I’ve never been as firmly attached to this world as Dan. He’s got a wife, a child, a farm and a business – all the things I thought were not important to me. Half of his land should rightly be mine; half of his wealth should rightly be mine. He stole these things from me. I hate my cousin, Dan, yet I envy him.
We grew up together on our grandfather’s farm. It was a hard life and the old man ruled his family with an iron hand. He was rough and devious and his three sons were no better. They became a gang of thieves and cutthroats, feared and shunned by their neighbors. Our mothers died young, so Granny raised us. She liked Dan best, though I was far smarter and far better looking. Once I realized this, I stopped trying to please her and patterned myself after Grandpa.
Granny was a wise-woman and well respected in the community, despite her wild family. At an early age, I discovered I’d inherited some of her powers. I found that I could commune silently with her large black cat, just as she did. I admired the animal’s self-reliance, his cold, selfish, and haughty nature. It was then that I started to model myself after this creature and even imagined myself becoming a big cat, a panther. When the next litter of kittens was born, I took one for myself and named him Prince of Darkness.
Prince and I prowled the ridges at night, so I learned to move soundlessly and developed excellent night vision. I became a lean, muscular youth and started to follow my instincts almost exclusively, brushing against objects (and people) to access them in much the same way a feline would use its whiskers.
I ran into the Fey, who were also nocturnal hunters. Granny had a good relationship with them, but I couldn’t resist taunting them. I encouraged Dan to join me and play tricks on the pompous fairies.
As I got older, the girls all liked me, so I took what I wanted from them and moved on. I never made any promises, so felt no remorse. I joined in the family business and found that robbery and violence came naturally to me. Dan, on the other hand, went off to school and became a teacher. I was right in my assessment that he was still dumb as dirt because when the War Between the States broke out, he joined up on the Rebel side. By then, I’d acquired enough magic to know that the Yankees would win, so I enlisted on the Northern side.
Now, over one hundred and fifty years later, Dan and I have proved to both be Granny’s true descendants. We have travelled through time and both ended up back in the same mountainous hill country we came from. Since Dan knew where the gold from a Union payroll robbery had been buried so long ago, he had a nice little stake to get started in this new world. I had nothing but my wits.
As I look around now, I’ve come close to achieving my goals. I’m sitting in a well-appointed penthouse apartment near Washington, D.C. Two discreet servants tend to my ten cats –all large black males. The current Prince of Darkness is my constant companion. I own a Range Rover and a European sports car. I drink only the finest whiskey and spend time with only the most beautiful women. Even Granny would have to deem me a success. I long to show all this off to Dan, but of course, that will never happen since I have to kill Dan.
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