Hatred Be The Path...

Hatred Be The Path...            is a short story written by Bladewood. It is the prequel to '...But Love Be The Savior. 'It is part of the mini-series, "Easy Is The Decent"- the prequel series to the upcoming, "Savior."

Hatred Be The Path...
“Facilis descensus Averno;

Noctes atque dies patet atri ianua Diis;

Sedrevocare gradum superasqu evadere and auras,

Hoc opus, hi labor est.”

-Virgil, The Aeneid 

　

My fingers wrapped tight around the sword’s hilt. I could feel the energy running through the blade, like a million watts of electricity were the only things keeping me focused. My head rained beads of sweat over me, and my left eye throbbed black. A long gash spurting blood was ripped across my chest, and scarlet blood dripped from my nose down my chin. Tears streamed from my eyes. The saltiness of blood mixed with sorrow began to stab at the back of my mind.

I looked up from the blood stained ground. He stood tall above me, much taller than I had thought before. His hair hung low over his face in slicked, white bangs. Sweat he did not, but instead he laughed. His glowing black eyes shook in his head as he reared up a shouted his victory to the world.

And I lay there, knees on the ground. I, the son of Zeus, sat there. This had all happened because of me. Everything. I was the cause…and this was the effect. Hot tears dripped from my eye lids, hitting the snow caked ground below me hard.

“You…you bastard…” I began, but he kicked. His leather boot drove itself hard into my rib. The bone shattered, as if like glass. I felt the pain surge through my spine, the amount of love and happiness depleting.

The man chuckled. “You lost son of Zeus,” he boasted, “because you are ignorant. Love saves no one, but rather destroys them.”

“Shut up-” I winced, grinding my teeth together. The migraine in my head beat hard against my skull, like a solid wood drumstick rat-a-tat-tatting on a drum. I could feel the blood rushing through my body and my veins, depleting by the second.

“You are such a fool,” he laughed. Suddenly the laugh was gone, replaced by the hardened expression of an individual who was out to kill. He lashed out, the tips of his claw like nails creating gashes across my face. A single drop dripped from my cheek, and as it fell, I could feel time slowing down.

I could see my reflection in the drop of blood. My face was beaten and bruised, and the happiness I’d once fought so valiantly and boldly to secure, was now gone…burned away in ashes and anger. Replacing the look of love on my face, was hate. It masked me, and for a second I couldn’t tell who I was…

The man approached, kicking me up off the ground and into his gloved hand. He curled his fingers around my throat and dragged me to the edge of the cliff.

“You made a mistake of coming here,” he hissed. “She never stood a chance, Wood.”

I tried to regain the last of my confidence, but it was gone. Instead of a golden burst of bravery, my stomach was knotted with a burning spit of fire and hate that was slowly roasting me alive.

I spat on his shoes and he kicked me in the face. My nose broke on impact, the bone shattering and the blood spurting out like water from a fountain.

“I’ve known you forever Mason,” he laughed. He held my head up to the sky, kicking me onto my knees. “But you forgot…long ago when we were young…we were told that to trust is to die. But you did not head Master’s warnings…now look where it has gotten you!”

I hissed, my voice cracking multiple times. Blood dribbled down my chin, mixed with bile, mucus, and tears. “Where it has gotten me!? It has gotten me to this! TO FIGHT MY OWN BROTHER!”

“We are brothers,” he hissed, sucker punching me hard across the jaw. “But do not compare us as equals.”

“Roland,” I pleaded, blur creeping up on the edges of my vision. “I-”

“DO NOT SPEAK MY NAME!” he took my head and slammed it into the ground. Suddenly it was as if I had been hit my a thousand freight trains. A blinding pain rain through my skull as a knot began to form over the bloody gash on my forehead. As the sun began to set- the last shred of hope I’d ever see- Roland lowered his lips to my ear.

I could feel his cold breath upon my neck, sending unsettling tingles down my spine.

“Hate be thou path…” he said to me. “And death be thou destiny.”

As the last single ray of sun disappeared behind the mountain, Roland picked me up by the collar….and sent me flying off the cliff.

I closed my eyes as I fell. There was nothing to live for. Death was inevitable…

As the cold air rushed quickly threw my hair, the sound of a million church bells ringing in my ears, I closed my eyes and muttered the last words I’d probably ever speak.

“Hate by the path….but love be my savior.”

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