Random Short Stories/Written Ideas

The Curse of the Fold

[A/N: this is not canon, don't panic]

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"...ric...Eric-"

Hands were slipping under his arms, pulling him off of his knees and onto his feet. But his mind was still too buried under the fuzziness of shock to process that. He felt... Cold, but not to the point of shivering. Cold enough that even Caspian's hands felt warm.

"Eric." His brother's voice was more insistent.

He couldn't hear him over the frost that only continued to spread throughout his body. Soon, those hands were on his cheeks. Not touching him intimately, but they did grab some of his attention at least. Caspian's face swam into view in front of him, his pupils smaller than humanly possible, and his nostrils flaring at the smell of the blood on Eric's hands.

"Come on. Stay with me."

He was talking like Eric was the one dying.

It was a shame he was a little too late to prevent that from happening.

Red eyes, shot and swollen, stared through Caspian. The only one of the two of them that realized he was crying in the soundless way he expressed such raw emotions was trying to pull him back to himself. But that was wholly impossible when a piece of him was shot dead on the ground, and the rest was withering and decaying right in front of him.

He didn't know when he ended up sitting on the couch, his hands resting... Somewhere. He thinks they're in his lap, but he couldn't tell. Eric wasn't in his right mind, much less able to keep track of his limbs.

Cas was kneeling in front of him, picking up one of those limbs and scrubbing at it aggressively with a corner of his cape. It wouldn't remove all of it, not when it was nearly entirely dried, but it would at least help a little. The whole while, Eric remained unresponsive to the outside world, and his tears continued to fall.

He should have done more. He should have been able to protect Arthur.

But he... Couldn't, and now those soft smiles were reduced to a lifeless husk and his warm touch was frozen over.

Maybe that's why Eric felt so cold. Maybe he truly did die with him. Yet the swelling of his grief told him he was very much alive. It was finally chipping away at his shock, and he began to tremble like a wet dog.

Cas noticed this and immediately dropped what he was doing. Arms curled around Eric, and he was pulled into a tight embrace. Words were whispered and mumbled, but he didn't hear them. His ears had stopped functioning as he gave in to the desire to cry into his brother's shoulder.

Arthur was dead, and it was finally setting in.