Ashfall: City of Shade (UNDER EDITING)

Chapter 43 | Ciro

ADLER

Oh little one, where have you gone?

Such a delicate face.

"I love you," my voice barely reaches her skin. Words, so meaningless. My actions failed horribly to convince her so. What a horror. How much she suffered all this time. And I couldn't save her. "I love you...I wish to meet you soon. You'll wait for me? Won't you? Where stardust has settled and no light fractures our senses. Our own haven, my sweet. You're finding it for me now, aren't you..."

She was so beautiful.

The most spectacular specimen I have ever seen. Her mind was just not right.

"Not right."

She was not happy.

"Not happy."

Why? Why was she not happy? She lived a life superior to most women. She was so smart. So special. She knew I loved her.

"She knew."

But she didn't. She didn't know enough. She was very much alone. From the beginning and to the end.

I miss her.

I miss her smile and her delicate eyes. Her laughter, so rare.

"So fragile."

Yes, that's the word. Her soul was tired. And I knew so. I thought I could keep her happy. I thought I could live my way and she would sooner accept it. Sooner be content.

How selfish of her to leave without me. Leave me here wondering why. Why? Why did you leave me?

Now I have nothing.

"Where have you gone?" I ask. My voice rises, like a riled up mongrel, "Why did you leave me here?"

Nothing. There is nothing. Without you, there is nothing.

Nothing.

You filled my spirit.

"You gave me purpose!"

I'm sorry. I'm sorry I...I couldn't make you happy. I could not prove to you this world is worth living in.

Because I didn't believe so myself.

I could only be content with the physical. Not the spiritual, not the invisible. For those things are the unknown. The unknown cannot be controlled. Only the physical is predictable.

"Only the physical."

Her body...so delicate beneath me. And the other bodies. Just there...just fulfilling a temporary need. For what? The physical. Then I used her too.

Just like the others.

What did she want from me? Did she enjoy our time together?

"No...no...no...you didn't. You tried to be happy. How could you possibly be happy with me, my sweet? Can you hear me? Are you listening now? I'd wish you listened to me when I told you I loved you. I love you. I love you! I love you! I...I loved you!"

***

ENOCH

The smell in the air is atrocious.

I hold my nose as Brometheous leads me into the humble home.

"I loved you!"

I straighten hearing the raw emotion in his words. Anger radiates off of him making the walls feel like they are closing in.

"I love you! I love you. I love...you..." he whispers rapidly, "You left me here. Why did you leave me here? I told you to wait for me. To not leave me alone. Why didn't you tell me you were suffering so-"

"Of course she was suffering," Brommy cuts in sharply. "You, I, Enoch...everyone, we all knew. She did not stop suffering since she left the desert. Some things are meant to let be. Leave her be now, Father. Her corpse will make you sick. She is gone. Her soul is free. Let us be assured now she is no longer in pain."

Adler becomes still. No longer shivering, he straightens, then sets her corpse on the bed.

"We can do something to preserve her body," I murmur. "We must act quickly. Adler, you cannot keep her body in here. You want to be able to still see her, don't you?" I ask carefully.

His dead, emotionless, gaze lands on me. Then, slowly, an empty smile grows on his face chilling me to the bone.

"Yes," he murmurs while clasping his hands behind his back, "...that would be splendid."

"Then, say your farewell, Adler. Brommy and I will give you a moment before we handle her corpse."

I lead Brommy out.

Outside hearing distance, we discuss our plan to safely leave with his will in mind.

"...if we do not have Adler's will, then this could become violent," Brommy says.

"Exactly what I'm thinking."

With caution, I leave Brommy's side and move back inside.

"What is it...Adler?"

"I do not wish to leave here."

"What do you mean?" I clench my jaw. "You promised to return the light."

"Yes, Enoch. The light will return," he says while watching something small in his hand. Something glowing. "When our child hatches. Our sweet child, isn't it beautiful? My pearl birthed this sacred being before her death. I found it..."

"Where did you find it?"

His face taints purple. My stomach churns.

"In her womb."

"Brommy!" I holler.

"Yes, ruler, Enoch."

"He has raped her in death...stolen h-her child! Her child! Whose...whose child is it?" I shout bitterly. My gaze moves between the demons. "Tell me!"

"I shall name her Ciro. My beautiful daughter. For of course, my son dared not ink in my sweet. It was me, Enoch. I am the Father, and this child, this unborn child is mine. My sweet and I had sex multiple times. Do you see these runes?" he asks in a disturbing tone. He touches the strange sparkling lash marks on his arm with a crooked smile. "Her quills gave me them."

Bile rises in my throat.

"Hand me the offspring, Adler."

"I'm afraid I cannot do that. I will agree to have my child incubated so long as you allow my sweet's body to remain with me, in my own temple-"

"You are not getting a temple!"

"Oh," he chides. "I think I will be, Enoch. Otherwise, you know what happens. I have no problem living in this darkness. But you, and the civilians, will not last long. You will make me a temple and you will allow my pearl to stay with me."

"Her body belongs in the palace-"

I wheeze, caught offguard by his knuckles digging into my throat as he grabs the collar of my tunic.

"Her body belongs to me!" he roars. "If you wish to see the light of day again you will commence construction for my temple in the morrow!"

An unnatural heat filters through the small space.

His black soulless eyes bore into my own. How could Greta look at this monster with any ounce of sympathy?

Did she go to him willingly?

"You never did love her. You only wanted to use her," I spit back. "You got what you wanted. Move on, find your next whore! That's all you want from them anyway. You have nothing to give! You took everything you could until she had nothing left to live for-"

"Enough, Enoch," Brometheous cuts in. Outside, the voltak shrieks, impatient. "We must move. It is not wise for any of empirical standing to linger outside city walls. Leave him."

"What of the unborn child?" I retort.

"It's too much trouble to take it away from him. Let us make a decision at a later time."

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