"You can't do that!" the mother shouted at her twelve-year-old boy.
"Why not?" the boy asked with a raised brow and crossed arms. "He insulted you."
"Yes, that's bad, but you can't just elbow someone's throat because they insulted someone you love!" the mother shouted. "You could've killed him!"
The boy snorted. "I defend your honor, and that's how you thank me? I did this for you!"
"Anor, don't play your tricks on me!" the mother shouted. "We both know that's not the reason."
"Then, what reason do you want to hear?" the boy asked.
"The truth," the mother said.
The boy grimaced with a bit of disgust.
He really didn't want to tell the truth since he knew that he would be punished.
The mother sighed. "I know things can be difficult for you. Just tell me the truth."
The boy looked to the side.
As he thought about the boy he had almost killed, he couldn't keep a smirk from forming on his face.
"I've been a bit stressed with school lately," the boy said. "I needed an outlet."
That was not the entire truth, but it was close enough that his mother believed him.
"Anor, you can't use violence to alleviate boredom or stress!" the mother shouted.
"Yes, yes, I know," the boy answered with annoyance.
He really didn't know what his mother's issue was.
This guy insulted his mother.
His caretaker.
His parents were highly regarded, and the other boy attacked that status.
He was not a son of some bastards!
As the son of two highly regarded parents, he deserved to be treated with respect!
Somebody who had such an opinion of him and his parents didn't have any worth.
So what if he died?
He wouldn't have contributed to society anyway.
As the mother kept reprimanding her son, the boy just turned to the side.
He remembered how exciting it was to hit the throat of that other boy.
When he gasped for air in terror, it was hilarious!
He was so pathetic and weak.
The boy wasn't sure if he had ever seen something this funny.
He was like some kind of fly with its wings pulled out, just walking across the floor like a dumb wingless insect.
The boy had felt quite excited when he saw how someone else suffered under his power.
It was so funny!
"Yes, I won't do it again. I promise, okay?" the boy said after a long tongue-lashing.
The mother looked at the boy for a while.
"As long as it doesn't happen again," she said.
"It won't," the boy said.
"I love you," the mother said, giving her boy a hug.
"I love you, too," the boy said, returning the hug.
However, he only went through the motions and quickly let go again.
When the mother heard her boy say that he loved her, she felt a deep pain in her heart.
It was a reminder.
She knew that her boy didn't love her.
He couldn't love her.
She could also tell that her boy hadn't been completely truthful, but she acted like she believed him.
She just didn't want to hear the true reason.
Her boy was terrifyingly intelligent, and he had realized that giving half-truths was the best way to get his way at a very early age.
He lied without feeling any guilt, which made him a very good liar.
"Is the money in yet from father's job?" Anor asked.
The mother sighed. "Yes."
"Great!" the boy shouted with a smile. "At least he's good for something."
"Anor!" the mother shouted. "I told you several times that you can't talk about your father like that."
The boy just scoffed. "Who cares? He doesn't love me anyway. You are the one who loves me, not him. His job is not to be a father. His job is to be a provider."
"You love me, right?" the boy asked, looking at his mother with scared eyes.
The mother's heart hurt when she saw her boy's pained and scared expression.
She knew it was just a trick.
She knew that he didn't care.
And yet…
"Yes, I love you," she said with a shaky voice.
The boy smiled and hugged his mother tightly.
"As long as we are together, we can get through things. We are a team. Father brings money, but we both know that he doesn't bring us any love."
"And love is all that matters, right?"
The mother took a deep breath.
"Anthony loves both of us," she said.
Then, her eyes narrowed. "And I told you already, stop trying to isolate your father from the family."
"I'm not!" Anor shouted.
"You are!" the mother shouted. "I've seen you grow up. I know your tricks."
"No, I genuinely don't want that to happen!" Anor shouted. "Just think about it! If I were to isolate father from the family, we would lose half of our income. That wouldn't be in my interest."
The mother narrowed her eyes.
Her son was terrifyingly good at convincing other people despite his young age.
But she wasn't fooled.
He used arguments that ridiculed the truth and made it seem like it would be stupid to act like that.
However, Anor knew that it was stupid.
Yes, he wanted to isolate his father from the family.
Sure, they might lose half of their money, but he just couldn't stand that asshole.
So what if they lost the money?
The emotional payoff of seeing that asshole being betrayed by the one person he loved would be worth it.
Son and mother argued for a while longer, but the son smoothed things over when he realized that he wasn't getting anywhere with his mother.
Eventually, he left to play with his "friends".
Nick watched all of this in secret.
'Everything goes as predicted,' he thought. 'He is young, and his brain hasn't developed yet.'
'He might not want to act like a decent human, but he will realize that he has to in the future.'
'His intentions will be completely self-serving, but his actions will benefit humanity.'
Nick took a deep breath.
Due to their ashen skin and their inherent immunity to the Nightmare, Nick decided to call this new kind of human Nightmen.
Nightmen were fiercely intelligent but didn't care about others a lot.
They knew that they had to help the greater collective since they would suffer if the greater collective suffered.
But that was it.
They just wanted to have a good life.
In that regard, Nightmen were just like normal humans.
It was just that their imagination of a good life was different.
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