The ache came like a shockwave, coursing through Lucius' body as his vision faded. His limbs were stiff like a dead man's and all sounds drowned in the void he'd entered, but his mind was in full process of remembering the pain and humiliation he'd endured throughout his life, as well as his regrets.
He remembered the nights where all he dared to do was let Seth unleash his frustration in silence.
I should have told someone.
He remembered the slaps delivered by his father, and his mother's harsh words. The choice they'd made for him that had caused the rest of his tormented life to begin with.
I should have stayed. Made them pay in some other way.
The familiar discomfort of hunger, cold and shame associated with his years at the Hydrina theatre filled him. His last glimpses of Claudia and Mabel before they met their demise. The corpses of the other Hydrina inhabitants being thrown into the Siren's maw. The dead gazes of the girls as he'd buried them.
I was too late. I should have helped them sooner.
A warm, sticky sensation bled through his shirt as he felt the touch of Phil in his arms, light in his eyes going out before he could finish his sentence.
He should have overthrown Ravi before he could lead them into that death trap. He should have seen Adrian's betrayal coming. He'd been too naive. Too smitten. He should have taken care of Vaughan before he could attempt his revenge. Before he could shoot Anthony.
Anthony.
Conflicted emotions stabbed at him, and despite his paralyzed state, he managed to curl up and rest his forehead against his knees.
I shouldn't have gotten involved. He even tried to push me away.
No, I would have gotten nowhere without him. I'd been lost.
But he made me forget my real goals.
But I don't want my goals without him.
He should have left. He should have followed him.
More visions flashed before him. The cramped sewer tunnels where the garm almost tore him apart. The sharp glass as he climbed through the window to escape the natbakka. Derek's boot crushing his head, and the searing pain in his shoulders.
But they didn't matter anymore. His regrets stayed with the memories of Anthony.
Finally, the piercing redness of Catherine's presence reached his eyes, and he was snapped out of his trance.
She took it.
Was that why he couldn't move? He couldn't see. All he could hear were his own thoughts.
My...
He wanted to raise a hand to his throat, trying to feel if the necklace was really gone.
It's the same, over and over.
His thoughts were different. They were distorted, and Lucius could guess the cause of it.
Wrinkleface?
Why did you insist on ignoring me? Look at everything that's happened. All because of your own little idealistic goals that you couldn't even reach.
Lucius could discern something in front of him. A shape taking form. It didn't quite look like the Scourge's usual appearance, but he was certain it was supposed to be. Its face wasn't quite so wrinkled anymore, but in all honesty it was hard to tell. It had so many features. Eyes shifted like crawling worms on its usually blank skin. Mouths opened only to close and appear in other places. Sometimes they aligned to form a face, but the next moment they had changed again.
What... Is that?
My former appearance was not well received, so I decided on a more pleasant approach.
I can tell you right now, I'm not receiving this well either.
These are all traits I've borrowed from earlier game. Humans like you, who sold their souls for power. Vain, corrupted souls who only focused on shallow pleasures. What better creatures to represent me?
Lucius was disgusted, but too concerned with his surroundings to let it show. Instead he decided to dismiss the obvious mind-fuck.
I'm still going to call you Wrinkleface, you know.
And I wish you wouldn't, though I'm sure you will change your mind sooner or later. We will be spending a lot of time together, after all.
A knot formed in Lucius' stomach, and he closed his eyes to be rid of the Scourge's grotesque form.
So that's it? Did I just crumble to dust? Or was I physically dragged into some nightmarish hole?
The parts crawling about on the Scourge's head came to a halt, and the creature raised a hand to hold Lucius' cheek.
While that red lady knows much more than she should, it seems she's forgotten some things.
Before Lucius could ask more, he felt moss under his hands. Cold, soft moss supporting his body, and while the night sky was deep blue his eyes still stung by the sudden lack of void.
"Curious," Catherine said as she stepped away from him, placing the necklace in one of her pockets. "And I was so certain you'd be dead."
"So was I," Lucius said before his mind could process that he wasn't. Not that he was complaining, but why wasn't he?
He didn't linger on it for long. As his neck was free of its protective charm everything came rushing back. All repressed emotions flooded forward and his breath choked as he remembered his conversation with Anthony.
"No," he whispered before stumbling to his feet, dismissing Catherine's presence entirely. "What the Waste was I thinking?"
He'd pushed him away, like a scourgefucking idiot. Why would the town matter more to him than Anthony? Why would he have blown up a building full of people for him if he didn't matter more than that?
The path leading out of the graveyard was a blur. For a brief moment his gaze was drawn to further away to spot the blight cat's striped tail disappearing between the gravestones, but he ignored it. He barely paid attention to his steps even as he began running down the misty cobblestone streets. He had to find him. Apologise to him.
A sharp pain in his chest caused him to falter. The usual, crawling feeling welled up inside him followed by a throbbing headache.
He changed his mind. He had let Anthony go for a reason. No matter what he'd come to feel recently, he'd chosen the town from the beginning. Everything that had happened with the Hargreaves family had only hurt him and held him back.
The aching grew as Lucius shook his head, trying to force the thoughts away. That was not what he wanted to think. It was something else. Some corrupt, forced reasoning that did not belong in his head.
Yet it hurt to push them back. A burning sensation bloomed from the veins in his chest as if they were trying to physically stop him from running further, all while his head spun with contradictory opinions.
"Stop it," Lucius hissed to whatever part of his mind wanted him to turn back, but it only caused the pain to weigh him down. Walking became increasingly difficult and it didn't take long before he was staggering forward, desperately trying to find his way to Anthony's house before he'd succumb to the torture.
It wasn't worth it. They couldn't be together anyway. Damien would make sure of that.
The cursed, black spot seared his skin, spreading its web further into his body to slow him down, gripping around his limbs and preventing them from moving.
"I'm not staying in this town without him," he growled through shallow gasps, turning into a narrow alley to avoid a couple seemingly on a midnight stroll. His knees wobbled, begging for him to stop, but he pushed forward. He just needed to get there. He'd tell him everything. Anthony would help him.
As if he'd stay after hearing about all that. Anthony seemed to accept many things, but who wouldn't draw the line at a Scourge pact? If Lucius told him, he'd only expose him for what he was.
No, that was not true. Anthony accepted his brother. An unholy being that the sanctuary would shun just as much -if not more- as Lucius.
But Ethan never had a choice. He hadn't been in control of his fate like Lucius. Unhallowed or not, there was no reason for Anthony to reject him.
Lucius finally fell to his knees, gasping for air as the veins spread over his throat and up towards his jaws. He couldn't stay there. He couldn't rest. What if someone saw him?
"Please," his trembling voice finally uttered through a whimper. "Let go of me. I need to—"
"There you are, Lucius!"
Lucius couldn't place the voice. It was familiar yet he had no clear image of the owner, but somehow he knew it was wrong. Something was deeply wrong about that voice.
"We've been looking for you everywhere," the voice continued, and as Lucius squinted through the mist at the figure running towards him, his heart came to a stop.
"No." His voice was barely a whisper as he tried to crawl backwards to little avail. "No, you're— You're not..."
"Alive?" a pale, emaciated Mabel guessed with an eerie, crooked grin. "I know. I shouldn't be, but I am!"
Lucius shook his head. His eyes darted across her appearance, unwilling to accept the bluish paleness of her skin and the sunken sockets around bloodshot eyes. It proved too much for him. If his body hadn't already been about to fail him he would have retched by the mere smell emitting from her, but even his reflexes seemed to have shut down.
He didn't even mind as his body finally submitted to the cold stones underneath him. His eyes were, though blurry, fixated on what had until recently been his very dead friend.
My very dead, missing friend.
"Lucius? What's wrong?" Mabel leaned over to look at him closer, and a barely noticed chill ran through Lucius at the sight.
Someone else was there, he then realised, and Mabel turned her head to address them.
"Something's wrong with him," she complained. "We should get him out of here now."
"No," the other presence said, to Lucius' further horror. "I hear people approaching. We can't take him with us now."
"W—Why... Are..." Lucius croaked, finally giving in to the soothing dark of unconsciousness as Seth looked down at him with a frown.
"We'll come back another time."