TW // mass death, child death, panic attacks, breakdowns and dissociation/derealization
If any of these topics trigger you please just skip to the end!! There will be a summary at the end explaining what happened.
/
Sorin collapsed onto the floor again as he was back in his house. He did it, he really did it.
While buying the food and tampering with it, he thought he was dreaming again. Even now, his limbs felt numb to his bones. He swore his palms were sinking into his own floor. One of his hands held something he grabbed out of a closet, and the other held that necklace he’d seen earlier. It was shaped like an autumn leaf, with orange and yellow spots on it.
He sat up to stare at the thing he grabbed.
It looked like an old hoodie, nothing important.
Sorin didn’t move from his spot as he felt something crept into his brain, but he didn’t have the strength to push it away. He slowly let names connect to faces, let the blood soak back into the wounds. It burned him, but he allowed it.
“Halian.. Halian…”, he couldn’t forget it.
×××
Fire blasted around them as the outpost began to crash down, barrels of food falling down and cracking apart as dirt and grass was spattered into the air. Lightning was tossed into the mix of horrid noises too, it sounded like a horrible symphony.
He hated this, he felt lost in himself now. Everything hurt, but it hurt more that he couldn’t feel it. Little voices in his head tried to comfort him.
“Sori! Sori!” Someone grabbed his arm, yanking him up. Small hands. His brother. Halian.
He was much younger than him at the time, barely 10. Yet he dragged Sorin through the destruction, yelling for their father. Everyone did what they did, running away as far they could, but it was pointless. Most of them were killed quickly, holes of lightning going through their chests and heads. Halian couldn’t look, he just dragged his delirious older brother away from the outpost.
“SORIN!”
That was their father.
Sorin collapsed into his father’s arms, and he could feel Halian gripping his hand with a death grip. He could still feel the heat of the outpost burning, scorching his back. He wanted to cry, but he knew they couldn’t take a moment to stop. So why couldn’t Sorin bring himself to move?
“Sorin, Halian, we have to go, now.”
Despite his father trying to remain calm for them, Sorin heard the underlying anxiety in his voice, the fear at his two children being killed by-
A horrific laugh filled the air, and Sorin didn’t need another warning to run. Halian turned his head to see Sabre standing in the middle of it all. Halian always thought of him as some sort of savior, like a mystic creature he’d read in fairytales. Someone stood next to Sabre, blue mixing with black. They said something, and Sabre’s head snapped towards them like a whip.
Sorin ran with his father, running past a river and reaching a field, but it still wasn’t far enough from the outpost. The crowds around them began dying immediately, lightning struck down more and blinded them. Sorin gripped onto Halians hand the best he could, trying his hardest to ignore those horrendous screams as people died around them.
Finally, a bolt of lightning struck next to them, and Sorin felt as if he was flying for a second. His hand left Halians, and his entire torso hit the ground with a hard thud. None of this felt real, but that woke him up a bit.
More screams filled the air, but the only one Sorin heard was his own father. He weakly sat up, propping himself up onto his elbows and knees. He wanted to cry once he saw what was happening, but no tears would leave his eyes. Maybe his eyes were frozen in shock too.
Sabre stood in front of his dad, holding a gradient stained sword, pointing it down at his dad. A twisted grin rested on his face, as if this was all a sick game. Sorin tried to move, but his nerves felt fried. He couldn’t watch this, but the scene hypnotized him. He knew how this would end, but he still prayed to someone that a miracle would happen.
“P-Please! You’ve already destroyed so many of us!”
Sorin couldn’t take this, he never heard his own father beg, not to this degree.
What puzzled him for a minute was that Sabre didn’t move at that. He stopped smiling, his face just looked puzzled. Dull. Scared. When he finally opened his mouth, he just sounded scared, and it made Sorin’s head spiral. He really started to think this wasn’t real, but it was and he hated it.
Sabre’s concerns suddenly faded as his entire body snapped for a second, and he slouched forwards as if a switch in him had been turned off. Sorin realized what happened. He wasn’t an expert on darkness, but he knew how corruption worked. Was Sabre still in there?
Sorin’s dad didn’t waste a second.
“SORIN, RUN! GRAB HALIAN AND-”
Lightning went through his chest and blood sputtered out of his mouth, his legs quickly gave out beneath him. Sabre took advantage of the opportunity and sliced his head clean off, the red blood stained the metal of the sword.
“HALIAN!”
Sorin finally got up, his legs still limp. It took a second for him to run, but that was all Sabre needed. He tilted his head to Sorin, and his eyes darted towards Halian, and he swung his sword to summon lightning.
That was all he needed to do. The child's torso was covered in a sheet of red as Sorin finally grabbed him, silently trying to pretend he didn’t see the lightning rip through him, trying to pretend that his little brother wasn’t going to die.
He just ran, praying he’d get somewhere. Alas, he didn’t get very far. Sabre- or maybe it was the blue-and-black person next to him earlier- grabbed him by the back of his neck and threw him again, and once more he lost his grip on his brother’s hand. Sorin felt all the air left his body as he slammed into a pole of the outpost, which quickly broke upon his weight.
“H-H…Hali…?”
He heard his brother crying out for him. He needed to get there now, but he was gasping for air and the smoke didn’t help. The outpost was still burning, and if Sorin didn’t move, he’d join his father quickly.
Dreadful laughs joined the ringing in his ears, and Sorin pushed himself up, ignoring how weak he felt. Thankfully, Halian was only a few feet away from him. It felt like miles, but if Sorin just grabbed him and ran they might get out of here.
Even if Halian was turning pale and still profusely bleeding. It’d be fine. It’ll be fine.
Sorin sprung up and scooped up Halian, but once he looked back up at the two villains his blood ran cold. He was mere feet away from them, the two people who’d just ripped all of his joy from his own hands. Neither of them had an ounce of comforting emotion in their eyes.
“Soul, head back and tell Void the outpost is dealt with. I can deal with this..” Sabre looked down at him and gestured his hand, “..pest.”
Soul nodded and teleported away, leaving Sabre and Sorin alone in the rubble.
“..s-sori…”
“Not now, Halian..”
Sorin barely was thinking when he said that, he was certain Halian could feel how shaky his hands were as he held him. Internally, Sorin knew this had to be it. He and Halian would die here, and never have a grave, never have anything, just another person who died.
“W-What..”, Sorin couldn’t pick his words, “W-When my father spoke to you.. What… You looked-...”
“Scared?”
Sorin couldn’t respond. He nodded.
Sabre tsk’d and shook his head, “Ah.. Nothing to worry about. Just a few more pests up here,” He leaned over and raised a finger to tap his head, “Though, I doubt he really cares, just wants to get back to his sad little life.”
“H-He.. He does…” Sorin mumbled, although he didn’t know if he said it to comfort himself or his dying brother. The tension in the air was so thick, or maybe that was the smoke. Sorin silently wondered why he wasn’t dead yet.
“If he did care, wouldn’t he try to stop me from doing this?”, Sabre gestured to the outpost, and Sorin wanted to run away.
He did try.. didn't he? Everyone was already dead though.
“...Or this?”
Frankly, Sorin didn’t hear the lightning at first. Everything just went white. His ears rang in misery and he swore he died for a moment. Time itself froze and all Sorin could hear was a laugh. A crazed, insane, horrific laugh that made Sorin want to rip his ears off. The shockwave of the lightning became present in his bones, and his head- scratch that, his whole body- ached and yet, it didn't.
Even through the haze, Sorin felt something sticky on his face, his clothes, his skin. Well, sticky was a strange word to put it. Slimy. Wet. Miry.
Sorin sat up and realized his brother was no longer in his arms. No longer anywhere. Sorin hugged himself to see if he could feel him, but all he felt was more blood and a burn that hurt horribly.
With a clean spot on his hand, he wiped his face to see what was on it. He hoped it was just dirt, which was already present on his face but he never noticed it in the chaos.
He pulled his hand away to see more red. More red covering his hand, the burn marks on his chest and forearm, every inch of his torso felt like it was covered in the sticky red blood.
Sorin looked behind him to see something that looked similar to him now; all the steves behind him were either fading away or lying on the ground, their eyes frozen open in shock. The fire began to burn bodies, and more of the outpost crashed down.
Everything felt so vivid suddenly as Sorin zoned back in. Now everything felt too real, too loud, too bright, too warm. His stomach twisted into his own esophagus, oh god he was still alive. He didn’t feel alive. He felt petrified, useless, scared, weak, but not alive. He’d rather be dead right now.
Sorin began to hyperventilate, and before he knew it, he screamed into the skies.
/
The cave was cold, the fire Sorin had set up was slowly dying, nothing but hot bright orange coals left. Sorin was dying too.
He’d washed the blood off his face and hands, but didn’t know what to do about the burns. All the bandages or medical supplies were burned in the outpost, and he was not going to risk using any of the bloody shirts to cover it, the wound would definitely get infected. All Sorin could do was lie there on the ground and wait for death.
He hadn’t eaten, or hunted, or anything. He felt as if he had no energy, even so, he wasn’t sure what could’ve happened to the kingdoms, or where he was. The outpost had been more distanced from other civilizations in hopes it would be safer.
Clearly, it wasn’t.
Sorin heard footsteps outside the cave, and he assumed this was it. They slowly entered the cave, and began to pick up once they were near Sorin. Instead of a brutal attack, Sorin felt someone lift him up and look him over for any more injuries besides the burn. They looked uninfected. Another yellow steve.
“Hey, hey- Hang on okay, I’m gonna bring you somewhere safe!-” He said as he lifted Sorin up. Before Sorin could answer, white lightning enveloped the two.
×××
Sorin let his memories drift off from there, he knew the rest. That’s how he met Copper. He remembered it so gently, it was a good memory. Good as it could be, as supposed. Copper didn’t force him to talk, never did, he took his time and for a while, made Sorin forget.
That wasn’t all Copper’s fault though, Sorin spent a long time trying to forget the events of that day until now. It all felt so fresh in his head, the horrible smell of smoke, the warmth of his burns and the outpost. Sorin didn’t try to wonder why he remembered where it was so much. No, he knew why, he also subconsciously visited there. He told himself it was just a pretty spot, which it was without the debris.
He hadn’t even yelled out for his father, didn’t even cry. During everything that happened, it’d been his last priority. He couldn’t even remember his name, his face. He should’ve been faster, should’ve just stayed calm and not spiral, should’ve been better, should’ve done something-
It didn’t matter. It did. It didn’t. It didn’t?
No, he was going to fix everything. Sorin finally got up from his spot on the floor and shoved the necklace and hoodie into the back of his closet. Anger filled his veins now as he remembered Sabre’s words, the full meaning. Why didn’t he prevent that? Why didn’t he stop himself from killing his own brother? His father? Sabre was awake, he was aware, Sorin fucking saw that. So why didn’t he do anything about it?
Sorin shut the closet door with a slam. He didn’t want to kill anybody, but he felt red hot anger throughout his body and it was boiling hot in his blood.
He was going to fix everything.
•
SUMMARY: Sorin remembers what happened to his family. While Sabre was corrupted, he killed his brother and father. It also happened when Sabre temporarily broke out of the corruption, and due to extra manipulation (?) by Sabre while corrupted, Sorin believes Sabre let them both die or didn't care about their lives.
Anyways, hope y'all enjoyed!! haha this one was angsty