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The house is silent.
He's facing the wall, unblinkingly staring at the faded family photo that's hung up in front of him.
His vision distorts, turning blurry. All he sees is red.
Only he can hear the quiet chanting of hushed voices echoing off the walls around him, surrounding him.
Taunting him.
Blood..
𝘉𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘥..
𝘽𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙙..
-...-
The living room door opens behind him.
A quiet voice calls out to him, but he doesn't register the words.
He clenches the sharpened axe in his hand, whipping around and blindly swinging.
He barely recognizes the form of his spouse, who falls to the ground and hovers his hand over the bleeding cut in his cheek.
Wide blue eyes look up at him. He's met with confusion and hurt, but his spouses distorted questions simply bounce off of him like the still echoing voices in his head bounce off the houses' wooden walls.
Time feels frozen for a few, agonizingly long moments.
How much time has passed?
Seconds?
Minutes?
Hours?
It doesn't matter.
-...-
The clacking of tiny little hooves can be heard approaching from the hallway.
A naive little child approaches, smiling carelessly.
𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 little child.
In his arms is a stuffed animal, even smaller than the five-year-old carrying it.
The big smile on the child's face slowly disappears when he sees him towering over his spouse, who is still looking up at him in shock and fear.
The sharp axe is lifted high in the air, ready to strike.
His gaze shifts from his wounded partner to his son, staring at his blurry form with red, unblinking eyes.
-...-
The scared child takes a step back as his wounded dad whips around to him, his hooves scratching up the floor as he scrambles over to his confused son.
Trembling arms wrap around the young boys' body, desperately trying to shield his fragile form from the danger that lurks just a few feet behind them.
At the same time the voices in his head grow louder.
More demanding.
Impossible to ignore.
His feet start to move on their own, following closely behind the desperate goat-man, while only one thing rings and echoes in his mind.
Over.
And over.
And over.
𝘉𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘥..
𝘽𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙙..
𝘽𝙇𝙊𝙊𝘿.
He approaches his terrified son and spouse with steady footsteps, his fingers tightly clenching the shiny axe in his hand.
Within seconds he's caught up to them, a wide, crooked grin stretching across his twitching lips.
He raises the axe high into the air, looking down at his terrified spouse and son.
His only family.
Then he swings his axe once more.
-...-
The house is silent.
It's a sunny day outside.
Little clouds cover the light blue sky, a gentle breeze whistles through the trees of the surrounding forest.
On the houses' front porch a garden swing lightly sways back and forth in the wind.
The inside of the house is dark.
-...-
He's standing in the main room.
Crimson liquid slowly spreads out over the dark spruce floorboards, staining the wood with his sins and seeping into the ground below.
The voices in his mind have finally ceased.
His vision slowly turns clear again, but his body feels stiff and heavy.
He groggily looks around the dark room, trying to wrap his hazy mind around where he even is.
His gaze flickers over to the two limp bodies in front of him, somehow he almost didn't notice them.
When he recognizes their mangled faces his eyes widen with horror and he drops the crimson stained axe to the floor, splashing his legs with his family's blood.
Their screams of terror and agony, their pleads for mercy echo in his mind.
His cheeks burn as a few stray tears roll down his face, etching marks into his already scarred skin.
A crooked smile forces it's way onto his lips.
He drops down onto his knees, holding onto his familys' lifeless bodies, and weeps.