SGE His Darkened Heart (A Japaric Fanfiction)

CHAPTER 17 Unmerciful

"Trials in just a few hours, Sir," Armeq said, and it took Aric a moment to realize he was addressing him. "Think we'll win it?"

"I don't care who wins or loses," Aric told him in his hardened tone. "I don't care what you guys do. You can Just do whatever you so please, as long as you don't get in my way when the time comes to make my mother pay, Got it?" 

All three of Aric's henchmen nodded in submission. They'd followed him long enough to know that when he warned them against something, he meant it. They'd seen him at his worst when he was punishing boys. and they didn't want to be on the end of Aric's whip. 

Maybe Aric had become his worst self after being forced to leave Japeth behind, but Aric couldn't think about Japeth now--not when the Trial was to begin and Aric was finally gonna get his chance at revenge. He had to focus on the Trial. 

"Eight minutes, boys!" A voice called into the armory. Aric recognized the hoarse voice belonging to Professor Manley and looked up to find the former Uglification teacher glaring at them in the open doorway. "Get a move on!"

Aric and his henchmen gathered their weapons and filed out of the room, heading into the Great Hall where the rest of the Male Trial Participants were gathered. In the grand room, Aric took his place by the back wall and surveyed the other boys, all dressed in identical black and red uniforms. The boys were jittering excitedly, debating whether the boys would win and Good and Evil would return to how it was or if the girls would win and make the boys their slaves. 

Aric ignored the voices ringing around him and found his gaze trailing down to his dagger and he felt a flare of anticipation curl in his gut. Soon, he realized, his mother would pay, and Aric would use this very dagger to slice her throat. 

"For you, Japeth," Aric whispered to himself, closing his eyes for the briefest moment before he heard the boys' chattering die down and a booming voice announce that it was time. 

The Trial between the Boys and Girls had finally begun.

Somehow, Aric found himself outside, facing the spidery gates leading into the blue forest. He would be one of the first boys in and he looked up into the sky to see the girls' castle with its glittering spires looming beyond the trees. When the horn sounded, the gates parted and the spiders skittered in opposite directions to allow Aric to step through. The air within the forest felt cold on Aric's skin, but he welcomed the way the cold sank into his bones to numb his darkened heart. 

Now within the forest, Aric found the trees were less green and lush, but rather painted with a blue tinge with low drooping vines that glittered in the hazy sunlight. They were willow trees, and near the crop of trees was a cluster of thorny undergrowth that was sure to deter anyone hoping to get through them. 

Frost crunched beneath Aric's heavy back combat boots as he started deeper into the forest, his violet gaze alert for any suspecting victims coming his way.  For an instant, he stopped, peering into the thick cluster of willow trees as his breath billowed in the frigid air. The forest was eerily still, but Aric held no fear as he eyed the willows in deliberation. 

There was no soul in sight, no sound to convince Aric that there was anybody lurking nearby, and he turned to walk off. Than, the sound came. The sound of a twig snapping beneath the ground, the thud of a footstep coming from deeper within the trees. 

Aric felt a wicked gleam come alight in is gaze as he silently neared the willows, searching for the source of the sound. He knew it had to be a girl. No animal that might be lurking in the trees could make such a sound. It'd been nothing more but a footstep, but if it'd been an animal, it'd have skittered off when it heard Aric coming.