<img align=left src= "http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v428/CMFrank04/Grimmavi_zps706bddc2.jpg">"Kain."
"A strong name. Powerful, yet simple. Meant, I am sure, to instill a lingering sense of fear and respect. Foreboding. I can respect that in a sense. Of course, it does not hold the same essence of my own, but then what name would?"
"What is my true name? You will forgive me if I choose not indulge you in that one secret I prefer kept well hidden. You see, names are indeed far more powerful things than any might give credit toward. If you know the name, the true name, of any one thing, then you would have a powerful influence over that one thing. In my entire existence, only two have ever learned of my name. One was an enemy of years past. The other was something of an ally that only too recently liberated me from a centuries long banishment."
"What?" You didn't truly think my name was Brother Grimm, did you?"</color>
It is amazing how when people think of the setting of this ages old tale, they picture a forest or some lush setting, when the truth was in fact the complete opposite.
The wind blew over the harsh desert land, sending the billions upon billions of sand grains scattering across the horizon, forming fresh new dunes as far as the eye could see. This land was not land at all, but a harsh desert with an even harsher lesson in life. A lesson thrust upon the two brothers for the sins committed by their own father and mother. Children, punished in a sense, by the acts of those that gave them life.
And yet they were to be honored above all others.
The older of the two brothers leaned back against a small rock and sought solace while the fire burned away the chills of the night. Greenery was few and far between in this ocean of heat and sand. Yet his younger brother walked the hard miles each day to the lone set of oasis to care for his flock and return with water for he and their parents.
It troubled him to see the praise heaped upon his younger brother when he should be honored over him by right of birth. It was not as if he too did not work to give back to the Lord as well as his father and mother. There was one other oasis, not far from where they rested now after a long day's tiring work. There he cultivated and grew food from the land and provided it to help keep them all well fed.
Yet still, despite his hardest efforts, his efforts were glossed over in favor of that of his younger sibling's. It was if his parents believed Abel worked harder than he, simply because he also cared for the animals provided them by their Lord Jehovah.
It angered him, and that anger slowly grew into a festering wound.</color>
"You see, I remember so many years ago, eons really, when I knew another mortal by the same name yet spelled differently. He was amongst the first of what would soon become many. The first that I enjoyed observing through the shadows before I developed the fondness for playing with the fates of children, driving them to the brink of madness through their own fears. Or simply taking them from their beds into the twilight. Some of a more kindred nature have asked me every so often what becomes of those that I take. Of course, I never do tell. Part of the mystique of the night is the nature of it's very mystery."
"It makes me look forward to this match all the more, you see. For such a simple thing as a given name can trigger powerful memories of times thought lost so very long ago. It is an unfortunate circumstance when you are dealing with a thing such as myself who has been alive for as long as I have."
"Well, perhaps 'alive' is not quite the word that I should be using when I am addressing myself. It implies a thing of mortality when I am more so a living embodiment of the most primal of sensations. But I digress..."
"Of course, I never truly forget. I remember everything. Sometimes I simply ... misplace, something from so long ago and I get nostalgic for those more magical of moments. You see Kain, I so look forward to dealing with you in the most exquisite ways imaginable. And the best part is that neither of us will be aware of what circumstances our encounter is to be under."
"I do so enjoy the sweet mysteries of the unknown, don't you? We could be doing battle in a ring where the ropes were replaced by razor sharp barbed wire. We could be in the center of an inferno where oil soaked rags are on the ropes and lit afire, ready and waiting for the searing pain of the fire meeting our flesh. It's all determined in a simple game of chance, and I have to admit that I have always had a fondness for games. I played them to entice those I wished to lure to my embrace. I have also used them to torture and to torment. Just for fun."</color>
The older brother watched as his younger brother waked up to the dais in the clearing of sand and stone. It was a custom for them and their parents to visit this strange yet revered location on the seventh day of the week when they did nothing else but rest. It was simply their way.
He had himself already given his gift to the Lord, a bounty of the finest fruits and plants he cultivated from his spot of land. he was pleased with what he could bring, but he did not feel as if their Creator was anything even remotely as well enthused towards the gift. No, that praise and thanks was again reserved for his younger sibling, and for what?
An animal; a small fawn, and of all things, the fat from the meat they ate only just last evening! An animal that would not even be old enough to kill for food or clothes, and fat! And his Lord loved it! He heaped praise upon Abel as did their father and mother! And he watched his younger brother's face and a burning heat had started to chip away inside of his heart, and it's focal point was that face. The face of his brother who appeared humble and misplaced with this praise, but Cain knew otherwise. He could just imagine the gloating within Abel's heart and soul, rubbing it forever and again.
"I understand." I can remember whispering in his ear as he slept beneath the stars. "To have felt the love of your parents and Lord for those sweet years before the birth of your brother, only to watch it slowly bleed away."
Times were indeed tougher back then, even for one such as the Dweller of Shadow. There were only a meager handful of mortals to play with, and that damned Higher Power kept a far closer watch on them than He has deigned to do in the last millennium or so. Perhaps he had grown bored with the lack of evolution. Who knows? Yet even such a power did not, or could not, bring a halt to nature's course -- and this was within fear's nature. To grip at the most primal fear one holds in the heart and soul and nurture it until it consumes the target.
"A pity then that times could not be such as they once had been." He said with soft, soothing tones, running his pale, chalk white fingers along the deep toned flesh of Cain without disturbing his sleep. "Times before he had been borne into this world. I am certain that you recall that time, and what it had been like for your beloved mother."
He leaned ever so closer and whispered in the man's ear, his black lips nearly brushing against his skin as he did so.
"The pain he caused your mother. The tears she wept. The blood she suffered in loss. And all because of him. And yet he is the one you fear most at losing their love to."
The specter slipped away, with one final word...
"Pity."</color>
"What is it that you fear Kain? And do please not answer with the usual reply of 'nothing' that your fellow man dallies with. For one, it is such a dull answer to such an honest question. And two, you do not appear to be the type prone to telling such blatant fabrications."
"Yes, you know the truth, don't you? You know that there is not a mortal that walks amongst us that has not even the smallest seed of fear in the pit of his heart. It's simply the nature of the beast to be wary of what walks the night. To be on guard and jump at that one noise, perhaps the snapping of a twig on a nature walk or the sound of footsteps behind you as you walk a city street, all alone and late at night."
"Perhaps you fear what all mortals in this game of competitive wrestling fears; to be forgotten. You think with one more loss, the faith of those whose eyes are upon you will be diminished, and they will begin to lose their care. You believe a taint on your record from one such as myself will spell impending doom for your glory as a champion, and will herald your own downfall. The fear that once what you have is no longer your own to claim, you will be pushed aside. Lost. Forgotten."
"Or perhaps, in your case, it could be that lovely bride of yours? The fear of losing her by chance or fate? The fear that something even so simple as a car ride across town could spell her end. Perhaps you fear that one day, perhaps sooner than you know, you will find she is expecting ... and then you remember me."
"You remember that I am there, watching and waiting. You fear that I take such delight in such circumstances and you wonder, perhaps late at night when you hear that child crying ... could it be...?"</color>
"Why do we need to go here, brother?" The younger sibling asked in confusion as the older of the two led him by the arm into the heart of the oasis the younger tended his flock within. "It is almost eve and Mother and father will be expecting us for the evening prayers."
"I have something I wish to show you. To share." The older brother turned and smiled at his brother, and for some unexplained reason, that smile sent a chill down the spine of the younger of the pair. Cain stated, "A surprise."
Abel could not explain it, as the emotion was something so alien to him. A sense of ... warning, that seemed to emanate from inside his very being. A foreboding sense that made him want to run, but this was his own brother. If he was not safe with his own flesh and blood, where else could he be? Perhaps if he had paid close enough attention, and simply turned his head to notice the amber eyes watching from the night's deepest shadows, he would have listened to what his soul was screaming in warning, and fled.
Such was not the tale of history. Such was not the story of Cain and Abel.</color>
"Am I my brother's keeper?"
"Ah, I still find the most poisonous amusement at that line. Perhaps one of my favorite ever uttered by a mortal, and to the face of one Almighty! Such impertinence! And all in the name of a game played ever so long ago. A game that ended with such consequences for more than merely humanity. Blood was spilled for the very first time, and it was not even I who suffered the blame."
"The Devil made me do it?"
"Please. Whom do you think instilled the fear into the hart of that one lone angel that he was losing his Father's love to a fresh batch of mud monkeys?"
"So then tell me; Do you like games, Kain? It has been awhile since I've visited a young one in order to play, so I hope you will indulge me. I tend to favor them myself ... and I feel like playing."</color></size>
