Orion - Ezekiel Kincaid
There is a beast inside us all, waiting to be let out to roam and devour, unchained. The most frightening part of the beast is not its animalistic nature, but the human nature through which it manifests. If the person is broken, then the beast knows no solace. The twisted nature of the human becomes the power fueling the beast. And woe to those who cross its path. The problem is, we often create these hybrids in our society on our own. We deserve the wrath they bring.
Orion stared at his face in the mirror. His eye was swollen shut and his lips were puffy. His nose trickled blood but this wasn’t the worst of it. They had ripped out his earrings; just held him down and yanked the fuckers out. His lobes burned like hell and were split from the middle to the bottom. There wasn’t a spot on his face not caked in blood.
And he could smell it. Smell it and taste it. His entire head and face throbbed. He studied his wounds through his tear laden, green eyes. The anger pulsated through his insides like rivers of flowing lava. He turned on the faucet and heard it squeak. He listened to the sound of the water through the pipes and watched it cascade into the sink. He cupped his hands under the flow and splashed some on his face.
“Fuck,” he yelled. It hurt. Hurt just to throw water on his fucking face. Those shit-bags did a number on him.
Only fourteen years old and you’ve been through enough shit to last forty lifetimes, he thought.
At age ten Orion’s dad walked out on him and his mom. At age eleven his mom died of an overdose. He went to live with his Grandmother and a year later, she died of a heart attack. Now he lives with his Uncle Tate and Aunt Jenny. And his asshole of a cousin, Tabor.
“Tabor the twat,” Orion whispered. It was him and his fucking Neanderthal jock friends who did this to him.
The bullying was nothing new, but it had never gotten this bad.
“You tell my mom and dad,” Tabor said as he sat on Orion’s chest and yanked out his left earring. “And I’ll rip your dick off just like I did these earrings you fucking loser metalhead.”
Replaying the events in his mind stirred up something in Orion’s already dead heart. He glared at his reflection with hatred. He reached down within the bottom of his soul. Past the places long dead. Past the sepulchers of hope, love, and innocence. He dipped his bucket of hatred down into the abyss and drew something up.
It was a presence, but not his own. It was dark and sinister. It seemed as if it was the compilation of every insidious entity of hell. It was real. It was powerful.
And he saw its reflection standing behind him in the mirror.
The beast was covered in black fur. Its snout was like a wolf and its fangs were long and jagged. Its eyes were glowing green and its ears stood at attention.
Orion could feel its breath on the back of his neck and it smelled musty and copper coated.
The beast startled him at first but now he wasn’t afraid. In fact, he felt...comforted? Yeah, that was it. Comforted.
“What are you?” Orion asked, still not turning around to face the creature.
“I’m what you’ve always been,” the beast said in a deep, guttural voice.
“Which is?” Orion asked.
“Chosen,” the beast said. “I was placed inside you at birth. I’ve been locked away in a cage deep within the recess of your soul, just waiting to be let out.”
“So, now that you are out, what are we going to do?” Orion said with a smirk.
“We are going to kill,” the beast said. “Kill and mame and destroy. We are going to give full vent to your rage, only now, you will have the power not to fear confrontation. Isn’t that what you were always afraid of? You wanted to lash out, but you feared getting your ass kicked?”
Orion laughed. “Yeah, but couldn’t be any worse than now.”
“Never again,” the beast said. “Come with me and I assure you, never again.”
Orion placed his hands on the side of his sink and leaned closer to the mirror. He looked himself in the eyes. “Yeah,” he said. “Never again.”
Then everything faded to black.
When Orion awoke he could have sworn he saw claws retract from his hands and fur disappearing from his arms. He was lying in bed. His bedsheets rested on his chest and his hands held them in a white knuckle grip. His eyes fluttered and he sat up on his elbows.
“What the hell,” he mumbled and rubbed his eyes. It was the middle of the night and he didn’t remember getting in bed much less falling asleep.
Orion sat up on his elbows and let his eyes adjust to the dark. But his eyes weren’t the only thing adjusting to being awake. He wiggled his toes and moved his legs around. There was something warm and wet under the sheets. He blinked again then stared at his covers. There were lumps under them--lots of lumps.
“The fuck?” Orion said. He reached over and clicked on his bedside lamp.
He looked down then threw off his sheet.
And there was Tabor.
Everywhere.
Then Orion remembered the beast’s words. “Never again.”
Orion smiled, nodded his head, and whispered. “That’s right. Never again.”
He reached back over, turned off his lamp, then nuzzled into his sheets with his fresh kill still with him.
“Never again,” he whispered. “Never again.”
