You helped me

Chapter Twenty-Five - You Ran With Me

    “The wounds you hate so much are going to increase again.”

-Kuroha

Valerie’s POV

Fire, everything is burning.

“You only have six minutes left, hurry, you want to survive right?” the voice spoke from my earpiece. Six minutes to get up that hill, I squeezed Aaron’s hand and he flashed a reassuring smile. Everything was burning, people screamed and ran away in panic, only us ran in the opposite direction; towards the castle that was evacuated. A priest was on his knees praying loudly and people narrowly dodged him as he looked to the sky willing for Notch to stop the end of the world.

“Thirty seconds left,” we stood in front of the hill and started to run up. “Ten seconds,” the voice urged. The muscles in my legs burned from sprinting uphill, I could tell Aaron was hurting too.

Panting, both of us reached our destination in front of the castle doors. A man in a black coat stood there with a girl, her face was hazy. Another young boy stood there as well, a scared look on his face. The man smiled.

“Interesting, you managed to follow instructions,” he said, raising a hand, he pressed down on the red button on the black remote he held. Explosions sounded from behind us. We turned around and what became of the town was just burning rubble, the people, dead, stayed on the ground, blood pouring from wounds. The babies stopped wailing and the priest which was loudly praying earlier had been silenced.

Bang, a deafening gunshot rang out. Aaron fell to his knees, blood dribbling from the wound on his heart. I screamed and caught him before he fell, over and over I called his name and tears flowed freely down my face. Looking back, the boy had a gun in his trembling hand and he had pointed it at me. The scene around me was blurred by my tears.

From the earpiece that hung loosely from my ear, I heard a faint, “Sorry.”

Bang.

*

I jolted awake; the memory washed away and went to the back of my mind. I realized this wasn’t the familiar ceiling of my room back at the base. Where the hell was I? A stinging pain stabbed my stomach and I gritted my teeth, an old wound opening up again is just what I need. I snapped my fingers and a weak flame sparked to life. At least my magic is working. I looked around the room; it was big, bigger than my room back home, the bed was already covering a quarter of the space. The bedside table had my black and white alchemy bag which I grabbed immediately.

Everything was there, I sighed in relief. Swinging my legs to the floor, my bare feet touched the cold stone; I looked around for my boots and coat. Soon, I located pieces of my clothing but I couldn’t find my katar. Putting on my black gloves that were cut at the fingertips, I staggered outside and concealed myself as soon as I heard footsteps. I let the guards pass.

I knew this place like the back of my hand, every secret passage and corridor as I had designed it myself. But, something was wrong; the map that was always in my head was… torn. The only place I could see was the armoury and the place I was at right now, something was definitely wrong. I willed myself to calm down, finding a staircase wasn’t that hard, immediately, I ran down it, dodging people climbing up on the way. Finally I was outside the castle, why the hell did I make it so big?

“I can see you,” said a voice behind me, immediately, I lost concentration and my shield dropped, I whirled around only to get into a choke hold.

Crap.

It wasn’t tight by it held me fast, I clawed at the arm but the person was taller than me by an inch. His face towered over me and cold green eyes stared down at me.

“Who the hell are you?” he said but I stayed silent and glared. His choke hold grew tighter and it affected me, my head pounded. Hell, this isn’t supposed to happen, I’m a god for Notch sake, this wasn’t in the contract.

“Teep stop,” a voice shouted, Rythian’s. Teep dropped the hold and I fell to the ground on my knees. Rubbing my throat, Rythian, Zoey and Haley jogged over. Standing up and brushing myself off, I glared at them. 

Rythian handed me a katar, "This is yours?" he asked and I took it. Suddenly something whistled by my ear.

"Help me."

Drip, drip, drip. The annoying sound of the water droplets woke Death up, truth is Death hated his name, in fact he hated every name, except one actually, his wrists were shackled to the walls with the Notchdamn shackles he couldn’t remove because of the magic. Torture was over at least, he thought. Death looked down onto his bare chest which was covered in slashes. The scars already closing up the black void, no blood spilled, at least he didn’t have to step in the murky red liquid. Part of the contract, no blood and you can’t die either.

Well shit, Sjin could torture Death all he wanted and he couldn’t do anything about it.

Footsteps approached and Death tensed, he could sense him coming. Sjin with a bright smile on his face walked over to the bars. If Death could move his fingers, he could have flipped the bird by now; instead he spat at Sjin’s feet and glared.

“Oh? Still have that spunk huh?” Sjin laughed. Death pulled at his chains which rattled wanting to kick his face and slam it into a wall, although that might offend the wall. “Tsk, tsk.” Sjin shook his head and flicked two fingers up. Red symbols glowed and Death felt pain course through his body. He cried out loudly and gritted his teeth. Sjin lowered his fingers and the pain stopped, Death breathed heavily and struggled to lift his head to look at the smiling face of the man he wanted to kill.   

“Well,” Sjin laughed and turned to start walking, “that’s enough for today. Keep in mind of the deal I’m offering Death.” Sjin paused.

“Or should I say, Aaron?” Sjin sniggered and Death pulled at his chains again as he watched the man walk away. Death slumped to the ground, his head looking downwards and for the first time in a hundred years, tears hit the ground.

 That was the one name which he didn’t mind being called.

A/N: *Laughs harder* Everything is coming together and I didn't even plan this. Okay, I know this isn't focusing on Zoethian but trust me, it will focus back to the main people, Rythian and Zoey very...very soon.

-Val >:)