Runes of Bone | First Draft

9| Who Are You?

20 years ago

   There was ash in the rain.  

Rue Ashvant watched it fall with mourning pouring from his eyes. It was as if black ink was dripping upon gray snow, blanketing the world in its silent darkness. The taste of iron was in the air, haunting the tongues of whoever dared to open their mouths. There was a curse amongst the atmosphere, and Rue could feel it corrupt his bones.

"Is this how you wanted it?"

His voice had been tainted by the death in the winds. It made him croak like the corpses beneath his feet. Each of them were amongst a dozen, crawling from their piles with their last surge of strength. They tried to reach for Rue with desperate hands, but he showed them no remorse. He let them utter their last breath with their faces grinded into the bottoms of his shoes, their final words heard by none. His victims all passed in cruelty, yet Rue saw the blood on his hands as justice.

"Answer me."

The individual behind him flinched as Rue turned his drooping head. His eyes of yellow and blue radiated as they fixated onto the survivor of his crimes, a cowardly man with a golden blade he didn't know how to use.

They locked gazes, and Rue's irises became scorched with the passion of vengeance. He looked to be inhuman from the perspective of the man. There was no soul underneath his bloodied skin, his lips twisted in a grievance beyond the capability of the living. He had lived a thousand lives and met a thousand deaths, and now his soul was exhausted and weary. By the emptiness that filled his pupils, it was likely that it had already died long ago with the cruel battles of his past. There was no life left in him, past the hollow grounds of his countenance; the man had stolen whatever was left of it. Perhaps, the man feared, Rue didn't have a soul left at all.

"Josiah Munoz."

Silence made both of their ears ring.

Tensed, Josiah found that he couldn't move a single fiber of his body. He couldn't manage to part his lips, despite the shock that was coaxing his jaw to fall. Something told him that he was going to die there, right where he stood, and he wouldn't be able to prevent it.

"I didn't mean-"

"What, you didn't mean this?"

Rue spread out his arms to gesture at the death that danced upon the ground. When Josiah's expression dropped, Rue let out a cackle that came with a harsh breath. The sound couldn't be recognized as laughter, for it crackled and groaned far too similar to sobbing.

"I'm such a fool." he muttered. He let his palm run through his colorless hair. "I really thought it would work this time. But no, it worked out exactly how it always does.....and now they are all dead because of me."

Josiah tucked his lower lip into his mouth.

"You can stop this, Rue." he choked, hesitance in his tone. "All of this bloodshed....this never ending battle you insist to keep on fighting. You have the power to stop this cycle. No one has to die anymore. All you have to do is-"

"No." Rue interrupted. "Don't you dare say it."

He stepped off of his pile of victims and faced Josiah. The two of them shared a stare that made Rue's eyes sting and Josiah's heart race. The ashes that fell made both of their appearances obscured, sprinkling upon their heads and shoulders silently. They were solemn statues upon a graveyard, as lifeless as the gray cadavers underneath their feet.