Another Nail In The Coffin

[MamaBearJade 2090]

The darkness. How much longer could she stay in there? It had been how long? Minutes? Hours? Days? She couldn’t tell anymore. The stench of rotten flesh and decay assaulted her nose. How long was she down there this time? Time was lost to her as she sat chained in the room. What had she done this time? Unable to remember when she was brought in, she just sat there, listening to the spiders and the water. Her hands, long since numb, stayed behind her as she slowly loses the will to fight. He had been a friend, in a way, up until this point. A challenge. Now he was her tormentor. The darkness seemed to take hold of more than just her heart.

“What if I bring Garth here?” his voice echoed into the dark. “You aren’t learning.”

Her heart sank as she voice taunts her, spouting off names of her friends. She screamed trying to get free. “No! Don’t hurt them!” she screamed as she tried to get free. Something hit her hard and her eyes flew open.

She sat in a room on her own bed. Tears streaming down her face as she looked around. Light, safety. Was it all a dream? She looked down at her hands, the bites that had covered her were gone, the scars from her shackles, slowly fading. She pulls her knees close as she sits there. “Kaila…what can I do?” she asked herself. Slowly she put her head on her knees. The recent elven day events still fresh in her mind.

She had gone to join Aislinn in an attempt to save her fellow Mali. At first they were turned away, so she found a way around the Rose point. Slipping through the trees with Aislinn close behind her. The darkness had slowly seeped out of her mind from recent events. The need to kill the guilty and cruel men of the Rose drove her on. However, a sentinel, a friend she had quickly made over the course of a few years, was with them. She watched in horror as the Rose, Ford, slit Aenor’s throat. She bit back a scream as she watched the blood spill from Aenor.

No, this wasn’t happening. She wanted to go to him but her body felt like lead. She screamed his name as the darkness slowly returned. Aislinn, the one who started the fall of her mind, pulled a dagger from her, taking the poison and heading out. He was quickly defeated and was struggling to fight. Marek, her other friend, the one person whom tried to get inside her mind and heal her, fell before her, taking a bolt. She screamed their names. She tried to fight her way out of the darkness to help them.

“Laila!” a voice in the dark called. “Laila! RUN!”

Unable to see where she was going, she ran. She had to get help. She ran through Malinor, screaming for help, screaming for anyone to save her friends. Not a single elf turned. The weight of who she was pulled her further into the darkness. Laila was not of Malinor, no, she wasn’t even of Darkhaven. She slowly slipped out of Malinor, back to the blood stained ground by the rope bridge. Tears filled her eyes as she pictured each of her friends tortured, killed.

As her mind slowly slipped, she walked onward. A very distant “halt” was the only reason she had stopped. “M-Marek.” She whispers. The rose stood before her, shouting. What, she did not know. All she knew was that Marek was somewhere. What happened next she cannot recall, all she knew was that her head was hurting when she woke up.

“Finally awake sweetheart?” a voice asked.

Laila looked around the room, unable to pinpoint where the voice came from, until a very familiar one called her name. She turned as her hair was grabbed. Not making a sound, she felt a blade cut through her hair, shaving it down to stubble. She was quickly released and a new voice filled her mind. Someone was questioning her. She couldn’t hear what he said. That’s when the screams started. Marek was being tortured! She turned and covered her ears. She cried out for it to stop, her mind breaking as she listened to his screams.

Someone quickly grabbed her, carried her away from the screams. She didn’t know what was happening until the familiar voices of Alu and Garth broke through the fog. “Have you ever been to Malinor and talked with its people?” the voice yelled. Shaking the fog she whimpered. “Once…” Her eyes staring ahead, no longer seeing.

Shuffling caused her to turn, Marek had been brought up and tied to a post. His body covered in the stench of rotting flesh. Just as she was about to go to him, she was thrown into Garth’s protective arm. She turned to Marek. “M-Marek.” She whispered as she stared at him. “S-Saved….m-me…” Her voice cracking as she stared. A rose walked over and smiled as he dumped rats onto Marek.

The screams of his death forced her to turn and cower into Garth’s chest. She screamed for them to stop. She had to get it to stop. After a moment, the gurgled gasp of Marek forced her to push away and run to Marek. She buried her face into his chest, mourning for his death. Even being eaten alive by rats was too cruel for her. She ignored the bites as rats turned on her. She sobbed into his shirt. Garth tried to pull her away but she would not budge, instead, cutting Marek free and pulling his cooling body onto her back.

She struggled in silence to carry him back to Salvus, losing her mind as the blood soaked her clothes. She finally collapsed near the grave and stared at Marek’s corpse. “M-Marek…” she stammered as she tried to sew him together, heal him. “P-Please…” She begged for her friend to come back to her. She managed to finish sewing him when the realization finally hit her. She screamed and cried over his body. Garth tried to console her but she refused. “M-Monks…” she said.

She managed to get Garth to let her go to the monks, pulling Marek onto her back. It was her fault he had died. Another innocent she had killed. Her mind breaking as she parted from Garth and walked towards the temple. She did not even make it half-way before she had collapsed from exhaustion. Unaware of how it happened, or why, she awoke, healed and with Marek in a field. He was breathing! She lunged at him, sobbing into his blood soaked clothes.

It would not be long now, until the darkness fully consumes her.

[3andD 1722]

I see your character hasnt had the best time since her killing. Also, great read! ))