Written In The Scars

Chapter 12

The sight was gruesome, It seemed as if I entered the death chamber. Piles of Headless bodies lied everywhere and the aura of human flesh decaying was awful. There was barely any room for me to walk through but I didn't go back and stepped over dead bodies to make it through. I clung onto the sword with my only hand, I managed to get on the other side of the room with my shoes soaked in blood, unfortunately, it was a dead end. "There has to be something here," I said to myself. Bodies were making it hard for me to find a way.

It didn't seem like there were any other doors, maybe it was just a room to store humans marked at storage, maybe I'm in the wrong chamber. I decided to head back but then something caught my eye. I saw a lever sticking out of a dead man's eye socket. "Should I pull the lever?" I asked myself, part of me was saying no, but I was out of options.

I pulled the lever with all my might and it slowly came down and then to a halt. I could hear the sound of rusty iron coming back to life. I looked around to see if it made a difference and it did, across the room, I saw that it created a pathway between two walls. "Great" I mumbled.

I made my way towards it, ignoring the dead bodies, I went on and it was then when I heard a whisper "Alex", I stopped and looked around but I couldn't pinpoint the source or its location. I turned back and hurried into the dark pathway. I saw nothing but darkness and kept moving forward. It was a long walk until I bumped into a metal door. "That's gotta be it" I whispered in glee. I pushed the door and it opened without any real difficulty.

Dozens of oil lamps lit up the room, I picked one from the right as I put my sword back in the scabbard and investigated the room. It looked like just another ordinary room. There has to be something, "a lever?" I wondered but there didn't seem to be one. "a switch?" but that too was not present. I sighed and dropped down on my knees, throwing the lamp against the wall and covering my face with the only hand I had left. And then I heard the whisper again, faint but clear. This time it said "Only if you'd have followed the plan", it was Luke's voice, I quickly got up and looked around. I started to panic, the whispers grew louder and louder. 

I covered my ear as I leaned against the wall, waiting for the sound to go away. "The plan Alex, the plan we made, you ruined it". I screamed, as loud as I could and heard the echoes but the whispers faded. I sat there and cursed myself for not sticking to the plan. Only if I was a tad bit more courageous. There was no time to regret, I had to make my wrongs right, I had to find the resources! I couldn't simply afford to waste more time in that room, I got out through the same corridor I came from and to the storage room filled with headless dead bodies, I made my way towards the exit stomping on them.

I searched thoroughly but there didn't seem to be anything there besides lifeless humans and ancient showpieces which oddly seemed familiar. Maybe the only thing left were those dead bodies in the storage room. Maybe they have hidden it elsewhere, I had to find an answer soon, my body was giving up on me, I felt weak as if all the energy has been drained out of my body, my stomach begging me to feed him but I had nothing left, no water nor any rations so I let it growl.

I sat in a corner ready to die, I couldn't simply go back to him empty-handed, he already hates me for what I did. I couldn't even bring myself to stab me, fear had already got the best of me. I sat there resting against a wall and staring at the corridor in front of me, the darkness it contained, the amount of blood lost there and those motionless creatures who had dreams of their own now rested in peace after fighting tirelessly to survive, sadly no one did. Not even myself, the future king now awaited his end after failing everyone, at that moment I gave up.

From the corridor, I see something cast a shadow, approaching me. Definitely sound of footsteps, there stood Luke without any expression as if he was dead. I didn't even have the power to call out his name nor I could see him in his eyes after what I did. He stood there almost 10 feet away, staring at me. 

"Alex, why didn't you kill your father that night? Didn't we plan it together? Wasn't it your idea? I am disappointed in you" He said. I looked down, he didn't sound like Luke. I was about to apologize but another figure appeared and it was Emma, still wearing white and her hairs shining as always. I was shocked, I just couldn't believe what I was seeing, I saw her lifeless earlier this day and now she appears in front of me like that. She stood beside Luke.

"I wouldn't have died if you'd have stuck to the plan, Alex, there wouldn't be so many casualties, you could have saved us but in truth, you failed and betrayed us, I despise you" Emma delivered, her voice was full of hatred and anger, I wondered if I was seeing illusions again or was this the reality?

Two small figures appeared, the two kids, the same kids who suffered hunger an died because of me, I killed their father. "Killer" they both shouted. "KILLER" "KILLER" "KILLER" they kept shouting I had to cover my ears and shouted "NO! I am not a killer" repeatedly until they stopped and stood there motionless with their eyes fixated on me just like Luke and Emma.

I could hear another figure approaching but it didn't matter anymore, I had already given up, I didn't care about anything happening to me now nor about any of the illusions my mind played. "Alex?" a gentle familiar voice filled my ears, "Mother," I said under my breath, I looked up and saw her standing there with a smile. Even though I knew it was unreal but I couldn't stop myself from getting and approach her. Leaning against the wall and dragging my feet along I got closer and closer to her. I wanted to hug her, I wanted to cry on her shoulder, I wanted to tell her everything I had experienced. I opened my arms and her expression changed, her smile turned into something evil and she pushed me, so hard that crashed into the wall I was leaning on earlier.

Blood dripped from my mouth and my back hurt like hell. "You really disappoint me, Alex didn't I thought you to watch your steps? It really hurt when you stomp on my dead body, look what you did to me" She said before lifting her shirt a little and showing a wound on her belly. Her body must be somewhere in that storage then. I didn't know how to feel, I knew it wasn't real and why was this happening to me. Five of them started to approach me, each asking the same question, "WHY?" With each step, my heart beat increased and I closed my eyes hard and covered my ears, wanting them to leave me alone. The voice faded away and so did the figures when I opened my eyes, but something felt odd, I wasn't in the mansion anymore, I was somewhere else!