Rhapsody

Chapter XV | Regret.

An anguished yell echoed from the room beyond the laboratory, calling to Xavier to investigate its cause. As the 19-year-old emerged from the wooden mess his roommate had transformed the door into, he was graced with the bodies of three grown men, all in their 20s. Two had their throats impaled with the wooden ends of the makeshift bo Markel no doubt wielded; the third had a syringe stuck painfully in the abdomen and looked to be temporarily dazed.

Markel sat in the midst of it all, cradling a mess of orange hair that Xavier immediately recognized as Sicily.

The black-haired student rushed over, taking his girlfriend's body into his arms, hugging her to his stained front as she, cut, bruised and bleeding, wrapped her arms around his neck.

'I was so scared... I thought that Markel got there too late, that they'd snapped your neck...' Sicily responded with no words, only burying her face into his shoulder and sobbing slightly.

'They were... going to... you know... kill her. That syringe,' Markel pointed at the needle sticking vertically out of the third man's stomach, 'was full of some sort of toxin. Not enough to probably kill her quickly, but definitely enough to doom her to a slow, prolonged painful death by cell deterioration. Those coffins and bodies we saw... they were here for at least two months now, the ones that were still alive. The oldest must've been here at least a year or two already.'

Thinking back to the forsaken laboratory again, Xavier nodded as he absorbed the information.

'Probably true, really. What is this, a cult?'

'Close enough.' Sicily had stopped crying, now staring at Markel with puffy eyes.

Or rather, staring at the figure who was slowly rising behind Markel.

Sicily struck just as the needle plunged into Markel's shoulder, eliciting a surprised yelp from the 18-year-old as he suddenly found the ground coming up to meet him. A fiercely-delivered roundhouse kick over Markel's head sent the syringe of liquid flying from Markel's assailant's grasp, and forced the attacker to go chasing after it. Sicily angrily bounded after him, bowling him over and pounding strikes into his head and back.

In the chaos, however, Sicily did not manage to notice his fingers wrapping themselves around the syringe, and was unpleasantly surprised when she suddenly found that she was paralysed from the shoulders down.

One glance at her arm told her everything she needed, but it was already too late- Sicily could only watch helplessly as a knife, produced from the man's back pocket, plunged itself into her heart.

The next few moments were a blur of chaos and pain as Markel's and Xavier's voices blended together in a harsh cacophony of noise, each fighting their own battles. Until Sicily's assailant hit the ground did the two turn and address their friend, who was starting to lose focus of her surroundings.

'Sicily.' A hand, rough but gentle, shook her right shoulder, careful to not do anything that could make the wound even larger.

'Xavier. Markel.' The two words brought tears into her eyes with the sheer effort and pain it took to say them, and she silently wished to be rid of the unwanted saltwater teardrops.

'Hush, Joy, we're here for you. Hold on a bit, right?' She could hear the tears and trembling in Xavier's voice, and longed to reach out to him, to comfort him, even if it was for the last time.

'Mark.' Blinking away her tears, Sicily's brilliant jade green eyes focused in on the mop of disheveled mocha hair kneeling beside her.

'The Rhapsodies' second clue is in the laboratory. It's in the topmost cabinet, the one closest to the coffins. Open it with a stick, though- things come spilling out. And Xavier,' Sicily turned her rapidly-unfocusing orbs onto the grieving mess of black beside her head, 'you'll always be my Golden-Eyed Tiger. See you on the other side?'

Shaking his head in disbelief, Xavier managed to choke out, 'I promise.'

'That's good. You two were good friends. It was a good life.'

I'm coming home, Mother, Father.

When Xavier and Markel emerged from the white-brick building, they found bright flashing lights, an endless buzz of voices that mashed together, and comfort in neon orange blankets that enveloped them and hid them from the pain of the outside world.

A/N: Humph. Was that tragic enough? I'm not really sure anymore, because I can't write touchy-feely things for my life. Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed the latest installments of this chapter. The next chapter's going to take a tad bit longer to update.

Cheerio!