My Horde

Year 0 – Month One – One Year Pre-Apocalypse

Daria's POV

I sucked in a shaky breath, the white film across my eyes receding like the black shut-down screen of an old 2000s tv. I was sitting on the grey leather sofa, watching Manchester United play Liverpool. I blinked and turned my head to the left. Rain. His light brown hair was spiked with expensive gel, and I used to love running my hands over them at night while he lay on my chest. Flashes of memories attacked my mind, and I screamed at the betrayal, the anguish, my death and his. The man who tried to make it as bearable as possible.

Rain jumped from his space on the sofa, and our dogs leapt from their sleeping positions to growl at him. I couldn't stop screaming, the terror rising faster as he stared at me in shock. He grabbed my arms and began to shake me. I started to fight him, screaming for him to get away from me and not touch me with his filthy fucking hands. I can't believe I used to let him willingly touch me, fucking disgusting. I broke my arms from his hold and swung my fists out as hard as I could muster to beat his chest and shoulders. The dogs didn't know what to do, but my tanned giant German shepherd was low and slinking around the older, smaller, brindle, coloured dog with reproachful eyes.

"Daria, What the fuck are you doing? Get a hold of yourself are you fucking crazy?" Rain bellowed, pouring more anger into my soul as his hand connected with my face and sent stars into my eyes.

"Who the fuck do you think you are?" I roared, connecting one fist to his jaw and the other to his throat.

He choked for a few seconds, sweat lining his forehead and his eyes burning with rage. Oh fuck, I jumped back to the other side of the couch, ready to run into my safe room, but this stupid body is so slow and skinny. Stupid fucking starving diet. He launched his body towards me, his hand reaching out to close around my neck. I started choking and clawing at his arms, and then Rex jumped into action and wrapped his large jaws around the arm he could get to, locking around Rain's lower arm to force his hand away from me.

I spluttered in shock and twisted my body to reach the draw on the side table next to the sofa with my left hand. The clattering in my rush to open the draw alerted Rain, and he let go of my neck to fight with the dog. I twisted my whole body and scrambled for the draw, my eyes likely looking as crazed as I felt. I'll fucking kill him for everything he did. Your enterprise will be mine.

I started laughing as I spotted the silver glinting hunting knife he had brought for a hunting trip we never got to go on. I'll take my damn self; when the apocalypse comes, I'll be ready. I rounded back on him with a wide-toothed smile and leapt towards him with the hunting knife slashing through the air ahead. Rex jumped away at the same time as my legs locked around his waist and pinned him to the sofa. The knife buried into the right side of his chest with a sickening squelch as his hands grabbed my waist and dug his fingers into my side before his body relaxed slightly and his breathing turned shallow.

I leaned forward with a laugh that descended straight down his left ear. I pulled the knife out of his chest and spoke in a whisper,

"That's for cheating on me for most of our relationship with my fucking best friend," I hissed, stabbing the knife back into his chest with a scream.

A small croak left his lips as blood spurted out and into my face. I snickered, licking a drop of blood that landed on my lower lip. Rain's bright blue eyes widened in horror, his eyes flicking from my face to stare at the hilt of the knife and back again. I cackled; I couldn't help it and took the knife back out to stab it right back in again. My cackles bouncing around the living room and drowning out the stupid football match he put on.

I'll never watch that shit again.

"That was for taking my house and starving me in the basement for three months, having to listen to you two fucking every morning and night," I screamed, pulling at my expensively straight hair, the blood transferring and forcing the parts I touched to curl from the moisture. I screamed in anguish at the time I wasted on this pathetic bug, "You're nothing but a fucking bug," I spat.

A weight lifted from my body as he gurgled something incomprehensible. I honestly couldn't give three shits about and drew his last breath. The brightness of his eyes dimmed with his future.

Ah, the sound of absolute freedom.

Luckily, the bathroom was so big that I took the dogs in. They chilled while I showered and washed the blood, mainly covering Rex rather than Pan. After I had stood in there for around thirty minutes, washing the blood and chemicals from my hair, it felt right to have my hair curly again. I cleaned the bathroom and took the cleaning products outside to clean up the blood and body.

I need to figure out a way to get rid of his-

I turned the corner with the dogs, and Rex's hackles rose with his growl. Rain was sitting on the sofa, very much alive and watching TV. I screamed; his eyes connecting with mine terrified me, and I dropped the cleaning products on the floor. A shrill ding bounced around my head, and before I could cover my ears and close my eyes, a bright green screen appeared suspended in the air in front of me. My eyes widened as Rex walked straight through it, and it passed through him.

Woah!

"Congratulations, Daria! You have started your horde-" A sweet male voice called in my mind.

"What the fuck?" I asked with a shocked laugh.

"The Level One human: Rain, Current state: The unawakened has been added to your horde. He can no longer harm you, will follow all commands and will protect you from anything you see as a threat. Ten extra spaces have been added to your inventory. You have five spaces left for your horde. The next ten spaces are unlocked at every tenth level," the realistic voice finished. 

"Stop watching football. I never want it on my TV again," I commanded, a small squeak of surprise leaving my mouth as he clicked the TV remote to go to the horror channel.

I snickered and then smirked, a wicked thought of servitude shining in my mind. I sat on the clean, single-suspended egg sofa in my reading corner and pointed to the products I had dropped.

"Clean up all the blood in this room and the bathroom."

He got up from the sofa and crouched down to pick up the cleaning products. I watched him the whole time he cleaned, the smirk never leaving my face as he seriously cleaned his own crime scene.

Karma is a good entity, and it is certainly on my side.

How will I get Molly?

I think I'll play the long mental game with that one.

"Come here, Rain," I sang happily, pointing my finger at him and bending it towards me and the floor. He came over and kneeled in front of me with the blood-stained sponge in his hand, still as stupid as usual, so his personality hadn't changed in a sense. He's almost a decent person, "When Molly comes here," his ears went bright red. How the fuck didn't I notice this before? I looked like the stupid one, that's for sure. I sighed and rubbed my temples, "If you touch her, fuck her, whisper sweet corny bullshit to her like you love her and you're going to leave me, I will chop your hands and feet off, understand?"

Rain's eyes widened in fear, and I smiled in satisfaction and tapped his cheek a few times. He moved towards me, and I lurched back and raised my hands to stop him.

"What the fuck are doing?" I almost retched at how close he was to me, and he made my skin crawl.

"I thought…" he said, leaning back with a frown.

"You thought what?" I sneered, removing my hands from his bloody chest and wiping them together in disgust, "If you think I am doing this to keep you in my bed, you must be mad," I laughed in his face, "Don't fucking touch me ever again unless it is to protect me."

His eyes dulled a little, and his frown deepened, but he got up and finished cleaning the blood. I snickered as satisfaction rose through my body. God, this feels great. Now, let's learn as much as I can about this system. I hummed and rubbed my fingers together, pouting and squinting my eyes, an automatic response as nothing had happened.

I didn't get my powers until the day I was running home from work, which is a shame, as that would have greatly helped my plans.