I don’t even know how long I sat there, holding Rowan’s corpse. 10 minutes? An hour? A day? A week? A month? But it didn’t matter. He was gone. And as much as I blamed myself… I knew who was really at fault.

So, after a while, I wiped away my tears, gently laid Rowan down, and stood up, staring at the door at the end of the hall. I would rip him apart. I would take… everything from him. His army, his destiny, anybody he somehow loved… and especially his arms and legs.

I tried to take a step forward, stumbling, the full weight of the top half of my body completely giving up the will to keep fighting.

I took another step forward, then another, slowly steeling my resolve and stumbling less each step. Eventually, I made it to the door, and, despite it being metal and likely heavily reinforced, I kicked it straight off the door frame. I didn’t see anything.

Except for the dark figure with that frustrating smile.

“Howdy Steve! I take it you’re having a good day?” He asked, before letting out a cackle.

“Go to hell.” I tightened my fists. I wanted nothing more than to punch him.

“Been there, done that. Say, where’s Rowan?”

“Shut up. Just shut up…”

“Aww, what? You miss him? Well, why do you think I kidnapped him from you all those years ago? He’s my son. I wanted him back.”

“You selfish bastard! We were happy without you! And why the hell did you just let him die?!”

“Because. Hope. It’s my job to fight any part of Hope.”

“He was your fucking son!”

“Eh,” he replied, shrugging. “I have another.”

Immediately, I unsheathed both my swords.

“Keep talking. I’ll cut that smile off your face as slowly as possible.”

“Heh…”

Knightmare cackled, each second of his laughter feeding up the fire lighting up my bloodstream.

“You think you know suffering? Kid, I know we will always be enemies… but trust me. Things could, and will get so much worse.”

“I swear… I’ll take everything from you. Everything you have fought to have. I’ll make you pay for killing Rowan, and my parents.”

Knightmare looked at me, still smiling.

“Then do it. It’s not like Rowan’s here to hold you back.”

I screamed, the dam that was my resolve bursting. I swung wildly, without thought. I’d never done that. I’d always have some thought behind my swings. But all I thought about was making Knightmare pay.

“Sloppy. Pathetic. Weak,” Knightmare said, taking everything hit without flinching. Everything just went through him. “Are you even trying?”

I activated both my swords, and swung harder. Yet still, nothing hurt him.

Knightmare yawned, then kicked me to the ground. Grinning madly, he looked down at me, so confident that he held all the cards.

I scanned my surroundings finally. We were in a room that was clearly unfinished. There were no objects inside, aside from wires sticking out of the walls, showing its unfinished nature.

I closed my eyes, trying to focus on doing something with one of my swords. But all I could think of was Rowan’s smile.

“GAH!” I screamed.

You’re pathetic, my swords whispered. You never deserved Rowan. He deserved better.

I screamed again, even louder, and explosions erupted from my swords, destroying the floor. I fell all the way down, to the destroyed Colliseum. I wanted to just let the fall take me… I wanted to die. I closed my eyes, accepting my fate… but I didn’t hit the ground.

Hesitantly, confused, I opened my eyes, and looked down. I was… floating? Wait, no. There were arms holding me up.

I looked above me, and saw Bob’s face, staring down at me.

“I’m… sorry I couldn’t save your friends. The explosions were too fast for me to react,” he apologized, his voice cracking.

After he set me down, I responded “Well, obviously. Explosions are fast. Duh.”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

…

“What happened to Rowan?”

Don’t you dare cry Steve. Don’t cry don’t cry don’t cry, I told myself.

Let it out. Hope said.

And so, I did. I hugged Bob tightly and cried up a storm, as he was forced to let me cry into his shoulder. I felt so many emotions rushing through my mind at once. Anger, emptiness, grief, embarrassment…

“God, how pathetic you are. No wonder your parents let themselves die, they probably didn’t want to deal with you,” Knightmare announced, up in the sky.

I pushed Bob away, turned around and looked up at Knightmare, who was floating, and I screamed “ILL RIP YOUR MOUTH OFF AND MAKE YOU EAT IT!”

“Wow, that doesn’t even make any sense.”

Bob stepped in front of me, his shoulders perched up, and he said “Leave me… us alone. What did we ever to do even deserve this torment?”

“It’s never been about what’s ‘deserved’, no. It’s always been about what must happen. It is my destiny to oppose the likes of you.”

Bob stared at Knightmare, for minutes on end, a cold silence between them. After a while, Bob said “I’m tired of you making things a living hell for us. We never asked for any of this… I’m done. I’m done with letting you walk all over us.”

“Yeah, sure! You’re a coward Rob, and you always will be!”

Bob screamed, leaping towards Knightmare, who just floated to the side and watched as Bob flew past him and landed on the other side of the destroyed Colliseum. A 40 foot long black spear appeared in Knightmare’s hand, and he thrusted it towards Bob.

Bob grabbed the end of the spear, ripped it out of Knightmare’s hand, spun it around, and attempted to slice through Knightmare. The spear phased through Knightmare, and cut the floating structure above him. With a smirk, Knightmare sent black tendrils shooting out of his back to retrieve the falling halves of the structure, then sent them flying towards Bob.

Bloody tendrils shot out of Bob’s front left half of his body, grabbing the left half of the cut structure, as his right hand grabbed the other half, and then he threw them back towards Knightmare.

Knightmare snapped his fingers as the pieces approached him, and they turned instantly into large piles of dust. I looked carefully to see if Rowan’s corpse fell out of the destruction… but saw nothing. Either he was turned into dust… or Knightmare took his corpse.

Still, I didn’t care what he did. No matter what, he would die today.

Thrusters appeared on my suit’s back as I grabbed ahold of my swords, and they pushed me up towards that bastard.

As I approached him, Knightmare ripped his fist through Bob’s gut, then threw him towards me. I flew out of the way, and Bob jumped right back into the battle. Before Bob could reach him, Knightmare disappeared.

“Watch out Steve!”

I quickly tried to turn around, but I felt something holding my leg. And then… a massive surge of pain.

“Fun fact. The body part containing the highest concentration of fear isn’t the brain… but the legs,” Knightmare said, swallowing something.

A tendril shot out of Bob’s back, reached the ground, and pushed him towards Knightmare, letting him punch him in the face.

After Knightmare flew back, somehow still grinning, more tendrils shot out of Bob’s back to hold him up in the air as he grabbed my wound.

“Hold still.”

He closed his eyes, focusing hard. I felt new bones and blood forming, twisting together to form a new leg. The feeling was simultaneously euphoric and horrifyingly painful.

In no time at all, my leg was restored.

“I… I don’t need your help.”

Bob stared at me, dumbfounded.

“Really? He just ate your fucking leg.”

“I need to do this alone. He killed Rowan.”

“You’re not the only one he’s hurt. Besides, you can tell he’s powerful. You can’t do this alone.”

Suddenly, Knightmare leapt on my back, one of his black tendrils wrapping around Bob’s back and yanking him away from me, before Knightmare bit into my shoulder, tearing the flesh easily.

“So pathetic… so weak. I can’t believe you ever thought anybody respected you.”

I screamed, and elbowed Knightmare in the face before spinning around and swinging one of my swords at him. Knightmare grabbed the sword, and crushed the blade easily.

“Like I said… pathetic.”

Fuck…

“Now… as weak as you are, I still need your powers. So I guess I’m getting dinner tonight.”

His black tendrils shot out of him and pierced into my sides, squirting out blood from the new wounds. I gasped. Every part of my body was filled with agonizing pain.

Then… he stared into my eyes, his own eyes turning from blood red into pitch black white. It felt like my soul was leaving my body…

But then, a yellow lightning bolt shot through the sky and hit Knightmare, knocking him back.

Bob and I both looked at where the lightning bolt came from… and saw Matthew.

A look of despair instantly appeared on Bob’s face, as he yelled out “Son! What are you doing here?! Go!”

He leapt towards his son, and Knightmare floated above me and kicked me down into the ground, then, black tendrils shot out from the ground and impaled my legs.

“Stay. I got some business to take care of.”

Suddenly, my non-broken sword landed right next to my head, the blade face down.

Shit… where’s my other sword?

I frantically searched in every direction. I couldn’t see anything. Then, I moved my arms in every direction I could, like I was making a damn snow angel. For a while, I couldn’t find anything. But then…

Feeling a piece of wood and metal, I twisted my arm as far as I could so I could grab the handle, and, thankfully managing to do so, I pulled it towards me. Then I lifted it above my face. My heart shattered, if anything of it even remained at that point.

Oh god… I’m a failure. I… I failed my parents.

You couldn’t do anything. You can tell how powerful Knightmare is, Hope reasoned.

Even still, I shouldn’t have been so stupid. I’m finally close enough to that bastard… and I can’t do shit.

Hope said nothing in response.

Weirdly… I didn’t hear any fighting. It almost sounded like I was hearing… a discussion? I focused my hearing, hoping to get something… and then…

“Let’s make a deal.”

I squirmed, writhed, trying my hardest to escape from the tendrils impaling me. But nothing I did worked.

Whatever he says Bob, don’t trust him.

Wait… Steve. I think… I can get you free.

Huh? How? You’re only a voice. How can you-

As I spoke, a spark of white electricity appeared, for only a fraction of a second, around one of the tendrils. And then another. And then… a full current of white electricity shot throughout my body. It was tingly… but not painful, weirdly. And in not even a second later, the tendrils disintegrated.

I slowly, carefully stood up, my breathing heavy, my heart racing. I could sneak up on Knightmare and end all of this. I picked up my swords, including my broken one, and I shuffled forward… only to collapse onto the ground.

“I’m… sorry, Rowan…”