"Did you hear that? Sounded like a thump." B tried to whisper, but the total silence of the night made it impossible to do so.

"Quiet down, I heard nothing." C hissed, as he kept his eyes on the front door. "All the windows have been thatched up, maybe it's a cat on the roof."

"I will go check it out." B said and got up from his stool to head towards his father's room. C hastily picked up Valeya.

"Don't go alone." C said.

"I knew you were going to follow so wh-ugh~~." B turned a corner and gasped. C was just behind him when B's body fell into him. In surprise, he dropped his rapier and used both hands to lift up B.

"Dude what are you…" C titettered off as he saw the red warm blood running down B shoulders and gushing from a clean slit in his neck.

Instantly, a figure was charging from his father's room towards him with a dagger. C threw away B's body and tried to pick up Veleya, but before he could do that he had to grab into the killer's hand. This up close to the knife, C saw the red shean of blood that had coated its surface.

The man didn't retreat, but instead kept pushing and pushing the knife towards C's face. C gasped as the strength of the opponent slowly overwhelmed his, and any attempt to kick the other guy was met with a counter block with the man's leg.

And to his horror and agony, the knife slowly slid through his eyelid, sticking it in place. Then came the horrible sensation as his eye was punctured like a melon. And then the knife half hilted itself in his eye socket, reaching so far in that he wondered if it had reached his brain.

He begged it to kill himself, for it was agony. He was in so much agony that he didn't even notice as the assailant was tackled by Alex. C dropped to the ground and held his eyes while crying from the other.

Crying was making him feel pain.

Alex grappled with the man, and he was not surprised to see his face matched with the man that had been snooping around.

A million thoughts had gone through his head but they were abruptly stopped as a pain rocketed through his body. He looked down to see the knife stuck in his lower abdomen.

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Gritting his teeth, Alex rolled on his back and stretched his hand to grab B's dropped rapier, Venma. He quickly got on his feet and charged at the assailant who was trying to stand up.

He did an overhead strike and his enemy dodged to the left. That left his back to the wall, so Alex stabbed towards him, but to his surprise the man barely dodged his thrust and jumped towards him.

Alex watched in crystal clarity as the knife in his opponent's hand was aimed towards his right lung. His thoughts slowed, with his abdomen bleeding and lung pierced, he doubted he would come out of this alive.

But then from his left C's rapier Veleya came slashing in from above and split the man's head from his body like butter. Bone and muscle offering no resistance to the mastercraft rapier.

Alex's legs went weak and he toppled over, hurting his ass as he kept racking rapid ragged breaths. The body of the opponent had dropped on the floor, from his neck came out spurts of blood that stained the floor crimson.

His head was beside where he was sitting, the man's dead eyes staring into his.

Staring into his, not stopping, not blinking not doing anything just staring and staring and staring and stari-

"Kill...me." C's voice broke Alex from his panic, he looked down to see C laying on the floor, crying tears and blood. His face, Alex's face, broken with agony.

"Please...please end me." C began to cry even more and Alex couldn't get the scene of his own face crying out of his head, with one eye popped up and the other shaking with tears and pain.

Alex twitched his metaphorical limb and C's suffering ended. B was also taking his last breath, too much loss of blood giving him the sweet heady sensation, and in seconds, he turned to smoke too.

The boy stayed there as he stared at the head beside him. Those eyes, they just kept looking, they just kept staring.

It was only when he felt light headed did he remember his abdomen injury. He looked down to see that his clothes were soaked, so he unsteadily got to his feet and numbly went towards his mother's room.

His mother was still in her never ending sleep, no wiser to the ordeal her own son had gone through to protect her.

Alex looked at those thoughts and felt shame, guilt, worry. His resolve should not waver, not on this.

He collapsed beside her bed, and his hands knocked over several vials of medicine as he desperately tried to grasp the medicine needed to stop bleeding.

After knocking over half the table, Alex used his arms to climb the bedside table. And there on the end of the table was the vial. quickly he uncorked it and drank from it.

He collapsed back into the floor and heaved great breaths. Slowly, but surely, his vision was getting darker.

The medicine was not fast enough to stop the bleeding. He was going to die.

He was dead.

Ah fuck, he was going to die. Alex shook as tears came out. His body heaving whatever he had eaten earlier.

He was dead. All his sacrifice and this is what the world repaid him with? Fuck he didn't even live it fully because of his stu-mother. It was not her fault but he couldn't not blame her.

No.

No no no no no.

He still had too much to do, he wanted to do so much more than stay at home and do nothing all day long.

Alex grabbed his arms and forced them to move. His fingers barely touched the bed covers his mother was sleeping in.

Swiping them off of her, he twisted it so it bunched up. Not having the ability to wrap them around his body the normal way, Alex rolled over the blanket so that he was laying on it.

He grabbed the two ends and knotted them over his injury, and with a final burst of strength, Alex tightened the makeshift blanket bandage.

Then he welcomed the darkness.