Lohikäärme

Chapter Thirteen - Madness

Dedicated to Shadowes for the cute comment in Chapter Twelve. :)

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Chapter Thirteen - Madness

          My eyes were still fixed on Remekiah when Elfreda grabbed my arm and yanked me up on my feet. A string of curse words escaped her mouth as we walked up the room, but they landed on deaf ears. She was dragging me up the stairs. My feet were probably terribly bruised as she was dragging me like I was just a sack of potatoes, because I couldn't keep up with her. I still couldn't move my feet, let alone keep up with her fast movement.

          Light started to seep out of his body. I squinted my eyes to make sure I wasn't seeing things. Light continued to radiate out of him. Then I felt Elfreda stop walking and turn her head to look at the light coming out of him. So it was real.

          "No!" she screamed. "He wasn't...He wasn't supposed to die!"

          He wasn't supposed to die? What was she saying? It was because of her that Remekiah was now gone. It was her fault, hers alone. If she didn't want him to die, she shouldn't have threw those fireballs at him.

          Then the image of Remekiah suffering because of me appeared in my mind again, and I felt my hands tremble.

          This wasn't supposed to happen.

          He wasn't supposed to die.

          If I had been more cautious, if I had been stronger, this wouldn't have happened. Remekiah would still be wriggling inside my dress if I had been strong enough to protect him. But no, I was weak, too weak. I was too busy trying to solve my problems alone that I didn't have time to understand my friend.

          A painful sound rang in my ears as Elfreda's hand collided with my cheek. I was on my knees before I realized what she did to me. I cupped my swollen cheek with my right hand. Why did she slap me?

          "Argh! This is your fault!" she yelled, glaring at me.

          I glared back. "My fault?" I shouted. "How did this become my fault?"

          She then pointed her finger at me. "It had always been your fault, you cursed brat! This is all because of you, because of all of you!" She squinted her eyes and shook her head violently. "No," she said. "I'm not letting you destroy Aethelgard. I won't let you destroy what my grandfather treasured so much."

          "What makes you so sure that I'm going to try to destroy Aethelgard?" She was already accusing me of trying when I hadn't even made a move to destroy the castle. It didn't make any sense. How did she know I was about to attack Aethelgard?

          She grabbed my hand again and yanked me up on my feet. She just dragged me up the stairs and only stopped dragging when we needed to stop for her to unlock the door. Muttering the words curse and prophecy, she stuck her free hand in the pocket of her dress and used a key to open the door.

          She was about to grab my arm again after opening the door, but we were both awestruck as the hallways came into view. Flames covered most of the walls, and ashes covered the rest of them. I had to cover my mouth with my hand to hold my breath so I wouldn't inhale the smoke. What happened? The castle was ruined, but I... I hadn't done anything yet. Were they telling the truth? That no matter what I do, it would still happen if fate wanted it to? The destruction of Aethelgard, why did this need to happen?

          "Can't you do something about it?" I asked. She was a fire elemental. Couldn't she do anything against fire?

          She shook her head, sighing in exasperation. I wasn't sure if that was an answer to my question or just a reaction to the terrible thing that we were both seeing. I kept my mouth shut and didn't utter a single word as Elfreda dragged me up the remnants of the stairs, jumping on some of the spots where a large part of the staircase was no longer there. Where was she taking me?