Swan Song || The Lost Boys - & The One Who Found Them...

Chapter IX ~ ᚺ ( Hagalaz ) Part I - Through Trial & Tears...

" Statt upp or svevna,
            gjev kraft til rota. "

[ Arise from your sleep, 
             give strength to the roots. ] 

____________

[ Through Dwayne's Eyes ]

I dreaded the upcoming minutes more than I had ever dreaded anything in my life before, well aware that confrontation was now inevitable. This mistake was mine & mine alone, & no possible power in the world could protect me from any kind of consequences.
I had failed. In every sense of the word. It was a realization that struck me the hardest once I arrived outside, along with a rough gust of wind that raged around the walls of the watchtower where I found myself hovering above the rain-covered platform for a few seconds before I descended with a sigh of defeat. My eyes flung open eventually, the untamed storm's countenance staring back at me through the cracks in the tapestry of rain, smiling a smile of soulless derision. And under its dark wings, three figures that stood on the outer edge of the platform about five steps apart from one another & faced my direction, eagerly awaiting my arrival.

Decades in the darkness had perfectly trained my eyes, so it didn't take long for them to adjust & immediately recognize every single one of those figures without me having to try hard. 

My gaze fell upon the one closest to me which was David, our leader, with Paul standing to his left & Marko to his right like two wingmen, either of them tossing judgemental yet at the same time amused looks my way.
David on the other hand had a wide grin plastered across his visage, one that radiated a great sense of gloating & spite; in fact so much of it that it immediately made my blood boil. The cone of light from the nearby lighthouse literally turned his blonde mullet into a small fire with bright golden flames, only highlighting his toothy grin & the two large fangs that defined it. 

I watched them retract slowly but surely which took away at least some of my own tension, yet it was not nearly enough to completely tame my inner beast.
With solemn feet I trod the rain-covered ground, my eyes glued to those of David whilst his still unspoken thoughts began to whisper inside my mind with the same narcissistic undertone I remembered from David himself.
They were all about Lily & her only; some reasonable, others tangled & ambiguous, & a few disturbing to the core, nearly unspeakable. Sexual. Their mere existence made my skin crawl with disgust & my heart pound with deafening rage, but I was forced to contain myself for Lily's very sake. I had no other choice but to approach the situation with absolute caution if I wanted to get her out of harm's way as soon as possible… 

My eyes drifted away from David to my two other brothers; first to Paul who merely shook his head at me while a mischievous smirk rolled across his face, then to Marko whose expression revealed that he was already questioning my loyalty towards them. I saw him flash his fangs, passively demonstrating his opinion on the whole matter. He was the most enraged of them all, I could literally smell it from my current position… 

David's low & almost tuneful chuckle pulled my attention back to him, our so highly valued leader, causing my breath to vibrate in my chest. He knew that I was on the verge of snapping & seemed to fully thrive in that anger of mine, purposely adding some fuel to the flame. 

          " Well done, Dwayne… Well done. You caught the little mouse, & you caught it well. Looks like I underestimated you. Calm waters run deep after all ~ " 

His chuckle transmogrified into a throaty laugh, one that the other two joined in without seeming to care much about the shadow of disdain in my eyes. It was the final spark to start the fire.