Ander - Part 2: Subchapter 1
Chapter 2
More than a Name
1
Ander didn't know where he was, or what he was doing there. Everything around him was just a solid slab of blackness, stretching off into forever. He looked down, but there was nothing, just more of that empty blackness.
Did something happen? He tried to remember, but all he could find inside his own mind was even more of this encompassing darkness. It felt like he was missing something very important, like he had forgotten something vital, but what? If only he could -
"This is it, Ander!"
Ander spun around, but there was nobody there. He looked deep into the darkness where he thought the voice had come from, but there was nothing to be seen. This wasn't like staring into the mouth of a cave in the dead of night, where you knew there was something solid at the other end of the dark, even if you couldn't see it. No, this was different. It felt like existence itself had no meaning in this place.
"You hear me!?" There it was again. Ander started to turn in a slow circle, trying to figure out where that voice was coming from. He knew that voice. But why couldn't he remember?
"This is the end!" A black shadow emerged from the darkness, even darker than the absence of reality giving birth to it. It raised its head and revealed a set of monstrous teeth, almost blindingly white against the pitch black, and a pair of eyes; eyes Ander has known all his life. How could it have taken him so long to realize?
"Banno?" he said. "Brother, is that you?"
"You're no brother of mine!" Banno roared. "You never were!"
Ander cringed against this unwarranted attack. There was something wrong here. Every instinct in his body told him to flee, but why? Surely there was nothing to fear from his own brother, was there? But then, why would Banno say such things? "I don't understand, Banno. Of course I'm your brother!"
"You're not even a real Wolf! Your whole life is a lie!"
"No, that's not true!"
"Your very blood is a lie!"
A flash of memory. An unwanted sliver of light in this river of darkness, like an arrow. "No! Stop it! I don't want to remember!"
"Your blood is a lie! Your blood is a lie!"
Ander watched in horror as a scarlet stream started to pour out of Banno's right eye, flowing past his cheek and dripping from his chin. The droplets simply fell on and on, down into eternity. Perhaps down into hell itself.
"Your blood is a lie!" Banno started to come closer, the wound in his eye becoming larger with every step. "Your blood is a lie!! Your blood is a lie!!"
"No!"
Banno's eye wasn't just leaking blood anymore. It was bubbling out of his socket like a mountain spring, drenching the right half of his face in a horrific mask of red. "Your blood is a lie!! Your blood is a lie!!" It was covering his entire body, turning him into a monster!
"No!" Whatever this thing was, Ander knew it couldn't be his brother. He wanted to run away, but he couldn't move. He wanted to turn around and run into the darkness and never look back, but his legs refused to obey. He was rooted to the spot, forced by some unknown power to watch this abomination creep closer and closer, choking on its own blood, reaching out with tacky, dripping claws.
"Your blood is a lie!! Your blood is a lie!! Your blood is a lie!!!"
"No!
"Your blood is a lie!!!"
"No!"
"Your blood is a lie!!!"
"NO!"
"Your blood is a lie!!!"
"NOOO -
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