Altered Mordred

Chapter 4

*GRASP*

*HUFF*

*HUFF*

"KING!" Someone was screaming.

Who was it?

...

Why was Bedivore cradling King Arthur?

Red...It was everywhere on her body...Why was she dying?

I reached out towards Father, yet something weighed down my arms. I glanced down to see Excalibur wrapped around my fingers. Fresh blood dripped from its blade, dying dirt a shade of red.

"Wha-t-t happened?" I deeply wished for an answer that I already knew...Praying for an affirmation that I was under an illusion, for my mistakes to disappear.

Bedivere faced me, his face strained red with hateful tears. "You did it." He exclaimed. "You inhuman abomination!"

The blade fell from my hand. I really did do it.

This wasn't what we/I wanted.

This wasn't supposed to happen. / 'What I planned.'

'We were supposed to talk it out.' / Father was supposed to be alive.

Our/my redemption.

All we/I wanted was her affection.

We/I just wanted recognition/love.

These arms of mine trembled. My entire being shook as I grasped my face. My armored fingers dug into my skin, mixing my tears with blood of both my own and hers.

"It's everything I ever wanted."

'It's what I will ever need.'

The tips of my fingers ran down my cheeks, ripping wounds down my face. The stinging raw flesh didn't register, nothing really did. Nothing in this life mattered.

"Perhaps I could be of service." A hooded figure revealed himself from behind a tree.

Where did the trees come from?

I dropped my arms down to my sides and looked around my surroundings. The battlefield was gone. The screams, the corpses, and my crime were replaced by boundless vegetations of a forest. The bloodied dirt of which I knelt was now the green grass on the shores of a lake.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Who I am is of no importance." The stranger rummaged through his cloak and brought out a golden cup. "What I provide is."

In his hands was the Holy Grail. The miracle treasure that could grant any wish.

"I will give this to you." He happily continued. "All you have to do is make a wish?"

A wish...Yes...I wanted to change our fate; Father to live; Lena to be alive.

I wanted everything to be BETTER.

Thoughts of endless possibilities roamed through my head. I needed the grail to make everything better. The grail would make my despair, all of my sorrow, disappear. Slowly, I began reaching for it. The hooded man extended it towards me, begging me to take it. His every exposed feature was smiling. I did not bother to care for his intentions. Everything will be fine if I have the grail.

*Snap*

A shining stone dropped to the ground. My motion towards the grail stopped as I looked at the gemstone upon the grass floor. Steadily, I picked up the gem I had turned into a necklace. It was Lena's gift at our first meeting. A smile unconsciously spread upon my face when I remembered our first interaction. My, Mordred's and )@#@$&$'s, was changed at that moment.