Part of Them

Part 10

"Have you set the dinner table yet, Benny?" asked Linda, a kind woman whom I've been living with for about a year now. She took me in when I was wandering alone through the woods one night.

She wasn't able to have children and because of that, she was treated poorly by her husband.

When she brought me home, John, her husband, had been overjoyed to finally have an heir to his guild.

"No, not yet," I answered. Linda was 42 years old and she was starting to fall sick again. Therefore she had to rest in the warm living room on the couch by the fireplace.

I stopped carving patterns into the wooden owl I was currently working on and got up from my chair.

Walking over to the kitchen to start setting the table for us, I saw John through the window. He was standing far away from the house and was looking back at two men while pointing at our home.

Not thinking anything about it I continued to make my way through the cramped hallway to the kitchen.

When I finished putting everything to their rightful places I heard the door break down.

"He's in here!" shouted a rough voice. It belonged to John.

"Where's the demon child?!" boomed another voice through the house.

I scurried over to the window, ready to dive through it if I needed to.

"What's going on, John?" squeaked a small, fearful voice.

"What's going on?! I'll tell you what's going on! The boy we raised as our own son is a demon! A beast!"

"What do you mean? Why would you say something like that? He's just an innocent little boy,"

"Don't you dare to say that again! Gordon saw Benny, if that even is his real name, in the woods drinking a deer's blood yesterday! He sucked him dry, Linda! That boy isn't human,"

Fiddling with the lock of the window I started to panic. What if I couldn't get out of here in time? Why did this lock have to be so rusty and old?

"Now what do you think you're doing, little demon?" whispered a hoarse voice into my ear. The smell of alcohol entered my nostrils and I knew immediately who it was. Finn was a drunkard friend of John who loved to stomp on the little spiders that sometimes crawled through our dirty house.

He was an asshole to say the least.

He yanked me back by my shoulder and pushed me towards the living room. I was trying to bite, kick and to hit him, but none of my methods worked. He pushed me to the ground and slammed his boot down on my back. Hearing a short gasp from my right, I looked up to see Linda staring at me with a look of betrayal in her eyes.

The frail woman got up from the dusty old couch and walked over to me with pure hatred in her eyes.

"I should've known something was off with you when you didn't play with the other children or when I noticed that you haven't grown at all since last year," spit Linda with a cold voice.

How could she switch personalities within a matter of seconds?

Feet were kicking at me from every direction. Whimpering uncontrollably, I watched as my mother figure picked up the knife which I used to carve patterns into wooden figures with. When she walked over to me I started to plead with my eyes wide open.

"No, listen to me Linda. I can explai-" I let out an ear piercing scream filled with terror when she shot the knife straight through my hand.

"Shut up! Let's see if this knife is good for carving into something else other than wood,"

Screaming my lungs out while I was being held down by the three men, the bipolar woman carved a red pattern deep into my back. I felt like I was being skinned alive.

How could she do this to me? I thought she loved me! But she didn't even hesitate to slam that knife through my hand. She never stopped to question whether what her husband was telling was even true. She didn't care. Nobody cared. They all just needed to blame someone for all their pain and misery in this cruel world.

"Die you bastard child!"

"You are a disgusting, weak creature!"

"How could you use me like this!"

"You deserve to suffer the way you made your victims suffer!"

John started shaking me while Linda pulled the knife back out of my skin.

"Do you hear us, little prince? Wake up!"

My eyes shot open and I looked around the room frantically.

"It's just a dream! Calm down, please," spoke a quivering voice next to me, which belonged without a doubt, to the youngest of my brothers.

I whipped my head around to notice that Rosen and Rayi were in the room with me. Rayi was still holding me down with shaking hands and Rosen was trying to calm me down.

"That most definitely wasn't a dream! You scared the living shit out of us! What the hell was that, kiddo?" boomed Rayi's deep voice through the room.

Why did he care so much?

I was gasping for air and the pressure the guys were putting on me wasn't helping me either. I tried to pry Rayi's hands off my burning hot skin and when he finally got the memo and let go of my shoulders, I pushed myself up and darted to the bathroom in a matter of milliseconds. I felt like I was suffocating and if I didn't get some alone time in the next few minutes to even process my dream I'd surely pass out, and if that happened all hell would break loose.

Those guys always seemed so tough, but in reality they panic whenever something goes out of control.

"Open the door or I'll do it for you!" shouted Rayi. If I could answer him, I'd probably tell him how much of a gentleman he was, but I couldn't really talk right now.

I need air! How do you deal with a panic attack? I've never had one before, at least not that I remember.

There was banging and yelling at the door but I didn't really pay too much attention to that anymore. This is bad, like really bad.

Sliding down the white walls of the bathroom, I closed my eyes while gasping for air. I put my hands to my throat to check whether there was actually something blocking my airways or not.

To my surprise, there was nothing there. But it felt like a snake had wrapped around it and no matter how much air I let flow through my lungs, it still wasn't enough.

I was starting to see stars dancing before my eyes, so I let my eyelids fall close to watch the lightshow.

The last thing I took notice of before I lost consciousness was the door flying open and banging against the walls and big arms wrapping around me.

I wonder whether Linda's still alive or not...