"Arthur, we all have our darkness, but we can't make someone else responsible for being our light! It's not fair. It's not right."
Arthur's eyes darkened, the softness replaced by a storm of emotions he could no longer hide.
"Not fair? Not right?" he echoed, "What about what you've done to me, Inera? You've awakened feelings and desires in me… you've shown me a world I can never truly be a part of. How is that fair?"
Inera held her breath, her heart racing as she finally understood the extent of Arthur's delusion. The heart of a man, no, a foolish child who had been locked away for too long.
"Arthur, I only offered you friendship and companionship. I never meant to cause you pain. But I can't be held responsible for feelings I don't reciprocate. I can't be your salvation."
Arthur's demeanor changed, a dangerous edge creeping into his posture. "Salvation? No, Inera. You are more than that. You are... everything."
"Arthur, please," Inera pleaded, "This isn't you. This can't be you."
Arthur's expression hardened, the vulnerability he had shown disappearing behind a veil of desperation. "This has always been the real me. But you never saw it, you never truly saw me. You rejected me like everyone else!"
Inera desperately tried to reason with him. "I have always seen you, Arthur, from the very first moment. But I cannot be the one..." Her sentence trailed off, overwhelmed by a wave of despair.
But Arthurs conviction rose and so did his voice.
"You can be. You were always the one. Everything you do affects me, Inera, because I love you."
He smiled.
„I love you so much."
The words hit Inera like a blow to the chest, her breath staggering as her worst fears manifested before her eyes.
She had to say something. She had to tell him.
"But I don't... I'm so sorry. I don't love you," she confessed, her voice filled with sorrow for the inevitable wound her words would cause.
To her dismay, Arthur did not react with heartbreak but with an eerie acceptance, as if her confession was a truth he had long known.
"I knew it, Inera. But how could I give up the only ray of light in my life?" he murmured, his voice carrying both resignation and a horrifying obsession.
Inera stepped back, her instincts screaming that the situation was dangerously escalating. She watched with a pounding heart as Arthur slowly rose from the bed until he fully stood up, towering over her.
"You don't understand, Inera," Arthur continued, "You brought happiness and a glimmer of life into my world of total darkness. And now you want to take it away? How can you expect me to accept that?"
"I'm not taking anything away from you, Arthur! I'm here for you, but I'm not responsible for your happiness!" Inera protested, her voice trembling.
"But you are, Inera. You are," Arthur insisted, his voice growing louder. The mentality he had harbored for a while now gave way to something darker, more possessive.
The relentless current of the moment had already swallowed the both of them and now there was no going back.
„Every smile, every word from you is a thread that binds me to this life. And to know it's all unrequited? To always love you and never be loved back? To one day see you in another man's arms? It's torture, Inera. Worse than this illness, a torture I can't endure. What's the point of seeing another day if it's not with you?"
Inera's heart raced as Arthur moved closer. She couldn't utter a single word yet Arthur kept going.
"That night, when the demons attacked, we were together. Side by side. That's how it should always be. I will always be there for you, Inera."
Inera backed away until her back was against the wall with nowhere left to go. The room which had once been a place of shared dreams and laughter, now felt like a prison.
"I love you, Inera," Arthur repeated. He reached for her, grabbed her wrists, and pressed his lips to hers, sealing his declaration with an unwanted kiss.
Inera's eyes widened, but it was already too late as she pulled her head back. Arthur still held her wrists tightly.
Her reaction was one of pure shock. "How could you?" she gasped.
Arthur was already beyond reason. He grabbed her waist, pulling her close, his grip firm and unyielding.
"I love you," Arthur said, now for the third time.
Inera's panic surged. The Arthur she knew, the friend she cherished, was lost in the maelstrom of his twisted love and obsession. She realized with a heavy heart that she was alone in the darkness with someone she no longer recognized.
The situation had become a terrifying stage for a twisted dance of misguided emotions. Arthur's grip tightened, pulling Inera into a proximity that suffocated her very soul.
"Stop!" she screamed, her voice transmitting the terror ricocheting within her chest, but it was as if her plea dissolved into the thick darkness around them, reaching no ears, stirring no conscience.
In a moment of raw, unyielding intensity, Arthur's other hand seized her head. His intent was clear and terrifying. Inera's world narrowed to the impending violation of her being.
A primal instinct awakened, a fierce determination to protect what was left of her wounded self at any cost.
She opened her mouth, not in submission, but in defiance, and bit down hard into Arthur's face.
Arthur recoiled, a groan of pain erupting from him as he clutched the wounded spot. Inera's heart pounded ferociously, fear and shock coursing through her veins. And anger. So much anger.
"You are a monster!" she accused, her words fueled by the horror of the moment. "I said I don't love you! Understand that, you childish fool!"
But Arthur only laughed, a distorted sound, each note like nails on a chalkboard. "Ha... ha... I knew it. You'll leave me," he taunted, a macabre smirk on his face, a smirk that sent shivers down Inera's spine.
"Do you even hear yourself?! Open your eyes, Arthur! You're mad!" Inera screamed. But her outburst only ignited a similar fire in Arthur.
"Don't try to play the caring role like my parents! They never took me seriously; I thought you were different!"
"How can I take you seriously when you try to force yourself on me?" she shot back and her entire body tensed for what might come next.
Arthur's words then dripped with a chilling calmness, a calmness that was far more terrifying than his anger. "Ah, my sweet Inera. You never scream. It must be that witch... she's poisoned your mind," he mused.
His delusions painted a twisted picture, blaming the change in Inera on her interactions with the princess—perhaps, Inera thought, that was the event that triggered his fear of abandonment for good.
If only she had stayed silent.
"You don't love me, Arthur. You love how you feel when I'm around. Not being alone. That's not love," Inera said, her voice firm, but her heart breaking into a thousand pieces. She moved cautiously toward the door, her gaze never leaving the distorted figure of the boy she once knew.
With each step Inera took back, Arthur stepped forward.
"I'm leaving, Arthur. Let me be," she insisted.
But Arthur shook his head slowly, resolutely. "I can't let you leave, Inera. Not until you understand what I feel for you."
His steps quickened, like a predator closing in on its prey.
Just as he was about to grab her, in a desperate bid for freedom, she struck him unguardedly on the nose and used the moment of his shock to dash for the door.
But freedom was a fleeting dream, snatched away as Arthur's hand ensnared her hair, yanking her back with such force that she crashed to the floor. His weight pressed down on her like a physical manifestation of his distorted love.
Trying to break free, she cursed her weak strength again. No matter how sick Arthur was, he was still biologically stronger, taller, and heavier than she was.
"Please, Inera," Arthur pleaded, "we can go back to the past. Just you and me, our world of books and dreams." But his words were filled only with the grotesque vision he had for them.
Inera's struggle was futile against his overwhelming grip. In a final act of defiance, she spat in his face, rejecting his delusional pleas. But her defiance only fueled his anger, his grip tightening like a vise. "If you won't listen—"
His unfinished threat dissolved into a painful groan as Inera's knee sharply connected with his most vulnerable spot. He crumpled to the floor, crying out in pain.
While he writhed on the ground, Inera fought through the shock and betrayal clouding her thoughts, but her legs trembled beneath her. When she finally managed to stand, her heart sank; Arthur was already on his feet, blocking her only escape route.
With deliberate, cautious steps, he approached her. Inera's mind raced, frantically searching for a way out of this horror.
"When I met you, you were so kind," she began, her voice trembling as she moved backward, her eyes searching for an escape route. This wasn't the adventure she had dreamed of—not the "special" thing she had yearned for. This was a nightmare.
But it was time to wake up.
When she saw her goal, she turned back to Arthur, sadness now mingling with her fading anger.
"I had so much fun with you," she continued, each word heavy as their shared past crumbled before her eyes. Arthur remained silent, his gaze unwavering and predatory.
"Maybe I could have saved you without sacrificing myself if I had been born a man," Inera murmured, her energy waning, leaving only sadness behind.
As she reached the end of the room, her hand found the thick curtain veiling the window.
"I'm sorry it had to end this way, Arthur." A solitary tear traced a path down her cheek, marking this as the final farewell.
"Goodbye, Arthur. You were my first… and only true friend."
Arthur's eyes widened in realization as Inera's intentions dawned on him. "Inera, no!" he cried, desperation lending speed to his ailing body as he lunged toward her. But his cry came too late.
With a swift, decisive motion, Inera yanked the curtain aside, unleashing a torrent of sunlight into the dark room.
The room was instantly bathed in the fading daylight, but even then, Arthur's agonized screams pierced the air. His skin blistered and reddened under the sun's rays, swelling and burning wherever it touched.
Inera stood frozen, her breaths coming in frantic gasps, her heart hammering against her chest, threatening to burst her ribs. Unable to witness the harrowing scene any longer, she turned away, her feet carrying her past Arthur's writhing form.
As she ran down the hallway, all the tears she had been holding back came flooding out.
"Arthur!" The mistress's voice rang out behind her, a distant echo against the backdrop of Arthur's tormented cries. But Inera couldn't stop, couldn't look back.
She dashed past Diana and her fellow maids, blind to their startled faces, her only focus on escaping the terror she had unleashed.
She burst through the mansion's doors, her feet carrying her into the embrace of the city. As she ran, more and more tears streamed down her face.
Each drop another reminder of the heart-wrenching cost of freedom, each step a desperate attempt to outrun the haunting echoes of Arthur's grasp.
Inera ran through the city without a goal in mind until the night swallowed her whole.