Eros

Divine Execution - 21

"Sister..." A distorted voice echoed in the darkness.

"Sister..." It was both a whisper and a scream, coming from every possible direction.

"Sister... Sister help me!"

Alora wanted to help him. She wanted to help him more than anything. Murky droplets of a dark and gooey fluid poured out of thin air and dribbled right into her. It filled through every crack, pooling at her soul. It was agony. It was despair.

It was blood.

She looked up and saw a familiar, reassuring face. She was just a lost child, and now her keeper had found her. Then she noticed Grenlda's eyes were wide open, dull and unblinking. An arrowhead sticking out of her forehead.

A murky droplet dripped from its sharp tip and landed on Alora's face. Dozens of more elven figures appeared in the darkness behind Grenlda. Their dead, colorless eyes stared at her hollowly. Their naked bodies were mutilated, their flesh raw, with dangling guts and splintered bones jutting out of the skin. All wept their murky blood upon her.

Her mouth gaped in a scream, but no sound came out. Only the broken voice was allowed in the darkness.

"Sister!" It shrieked, and Eldridge appeared before her. Flames danced on his skin, eating through his flesh and licking the bone beneath it with black tongues. He gritted his teeth together and barred them, stretching an abhorrent grin across his burning face. His jaws snapped open in a monstrous howl.

"Why won't you help me?"

Alora's eyes snapped open in horror, and she darted upright in her bed.

Her chest heaved in feverish panting, skin crawling with cold sweat. Gradually, she steadied her breath, and the nightmarish fear was gone, clearing the way for grief.

She shuddered, and when she blinked her eyes, a tear slid down her cheek. They were her family, her friends: everyone she ever cared for. It might have been a nightmare, but the dead look in their eyes was real. Their hacked and burnt flesh was real. The screams of her elder brother, her brave, strong brother, were real. She clutched onto herself and barely managed to stifle a whimper.

Enough. She clenched her fist and wiped the tears from her eyes. Crying isn't going to fix shit.

Alora realized she was alone in the tent. Kaido was gone. She moved to open flaps, but paused when she heard William's voice.

"Did you ever find her?" He asked, and Alora waited through a long moment of silence before an answer came.

"No," A deep, coarse voice replied. She nearly didn't recognize it as Kaido's in its solemn tone. "I didn't."

Alora kept listening, but after another while of silence, felt ashamed of herself.

Eavesdropping? What, are you sixteen again? She straightened her posture before going outside. The campfire was mostly coals by then, but the cloudless night skies were lit by the nearly full moon. Kaido sat on the ground before her, still shirtless. She made a point not to glance down his body as she did as he slept.

His eyes met hers, and his lips curved a small smile.

"Trouble sleeping?" He asked.

"No, I just thought to give the late-night club a visit." She answered, glancing between him and William, who sat at the coals' other side.

"You can admit you just couldn't sleep in the tent without me."

"You're right," She said. "The lack of a cigarette's stench was quite unsettling."