Blood Dust

I was pushed from one orphanage to another, and I never thought for the life of me that someone would ever think of adopting me. I was the kind of kid that no one wanted; always dressed in black and listening to sad sow songs or loud angry ones that made me shiver as I listened to their lyrics.

Then, there was a secret…my secret. No matter how many years have passed, I never aged. I was a cursed boy from the Mastung bloodline, and like all the Mastungs that managed to live; being forever eighteen years old and making two people die each month was the cost of living.

On another note, being a boy didn’t mean I wasn’t afraid of being alone nor that I was tough. I just wished for a normal life; a life I knew I could never have, and I knew that from the first time I had to take a life.

It was easy, because all I had to do was see their remaining life span inside their souls, and then I thought of changing that number to a smaller one. For every ten years I stole, I got a month more to live. The hunters called it ‘’the god’s eyes and hands’’ while some of them thought of a more modern term like ‘’life stealers’’ because they believed a god would never take the lives of others so he could live a bit more. At least I knew people, and they were greedy.

I got up from the bed, still thinking of my new family and what I was. Eric and Camille were two kind and caring people. I could see it in their eyes and I was never wrong. After all I had lived that long, since hundreds years ago.

Camille, my new mother, worked the night shift at the local hospital. She was a nurse wanting nothing more than to save people’s lives and help them. Eric, my new dad, worked at a company and he stayed out of town a lot because of work but he loved his family dearly. I could tell from the way he had spoken to me, like I was really his son. As for my new sister, Luce, she was kind of like me; the lonely type, but I had to see that for myself.

‘’You have to keep your secret hidden, or find a way to tell them without having to kill them,’’ Deacon said to me as I packed my things. He was the only human who knew the truth about me, and still remained my friend, and… well, alive!

‘’I don’t know how that will work out, but I’ll try!’’ Deacon nodded his head, knowing there was nothing else I could say or do for the time being.

‘’Stay alive,’’ he said sternly.

‘’It’s the only thing I know how to do best,’’ I said grinning while showing him my stealing eyes; void, empty, like the eyeballs didn’t even exist. He knew what I was and he accepted me. I just had to learn to accept myself.