Hate

Bleeding profusely, the man stumbled through the forest. His clothes were covered in blood; some was from the girl but most was from his fatal injury. One misaimed blow to the female had severed an artery in his arm. He hated that he felt so weak, his legs barely able to carry him. Already, the hunting knife he used to dissect his victims had fallen from his hand as he had no strength to clench it. He wanted to scream at the irony of his situation. He brought people to the mountains to kill and mutilate their bodies; he never expected that he would fall to his blade.

His legs buckled, and he fell to the earth by a stream.

Crawling forward using his unaffected arm, he placed his head in the water and tried to drink some of the water. He detested that he was going to die before his work was completed. He scorned all humankind and wished to see all of them die one by one in extreme pain. He loathed himself for being so weak. He scorned nature for being witness to his inadequacy. Hate consumed him as his head fell into the cold water.

Water trickled over his face first in tiny trails and then in huge splashes as his head bobbed. One brown eye stared upward, pupil fixed.

His blue lips opened and a wisp of smoke escaped. The irregularity danced along the stream as the current brought it down the mountainside. It leaped up from the water and touched the side of shore. The foliage on the side wilted. It dove into the water and teased a tiny fish, swirling around it before the smoke invaded the fish through its gills. The fish spasmed in the water before its wee body curled up and ceased to function. The fish’s body exploded and the smoke continued down the stream.

Ever watchful, a doe cautiously approached the stream. Her ears quivered as she listened for a predator. Slowly, she lowered her head to the water and drank refreshment. As the abnormality approached, the doe sensed danger. Her head sprang up and her ears shifted uneasily. Her heart beat fast and she prepared for flight. Hate as intense as heat from fire touched the deer. This new emotion engulfed the deer and its body was unsure of how to process it. Her mouth gaped open and she started panting. Her heart raced. Legs that once were nimble now shook. The doe’s eyes darted back and forth as she looked at her surroundings as if for a first time. She sneered and growled deep inside her throat. The deer backed up, her eyes still scanning, until her rear quarters hit a tree. Twirling around, the doe attacked the tree first with her hooves and then with her head. Blood started to gush from wounds on the creature yet it still continued to pound on the tree until the deer fell onto the ground, exhausted, weakened, and broken.

After observing the doe’s battle, the whiff of smoke continued down the mountain stream.

At the base of the mountain, a water purifying company was collecting the natural resource by the abundance. The filters and regulators were not created to detect paranormal entities. In fact, no one even noticed the smoke-filled, processed bottle of water as it went by the weight machine, past the inspectors, and into the packaging room to be sent out.



“Duce, Mommy, duce!” Justin insisted from his car seat.

After being on the road for over half an hour and having forgotten to bring juice and snacks for her toddler, Celeste pulled into a convenience store. She parked in front of the store and glanced into the rearview mirror. She ran a finger under her eyes to clear up the liner that had smudged. Following puffing up her shoulder-length, dark brown hair, Celeste stepped out of the minivan and opened the sliding door behind her. Upon seeing his mother, Justin clapped his hands happily.

Celeste carried her son over to the cooler and reached in for an apple juice. She checked the expiration date and started to close the cooler when she grabbed a water bottle for herself. Balancing Justin on her hip with only one arm securing him, she exchanged pleasantries to the clerk and paid for her purchase.

“Wow, your son has beautiful blue eyes!” exclaimed the clerk.

She thanked the clerk and refused the need for a paper bag. “Every little bit saves up to conserve our trees,” she smiled and waved as she returned to her vehicle.

While buckling in Justin, she tossed the water bottle to the front passenger seat. Celeste poured some of the apple juice into a cup with a lid and flat spout while Justin demanded, “dippy pup! Dippy pup!” She handed the cup to her son, and resumed her journey.

Occasional outbursts came from Justin in the backseat while he looked out the window at the passing scenery. The air conditioner blew onto Celeste’s face, blowing her hair. Her mind focused on getting to her destination. She swallowed a few times and thought of the water she had bought at the store. She reached around blindly on the passenger seat for the bottle and found the smooth plastic container. Without glancing at the bottle, she started to twist off the cap, the plastic barrier breaking. However, before she could finish taking off the cap, her cellular phone rang. Celeste placed the bottle in one of the cup holders and fumbled for her phone.

Justin’s attention was drawn to the bottle of water. He wanted that which was not within his reach. The toddler started ranting, “wawa! Wawa, Mommy, Wawa!” His arms reached for the foggy bottle of water.

A mist within the container formed itself into a sailboat for the child and started to drift along the top of the bottle. The boy’s eyes widened and he squealed in delight. He wanted the little boat!

His mother continued talking into the phone as she weaved onto the freeway.

The mist made the face of a clown and beckoned to the small child. The white smoke clown made funny faces at the boy. Justin clapped. “Cown, Mommy, me see Cown!”

The phone call ended and Celeste replaced the phone back into her purse. She hummed as she maneuvered her vehicle through the traffic. The mother swallowed and realized she still needed a drink. She reached for the bottle of water and once again started to untwist the cap. The smoke within started to dart around wildly, waiting for its escape.

A black car turned in front of her without warning her. The vehicle nearly struck the front fender of the van. She swerved in surprise dropping the bottle of water to her lap while both hands held the steering wheel firmly. Her heart beat fast and she started to breathe heavily from the excitement.

“Wawa!” came a protest from behind.

Celeste checked the rearview mirror and saw her son reaching forward to her. With the juice cup discarded, Justin wanted her water. She considered this briefly and came to the conclusion that water was just as good for him as the juice and considerably less messy. She grasped the bottle from between her legs and passed to the toddler forgetting to remove the cap.

Justin shook the smoke in the bottle trying to get it to make faces again. When this did not work, he thumped the bottle of water against the door.

“No, Justin,” Celeste told her son while glancing in the rearview mirror. “Don’t hit the car.”

“Wawa!” he exclaimed.

Realizing that she had not taken off the bottle cap, Celeste tried to reason with Justin to give her the bottle. The child took this as a game and refused to let his mother have the bottle. He held it way out of her reach.

Celeste smiled in resignation. The heat and Justin’s refusal to sleep during this journey was wearing on her, not to mention that her son was smelling quite ripe and needed a change. When the rest area sign came into view, relief flooded her and she made her way to the right lane. She pulled into a rest area parking spot uneventfully.

After exiting the van, she stretched and looked up at the sun. It was so muggy outside.

She opened up the sliding door and greeted her son. She maneuvered the straps of the car seat while Justin managed to keep the water bottle out of reach of his mother.

“Justin, let mommy open the water for you and you can have a drink,” the young mother told the toddler while she tried to figure out a plan to have a swig of the water for herself.

Justin reluctantly put the water bottle in front of his chest and held it there while his mother removed the cap. Celeste observed that the water was so cold that mist came off the water and evaporated under Justin’s nose. The toddler drank some of the water while much escaped the corners of his mouth and drizzled onto his shirt. The bottle fell from his hands and the mother scooped it up and took a drink herself.

After drinking, she started searching for the cap to place back on the bottle when her attention fell to her son. He had started to convulse and shake. His eyes were wide as if in horror.

“He swallowed the cap!” his mother thought as she tore him from the car. His body shook and foam started coming from his mouth. She put him down on the ground and started to scream for help as she desperately tried to remember how to do the Heimlich maneuver.

Oblivious to the crowd starting to converge, Celeste bent over to listen to her son’s chest as Justin’s body stopped moving. She felt his chest move up and down and started to look up when suddenly something struck her cheek.

The child clamped onto the soft cheek of Celeste and tried to rip the flesh off. Yet, his jaw strength was too weak and he had too few teeth to do this. He held on as long as he could before he released the screaming woman from his grip.

Celeste held her bleeding macerated cheek with her hand as she looked in horror at her young son. His blood covered face sported an evil sneer and his previously blue eyes were now brown.

The child growled deep in his throat as hate flowed in his veins.

Word Count: 1,784