“I’m sorry,” I cried desperately but none of them heard me.
I clutched at my ears trying to block it all out but it didn’t stop their words from worming deep inside to stab at my broken and poorly sewn back-together heart. All of them spoke all at once, their words jammed together and yet I heard every single one of them as clear as day.
“Her hands were cold when she put them around my neck like they’d been in the freezer or something. I didn’t like it.”
“If it wasn’t for you, Clara would be alive and me along with her. Do you even know how much we went through to be together? If it wasn’t for us you wouldn’t have made it to the top of that tower. If we’d just been selfish and left you behind we’d both have survived. It’s what we should have done.”
“Isabella is right. I told them all from the beginning that you were not worth our time. Way to prove me right, you flaccid dick.”
“She’ll look at me and I’ll see the hatred in her eyes. She won’t be my Gabby anymore. I’d rather die than see that and it’s all your fault. You act like I was out to get you but I had my reasons. I’m not even sure I want to keep fighting in this damn monster war and it’s all your fault.”
“I’m going to help Melumek and his most trusted disciples break every last seal. There is no goodness left in humanity for me to fight for. The cull will be the best thing I can give to this world before I die as well. Thank you for proving to me that this is the right path. I never would have done it if you hadn’t abandoned me.”
“You think we’re the best of friends but I couldn’t even trust you enough to tell you where I was going. What does that tell you? We were never really friends, Joe. You were just a convenient addition to my axe. What do I care if you cark it right here, right now?”
Stella was desperately pawing at the door, trying to dig her way through it, she even glowed bright a few times trying to Bash her way through. Whether the skill had been dampened by the cloak of the thieving class that hid her true nature from the manor house, or because she was now the size of a cat I don’t know but the door held firm. None of it worked no matter how desperately I wanted it to.
It wasn’t just her either. I might be less advanced in the transformation than her but I was little more than half the man I’d been when we came through that blasted door. Not that it mattered much while I was cowering on my knees in a corner with all this pain and torment being spewed at me by people I cared about. I’m not sure Theo and Clara fit that description entirely but I wasn’t gonna make a special category just for them especially when all of this was inside my own head.
I’d been around the room three times already, using my Blindsense, Identify, and Advanced Shadow Eye skills in desperate attempts to find the hidden key that would set me free of this mess. The only thing I’d really found had been a mouse hole just like the one in the main hall. It even had the same red eyes staring out at me.
Why on earth Old Man Wellington would want to watch me fail I had no idea. There were no bones here either so perhaps I was the first one who gave into the torment. Maybe I was the only one who had so much to be tormented about.
I looked at Stella and the pain in my chest swelled. I didn’t care so much if this quest took me down, but having her be trapped in here with me was just another torment and this one was entirely my fault. I should have just left her outside. She would have at least had a chance if I had.
As I watched her tiny drips of the black goop that covered her body fell to the floor disappearing almost as fast as a raindrop on hot concrete. My Master of Shadows skill was finally beginning to wear off and once it did I could no longer protect her. It was a skill I could only use once a day.
Rory dropped down in front of me, gripping both sides of my face in his ice-cold hands as his milky white eyes stared deep into my soul.
“She laughed while she did it you know,” he said in little more than a whisper. “She kept saying she should have done it years ago and that when you got home, you would be next. But you weren’t. Why did it happen to me and not you? Did I do something very bad?”
“No,” I practically wailed as I tore my head from his grip. “You didn’t do anything. It was all me. I did the bad thing, not you.”
Stella came barrelling over at my cry, bounding right through Rory’s small shivering form. The boy disappeared in a puff of smoke reappearing a good meter or two away as Stella pressed against me and tried to lick my face. I stroked her back, hissing through my teeth when my hand came away black from the shadow goop. What was left on her rippled and pulled together but it was thinning. Her true coat of white and tan was almost visible through the magical coating. It disappeared from my glove as quickly as it did from the floor.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“We’re running out of time, girl,” I said to the dog. “I’m so sorry.”
Stella let out a loud bark at odds with her tiny size and wagged her tail aggressively. A half smile turned my lips. She knew this was a bad situation, her desperate attempts to escape the room proved that, and yet she was still trying to cheer me up. Who could ask for a better companion?
Her next bark was more of a squeak and that small bubble of joy she awakened in me popped leaving nothing but gloom. From the mouse hole, the gleaming red eyes grew more intense. Old Man Wellington’s whiskered nose peeked out of the hole, his whiskers tossed about by what I could only assume was a blast of air from Pete the Poltergeist.
“Don’t give up now,” the tiny mouse of a man squeaked desperately from his place halfway in the wall. “You’re so close to beating this monster and setting me free.”
Something brushed against my hand. I yelped and yanked it toward my chest only to let it drop again when I realized it was just the blood-red drapery. I picked it up in one hand furiously glaring at the deep shadows hiding behind the useless fabric.
The shadows.
Cursing my own stupidy I shoved my entire arm into the darkness behind the drapery, closing my eyes and calling on my Unrelenting Force skill like my life depended on it, because you know, it kind of did.
I pulled my arm back and there he was, my little shadow gloop friend sitting on my wrist with the glob that might have been a head tilted to the side.
Miranda ran up to me then, her eyes blazing with fury and her dress as black as night again. “Don’t even think about it, Joe. I’m not done with you yet. Your death will help me break the next seal and when it does, Melumek will reach into this world with his righteous clawed fist and snuff out the lives of anyone left here that you care about.”
“Spout your bullshit to someone who cares,” I snapped at her, yanking my arm and the glob that rode on it out of her reach.
Stella jumped between me and Miranda, growling up a storm even in her tiny form. I took the moment to whisper my idea to the glob before Blinking across the room and stuffing it into the mouse hole.
“Hey, what the fuck?” Old Man Wellington’s squeaky voice came from inside.
I ignored it and whistled to Stella. She charged after me as I hurried for the door, not caring whose phantom she charged through. The wall of shades came barrelling down on us, screaming out every wrongdoing and every evil they could think of as they towered over me. I bellowed but it didn’t come out that way from my elongated mouth.
The door behind me was yanked open, the shadowy blob hanging from the knob on the other side. I shoved Stella throw the portal, scooped up the glob, and yanked the door closed behind me with a resounding bang. The voices of torment were cut off midsentence.
I sighed, my chest heaving as I dropped to the ground, pressing my back against the door and closing my eyes. Stella curled up against me, resting her tiny head in my lap. The almost nonexistent weight of the glob lingered for a moment but without another command, he disappeared back into the aether from whence he came.
“We… we made it,” I mumbled to myself as much as to Stella.
“Not yet you haven’t,” a squeaky voice screamed from beside me. “The poltergeist is still free. Hurry, there’s no time for rest now, come with me.”
I opened a single eye and watched as the white mouse bounded across the floor, heading for the stairs nearest to me. I flinched when he reached the first tread and the wall of golden light flashed up. I half expected the tiny mouse to be shot across the room to turn into little more than a bloody splatter on the far wall but instead, the wall of light flickered and burst into a cloud of sparkling dust. Old Man Wellington bounded up the stairs and turned at the top, screaming down at me to hurry.
Pete was having none of it. He came wailing from up above with a vengeance this time, his icy blast tearing right through my leather armor to stab at my body with thousands of tiny needles. Over and over he screamed in my ear, determined to make me listen.
Get out… Get out… Get out…
I stood taking a few quick steps toward the stairs when a click sounded behind me. I frowned and turned, eyeing the now-open front door. I hesitated then, staring at the portal that would lead me to salvation.
“No, don’t leave, you’re not finished yet,” the man mouse screamed from the top of the stairs.
I ignored him, charging back across the hall to grip Stella in my arms and bolt for the exit. Her shadow-made cloak was coming off in big globs now, leaving splashes of darkness behind us as her true coat was revealed. I reached the doorway just as her glowing purple eyes sputtered and went out, leaving nothing but soft brown orbs in their place. I shoved her through the door and out onto the stoop before the manor house could react to her mismatched class and attack her.
Get out…
“Stella, you stay right there, alright? I’ll be out in a minute.”
With that, I turned on my heel and bolted for the stairs. It was a fool move and I knew it but with Stella safe there was only one thing left for me to do; I had to end this madness once and for all.