"You have something you should not have."

He spoke in a calm, but strangely terrifying voice.

"Excuse me?"

Jonathan’s shoulders stiffened.

"Hand it over."

The man commanded in a voice so powerful that Jonathan felt... small.

The man was tall since the beginning, but for some reason, now, in Jonathan’s eyes, he felt like a mountain, like a weight he couldn’t bear, a force he... shouldn’t resist.

But...

Jonathan wasn’t just a man in his forties.

Right now, Jonathan was a husband and a father, behind him stood his wife and his child and there was no way he would let them be hurt, no matter how overwhelmed or overpowered he felt.

So Jonathan did what any family man would do in this situation, he pointed his shotgun at the man and—

"I do not know what you want, but you better leave my house.

Now."

He basically threatened, pointing his shotgun right at the man’s head.

The strange part however, was that even when a literal shotgun was pointed at him, the man didn’t budge, heck, he didn’t even look at the shotgun, he just looked into Jonathan’s eyes and—

"Do not make this difficult.

Give me the Jar and no one gets hurt."

Jonathan let out a dry laugh.

"I don’t think you understand who holds the gun here."

He spoke, steeling himself.

"Don’t think I won’t use it."

The man sighed, he tried to raise his hand, like he wanted to speak like a civilized being but—

"You say one more word and I promise I’ll blow your head off."

Jonathan’s voice became stricter, his finger was already on the trigger.

He was dead serious.

And...

That was when it happened. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

One moment Jonathan was standing firm, with his finger on the trigger and the next, his head simply... fell.

There was no flash, no loud gunshot, no visible blade.

Just a clean, silent cut.

For half a second, Jonathan’s body stayed upright, no one in the room even realized what had happened, but then—

Spurt

Blood sprayed out of Jonathan’s severed neck like a broken fountain, then, his entire body collapsed on the floor with a small thud.

"...dad?"

Lucian’s mind went blank, his brain couldn’t register the horrible sight in front of him for a good while.

"LUCIAN! RUN!!"

Then suddenly, Eleanor screamed.

She had already moved before Lucian could process what was happening and grabbed a kitchen knife nearby, then, she shoved Lucian back, almost as if she wanted to pull him out of his dazed state and—

"RUN AWAY!!"

She screamed while she herself charged at the man with a knife in her hand and eyes that only saw red.

Eleanor’s wifely and motherly instincts, both had collectively made the decision, the wife wanted to kill this man in front of her, the mother, however, knew she stood no chance, the mother only wanted to buy a few seconds so her child could escape.

But even that didn’t work.

Let alone being able to hurt him, Eleanor didn’t even get to swing her knife, heck, she couldn’t even reach the mysterious man because mid-step, she stopped, her eyes widened in disbelief, she forced herself to move, to swing her knife and tear him apart but then—

An invisible force lifted her off the ground.

"Wh— What are you doing!? Let go of me!!"

She screamed, she thrashed, trying to get out of whatever it was that held her, but with her feet no longer on the ground, no matter how much she moved, it didn’t matter and that made her eyes widen in terror.

But the man wasn’t done.

No, he was only beginning.

The man’s eyes glowed unnaturally with a strange violet light, then suddenly, pink-purple energy filled the entire hall and then—

"AAAAAGGGHHHHHH!!!!"

Her back arched violently as her body was bent into unnatural angles a human body shouldn’t.

Eleanor screamed, blood started leaking from her nose, then her eyes, then her ears and then her mouth.

Dark red tears ran down her cheeks while her body kept shuddering in pain.

"No... please..."

She gasped between screams, her voice broken from whatever sick torment was being inflicted upon her.

And while all that happened—

Lucian only watched in horror because—

What else could he do?

His legs were frozen, he tried to move, he tried to rush forward towards that monster, to try and kill him and fail and die, to do anything but watch this horrifying sight in front of him but...

He felt helpless.

He watched as his mother’s face twisted in agony, her legs kicking weakly in the air as blood poured from every opening. The scent of blood mixed with that sweet smell that still lingered in the room, forming a sickening mix.

Then, with one final wet gurgle, Eleanor’s body went limp.

Thud

The invisible force dropped her and she hit the floor like a discarded doll.

That was when the man turned towards Lucian, looking at him with his cruel, purple eyes and—

"The Jar."

He demanded as if nothing had happened.

That was when Lucian’s legs shook in fear, he...

He could move again.

He looked at his parents’ bodies and tears streamed down his face.

"Please..."

He begged, voice cracking.

"Don’t kill me... I’ll give you whatever you want.

Please..."

He begged as his trembling hands grabbed the jar.

The world around him moved slowly, his ears rang, his throat ached, his chest felt hollow.

He no longer wanted to throw himself at the man.

Because he knew the truth.

It wouldn’t matter. He was weak, there was nothing he could do to the man even if he ran to him with all his might because... what had using ’all his might’ achieved for him his entire life?

Nothing.

So Lucian took a different approach.

The jar.

This was what this bastard was here for, wasn’t he? This was what he killed his parents for, wasn’t it?

Then Lucian would make sure this bastard never got his hands on it!

For the first time in his life, the weakness Lucian always hated became useful.

Because being weak was the only thing he never needed to fake, he naturally lowered his head, hunched his shoulders, exactly like the weak, broken boy everyone had seen.

The man watched him with cold patience.

A weak human boy, covered in tears, standing in front of his dead parents.

Of course he would obey.

That was only natural.

He let his guard down.

Lucian took one small, unsteady step forward, then another. The man extended his hand to take it and at the last moment, while he stood quite a distance away from him, Lucian looked up and through his tears—

He grinned like a madman.

Before the man could react or even understand what was happening, he opened the seal and drank whatever it was in the jar.

The thick liquid flowed into his mouth, it was hot and sweet, unnaturally sweet but Lucian didn’t care about the taste.

"Stop!!"

He looked at the man whose calm had shattered with the same, crazy grin as he gulped the liquid down his throat, even when his throat burned from it, his stomach twisted in pain and his body rejected it.

"YOU BASTARD!!"

He lunged forward with terrifying speed, grabbing Lucian by the throat as he lifted him in the air, almost as if he wanted to tear his neck and take the liquid out.

But it was already too late.

Lucian had already drunk it all and as the man held him by his throat—

"You lost."

He spoke with a bloodied grin.