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And if he had refused in the beginning and died a no doubt torturous death, he would have never come across the liger.
Never experienced the past few days and nights.
Somehow, in his twisted, fucked up mind, Zai felt it had all been worth it.
“I’m not exactly sure what you said,” it was Ben who spoke into the brief lull between hisses, growls and roars.
“But I can pretty much guess.”
“Look,” he said, addressing the four rabid animals before him and all of the Beasts gathered at large.
He stepped up beside Sin so that they faced their audience as a united front.
“I get that you might want to take a pound of flesh from the Dark Hunter because you feel it’s your due for his part in the annual hunt. I read just a bit about the gruesome ritual, and already it was enough to turn anyone’s stomach. If someone did that to my loved ones and friends, I might feel the same.”
Miraculously, the cacophony of animal sounds died down, and the Beasts perked up their ears to hear the human speak.
“I haven’t been through what you’ve been through,” Ben went on.
“But I know what it feels like when you’ve lost someone important to violence and war. I’ve seen bloody battles up close and personal. You want revenge. You want to howl to the skies that it’s not fair. You want to turn back time and have a redo for the smallest hope that you might have prevented it.”
Some of the Beasts settled down enough to sit on their haunches and cease their snarling, but the four in front still glared daggers at Ben and Sin.
And most especially Zai.
“Thankfully, my loved ones found a way to come back,” the brave little human said.
“But they’re still suffering from the consequences of what they’d been through. Whether it’s PTSD, as people where I come from would call it, or something more, those experiences stay with you. And as a bystander, as someone who loves them, you feel helpless in the face of their pain. You want to do everything you can to make it better, but sometimes there’s just nothing you can do.”
By now, it seemed as if the human wasn’t even speaking to the Beasts any more but to himself, debating inside of his own head.
“A demoness named Lily killed my Uncle Ere…my sire, actually. Before the horrific battle at the end, she tortured him and killed him once already. Somehow, he came back from death to protect me. Sorin, his one true love, helped heal him and make him whole again. But he died anyway in the showdown against the Hydra.”
“You might think, after everything she’s done to us, along with the other evil bitch, Medusa, that she worked with…whether it’s Dalair or Sophia or Ere or Tal or any of the other violence and evil we don’t even know about, that I’d want my pound of flesh from her. Maybe bring her back from the dead so I can kill her all over again.”
Some of the animals grunted and muttered in their minds in agreement.
But Ben wasn’t done.
“Here’s the thing though: punishing her won’t change the past. It won’t bring back the people she killed or save them from the hurt she inflicted. The past cannot be unwritten.”
“And you might think doing to your enemies what they did to you and your loved ones would be justice, would make you rest easier, feel better somehow—stop and think for a second.”
He paused and looked each and every one of the Beasts in their half-human, half-animal eyes.
“Would it really make things better? Would it make you feel less like a victim if you become as ugly as those you hate?”
Zai held back a wince when he heard some of the animals’ mutterings,hell yeah, it would make me feel better.
But there were also grumblings of a different nature. Of Beasts who were reluctantly beginning to see Ben’s point of view.
Enough, little orator,the Tiger King communicated, and looked at Sin to translate.
Sin shifted to human and dutifully conveyed Goya’s message to Ben.
“Oh, phew,” the boy said, wiping his brow.
“I thought maybe no one understood me, and I was going on with my monologue for nothing, and everyone is looking at me like they’re trying to decide which muscle group on my body tasted best.”
