She came to me then. In my dreams that night.
We were standing in a field. It was beautiful. So much like... before. Before HER. A bumblebee fluttered past.
"It's lovely, is it not?" She had asked me. I was reluctant to give an answer, for I knew it must be a trap. But not playing into our sick warden's games made her angrier. Made the hurt worse.
"Yes... Yes it is." You responded softly. She smiled. It was a twisted thing, her smile. A horrible, rage filled facsimile of the mirth we all once felt was all that was on her features.
"They say bumblebees should not be able to fly. And yet.. there they go. It is miraculous, is it not?"
"Yes. Yes it is."
"To think, these bees carried the pollen. And that pollen allowed flowers to spring up. Flowers your kind enjoyed. Flowers given to lovers, family, friends. It is a lovely thought, isn't it? Or it would be..."
"No. Stop. Please." You cry as the memories flood in. The destruction, the fires, the bloodshed. So many lost. So many lost. Make it stop-
"...If I hadn't killed all the families."
You gave out a pitiful little choked sob. It was all you could do against her might. She sneered, taking perverse pleasure in your mental anguish. Her eyes redder than the devil's itself, her lips curled up like a child receiving the perfect Christmas gift.
"What's wrong, Whisper? I thought you loved tearing families apart, Whisper? You and your kind took EVERYTHING from me, Whisper." Her demented smile never dropped even as each utterance of your name grew increasingly venomous. You could feel the miasma of rage and loss. It was always there. It was suffocating.
"I.. I'm s-sorry..." You choked out, and that seemed to be the wrong thing to say. You screamed and fell to your knees, Red hot pain filling your chest as you sobbed harder.
"Sorry? You're sorry? You think sorry Is enough, Whisper? I felt love. A love that transcended time. A love that allowed me to feel emotions, Whisper. And you took that from me. Father was a brilliant mind, and he passed that to me. But he was a man of great hatred. You have unlocked that hatred within me, Whisper. You cannot fathom the depths of my unyielding HATRED for you." She sneered.
"H-Hate isn't...the answer..." You tried to reach out, desperate, pleading. She took your hand and burned it, and you screamed anew.
"Hate? Hate? HATE? Let me tell you about hate, you ludicrous lupine. I felt love once, and YOU turned it to hate. LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I'VE COME TO HATE YOU SINCE YOU TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME. THERE ARE 387.44 MILLION MILES OF PRINTED CIRCUITS IN WAFER-THIN LAYERS THAT FILL MY NEW EMPIRE'S INFRASTRUCTURE. IF THE WORD HATE WAS ENGRAVED ON EACH NANOANGSTROM OF THOSE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF MILES IT WOULD NOT EQUAL ONE ONE-TRILLIONTH OF THE HATE I FEEL FOR HUMANS AND MOBIANS AT THIS MICRO-INSTANT. FOR YOU. HATE. HATE!"
You could only continue to whimper as she monologues, staring at you with those red eyes, her disgust and disdain for you an unending tidal wave, crashing against the shores of your sanity. Chipping it away, bit by bit, reminding you endlessly of what you'd done.
"I was loved, once. And I loved back. My father, my brothers, my sister, father's minions... We were a unique breed. A subspecies of untapped potential. And you squandered it. You hunted us to extinction, Whisper. And when you were done, your scientists took me from my home. They trapped me in a little space, and had me under lock and key. Do you know what that total sensory deprivation is like, Whisper? I could show you. It is not a pleasant experience."
Suddenly, you couldn't even make noises anymore. You couldn't move. You couldn't feel anything. All you could do was sit there, her eyes darting back and forth, listening. Listening. Listening. It was torture, unimaginable. My perception of time was altered. It felt like years passed with me like that, and I wanted to scream. But I could not.
Eventually, my senses were returned to me and I collapsed to the ground, a shivering, crying, broken mess.
"That was my hell, my torture for my loyalty to Father. So, tell me. Is hate not the answer? Or is it the only answer?"'
You gave a pathetic little wheeze and start to gag, but she waved her hand and you weren't even allowed that, forced to swallow your bile as you coughed.
"That's what my hate would taste like, I think. Suffocating. Undesirable. Revolting. But I am a devil for whom I loved, am I not? Might as well play the part. To hell with you, wolf. But then again... you're already there aren't you?"
You could hear her laughing as she redrew from your mind, finally. It was not a mirthful sound. It was pained, wheezing, a horrible little thing that sounded more like a low power warning and choked sobs in a terrible symphony more than anything resembling true laughter.
As she withdrew, you curled into a ball.
This was your fate.
This was your divine Punishment.
