19th Century
William quickly hid behind the tents, waiting to catch a glimpse of Almyra's reaction to all his hard work. She was so distraught, she didn't even notice he was there as she went past him and into her tent. He paced back and forth, smiling to himself as he tried to come up with an idea to make her think he escaped.
He ran to the tents closest to the trees and hid behind them before he began to jog in place, becoming all sweaty before picking up a knife and slicing a deep cut into his arm. Blood poured from the wound and to make it seem like he fought his way out, he started smearing it onto his face and all over his body as quickly as he could before it healed.
"Show time." He whispered to himself, preparing for the best performance of his life. He darted off, running with the most dramatic limp imaginable while yelling and tripping over every other step.
"Hello? Hello?! Please! There's got to be someone out there!" He cried out as he edged closer to her tent.
"Someone, please! Answer me! Hello?!" He hobbled in front of her tent and was getting ready to yell again, but then she barged out of her tent and looked around confused until she rested her eyes upon him, looking at his bloody body up and down, simultaneously becoming mortified.
"Oh my god, William! Are you alright? What happened to you?" She quickly ran over to him as he weakly fell to his knees. She grabbed his face and forced him to look at her as she checked him out to see where he was hurt.
"I'm fine, Almyra, I promise. I managed to escape and I ran into the woods to hide. It seemed like they were nowhere and everywhere all at once. What were those things?" he said hastily, his hands moving up to grab hers and gently remove them from his face.
"Uh, those were the Unseen. They move really fast and heal quickly." She said while standing, holding out a hand to him to help him onto his feet. His legs shake as he struggles to stand.
"You mean, you knew about us fighting them this whole time and didn't care to tell anyone that they were going to die?" He scoffed, cocking his head to the side.
She sighed, "William, you know no one would have fought them if they knew. I just had to give them something. A sliver of hope, anything so they wouldn't be as miserable as I am..."
"You really think you did this for us? We stood by your side and fought with you while you kept the biggest secret from us all. The one thing that if we had known, might've saved more lives than just ours." He looked down at her, disappointment written all over his face.
"I tried! I tried so damn hard not to fuck this up for anyone, but I did just that. Actually, no! You did just that when you decided to play both sides of this war! How could you blame this on me after everything that's happened? And for what? Kian is laying on top of a pile of dead bodies and everyone that was innocent had been murdered." She said, looking down with defeat in her tone.
"I was trying to help our side, not theirs! But it didn't work out as I had planned. I'm sorry, Almyra." He insisted, lifting her chin up, looking into her eyes.
She looked away, "No, that's not right." She took a few steps back leaving his hand lingering in the air before he let it drop down to his side.
"What do you mean? Do you not believe me?" He said, moving forward and grabbing her chin again with his hand, making her look directly into his eyes.
"Why should I trust you after everything? From my perspective, it looks like you betrayed us." She said while pulling away, crossing her arms in anger. William had no words, just a shaky sigh.
"Almyra, please.." he pleaded. "You've shown me the same trust you showed towards Kian. Or you use to at least…" he cupped her face with his hands, staring at her with the same determination and hope she once saw in Kians eyes. Her features softened, remembering the bond she shared with them both.
With a hesitant chuckle, and deep sigh, "I guess I have a little more trust in you than I thought. Sorry for the accusations but with everything that has happened…" she sighed, turning around.
"It's just hard to know who to believe in anymore." Sighing with relief, he wrapped his arms around her from behind, hugging her, pulling the pieces back together of his carefully constructed lie.
"It's alright. I know how it must've looked, but I promise I was only trying to help." He whispered in her ear. She sighed, leaning back into him and his words of relief.
Taking in a few minutes of calm, she finally pulled away. Striding towards her tent, calling behind, "Come on, we need to figure out our next move." Hesitant, yet determined, William began following in stride behind her.
Noting with a sideways glance one of his underlings, hidden from view, now appears beside a tree.
"I think I need a few minutes of fresh air, I'll be there in a little bit." he called out to Almyra, excusing himself with supernatural speed as he darted towards the tree and the waiting underling.
"Kit! I told you to stay hidden. What if she saw you?" he said as he tried not to smile.
"Sir, I know you are enjoying this, but we need to hurry along before we're caught and someone discovers what we've done!" Kit said, surveying the area, letting his gaze land upon him once again.
"WE haven't done anything." William waved between them. "I am one of the lone survivors in this army here, which means I need to stay with Almyra, but you guys need to get moving. You better not come to me again unless there's a real problem. I'll be in touch." he said, patting his shoulder as Kit nodded.
"Understood, sir." Kit scurried off as William darts back to her tent, smoothing out his outfit before taking a step inside.
"About damn time. I almost came out there to see if you were still alive!" Almyra chuckled.
"My bad, I must've lost track of time trying to piece together what happened back there." William said, walking over to stand before her as she sits on the cot flipping through her journal. She stops on a page that looks like a list of names.
"What's that?" He pondered as she met his gaze, resting her hands on top of the book.
"This list is of people I thought could have had something to do with Kian's death, or people who could help me put together what happened the day he died." she said, holding the journal up for him to see.
"Why is my name there?" he said, trying not to show how anxious he was.
"You interacted with him on the day he died, right?"
"I mean, yeah, but that doesn't mean I had something to do with what happened."
"I never said you did. I just said you interacted with him in some way on the day he died. Why are you acting so jittery all of a sudden?" she inquired, standing up from the cot, locking eyes with him.
"I'm not acting jittery, I was just stating that-." he scoffed, looking away. After a quick moment he sighed, turning back to her, "I was just saying that I have no reason to be on that list. You know I didn't kill Kian, he was one of my best friends." he said, pulling her into his embrace. She hesitated before wrapping her arms around his waist.
"I know, I'm sorry. I know how you must feel about all of this and I'm not, by any means, trying to make this harder on you. I was just a little shocked at first, but I understand." she nodded as she squeezed him tighter and started to cry into his shoulder. He stroked her hair in an effort to soothe her, causing her to bury herself deeper into him.
"It's okay. You'll see each other again one day." he said smiling, holding back a chuckle.