章 98: Falsified Desires
Norfolk, England,
Some Distance Off Norwich,
Samuel POV,
On a damp summer day, at a certain beach with calm waves brushing against shore and a gentle breeze wafting throughout the land, a silver haired teenager knelt on the ground with a golden rifle in his hands, resting over the forearm of an arm he himself was holding out.
He inhaled deeply, and then exhaled, his gaze turning sharper in an instant as his finger slowly tightened around the trigger.
Near him stood a crimson haired woman, Runeas Gremory had taken a liking to wearing sundresses and that was what she'd been wearing for two days now. She glanced towards Samuel before peering off into the distant seas, "Those are ships alright, a lot of them." Her tone was one of confusion and intrigue, over the past two days, she'd learnt the silver haired human was a rather intriguing person and as old as she was, that was reason enough for her to be curious.
"Going by time period, those could either be French, Dutch, or maybe Italian." Samuel noted with a strange expression on his face, what in the fuck were any of the latter three doing here? From a technical standpoint, it made sense to take advantage but, he didn't remember any of them being involved in the Hundred Years War.
.....Though, if they were French, then he was going to shoot them down right here. The Hayes did have some British in their line and so technically, he did too.... And, fuck the French.
Well, truthfully speaking though, he'd much rather help the British than the French if he did get the chance and those were soldiers coming to invade, they should have expected retaliation and possible death too.
"Eh, you gonna kill them?" Runeas leaned down with a small smile on her face, she couldn't say she disliked the lack of expression on his face as he did such a thing, she was after all, a devil.
"They're gonna do what soldiers do in a war. Better they die than those they want to kill." Samuel replied shortly and inhaling and exhaling once more, he pulled the trigger.
"Oh My..." Runeas' eyes slightly widened, had she seen someone capable of such destruction yet? Well she had met people who claimed to be able to do so but she hadn't seen anyone actually do it.
A sharp noise, as if something was cutting through the air, was the last thing the people manning the ship heard before a massive pitch black explosion of energy enveloped everything. The calm sea fell into a rage as ships were blown to shreds and hundreds, if not thousands of lives were lost within an instant.
It wasn't as if the explosion was small either. A vortex formed on the sea surface as it hurriedly tried to fill back up the newly vacated spot. The result of a great mass of water disappearing abnormally. Nothing of the fleet, consisting of at least 100 ships, remained, what did went underwater, consumed by the raging waves of the ocean... Though, the deaths had been painless and instant.
"How do you feel right now?" Echidna appeared on his shoulder, a mischievous smile on her face, she'd not stopped him because this time she had an actual desire to help him improve... mentally. The Witch of Greed didn't rightly understand what had happened two days ago but, she was going to find out.... That and, she was slowly finding it harder and harder to value him only for his prowess.
Samuel sat back on the sand, a thoughtful expression on his face, "What?"
"You just killed hundreds if not thousands. Tell me what you feel." Echidna jumped off his shoulder, returning to her actual size and Runeas Gremory found herself somewhat awed at the ethereal beauty of the Chuuni Fairy.
Ophis, who'd only been floating about in the sky, mostly disinterested, looked down at the conversing individuals in mild curiosity, was something interesting about to happen?
".....Nothing?" Samuel sat up straight, a hand over his mouth, his eyes widening in realisation and disbelief, it was true. He felt nothing at killing, no, this wasn't him throwing a tantrum over being numb to killing, that was something he knew and preferred for the most part, "Jesus Christ.."
Had he really missed something so simple?
"Yes, nothing. Now tell me..." Echidna knelt down beside him, shoo'ing Runeas away with her hand, "If you did like killing, wouldn't your heart be beating fast? Getting a rush? Feeling good? Exhilarated? Amazed? Any of these?" With each word, the Witch of Greed got closer and closer, her smile widening to insane proportions.
"...What... the hell are you trying to say?" Samuel looked up at her with confused eyes, his words slow and equally confused, was it all a misunderstanding then? Couldn't be, right? He'd been of this thought for nearly 5-6 years now so understandably, having the actual truth smashed into his face had a rather adverse effect.
"You know exactly what I'm saying. You've never liked killing. You've never hated it, but you've never liked it either." Echidna grabbed his shoulders, deploying a spell so that the two others wouldn't see or hear what was going on.
"That's impossible." Samuel replied sternly, how the hell was that supposed to be the truth? He clearly remembered enjoying it when people died in pain. "Stop fucking with me." He tried to shove her away.... or at least that's what he told himself he tried to do. Echidna didn't even budge from her spot even as he 'shoved' her way.
"Samuel, not even your mother or father know you as well as I do, the world sees an act. I don't. I spent much of my time seeing through your life, I know it all. I watched it all as if I were there. I stood there and watched on as you did what you did. Lie to yourself, lie to the world. You can't hide anything from your Witch." Echidna, the Witch of Greed, spoke in a fervour, not as calm and collected as before. He was being a right idiot.
"I...."
"Yes, you. I saw what you enjoyed. You enjoyed the pain, not the death. Many enjoy it, you're not an abnormality. You're not evil. Your kills were never indiscriminate, that's why you moved to Baltimore in the first place. Why can't you see it when I can? As clear as day, you're not nearly the worst of what humanity has to offer. I'm a living example of that. If anything, I'm proud you can act on your desires! Stop bringing yourself down, please. It makes me feel all wrong for some reason. If someone like you is evil, then what does that make me? People say I have no heart. Why do they say that?"
Samuel's eyes widened, a silence hanging about the air. She.... She was right but, was this really the Witch of Greed? The perception he had of her? Was she supposed to be like this? And why... Why for him? What was wrong with her? Was she mad?
But.... "How are you....." Wasn't she actually right? He.... What had happened just now proved it.... He didn't have any feelings about it ... at all, other than slight regret about the loss of life.... There was no enjoyment... Was he just a sadist in the end?
..... Samuel felt like a fucking moron.
Did he waste nearly 5 years and spend 17 years thinking something completely otherwise?.... Maybe if he talked to someone about it, this matter would have been solved better.
The silver haired teenager froze, completely stupefied by the revelation.
"And about all that you have now....." Echidna, who was by now actually hugging him, her arms around his neck and her head resting on his shoulder, continued, "Use it. You're being stupid. Yes, there's people who deserve something like it far more than you could ever hope to but, the fact of the matter is, it was you who got it. Not them... It's all yours, you have it. You need to use it. It's your right to..... Stop being an idiot..." Echidna sighed, her contractor was an idiot...but, oh well, there was no helping it now.
He'd be her idiot then.
"There's no such thing as being unworthy, it's just something you built up, on a lie."
And then, moments passed in silence.
A small peace before Samuel started laughing and facepalmed, "I'm a bloody retard." He couldn't cry now could he? What twisted irony was this... A Witch had helped him move past himself, a lie about himself, one he built himself.
"Yes... You are."
Samuel punched himself in the face.
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Can I get some thoughts?
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