AB-18

Chapter 11

Oscar Skylar

Something weird had been happening over these past few days and it's making me feel... bad. I don't know how but I feel as though I have more control over my virus now and that's scaring me. You may think that it should be a good thing but... I don't know. That kind of power is just... scary. Well, so is the power of killing people but at least I can say that I have no control over it. Right?

"No, no, I don't like broccoli!" a toddler whined.

"We will need some carrots for the lasagna. Oh, and we should get onion rings too." a guy says.

"Nope, we are not getting that - I said NO!" a mother screamed to her child.

So many people here; so many families. They all look so happy and I could just... ruin it. I could ruin it so easily.

I can hear all these conversations- so happy and carefree, not knowing about all the hopelessness in this world. Heck, I am pretty sure these people don't even care about what harm they're doing to the Earth, the very thing for their lives. I mean, I know I can be quite cold sometimes since I have the whole accidentally killing people thing going for me but even I get worried about the planet sometimes with mass extinction and the world burning and everything.

I was in Tesco's trying to find some good, easy food to steal. I know how secure a supermarket like Tesco is but I still went here. I didn't really know why but I think its because we always used to come to Tesco's to buy food. You know, before my parents died and before, well, before my virus, AB-18 came to be. Usually, I can't steal from a supermarket as big as Tesco because of its security. So I go to smaller businesses that are the 'down the road' ones. Like a little corner shop, they're much easier to steal from. They're small, quiet and less busy.

I was still in Tesco's when I saw a little girl crying because she lost her parents. She was probably five or six but despite her young age, I didn't feel much of an urge to help her. Like it wasn't the bystander effect where I just didn't do anything for the sake of thinking someone else will help her. I just didn't even care that she was there. Like it didn't have an impact on me whatsoever.

That feeling of no feelings messed with me, though. I know I have killed people in such a torturous way without much guilt, but I still had a soft spot for children. Well, I guess I used to have a soft spot for them. Not caring enough to help her, I just left her there crying. I hadn't felt a thing by doing that.

Now, you can't think too bad of me. Not when I went through what I went through. I mean I killed my parents, for god's sake! It was inevitable that I became emotionless at some point. I could feel my heart turn colder and colder with every passing day, with every kill and with every drop of blood that spills because of me.

When I had finally found a small shop in a quiet area, I began to take as much as I could. I didn't need to waste my time finding food for Saviour since he can hunt for himself. I've had practice on stealing from a very young age and since then, my crimes escalated from stealing a bit of food to robbing a house to then finally, illegally fighting to get money. At least I got a reputation for myself. That had to count for something, right? Right?

Anyway, what I find as dark humour is the fact that I started my criminal ways with the murder of my parents, not from a little thievery but from murder. Though I understand that it wasn't completely my fault, I was still partly to blame. I still take some responsibility as to was happened to them.

My parents. My parents were just amazing. Well kind of. They weren't perfect but at least they were loving. Thing is, my dad was already struggling with cancer as it was before they died. So he would've died sooner or later. But my mum. Oh, she was just a miraculous person. I loved her very much and to be honest if I had the choice of bringing back a parent I would bring her back. Not that I didn't love my dad, my mum was just- she was just- well, she was my mum. Plus my dad would've died of cancer anyway.

My mother's name was Viktoria Okami before she married my dad and became part of the Skylar family. She was originally from Japan so she had a Japanese name. Okami means wolf. I remember her telling me all about the adventures of the Okami family and how all of them had something to do with a wolf. The wolf always being a white one. Whether it was small, big, fast or strong didn't matter, it was always white. White with purple eyes. Just like Saviour but he is also a huge, strong and cunning wolf.

She also mentioned her father, Isamu Okami a lot of the time. She said how she loved the name since it meant 'brave wolf' and how her father was someone very much like his name. She then told me how my grandfather had slowly started to distance himself from the family until one day, he suddenly killed himself. No one knew why. And when they tried to look for the diary he always wrote in, they couldn't find it anywhere.

This death caused my mum to want to start a new life. It had impacted my mum the most since she was the closest to Isamu then anyone else she knew. She decided she wanted to move to England but once she did, she got very depressed. To get treated, she got a therapist who happened to be my dad, Jayden Skylar. That was how my parents met. In the end, her depression was cured. She had found new happiness in her life.

I find it kind of sad if I'm being honest. I mean, if it weren't for Isamu's death, then my parents would never have met. Like, he had to die for everything to have happened to happen the way it did. Not only that, no one ended up knowing as to what happened to my, apparently mysterious grandfather. Oh, and if you think I'm being disrespectful for calling him by his first name then you should understand that I had never actually met this guy before. So calling him grandfather was just weird to me.

Anyway, once I had successfully gotten away with stealing from the shop, I began making my way to the broken down building that has been my home for the past few years. I had found it when I was running away from the police and ran into the forest as a way of hiding myself.

When I first looked at it, it seemed inhabitable. Like, it looked as if it would collapse at any given moment and it was covered in so much dirt and moss that it looked like it was a small hill if you just glanced at it. I think it was a little building that someone had made a long while ago and was forgotten about or not cared for until I saw it. I hadn't changed its original moss-covered exterior since it was a great way to hide in. The interior, though, I had no choice but to do so. There was even a small river near the place where I could use to clean.

The broken-down building, which is now more of a little hut, had lots of really old objects in it. Full of dust, cobwebs and spiders, the hut looked quite scary but once I had started to clean it, it became much easier for me to breathe in. I had also tried to sell some of the things when I needed to but didn't get much money out of it.

Also, growing up with such little money made me very clever about how to save any money that I had. I remember how I had to get random magazines from places to find little vouchers to then use. Obviously, this was when I hadn't started to steal yet since I was too naive and innocent to do so. Guess I've grown quite a bit since then.

Once I had finally come to the hut, I immediately took all of the food from under my coat and hoodie. Wrappers can be very uncomfortable to have under your clothes, you know. Well, you probably wouldn't know. At least that's what I'm thinking, assuming that you're reading my story from an electronic device, which would be expensive, meaning you have money, so you shouldn't need to steal or put anything under your clothes.

Now all I have to do is relax with Saviour in my little hut isolated in the middle of nowhere. And damn, does that sound good.