Sinister Ego : Dangerous Minds

29. Human

I never expected I would see anything like it in my life. It was similar to the judas cradle, but a different kind of revolting, an equally strong but different kind of disgust. Watching Xerxes struggle and scream as Father ripped his body apart. Stomach gone, arms gone, and eventually face gone, unable to be seen by the blood. And Father kept yelling for a king to finally come out, but it didn't, and Xerxes just lay there. Rin and I tried to pry Father off, but he had such a strong grasp. He didn't even seem to notice we were pulling at him, he didn't turn to look at us or flinch at all. He was so wrapped up in the killing.

"Rin... he's distracted," I wondered if we would be able to use this. Find a heavy object and bash his skull in while he couldn't detect us. But I barely managed to crank out the words as I stared at the scene, utterly mortified but unable to turn away.

"Ricky..." his voice was weak and light

"Rin?" I didn't face him.

"I'm going to die too."

"D-dont s-ay th-"

Before I could spit out the final word, Father stood, laughing.

Xerxes was nothing. Gone was the confident young man I had known for such a short, but dreadfully emotional time, and here in his place was a puddle of blood and bone.

Standing in the puddle, blood drying on his feet and dripping from his lips, he kept laughing, his furry tan face crinkling in some kind of form beyond sanity, beyond anything I had seen or will ever see in my entire life.

"Look at your friend. Look at him," Father reached out with both hands to my shoulders and forced me to look.

Rin was grasping his head with both hands, pulling on his hair and clawing at his face.

"He's not looking too good," Father said. "Have you been planting depressing ideas into his head, Ricky?"

"Rin-" I started.

"It hurts, Ricky, please, oh dear fucking god!"

Creases opened in his face, one by one, all over, like there was too much inside his skull for his skull to hold. His eyes only showed the whites, and the heavy breathing was silenced to nothing.

Father smiled. "Well, I know I've planted something in his head."

Rin's lips, eyelids, and earlobes began to swell up as well, cracking and creasing.

Then the green oozed out.

My eyes went wide, and my mind flashed back to that night when the guards left our cells unlocked.
"H-h-h..." I couldn't get out a single word.

"How?" Father guessed. "You know I have power unlike no one else! How? What a stupid ass question. How...just like how I can do this..."

Silence.

Then a loud popping noise.

Then green acid was everywhere, including my skin. And every remaining living being, even Father, was destroyed.

****

Two dead bodies.

One headless.

The other eaten alive from the stomach. Too much power, it seemed, for one man. Man. That was what he was. Human. Sick, demented human. As his power heightened and his fury maximized, he was deteriorating at the same time. And so he snapped. And the acid he had consumed, deadly to humans, finally killed the human who had swallowed it. And his wife, it had probably killed her, too, though she was not deserving.

Rin, a beautiful soul, gone too. Depressing as it was, I knew I would be with him soon, in a better place. Maybe not in a Christian place, but a place all the same. I felt it. I'd be with all who died, in a better world. I didn't cry that we were dead, I was strong. As I laid there burning to death, the acid eating me too, I was hopeful for another life. Because this one was gone. I was burning, alone but the dead bodies, and no one would find me.

I had no hope for any type of life except one that may exist after death.

So I laid there, fading, and did doing thing I love the most. Though all the pain, and for as long a time as I was able to.

Thinking. Clearly, angrily, hopefully thinking.