That knife would make him a very real deadly threat to me combined with the rest of his attributes.

Resolving once more to gamble with my body on the line I let the blade sink into my gut while I, at the same time, struck the boy with an open palm blow to the face. Aided by adrenaline my fingers clawed into the skin of his face as my other hand grabbed his, the one stabbing me as I stepped forward. Stepping back would only give him a chance to stab me again, one hole was better than two. His hand pulled back, I released him and grabbed him by the jeans near his pants pocket, this particular movement along with the forces expressed by my hand on his face exposed his neck to me, I lunged. My canines locked onto where his jugular should be, we tumbled back as my palm on his face muffled his cries. There was a rush of iron into my mouth as my clamped jaw twisted and pulled much like the action of a jaw locked pitbull, by now the other girl had run away.

I stood wiping away the blood from my face with my shirt as I threw it off me.

I was surprised by the lack of pain from my wounds but as I looked down to the knife still in my gut, it was surrounded by the red, a whole lot of red, in fact it was too much red. The boy had cut into an artery, I…I was dying. Well fudge…

I looked up to see my sister looking at me wide eyed, her mouth open wide with shock, there were cuts and bruises covering her face and body. Her clothes were torn, as meager as they were they left her exposed after taking damage.

[i]Cough, cough![/i]

Blood splattered from my lips I didn’t have the strength to wipe away the blood, even my legs gave way now. I dropped to my knees, sheer will kept me from teetering over as the blood continued to rush out of my. For a moment I felt fear, I felt...the finality. I was going to die. Yet I felt peace, even as death continued to creep closer...I felt...tranquility.

“Why? Why? Why?!”

Her words were muffled, I could barely hear her, my senses were leaving me. I could understand her questions though, why was this happening? Why was I hurt? Why did I protect her? I had always looked down on her, it wasn’t something I hid, I made it known that I was displeased with her life choices and circle of friends. While that might be true, she was still my sister, blood is thicker than water, at least to me.

She crawled up to me, I noted one of her ankles were swollen, her crying face came up to mine as her hands trembled as they touched my face. I could barely hear her asking me not to die, begging me not to die, that she didn’t deserve my sacrifice, she cried louder for my forgiveness. For a brief instant I became clear headed and looked at the fight scene around me, at the bodies sprawled about, and at my sister. With the remainder of my strength I brought my head forward bringing my mouth closer to her ear.

“I…love you…and…forgiiiiivv….”

The last was said in a sigh as my world turned black.

*** Wraith ***

Worthy. The wraith fed on that force that transcended reality, its last meal was most satisfying. There are many things that make one worthy of something, those that achieve worthiness of the greatest of things, honor, valor, resolution, absolution, redemption, they are the best. The Wraith had feasted on one worthy of resolution, valor, and honor in the greatest moment of his life, his death, while granting absolution and a chance for redemption to another.

Other Wraiths feast on other worthy achievements, this Wraith however found its fill in this act. So satisfied was it with the achievement that it found itself unwilling to release the worthy one and unwittingly though willingly became the bridge that kept the soul among the living.

Though its time was done in its home realm the soul would continue on in another.