It all happened too fast. I couldn't even blink. One moment Kael was acting like a madman, grinning and behaving like a demon, the next he became stone-cold. He approached the elder faster than anyone could react. He raised him with no effort at all. Next thing I know the elder was dead. With Kael standing over his corpse. His smile tore his lips open. Thick black blood dripped down his chin, like the ink the elder used on his scrolls, pooling at his collar. His gaze—that godawful gaze—latched onto me, not just like he was seeing me, but more like he was seeing into me. Like my soul had slipped out of its shell, and he was memorizing the shape of it.

  And I—I couldn't move. I felt like a rabbit being stared down by a wolf, nothing I'd do would change the outcome. But it wasn't just out of sheer instinctual fear, there was something else mixed in. It was something deeper. Like I was seeing a dear friend sink into the swamp that surrounds us—ever so ravenous—yet I stood still and watched it happen.

  Still grinning ear to ear, he took a step.

  Just one step.

  Yet that one step was all it took to make me tumble down. My world crashing down around me. I hit the ground with a soft, wet thud, my dress absorbing the cold filth of the earth. He crouched down. His hand stretched toward me. Leisurely. As if he had all the time in the world to wrap those pale fingers around my neck. Those pale fingers... Yesterday I had noticed his paleness, I had asked concerned for him, but all I received for my concern was disdain and shaming. But today his skin seems even paler, so much I could almost see through him.

  What's happening to him?

  Is it my fault?

  Is this why you are torturing me like this Kael?

  "Please leave me alone... Please" My voice barely left my throat. I heard myself whimper, the sound felt weak, it felt wrong. Like it came from someone else.

  That was when his monstrous smile faltered.

  I could see the wild shift in his eyes. That dimness vanished, the tiredness behind them vanished. It shifted to conflict and despair. It shifted to utter panic.

  His hand stopped completely.

  His lips trembled. His whole body spasmed. I swear I could hear the sound of something ripping apart.

  He retched a black vile goo. It splashed on my dress and my legs, already soiled by dirt. I felt his agony, like it echoed through the air.

  And then he said it. His voice low and weak. The sound came as barely a whisper.

  My name. Followed by words I wish I could pretend I didn't hear. It would be so much easier to pretend the monster was all that was left. That my Kael died long before all this.

  "...f-for-gi-ve... me... p-plea-se..."

  I watched as the person who stood by my side for all these years fell apart. Both in flesh and in spirit. I watched him die. And I just stood there, shaking.

  Even when they discussed what to do with him, I still did nothing. I just remained there, frozen, as they called him a monster, as they clamored for blood. But fear overtook them. And they decided to just toss him aside—like garbage. When they dragged him away—shoved his broken body into a manure cart—I stayed there. My hands smeared in filth, smeared in his blood.

  The hours passed by. And I saw Roy return from the swamp.

  He returned just as the mob had scattered, his eyes dull, but they hid a bit of satisfaction. His lips pressed tightly in a straight line. He tried to hide it, but I could still see. Though I can't for the world understand what in this horrid day would bring him satisfaction.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  "I threw him in the swamp," he muttered, more to himself than to me. "That's what the bastard deserved."

  When I didn't respond, he looked at me, his gaze seeking approval, seeking validation. My silence made him restless.

  "You saw what he did Lissana. You saw what he became..." His gaze remained on me, growing slightly more intense. His tone rose slightly. "Why are you silent Lissana? You can't possibly be feeling bad about this can you? He was gone Lis—GONE. That wasn't Kael. That was just a monster wearing his skin."

  I remained silent.

  There was a part of me that didn't want to agree—or rather couldn't agree.

  I looked at Roy, his expression twisting in frustration.

  I got up, and I left. I just left.

  That night, I couldn't seem to sleep.

  Every time I closed my eyes, all I could see was Kael falling. Not when he killed the elder. Not when he smiled. Not when his hands reached toward me. But when he begged—begged for forgiveness. His body twisting with rot, black blood dripping from his lips, yet that was the most human Kael ever seemed to be. The most vulnerable. And I can't shake the feeling I failed him.

  The next day I wandered across the village aimlessly. People whispered, but their words were just like fog. I passed by friends, neighbors—I think... I think some called my name. Maybe more than once.

  I didn't even notice when Roy approached me. He tried to hold me. Tried to kiss me. But I pulled away, without a word. As I had already grown accustomed to.

  I think it was around the start of this farce of a relationship, the time the revelry crashed down. His touches, his words lost their meaning. Something deep inside me rejected him. But I still remained, afraid that if I pulled away, that something would change. That I would lose something I held dearly. I stayed out of familiarity and fear, not out of love. Kael... Kael had always been the one wh-

  No. Best not to think of that.

  I kept wandering, with Roy at my side, pestering me. Is this perhaps how Kael felt of me that day? If I had acted differently, would something have changed?

  Then night came again. Roy barged in my house, despite me clearly saying that I didn't wish for it. He kept insisting, trying to come close, whispering words of comfort. But I ignored them all. I knew they were all fake.

  While ignoring him, I stared at the window and I remembered sweeter times. Kael talking, with a shine in his eyes, how he would become the greatest of mages, how he would explore all corners of this world. He spoke of endless lakes as deep as the sky was high, of mountains that spewed fire and so much more. How I wished he just took my hand and that we left this hellhole together...

  While I was immersed in my thoughts it began...

  A roar. Inhuman and wild. Sounds most of this village grew accustomed to.

  "They say these are beasts that walk on two legs," he muttered. "Some poor fellow that died in the swamp and came back to haunt it."

  After the usual roar, came something else.

  A shriek.

  A howl.

  Deeply unsettling.

  Eerily familiar.

  Filled with pain, despair and anguish.

  It sounded like a soul was trying to climb out of its grave.

  My breath shortened. A cold drop of sweat ran down my back, and I got up. My gaze fixed on the swamp, as if at any moment something—or someone—would come out of it.

  Roy saw me looking. He saw my expression. He clenched his fists tightly, his face twitching with something between jealousy and pure terror.

  "I know what you're thinkin Lis. But it can't be him. By now he's already dead—much like the elder."

  His voice sounded certain, so sure of what it had said, but his face betrayed him. His eyes were trembling, his lips quivering. He didn't believed himself. And neither did I. A small flame of hope flickered inside my chest. Maybe he was still out there. Maybe... just maybe he would come back. The same mocking smile plastered on his face. That charming smile, the same that made my heart skip so many times already.

  After the howl came new roars.

  Angry. Furious roars. Dozens of them.

  I saw Roy's expression twist into a relieved one. Though that didn't last long.

  The roars changed.

  They became pained. Fearful. Riddled with grief. Till they all stopped

  And a new louder roar came. Multiple times. But that too stopped.

  Silence reigned heavy over the village that night.

  Roy paced around the house, again and again. His eyes quaking furiously. He chewed his nails till blood came out, and even then he didn't stop. He muttered something under his breath, over and over again.

  "It can't be him... it can't be him... it can't be him... it can't be him... it can't be him... it can't be him... it can't be him..."

  He kept doing it till morning came. He left the house in the same state, blabbering like a fool.

  I too left the house, unsure of what to do. Of where to go. Without him, it all seems pointless.

  I saw a group of people gathered like scared mice. Whispering among themselves. When I asked what was going on, they told me they were going to seek help. That the village was cursed. That we needed outsiders. Professionals

  Paladins. Hunters of impurity. Men of faith and steel.

  The kind that don't ask questions before burning a body to ash. The kind you seek when fear becomes unbearable. The kind you seek when you want to purge something—or someone.