We are two of the same kind.

Timeline/World: Atheria 2nd Generation
Characters: Molochai Stark
Race: Human
Age: 56, physically about 26
Final Word Count: 561 words

---

I’ve always been a curious kid. It never sat well with my father.

Now, for those who are aware of my history—that being, only one person is aware—my father was a drunkard. The kind who’d beat up his own kid because he was in the way; the kind who drank up all of his paycheck money when he had a paycheck. Mom was the one really working, dad was a drunkard on social security or whatever it was back then, he had a disability, or so he’d claimed but I’d never seen it and he was never hurt enough in any way to not pull his belt off and make sure to remind me that he was the leading alpha. Whatever, arsehole.

So you’d imagine it a little odd that I’d be doing the stuff I do now, considering I grew up with someone who loved drinking but I think I spent so many years trying to find ways to tinker with his bottles to find ways to put the grossest things I could find—or the most deadly—that it just became something else entirely.

I don’t drink a whole lot. I don’t. Now and again, a small sip of something but watching him fall deeper and deeper into the clinging embrace of alcohol just also made me want to see if I couldn’t find a way to make it stop. Making him stop drinking was moot but in a way, I thought that there were two options: ban booze (that was never going to happen) or somehow find means to make booze less, I don’t know, potent. It was a weird thought.

I ran away when I was fourteen, after he beat me enough that I almost lost sight in my right eye from his fist, that time, getting a bit too close and personal. I was battered and bruised when I packed up a small bag with changes of clothes and I left. I never did understand why my mother stayed with him. He beat her up too though not as bad, he mostly had rough, drunk sex with her and while she’d fuss and struggle at first, she always ended up moaning real loud and begging him for more before too long and she always had that little secret smile the mornings he did that, it was creepy. He’d beat me up at night and then he’d turn to mom to vent his sexual frustration. For him, it worked out, for me, it certainly did not.

Of course, this whole running away thing landed me in foster and almost landed me back home but it didn’t. I was lucky enough for that much. My brain didn’t stop its train wreck thinking about wanting to change something about booze.

The rest is somewhat history. I turned out to be not such a bad guy, I helped at a liquor store for a while, landed into some trouble, came here, started finding ways to make my own booze and people here are great, the ideas they have for stuff to put into alcohol or flavours to try are really interesting and I’m glad I’m here. I’m nothing like my father; I’ve never once hit a woman. I admit I’ve done a few somewhat unsavoury things but all parties were willing.

That’s all behind me now though, I’m glad.

I love your left eye.

Timeline/World: Urbana LaCrosse University – Hopeful Beginnings
Characters: Aryanna Areleous
Race: Human
Age: 16
Final Word Count: 593 words

---

Since dad’s been gone, mom’s told us to just reach for our dreams and do what we wanted, so to speak. Not a single one of us went out there for crazy things; at least, that’s how I see it. In my case, I just enrolled in the help program at the hospital. Not that I’ve stepped into the hospital yet, most of my free hours are spent at one of the nursing homes but it’s good enough, it’s what I’d like to call good experience.

I’ve always wanted to be a nurse, wanted to be someone who could help others. Mainly, I’ve wanted to be part of that group of people who would help mothers pre-birth but I knew that would require more than just wanting to help, so I figure that being around old people is a good way to get myself started, mostly. So that’s where I’ve been.

Most of the folks in that nursing home are lonely, their families rarely come to visit, some don’t even remember their family so I suppose that in a way it’s not much of a loss on both accounts but they’re still lonely and need a bit of time with someone and that’s how I did start my help routine. They had me go room-to-room, check up on the guests—they clearly state we’re not supposed to call them patients—see how they were doing, if they needed anything, just the simplest of things and it wasn’t actually so bad. Most liked to chatter a bit and some were just happy to see someone daily.

There was this one guy though, he honestly gave me the creeps but I kept it quiet long enough to be able to really make up my mind about him in case it was just because he reminded me of dad because he did but as it turns out, he was a creeper from the beginning and had sexually assaulted young men and women when he’d been younger but now that he was older and mostly senile, they seemed to want to believe that he was harmless. I begged to differ.

The first thing he said to me when I checked in on him wasn’t so bad, he told me I was pretty, told me he’d love to take me out on a date—not that unusual, a lot of the male guests tended to say that to the female staff, it was a running joke, almost—so I let it go but within the next few days, his comments would just get subtly weirder. By the end of the first weeks, he was now making comments about how he loved my left eye. Just my left one, it was the best eye.

Mind you, my eyes are identical, just icy blue, though I’ve been told there are some specks of silver in there but I haven’t really stared at myself in the mirror to find out.

For almost a month straight, he’d be telling me that my left eye was the best, the most beautiful, once or twice he followed it up by a seriously gross-out comment about how he’d love to keep it because it was so beautiful but I kept my mouth shut, I endured. He did have wandering hands too but they never went very far, it wasn’t hard to move out of his reach since he was bed bound but it was a seriously uncomfortable feeling.

He was transferred to the hospital just two weeks ago and I’m seriously feeling relieved.