Where The Wind Blows

20

{LAWRENCE}

I feel like something is missing from me but I just don't know what.

I look at Jeanine and even she seems like something has gone from her. But I am not sure about Cillian because he seems normal... Except he is running down the corridors and we are trying to follow and protect him with our weaponry.

So we keep running in the corridor until we reach a door and no one will bother to barge it open.

"You two take down the soldiers whilst I'll open the door." Cillian says and he turns around, facing the door and begins to type this code into it (I think it is to open it).

Jeanine and I turn around and what we see is a swarm of militia charging towards us. So we grab out guns and fire rapidly, letting my pistol jolt in my hands but my grip keeps it steady.

One shot and one person is on the floor, dead or dying.

But the opposing team will show no mercy.

I keep firing in the weapon and more people fall to the floor with blood pouring out of them.

I hear the door open with a hisssssss... and we run in, shut the door. I turn around and I see we are standing on polished black flooring, red walls coated around the area. The floor only leads to one direction: forwards. My eyes follow the path until I reach a pair of legs, coated in silver silk. I look up and see-

No.

This must have been a trap.

Anne sits in front of us, smiling. No wait. Smirking at us at how she has outsmarted us.

(JEANINE)

"No..." I hear Lawrence whisper to herself as she cannot stop looking at the villain right in front of us. She turned to Cillian shook her head. "You lead us to a trap..."

"I didn't thi-"

"No, YOU BROUGHT US HERE. YOU KNEW IT!" Lawrence shouted with wrath but then tones down. "Why...?"

“Look me in the eye, Lawrence."

She doesn't.

"Lawrence... Please... I brought you here because you are my daughter and I love you-"

"If you loved me then you wouldn't have tried to killed me back in Buckingham Palace."

I can feel Anne's glare lurk over me menacingly.

"Cillian, my love?" Anne coos as he pleads for Lawrence's trust.

He looks up and sees her beady eyes stare at him. He looks up, his face restless.

"Yes... Anne?" he asked, swallowing with anxiety every now and then.

She made that hand gesture to show that Cillian should approach closer to her.

She cupped his face, still sitting in her throne, pulling that evil smirk she had treasured all along.

"How did these girls get here? And you were supposed to guard them." she told him. "I'm worried."

Cillian pulls a scared expression on his face, hands trembling with fear and constantly swallowing on his saliva.

Anne runs her finger down his scar on his face and I see her fumble for something beside her but comes out with nothing. They kiss and then a purple spear-like thing pierces through his Emperor clothing. His body jolts and it doesn't move.

She places a hand onto his shocked face and pushes him away from her and he collapses onto the floor.

"NOOOOOOO!!!" Lawrence screams from the top of her lungs and runs towards him and so do I.

{LAWRENCE}

I kneel beside Cillian and I scan over him but there is nothing from him. No words.

Only gasps for air.

"No... No..." I see the wound in his chest and it looks so empty and uneven. No blood seeps out of it. Nothing at all.

"Please... Don't go..." I shed a tear from my eyes and it lands on Cillian. "Please."

His eyelids slowly stopped looking at me and he gives away his last breath.

"No... Please... You are not... No..." I clutch his clothing and I sob constantly, shaking continuously.
"Dad... Please come back..."

Next to me, I can hear Jeanine mutter a few words but they were interrupted by my sobs of grief.

Cillian's skin is now pale white and his eyes are bloodshot.

I glare at Anne with so much anger in my body, filling me up like a tsunami filling up a small lake in a poor district and I roar at her.

"YOU MONSTER!" I scream with tears trickling down my face. "YOU MADE HIM LEAD TO HIS DEATH. YOU... YOU... YOU VLAKAS!"

Anne sat there and laughed. "Learning Greek now, are you?" then she stopped. "No one calls me an idiot."

I haven't learnt Greek...
Why did I come up with something as...
I don't know.
Technical.

The Lunar Phoenix is Greek, my inherited one. I hear in my head. They came from the Origins of Greek but later on, they were forgotten until the First War.

"Yeah? Well... Why did you think you could use Cillian for your evil deeds?"

"Because he was so vulnerable. I shown him what he really was-"

"Yeah, a fragile man who got drawn into this horror!" I yell at Anne and all she gave was the same old smile of hers.

I rise up, standing on my two feet and I walk over to Anne, ignoring the shouting of Jeanine within the background - trying to stop me - but I keep marching on.
I can feel my fists charging up with pure fire and I glare up at the Empress with anger.

"Are you going to kill me after what I have done?" she questions sardonically, her grin emphasising it. "Getting revenge is the most easiest thing to do but performing it is harder, young girl..."

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" I shout as the anger inside me bubbles more. I clutch my fists, fingernails digging into the palm of my hands.

Anne smiles at me and stands up, marches down the staircase and walks up towards me. She rests a hand onto my cheek and rubs it gently.
"I know you want power deep inside. But you just want to be the hero and contain it but you don't know that it will only make you worse..."

As she says that, I strike a punch to her face only for her to parry and my fist hooking in the air. Anne stands back up and thrusts her hand out, launching me off my own two feet, like in Buckingham Palace but with more force.

I hurl through the air, screaming, trying to claw the nothingness like a soft fabric which can handle my weight but I skid across the polished black floor, almost hitting my head on the door.

I try so hard to get up but I hurt everywhere: eyes not focusing, head pounding, legs and arms and body throbbing.

Is this our downfall?