AVENGER

This tactic didn’t work. Soon after slumber feel over his eyes, both dead and living began to rise in his dreams. The purple-haired goddess stood there, her throat slit, a trickle of blood running down her neck. She raised an arm towards him, and spoke.

“We will not go,” she said. Her voice was strangely distant, metallic, ringing as though echoed off metal walls.

The gnarled face of the once-winged child appeared next to the deity’s, and she spoke from behind the mutilated mask of flesh that was her face. “No, we will stay with you forever.”

Once, that might have been a heartening thought. But now all the cold words did was send ice through his spine and remind him of the girl, her wings lying on the floor, chopped clean off her back, lying splayed over the body of the chalk-white goddess.

The tall blonde appeared, muscled and strong, looking very much alive. Of course, he was not. Once, his killer had almost been his lover, and the same man’s sword went through his heat on the night of his death. This spectre did not speak, only looked at the other two, who would not look at him.

“You betrayed us,” the deity said, although it was not clear to whom she was speaking.

“You didn’t deserve to go on,” agreed the girl.

“The hell of death is not enough purgatory for you, Gateau Mocha,” said the deity.

He breathed a quiet sigh of relief at the realization that she was not talking about him. It was his fear, ever since his brother’s death, that the others blamed him for their deaths. And, the true knife in in his heart, they were all dead and could therefore not tell him their true feelings.

“The hellfires of life should have been your fate,” continued the girl. “You should have continued to live with the knowledge that you had killed all that you loved.”

“No,” Mocha said, smirking, “the boy lives yet.”

The murdered deity shook her head sadly. “Does he?"

“See for yourself, woman.”

“Brother! Brother!” cried the voice.

“Brother!” he yelled, looking wildly for the familiar body.

“I’m here... It’ll be alright... I’m alive... You’ll see... Things... Things will be fine... Just...”

“Marron!” It was her voice. “Wake up! Oh, wake up!” She was crying, her voice choked on her own sobs.

He couldn’t open his eyes. He let out a pained grunt.

A door slammed somewhere to his left. “Tira! What’s going on!”

“He... Oh, Chocolate, it’s terrible! He was screaming in his sleep, calling out for... for.. calling out for Carrot, and now he won’t wake up. Oh, Chocolate!”

“It’s OK, Tira, it’s alright. Probably nothing.”

He felt a cold hand on his cheek, and he realized then that he was hot. He was running a wild fever, and he was sweating.

“Marron?” asked Chocolate. “Can you hear me?” He reached out, wildly, and grabbed her shirt. “M-Marron?” He flung her across the room, and she shrieked as she hit the wall.

“Chocolate!” the woman yelled.

“GET OUT!” he yelled.

“Shut up up there!” shouted someone in the apartment downstairs.

He heard the younger sister gather up Chocolate, and taker her sibling out of the room.

After the door closed, he sat up, the world dark in front of him. “Oh, perfect,” he mumbled. “Perfect, just perfect.” He touched his face. “Blind, blind, oh how perfect,” he muttered.

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