Ruin Maketh Me

Extra 1: BE Route Ralphus

     (Continues on from Chapter 97 - Final Choice. WARNING: GORE AND VIOLENCE)
I smooth the duvet over Ralphus. How many times have I done this now? Surely already tens of times. And yet, I still can't manage to touch him. I reach out a finger again towards that unreasonable strand. We lie so close together, the warmth from his cheek rolls by the tip of my finger, but they fail to make contact. It's like we're two magnets playing at how close we can reach before repelling each other.
     But who's repelling who? Me? You? Us, both?
     "If you want to touch him, touch him." Strong, wilful, not-understanding.
     My finger shivers. We touch. And for a moment, I regain the same warmth residing over my skin as we laid together, hugging each other close, back to chest, your wings wrapping me tightly as if I was the last thing you wanted to lose.
His chest stops moving.
My breath stops expelling along with his.
"Ralphus? Ralphus!" I grab his shoulders.
He's so warm, so warm, but that other half of his breath does not come. His chest does not lift again.
"Leonard!" The room spins around me, around, around goes the merry-go-round, "He's not breathing! What should I do? God, help him! Just help him!"
HELP HIM!
I clutch at his face, that jaw that used to clench and loosen, those lips that were so talented at folding into a straight line... He's sleeping, yes, he must still be sleeping. He looks like he's sleeping, so he must be. He must be.
Infinite sleep.
"Wake up, please, Ralphus! Wake up!" I gasp, cold air expanding my chest into an infinite balloon.
"Fuck." Red thread twist above me, "I can't detect any abnormalities—
"Then why isn't he breathing?" I scream against that merciless fire.
"I don't know!"
SLAM.
A fist in the bed post, the doors crashing into the walls.
"Please. Please, just wake up."
No. I bow my head, and yet even like that, I cannot look away, I'm too scared to look away. I don't care, I don't care if you never wake up, just don't go.
"Don't go."
Don't take away even the last figment of my hope, you can hate me, you can scorn me, but please, don't leave me like this.
I can't breathe. There's air running in and out of my lungs, but I can't breathe.
"What's wrong with him?"
"Please," Hands tear me away, back, back, like that light that tore me away from you in the shadows, "Cynder, leave it to us, he'll be fine and dandy, don't worry hmm?"
I shake my head. Those eyes are looking at me so imploringly.
"No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no!"
Once, I left him once, twice, I can't turn away from him a third time. Forgiven once, twice but never thrice, never thrice. I wrestle from the hands and bitter, tear-stained shouts. It's so easy, so easy when all I can hear is the ringing in my ears and your words, your voice over and over again.
     "Cynder." Stony and serious, but the flush at the tip of your ears give your shyness away.
     "Cynder," Beautiful is your smile, beautiful, your twinkling eyes.
     Cynder.
     "Ralphus."
     The breath balloons through the wind, a heartbeat that runs through everyone, a whistling inhalation that stops the ticking hands of time. His chest rises, up, down, up, down, stronger and stronger, a regaining of vitality, more powerful than before, stronger than even when he wielded his sword.
     My limbs fall limp. He's back, and I almost feel like he's going to wake completely. Anytime now, he's going to open his eyes and smile, "Cynder."
     His eyes snap open.
     I drop into its swirling, bottomless depth.
     The hands on my shoulder tighten again, but this time, they leave me no other choice, "Cynder, get away."
     "Get away?"
     "He's failed," Sol says into my ear, voice strained, "It's no longer him—
     Ralphus's eyes that roamed the space with a dazed not-understanding snap to me and pierce the image of Sol's hands holding onto my shoulder.
     My chest jolts, and a cold sweat breaks along my forehead. The only thought that radiates through my mind is, Sol's right, he's changed. Changed, the intensity, the gaze, the room beyond the windows, it's been broken and pieced together with the wrong blueprint. The way he holds his features upon his face, it reminds me of something familiar. Strange, familiar, even though I don't recognise this man...
      Splat. Warmth splashes across my cheek. Thump. Iron blooms into my mouth, a splendid red flower.
      Ralphus smiles, terrible and breathlessly brilliant in happiness.
      I almost smile along with him, but the emptiness above my shoulders tell me to turn, turn, turn, turn—
      "ARGHHHHHH!"
      Pain blows through my mind, I clutch my head and stumble backwards. But I've already seen it. Red, red, red, so much red pooling onto the floor, Sol's arms lying, two pieces of a broken infant on the ground - detached.
     Chopped off. Gone.
     "KILL H—
     Silence.
     Splash. A sound like water pouring onto the floor from an overflowing sink resounds in my ears. Red. They fall apart in front of me. Leonard, Eirwen, Julius, they unravel like grape skin from a grape and thud to the slippery floor, broken.
      A strange gasp vibrates through the wooden floor, and even before I close my eyes, I can see Eirwen and Julius's strewn organs squirm, their torn mouths struggling for air. Even like that, even like that, dismembered and thrown apart, they're still alive. God, they're still alive.
      I spew the contents of my stomach into the red. Burning bile crashes up and out of my throat, but even after all that's gone, pooling into the vibrancy painting my feet, my stomach won't stop clenching, and clenching, and clenching.
      A low laugh disintegrates through the air, and a warm hand travels down my head, intertwining my hair with his fingers. My body shakes, and I gag into the ground again. That, that man, he's, he's touching my hair after he did...all this.
      "I did tell you that I won't let you go again." He murmurs, laughing warmly.
     Blood spurts into my mouth. I want to get away, get away, run, but his hand's still in my hair, his fingers are still running through the strands, and I can't, can't move.
      Sol groans and extends a wavering a strand of magic, "Cynde—
      CRUNCH.
      His fingers are finally out of my hair. Sol isn't where he was before. Sol, Sol, where is he? Where? No... Pain crashes like a hammer against my skull.
     ....Hanging...embedded...wall....
      "Look at me." He commands, a finger trailing down my neck.
      His breath inks hotly against my ears.
      "Stop trembling, look at me."
      What is he going to do to me? Is he going to kill me too? Is he going to make it so that I can't even beg for death. I'm scared, scared, so scared, scared, scared—
      "Do it."
      My neck turns, inch by inch, one and another and another. Red swings around me and then, those white strands, like spun silk, and I jump into darkness.

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A/N: You guys probably weren't expecting a Bad End extra so quickly, but somehow I was really motivated to write this (That says something about my character I guess). To be continued?