Saga sem ég skrifaði fyrir einhverju síðan.

Hún er á ensku því að ég senti hana upprunalega inn á enska skriftar síðu.



The Crimson Road
The sky was clear and starlight illuminated the dark forest on that cool summer night. A small figure walked with haste through the darkness, the only sound that could be heard was the faint rustle as the dried up leafs on the ground crumbled under her feet, the sound of her rapid breathing and an occasional crickets song.
Emi had gone into the woods to meet Ichiro, the most wonderful man she had ever meet in her short life. She loved him, and he said he loved her as well. But sadly her father didn’t quite agree with it so she was forced to meet him in secret like he was some kind of fugitive or something. She loathed having to go through all this trouble, but she loved spending her time with him. She loved being with him so much she frequently lost all track of time and before she knew the sun had set and darkness covered the world and she was forced to go home alone through the forests darkest corners.
From every side the shadows seemed to crawl up on her, sneaking up from behind, covering her, swallowing her. She looked to her sides, into the forest, into the darkness and everywhere she saw potential danger. She felt like something might reach out of the shadows and grab her at any time, which of course was pure paranoia and didn’t happen. She did on the other hand see something rather peculiar, a light in the darkness ahead.
Only about a dozen yards into the deep forest there was what seemed to be a large bonfire in a small clearing. She felt the relief wash over her, that fire had to belong to a hunter or some other kind of outdoors man from the village, he might be willing to escort her home. The idea that it might be a brigand or rapist or some other harmful fellow didn’t even occur to the silly young girl. Even though it was much more likely
Slowly she walked into the clearing, “Hello?” She called out hopefully as she came into the light. But instead of some nice old man or a buffed hunter she saw a young boy with some bizarre red tribal tattoos on his back, laying on the grass. He seemed to be sleeping, although he had picked a rather odd place to sleep in seing that it was to far away from the fire to get any warmth from it and that he didn’t even have a rug.
“Hello? Are you alone out here?” She asked, her voice low and gentle, afraid of startling him; when no reply came she walked up to the boy to see if he was asleep. As she came close enough to see him properly her eyes went wide with horror, there where no tattoo’s on his back. His entire back had been carved open with some sort of sharp object, some of the cuts almost half an inch deep and spread wide. The boy wasn’t sleeping, he was unconscious from blood loss, in fact it was a miracle he was still alive.
For a few moments her mind went blank, then she did the first thing her panicked mind could think of doing, although it was probably more like instinct of a kind soul then actual conscious thinking. She took the young boy into her arms and ran, she ran until her lungs burned and her feet wobbled, She ran until her legs and arms where blooded from running through the forest and her pupils where dilated from extreme fatigue. Finally she reached home, where her parents acted quickly and took them both to the local doctor as fast as they could.

I was that boy, she saved my life, and for that, I am forever grateful but for that I will also never forgive her.
I lay unconscious on that hospital bed for a whole week, my life hanging on a thread, I later heard that the doctor himself had given up hope that I would survive numerous times. But I refused to die, and I’ll never forget the first thing I saw when I finally woke up. There was a beautiful young girl sleeping in the chair beside me. Of course I was to young for emotions like lust and love but her beauty still gave me a strange sense of comfort, it was like being in the presence of divinity. She looked so peaceful, so… serene that for a moment I couldn’t breathe at all, my lungs where simply paralyzed by her visage.
I tried to reach out touch her but no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t gather the strength to raise my arm, to weak to even speak, so I waited. I waited for what seemed to be an entire lifetime, until finally, she woke up. For a moment her eyes where blank and unfocused, her mind simply not comprehending what was before her. Then she noticed me. A big smile covered her face and she whispered softly in her beautiful angelic voice “Hello there little fellow, how are you feeling?”
“I.. I’m alive..” I managed to mumble with some difficulty, taken completely off guard by the kindness and concern in her innocent little face. No one had ever asked how I was feeling before, I didn’t know how to react to it. Hell, the closest thing he had gotten to that was “Does this hurt” As my father nailed my hand to the wall before he made “love” to my “mother” right there on the floor before me.
She smiled, a smile so warm and kind that it made my heart beat faster “I asked my parents to let you stay with us until we find your real parents, don’t you worry, everything is going to be ok” She said in a clear soft tone.
“No.. Don’t.. I don’t want to go back.. It hurts..” I whispered concerned. Emi looked shocked for a moment but quickly regained her calm as she dismissed his words as childish babble.
That’s how I for the first time had a real family. They took me in after I was released from the hospital a few weeks later, for some reason they thought it was their duty as decent people. My wounds healed perfectly but the red scars will never fade. They shall serve as a reminder of worse times. The times before I had a real loving family.
No matter how I pleaded with them not to, they searched for my parents far and wide, they hung up posters, sent messages to nearby towns and asked around for weeks. But weeks turned to months and months turned to years and in the end they had accepted me as a true part of their family. They cared for me and I started to throw away my old memories and and hate and started to love them as well. But no one did I care for as much as I cared for Emi. She became my big sister, my best friend and my teacher. She thought me everything I knew about human life, the morals, the ethics and the emotions. My heart hopped with joy as one day she explained to me feelings of love and affection, she made it sound like such a wonderful thing and I couldn’t wait till I got old enough to feel those emotions. Now that I think of it, perhaps it would have been better if I had never gotten them.
As I got older is started to be plagued with horrifying dreams. Night after night I watched my sister die a horrible painful death by the hands of a demonic shadow. How she died was different every night, some times she was cut, some times she was burned and a few times she was even eaten. But a few things always remained the same… The wounds on her body, the pain in her beautiful face and the cries in that wonderful angelic voice, I couldn’t get it out of my mind. I started to fear sleeping to the point of hurting myself to keep awake, I would sit in the darkest corner of my room pushing a needle through my hand, cutting my flesh and sometimes simply tearing my skin open with my teeth. I did it hoping the pain might keep me awake, keep me from entering those dreams even if just for a moment. But the dreams always came in the end, no matter what I did I could never escape them. Now that I think back about it I wonder if hurt myself to keep the dreams away or if that was just an excuse, I wonder If I feared those dreams so much because I always woke up from them stiff as a board. Or maybe I simply ignored those things, focusing on the horrifying idea of loosing my sister.
The dreams kept coming, again and again until I started believing I was seeing my own future in my dreams. I started believing I was seeing a future I had to stop from coming to pass. I had to prevent that from happening, I would have to be the one to save my sister, I would be her hero. That was what I thought.
I started going out of the house at night, I went into the forest where my story started and trained myself. I trained and I trained myself to such an extent. I think it is a wonder I didn’t ruin my body in the process. I would literally overwork myself until I passed out. Now that I think of it I’m not sure if I did that out of discipline or out of simple desperation. I would work myself till my hands bleed and my vision got blurry, so many times I thought of giving up, so many times I just wanted to break down and cry of pain and fatigue. But every time those thoughts entered my mind the picture of my sisters crying face appeared in my mind. The pain in her eyes gave me strength, gave me the vigour I needed. So I continued.

It was stupid training really, I did the basic things everyone knew of like push ups, sit ups and squats and I ran and sprinted enough to kill a wild horse. But I also did a lot of ridiculous things I had heard about in the stories of great legendary warriors. I climbed three’s and impossible cliffs that could just as well have killed me as they made me stronger. I carried huge rocks from one pile to another just to carry them back to the other pile an hour later. I mean hell, I even stood in a freaking waterfall for hours thinking it might actually do some bloody good..

But somehow it worked. My body became hard and my movements sharp. I became a huge topic in town, my strong body was a popular topic, since I had the strength of boys twice my age and size but even more then that was my ghostly appearance. Lack of sleep had given me big shadows under my eyes and my skin had become as pale as the whitest pearl. Strange stories started to arise, each dumber than the last. I caught the fruit vendor telling someone I had been killing Iwahiron’s chickens at night feasting on the blood after tearing them apart, and I heard the tailor telling someone I was probably possessed by an evil demon that legends said once lived here. The rumors struck me hard; I started to stay at home at all times, fearing what I would hear next, fearing what they would do to me if they caught me alone. I found comfort in the darkness, it was so soothing I could lay down in the basement for hours at a time. I always felt safe there, like I was being embraced by a caring mother, sometimes the darkness even seemed to move to my will, stroking through my hair soothingly as Emi did when she was there. I mainly hid away when she was with that, bastard of a ‘man’ she called her ‘boyfriend’. Because I spent most of my time with her when she was at home. I could see that she worried about me, as kind as she was, how could she not? I looked like a corpse or even a demon with my pearl white skin and golden eyes; I almost scared myself when I looked in the mirror. And I’m afraid even she was affected by the rumors about me, she didn’t believe in them of course, she couldn’t allow herself to. But deep in her heart she still feared them to be true.
Then It came, the night that changed my life forever. It started sometime around midnight, I had decided to try sleep properly for once and was awarded with a extra long nightmare. Once again I saw Emi being carved up by the shadow with a kitchen knife. Slowly he let the blade run up my sisters arms, cutting deep, all the way to the white bone. Her screams pierced me, it was a horrible sight but I was simply unable to look away. So mezmerised I stared at him cut her up, watched her agony as he started to flay her but I also stared at it, the monster I would have to protect my sister from. I stared and slowly, the shadow began to become clearer and clearer, until I could almost see his face, it seemed so clear, I was sure I knew it.

Covered in sweat and breathing hard I rose up from my bed and walked outside of my room. It was a silent night and everyone was still in their beds, sleeping, completely clueless about what was about to happen. I walked into the kitchen, it still smelled heavily of last nights dinner, fried fish and rice, but I didn’t really notice. My stare was fixed on my mothers big kitchen knife, it was about the size of my forearm both in length and width it was huge. But more importantly It was the very blade I had seen the shadow use to kill my sister. The bastard would be killed by the blade he used to carve away my sister, even though it had just been a dream, the idea made me grin. I lifted up my sleeve and let the blade slide slowly over the back of my arm, testing the blades sharpness, finding it to be sharper than any razor. I felt the pain shiver through my body as a dozen crimson rivers flowed down my arm, coming together at my fingertips forming a small dark red waterfall. “This will work wonderfully” I whispered to myself as I headed out the door and walked slowly towards the towns gate. I was smiling, although at the time I didn’t notice it.

A single guard stepped in my way raising his hand signaling me to stop near the town gate. “What are you doing out at this time of night Ren?” He said kindly and walked up to me so I quickly hid the knife behind my back “Ill take you home safely” he continued and I believed him, Meitou was the only guard who had always been nice to me, always seemed to care. But I couldn’t just go back
I looked him with the greatest puppy eyes I could muster, although with the dark circles around my eyes and my unnatural yellow eyes I probably looked more like a demonic little imp “please get out of my way, I have to go out”
Kindness was replaced with slight annoyance in the guards eyes and he continued “Now listen to me young man, Its not safe out at this time of night, your going back to your house even if I have to drag you the..” He suddenly stopped in the middle of a word, his eyes full of confusion as his hand reached up to his throat and his face became deformed with fear for one moment as he felt the large slit that had been opened on his windpipe before he fell to the ground with a loud thunk, a large pool of blood rapidly forming from the large wound.
For a short moment I just stood there and stared down at my bloody hands, stared down at my blood stained weapon. This was the first time I had killed anything, it was the first time I had intentionally hurt anything.

I ran out of town as fast as I could, I darted through the forest, jumping over logs and small creeks like I had done a thousand times before, and within minutes I was in front of a small hut, probably only a couple of rooms, if not just one. As I walked towards the door the image of the guards face before he died suddenly flashed into my mind, the pain, the horror, “I bet he didn’t think he was going to die tonight” I whispered to myself and suddenly I started to chuckle, I tried my best to keep it down but I couldn’t, the guards face was engraved into my mind and I couldn’t stop laughing. I didn’t even know why I killed him, I probably could have run past him if I wanted to, poor Meitou had never done anything to deserve being killed but for some reason thinking of that particular fact made a shiver of delight run down my spine so violently I felt the need to embrace myself to control it, to make it subside, as the laughter echoed through the dark forest.
“Who’s there?” A voice boomed from inside the hut and I stopped laughing immediately. “Stay here ill go out and check” The voice continued and I could hear footsteps followed closely by the opening of the front door. A large man came out wearing nothing but his underwear and wielding large axe in his hands. I stared at him and my blood ran cold, that man was the one who would kill my sister, of that I was certain. “Ichiro…” I said as I walked towards him with the knife in my hand, my voice nothing but a beastly growl
“Ren?, Is that you?” He said with puzzlement in his tone, but I didn’t hear him. All I could think of was to kill the man that had caused me so much misery, the man that would ruin my life if I didn’t stop him. I tilted my body forwards and darted towards him, holding the knife with both hands intending to jab it deep into his gut. I took him by complete surprise and I could feel the knife entering his stomach, piercing through the skin and muscles, but before it could reach deep enough for it to be dangerous he grabbed my arms and lifted me of the ground. The heavy axe falling down to the ground with a heavy sound as he released it to free his hands. As I dangled there I couldn’t help but wonder if a more silent approach wouldn’t have been better, Ichiro was fucking huge.
“Have you gone completely insane?” He yelled at me and squeezed my wrists so hard I was forced to drop the knife and watch it fall to the ground where it sank deep into the damp ground. “What the hell do you think your doing?” He continued, his former anger rapidly transforming into wild confusion. This didn’t seem to make much sense to the bull-headed fool.
I tried my best to tear myself out of his grasp but it was like trying to rip of iron shackles. I was to weak and small and he was simply to damn strong, that stupid bull of a man. I wasn’t strong enough, my sister was going to die and I was helpless to do anything, for a while I thought what I was feeling was utter despair. Then I heard something that made my heart sink even further, it was the angelic voice i had heard so many times in my life “What’s going on out there?” My sister said as she walked out the front door, her voice slightly shaky. My blood turned to ice and my heart stopped beating, she was here, alone with this man, so that’s why the dream had been so vivid tonight. This would be the night of my sisters death. I had to stop him now.

She just stood there and stared at me and her boyfriends bloody chest, petrified by the sight. My blood went from ice to fire in an instant “You will die..” I hissed as I reached deep within myself calling out the all the strength within me I could muster. The adrenaline-flow in my body went absolutely wild and I could almost feel the endorphins being released in my head. The feeling was amazing, I tore myself free from his grasp and kicked him as hard as I could straight into the face, grinning wildly at the satisfying cracking sound as his chin and nose was shattered into pieces by the force of the blow. I used the force from the kick to jump a few feet backwards, twisting myself in the air landing on my feet. I charged in as soon as my feet touched the ground and I threw myself on the ground faster than I had ever done before, sliding in between his feet I reached out for the knife with my right hand and with a lightning speed I spun around and severed the tendons above his heels on both legs, the razor sharp blades cutting all the way down to the bone.
A grin covered my face as he fell to the ground, shivering, crying, and screaming in utter agony. Next thing I knew I was standing over him, he looked so pathetic, so defenseless with his tears flowing down his cheeks in an endless flow. A feeling of joy came over me, starting in my gut moving upwards, into my throat up to my face. I started chuckling again, I couldn’t help it, I had never felt so good in my life, I had never felt such amazing ecstasy and never had my pants felt so tight around the crotch. I crouched down beside him “Does it hurt?” I asked, but he replied only with a small pathetic sniffle “Do you want to live?” I asked him with an evil smirk on my face, reaching almost from ear to ear.
“Y… Yes” He finally managed to stutter miserably. He looked kind of like a wounded puppy, it was rather cute.
I put my face only a few inches away from his and yelled, “I said, do you want to live? As I cut open his left eye with the knife and felt another wave of ecstasy go over me as he screamed louder than ever before. I thought I would die of joy as I licked up the blood flowing down his cheek in an endless stream.
“Yes!! I want to live! Please don’t kill me, ohh god…” He cried out in desperation, his voice completely cracked and his breath completely irregular.
“Fine then” I answered cheerfully, “Then stand up…” I whispered into his ear, my voice as low as the hiss of a snake, and just as menacing.
“What?!” He cried out in disbelief and looked at his mangled feet with utter desperation in his eyes.
“You heard me” I said as I let the knife slide across his chest, leaving a shallow cut across it “I want you to stand up, If you can do that ill let you live”
Oh I still remember the joy I felt, watching him trying to stand, the pained look on his deathly pale face the as he almost passed out from the pain, and the relief and happiness on his face as he managed to stand up. Followed by face of surprise and despair as he felt a sharp pain behind his knees as I carved through the tendons there with my knife, the blood spraying in every direction as the blood sprayed out into every direction like a fountain. Even today I can recall how he looked with perfect clarity, he no longer cried, he no longer begged. His face was like a mask, frozen in utter horror and pain. He had lost all hope, all desire, he just lay there sniffling. He was completely broken.
“Are you finished?” I asked as I put the knife on his throat, but there was no reply. With a quick motion I slashed open his throat from ear to ear and licked across the blade. This night was the first time in years I had tasted blood. It felt as if it was the first thing I drank in my life, I felt so, Alive.

“I have no use for a broken toy..” I said with a bored tone as turned my attention towards my sister. She just sat there, shivering, biting her index finger so hard streams of blood flowed down her hand. It almost looked as if she would bite a piece of her finger off as I approached her. She looked so beautiful with the horrified look and the tears running down her cheeks.
::What am I doing?::
“Yes I understand, It must be quite a shock to see your boyfriend tortured and murdered in front of you like that, especially by someone you loved and trusted…” I said to her softly as I crouched down in front of her, “You loved him didn’t you?” I asked and slowly stroked the side of her face with the back of my hand.
“Yes…” She answered, her voice completely broken, hardly understandable as she shuddered away from my touch.
“Well then, don’t you want to say goodbye to his face? You can hardly see him from here” I said as I picked her up gently and carried her over to Ichiro’s carved up body “You know, your surprisingly light, Have you been eating properly?” I asked her but she was in no condition to answer, not that I really expected her too “Well, Say your goodbyes” I said with a grin on my face as I placed her by the corpse.

::This isn’t like me..:

It was wonderful… Her beautiful face, twisted in sadness and despair. Complete and utter agony, the tears flowing like rivers down her face, the pain, and the agony the marvelous suffering, Oh the Ecstasy! I loved her so much, she was everything to me. I smiled widely as she looked away from Ichiro and crumbled on the ground crying hysterically. She was only a few steps away from breaking down completely and utterly.

::I Could never hurt Emi, I love her::

“I’m sorry I killed your boyfriend, and I’m sorry I killed your mother and your father as well” Now I only regret that I hadn’t actually killed her parents, it would have been more… real then. But the lie had the desired effect, She completely crumbled.

::She is everything to me::

“No, It’s not true, no… Why would you do that? No it can’t be” She mumbled with her broken voice, looking up at him with desperation in her eyes. Staring deep into his, looking for lies, looking for deceit. Hoping to find something there that could confirm that this was just a horrible dream. But what she found there was nothing but ruthless twisted joy, the loving boy she once knew buried deep beneath the passion of the moment.

::Perhaps that’s why::

“I’m sorry, to tell you the truth I really did love you guys, all of you. Our mother was kind to me in ways I had never known a mother to be and our father taught me great many things. Which is why I decided to kill them” I said calmly, a slight smile crossing my face “A scar like this will never heal and you will never see them again, I really wanted to help you but in the end I robbed you of everything you had to live for, such wonderful irony” I continued with the same sincere tone “I’m afraid that every single day from now on is going to be a living hell to you, especially since the villagers are going to blame you for all the murders” I said with a grin on my face
“No, they wouldn’t…” she said hopelessly

”Oh yes they would, who would believe that a thirteen year old child was capable of doing something like this? You will be hated, you will be haunted like an animal and beaten to death before the entire village, You would be better of dead” I said, even though I knew damn well that the fucking villagers would have no trouble believing that the demon child had killed someone. “Here take this, one cut up your forearm from the wrist to elbow and its all over, the pain will be gone and you might meet Ichiro again” I said as I offered her the blood drenched knife.

::I will immortalize her in my mind::

For a while she just stared at it without saying a word but in the end she took it and placed the tip on her wrist, “I’m sorry… mom, dad, Ichiro, and you Ren, I love you all, goodbye” She said right before she pierced her flesh and dragged the knife all the way up the dark crimson road to the end of her life. The look in her face as she did almost made me pass out, the wonderful view of complete agony, a masterpiece, a true work of art. I thought my pants would rip away from the pressure but I ended up simply feeling a slight increase in moisture between my legs. It was the first time that happened too.

I walked into the forest; tonight I had lost everything that had ever been dear to me. Tears of sadness ran down my face, but I couldn’t stop smiling. I guess after all, I was really my father’s son.