In Pieces

Chapter 14: The Reed of Regret.

"I deserve to die," said the Prince, burying his face in his hands. He looked nothing like the ice cold, insufferably arrogant young man from before this trip, more like a child who had gone through more than he could handle.

Aidan saw yet again that pain had power to change people. At least temporarily.

"You need to rest," Aidan shook his head. He had no desire to play an armchair psychologist right now. If the guy just slept a bit more and maybe ate something, he'd probably get over whatever crisis this was. Physically he already looked much better – his face was a healthier color and he wasn't shivering anymore.

"Just lie down and I'll bring you some food later. Everything will be fine," said Aidan, as he left the room and quietly closed the door behind him. He wasn't sure, if everything was going to be fine but that's what people said in such situations, right?

He slowly went downstairs, where he was confronted by the corpses yet again. Aidan sighed – something had to be done about those. But not before he got some liquid courage. He reasoned that nobody should do this kind of thing sober. After rummaging around for a bit he managed to find several bottles of "rum". There were probably more lying around somewhere else but Aidan wasn't that greedy.

After taking a big gulp he slipped the bottle into his boot and finally got to work. Aidan tried not to look at the puffy blue faces, as he took the bodies off the rail and carefully, one by one, placed them on the ground. At that moment he suddenly realized just how many graves he'd have to dig to bury every single person in this village.

"Even for my life that's a low point," he thought to himself. "Last thing I ever thought I'd be doing was digging mass graves."

Aidan took another big sip and decided that he at least needed to eat, before starting this hopelessly depressing endeavor, so he picked up the bread and the cheese he had foraged earlier at the nearby tavern. After making a couple of unsightly sandwiches he took them upstairs to share with His Highness.

However, as soon as Aidan entered the room, the dish fell out of his hands. The scene he witnessed made a heart-palpitating chill spread through all his limbs.

The Prince was tying up a noose, his face determined and somehow, in contrast to what he was doing, very serene.

Where did he even get the rope?

"What the hell are you doing...Your Highness?" Aidan asked, almost forgetting his manners from all the shock.

"Taking care of a problem," the Prince said. "It will be better for everybody, if I die."

"Why would you think that?" Aidan asked, carefully making his way towards the Prince. It felt a bit like talking somebody out of jumping from a high building. Another thing that Aidan never thought he'd be doing. He always imagined that he'd be on the other side of this dialogue.

"You'd hate me, if I told you," the Prince said, looking down.

"Try me," Aidan needed a couple more steps to reach the guy.

"I let my sister down... Not just once. Many many times," the Prince said with tears in his voice. "My little sister needed help... and all I did was look away."

"Even if it's the case, your sister probably wouldn't want you to die," Aidan made another step.

The Prince shook his head.

"She would prefer me dead. Hell, she would most likely want to join me. Before... you know, before all of this, she was such a happy little girl. So friendly, she always wanted to play with me. She would follow me around everywhere... And then I saw the spark in her eyes slowly disappear, till there was nothing left," the Prince laughed bitterly. "I knew what was going on. But I desperately didn't want to know. I thought, it wasn't my fight. And maybe... just a little... I blamed her for my mother's death. So I left her alone... to deal with that man."