Monster

I stood barely five yards behind Peter, fully visible to my friends and adoptive family, their eyes wide and unblinking. Silence gripped the air; no one dared to speak. The second I passed through that invisible barrier, I felt the sheer, overwhelming power unfurling from within me, rolling off my body in relentless, crushing waves. It was the same unstoppable force I’d felt the first time I encountered the entity in the fields, but now, it was mine—coursing through my veins, pouring out of me like a thick, tangible aura of doom. I knew where it had come from… the realization. It was the key to everything, a greater understanding… and more… power.

The air around me vibrated, charged with an invisible energy that twisted and warped everything within its reach, filling the space with an oppressive, bone-deep tension. It wasn’t just power; it was a force of nature, a dark, irresistible wave that gripped the minds of everyone in its path, shaking them to their core. No one moved. No one breathed. They stood frozen, locked in place, their faces pale and strained under the weight of it. All they could do was watch as I stood there, my presence suffocating the life out of the area, an embodiment of something far beyond human.

Peter found the strength to speak, “You… how?” he was at a total loss. “You cannot be here… You should be dead!” His face twisted into absolute terror. His soul understood now why he couldn’t feel his patron anymore.

“It was that place I didn’t belong,” I spoke of the dimension he sent me. Even my voice carried a new weight to it, oppressing the area and those in it.

“How did you escape?” Peter asked feverishly. “No living thing can escape that hell on its own. My master should have consumed you with his power!” Peter stumbled back at the feeling of my force as it washed over the area.

“He was weak.” I raised my hand up to feel for the blade in the void. I gripped the invisible form and pulled it into reality. The long, etched blade materialized in my hand, glinting the moonlight off it with murderous intent. As soon as it sat in the physical world, my aura was amplified. Peter fell to his knees. “He fell to my blade… him… and his world!”

“No…” Peter was scatterbrained as he tried to make sense of it in front of me. His small mind couldn’t comprehend what I was finally coming to understand. This was why he couldn’t teleport, why his power dulled. It explained everything he had been questioning as he felt his power cut off.

Then the same overconfident smile spread across his face, ear to ear. “Maybe he’s losing his power… maybe I’m stronger than him now! If that’s the case…” Peter looked up to me. His eyes were wide at the possibilities running through his brain. He was genuinely losing his mind. Insanity ignoring the power he was facing.

“You think you’re strong enough now?” I asked calmly.

“Yes,” Peter answered, “that’s exactly what I think.”

“Well, why don’t you try it?” I calmed the power that emanated from me. I wanted him to regain his composure and find the strength to come to me.

“Sam!” Autumn’s scream tore through the air, her voice cracking with desperation. “Sam, don’t let him touch you!” She was wild, her feet pounding against the ground as she sprinted toward us, panic surging through every fiber of her being. Her heart hammered in her chest, a frantic rhythm that echoed the terror clawing at her mind. I could read her like a book… she couldn't lose me again. Not like this.

Before she could get any closer, Carter barreled into her, tackling her to the ground. They crashed hard, Carter pinning her down with his weight. She thrashed beneath him, her limbs flailing, her mind consumed with one thought: getting to me. Protecting me from Peter.

“Let me go!” she screamed, tears burning in her eyes. “Please, Dad, let me go! I have to get to him!” Her voice was frantic, raw with terror, the unspoken confession of what she felt choking in her throat.

“Autumn, stop!” Eleanor shouted, rushing to help hold her down. “He’ll kill you! He’ll take you from us!”

Autumn didn’t care. She kicked and writhed, her strength fueled by sheer desperation. Her nails dug into the dirt, her muscles screaming with exertion as she fought against her father and Eleanor. Her mind raced, her thoughts a blur of dread. Her own fear of losing me to this guy gave her the strength to ignore my dominating presence. She was more afraid of her fear of what might happen to me.

I was thankful that they were there to stop her. If she was alone, she would have most definitely made it to us, and Peter might have been able to take her from me forever. It was for her own good. I couldn’t lose her… I needed her for what I felt coming in my future. The more I realized the truth about what I was, the more I knew I needed her to be with me… to help me with what the truth would mean. I just hoped she would still want me once she knew the truth.

Peter ignored what was happening with the Chasse family and stepped up to me without hesitation once I let my dominating presence subside. “Your power will be mine, and then I’ll kill them all,” he barked as he smashed his hand around my throat. Peter’s eyes burned even brighter green than before, pouring every last vestige of pour he had left into the effort. He stared into the black, marble-like spheres of my eyes as he attempted to steal my inhuman strength and life force. I could feel his mental strain against me, but it was fruitless.

I reached up and grabbed his hand on my throat. His green eyes shot around, looking up and down from my obsidian orbs to his hand. He was struggling and confused. He was so confident in what he would do to me that this was never an outcome that could have happened in his mind.

I felt the fog wrap me back up in a smothering haze as soon as I grabbed Peter’s hand. I think I was starting to understand what that feeling was. I didn’t feel like I was totally in the living world anymore. I think the entity was allowing me to walk in between the planes of the living world as we did with Annabelle; still here, but just out of reach. The family couldn’t see us anymore. To them, we had disappeared out of thin air as soon as I touched Peter. Just vanished like we had moved through a portal again.

“Thank you,” I told him. “I hoped I could do this without letting you escape. You walked right in… on your own free will.”

“How? How are you not falling?” he spit through his rage as he couldn’t understand.

The calm around me was still as present as it was since I was given his name. “I have no life to take, Peter. My life was given away to save someone else,” I said, looking back towards the silent Eleanor. The three Chasses searched intently from the ground as their own fighting had stopped. They had no clue that we were right there, just on the other side of life. “Even if I still had my life, you wouldn’t be able to stop me. I’m not alive… but I’m not dead either. I’m powered by something that lives in between the living world and what lies beyond.” I smiled at Peter as I slowly twisted his hand away from my throat, straining and cracking his bones in my vice-like grip.

Peter screamed under the slowly building pressure that overcame his own structural integrity. “Stop! It doesn’t matter. You’ll kill me, and I’ll just keep coming back. If I can’t kill you, then I’ll just kill everyone you care about… Sam Roberts.” He said my name.

How did he know that name? The way he said it was like he knew something about my secrets; it through off my composure for a moment.

“Yeah… that’s right. I know about your family and where you come from. I’ve seen your brother… and might I say, you two are very identical. I’ve seen Vicky and Ben, and I’ve smelled the head of that precious little Caydee,” Peter’s creepy smile returned. “You see, Sam, I do my research. I know people… real close pals you see, and they help me find out things. When you slaughtered Darry and freed Allen, I knew I had to come meet you. Everything I had heard was too good to be true. I knew your power would be mine, I just had to figure you out. Once I saw the power for myself, the sheer monstrosity of that beast you have inside… I knew I had no chance against you; not until I grew much stronger. Still, I’m not a match, not yet. I had to find some kind of weakness, and I did. I know exactly where each of your family members sleeps at night. I’ve placed my hand on that little girl of yours.” Peter’s twisted grin grew more manic. He was fucking sick.

I was in shock, still maintaining control over Peter with his arm, but my mind was somewhere else. Thoughts of his evil power anywhere near Caydee, Seth, Vicky, or any of them made my blood boil. He was so close to them, and I had no idea.

“What did you do to them?” I ordered him to answer, twisting his arm a few more degrees past the break.

“Ahh!” Peter screamed in pain, huffing heavily as he regained his composure. “Nothing yet, Sam. But don’t worry, I will. It doesn’t matter how many times you kill me, I will come back, and I will get to them. I will take everything from you, just as I will take from them,” Peter snarled towards the collective family watching an empty space from a distance. “So, go ahead, turn into that thing. Turn into that raging beast and snuff me out, because the quicker you do it, the quicker I can return to torment you and your family. It doesn’t matter what you are… I will keep coming back.” He spoke the purest of facts from within his evil mind.

The calm returned to my thoughts, reassuring me of the truth that was already set in motion, “No… you won’t.” My face settled with no emotion, only void black eyes.

Peter’s smile dissipated slowly, unsure of the source of my confidence. I think he finally understood that I knew something he didn’t, “What is this?” He looked around, feeling the strange atmosphere of the place we now stood. He started to notice all the others as they moved and spoke after we disappeared, but they made no sounds. The world was utterly silent, except for us two, as the living were trying to figure out what exactly had happened to us. They had no clue where we had gone.

Autumn finally broke away from her parents and ran to the place where we had stood. She passed through Peter and me, actually running through our bodies like a ghost, totally disconnected from our location. Peter’s eyes grew wide at the sight of people passing through his body like he was already a lost spirit that hadn’t passed on.

“Where are we… what did you do?” he ordered me to tell him.

“I didn’t do this, Peter,” I said as I motioned around us. “But this is it. There’s no coming back after this one. I told you… we killed your Primeval… the Unseen. He’s gone….”

“We?” Peter asked, backing away as I let him go. He clutched his arm in a new wave of fear. “Who’s we?”

Then, I felt a power unfurl around us… but it was not my own, and it wasn’t coming from the blade in my grip. I saw in Peter’s fading green eyes that he knew what I said to be true. Suddenly, the world around us shifted. Blackness washed over us like a suffocating wave, swallowing everything in its path. It wasn’t just darkness; it was as if the fabric of reality itself had unraveled, tearing us from the space we once stood. We were no longer hidden behind the veil of this world but thrust into another.

The transition was violent for Peter but seamless for me. One moment, we were standing amidst the battle, the next, our feet sank into the soft, dew-covered grass of the fields. The shift was more than visual; it was as though gravity had twisted, yanking us through an unseen current. Peter’s head swam as the sight of Jon’s shack materialized in the distance. It was weathered and frail, exactly where it always stood. Yet, the world around it felt different, darker, more sinister. A storm of black destructive wrath roiled in the heavens above. White lightning scorched across the sky, back and forth across the horizon. Flashes of light constantly lit up the darkness that Peter and I were standing in.

Peter’s breath hitched, his body trembling as he glanced around, his movements erratic and panicked. He was pacing frantically now, his eyes darting across the fields as if searching for an escape that wasn’t there. The air thickened, a heavy, oppressive force pressing down on us, whispering of impending doom. It gathered in the distance like an approaching hurricane, a malevolent presence that swirled closer with every second.

Peter knew… there was no outrunning what was coming.

From within the developing power around us, a dark-cloaked figure arrived. The being that I served stepped forth just before the raging storm in the distance. He was a great distance away, but I knew Peter could see him, his all-encompassing gaze demanded attention in this place. Peter stumbled back as the earsplitting hum pierced our senses, falling to the ground below. He tried pushing up from the dirt, but his broken arm didn’t allow him much ability to raise himself from the ground. Even if he could stand and flee, it wouldn’t matter; there was nowhere he could hide from what was coming.

I felt the blade in my grip humming with power like it was resonating with the being as the two became closer. Its carved names and symbols, red hot against the weathered steel finish.

Peter fumbled and crawled away from the menacing power that the cloak of shadows brought with it. It was useless. There at that moment, was Peter Grimwood’s few last breaths. He didn’t fall by my hand. The entity came for him.

The surrounding darkness grew so large that Peter and I were both surrounded by whipping darkness. It was like standing inside the eye of a tornado made completely of shadow. I could still see him through the roiling darkness of the umbral storm. Peter’s eyes were terrified. I could barely stand in the presence of such power, but I knew it wasn’t my own body that allowed it. My monster’s creator was permitting me to continue to have the use of my legs. That was the only reason. He wasn’t here for me… but for Peter.

“Please… I’ll do anything. Just let me live,” Peter’s last plea could barely be heard through the raging power that surrounded us. We were in a literal storm of darkness that raged around us like a tempest.

The being spoke, “Peter Grimwood.” The voice overpowered the ambient noise of the storm. Like a planet-sized bullhorn, its sheer volume could have shattered stone.

Then, the shadows overcame him. Peter disappeared out of sight, swallowed up by the swirling darkness that filled this dimension. I tried to watch, but my eyes were filled with the blackness of the raging shadows. Through the storm, I could hear a faint scream that called out for help… he’d find none.

In those moments alone, wholly enveloped in the entity’s dominating power… I felt at peace. I just stood in the darkness that consumed Peter and breathed slowly, closing my eyes. I realized the truth. It was the slow truth that I came to realize over the course of the early years of this life. I always had the questions, and deep down, a part of me always had the answers. I was just fighting against my nature for too long… for what I felt deep in the darkest pit, in the cage with the monster. I was just too afraid to keep looking… to admit what I felt… and what it would mean. I felt it in my core… in my bones. I knew what the being from the fields was. Everything about me was sure now. I had no more questions about my identity. There were no more answers to seek. That chapter of my story was closed. Everything that came next… was only how I would live with it… while I carried this burden.

I started speaking to the shadows, knowing that he could hear me. I wanted him to know that I understood now. I knew who I was talking to… and it was terrifying.

“I was turned into this monster, by you. I’ve never craved flesh or blood, or anything from the bodies of my victims, but I was satisfied in some way. You said that there is a piece of a Primeval that lies within me. There is only one thing that Primeval craved… The only thing that satisfied its hunger. I think that’s why he’s tied to you… the only one of the ancient Primevals to submit to you. You send me names of people who extended their lives… gained more power than they ever should have.” I lightly chuckled to myself for being so blind before. “That was just another way to say it, wasn’t it?” I asked the blackness that swarmed me. “They cheated you…”

The shadows swarmed violently to one area a distance in front of me, collecting into some kind of towering mass. The black tendrils of shadow whipped past me forcefully as they all grouped into one form. No longer was the storm raging around me but was pushing past me to take shape. It was like a massive windstorm blowing past as it all centralized.

I looked down as the darkness faded from my surroundings and collected in front of me. The ground where Peter last stood was now vacant, with no sign that he was ever there. I felt no other life in that place. Peter Grimwood was no more. The only thing I felt in my area was the blade, vibrating with immense power.

I let out a small laugh in realization, “Then there’s this… it's yours… isn’t it?”

The shadows grew taller, thicker, and darker as they came together. The form was massive as I craned my head up to look upon it all. It formed a towering figure that took on a similar shape to the cloaked being that was there the same night I was taken and turned into this monster.

The world around us faded, and I stood as an insect in the presence of something far more significant than myself. He was a titan of titans, bigger than the Unseen in its world. If it could have cast a shadow in this dark world, it would have eclipsed the planet. Standing in front of me was a mountainous being of inescapable doom.

I felt the blade violently rip itself from my grip and tear across the gap, soaring into the sky like a reverse comet, trailing heat and shadow behind. It grew larger and thicker as it grew closer to the tower of shadows. A hand of darkness reached out to grab the blade, its form shifting, lengthening… curving. Its handle angled down, growing longer and thicker. Doom itself loomed over the horizon... a form that could end the world in a single swipe of its blade. A vacuum of energy and life at its core, wanting... eating... destroying life in all its forms. It was... the end.

I spoke from my vulnerability, completely helpless…“Death…”

A rumble shook the fields as a voice spoke.

“Now you see, Sam,” his thunderous voice vibrated my entire body. “I am no mortal. No necromancer. I am older than the Primevals. I AM DEATH… and we have much work to do!”

The power was devastating as I basked in it. I had no power against him… nothing I could do to resist him. Yet, I was at peace in the raging shadows that this being cast out from himself. In those moments that would be seared into my memory for the rest of my unnatural life… I felt calm. I knew who he was, and I knew who I was to him.

The blackness of the world turned to white, blinding my eyes from the visage of the timeless entity. I caught one last glimpse of Death’s towering form before I was utterly blinded, and I faded from that world.