Awakening

Awakening

The Darkness Within

Chapter One

I have to stop waking up like this.

Pain was consuming my brain, making it feel like someone ripped my skull open and wrapped barbed wire around it then nailed my head shut. It felt like a hangover, it probably was considering I couldn’t remember the day before... come to think about it, I couldn’t remember the last week.

Time to get up.

I felt dewey wet grass prickling my hands and the back of my head, so I must either be in the backwoods around town, or on some poor slobs front lawn.

My head was pounding hard, the light in my sleep bleared eyes wasn’t doing much to help either. I shielded my eyes and slowly sat up; the fatigue of laying on the cold earth made me stiff and slow to sit upright.

When I got a look at my surroundings I realised I was in a clearing in the forest, it didn’t bother me to be honest, I’ve woken up in worse places, I looked at my watch to see what time it was and ended up even more confused. The damn thing read 11PM, but it was obviously dawn.

The air was fresher than I was used to, like it hadn’t been touched by rancid pollution. I also had no bars, so that meant I was either robbed and dropped off or was way too drunk and thought a stroll in the woods was a good idea. Considering I still had my pants and my wallet, getting blackout drunk seemed more appropriate of an answer.

I slowly stood up, my body protesting for me to just lie down and sleep for awhile longer.

My drowsiness was quickly replaced with fear as I heard a low growl come from behind me. My body froze stiff; we hadn't seen wolves near town in a decade, so maybe it was a pack of dogs... even though I couldn’t see the dogs I assumed there was a pack of the damned things, I calmed myself by breathing in and out slowly. It subsided the fear a bit and let me think more clearly.

I could try and outrun them, maybe they’ll trip on something and won’t catch me. Pfft, yeah right... I'll just back away slowly, hopefully they aren't hungry for bitter resentment...

I was too busy trying to find a way to escape that I didn’t notice a wolf lunge at me.

Time seemed to stop, I looked around and found myself feeling weightless, like I was a spectre in the world, when I turned around I found myself, except I was different. An out of body experience to be sure... maybe this was all a dream?

I was all black, like a blanket of darkness wrapped around my entire body, sucking in any and all light around me, the darkness covered everything except for my eyes, which were a disturbing milky white. My grin made me look terrifying, my teeth were stark white and my canines were longer, giving me a maniacal look.

Time resumed as quickly as it stopped, my body turned with inhuman speed to the wolf and caught it in it’s hand, it looked like it was studying it and its pack, my body suddenly wore a mask of childlike glee when it realized how many wolves there really were, there were roughly seven or eight of them all in a half circle around me.

Silence fell across the forest as my body laid its eyes on the wolf it just caught, giving it the most horrific look I have ever seen on a human being. The wolf tried to squirm from its grasp, but the iron grip around the animals throat proved to be too much. The rest of the pack of wolves were eyeing me with open resentment and fear; without warning, my body crushed the wolf’s neck with the ease of crushing a tin can; the other wolves flinched at how sudden it was. To be fair, at this point, I was more shocked that I wasn't having a panic attack considering my situation.

My body then teleported, for lack of better term, to the wolf on its right, it kicked it’s head so hard that it disconnected from its body. Everything happened so fast that my brain couldn’t keep up, and I am very, very glad for that fact. I don't know how well I could sleep at nights having seen what made those sickening noises. After the fight was over, I was cast back into my body. I looked at my hands to see they were normal again and everything else went back to the way it was, like it never happened.

That was really disturbing, it happened so fast, I couldn’t tell if it was real, if I actually did slaughter them mercilessly with that wicked smile on my face, it terrified me, and I’ve seen some shit, but to experience something like that would make any man rethink his life, to witness something that you had no control over, but that you knew you had done it.

I snapped out of my daze to find that what I just witnessed was real, there were splinters that weren’t there a minute ago, like someone took a saw and cut a tree right where the fight happened, I couldn’t bare to stay there any longer, I had to find water, it felt like someone lit a fire in my throat.

I picked a random direction and started walking.

My mind was clouded with questions that had no answers, but one question that I always came back to.

What am I?

It was a question that I couldn’t answer in a million years, after the fight I felt like I was hit by a freight train, I couldn’t believe of what I was capable of doing, or of what I had become, a monster with no morals or sanity.

My thoughts were quickly drowned out as I heard the sound of rushing water, I ran toward the source of the noise and found a small waterfall that had a crystal clear lake, without hesitation I crouched at the pond and dunked my head into the cold water, taking in gulps of the satisfying liquid.

I pulled my head back up after quenching my thirst, taking in mouthfuls of fresh air, I let the water stop rippling to see my reflection, I had short dirty blonde hair with a five o'clock shadow, a visible long scar across my neck, and dark dull green eyes.

I stared into my own eyes for what seemed like eternity, looking into my own soul, seeing it full of hatred, anger, and bitterness, just waiting to snap.

I was ripped out of my daze when I heard children screaming.

I ran faster than I thought was possible for the human body, my legs carried me through the foilage and the thorn bushes in my path, as soon as I heard the screams I jumped up and ran without a second thought.

I was quickly nearing the childlike screams, I slowed to a stop when the screams were coming from a clearing up ahead, I creeped up to view the scene, careful not to be seen, I couldn’t get a good view of what was going on so I sneaked up to the nearest tree and climbed up the branches, moving from tree to tree until I could get a good angle.

When I found a good position about seven to eight feet above the ground I saw that there were three fillies, all of different structure, the first one was a pegasus, she, assuming from the high pitch, had wings and a deep orange coat with purple hair, the second was a unicorn with a smooth white coat and light purple and pink hair, the third one had a pale yellow coat and dark red hair with a big pinkish bowtie on it.

There was a pack of those wooden wolves that tried to have me for lunch advancing slowly toward the three small, quivering ponies, victory in their vicious, hungry eyes.

I silently moved to the tree above the three fillies and sat on a branch directly above them, waiting for the the wooden monstrosities to make a move.

One of the wolves was tired of waiting and lunged at the defenceless fillies faster than I could react, and I was suddenly ripped from my body.

I was a spectre in the world again, the weightlessness of my form unnerving, I saw my body land on the jumping wolves head, crushing its skull into thousands of tiny little splinters, all was silent as my body slowly stood up, towering over the wooden predators, my body wasn’t smiling, wasn’t frowning, it just stared at them with fury in it’s eyes, daring them to make a move.

The standoff didn’t last long, the wolves retreating back into the thick forest, snarling and giving murderous glances all the way, and I was sucked back into my body once more, I still had my “armor” on, but I was in my body.

It didn’t matter right now, I needed to get these girls to safety, I turned and faced the now wide eyed and slack jawed horses, careful not to spook them, I knelt down to comfort them and they prepared to run but realised I wasn’t going to do anything bad, scratching them behind the ears and being careful, I gently picked the three nervous fillies up and put them on my broad shoulders, there was a path that looked like it lead further from the heart of the forest..

I started walking down the small dirt path, fillies in tow.

The walk down the path was uneventful and quiet, the horses hadn’t spoken a word since I had saved them from the wolves, I couldn’t quite place why I had three multi-colored, talking horses on my shoulders that I had just saved from wooden, carnivorous wolves.

Fuck my life.

While I was questioning my sanity I heard a small peep from the pale yellow filly.

“Thank ya fer savin’ us mister.”

Holy fuck it was adorable.

“Shh! Be quiet! He could be taking us just to eat us!” The orange coated one spoke in a harsh whisper.

“Why would he do that? He could have just waited until the wolves killed us, then killed the wolves and ate us, plus he hasn’t hurt anypony yet or even attempted to harm us.” The white coated one retorted.

The orange one was deep in thought for a few seconds before accepting defeat, suddenly the one with the bowtie spoke up again.

“Mah farms just down this here path! Maybe we can point this thang in the right direction.”

She pointed toward an orchard not too far up the path and I went into it, eventually being directed down the rows upon rows of ripe, red apple trees.

I saw a hill not too far from where we were, seeing no other vantage point in sight I decided to walk up onto the huge hill, hoping to find a settlement for the children, luck was on my side as I clearly saw a small, two story house and a barn with white fencing surrounding the property, there was a bit of light illuminating from inside the simple looking structure, visible through the small sunlight peeking over the horizon.

“That’s mah farm right there! Hopefully Granny Smith is awake.” The pale yellow filly said.

At least I knew that this was her property now, the house was a good five or so minute walk, it wouldn’t take that long.

I headed toward the house at a steady pace, not really rushing, but more so enjoying the calming sensation of the farm, it reminded me a lot of my childhood home, we had a farm with a couple of animals, some chickens, sheep, goats, a horse or two every once in awhile, it was calming, being in a familiar environment in an unfamiliar land.

I was too busy remembering the past that I didn’t hear the freight train of a stallion ram into me at full speed.

I was knocked into the ground face first, the girls landing safely in front of me, they looked at me with terror in their eyes.

They must have saw my rage.

I got up and spun around, faced with a burly and muscular red stallion, the fury of a thousand suns in his eyes, he tried to punch me but I blocked it and kneed him in the face, saliva and blood spraying out of his mouth, I tried kicking him again but he dodged and bucked me in my stomach, knocking me back, he charged me again, so I waited until he was close enough and did a Marine Door Kick on him, he was moving too fast and he was too close to move his momentum, he slammed right into my combat boot and fell back, I walked over to him and knelt down, he was almost out and was fighting so hard to stay conscious, I raised my fist and was about to pounce before I heard the scream of an innocent.

”STOP!!!”

I froze, my fist hovering in the air like a guillotine.

I looked down at her to see tears streaming down her face, she was trying to push me off of the red stallion, I complied and got up, letting her get to the stallion, who I presumed to be a kidnapper or something.

She was sobbing into his red coat, making it a darker red where her tears fell, she was hugging his neck tightly, his yoke blocking her a bit, he was still conscious, somehow.

Then I heard the little filly whisper something that shattered my heart.

“Why would ya d-do this to mah b-brother…?”

I just stood there, staring at her pleading eyes, the eyes of a sister who loves her brother to death, and I almost killed him in front of her.

Is there anything in your pathetic existence that you haven’t fucked up? Hm?

Self-hatred consumed my being, but I would have to suppress that emotion until I fixed what I broke.

I walked forward, the filly and her friends blocking my path, I put my hands up, showing them that I wasn’t going to do anything.

Then a jackhammer pummeled the back of my skull, knocking me unconscious.