"TAKE COVERRRRR!"
Screamed a man
I don't understand what's happening.
everybody's running in a panic, the men went to protect the women and the women went to protect the children. arrows fell from the sky with dancing light glowing from the tips, melting the snow from the top of the huts while also piercing holes in em.
"Stop spacing out!" Helga jerked my arm to the side, pulling me as we started running.
[DINNNNNNG! DINNNNG! DINNNNG!]
Bells started to go off, the ringing so loud I could've swore the insides of my body were shaking along with it….what is happening?
"Duck!" Helga pushed my face into the snow, it's cold embrace spread throughout my head to my toes. Arrows landed all over but not hitting us.
Helga got back up to run but I just laid there, I didn't want to get up.
"What are you doing?!" She screamed at me, still dragging me along.
She's right… what am I doing? Well it doesn't matter, it's all a dream anywa—
"GAHHHHHHH!!"
An arrow pierced right through Dusk' left shoulder, the pain snapped him back reality.
"Get up you fool!"
Helga kept shouting at the boy as he struggled to lift himself off the ground, his hands gripping the snow, the pain of the arrow almost paralyzing.
"Why?"
The boy thought to himself.
"We were just happy."
He simply sat back in a daze, watching the scene before him play out.
The huts which were once full of people partying with their bodies and faces full of joy and bustling with life, now burned to embers and only souless corpses remaining within.
"What in the fuck is he doing?!"
She shouted aloud.
She stopped right in her tracks and turned around full sprint to retrieve dusk as he sat there.
[Szvooom!]
"Shit!"
An arrow blew past Helgas face cutting the upper side of her right cheek, nonetheless she kept moving foward, getting closer and closer to dusk.
"Hey can ya hear me!"
She screamed, finally catching the boys attention.
"H-Helga?"
The boy looked behind him, everything seemed so slow, the snow touching the ground, the embers which melted within it and even the screams which filled the air.
The boy was now sure what he was witnessing, an abundance of emotions swirled in his chest but one specific had started to change his world view, an emotion he never had the luxury to feel before but right now he had enough time to process it all.
What was the feeling you might ask?
𝕀𝕥 𝕨𝕒𝕤 𝕙𝕒𝕥𝕣𝕖𝕕.
Dusk quickly snapped back to reality
"HELGA!"
The boy promptly rose from his knees and starting running at full speed towards Helga, the flaming arrows not letting up.
"Cmon you fool!"
She held her hand out as the dusk quickly closed the distance, both running to entrance of the forest where they would be out of sight.
"Are you ok?!"
Dusk asked as he finally got ahold of the girls hand, seeing the cut on her face he became concerned
"It's fine, run now talk later!"
The two appraoched the edge of a cliff, the distance of the fall was not small, but still manageable. They gritted their teeth and prepared to jump.
"Stop right there you brats!"
A random man in attire dusk had never seen before shouted while in persuit of the two.
"Who—
"Vandals!" Helga yelled, answering dusk question before he could fully ask it but only partially as he had no idea about the different clans.
The man started nearing in, inch by inch.
before they could fully assess the situation they already reached the edge of the cliff.
"Fuck, Just jump!"
Dusk and Helga leaped off and the vandal followed.
"Where do ya think you're going?!" The man exclaimed, his dagger unsheathed.
He grabbed at the children and was able to get ahold of dusk.
"Get off me you f—
The man slammed the dagger into the boys side causing the boy to let go off helgas hand. He started writhing in pain, twisting and turning in agony. Him and the vandal getting scratched and cut by tree branches as they fell.
"NO!" Helga screamed, trying to grab dusk once more but he was already out of reach.
The man put his forearm on dusk' throat and pulled the dagger out of his side right as they made impact. The moment they hit the ground dusk' neck snapped.
"That's one little fishy down and only one more to go." The man said viciously, he stood up and started shaking his dagger up and down to get the blood off of it.
Helga pulled her sword from its sheathe and stood there trembling, not because of the enemy ahead of her but because dusk' body laid there as if it was lifeless. The vandal and the girl looked at each other in silence, one a smile and the other a look of disgust and anguish
In this brief moment instead of pain dusk felt nothing, it felt peaceful. Many thoughts crossed his mind, the village fire, the wound on helgas face and more importantly the man who just broke his neck. He pieced them all together and the event played out in his head again and again.
"But wait doesn't that mean….. 𝖍𝖊'𝖘 𝖗𝖊𝖘𝖕𝖔𝖓𝖘𝖎𝖇𝖑𝖊 𝖋𝖔𝖗 𝖎𝖙 𝖆𝖑𝖑?" Dusk thought to himself.
That feeling of anger and hatred he held not too long ago surfaced back, surging, aching.
The bones in his neck binded themselves back together becoming stronger than before.
He slowly stood up, his brain aching and his body disoriented. The vandals back faced towards him so he was nowhere within his sights. The boy didn't know exactly what was happening at the moment but one thing he was certain about is that he wanted this man gone.
He grabbed a rock from beside him and steadily walked towards fhe vandal, his legs wobbling and the boy almost on the verge of collapse.
"Well let's get this over with little birdie!" The man yelled at Helga but before he could charge forward dusk cocked his arm back and swung the rock into the side of the vandals head full force.
[Craaaack!]
"AHHHHHH!!!"
The man screamed as a part of his skull shattered.
"Wha—
[WHACK!]
Dusk slammed the rock down again but this time on the man's face, then again and again.
Even Helga was shocked at the sight before her, the boy who she thought was not only dead but too kind to hurt even a fly was not bashing the skull of their enemy….. but she also noticed he didn't look like himself, his eyes blank, almost as if they held no soul.
"Whait! Whait….whait." The mans face so vastly distorted he could only slur his words.
"I-I cwan hwelp y—
Dusk didn't care to listen but instead of hitting him with the jagged rock he started beating him with his fist, over and over. The skin was constantly peeling off dusk hands and sometimes a finger would break but it didn't stop him, the wounds would heal before dusk put his hands down.
"That's enough…."
The girl put her hand on dusk' shoulder.
The warm sensation slowly brought dusk back to his senses.
"What are you—
The boy finally noticed the puddle of bloody meat which no longer resembled a human in front of him.
"Blaarg!" Dusk vomited after seeing the sight in front of him.
"W-wait, h-how, when?!"
No longer able to recognize the situation he went into a state of panic junped dsrk bsck away from the corpse and closing his eyes.
"I-I didn't m-mean t-to, I-I—
"….look at it." Helga said softly
"No, I don't wanna!" He refused
"Look at it, you need to see it."
"I said I don't wa—
"LOOK AT IIIIIITTTTTT!" She yelled at the top of her lungs as she grabbed the back of dusk head and pointed his eyes towards the dead body he created.
"This is your life now, if you want us to make it out of here alive, you must remember…. This is what we'll have to do from now on…. Now cmon, daylight ends soon and night will fall.
The girl felt pity for the boy…but she knew the battlefield all too well, that kindness and hesitation will only result in death. She wanted to make sure he knew. Helga took the boys hand in hers and walked in silence through the woods, hoping to make it back to the rest of her people in one piece.
Meanwhile the boy couldn't stop looking at his bloodstained hands, the red covering his tattooed fingertips.
"was what I did bad?" The only thing that crossed his mind at the moment.
After the events of today, his mind was slowly but surely starting to warp.