Prologue – Bathed in Blood

Who would have known how my day would have ended? Specially by the form it ended in?

A group of six people, four boys and two girls, broke into my house and started attacking my sister, the attack was coordinated and premeditated. Not more than thirty minutes after our parents left two boys smashed in from the front while the other four came in through the back, we live on six acres with thick tree lines, no one would see the attack on the house.

They wanted to get my sister alone, somehow they even got a sense for my coming and going from the house because I was unusually home, it was a Tuesday and my friends and I like to treat ourselves to a real good meal every Tuesday. My two friends were sick so I was going nowhere that day.

As soon as I heard the doors break down I rushed downstairs to find my sister getting knocked around by the group of six. Even the girls maliciously attacked her. It somehow didn’t surprise me to see her getting thrashed around, she tended to look for trouble and today it came looking for her. Without hesitation I snuck into the crowd by just walking up to the nearest boy exuding no emotion keeping me invisible to them. Even as I struck the boy with an open palm strike to the side of the lower jaw from behind, they didn’t react quickly enough to his crumbling body. I was already upon the second boy delivering a forward thrust kick to the lower point where his ribs met his stomach effectively blasting the air out of the boy’s lungs. As he doubled over I brought his face forward to meet my knee in a satisfying collision that crushed his nose.

The girl closest to me had a bat and as I stepped back from the second boy she was upon me swinging for my head, she looked like she was screaming but there was a ringing in my ear and all I could do was focus on the things I wanted to hurt. I took two steps forward and brought out my right hand to catch the bat. The blow stung but she didn’t have the strength to truly hurt me.

Taking hold of the bat with both hands quickly, I stepped towards her and thrust the bat towards her face, her feeble arms put up an insignificant force of resistance as the butt of the bat smashed into her mouth. She squealed in pain releasing the bat which I then took and twisted, I gave her a spinning blow to the back of her head, she crumbled, unconscious or dead I didn’t really care.

The biggest of the boys by then tackled me, he crushed me against the wall caving in the sheetrock.

I realized that if he managed to pin me I was a sitting duck for the other two and my sister could be taken hostage if I didn’t recover quickly enough. Resolving to even breaking my fingers I stiffened the pointer and middle fingers of my left hand and jabbed with all my might towards the boy’s face. I wanted to stop the attack, it was too brutal, it made me queasy to think of the consequences, but I shut that part of me down and continued. My two fingers struck their target, the boy’s exposed right eye, they met surprising resistance with the eyelids, but that only made me push harder. With slow and sickening resistance my fingers penetrated his eye, the squeal the boy released was sure to haunt me for the rest of my days.

The last of the boys had an actual backbone, he came charging with a knife fully intent on stabbing me to death, but in the way he held the knife told me he had no experience using it. Unfortunately for me the boy was taller than me giving him reach and he was faster, a lot faster and more athletic than I. That knife would make him a very real deadly threat to me combined with the rest of his attributes.

Resolving once more to gamble with my body on the line I let the blade sink into my gut while I, at the same time, struck the boy in the temple with all my might with a frog punch striking him with the knuckle of my middle finger jutting out making my fist a blunt spear. I heard the crack of my wrist as the light in the boy’s eyes dimmed, he stumbled back from the blow and crumbled to the floor, by now the other girl had run away and the boy with the lost eye was unconscious on the ground.

I was surprised by the lack of pain from my wrist but as I looked at it I consequently looked down to the knife still in my gut, it was surrounded by red, a whole lot of red, in fact it was too much red. The boy had cut into an artery, I…I was dying. Well fudge…

I looked up to see my sister looking at me wide eyed her mouth open wide with shock, she closed it and her shock was replaced with panic, fear, worry, and tears. I dropped to my knees as my strength quickly drained away.

“Why? Why? Why?!”

Her words were muffled, I could barely hear her, my senses were leaving me. I could understand her questions though, why was this happening? Why was I hurt? Why did I protect her? I had always looked down on her, it wasn’t something I hid, I made it known that I was displeased with her life choices and circle of friends. While that might be true, she was still my sister, blood is thicker than water, at least to me.

She crawled up to me, I noted one of her ankles were swollen, her crying face came up to mine as her hands trembled as they touched my face. I could barely hear her asking me not to die, begging me not to die, that she didn’t deserve my sacrifice, she cried louder for my forgiveness. For a brief instant I became clear headed and looked at the fight scene around me, at the bodies sprawled about, and at my sister. With the remainder of my strength I brought my head forward bringing my mouth closer to her ear.

“I…love…and…forgiiiiivv….”

The last was said in a sigh as my world turned black.

*** Wraith ***

Worthy. The wraith fed on that force that transcended reality, its last meal was most satisfying.

There are many things that make one worthy of something, those that achieve worthiness of the greatest of things, honor, valor, resolution, absolution, redemption, they are the best. The Wraith had feasted on one worthy of resolution, valor, and honor in the greatest moment of his life, his death, while granting absolution and a chance for redemption to another.

Other Wraiths feast on other worthy achievements, this Wraith however found its fill in this act.

So satisfied was it with the achievement that it found itself unwilling to release the worthy one and unwittingly though willingly became the bridge that kept the soul among the living. Though its time was done in its home realm the soul would continue on in another.