#enni

“Where am I? Who are you? What are you?”

“I-AM-YOU-,” The crow spoke in pieces of Benjamin’s speech taken apart and stitched back together, but its voice was rougher and shriller, like a short screech for every piece separated by small pauses.

“Are you… using my voice?” Benjamin stood up slowly, noticing the bird was not aggressive, but interested. He reached his right hand out cautiously.

“I-AM-VOICE-,” The crow lowered its head and stretched out its neck, allowing the boy to touch it; its eyes closed slightly when Benjamin ran his hand through its feathers.

“Huh. Can you only speak using the words you hear? Then… could I call you Echo?” He felt a strangely powerful connection to this large crow that simply appeared in front of him.

“I-AM-ECHO-,” Said Echo, and hopped forwards to rub the top of his head against Benjamin, accidentally pushing him a step backwards.

After that Benjamin had woken up in the room where he was now, and since then everything he heard and observed stayed perfectly registered in his memories, he could impeccably recall the way his mother said “maybe we’ve been too soft on him so far, we need to amend our errors as parents for him to achieve his real potential” overlooking him dazed on the bed.

Benjamin shook his head, it wasn’t time to think about that, now that he was here, he had to jump as soon as possible, if someone came into his room now, they’d see he’d opened the window and tied his blankets into a security rope of sorts, not long enough to reach the ground below, but it would allow him to slowly lower himself to a safe height for a landing in the bushes if he was careful.

Still, Benjamin hesitated, what if they caught him? He’d always found his parents intimidating, but never “casually kill people” intimidating. Trying to predict how he might be punished he could only be sure he didn’t know these people, not really.

00:01=>Tinysaster: Ok guys, I’m gonna climb down the window, is anyone coming with me?

=>Tinysaster: Elizabeth told you already, right Henrique?

00:02=>Tinysaster: Are you awake?

00:04=>Tinysaster: …

00:05=>Tinysaster: Alright.

=>Tinysaster: I won’t force anyone, everyone’s life is their own.

Okay, okay, he can do this by himself, yeah. Keeping his improvised rope bundled up under his arm, he can release it in small increments and have a controlled descent, everything is under control. *Tock, tock, tock, Blam!* *Tock, tock, tock, Blam!* Uh oh, there’s someone hurriedly walking down the corridor and opening the doors of rooms before slamming them shut! Shit shit shit, it’s getting closer.

Benjamin heard his door opening and before anyone could see him at the window, he jumped. Forgetting to hold the blankets firmly under his arm, he went through freefall until the rope was pulled fully taut; a strong pull on his right hand holding the tip almost dislocated his right arm and stopped his fall. He held scream of pain inside his throat and let go of the blanket, dropping down to the bushes below.

Hugging his right arm to his chest and breathing heavily due to the pain, Benjamin immediately got up and started to run, pushed forward by fear. Illuminated only by the moon, he had no idea where he was going, but he knew he wanted to get away. Looking behind him, he saw a shadow on the window from which he’d left. Someone was using the security rope he’d prepared better than he had. Run faster, dammit!

Benjamin was already tired before he left the mansion’s yard, that’s what living 13 years without living the house does to you. However, upon hearing the voice of a man behind him, though it wasn’t his father, yell “Benjamin! Come back!” He ignored the pain in his diaphragm and arm and forced his body to run again, fear can do amazing things for a person’s stamina; unfortunately it can also blind them to less obvious dangers ahead.

“Benjamin! Look at the goddamm ground!” Benjamin tripped and fell rolling over the grass until he stopped with his back to the floor, looking for the branch or root he’d tripped on. Instead he came face to face with what looked like an enormous green leech slithering through the grass. Its teeth were bizarrely thin and straight, like those of a crocodile, meant not to make big cuts in the skin and cause bleeding, but to stab deep and hold tight to whatever they bit into.

The creature let out a high hiss as it slowly slid over Benjamin now that he had fallen and was trying to use his arms to drag himself backwards. The opening of its mouth expanded and expanded until it fully enveloped the boy’s left leg and closed abruptly, its thin white teeth digging deeply into the boy’s thigh. Benjamin screamed and cried in pain, desperately shaking his leg, in it he felt like 6 needles had stabbed into his flesh at the same time, along with an extreme pressure squeezing it and interrupting his circulation.

The shadow that had been following him since the window crouched down beside him, it was Henrique! “Hold on.” He tried to grab onto the edge of the mouth of the “leech”, but the space between it and the leg was too small for him to fit his fingers or even his nails. Henrique then gripped the tail of the creature and tried pulling, but that just made Benjamin feel as if his own leg were being ripped out, making him yell “Stop stop stop stop!” while the pressure increased every second.

“Fuck… Ok, Benjamin, you’re gonna want to look at the sky for a minute, I’m going to help you out.” Benjamin dry swallowed and did as he was told, he focused his eyes on the moon and tried not to think of what he was hearing: The sound of flesh being torn apart along with something like a guttural roar, followed by a hissed scream while the pressure over his leg rapidly loosened. Finally, he heard Henrique spitting and coughing 3 times before turning looking back down and seeing his friend with his teeth and face covered in blood and the monster split in two right under Benjamin’s foot.

Henrique looked at Benjamin’s face and tried to clean the blood with his sleeves and calm him down “You’re okay… you’re okay… Can you walk? We gotta get the fuck outta here. I can carry you, but we have to leave before-“

“ᎥᏝᏝᏬᎷᎥᏁᏗᏖᏋ.” A voice that Benjamin recognized as his mother’s seemed to thunder from the heavens. Speaking a word that should not make sense, but Benjamin understood it perfectly: Illuminate.

A luminous sphere appeared over both of them, making Benjamin’s eyes sting after so long in the dark. “Thank you for leaving a thintooth on guard here in the yard and telling me about this. I knew something like this was bound to happen, it only surprises me that your daughter isn’t here with him,” The voice of Camila Duarte was back to its usual calm.

“My Elizabeth is smart enough not to try something so stupid. She would have a much better plan.” Amelia Ramos stepped into the light beside her, observing the boys from above.

Henrique stood up to stand between Benjamin and the adults, he was visibly shaking, but wouldn’t step back, whispering “Get up Benjamin, stand up and run.”.

“ᎴᎥᎶ.” Said William Duarte, also appearing from the darkness with a voice that made the ground shake, Benjamin understood the command, “Dig”, and the earth below Henrique opened up, trapping him in a hole 2,5 meters deep and one meter each side. “We’ll leave your discipline to your parents, Henrique, and to think they were truly proud of you… They didn’t even come over here. Amelia, please stay out of this for a while. Camila and I need to have a talk with little Benjamin.”

“Mom, dad, why are you doing this? I thought you wanted me to grow up and develop into the most respectable member of society possible.” Benjamin tried to get up, but his thigh hurt so much, he couldn’t put any weight on his left leg.

“Oh, Benjamin, we’ve failed you.” Benjamin’s mother came closer and held onto his hands, letting him lean on her to stand up on just one leg. “We thought by giving you contact with only your few equals, you’d understand your place isn’t in society, but overseeing it from above. You aren’t human, Benjamin, neither is Henrique or Elizabeth. You’re gods, and to be gods, you must learn that the lives and concerns of the rabble are irrelevant to you, you’re above that. But it’s alright, you couldn’t kill him this time, that’s our fault, we should have introduced you to human death earlier. But what we really must teach right now.” She stared at her son with the coldest eyes he’d ever seen.

“Is that you should not try to run from us.” Camila Duarte suddenly pushed Benjamin’s hands forward and let go, making him lose his balance while she exclaimed “ᏇᎥᏁᎴ.”-“wind.”

A strong gust of wind seemed to manifest from the space between them and throw Benjamin backwards, sending him rolling on the grass once again, his leg stinging hard on contact. Camila walked after him leisurely.

“ᏇᎥᏁᎴ”

Another one came vertically downwards, smashing Benjamin against the ground.

“ᏇᎥᏁᎴ”. “ᏇᎥᏁᎴ”. “ᏇᎥᏁᎴ”.

The volume of her voice and the force of the gales kept increasing, Benjamin curled up on the grass and tried to protect himself with his arms on his head, his limbs shook and he felt as if his bones were dry branches in the middle of a terrible storm. He wanted to cry out in pain, defend his actions, beg for mercy or forgiveness. Instead he felt a single word, a power welling up deep inside his lungs.

The magic of the speakers can be used without risk in internal disputes, for the words that command the universe are incomprehensible even to other speakers and must be learned individually through rigorous study and communion. However, as Camila herself said, Benjamin Duarte wasn’t human, and it was unwise to use the power of the word against the Crow.

“ᏇᎥᏁᎴ.”

Benjamin raised his head and screamed with all the air he had in his chest, the resulting blast catapulted not just his mother, but also his father and Amelia Ramos many meters into the darkness towards the mansion. Benjamin got up onto his knees, after a few seconds the glowing sphere created by his mother disappeared. His leg and arm throbbed in pain and his throat had been horribly scraped after being taken to its limits by the spell, he tasted iron in his mouth. Still, the boy was able to limp a few steps to where Henrique was stuck and give him his hand to help him up.

With Benjamin’s aid, Henrique pulled himself out of the hole, he looked around, grabbed Benjamin in his arms, using one hand to support his back and the other to hold his legs, avoiding as much as possible touching the half of the “thintooth” still stuck to it, trying to rip it out would only cause more bleeding. “Let’s go,” he said, and Benjamin held onto Henrique for support and leaned his head against his arm in silence.

Henrique ran for blocks and block, taking turns at crooked streets and taking as many paths non traversable by car as possible. After minutes of running, he and Benjamin came into the yard of an empty house for sale and hid among the tall unkempt grass that had grown over the years. “I think they won’t find us here, how are you doing?”

Benjamin opened his mouth to speak, but the air stung when it passed his throat with any amount of force.

“Can’t speak?” He gently put Benjamin down on the ground to rest.

Benjamin nodded his head.

“I… I’m gonna go look around, se if they’re looking for us around her, knock out anyone who is.” Henrique got up to walk, but stopped when he felt Benjamin pulling at the hem of his pants and heard the tiniest whisper of “…stay…” which made him smile slightly and sit down behind Benjamin, letting the boy lay his head on his lap.

“Okay, what was that back there? Are you a wizard or something?”

Benjamin shrugged, unsure.

“Dude, our parents are totally evil, huh?”

He nodded slowly, looking down. He should have taken it more seriously when Henrique spoke of the “training” he went through. Of course he said it was hell.

After a few seconds of uncomfortable silence, Henrique tried to lift the tone of conversation. “I wasn’t expecting you to leave through the window, they were all closed, weren’t they? Can you pick locks?”

Benjamin nodded, a little embarrassed, he’d thought it would be something cool to know so he trained with lots of tutorials on the internet.

“That’s so fucking cool, man.” Henrique gently pat Benjamin’s forehead.

Benjamin relaxed for the first time in hours, his whole body still hurt, but at least he wasn’t alone, his eyelids slowly fell as the adrenaline left his system…