The Kedera: Independently published

Asmittedly, everyone loves a good book... but what if "you" were the monster in the tale? The troll under the bridge everyone avoided. The ogre the villagers forever spoke about. The Golan Butcher. Red Radesh. Not that you didn't have plenty of excuses. You'd been abandoned as a wee lad after all. It wasn't as though anyone was teaching you right from wrong during your impressionable years. I mean, you never even had a friend at any juncture along the way. Not even one.

And then she came along and, albeit rather slowly, you began to question all you once thought to be true about the world. What if she was right? What if we were all the same? What if the sole purpose of the endless walls and fences was to force us to choose a side? Which brings me to.... did monsters deserve second chances? No, they didn't. Though, once again, she felt differently. But she hadn't heard the screams... as did you even unto this day in the middle of the night. She hadn't seen the mountain of bodies, felt their blood spray your face as you stepped over them while reaffirming the grip upon your sword. And that was the difference, wasn't it? While they could not help but pause for witnessing such carnage, you didn't. And that spelled their doom, over and over, until your comrades dragged your exhausted body away so you could go first again on the morrow.

But you'd grown tired of the killing. Or, more precisely, the prospect of your inevitable forthcoming demise. You'd embarked upon a new pathway... with her. And why not for the road was full of new opportunities and hope. But the past was not so easily outrun, was it? They were hunting for you. Far worse still, now they were hunting her as well. Thanks to you.

But what choice did you have? The road to redemption was always going to be steep. That was a given. That much you knew. No. What bothered you most was knowing deep down inside you didn't deserve to walk away as if none of it ever happened. Plain and simple, as much as you loathed to admit it, you didn't deserve her.