Page 62 of Ruin

The sound of boots splashing through the water snapped me back to reality. I turned to see a group of men advancing toward me, their swords gleaming wickedly in the faint light, their eyes filled with malicious intent. The man leading them—his face weathered and scarred by years at sea—laughed, a cruel sound that cut through the night like a blade.

“So sorry about your father, boy. You will be seeing him soon enough,” he sneered, his voice dripping with venom. The others laughed, a chorus of vicious amusement that only fueled the inferno of rage within me.

The fury inside me erupted, my body moving with a speed and strength that I did not recognize as my own. In an instant, I was upon the man, my hand wrapped around his throat, his eyes bulging with shock and fear. I had him pinned to the sand, his life draining away beneath my grip.

“What did you say to me?” I hissed, my voice low and deadly.

Before he could respond, my teeth sank into his neck, tearing through flesh and sinew. Blood spurted from the wound, hot and thick, as his life drained away beneath me. I recoiled in horror as the taste of blood filled my mouth, but some dark, primal part of me reveled in it. My tongue flicked out, licking the blood from my lips, savoring the coppery tang as the hunger within me roared in triumph.

The other men stood frozen, their expressions twisted with fear as they watched in stunned silence. But I could feel the beast within me taking over, driving me to slaughter them all. One by one, they fell, their blood splattering across the sand, their screams filling the night air as my teeth tore through their throats. It was as if I was possessed, my body acting on its own, driven by an insatiable hunger that demanded to be fed.

The last man stood trembling, his face pale with terror as I approached him. He knew he was going to die, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. I could see the fear in his eyes, smell it on his skin as I stalked toward him like a predator closing in on its prey. He did not even struggle as I sank my teeth into his neck, draining him of every last drop of life.

As the final breath left his body, I stood amid the carnage, drenched in blood, my heart pounding with a dark satisfaction that filled me with both horror and ecstasy. I stared at the lifeless corpses around me, the reality of what I had done sinking in like a cold, unforgiving blade. My mind reeled, caught between the savage hunger that had consumed me and the dawning horror of what I had become.

But it was too late. There was no going back. The beast had been unleashed, and there was no escaping it now.

“Sir.” A weak, trembling voice broke through the stillness, barely more than a whisper, yet laden with fear. It wrapped around me like a shroud, pulling my attention from the flames that still flickered in my mind. I turned sharply, my eyes narrowing as they locked onto Samuel, who stood on the edge of the darkness, barely visible in the faint light. His presence was an intrusion, a disruption of the primal silence that had settled after the bloodshed. But there he was, the young man who had served my family for years, now caught in the web of terror spun by what he had just witnessed.

My breath, which had been ragged and uneven, slowly steadied as I forced myself to regain composure. Samuel’s wide eyes darted around, taking in the carnage that littered the shore before finally, hesitantly, rising to meet mine. He looked at me as though seeing me for the first time, his gaze lingering on my chin, trying to process the horror that had unfolded in front of him. The boy who had grown up in the shadow of my family’s legacy was now faced with a truth that he could never unsee.

“I came to find you. To make sure you were okay,” Samuel stammered, his voice cracking under the weight of his fear. There was a tremor in his words, a kind of innocence lost, as he tried to understand the transformation of the man he had known into the creature standing before him.

I began to move toward him, my steps measured and deliberate, each one an exercise in restraint. I could feel the tumult of emotions radiating from him. Fear, confusion, and loyalty all tangled together in a chaotic storm. His heartbeat was a rapid, frantic rhythm that echoed in the quiet night, a sharp contrast to the steady, powerful thud of my own.

“Samuel,” I began, my voice low and filled with an edge of menace, “how deep does your loyalty lie?” I tilted my head slightly, studying him as my words hung in the air like a challenge, my eyes narrowing as I awaited his response.

His eyes widened further, and I saw the fear in them intensify. “Till death,” he finally whispered, his voice barely audible, the words forced out as though they were being dragged from the depths of his soul. His fear was palpable, a living thing that seemed to ooze from him in waves, and I could almost taste it in the air.

“Good,” I murmured, my voice a sinister whisper as I leaned in closer. “What you have seen here today, dies with you. What you may see for the rest of your life as you serve me without question…also dies with you.”

I let the weight of my words sink in, watching as they took root in his mind, growing into the chains that would bind him to me forever. My eyes bore into him, making sure he understood the gravity of his new reality.

Samuel swallowed hard, his throat bobbing as he struggled to maintain his composure. “Yes, Sir,” he stammered, his voice barely more than a breath. His fear was like a drumbeat, pulsing in the air between us, and I reveled in the power I held over him.

I stepped even closer, so close I could hear the quickening pace of his heart. “You…and your family…will be rewarded handsomely for your service. And your discretion,” I whispered directly into his ear, my breath hot against his skin.

His heart raced faster, and I could feel the tremor that ran through his body. This promise of reward was a thin veil over the unspoken threat, and we both knew it. Without waiting for his reply, I straightened, my gaze still fixed on him.

“Now, help me do away with this mess,” I commanded, my voice taking on a cold, hard edge. Samuel did not hesitate. He spun and rushed into the shadows, his footsteps echoing off the stone.

Moments later, he reappeared, clutching a bundle of wood shavings, steel, and flint in his trembling hands. The tools of destruction, of erasure, of cleansing. His movements were mechanical, driven by fear and obedience, as he began to spread the wood shavings among the bodies, filling the gaps with careful precision. He worked silently, the terror in his eyes betraying the horror that churned within him, but he did not falter.

As he worked, I moved with a strength I had never possessed before, lifting the lifeless bodies from the sand as if they were weightless, throwing them over my shoulder with a terrifying ease. One by one, I deposited them into my boat, the hollow thud of their bodies piling atop one another resonating in the night air. Samuel glanced at me occasionally, his eyes wide with a mixture of awe and fear as he witnessed the power that now coursed through me.

When the boat was filled to the brim with the weight of death, Samuel placed the last of the wood shavings among the bodies, his hands shaking as he did so. He struck the flint against the steel, the spark catching and igniting the shavings with a ferocious intensity. The flames leaped to life, consuming the bodies with a hungry, roaring ferocity that mirrored the hunger still gnawing at my soul.

With a swift, powerful kick, I sent the boat careening into the water, the flames licking at the night sky as it drifted away from the shore. Samuel and I stood side by side in silence, watching the inferno as it raged against the darkness, a fiery beacon of death that slowly faded into the distance. The boat burned fiercely, the flames devouring everything until it could no longer support its own weight, finally collapsing and sinking beneath the waves. The lifeless bodies were claimed by the sea, disappearing into their watery grave, leaving nothing behind but the faint scent of burning wood and decay that lingered on the breeze.

“I reside here now, Samuel,” I said, breaking the silence as the last embers died out and the wind carried away the remnants of the night’s horrors. My voice was calm, yet filled with an undercurrent of something darker, something irrevocable. The castle was no longer my home; it was a place with too many eyes, too many questions. Here, in this desolate place, I could be what I had become. I could be unseen, unjudged, and unchallenged.

“But, Sir,” Samuel began, his voice shaking with uncertainty.

“I only want you here, and a few others. My conti. Men from your family would be preferred.” I fixed him with a penetrating stare, making it clear that this was not a request but an order, one that he had no choice but to obey.

Samuel nodded quickly, his eyes wide with understanding and fear. “Yes, Sir,” he whispered, his voice barely more than a breath.

I turned away from him, letting the wind carry away the scent of burning and decay as it swept over the shore. The night had claimed its dead, and so, too, had it claimed me. There was no turning back from the path I had begun to walk, no returning to the man I had once been. The beast within had been unleashed, and it demanded to be fed. Here, in this place of darkness and desolation, I would serve it, and it would serve me.