Story Sneak Peak

I can hear him again, my father. He’s yelling. He beats us; my two brothers and I. Ever since mother left the beatings have gotten worse. I still don’t know the exact reason why she left, probably just couldn’t take him anymore.

I’m sitting on the floor of my room. Well, actually I should say our room: I share it with my brothers. I’m staring out the window, trying to ignore it. But it’s hard to. I can’t hear what he’s saying, but he’s angry again; it’s probably over something small.

I guess we’re lucky that we’re demons and not humans; demons have better endurance and can heal faster after all. But it still hurts. I shouldn’t worry too much, it’ll be over soon and my brother should be alright; we always are. Or at least we don’t end up in critical condition.

No, this time something seems different. He seems more angry, probably drunk or something, but it’s worse. I hear something shatter, probably a bottle, and a scream of pain. Cringing, I close my eyes and try to escape to a happy place in my mind.

But there’s more yelling, and another yelp of agony. I unfold my large, white feathered wings and put them around me, trying to seal myself away from the evils in this house, or at least to try to give myself the illusion that I’m not here anymore.

It doesn’t work; I can still hear it. It’s no use. I fold my wings back and huddle against the wall. But suddenly there’s silence. Is it over? I look towards the closed door; if it is then whichever brother who was abused this time would probably come in.

A loud noise corrected me, it wasn’t over. There was a gruesome snap as a bone was broken, followed quickly by a shriek of pain. Then a thud, as something hit the floor, and silence. I hear footsteps walk away and then stop.

Wrapping my arms around my knees I stare blankly out the window. My eyes shed a tear or two for my brothers and me. And then I hear footsteps again. Not as heavy as the first ones, probably from my wounded brother.

They get closer, going up the stairs and stopping behind the door. I look away, I don’t like seeing them hurt. They fumble for the doorknob and then grasp it, shoving the door open angrily but weakly.

In the corner of my eye I see him; he stumbles over to the wall and leans against it, swearing under his breath. My brothers, like myself, have feathered wings. But one has white wings with black edges; the other has gold wings with black edges. I’m the youngest of the three; he who walked in is the middle.

I try to look away again, but I stop and turn my eyes back to him. One of his wings, it’s bent in an odd way. The skin on the part of it that was bent oddly was ripped and red blood stained the white feathers. His wing had been broken, and it’s a terrible sight, but I can’t stop looking.

He pauses, and turns towards me, several gashes are slashed across his face and neck; blood is pouring down his skin like small, gruesome rivulets. He’s glaring at me with his dark eyes.

“The fuck are you looking at!?” He snarls at me.

“Scollex . . .” I stammer, looking at his heavily injured wing, “Your wing . . . it’s-”

“There’s nothing wrong with my wing!” He hid the bloody wing behind his back, “Don’t fucking look at me!”

I turn away, trying to ignore the world again. But I keep seeing his snapped wing in my mind, and it’s awful. My gaze drifts again to him. He’s facing the wall now; blood is dripping down his back. And he notices me again.

“What did I just say!?” Scollex shouts at me. I try to look away again, but I can’t. His wing is just . . .

“Stop looking at me!” He snarls again, hiding his wing once more. He doesn’t like showing weakness, he doesn’t like being seen hurt, but it’s hard not to look. This is the worst I’ve ever seen.

“I said,” He turns now, fully facing me. A purplish mist appears and swarms around both of his arms as they change into dark claws. Baring his sharp fangs, he glares at me. “Don’t look at me!”

I flinch, trying to back up more against the wall; still not looking away.

“DON’T FUCKING LOOK AT ME!!!” Scollex roars and then rushes forward, leaving a spatter of blood on the wall.

Before I could react, he’s upon me. Slashing with his claws and snarling. Blood sprays around my face, he’s aiming at my eyes. In a second red fills my vision and I close my eyes tight as his claws dig into my face.

I scream in agony, trying to beg him to stop but it only comes out as shrieks of pain. Through the noise I hear footsteps going down the hall, but they’re slow and casual. They stop outside the door. I scream again, trying to get their attention, trying to get them to help me.

The footsteps hesitated, and then continued on. My father didn’t care if he hurt his sons; he didn’t care if they hurt each other either.

Scollex continued relentlessly, snarling and roaring. I could hear blood splash against the floor, it was either from my eyes or from his wing. The pain is unbearable; each slash of his claws causes pain to dance across my face as blood stains my clothes.

I can’t move anymore, I think I lost too much blood. But still, he’s clawing at my eyes. I just hope he’ll think I’m unconscious and leave me alone soon, but it doesn’t seem like it; I don’t think Scollex would have any problem with ripping up something that’s dead.

If he doesn’t stop then he’ll end up killing me, gathering up my remaining strength I shriek once more before laying useless on the ground. Scollex snarls and continues; I guess it was a bad idea.

Maybe not. I can hear footsteps again. But they’re frantic this time, they run up the stairs and down the hall to the room. My eyes are still closed so I can’t see who they are, but I know who they are.

“スコレクス！ 何してるの！？” (Scollex! What are you doing!?) Someone roars as the door slams open.

“Ascaris!” Scollex replies with an enraged snarl. “The little fucker-!”

Ascaris grabs Scollex and pulls him off of me. I can hear Scollex growl and hiss but not protest too much, and then immediately start trying to explain what he was doing as if he was in the right.

I try to listen, but I feel numb. I . . . can’t move my body I . . .

* * *

I wake up. Everything is dark and silent. I try to open my eyes, but I can’t. I’m in my bed, I can feel that. I roll over and try to look around; just darkness. I lift my hand to my face and immediately notice that my eyes are covered in bandages. I touch one and gasp in pain; it still hurts. But I want to see what happened, if Scollex or Ascaris are around.

Grabbing the edge of a bandage over my right eye, I peel it off. There’s another one, so I take that one off as well. I gently tap the skin around my eye; it’s torn up and stings. I try to open it, but it hurts to even try. Bearing the pain, I manage to open it. Still, darkness.

But . . . huh? I wave my hand in front of my face, still there’s only darkness. Stumbling forward I fall to the floor. I feel something on the ground, it’s soft; a feather. It’s probably one of mine or Scollex’s. I take this one and wave it in front of my face as well. Still, nothing but darkness.

I quickly take the bandages off my other eye, it hurts immensely, but I do so anyway. I manage to open it as well and blink both eyes a few times. Darkness. Nothing but darkness.

. . . I can’t see.