"No…" Adrian whimpered as he willed his body to move, to crawl.
"No!" he screamed, his vision blurred by tears.
"I'M DREAMING, THIS MUST BE A DREAM!!"
He clutched tightly to his head as his mind threatened to break. He felt wrong, everything felt wrong.
Step
He crawled a bit closer, up until he was now just a few inches away from Vee.
Her dark, shimmering hair still caught the light in a way that looked ethereal. Her smooth, spotless skin was still as beautiful as he remembered.
But now it was pale and lifeless…
Thick, viscous blood stained her cheeks, and on her neck was a gaping hole.
She was swimming in a pool of her own blood.
Adrian reached forward, his hands shaky as he reached for her face.
He pushed her hair to the side.
"Vee, you know I don't like pranks."
Silence.
"Hahaha, you got me good, Vee."
Silence.
"I'm dying here, Veee." More tears fell, his shirt now soaked, and he pulled his betrothed up, bringing her to his chest.
His grey eyes darkened, becoming lifeless as he pulled her into a hug.
Beside her were his daughters.
Adrian could not bear to look at them. He looked to the side and sucked in a sharp breath, his face tightening with grief just before he forced himself to look.
To see the result of his actions…
To see what he had caused.
Daphne was lying face down, her clothes ragged and soaked in blood. There was a large, bleeding hole on her chest, one that started from her stomach and ended at her back.
And placed atop her, as though they were nothing, like piles of trash—was her sister. They had both been stabbed, the killer driving his sword through both of them at once.
Adrian pulled them to him as well, their lifeless bodies resting on his legs.
His breathing stopped, and he bawled like a child, his face red as his heart trembled.
"Come on, Daph, help me wake Vee," he whispered, his words becoming surly and lifeless.
'Tiff, don't you want to play with my hair? I won't scold you, I promise,' he said in his mind, as his vision darkened, red dots forming in them.
He was soaked in blood.
Everything Adrian saw now had a tint of red above it. On the couch, the walls, the ceiling… everything was covered in blood.
He was whispering, babbling like a madman when someone stepped into the room.
Step
The scent of smoke reached his nose, but Adrian did not care, he continued rocking them back and forth, his mind lost in grief.
Step
"Poor guy…" a voice reached Adrian's ears as a man stepped in front of him.
All Adrian could see was his black, well-ironed trousers and his fancy shoes.
"Sorry about this, bud."
'That voice.'
Adrian lifted his head to meet his gaze and slowly shook his head.
"Darell…" he cried. "I killed them. The king, the king must have been angry. What have I done? Help. Help, I feel like I'm going mad."
His words flowed without pause, uncoordinated, slurred, and made little sense.
But as for Darell… there was no empathy in his eyes, only a cold satisfaction as he stared down at him.
"HA HA HA HAHAAHHA!"
"You cocky prick! You thought you were better than everyone else, huh? Self righteous bastard, look at yourself now!"
"How does it feel? How does it feel to see your world crashing down?"
"How does it feel to see everything ripped out of your hands?"
Darell's mirthful laughter filled the room as he clutched his sides, laughing violently.
"Huh?" Adrian was lost, his mind too broken to comprehend what had happened.
"Darell, did you…"
Darell smirked. "Well, I didn't kill them. Not personally of course. I had a little help…"
"You really thought the king enjoyed your proposal? You thought you could convince him?" He laughed.
"You thought you could change the world!" he said in a mocking voice.
"This is the only fate waiting for fools like you."
Adrian felt a fire rising within his chest. His jaw tightened to the point that he felt his teeth might break.
Sorrow twisted into rage as he dived at Darell, his hands reaching for his throat. "You bastard!!"
Whoosh!
Before he could reach him, a large blade came barrelling down, cleaving his arm right from the shoulder down.
"AHHHHH!" Adrian screamed in pain as blood spluttered out of the wound like a tap.
By his side lay his right arm, detached right from his shoulder with surgical precision.
The pain was excruciating, and he was getting weaker by the second as troughs of blood spewed out of the wound.
Yet not even this pain could measure up to what he felt deep in his chest.
He clutched his arm, his teeth gritted, his breaths steamy, and he glanced in the direction of the attacker.
Crimson dragon scale armour, a large claymore, and a sick smile on his face as he watched Adrian.
The Mad Berserker.
He licked his lips as the blood dripped down his crimson blade, exploding on the floor.
He could have killed him with that strike, but no, he wanted him to suffer.
He wanted to enjoy every single moment of it.
Adrian was furious.
"I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU ALL!" he screamed, his rage and sorrow twisting into one as tears rolled down his face.
Boom!
Darell planted his knee in his gut, sending him flying right through the window, a three story drop down to the forest below.
"Good riddance to bad rubbish," he said as he turned to leave the room.
"Everything will be ash soon. Let's not dally," Darell said, glancing once more at the forest before walking away…
As the house erupted in flames.
•••••
Everything was dark with a mix of red.
Adrian could not see a thing. His body throbbed in pain as he crawled through the forest floor—directionless, but with devilish drive.
"I'll kill them, I'll fucking kill them!"
He kept crawling, dragging himself to reach the mansion, his mind a mess of the most vile imaginations.
Hearing was difficult, as all he could hear was a ringing, and after being blinded by the fall, Adrian did not realize that he had crawled in the opposite direction.
Towards a nearby river that went by his mansion…
Slosh!
He was carried by the river, the angry water taking his body away from the mansion.
Adrian vaguely recognized the feeling of the cold water.
"No! No! Take me back. I have to kill them. I have to kill them…"
But how could he possibly do that in this state?
His tears mixed with the water, as he was carried, unable to do anything but think.
He had lost everything.
Vee was dead.
Daphne was dead.
Tiff was dead.
Everyone was gone.
He had been betrayed, not just by his best friend but by all the guards who let it happen.
'If only I didn't speak up. I killed them, it was all my fault.'
Sorrow encompassed him like dark shadows, and rage burned through him like an unquenchable fire.
Adrian thrashed in the water, kicking and screaming. His mind was lost as his emotions went into overdrive.
And then finally, after what felt like several minutes of drifting in the water, his limbs slowed as the effect of blood loss finally kicked in.
His muscles weakened and his mind went blank, the water carrying his lifeless body undeterred.
That was when he heard a voice, one so dark, so sinister, that it embodied evil itself.
"How tantalizing."