Crimson Tempest

      "You are not worthy enough to share our title.  You are a mere underling, and serve only to remind us what it is to be weak."  Fenrir awoke, yet another of the dreams that plagued his concience and ripped at his very soul.  "I can't keep living like this," he says as he lights a cigarette.  It had been three years since the incident that had given him his freedom, three years since he lost his only friend.



      "Another dream?" Asked a tall young man from across the darkness of the room they had acquired for the night.  He had brought along another young man named Timaeus to ensure his escape.  Though he was only meant to be used as a diversion, Timaeus proved his worth after tearing the hearts of three gaurds from their chests.  "You really need to let the whole Raido thing go. what could you have done to save him? what could any of us have done?" Timaeus said coldly.  "We could have killed Knight,"  Fenrir replied.  "And we would have died too, you know that he's the strongest out of all of us.  We're the only two who want to take him out.  It was two against twenty, Fenrir. There was nothing we could have done.  Exhaling a drag of his cigarette Fenrir replies,"We could have won."  Timaeus turns and sits facing away from Fenrir.  "That's what you always say, but is there any truth to it?  We couldn't beat him then, what makes you think we can beat him now?"  Fenrir remains silent with his head hung low from the shame and realization that Timaeus is right. 

               

        Timaeus apologizes and goes back to sleep while Fenrir stays awake for what seems like the millionth time in his life.  "What is it that makes you a warrior?  Is it your strength?  Your cunning in the heat of battle?  No, it is your ability to persevere through the worst of situations, to make the impossible possible, and to turn certain tragedy into triumph.  These are the qualities that make you a warrior, remember this, you are not strong until you know what it is to be weak, and you are only weak when you fail to see the strength that I see in all of you."  With the words of his former teacher ringing in his very soul, Fenrir grabs his sword and runs out into the night. 

     

          "HELP!"  The screams of a young woman ring through the darkness of the city streets.  Two men have a young woman cornered in an alleyway.  "What do you want?  I cant give you money please leave me alone!"  The woman says with tears pouring from her pale, blue eyes.  "Lady we dont want your money, just you," replies one of the men grabbing her by the hair.  The woman screams, "please no!"  "Shut up bitch!" screams the man slapping her, sending a spray of blood from her mouth.  The woman falls limp in the man's hands.  Smiling maniacly the man says, "looks like this bitch is gonna be an easy fuck, huh man?"  His accomplice just stares in horror at him.  "What, you got cold feet," says the man throwing the woman to the ground.  The man goes to grab the other, but as he does the man literally falls to pieces.  Blood sprays all over him as the thud of dismembered body parts echo through the alley.  "What the hell is going on," says the man, backing away.  The man looks around frantically trying to grasp what has just happened.

 

    Fenrir's voice rings into the darkness, "what is happening is you are getting your just deserts, and they will be oh so sweet.  What a shame you won't be alive to taste them."  "Get back man, I'll fuckin kill you," replies the man, with fear in his voice.  "Death is for the weak, and that is what you are.  It is true that the weak shall inherit this wretched world, but I'll be God damned if I'll let you be one of them!"  With his last words still echoing into the darkness, Fenrir's sword tears the man in half, coating Fenrir in a thin layer of blood.  "What a shame, I gave him all that time to run away, and yet he didn't take it.  Now I give you a choice woman, you can lie there and forget what you saw, or you can join the others, and rest in pieces."

                                                                                              (To be continued...)