Lucian POV (13 years ago)
Lucian watched the boisterous children in the park, a pang of something unreadable tightening his chest. Their unrestrained joy, the shrieks of laughter, the carefree chase, the easy comfort with their parents. It felt distant, almost alien. He was here for a different purpose: a carefully orchestrated family outing, his mother’s calculated performance for the unseen eyes of the hidden press.
“Remember your smile, Lucian,” Odette said, her grip on his hand firm, her smile perfectly polished.
“Yes, Mother,” he replied, his thoughts drifting to his sister. “Why didn’t you bring Acacia?”
Odette’s smile didn’t falter, but a cool edge entered her voice. “Acacia is… resting at home. Until she awakens fully, it’s best she remains out of the public eye. For now, you are my shining treasure, Lucian.” She squeezed his hand, her gaze sweeping the periphery, ever aware of their hidden audience.
'A treasure... I am a treasure,' Lucian repeated silently, his gaze fixed on his mother's practised smile. He mirrored it effortlessly, a perfect imitation. 'But Mother... why the facade? Why this constant performance? Who are we trying to impress?' The unspoken questions stirred within him.
"You must excel in all things, Lucian," Odette continued her voice a low, insistent murmur, her eyes scanning the other children. "Those children may come from prominent families, but they are insignificant. You must demonstrate our family's superiority. There can be no weakness." She gestured subtly towards the playing children.
"Okay, Mother." Lucian nodded calmly and began to walk towards the group. Before he could speak a single word, a swarm of kids descended upon him, their voices a flurry of eager inquiries.
"You must be Lucian!"
"You're as pretty as your father!"
"Tell us, what is your ability?"
Lucian blinked, a genuine flicker of surprise crossing his features. He tilted his head, a small, innocent gesture. 'Is this the privilege of being a treasure?' A nascent sense of satisfaction bloomed within him. 'Perhaps... I do like being a treasure.'
"Yes, I am Lucian," he replied, adjusting his tone to polite reserve. "And... thank you for your kind words."
'Treasures don't offer their secrets to the unworthy.' Lucian thought.
"So, what's your ability?" A boy with striking black hair asked, his eyes bright with curiosity.
"You'll have to wait until I attend public school to find out," Lucian said with a charming smile. "Wouldn't want to spoil the surprise." The other children giggled in response.
"I like you!" The black-haired boy exclaimed, giving Lucian a friendly pat on the shoulder. "But waiting is boring! I'm a beast-man, and my ability is a centipede. I can already switch forms perfectly! See?" A wide grin spread across his face as his skin formed a dark brown exoskeleton around his arms and an antenna emerged from his head before they disappeared and his skin turned back to normal. "Normal me, or full-on beast mode!" He puffed out his chest. "Cool, huh?"
"That's amazing!" A girl with bright blonde hair exclaimed, clapping her hands together, her eyes wide with genuine wonder.
'Beast-men?' Lucian thought, a flicker of confusion beneath his polite smile. 'Aren't they... essentially just animals? What's so remarkable about shifting forms? You are still a lesser animal.' He subtly shifted his gaze to the hand resting on his shoulder.
"My name is Gideon, I hope we can be friends!" Gideon smiled and Lucian just nodded.
"Of course." Lucian pushed his hand from his shoulder and patted Gideon's back.
Hours later, after polite farewells to the other children and their parents, Lucian was back at his mother's side. They settled into the plush backseat of their sleek black car, the tinted windows shielding them from the outside world as the driver pulled away from the park.
Lucian, still processing the encounter, finally broke the silence, his gaze fixed on his knee. "Mother... technically, aren't normal domesticated animals a type of monster, by extension? Yet we treat beast-men as equals, while animals are treated... differently." He hesitated, then continued. "Shouldn't it be normal to kill them, then? Or perhaps to domesticate them, like other animals?" He finally raised his head, his innocent gaze meeting his mother's, whose face had paled.
The look on his mother's face, mirrored in the driver's wide eyes in the rearview mirror, was a stark and immediate answer. Lucian didn't need a single word to understand the profound wrongness of his question. He began to realize that he was alone in that thought.
"I saw it on TV; a man was talking about monsters and said a lot of weird stuff. So I was curious if it was right or wrong?" Lucian adjusted his seating and asked. He noticed his mother's expression changing into something more softer.
"Don't watch such useless documentaries, they would poison your mind and don't say that in public. It could cost something disastrous." Odette said with a sigh.
"Yes, mother," Lucian said and held his hands together on his lap. His question was never answered.
(6 years passed)
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Lucian stood in the doorway, watching Acacia hunched over her books in the dim light of her bedside lamp. Even in the dead of night, she was surrounded by a chaotic landscape of open textbooks and papers covered in frantic scribbles, her pillow clutched tightly to her chest. His gaze drifted to the overflowing trash bin, where a splash of colour caught his eye. He reached in and pulled out a crudely fashioned yarn figure of their mother.
"Stop lurking and get out of my room," Acacia grumbled, not looking up from her book, her voice thick with sleepiness and annoyance.
'Charming,' Lucian thought, returning her glare with a pointed look at the yarn doll in his hand.
"I thought you were... done with Mother?" he finally asked, holding up the figure.
Acacia finally looked up, a flicker of something unreadable in her eyes before she scoffed. "I am. That's the final clam in our relationship."
"Clam?"
"Clam."
"...look, I'm telling you this because I care about you. It's safer for you to keep a low profile than to go around doing all of this. You simply don't have the strength to back it up, and no matter how much you strain, you'll still be vulnerable. Topping your classes is merely the starting point, the absolute minimum expected of an Algernon." Lucian pinched the bridge of his nose, a weary frustration etched on his face.
"That's precisely why I despise you," Acacia spat, her voice laced with venom. "You believe you're superior because everyone fawns over you constantly. I couldn't care less about your opinions, or Mother's for that matter. Father is the one I aim to impress, and I will surpass you in every single way imaginable. I will be better than you, Lucian." Her jaw clenched, her teeth gritted in fierce determination.
"Why... why won't you just accept your place?" Lucian hissed, his voice low and strained. "Why won't you just submit to what you are? Why this constant need to prove yourself when you have nothing to leverage?"
Acacia didn't reply, her intense glare unwavering. That raw, defiant look in her eyes sent a subtle, involuntary twitch across Lucian's face.
'This world is flawed... it needs to be reshaped... and you are standing in the way. But why does the thought of you surpassing me fill me with such dread? Even though it's impossible?' Lucian's knuckles whitened as his grip on the yarn doll tightened. His gaze flickered towards the academic trophy gleaming on Acacia's desk. 'I know why...' he thought, a chilling realization dawning. 'Because we are the same. This family never yields until it has made its mark. But I can't allow you to do that. I have to eradicate that... The lesser ones must understand their position.'
"I sincerely hope you come to see the error in your ways," Lucian said, his voice flat, before tossing the yarn doll into the trash bin and leaving her room.
As he walked down the silent corridors, his mind churned. He thought of the beast-men, the powerless individuals like his sister, even his parents in certain contexts. He considered the countless people who looked up to him, pinning their hopes on his prodigious talent, expecting him to be the hero they envisioned.
"I have to reshape it, but I'm trapped," Lucian muttered under his breath as he walked, a simmering frustration building within him. "Even with the power I possess, if I try they'd just stare, judging. Am I destined to endure this constant dissonance? Even animals understand the natural order. A rat wouldn't challenge a cat; instinct dictates its place. Why can't they grasp the same simple truth? How can I mould this world, this flawed existence, into something perfect... something more like me?" He reached his room, the words trailing off as he closed the door behind him, the unspoken weight of his ambition settling heavily in the silence.
(4 years passed: Day of the Second Apocalypse)
"Lucian, did you find your sister?" Gideon asked, his voice strained with concern as he hurried towards him. He stopped abruptly, however, his eyes falling on the headband clutched in Lucian's hands and the beast-man he was dragging behind him. "I'm so sorry, Lucian."
"Thank you," Lucian replied, his voice flat, stopping as he met Gideon's gaze. The distant screams still echoed, mingling with the sharp, metallic scent of blood hanging heavy in the air. "I hope she reincarnates into a better life."
"I'm sure she will," Gideon said, offering a weak, reassuring smile as he patted Lucian's shoulder. Lucian, however, couldn't miss the slight tremor in Gideon's touch.
"How are you holding up?" Lucian asked, his gaze softening slightly.
"Still standing," Gideon replied, quickly withdrawing his hand and clasping it with his other, as if trying to still its subtle shaking.
'I apologize, Acacia but it had to be done. This apocalypse was the sign that I was right, if you are born in another life. I hope you learn your lesson properly.' Lucian glanced at the headband in his hands when suddenly Gideon was snatched in the jaws of an eseroyl as they both hit the ground a few feet away from him and a whole pack jumped onto his body, seemingly coming from different buildings.
Gideon shrieked, his voice cracking with terror as the pack of eseroyls clamped their powerful jaws onto his body. The creatures were quadrupedal mammals with elongated heads dominated by four sunken, dark brown eyes. Their large ears twitched as their long trunks snaked out, ending in snouts armed with two prominent, saber-like canines. A long, sinuous neck led to broad shoulders and a heavily muscled torso. Despite their size, their legs were short and thick, ending in wide, round feet, and they possessed a strong, whip-like tail. Their hairy bodies were marked with the striking patterns of a gazelle, stripes and spots of light yellow, tan, and an unsettling blue-green.
"Lucian!" Gideon's voice cracked, a desperate plea as his hand stretched out, fingers reaching. The eseroyls, a ravenous mass, continued their gruesome feast, tearing chunks from his flesh. His screams ripped through the air, raw and agonizing. Suddenly, his body began to contort, stretching and elongating in a horrifying transformation. A dark brown exoskeleton erupted, encasing his skin, and multiple yellow, segmented limbs of a centipede burst forth from his torso. Instinctively, a shimmering barrier of water-like energy enveloped Lucian's body.
"Lucian! Please! I don't want to die!" Gideon, now a grotesque hybrid of man and insect, scrabbled desperately, trying to crawl away from the relentless pack. But the eseroyls were savage, their attacks unyielding. His screams intensified, punctuated by the sickening sounds of his bones snapping and tearing. Then, with a final, horrifying crunch, one of the eseroyls clamped its jaws down on his head, silencing his cries forever.
Lucian watched the scene unfold, his expression unreadable, before turning and walking calmly towards the shelter while dragging the beast-man. His watery barrier shimmered around him, a redundant defence against a threat he had no intention of engaging.
He reached the Flow Society headquarters and his grip on Acacia's headband tightened as he reached the shelter with people gathering around him but his mother rushed towards him first and grabbed his hand that held Acacia's headband.
"Where is your sister?!" Odette's voice shrieked, cutting through the stunned silence that had fallen over the crowd. A wave of horrified faces turned towards them, etched with a mixture of trauma, confusion, and raw loss.
Lucian's shoulders slumped, his head bowed in what appeared to be profound grief. "She... was killed."
"What?!" Odette said with tears streaming down her face, her voice thick with anguish. "Those...damn monsters."
Slowly, deliberately, Lucian raised his head, his gaze sweeping across the assembled faces. "It wasn't a monster..." he said, his voice heavy with sorrow, "...it was a beast-man who killed her." He watched, a subtle, almost imperceptible shift in his expression, as the raw grief on the crowd's faces hardened into something else, something akin to the acceptance he had long sought.