I got home at some point and when I did I locked myself in the dark and lost myself in the swirling mass of visions. It was fun and sad and pain and everything all at once forever and ever. It was nice to not have to live in my own little world for a while but when I should’ve gotten up I didn’t. I just laid there, ignoring the phone calls from a woman I loved and the wails, questions and conversations regarding the untimely death of a family friend.

What did I see? I saw rome ablaze, I saw New York(the whole state) underwater, I saw Kansas covered in dragonfire and ruin, I saw my family living dying, I saw every possible future no matter how distant or dangerous and after a while I guess, I guess I stopped being able to see what was in front of me. That was until he burst through my locked door.

“So you killed him huh?” Farth said, with his entry I stood up faster than I thought capable of, at the ready with my black/red eyes shining in the low light in a way they had never looked before. “I figure you’d figured it out eventually.”

“Who else knows?” I asked.

“I mean, your mom probably knows what you are, your eyes are a good sign you ain’t just some regular ol’ human. I don’t think she understands or wants to know what you did to that bastard William.”

“I just wanted to ask him questions….I just wanted to know what fucking happened to her.”

“So why did you stab him in the heart.”

“I…I didn’t. I was bleeding out, losing strength. We had a good fight, I subdued him. We talked, he told me what I needed to know, he seemed so sad and the next thing I know he lunges at me and the sword’s in him.”

“And your eyes glow brighter than ever before, your wounds heal and you can stop seeing all types of wacky shit right?”

“Right.”

“It’s fine Arthur. You’re alright, at least to me, because you’re just like me now.”

“Because I’m what? A god?”

“Don’t fookin use that word around me! No! No son, you’re a killer. You used what I’ve been teaching you and you did what I wanted you to do, you killed an out-of-touch, deranged evil evil monster.”

“But now I’m a monster too.”

“Aye, and you’re the worst of all of them, because you don’t just kill them, you take their essence, their life and use it to go kill other monsters to take their souls. You use their powers, and you’ll be the most dangerous monster but not to the poor wee humans. No, you’re the monster against the monsters. Fuck me for calling you this, you’re the god-eater Arthur, and it’s a good thing.”

Farth hugged me when he stopped speaking. He could tell I needed it, he could tell that in the last five months I lost something in me, and it wasn’t due to killing William, or breaking up with Kat, or fucking REDACTED’S death, it’s not even something I know, but his hug helped me find that something a bit and when he let go I dropped onto the bed and called Kat. We spoke for a long time, I told her a lot - not everything, but a lot and when I couldn’t hold back my exhaustion any longer Kat stayed on the phone with me, hearing me sleep harder and deeper than I had ever slept before.