Chapter 18- The Lying Fear

Fear, if truly bestowed upon, can blind a person from the truth, even if it was right in front of them. It can lead anyone astray and make them delirious, waking up a savage and primitive nature that lies dormant in everyone. It waits, patiently, waiting for the right time to overwhelm its host. Fear is power, and power is dangerous if placed in the wrong hands.

"Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the worst are our own fears," this was quoted by Rudyard Kipling, a famous author for his literary works, such as The Jungle Book. This is one of my favorite quotes because it helps me control my fear and to always look on the bright side. But sometimes, fear completely takes over and all I see is the darkness staring at me.

As I was saying, fear can blind us from the real truth. Our mind is a fragile thing, willing to crack at any moment. I guess you could say mine cracked, but that's another story for another day.

Right now, I had to deal with an old man holding my hand, telling me "sweet dreams". If I didn't know him, this would have been weird and I would've already sucker punched him.

"I thought you were dead," I growled, "Your body...it was found in Tartarus by the guards!"

I ran for the door, knowing that the man I'm dealing with was no one to joke around. He is very dangerous to both the human kind and the supers. And you wanna know what's worse? I'm related to the guy!

Yeah, I have a really great family! An abandoning father, a missing mother, a recently found brother, and finally, a super villain for a grandfather. I could just hear the song, "We Are Family" singing in the air, mocking me.

"Boy, I am dead," He said, "I've been dead for a long time, but my body just kept on living. I am tired of living, and now the Gods ridicule me and won't even allow me to die properly. I am a... what's that word... a ghost!"

"But, why? Why can I see you? I don't even know your name!"

"My name is Azrail and I have the same questions as you young one. But I do not have all the answers for now. My theory is that when I gave you my ability, it allowed you to see wandering spirits, such as me. For me being stuck in this realm, it means that my purpose isn't finished yet. And I am sure that it has something to do with you."

"Wh- what? Why?" That seems to be the main question of the day, why.

"For starters, I am not allowed to leave the premises of this school, meaning that my purpose is here somewhere. And I have already given you my mark, allowing you to use my powers."

My mark did feel strange around him. Whenever I got closer, It would sting, as if it was trying to crawl off my skin and into its rightful home.

"My best guess is that I am here to teach you and guide you to a take on my role as the angel of death. Everyone in our kind feared me and called me the angel of death. But I always killed for a reason, and never for selfish reasons."

"It doesn't matter! Having an excuse doesn't pardon a crime!"

He gave me a look that I often got from adults. Every time they gave me the look, I knew what it meant. It means that they think of me as a child, not ready to feel the pressure of being alive so they coddle me.

"I know what your thinking Draven, but no, sometimes people need to pay a price that fits their crime. And these people, I can't even begin to describe their actions. It's horrifying what they did to us!"

"What? Who did what to who?" At this point I was confusing myself.

"Son, the humans, th-they're monsters! Their greed for power needs to come to an end. Many of our kind has suffered under their hands already. We need to put them in their place, we need to stop hiding in the shadows and show them that we exist."

Azrail frantically walked in a circle, clearly thinking of what to do.

The hair on my neck stood straight as the cold wind gave me the chills. The night was dead silent, not even a peep of noise, which was unusual.

Finally, he grabbed my head with his translucent hands. My hair started to rise and my eyes glowed ice white.

"I am sorry. But I have to do this." He said, as the pressure in the air started to feel like it buried me. "You will understand sooner or later, but this way is faster."

Breathing was getting more difficult, I felt like I was gonna die. Dust or something that looked like it started to ascend to the ceiling. Then I noticed a burning pain all over my body. My body... It's disintegrating. Chunks of flesh, organs and skin flew to the ceiling. Then, it was just gone, I was gone.

I was no more, not even a single speck of blood was left, nada. The last thing I heard and saw was the weeping of my grandfather on his knees. Then every thing just rewound, but it didn't stop to when I just died.

The time went haywire and my spirit goes into my grandfather head. Then, it just stopped, and I see a young version of Azrail about my age. He was having fun with his friends and laughing their butts off about a joke one said.

Then a new image was shown, students about my age were being used as lab rats by a group of scientists. I observed that they all worked for one company, OMEN. I've never heard of that name before, but it looked like it was important.

I was on a base of some sort, watching over hundreds of kids being tortured on a rooftop. The kids were inside a prison cell with a glass door instead of bars. All of them looked like they were dead, or wanted to be dead. Marks were found all over their bodies, some were burned and some had scars as if someone tried to cut their arm off.

On the other side of the base, a site that looked like an arena had kids battling like mad men. Kids were killing each other! But something was different with these batch of kids, they were using abilities. It was like a battle royale, but with powers.

I saw that people were watching them, high up on a building where they will be safe from the battle. They looked like they were military and some of them wore lab coats like scientists. Then I knew exactly what was happening and I was in shock.

They were experimenting on the children of our kind. The military men were all normal and none at all super, but they somehow captured hundreds of us and used them as if they were toys. Then I knew how they did it, one of the founders of Boniface was sitting with them, having a good time.

"That traitor!" I said out loud, smashing the wall with my fist. Nonetheless, it did nothing because I didn't exist.

"Now you see why I did what I did?"

I turned around to see my grandfather walking towards me hands behind his back. He had a sad smile and pointed to the arena.

"They made me kill so many! My own friends! These monsters need to pay, especially Wilfred Boniface," He said, "and you will be the one to collect their payment."

He pointed to one of the kids at the arena. I knew exactly who it was, he was a spitting image of me, and behind him stood an army of the undead. He massacred the young children whilst crying.

"It's you," my hands started to clasp my hair and I did a squat. It was just terrible and I couldn't watch anymore. I understood now, why Boniface locked my grandfather in Tartarus.

Once the battle was over, the group of scientists walked over the remains of the kids. They took blood samples from the dead bodies, not even an ounce of remorse was found on their faces. They handed it over to another group of scientists who then injected it to four normal kids in the prison cell. I assumed that the kids were either from orphanages or were "donated" from their parents who wanted to make a quick buck.

What kind of a world did this one turn into? Such a sad waste of life we have been privileged. It makes me want to just kill everyone in this cruel and unfair world. What did these kids do to deserve such a thing to be done to them.

Some of them started to shake on the ground, and started to burst in flames.

"Items #1624, #2198, #1580, and #625 is not fit for transformation. Hybrid is a failure, the next group, please head to the testing area for injection. Everyone else will be tested further more. Remember, we are doing this for everyone's future, for mankind! WE ARE OMEN!"

All the guards, scientists, and others all chanted simultaneously. Some kids, out of fear, even joined along with them. I was furious with this "operation".

"Do they really think that they can make people have powers artificially?" I asked.

"Its already been done. They use them as Super Soldiers for their own private army. They use a compound they call "The Hybrid" and they perfected it... on me. I was the root of this monstrosity and from there, they started to spread their operation world-wide." He started. "Then they became rich from the investments of very powerful people and used that money to start hero agencies. We are becoming more public because of them and we are becoming endangered. You need to stop them, you are our last hope for our kind."

"You have the power of an original and a hybrid in your genetics, you and your brother alone have the ability to stop this horror." He started to turn into dust, flying off into the night sky, sleeping among the peaceful stars. "Finally, I can rest."

"Goodbye."

"I guess I have fulfilled my last objective here. You need to succeed Draven, for me, for our kind." These were his last words. He died a peaceful death, it didn't look like it pained him. Or maybe he already got so much pain and suffering in his life that this was nothing to him.

Finally, a last image was shown, me as a kid hugging an old man. An image of a past that could've been.

At this point, I didn't know what was real anymore. I was afraid to look ahead at the path before me, for it was a dangerous and scary path.

Even if I didn't want to believe that all this was true, I had a feeling that this was just the beginning. And I will be its end...