19th Century
Almyra woke to the sound of distant clapping. Sitting up and rubbing her eyes, she maneuvered her legs off the side of the bed as she stood and walked to the entrance of the tent.
"Why is he laughing?" She whispered to herself as she slowly peeked outside of the tent, looking around for him.
Still hearing him, but not seeing him anywhere, she took a step outside and began to follow the sound of his voice. As she got closer, his voice became louder and more clear.
She slowly looked around and realized that they were in the middle of the camp where the pile of bodies laid. She quickly hid behind a tree as she stopped to listen to him.
"…could see your face. That's usually my favorite part. I really should've planned this out better, but oh well. There's always next time." Confused, Almyra peeked around the tree once more, watching William's back as he was looking up at Kian's body on the top of the pile.
"Well, now it's time for me to figure out how I'm going to kill her since I have no use for her anymore." Almyra gasped, quickly covering her mouth.
Stumbling back, she trips over a stump poking out of the ground and nearly falls into a small bush at the base of the tree.
"Shit" she swore under her breath, hoping he didn't see her. She quickly pushed herself up onto her hands and knees, crawling past the nearest tent.
When she felt she was no longer in eyeshot, she took a deep breath, standing to her feet and darted back to her tent.
"Holy. Fuck." was all she managed to say as she jumped back into bed and curled up into her blanket.
Trying to calm herself, she closed her eyes and took multiple long, deep breaths.
She quickly pretends to be asleep as she hears William nearing the tent. As he enters, a small sigh escapes him as she feels him watching her. He quietly leaves as she hears his footsteps fade away.
Once she no longer heard him, she lets out a breath she didn't realize she was holding and relaxed. Opening her eyes, she stared at the top of her tent, zoned out. Her head was pounding as she thought about what just happened. What the fuck.
The throbbing pain in her head intensifies as she throws her hand up to put pressure on the spot it hurts the most. Squeezing her eyes shut, she whimpered softly, wishing the pain would stop, but suddenly an image flashed through her mind.
"What th-.." She started to say as another image went through her mind.
* Flash back *
"... you are the only one left." William's arm dropped from her shoulder and then he disappeared.
***
As the pain subsided, Almyra pushed herself up from the bed, placing her feet on the ground.
"Ugh, I need water." She croaked, standing and stretching her arms above her head before walking to the table at the edge of the tent and pouring herself a glass of water.
Taking a sip, she started to think more about what she just saw, trying to understand what it was, why William was saying that to her, and why she couldn't remember more. She needed answers.
Downing the whole glass, she sets it back on the table and picks up her journal. She walks back to the bed and sits down, flipping through the pages until she finds the list of people. She stops for a moment and tries to think back to that day.
"Why can't I remember? There has to be something else. There has to be, but what is it?" Almyra sighs, staring hard at the names in front of her.
"All of this goes back to William. I just don't know why or how. We were all so close. There's no way he could've killed him, but he did just say he wanted to kill me, so maybe he did? I don't know." She throws her journal and falls back onto her bed, staring at the top of the tent.
"How did this go so poorly?" She sighs.
William hastily barged into her tent and she shot up, quickly glancing at her journal that had landed open on a different page a few feet away from her.
"What went poorly?" He asked, walking over to the table and pouring himself a glass of water. She takes the opportunity while he's facing away from her to swiftly grab the journal and place it under her pillow, just as William turned back around and chugged his water.
"Wow, I really needed that," he said, looking at the empty glass before setting it back on the table, turning to me once again, "So, what went poorly?"
I look up at him and shrug. "Oh, you know, just this whole situation. The war, everyone dying except for us. Kinda just wish it didn't happen this way, but what can we do now, you know?" She stands up, walking over to him and pulls him into a quick embrace. Pulling away she walks outside, William following close behind.
"I think we should start putting everything together to go back home. You can start packing your stuff, if you want. I'm going to go for a quick walk to clear my mind." She said, looking at him and giving him a small smile. He nods his head and turns around to walk back to his tent.
Once he was out of sight, she quickly walked back into her tent and grabbed her journal from under the pillow. She picks up her pants, sliding them on and stuffs the journal into the waist of her pants before pulling her shirt down over it.
She exits the tent and swiftly walks in the opposite direction of William. Walking behind the tents, she went along the tree line before stopping at the start of a trail. She thought back to the first time she was here, her blood began to boil, as it was the last day that Kian was alive.
Walking down the path, remembering the voices that were chasing her that night, nowhere to be seen, she took a deep breath, realizing that she was being chased by them.
The Unseen.
She continued down the trail until she made it to the small clearing by the creek. She sighed as she sat down by the water, resting her feet in the calm creek. Pulling out her journal, she flips through the pages trying to find the one it had landed on earlier, but a sketch on one of the pages catches her attention.
"When.." she examined the sketch, realizing it was of her sleeping on her side. Her right arm under her head as the other hand rested against her chest and a small signature at the bottom right of the sketch.
"Kian…" Almyra whispered to herself, caressing his signature, "When did you draw this?" She flips the page and is met with a note in his handwriting.
The note read:
"I hope you like my sketch. It was quite difficult to do since you move a lot in your sleep. You're currently passed out from drinking almost my entire bottle of whiskey. You really have a problem, but that's a topic for another day. We are going into the battlefield soon and you better lead us to victory so I can marry the prettiest girl I know.
And if I haven't told you yet, I love you and I always will.
Kian
P.S. Almyra, whatever you do, DO NOT trust William. He did this to me.
Quickly shutting the book, Almyra stares into the creek, thinking about everything she just found out.
"So this must've been drawn the first night at his house." She thought back to that night, smiling as a tear escaped down her cheek, "When did he write the postscript?" Trying to remember anything that involved William after that day, but nothing comes to mind until recently after Kian's death.
"Why does that seem so familiar?" Almyra says, thinking back to the day they were at training camp and they got into a small argument over William and Kian said he couldn't be trusted.
She lays back in the grass and stares up into the sky, taking deep breaths.
"What was he trying to tell me?" Almyra says, sitting up, watching as a few fish swim by her feet. Smiling, a memory of Kian and her at their private pond pops into her mind.
***
"Wanna bet that I can catch one?" Kian says, smiling, raising an eyebrow as he looks at me and then back at the fish.
"You can certainly try." I laugh, sitting down at the edge of the pond, placing my feet in the water, scaring the fish away from me.
"What do I get if I catch one?" He looks at me, smirking suggestively.
"If you catch one, you'll get dinner." I burst out laughing as he rolled his eyes in response, jumping into the water.
"Oh please tell me you're not trying to catch it with your hands?" I scoff, rolling my eyes and smiling at him.
"That's exactly what I'm planning to do." He shouts, shoving his hands in the water and bringing them back up empty handed. I shake my head, smiling as I lay back in the grass. I close my eyes and enjoy the warmth of the sun on my skin.
"Aha! Gotcha!" I hear Kian shout excitedly, water splashing. I cover the sun with my hand as I look over at him, seeing him walking towards me with a giant fish in his hands extended out towards me. I roll my eyes, smiling as I sit up.
"So what type of fish are you eating tonight?" I ask as he comes closer to me.
"Umm, no idea," he rotated the fish around in his hands, examining it, "Trout, maybe? Bass? I don't know." He shrugs, smiling as he sits down next to me.
***
The sound of a branch snapping breaks Almyra out from her thoughts as she whips around, scanning the woods.
Seeing nothing, but feeling like she was being watched, she gets up and grabs her journal, shoving it back into the waist of her pants.
"I know you're there. Come out where I can see you." For a moment nothing happens and then out of nowhere rustling sounds come from a nearby bush before William pops out.
"William! What the fuck? You scared the shit out of me." Almyra says, relief flooding through her.
"My bad, I was looking around for you and I couldn't find you anywhere. So I just wandered around and found this path. I almost didn't see you until you stood up." William said, running a hand through his hair as he watched her.
"It's okay. I just thought you were something else for a moment." She laughs as he moves closer to her.
"What did you think I was? And when did you find this nice spot?" He asks, looking around at everything.
"Honestly, I thought you could've been a bear or something, but I'm glad you're not. I don't know what I'd do in that situation. And I found this spot after Kian's death. I wish I could've shown him this place." She sighs.
"Yeah, he would've loved this place. Too bad he's not here right now." He chuckles to himself and shakes his head, "Well, anyway, we should start heading out soon. The faster we leave, the faster everyone will know what happened here." He says, walking closer to her as she nods in response.
"Yeah, that's my bad. I got lost in thought." She says, smiling sheepishly.
"It's alright, it would be odd if you didn't." He says, pulling her into a hug. She slowly wraps her arms around him in an effort to keep him from knowing that she knows he can't be trusted.
"I wish things could go differently from here, but at the same time I like where this is going." William gives her one last squeeze before pulling out his knife and stabbing her in the back. Almyra gasps and writhes in his embrace, trying to escape his hold on her.
"William… Why?" She struggles to breathe as he takes the knife out and lets go, watching her fall to the ground.
"Why?" William chuckles, crouching down over her as she gasps for air.
"This whole thing started way before you can even remember. Well. You never remember and that's the problem, Almyra. If only we could talk about why you did the things you did to me, but we can't. Maybe one day, but that day is not today." William laughs as he begins to stab her multiple times, blood splattering everywhere as she screams in agony.
Pulling the knife out of her one last time, blood gushing from her wounds, he smiles at her as she laid there, nearly lifeless, looking at him.
"Why-.." she croaks, but unable to say more as William laughs sadistically.
"Why, why, why. Is there really nothing else you want to say? No? Well. This," he pointed to her," you can blame on Kian. Didn't he try to warn you? Or did you just ignore him and put more trust into me than you should've?" He chuckles and turns around, walking away from her.
"See you next time." He waved his hand without turning back to look at her and disappeared into the woods, leaving Almyra alone to bleed out. Tears streaming down the side of her face as she takes her last breath, her now lifeless body left by the creek.