Filed to story: Sorry Alpha I Am Wolfless Novel
When she finished speaking, the images on the screen started to play again. It was just after I left the battlefield. The children were gone as well. All that was left was the headless body of Edmond. What was so exciting about that?
As I watched though, there was this purple thread that started to come out of Edmond’s neck. That thread was actually much bigger than I initially appeared, it had just been twisted to the side.
Once that thread was turned to the correct direction, I saw that it wasn’t really a thread at all. Instead, it actually looked like it was a reel of film. It looked like the stuff you would find in old movie theaters. And on that film were blurred images.
“We are going to watch the movie of Edmond’s life, Riviana. Would you like some popcorn?”
“Ha ha, very funny.” I snapped at the other me.
“I could not pass up the joke. It was the perfect opportunity.” Dammit, I would have done the same thing in her position. Maybe we were more alike than I thought.
The view focused on the film and that was when it stopped being so blurry. Now, I could see the images of a young man and a young woman who seemed to be happy and in love. A handsome man with brown hair and eyes and a beautiful woman with bright blue eyes and blonde hair. The two of them went through their wedding and were living what seemed to be a perfect, yet simple, life. The man worked as a blacksmith and the woman was happy at home, with her growing belly.
I also saw that the two of them did simple little bits of magic here and there. However, they didn’t seem to be too skilled with it. It was like no one had ever taught them what to do. It was cute though, seeing them acting so innocent with it all.
When the woman gave birth to their baby, they both looked so happy and thrilled. However, when they actually looked at their baby, with his pure white hair and pure white skin, they thought that he was a monster.
That had been the end of the happy little couple that seemed like they were living the perfect life. The man spent more and more time away from home while the woman did her best to raise the baby that she was so repulsed by.
The only oddities about Edmond as a baby had been his hair and skin color. He didn’t look any different than other babies. In fact, he reminded me a lot of Talia when she was first born, aside from the coloring that is.
The woman showed no love toward the baby, yet she made certain that he was fed and clothed at all times. It was like she was afraid of the baby and didn’t know what he would do to her.
Not only did they hide their baby from everyone in town, they told many of the people around them that their baby had died. This was only possible because Edmond didn’t truly cry as a baby. He was almost eerily silent.
One night during the movie of Edmond’s life, there was a point where his mother was just standing there, watching him like she thought there was something going on. Edmond was about a year old at this time, and he seemed to be seeing something that wasn’t there. It was like he was seeing a ghost or something that his mother was not invited to know about. During this interaction with the unseen entity, baby Edmond seemed to be baby-talking to someone. He smiled, cooed, and even giggled for that someone. That night, his mother felt like her son truly was a freak.
Things got worse and worse for the little family. The father would drink every night after work to avoid going home. The mother hid in a corner of the house, barely cleaning and only doing things for the baby when he needed them. She tried her best to ignore her son.
Despite his mother never teaching him, somehow Edmond learned to walk, talk, and take care of himself. By the time that he was two, he only required meals from his mother. He cleaned himself up and got himself dressed. He just could not make his own food yet.
No, the making of his own food happened when he was five. He was cooking simple meals on his own while his mother wasted away in the corner.
Another truly horrible thing that happened to young Edmond, was that from the time that he was two, every time that his father came home from work, he would beat the little boy. It was a miracle that the child didn’t die from the massive blows he received from the big, strong blacksmith.
As a child, Edmond seemed to have no love from anyone at all. He was alone all the time. Yet he still spoke to someone that only he could hear. His mother and his father would often see him sitting alone either inside or outside their home, just talking to himself.
“What else can I do?” He asked the wall in one part of the movie.
There was a long pause now like he was listening to someone speak, but there was only the sound of the wind.
“Can I really do that? But how? Who will show me?”
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Riviana
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As time progressed, so did the beatings that the boy got on a daily basis. The father only drank more, the mother only ignored him more. And yet, still the boy seemed to flourish. He was smart and could read and write even though both of his parents refused to teach him, his mother was illiterate and the father wanted nothing to do with him.
Aside from that, Edmond was learning more and more magic each day. I was surprised at how much that he could do when he was just seven or eight years old. He was using his magic to build little wooden friends that moved and kept him company in the woods that surrounded their home. He set fires in the trees and doused them with water before they could destroy more than the one tree that it was on.
One day when Edmond was about ten or so, his father saw him ‘playing’ with his magic and doing things that the man had never seen before. Even though he himself had magic he was nothing when it came to the abilities of his father.
“What are you doing, boy?” The man grabbed his son by the scruff of the neck and pulled him toward his side. “Are you getting smart with what you can do, boy?” He peppered his words by smacking the boy repeatedly across the face. “You think you can show the people around these parts that stuff, and they wouldn’t get suspicious of you?” He hit the boy this time, only not with his hand open, he had made a fist that he was useing to smack the boy across the face with. “If people see you doing that, they would know we’re different. That is why we work so hard to fit in. That is why we talk properly and are always on our best behavior.” He dropped the boy to the ground now, letting him fall onto his back with a soft moan. He started to kick him then, snarling at his son as he spoke. “I knew I should have drowned you the day you were born. I knew we should have gotten rid of you and started over. I knew that you were nothing but trouble when I first saw you.”
By the time that the man’s rant was over, Edmond was laying on the ground covered in blood. He looked like he was dead, and the man just left him there like it didn’t matter. He never even looked back to check on the boy, not once.
Damn, that was a harsh thing to do. It was beyond harsh. It was sick, twisted, and evil. This is exactly what I didn’t want. I didn’t want to feel sorry for the man that killed so many people. Dammit.
When Edmond woke up from that beating, he was somehow fully healed. He was still covered in blood but there was nothing at all wrong with him. Someone, or something, had taken care of his injuries for him.
“To hell with him. To hell with him and mother. I do not need them. I can survive without them. I have my powers and I have Hekate’s guidance. I do not need anything from them.” At that point he started to walk in the opposite direction than the house. He was walking further into the woods and away from his parents. He paused for one moment, looked over his shoulder, and made one final declaration. “They will pay for this. They will pay with their lives for what they have done to me. That I promise.”
From there I saw a series of events where Edmond struggled to move on in the world. He traveled on his own and did odd jobs, which he completed using magic, to make money. He didn’t have an easy time of things and often lived like an animal in the woods. He would use magic to protect himself and got into a lot of fights as he got older.
One day, another Warlock saw Edmond using his powers. That was when he met the man that was in charge of the coven he took over. The man invited Edmond to come back with him and gave him a place to stay. That was the first time that he had a home where he wasn’t constantly on the receiving end of abuse.
Edmond quickly fell in love with the idea of the coven and power. He stuck close to their leader and quickly rose in the ranks with how powerful his magic was. After maybe ten years, if that, Edmond killed the leader of the coven and took over. His sheer power level made it easy for the others to follow him. No one even thought about disobeying him.
After changing the name of the coven, Edmond started to work his evil plans into the coven’s business. He was starting to corrupt them slowly, but he was so talented and charismatic that they never noticed.
And true to Edmond’s word, when he got older and ran the coven, he went back to the village where his family was from. As it turns out, that village was Salem Town, Massachusetts. It was a little bit of time before the witch trials officially started, but he still convinced everyone there that his parents were ‘witches’. Despite the fact that they were a real witch and warlock, they had been respectable members of the village for a long time and it was hard for everyone to believe that this was true.
