I have to fight! I can't just give my best friend over! I have to fight. But I'm probably fighting the wrong people.
If I'm to fight, I think I should fight the one_or ones with power. The ones who want her.
Those two who sit up there watching the whole event unfold. They are the ones I am to fight.
"I won't give up!" I yell. I will never stop fighting. I look up, defiantly, toward the darkness where those two are seated. My hand is still holding the steel-pen firmly.
"Why do you want her!!! You old wretched beast?!"
"Kiva," Skye whispers warily.
"You fool!! Who do you think you are speaking with?! How dare you! 'You have any idea who you are speaking to? You wretched fool, your soul will be sucked right out of your body if you do not drop that thing and fall to your knees this instant!!" The circus master is red with anger! I can almost see the smoke coming from his head and ears, like a steam train.
All the necks of the clients now turn, looking up to that dark corner. Murmurs and queries quickly fill the room.
I have no time to pay the circus master any heed. My focus is still on the men up there. "You want to have her right?! Then why not be a man and come down here yourself! Don't hide in the shadows, don't stay in the darkness, come down here yourselves! Come down and see if I won't slice your throats before you can touch her, You despicable bastards!"
I am being reckless, it almost seems like I no longer wish to live. I do… I very much do. I want to live and see my mom, I want to see the twins, and I want to see Kira… I want to live so badly and see them all again.
But… I don't want Skye to go through this sort of humiliation. They will strip her here in public, before these taunting eyes.
The circus master, Genna, or any other of the guards will grope her if asked to. This is humiliating! I just can't stand it!!
I have to fight!
Stupid or reasonable, I have to fight!
"I said stay away from me!" I yell as I swing my hand in the face of another who comes before me.
"Get down hear you bastard! Come down here and I will gut you like a fish before you can get any close to her. You miserable, pedophilic, old wretched—" I blink, hard, sharp, quick. My voice completely lost.
The silhouettes_no, just one. He's not there. He was there, as I spoke, he was definitely there.
But in the blink of an eye, there's just one there now, standing, watching.
Where's the other one? When did he move? How did he move so quickly?
"Huh!" A sharp breath escapes my lips as I can suddenly feel it. An ambience, stiffening, choking. An aura so dark. As dark as the deepest part of the ocean in the middle of the night.
Am I breathing? I don't know…
Am I trembling?
Horribly, yes. Yes, I'm shivering in fear, the kind I have never felt before. And I know, Skye is much more terrified than I am right now.
The men before me, all of them seem to step back, their heads seem to bow, and I don't need a mirror to know that my face has probably lost all color. Or maybe it has taken an ashen color now.
"Beast," a voice, calm, strong—not deep, but strong, low, terror-striking… And yet, pleasant.
"Old, wretched beast," He completes my words, I realize.
And I have been swinging my steel-pen since, but suddenly… Suddenly, I just can't swing anymore.
My hand is still holding the weapon in front of me, but it seems to be stiff. In fact my entire body seems to have stiffen.
From where? How? When? I have no idea what the answer to these questions are, but all I know right now, at this moment, this very second, is that…
A man, tall, way taller than me or Skye, or any other person standing on this stage. He is nothing lower than 6ft5, and that is just me calculating. He's definitely taller.
As a 5ft3 myself, my head is barely at his chest level… Barely.
And he looms over me, a god of my fate, a lord of judgment, to condemn me.
I lift my head, to see his face. His mask, still in place, but I can see his eyes.
Amber, like mine. No! His is different, brighter like gold, and sparkling like hot, red embers. I can almost see the flames. Nothing like I've ever seen… Or have I?
"Ehh!" I draw in a long sharp realizing breath!
I have! I have seen eyes like this…
Or these very eyes!
Yes! Yes, these are those same eyes! I can never forget! Those eyes that held no empathy, no emotion at all. These are those exact same eyes!
"L_Lau_Laurius Rein," I falter as I whisper the name I remember.
"Hm," A single breath, "That would be my brother."
"Then, you are—"
"The old wretched beast you asked for… Leonis Rein."