The Story of Midnight

Chapter 40

"To one's enemies: "I hate myself more than you ever could."
―Alain de Bottom

***

I stayed silent as Dawn, Night and I walked out of Shade and started to go into The Howling Woods. I'm home again. But it didn't bring me joy because of what happened. The person she was carrying on her back reminded me of the small detour I took to Silent Edge Prison.

"Where are you going?" Dawn questioned.

"I'm going back to Silent Edge," I said not bothering to stop or turn around.

"Why?"

"I have some people to rescue."

Opening the door to the prison took some effort but eventually I managed to get through.  Walking over to the middle of the room, then to the right, I came face to face with the door.

So many memories; so many I can't forget.

"It's you..."

I didn't need to turn around to know who it was.

"I see you're still alive," I said.

"I thought you would've died from what the Commander was doing to you." The young officer said, sounding a bit concerned. "Now that I'm looking at what he did..."

I smiled slightly, ignoring his concern for me. There was still blood on me. I wonder what the young officer thought about that.

"Then clearly you haven't heard enough stories about me if you're worrying about someone like me," I said as I got the key ring out of my belt loop. It managed to survive.

"This wasn't his doing." I said, answering his earlier suspicion.

"Then—"

"It's a long story."

A pause.

"Wasn't there someone else with you?"

The sound of the lock clicking echoed. I didn't answer as I opened the door, walked a few steps forward and announced in a playful tone, "What did I miss?"

Immediately the room burst into joyful cries and whooping; celebrating my return. I just had to smile. They've become like a family to me.

"Quiet down, quiet down!" Baasim shouted. It took some time, but the command was finally followed.

"I'm in the presence of a legend." Someone said.

"Emerald," I breathed.

"I just knew you would get out of that alive." She said, playfully.

"I've gone through worse." I shrugged.

"Shadowmyst, what happened to the lad?" Raven asked.

The smile slipped off my face.

"I—I killed him," I said gravely.

My words made everyone go silent. I sighed and walked over to the first cell on the left where Emerald was in.

"Wha—what do you mean you killed him?" Emerald asked, fear and disbelief flowing from her. She even took a small step back.

"I had no choice. Cloud was part of the Dragon Race, we were mentioned in this prophecy that said I had to kill him so his dragon spirit wouldn't destroy Shade. He wouldn't have stopped there either."

It was much too quiet for a prison.

"I—I didn't want to but it was the only way. It was either him or the lives of everyone in Shade."