Together Forever - A Collection of Will/Alyss One-Shots

Demons

A/N: You lucky ducks, you get an early update!! :) I have an all-day piano competition tomorrow, plus I finished this early, so I figured I'd go ahead and publish the first of what will be a few song-inspired one-shots. Anyway, I recently discovered Imagine Dragons and their music always makes me cry (in a good way!!) it's that good. And this one inspired a very dramatic Wilyss one-shot.

My other two stories, Blood, Sweat, and Hanon (usually updated on Saturdays) and Sparks Flying (usually updated on Sundays) might be a little late because like I said, I have an all-day competition tomorrow, and then another on Saturday where I'm playing in not one, but TWO entries with completely different repertoire (blame my mom), and the next chapters of those aren't quite ready yet.

So bear with me, and I'll do my best to get the other two stories updated over the weekend at the very earliest.

And on to the one-shot!!

~Nicole

When the days are cold and the cards all fold

And the saints we see are all made of gold

Will feels the bed move as Alyss turns over, getting to her feet. He hears her light tread on the cold floor as she pads barefoot around the bed, sitting down next to him.

"Will? What's wrong? I know you're awake."

Will can't bring himself to open his eyes. He knows she'll see how shattered he his, and he doesn't want to shatter her. The horrific images he sees in his dreams - memories turned nightmares - are still imprinted on the inside of his eyelids. 

When your dreams all fail and the ones we hail

Are the worst of all the blood's run stale

The first man he killed. It was his first year as an apprentice and he and Halt had finally caught up to a criminal gang that had been terrorizing Redmont Fief. The thieves had been desperate enough to fight the Rangers, and he and Halt had been pulled down into a furious fight with them. He can still feel the crush of flesh and bone as his razor-sharp saxe knife bit into the man's torso, hear the man's shattering, agonized scream, see the light suddenly disappear from his eyes.

His first battle, defending Hallasholm in Skandia. The screams of dying men, the desperation as his men and his position were overrun by Temujai troops, the raw despair and fear as Evanlyn turned to calmly meet her death. The sting of the injuries he accumulated, the blood covering his hands as he cut down man after man. Sometimes his hands still smelled of salt and sweat and blood.

Hundreds upon hundreds of men, dead by his doing. Ruffians, criminals, enemies. Men who had once been children. Men who were mothers' sons, who had families. Men who were missed and mourned. Who was he, to bring death upon so many? The blood covering his hands turned into a river, and his throat constricted.

I wanna hide the truth, I wanna shelter you

But with the beast inside, there's nowhere we can hide.

No matter what we breed, we still are made of greed.

This is my kingdom come, this is my kingdom come.

"Will? What's happening?"

Alyss's pleading voice cut through his panicked consciousness, and Will shook his head blindly, even as he fought for the breath he had suddenly lost. He felt her feather-light touch on his shoulder, and he flinched away, knowing that he was hurting her. She could not touch him; she was Alyss. She was light, and pure, and good, and he was dark, and tainted with the blood of so many.