Week 12 Story telling: The Hell From the Past

He was hiding from the beast. The beast was the most feared thing in the land. It stood over ten feet tall and it was not of human descent. The beasts grin showed its devilish teeth and as he spoke the man trembled.

"I smell the fear radiating from your soul," said the beast in a deep voice. 

The man was not the type to fight. This man was known as Xavier. He was born into a safe home but at the age of five he had lost his family. Living on the streets ever since, he learned to hide from the things of life that scared him. This though seemed like he would not be able to escape this monster by hiding. Still hiding he listened to the beast speak:

"Your scent is familiar, have we met before boy?" 

The beast ripped a tree from the ground and smashed it against another. Angered by the chase he yelled "you are just postponing the inevitable!"

The beast knew he was getting closer to the boy because the smell of the boy was growing stronger. The beast finally realized how the smell was so familiar and laughed. He said "Ah yes, the family of four. I killed three but a young boy was quick enough to escape my grasp. It's been what eleven years now?"

The boy froze. He stopped trembling and remembered that day. He ran and ran without looking back. The only thing he heard that day were the screams from his family as they were ripped apart limb by limb. He remembered feeling helpless. Wishing he could do something to stop the beast. That feeling turned in to a suppressed anger. It built up each day. There was not a day that he didn't think about it. 

Angered now he made a fist, there was so much anger. He started to feel different. His body temperature was rising. It was an abnormal temperature because he looked to the left and saw bush beside him catch fire. Xavier was confused by this but was not afraid of the beast anymore. He stepped into the line of sight of the beast. 

The beast again grinned and said "You think your inherited power will help you? It did not help your family before when your father tried to use his magic on me."

"W-w-what magic?" Replied Xavier.

"Oh you don't know do you? Your family was the last of the supers, they were the last threat to me and I almost eliminated them but only you were left" said the beast. 

The anger kept flowing through Xavier as he listened, the power he felt became greater. Without thinking his legs started moving towards the beast at a sprint. Xavier was surprised. It was like something else was controlling him. The beast tried to react but it was too late. Xavier struck the beast in the jaw and sent him flying through the air. The beast hit every tree in his path and finally came to a stop after tumbling on the ground. In an instant the beast was sprinting towards Xavier. The beast struck Xavier in the chest but did not affect Xavier like he expected. The beast was shocked. 

"How is that possible?" Exclaimed the beast. 

Xavier paid no attention to this but was only anger more by the blow to the chest that he had just received. He started at the beast again and they both started to exchange powerful blows. With every hit that the beast landed Xavier seemed to grow in strength. The punches that he hit the beast with started to do more damage and broke through the thick bones of the beast. Xavier began to lose control and blacked out. When he awoke there was a desolated forest around him. The downed trees were covered in blood and flesh. With no explanation Xavier was unaware of what happened. Then a voice inside his head spoke to him. 

"I took over" said the voice.

"Who is there?" replied Xavier as he looked around. 

"There is no use looking around, I am a part of you. I was asleep until your anger woke me. This is late for you to wake your inner power." replied the voice.

"My power? What do you mean?" asked Xavier.

"Well my name is X, I am your power.. Well not so much just a power but basically a second spirit attached to yours which gives us the ability to do things that normal humans cannot." 

"What kind of things?" Xavier asked.

"Well Xavier we have a lot of stuff to practice, we will get you caught up in no time, but for now we need to leave here. The amount of noise we created last night surely sparked some curiosity." Replied X.

Xavier began to run, towards the mountains and there he began to learn how to use his power. His new life started and he was no longer scared. 

Xavier and his new found power 

Photo Provided by Pixabay

Author's Note: The original story was "The Battle with Grendel" from then Beowulf stories. I took the idea of Grendel and made my own beastly character. The original story showed Grendel as this horrid creature not like anything from this world that devoured humans. The fact that Beowulf wasn't affected by Grendel and his magic was like he had a super power. That is where my idea of the powers came from for the character Xavier. I wanted to create another hero that was unaware of his ability and overcame the fears that he held before. Working through them and facing his greatest fear, the beast. The battle was the most important part of the story and I intentionally ended the story abruptly because I want to make another story later on explaining what Xavier does with his new found power and if he used it for a good purpose or a bad one. 

Bibliography: "The Battle with Grendel" from The Story of Beowulf by Strafford Riggs Webtext