Chapter 24: Bloodshed

"Creative people are often found either disagreeable or intimidating by mediocrities." —Criss Jami, Killosophy

"The most thoroughly and relentlessly damned, banned, excluded, condemned, forbidden, ostracized, ignored, suppressed, repressed, robbed, brutalized and defamed of all 'Damned Things' is the individual human being. The social engineers, statisticians, psychologists, sociologists, market researchers, landlords, bureaucrats, captains of industry, bankers, governors, commissars, kings, and presidents are perpetually forcing this 'Damned Thing' into carefully prepared blueprints and perpetually irritated that the 'Damned Thing' will not fit into the slot assigned it. The theologians call it a sinner and try to reform it. The governor calls it a criminal and tries to punish it. The psychologist calls it a neurotic and tries to cure it. Still, the 'Damned Thing' will not fit into their slots."

—Robert Anton Wilson

"Of all individuals, the hated, the shunned, and the peculiar are arguably most themselves. They wear no masks whatsoever in order to be accepted and liked; they do seem most guarded, but only by their own hands: as compared to the populace, they are naked." —Criss Jami, Healology

***

"Guh!"

Blood spewed out of one of the man's mouths as he felt the painful sensation in his stomach. Slowly, he looked down and realized that Xenia had stabbed him through his guts without remorse. Their eyes locked for a moment before the kid continued running around.

In Xenia's eyes, there was a shallow gaze. No. It was the other way around. The depths of his unbothered gaze could go deeper and deeper as long as one keeps staring at it. For a second, the man wondered if there ever was a bottom to how deep that calm gaze of Xenia's.

As blood kept flowing from his wound, so was his strength to keep standing. His energy to maintain his balance dissipates almost immediately, thus feeling the coldness of the afternoon, even though they were in broad daylight.

"Polar, oi! That brat did not even hesitate to stab him!"

It was a matter of life and death. There was no way these guys would choose to play with Xenia's game than be serious and save themselves from getting killed.

"I told you, you damn bastards. I warned you, but you disregarded my words."

"Shut your fucking mouth! I'm gonna slaughter you!"

Two of them were already down, losing blood as they ran chasing each other through the dirt path, some parts muddy while some parts had completely dried out after several hours.

They continued with it for a couple of minutes, not paying attention to their breath running out low while their anger increased as seconds passed by.

The remaining three men were holding pocket knives they always used to scare people away when words were not enough to make them back off.

Xenia's arduous actions started to wear him out a while ago, but he needed to push through his limits.

"Good! They are still coming after me! Follow me away from our house, so that you bastards won't go after my family."

The other two men whom he stabbed before, which caused them to continuously lose blood would not be able to threaten him to hurt either his siblings or mother. He made sure to target their vital points to render them unable to move. His actions might result in him killing people but his mind justified his actions, telling himself that they started it first.

"Had they not hurt my mother and just walked away, none of this would have happened."

Hurting others did not bother Xenia. What disturbed his unfaltering mind was that his siblings saw him doing what he had to. Blood was shed, and he knew this event would be carved inside their minds. Also, his mother was aware of what he had done.

Looking around, Xenia realized that they reached their playground, standing in the middle where the branching twigs of trees shaded them from the agonizing heat of the sun. Huffing, Xenia stopped and faced his three pursuers.

"Decided to surrender yourself, eh? You must be tired now, evil brat!"

"We'll tear you to pieces here!"

"Make sure not to kill him. Polar and Mond might want to take revenge on that kid."

Altogether, the three men charged straight toward Xenia, holding their knives in their hands as they readied themselves to stab Xenia.

Beneath them was a pile of dried leaves and wet dirt mixed with some small rocks. These leaves came from the trees last night after the storm, and the dirt was swept from the mountain.

Xenia lowered himself, ducked, and reached for the ground. With one sweeping swing of his hand slightly buried underneath the pile of leaves and dirt, Xenia created a distraction against his enemies. They were stopped by the leaves wherein the pile blocked their vision while some dirt got in their eyes.

"Aw! Fuck!"

"My eyes!"

For a split second, Xenia vanished once again.

"Get out of the way!" Upon swinging his dagger, the tip of his weapon hit something slightly hard. "HAHAHA! I fucking got you, kid!"

Gargling with his own blood after getting stabbed in his neck, he reached out for his friend's hands.

"W— bleugh!"

"H-Huh? Aram? What the fuck, man? Did I stab you? But wasn't I aiming for the kid?"

"I'm here, stupid?"

Xenia's voice echoed behind him, which made Wilkes pull his knife out of Aram's throat, then arbitrarily did a wide swing.

"Uwah!!! It hurts! He got my eyes!"

"Oh, fucking hell! Gust! I-I'm sorry!"

A cold presence leaning behind his neck whispered through his ears, which sent shivers down his spine.

"Sorry won't cut what you've done, milk boy. You've caused an irredeemable act of violence against your friends. People like you should die."

"Who the fuck are you calling a milk boy?!"

Xenia once again disappeared when Wilkes tried to attack him. In the deep state of distraught, Wilkes looked around. He noticed his friends; Aram was still choking on his own blood while Gust on the other hand was screaming about how painful his eyes were.

"I can't see! Anyone! Help me!"

"Ahhhhhhh! Reveal yourself you goddamn snot! The inconvenience you've caused has reached its limit! I'm gonna end you once and for all and eat every ounce of you!"

"Annoying loudmouth asshole. Shut your trap."

Like a wind, sweeping the life given to them out of their vessels, Xenia whizzed past as his obsidian knife dealt the finishing blow to the three of them, thus marking the end of their evil group.

Around Xenia's bloodied self were the three lifeless bodies of Wilkes, Aram, and Gust laying on the soft and damped earth underneath.

"I feel empty... This is the same feeling whenever I kill countless Radges."

Gazing down at his hands covered in blood reminded him of his old life. He would be standing on top of dead bodies that he killed himself and felt nothing.

"People are scattered on the whole island right now. If I just leave them be, none of them would know it is me who killed these three. Plus, I have to go back and deal with Polar and Mond."

Covering them with the pile of leaves on the ground, creating little mounds of dried leaves and twigs as their temporary burials, Xenia left the playground and went first into the river to wash off the blood. However, the blood on his clothes would not go away. It will remain there to remind him of the heinous act he did.

~