13 The Love of a Monster

13 The Love of a Monster

Love is a strange thing. So fragile. Just like trust. Just like humans. You break them once, they can never be fully repaired. I never realized until I met him again, years later. My Captain. The only human I have ever felt related to. The human that trusted me.

          After I left, he decided to go through with his plan. He took his followers and they left the base. A very good decision, the location was doomed. I only prolonged the inevitable by cleaning the area. The Captain led his people to a secure location, they even managed to pick up other survivors and start a colony. I keep a regular contact with them now, I cannot abandon them after everything they went through. Not after what he sacrificed for them. I kept my promise. I always will.

          It was a few years after I left them. I picked up a distress call. A familiar name was mentioned. The Captain. His team of scavengers was ambushed. I'll never forget the sudden rush I felt. It was an instinct, pure protection-based impulse. Someone took what was mine. He belonged to me.
          After years of solitude and meditation, I reverted back to my homicidal basics. It was rather refreshing, I must admit. It wasn't anger. Just inevitable consequences. I slaugtered them, one by one, calmly, methodically. I never gave them a chance to surrender. They never gave their prisoners any options. They deserved no mercy.
          Yes, they were humans. A clan fighting a clan. Meaningless bloodshed. There were many monsters in the New World, and they all agreed on one thing. Humans were the worst monsters. They were the only breed killing their own. They were dying out and it was entirely their fault.
          The Captain just happened to get in the way. My Captain. The silly little soldier who believed I had the power to create a better world. For them. And that was the problem. I could have either created a better world. Or I could have created a world for them, for the humans. He couldn't understand that. Not until he saw what humans were trully capable of.

          Love is a strange thing. In my world, there was only one human worth loving. And I realized too late. I betrayed him. I returned to him too late. He was dying. His fragile body was broken and hurting. His mind was so clouded by the pain, he didn't even notice my little rampage in the camp. I was losing him. Forever. I couldn't bear that.
          I returned to my old appearance for him, hoping he would recognize me even in his condition. I did what I could to ease his pain. But all I could really give him were few sweet moments. A goodbye he deserved all those years ago.
          "You came... you came back..." he whispered.
          "I never really left," I lied.
          "You... will stay now?" he asked, hoping. "My camp, they need..." I silenced him with a kiss. I considered turning him into something like me, into a monster. But that would not be him anymore. He wouldn't love me. And I would hate him. I lived without him. But I couldn't live without his love.
          "I will take care of them, I promise."
          He smiled, weak, exhausted. I took him in my arms, he was delirious, he didn't even notice we were moving. I brought him to my sancruary by the waterfalls. Beautiful, clean nature, as close to the Old World as it was possible. A world he belonged to. A piece of home. A place for him to rest in peace.
          I ate his heart, while it was still beating. It was my way of saying "I love you." I am a monster, after all. He knew that. And he died happily in my arms.