"I'm so in love with you." Canton said, now laying next to Tristian on their bed.
Both of their chests were heaving.
Their heartbeats synchronized.
Their bodies bare.
Tristian turned his head sideways to look at Canton.
He looked at him in the eye.
He then moved closer to Canton and got on top of him.
He leaned in and kissed him slowly.
So slowly Canton thought he would melt.
"Same here." Tristian mumbled against Canton's lips.
Canton run his fingers through Tristian's hair, gently playing with them.
He gave him a very warm smile.
Tristian smiled back and started staring at him.
Canton stared back, feeling himself getting gradually lost in Tristian's eyes.
"I love your eyes" Tristian spoke up after a little while.
Canton scoffed amused, another smile forming on his lips. "You're saying that as if amber isn't the best colour to look at."
Tristian raised an eyebrow, playfully. "That's cause it actually isn't."
"It is to me." Canton didn't waste any time replying.
Tristian closed his eyes and pressed his forehead against Canton's. He then let out a low chuckle.
"What? I'm being very serious here." Canton said and wrapped his arms around Tristian's body, trying to bring him as close to him as possible. "Amber is the colour of the sun. It's warm. It's radiant. It gives you hope. It's the colour of happiness. I feel safe looking into your eyes. I feel like home." He mumbled.
ERROT
Oh no.
Oh no, this is not good.
I stared at Canton wide eyed and he seemed to copy my exact facial expression.
But his was murderous.
I, on the other hand, was completely terrified.
First of all, for going through the portal.
Secondly, for going through the portal with Canton.
And third of all, for going through the portal with an angry Canton.
Did I mention that there's a high possibility I'll end up dead here?
"I can explain." I bit my lip and tried not to flinch by his stare.
Canton grabbed me by the collar of my shirt with force, his face now really close to me.
I closed my eyes shut at that. "IJustTriedToPreventYouFromGoingInIDidn'tWantToEndUpHereDon'tHitMe"
"What made you think this would be a good idea? I already have myself to protect, I can't protect you too. Idiot. You're gonna die."
I slowly opened one of my eyes and the other followed right after.
He didn't look angry anymore.
Now he just looked.. scared.
"I'm sorry. I can just go back?"
Canton freed his grip on me.
He then closed his own eyes and took a breath.
"Yeah, you can." He said and opened his eyes. "Let me know when you find your way back."
I blinked.
And then frowned.
I turned my head back at where the portal was supposed to be.
There was no portal.
No machine.
There wasn't even a wall.
All I could see were trees.
Teal coloured sand.
Teal coloured waves.
It was now that I realised we were currently on an abandoned coast.
I turned my head back at Canton.
"We are trapped." I exclaimed.
Canton face palmed and then rubbed his palm against his forehead.
My eyes widened again. "Shit, we are trapped. Oh my god. Oh my god. How will I go back? How will we go back? We are trapped in an island with two people that would love to murder us. Wonderful. That's wonderful."
"This is exactly what you shouldn't be doing right now and why I didn't want you to come with me." Canton mumbled.
He took one of his knives and guns out and passed them to me.
I was more than happy to take them. I placed the gun on my pants and the knife remained stuck on my hand.
Canton raised an eyebrow at me. "Did you just put your gun inside your pants?"
I looked at him. "In case you didn't notice, your highness, I wasn't blessed with a backpack or robotic hands that can hold weapons."
"Leave my hands out of this. It's all your fault. I didn't even let Elvina come. Elvina. Who knows how to fight, knows how to protect herself and isn't freaking out about missing portals. Did I mention she's also an Ink? What will you do if one of them shows up in front of you with a gun? Cry? "
"I don't know, okay? I don't know. Can't you like do some magic and get us out of here?" I begged.
"This isn't how black magic works."
"Of course it's black! God forbids something could ever be white in this dimension. Black. Why is everything about you guys black? Couldn't you choose a happier colour? What's wrong with white? Was it taken?"
Canton stayed silent. He was just looking at me. Face blank.
"I don't know what I'm saying, I'm pretty sure I'm freaking out."
"I can see that."
Canton started moving ahead.
"Hey." I said and run to catch up to him.
"Where are you going?"
"To find the Lyttletons."
"Can't we just stay here? I like it. It's peaceful. No crazy monsters that want to kill us."
"I'm also a crazy monster that wants to kill them. I'm not sure why you are clinging on me right now."
"I'm not clin-" I said but stopped my sentence mid-way when I noticed my fingers gripping on his shoulder.
I let go of his shoulder and wrapped my arm around his own. "I'm not clinging on the thousand hundred year old king of criminals that knows how to perform a perfect murder and could potentially save my life, I don't know what you're talking about."
"I'm one thousand ninety-nine years old. Not a thousand hundred" Canton mumbled slightly annoyed and didn't brush my hand off his body.
"That ninety nine is useless. It should either be a hundred or it shouldn't exist at all" I said trying to spark a conversation so I can get my mind off reality.
Canton stopped walking and clicked his tongue, now fully annoyed. He glared at me, my arm still glued around his. "and who are you to say that my ninety-nine years are useless? Big words for an eighteen year old child."
"If I'm a child then you are an ancient grandpa. You couldn't be my great great great great grandfather, even if you tried. Not even the greatest of grandfather's."
Canton kept glaring at me but this time intensely, his eyebrows slightly furrowed, looking offended.
He pushed my arm -and me- away and started walking again, his steps meaner.
"Save yourself, then. The grandpa is having back problems."
I raised my eyebrows at him and kept following his lead.
"Did I just offend you?"
Canton remained silent.
"Oh my god, I just offended you." I paused. "And I'm still alive? That's progress."
Canton clenched his fist but remained silent once again.
"You know, you're not as scary as you look, anymore. Bet I could-"
Canton snapped his head at me and placed one of his knives against my throat.
"Errot, I really want to hurt you right now, stop defying me cause its triggering the curse and you won't like the outcome."
I stayed unmoving.
And uttered the next words out loud when I intended to keep them to myself.
"You're trying to hold yourself back." I mumbled in realisation.
Canton took a breath and pulled his knife away from my neck.
I couldn't help but notice that his bottom lip was slightly shaking.
I looked away and decided to keep my mouth shut for a while.
At least this whole thing managed to make me forget of my surroundings.
That was until Canton started following a path now inside the forest.
Inside the forest.
I gulped.
As much as I wanted to stop walking, the idea of being left alone was even scarier.
At least Canton will try to help if something happens.
Hopefully.
♛♛♛
It feels like we are walking for hours.
We might have been.
It's now night time and the stars are the only light we are left with.
My legs are shaking.
I feel like they're about to give up on me and let me collapse.
I glanced at Canton.
He looked like he was walking for only a minute, rested and energetic.
I internally groaned.
"I'm tired, your highness. Can we take a break? You know, for the rest of the night? It's already dark. We can kill those Teals during daylight. It'll be more satisfying too. Seeing their faces and all" I tried full of hope.
"It's okay, I can see in the dark."
"But I can't!"
"I've already told you, it's not my problem."
I opened my mouth to talk but then closed it.
I decided on a better idea.
I stopped walking and sat myself down on the ground.
I crossed my legs and arms and looked at him, my face serious.
Canton turned to look at me.
He examined me and raised an eyebrow.
"Thought you were my great great great grandson and I was the greatest of your grandpa's. Look how the tables turn."
I sighed. "I deserved that"
Canton rolled his eyes and sat down next to me, silent.
A few minutes passed by like that.
"Do you have any idea where we are?"
"No. But I know where we're heading at."
"Which is?"
"I saw this house up the hill. They probably live there."
"What if they sneak up on us while we're sleeping?"
"I'm not going to sleep" Canton mumbled.
"So, the last time you actually got any sleep was a few days ago for three hours in that library desk?"
"Yes."
"You're gonna exhaust yourself." I frowned.
"Look, Merlot. I already have one Elvina in my life to deal with. I certainly don't need two."
I didn't reply.
Cause he's right.
It's definitely not my place.
I started staring at the stars above us.
"When will you turn a thousand and hundred?" I asked out of plain curiousity.
"So you can satisfy your OCD?"
"Totally." I smirked.
Canton paused. "When will you turn nineteen?"
I opened my mouth to answer but he decided to interrupt me.
"Let me take a wild guess. February 22?"
My eyes widened and I felt the shivers down my spine.
"What the-" I paused and blinked. "Tristian?"
Canton took an extremely deep breath and then exhaled slowly.
"Shit. That boy should really stop copying me cause it's getting creepy."
"That boy was born thousands of years before you were even conceived."
"He doesn't even has a nice name. I mean, Tristian? Is this a joke?"
"Careful there, he might hear you and turn you into a robot." Bitter.
A small gasp escaped my lips, the shock making my body freeze. "Was- was Tristian the one that did this to you?"
Canton's jaw was clenched. He was looking away from me.
"I thought your dad-- how did he even--the person you were in love with tried to turn you into a robot?" The questions kept popping inside my head so fast, I needed to ask all of them.
"He worked with my father. Alastair actually hired him. He's a scientist. A scientist that makes robots out of humans. Out of alive humans. Or their organs. Dad thought it would be a brilliant idea to have him create an army out of robots."
"And you were in a relationship with a guy that wanted to transform you into one of his cyborgs?" I asked dumbfounded.
"I can hear the judgement in your voice, Merlot."
"Oh, right. My apologies. I should congratulate you, instead. Congratulations for being so incredibly dense, your highness."
Canton gave me one of his usual glares.
"I added your highness at the end of that sentence, stop giving me that look."
"This is the second time you're lecturing me, Merlot."
"Who's counting?"
"I am counting." He said coldly.
"Too bad for you then. I'm gonna keep lecturing you if you keep confessing to me other smart ways you fucked up your own life."
"And why do you care enough to lecture me about my bad life decisions?"
I opened my mouth to answer when I realised I had no idea what to say.
He turned to look at me directly in the eye.
I returned the stare, not knowing what else to do.
"You can't help who you fall in love with." He paused for only a second. "Love..makes you do crazy things"
I blinked at him.
I suddenly forgot what we were talking about.
My lips parted and I almost felt the need to gasp.
"You're-" I gulped. "You're doing it again."
Canton frowned just a bit, his eyes still glued on mine.
I'm unable to look away. "Stop" I said, feeling slightly breathless.
Canton blinked.
Twice.
He then tore his gaze off me.
I blinked as well and looked down.
"What you're doing...that thing with your eyes. That hypnotically magical eye spell or something..is not cool." I mumbled, feeling my cheeks adopting the colour of my blood dimension.
Canton then did something that I never thought I'd witness coming from him.
My eyes snapped at him as I heard him chuckle lowly next to me.
When he caught me staring at him like a deer before a car in the middle of the street, he immediately coughed and I watched as his expression turned from entertained to serious in only a second.
"No. Don't stop because of me..why did you stop?"
Canton stayed silent. He wasn't looking at me anymore.
"I was just..surprised, that's all." I suddenly felt small.
When he refused to speak again, I continued. "It's not a bad thing to laugh. It eases the pain a bit."
Canton rolled his eyes. "Laughing is like drugs. They give you temporary happiness and once their effect washes off, you're left off feeling worse than before."
"That's why you never laugh? Damn, I was starting to think I was losing my gift." I smirked a tiny bit.
Canton turned his head to the opposite side so he was off my eye sight and run a hand through his hair.
He then mumbled something under his breath.
I didn't quite get it.
"Sorry?"
He sighed and looked at me again. "I've never heard you laugh either." He mumbled again but this time it was at least audible.
"Well, that's because you never make any jokes. All you do is give orders, drink bourbon and threaten me with knives. In all honesty, bourbon isn't even that good."
Canton gaped at me. "Excuse me?"
"You heard me, king. It literally tastes like cold piss with alcohol."
"Because of course you'd know how cold piss with alcohol actually tastes like." He said and I can feel him getting all worked up.
"Yeah." I gave him a smirk. "Like bourbon."
Canton took a brief breath and I almost laughed at how he furrows his eyebrows every time he gets annoyed.
"Anything else to say while we are at it, today? I mean, I'm already an ancient alcoholic, non-laughing grandpa with terrible taste in drinks and life destruction issues. Please, continue."
I let a laugh out at that.
When I finished laughing, I looked at him and found him staring blankly at me.
"See how funny you can be when you're not trying to cut me in half?"
Canton stayed silent again.
He moved his eyes to the ground.
"It's never your intention to hurt me, is it. It's the curse." I mumbled, still not quite able to process that.
"It is my intention to hurt you every time you don't mind your own business" He said.
I ignored him. "You became a king a thousand years ago. You've been like..this for a thousand years. How do you..deal with this?" I asked still startled by the meaning behind his curse. "How did you deal with this?"
He stayed quiet for so long, I kind of lost hope he would ever reply.
But he eventually did. "I didn't. Deal with this. Yes, I desperately tried to find a solution to this. But I gave up quickly enough and actually spent five hundred years locked up in my room, freaking out and trying not to fall asleep. I used to keep myself awake for three weeks and then pass out. Then the curse would come and I would wake up. My eyes being open meant that I had to fulfill my duties as a king, even if I wouldn't leave my room. Guess who found joy in this? The second curse."
Now it was my turn to keep my mouth closed.
"Elvina noticed I was slowly losing it. She knew I was doing a terrible job at handling it. She convinced me to just face it. She said that by trying to avoid the curses, the only one that suffered was me..not them." He took a deep breath. "So, I faced it. I spent the next five hundred years trying...not to want to end it all every time I hurt someone. But hey, look at me now." He smirked humorlessly. "I'd make a toast to that but it seems that this island doesn't appreciate alcoholic piss as much as I do".
My jaw was clenched during his whole speech.
"Look at you now? Masking your guilt behind a cruel sneer or a stone cold face and getting hammered minutes later isn't called progress"
"Alright, Elvina"
"I'm not-"
"You know what?" He scoffed. "I don't even know why I'm telling you all that. You are my slave. That's what you are to me. You shouldn't even talk to me."
"I know why you're telling me all that."
I paused and looked at him. "Because no one was ever there to listen. I mean, Elvina knows what she's seen with her own eyes but I highly doubt you've ever uttered a word more than that. You're afraid. You're afr-"
Canton got up forcefully and took a few steps forward, his back now on me. "I'm gonna continue." He said coolly and started walking ahead.
My eyes slightly widened and I was immediately up and off the ground, following his every step.
And if sometimes, just sometimes, I was softly grabbing at his cloak for safety, he never said anything.
♛♛♛
"Are we almost there?" I groaned.
"Yes." He replied dryly.
"You said the same thing a minute ago." I pouted.
"Well, you asked me the same question a minute ago."
I sighed audibly.
I looked at his back.
"Canton."
"It's king Canton." He mumbled through gritted teeth.
"King Canton"
"Yes, love?"
"Are we almost there?"
"Errot, I'm running out of threats to throw your way"
"You called me Errot" I smirked.
"Errot--" he started.
"Ha! You did it again."
He turned around and slapped me softly at the back of my head.
"We're here, dumbass." He said coolly.
Shit.
I suddenly froze in place.
"I..." I gulped. "I don't wanna get in there" I said while taking the gun out of my pants and loading it.
"Alright then stay."
He started walking towards the door.
Well, I assume it was the door since I can't even see my own fingers.
My eyes widened and I run to him, grabbing at his arm again.
"You must be joking. There's no way I'm-"
"Sh." He said and turned the knob of the possibly wooden door.
It opened with ease.
This is not good.
I think I'm turning pale.
We walked inside, me basically attached to his hip.
Canton searched the room with his eyes and then opened the lights.
And my heart missed a beat or two.
The house...
Was empty.
It didn't look abandoned though.
It was very clear someone lives here.
There were random stuff scattered around.
I saw two mugs on the kitchen counter.
There was also a blanket on the couch, next to us.
Both of our guns were aimed high and we were ready for anything unpleasant.
But nothing came.
"It's a trap" I whispered to him.
Canton took the first steps.
He was walking slowly, always in alert of his surroundings.
I followed close, my hand trembling around the gun.
Canton kicked the door to a room open, ready to press the trigger.
He frowned and walked a bit further inside. He opened the lights to this room too.
But no one was there.
Canton run a frustrated hand through his hair and started cussing.
I took a good look at the room and saw random clothes on the floor.
I couldn't help but notice how the bed was also unmade.
I walked to the bathroom and found it empty too.
I glanced at Canton who was now throwing things on the floor with force.
"Your hig-"
"They're gone! They left. They fucking left!"
"King C--"
"I will never find them now. I will never- the curses will never break! Do you understand, Errot? I'm doomed. I'm doomed for life. I'm doomed." He now started talking more to himself than to me.
His hoodie was off and his fingers were holding his hair back, revealing his forehead.
He was tugging so hard at them, I thought he would rip them off.
"You need to calm down." I said as calmly as I could.
"How can I calm down?!" He took a few steps closer to me, now the distance between us disappearing. "I'm now cursed forever. This was my only chance and I blew it." His tone was now less intense. "I blew it." He took a deep breath. "I blew it. They're gone. They're gone." He was looking at his side now, his eyes widened. "They're gone." He whispered and took another breath.
I don't think there are words that can comfort this person right now.
This person who just lost all his hope.
His life just crumbled down in pieces.
It was too late. He came here too late.
And there's nothing else he can do.
No other choice.
He can only suffer.
"Canton" I whispered back.
But he didn't react.
He looked like a statue.
I hesitantly placed my hands on his shoulders, fearing of what he could might do.
He didn't move.
I then wrapped them around his waist as carefully as I could.
He placed his weight on me, his body giving up and melting into my arms.
I'm not sure he understands what's going on and I don't think I do either.
I obviously couldn't hold him up by myself so I slowly lowered us down on our knees.
I heard him trying to breathe but it sounded like the task alone was exhausting him.
"Nothing ends here. Okay?"
Canton started trembling.
I held him tighter at that.
His whole body was shaking uncontrollably.
"Hey, you will find them. You will find them." I said but it literally felt pointless.
It even felt pointless to me as well.
So, I just held him there for as long as he needed to.
I had the need to reassure him.
To show him that he wasn't alone.
It's okay if he hated me for hugging him the next morning.
And it's okay if I hated myself for doing that, too.
Because he wasn't the wicked king this time.
He was just Canton.
♛♛♛
T
he morning sunlight found Canton and I on the floor.
I must have fallen asleep.
The last thing I remember is me comforting him and Canton never moving away from my arms.
But right now he was sitting with his knees pressed against his chest and his back on the wall.
His head was buried on his legs and I had to watch his chest rise and fall to make sure he was still breathing.
I rubbed at my eyes sleepily and then joined him against the wall.
I decided not to speak.
I would only make things worse.
So I started staring out the window of this wooden house.
It felt different today.
Warmer.
I tried to enjoy the nice weather as much as I could before returning to Ink Blood.
Which reminds me.
I have literally no idea on how to do that.
And the worst part is that Canton doesn't know either.
I told myself not to panic.
It was the last thing he needed at this very moment.
Just as I convinced myself to stay calm, we heard a noise from outside.
Both Canton and I shot up from the floor, our guns aimed straight at the door.
My heart was ready to burst out of my chest any second now.
I was ready to shed all the tears Canton saved from last night in just a second.
My head was pounding.
I felt my insides getting lit on fire.
I threw a quick glance at Canton, his expression blank and his grip steady.
I forced myself to look back at the door.
My finger was sitting on the trigger.
I was ready.
I knew it would take more than just a bullet to kill them but I was ready.
The door suddenly opened.
Just as was about to fire the gun, an old lady appeared before us.
She was human.
A human in Riverland.
I lowered my gun and looked at Canton, whose face screamed disappointment, despair.
I wonder how many more surprises this island has in store for us.
♛