Bloodborne: The Hero and the King

Epilogue

"Back!! Back foul beast!!" Yelled the child, waving a flashlight at his friend, who was pretending to be a wolf monster. The friend pretended to cower in fear of the light. They ran around the yard, taking turns chasing each other, until they tired themselves out, both of them falling to the ground. The friend, pretending to be the monster, looked at the child with the flashlight, and asked,

"Hey..Jens?" He asked, his voice a mix of exhaustion and nervousness.
"Yea Kal?"

"You ever have a dream..kinda like the game we just played?"

"With the two bad guy hero brothers?" Asked Jens sitting up, shocked to hear he wasnt the only one having the dream. "And the one with the lightning thing sacrifices himself to save the world?"

"I think so." Said Kal, a bit confused,"except in mine, the one with the lightning thing turns into a dragon monster and the guy with the crown turns into a wolf monster and kills him with a glowing sword."

"Woahh" breathed Jens. "Mannn. At the end of mine all i hear is the lightning guy screaming."

"Really?" Asked Kal, intrigued.

"Yeah..i think something is hurting him. He keeps screaming for them to stop."

"Wow" said Kal. "I get a girls voice who keeps asking me if i want to use the echoes."

"What are echoes?" Asked Jens.

"In the dream, sometimes you see them kill monsters, and red stuff goes inside of them. I think the red stuff is blood echoes" explained Kal waving his arms like a ghost. "I think it makes them stronger but also turns into a monster."

"So what do you tell her when she asks?"

"Well," began Kal, looking a little shaken. He glanced over his shoulder as if he was expecting someone to be there."well normally i say no, because something tells me thats not what the wolf king would have wanted..but.."

"But???" Urged Jens.

"But last night...when she asked me.. I asked her on what..."

"And whatd she say?" Demanded Jens, hopping up, excitedly.

"She showed me the wolf king..like he was chained up inside of some building somewhere..he kept saying 'no echoes' over and over, his eyes stitched shut..but he wasnt a monster anymore. All his power had been stolen from him."

"So what did she do with the souls?" Asked Jens, as the sunset became apparent to the two boys. They hopped up and began walking home.

"She pulled them out of me..and tried to put it inside of the king, but they went inside of these weird creatures instead. He was screaming no over and over tho. It was really scary.."

"Wow" breathed Jens, both in regards to Kal's story and the moon that had suddenly appeared in the sky. It was large and bright. The clouds were a mixture of purple haze and a pinkish red mist. It took Kal pulling on Jen's robe to snap him out of the trance. "Oh sorry, what?"

"I said" repeated Kal, thrusting his arm forward. His skin was reddish, and there was an odd shaped bruise on his arm.. Odd, but not impossible to recognize. "I woke up with this!"

"Is that..."began Jen's, nervous.

"It looks like the King's crown.. His crown of illusions.." Finished Kal, fear gripping his voice. The clouds over head had darkened, and rain quickly began to downpour on top of their heads. In the distance, a wolfs howl was heard. The boys looked at each other as the rain drops ran down their faces, leaving little traces of red blood.

"Blood?" Asked Jens. The howls grew more and more as screams began to tear apart the town. In the sky, lightning flashed, but left permanent cracks in the sky. Jen's turned to Kal. "Kal whats happening?!"