CAIN’S STORY: SECTION ONE

As the moon lay trapped behind black storm clouds, Cain gazed up at the wrought iron gates in from of which he stood. He was trying to make out the letters on the top of the entrance, where the two parts of the opening met. He stood up on his tiptoes, holding on to the black metal as an anchor to get a better look. Suddenly, loud thunder cracked near him and he jumped, shocked, and fell on his butt to the mud, which made up most of the front “lawn” of the large building he had been trying to identify. As Cain sat there trying to get his senses back, a deceptively soothing voice in his mind laughed at him.

“I see that you are exactly where you belong.” the voice said, sneeringly.

“Shut the hell up, Faustus!” Cain returned angrily.

“Why?” the voice in his head said tauntingly “What are you going to do, kill me?”

“Just shut up and go away!”

“I don’t have to, I own you.”

“Please!” Cain begged, tears coming to his eyes as he sat there talking to nothing.

Then all was silent save for the gentle pit pat of receding rain on the mud, and the occasional rumble of thunder in the background. “Thank God.” Cain whispered to himself “That bastard is gone for now.”

Cain rose to his feet trying to brush off some of the mud as the clouds in the sky began to peel back behind the ominously full moon. He moved stiffly toward the large black fence he had been trying to read before. He looked up where the iron bars met at the apex of the gateway, and saw the letters “S” and “R” melded intricately in a circle.

“I guess that this is the place.” Cain said to himself. A low growl emanated from somewhere in the back of Cain’s conscious. Cain’s eyes went wide with absolute terror. “Not here!” He cried out “Not here!” The growling got louder as the sound of cage bars rattling was added to it. Soon there was nothing but the sound of screaming, yelling, and the thump of flesh against metal, as the beast inside of Cain tried to break free.

Cain sat, crouched on his legs with his hands kneading into his head, messing up his short blonde hair. He rocked back and forth trying to block out the sounds and make them go away. As he rocked, tears flowed down his tanned cheeks from his red, puffy, bloodshot eyes.

“You told me to shut up and leave” Faustus said out of nowhere.

“I didn’t want you to let Him out though!” Cain screamed helplessly.

“Oh, too bad!” Faustus said condescendingly. Cain could hear the laughter in the demon’s word. “I suppose you could call this a lesson. You will obey me.”

“No!” Cain screeched, “This is my body”

“It never was” and Cain knew the truth in the demon’s words. He knew that from the beginning, he had always had Him inside, trying to break free and destroy. Faustus controlled the beast, but had so much contempt for his fleshy prison that he wouldn’t leave Cain alone even for a few moments. And then there was the other one, Vorden, who Cain could barely remember, and rarely felt or heard.

Soon through the yelling and banging, and raging, Cain began to feel the pain, the pain that always came right before a change. The pain swept through him, and grew stronger and stronger until it throbbed through every fiber of his being. As Cain screamed from the unbearable agony, Faustus laughed at his peril, and the beast railed against his cage walls. The chains and bars that held Him captive began to loosen and bend. In one final surge of rage and terror, the beast clawed its way from the abyss of Cain’s subconscious. The beast was free

…