I Am A Monster

I Am A Monster : Chapter 54

Chapter 54

"No!" Amari cries, flinging her arms around Marcus. She begins to sob, tears streaming down her face, her entire form shaking with grief and sobs that rack through her body.

I stand forty feet away, frozen, staring at Amari sobbing over Marcus's dead body.

No...not Marcus....

I had been preparing for Amari's death, but not for Marcus's. Now, to have him killed instead of Amari, is such a shock....

"Marcus!" Amari sobs, shaking Marcus's body by the shoulders. "Wake up! Please, please wake up...." She buries her head in his neck, which is slick with blood, her face getting covered in her brother's blood.

"Marcus," I whisper. The one name trips off my tongue, and I finally lose it. I faint.

I'm dreaming that Marcus is dying. Then his eyes turn crimson and his hair turns blond, his shoulders broader, and he grows. He gets rippling muscles, an even tan, and a cruel smile.

He draws his sword and says, "You can die just like Marcus did...."

His form shimmers and then it's gone.

Amari, her eyes red and puffy from crying, her hair--in a loose high ponytail--disheveled and messy, appears a moment later.

"How could you do that to him?" she demands. "You should have sacrificed yourself instead!"

"How could I?" I protest. "I was too far away!"

"If you'd moved your lazy butt earlier--"

But then her figure shimmers and disappears, replaced by Killer. She smiles coldly at me. "Just because you could defeat me, doesn't mean the queen can," she sneers. "Don't worry, her death was quick and mostly painless."

"You--!"

But her form has already vanished, replaced by Mark.

"Mark," I whisper. I feel the tears filling my eyes.

He doesn't move. Instead, he just stares at me, and then he says quietly, anger laced into every word in his sentence, "You rejected me." Those three words pierce me so deeply that I fall to my knees, my vision becoming blurry now as the tears get thicker.

"Mark," I repeat brokenly, "I...I had been alone for two years, I couldn't just--"

"You left me," he accused coldly. "You were willing to--"

"No, I wasn't!" I cry, brushing the tears off of my cheeks. "Mark, I--"

He holds up his hand in front of his face, a look of deep disgust etched into every line of his face, and then he dissolves.

"Mark!" I sit up. I'm still lying on the castle floor. The battle is still all around me. Apparently, I'd only been unconscious for a few minutes. Amari is still sobbing uncontrollably over Marcus, her shoulders shaking.

I crawl towards her and then I'm beside her, my arms around her.

"I'm sorry," I whisper.

I've never seen anyone cry like this, and the two people I would have expected to be crying least are Amari and Sabrina--but here she is, the famous Amari, crying. Of course, I don't blame her, her brother just died. But her broken sobs remind me of myself--how I've given up hope.

"Amari, it's okay," I whisper, stroking her shoulder.

She ignores me, crying even harder.

"Amari," I say, my voice thick. "Amari, please. He wouldn't want you--"