mind_the_muse - Five people who have died and one who's still alive.
o1. She was as good as dead, for him, when she disappeared. Gone without a trace and nothing left of her save the pendant she'd given him just before that. He ended up telling himself, later, all sorts of outlandish stories about what had happened to her to explain why she left him. Why she never came back. She was a spy on an important mission against the Russians. She was foreign royalty and had to go claim her throne and some day soon she'd come back for him to be her prince. She was abducted by aliens. Only slowly did he stop making up stories, the longer she was gone. Only slowly did he come to understand the smug smile he'd seen on his father's face several years after she'd gone.
She really was gone.
o2. He didn't remember her name anymore. Didn't want to. But she'd been his first...everything. They'd both been so young. He grew up in an instant. She'd stay young forever, staring up at him out of the recesses of his mind.
o3. He'd watched his eldest sister with her prey, once. It had left him feeling a coldness that had nothing whatsoever to do with the Hunger. He hadn't watched the end. One day, there'd been the friend Thomas had invited home... the next? Just something carried out of the mansion in a bag and tossed into the Deeps. He didn't bring friends home after that. He didn't make friends after that.
o4. He had faint memories of a brother. Just one more person in the mansion who hadn't paid him much mind. He'd been much older than little Thomas, anyway. But something had happened to him that no one in the mansion spoke about and that made one more body to try to fill up the Deeps.
o5. The first time he'd killed someone with his own hands, not his Hunger, it hadn't been for his own sake. It had, instead, been for the sake of a girl with dark hair and big eyes. A girl far too young to be hunted by one of Bianca's minions. Far too young for him, but he hadn't thought of it at the time, he'd just killed the man holding her down and worried about the consequences later.
o6. She came to him in the end, when she should have run away screaming. Of course, she should have run away screaming when she first met him. But she hadn't and she didn't. He should have pushed her away but...he couldn't. He didn't have a choice. The Hunger was too strong, he was too weak, and she was so willing. He just took what she offered and left an empty shell behind to be tossed into the Deeps.
Or so he thought.
She really was gone.
o2. He didn't remember her name anymore. Didn't want to. But she'd been his first...everything. They'd both been so young. He grew up in an instant. She'd stay young forever, staring up at him out of the recesses of his mind.
o3. He'd watched his eldest sister with her prey, once. It had left him feeling a coldness that had nothing whatsoever to do with the Hunger. He hadn't watched the end. One day, there'd been the friend Thomas had invited home... the next? Just something carried out of the mansion in a bag and tossed into the Deeps. He didn't bring friends home after that. He didn't make friends after that.
o4. He had faint memories of a brother. Just one more person in the mansion who hadn't paid him much mind. He'd been much older than little Thomas, anyway. But something had happened to him that no one in the mansion spoke about and that made one more body to try to fill up the Deeps.
o5. The first time he'd killed someone with his own hands, not his Hunger, it hadn't been for his own sake. It had, instead, been for the sake of a girl with dark hair and big eyes. A girl far too young to be hunted by one of Bianca's minions. Far too young for him, but he hadn't thought of it at the time, he'd just killed the man holding her down and worried about the consequences later.
o6. She came to him in the end, when she should have run away screaming. Of course, she should have run away screaming when she first met him. But she hadn't and she didn't. He should have pushed her away but...he couldn't. He didn't have a choice. The Hunger was too strong, he was too weak, and she was so willing. He just took what she offered and left an empty shell behind to be tossed into the Deeps.
Or so he thought.