19th Century
Arthur Johnson
Fred Miller
John Davis
William Spencer
Lloyd Sanford
Jack Smith
Robert Brown
"Shit," Almyra cursed as she looked at the time. She had spent less than half an hour trying to come up with names and only managed to think of seven people that had interacted with Kian yesterday. Not caring who they are or what their relationship to Kian is, they're now suspects.
Almyra groaned as she rose from her bed and threw her journal back into the trunk, covering it with one of her blankets. She hasn't been gone long, but knowing Kian wasn't going to make it, made her want to get back to the medical tent as fast as she could. She wanted to at least be able to tell him goodbye.
The closer she got to the tent, the more anxious she became. Taking a deep breath, Almyra walks in and instantly locks her eyes on Kian. She walks straight towards him and her heart sinks the longer she watches him lay there, helpless and struggling to breathe.
"Miss, we took some blood and tested it for poison." Almyra turns and looks at the nurse, her brown hair pulled back in a low bun with a white cap.
"Did you get any results?" Alymra asks as her anxiety starts to kick in. She turns to look at Kian, his face ghostly pale. She rests her hand on his arm, noticing how cold he is.
"Kian Blackwell was poisoned with arsenic." Almyra's grip tightened on his arm causing Kian's eyes to open.
"M-more blood letting, are w-we?" Kian tries to joke, but he starts to cough. Another nurse hurried over with a pale just in time as he started throwing up.
"He doesn't have long," she whispered to Almyra as she walked out of the tent. The other nurse quietly gathered the pale and followed her out, leaving Almyra and Kian alone.
"Did you know?" Almyra questioned
"Know about what?" Kian croaked.
"That you were poisoned with arsenic. I mean, who would've been stupid enough to poison you, Kian?" Almyra crouched down beside him, becoming frustrated and angry.
"As soon as I find out who did this to you, I swear to fucking God." Almyra stares off thinking about all the ways she'll kill them.
"Almyra, p-please-" Kian chokes out as he starts to cough slightly.
"Everything Will-" Kian takes a deep breath then starts violently coughing, covering his mouth with his fist.
"How can you even begin to say that? You're coughing up blood, Kian." Almyra scoffs and shakes her head as he wipes the blood off onto his blanket.
"I- my f-fault. Shouldn't have d-done.." She shook her head.
"No, why would it be your fault?" Almyra asks as she looks into his eyes as something flashed in them. Kian's eyes close and his arm falls to his side, barely missing the cot and hitting the dirt.
"Kian? Kian!" Almyra cries, looking around for a nurse as she grabs his cold hand. This can not be happening, I need more time.
A nurse rushes in and sees Almyra sobbing on her knees, hunched over Kian's body. Another nurse walks in after her. They say a small prayer and then they start to get everything ready so they can remove his body from the tent.
Almyra had her face buried deep into Kian's shoulder, when William wandered into the tent. He saw Almyra and quietly walked towards her. The closer he got to her, the louder her sobs became. Before he was noticed, he saw her sit up and wipe the tears from her now red, tear stained face.
"How could you, Kian? You weren't supposed to die now. Especially without telling me how this could possibly be your fault? Why di-"
Almyra sobbed, choking back tears. William walks over and lays a hand on her shoulder. Startled, she jerks away to see his empathetic eyes watching her.
"Oh, sorry." She stood up straight and quickly wiped her face again with the back of her hand, her facial expression immediately becoming neutral.
"It seems that... Kian is dead." Almyra states, emotionless. She kept her eyes forward as she trudged out of the tent. After she was gone, William sauntered over to Kian's lifeless body, shaking his head.
"Ah poor Kian, who could've imagined you would actually drink that shit." William smirked as he patted Kian's shoulder. He heard someone barge into the tent, breathing hard. He turned around to see Benny at the entrance.
"You have to come quick. Someone pissed off Almyra and it looks like she's going to kill him. Hurry!" Benny quickly darted back outside, William slowly trailing behind. He took one last glance at Kian, basking in his defeat, before exiting the tent.
When he walks outside, he instantly hears distant chanting and sees a group of soldiers gathered around what he can only assume is Almyra and the soldier who pissed her off. As he got closer, he heard, "Kill him! Kill him!" Such a stupid chant, he thought.
William starts to force himself through the crowd yelling, "Move! Get out of my way!" When he gets to the center, he sees Almyra leaning over Thomas as he lays on the ground with her foot on his throat.
William stands there for a moment, looking at the scene in front of him and wondering if he should intervene. He decides to stop her and starts to walk slowly towards Almyra.
"Almyra…" he continued to walk towards her with his hands raised out before him.
"You need to calm down… I know, you're a little stressed right now, but that doesn't mean that Thomas should suffer for it. Even if he does deserve it, you're better than this." Almyra sighs and takes her foot off Thomas' throat. He quickly scrambled to his feet, gasping for air as he scurried away. Almyra watches as he runs away, she looks back at William and then to her feet and quickly runs towards her tent.
William tries to make it through the crowd after her, but once they had cleared out, he could no longer see her and which way she had gone.
Almyra decided to take a detour into the woods to be alone for a while. She knew she should be trying to figure out how to end this war, but without Kian, things would be difficult. He was the one who helped her produce better thought out solutions to her plans. She just needed a break from the world at the moment.
Almyra notices a small clearing between the trees and curiously walks over to it. As she draws closer to the clearing, she hears the sound of rushing water. She walks towards the sound and sees a small creek, smiling sadly as she goes and sits by it.
Almyra lays back and looks up towards the moon. No clouds in the sky, just a perfect view of the full moon and stars, it was breathtaking. She sighs, thinking about Kian and how he would absolutely love this view.
When they were younger, they had a secret hide out a few miles away from home that no one else knew about. This place could've been the same. Getting frustrated at the thought, Almyra sits up and screams.
The sudden sound of a branch breaking not too far behind her, causes her to stand up and face the dark woods.