Chapter 5

What Makes a Monster? Chapter 5

It was while Kane was living on the streets that he had a strange dream, the first of many although he did not know that at the time. He found himself standing back in front of the house where he had once lived, although he had never thought of it as home. A candle was flickering in the upstairs window and for a moment he saw the pale face of his sister looking down at him, her dark eyes silently pleading with him and an expression of utter fear on her face. Even as he watched, she turned away from the window and vanished from sight. The sound of breaking glass and a female cry of pain shattered the silence and Kane shivered, his eyes fixed on the door. It was open slightly; almost as if it was inviting him back in, back into the life of pain, fear and humiliation.

“Do not go back that way, child,” the male voice startled Kane, since he had not seen the black-cloaked figure approach him. “You have escaped from all that. Now you must continue to go forward and make your own path through life, Kane. You are free to do what you like, to take your revenge on those who have hurt you and make them pay, to torment those others who knew how you lived but just stood by and did nothing. But to do that, you have to be strong. Turn around, Kane. Walk away from this while you still can.”

Kane stared at him blankly for a moment and then turned to look behind him. Everything was dark and he could barely see more than a metre in front of him. When he turned back, the man had gone, vanished into the shadows as he had so often done before. But his words stuck in the young boy’s head. He turned away from the house and began to walk into the blackness, not stopping even when he heard the scream of pain and terror that followed him. He was determined not to go back, and nothing was going to change his mind. The way forward was not quite clear to him, but Kane knew that if the man had spoken the truth, it was bound to be interesting. A whisper followed him as he hurried away, a sinister whisper that he seemed to recognise although he was sure that he had never heard it before in his life. “You will learn”

Yet he did not look back…

*****
Kane opened his eyes and sat up in a panic, his shirt damp with sweat. Then realising that he was still in the Bridge District and there was no one around, he lay back down and began to take long, slow breaths, trying to calm himself down.

“It was only a dream,” he repeated quietly. “It was only a dream.”

But as he began to relax, Kane realised that he felt different. He felt more powerful, but that was not all. There was something else, something that he could not make sense of. There were words…he was beginning to remember words. Words that he didn’t realise that he had known. Magic words? The boy shook his head. He had seen scrolls in shops, had even stolen them once or twice, but he had never been able to read them, let alone cast them.

It was then that he saw a small, skinny dog rummaging in the rubbish bags, not far from where he was. An idea forming in his mind, Kane whistled and it came running over, obviously hoping that the boy would have some food. Close up, it looked half starved and Kane knew it felt. It had been two days since he had last eaten. Gently reaching out to scratch the animal behind the ears, Kane slowly said the words in his head. He felt the power running through his body, his fingertips, and then the dog was dead, completely drained of what little life it had had left. The words faded from his head, although Kane knew that he could remember them again if he had too. He sat there for several moments, just looking at his hands in amazement and wondering what the hell was going on…