Board Thread:Fan Fictions/@comment-29206018-20170115155633

Part 1: Pictures and story written by Tairais.

Part 2: Story written by HJ and Pictures by Doodle.

Richard was created by Tairais. Artemis, Oliver, and Elias were created by Doodle. Hen was created by ATasteForVintages.

Warning: Blood, feels, death.

Part 1 pictures and story by Tairais

 Fate, he decided, was a cruelly humorous and fickle mistress.

 It had been a simple idea, formed from many late nights cooking and chatting, as friends were wont to do. Granted, most friends weren't wont to committing m- "hunting." He had called it hunting not three hours earlier- but the thought was the same. Each of them been hunting numerous times on their own, so together they were likely nigh on unstoppable.

 That was what he had thought.

 In the glorious 20-20, rose-tinted glasses of hindsight, he probably should have remembered two things about his former mentor.

 He knew how to play a long game, and he knew how to make a point of death.

 And so, when they had begun to flee from the completed canvas of one rather grating and know-it-all banker, leaping over rooftops and climbing over wrought-iron fences, he had been too caught up in radiant joy and excitement to notice he had lost feeling in his legs until he crashed to the ground instead of clambering up the side of a wall.

 As he rolled over, he stared up into two sets of eyes, hungering blood-rich maroon and icy but darkly amused blue, gazing into his soul with disappointment, amusement, and just a hint of festering rage.

 <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">His Reckoning had come, it seemed. He was hardly surprised, calm as he offered up a resigned smile to the two ghosts he knew he'd never truly leave behind.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:700;font-style:italic;text-decoration:underline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Elias. <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;"> The thought came to him unbidden, and shattered his internal calm, though the external never wavered, never flickered.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">"I w-wonder if I w-will lose y-you t-too. It w-would n-not surprise m-me, b-but I s-should t-think it w-would hurt."

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">In blessed hindsight, he should have known it wouldn't have been as simple as that where his mentors were involved.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">He couldn't feel his legs, though it was hardly surprising. There was a rather substantial amount of blood pooling from a gash in his back that mimicked the scar that Jack wore after a resurrection he didn't know about. It rippled around him in wings, similar to his father's death, though his blood looked black and ichor-like in the pale light of an indifferent moon.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">Years of words unsaid passed between the three of them within a few moments of a gaze, statues in the making as none dared to breathe. Not that he could, he was rapidly losing the energy to. A knife was passed from the perpetrator to transformed, and they both stared at him.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">"A moment." His voice was steady, even until death.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">In unison, ever in unison, ever equals, they tilted their heads and waited.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">He took a final, heaving breath, the rattle of a dying man squeezing past his lips (and still, he felt nothing, soul departing from his body through his eyes, his ever-lively eyes which were losing their pupil to a sea of green as he fixated on a light none could see).

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">"Make me a monument to my love, my mylimasis, that the knife which was held to my heart may pierce it once more from beyond the grave." A cryptic statement, but Hannibal had so loved his riddles, and would ensure that the love which burned in his steadily slowing heart (the knife was poisoned, he realized. They had merely wanted him gone from their lives, not to consume or eat, but to elevate. They were truly paranoid, he thought. Numerous times, he had promised to leave them be, and nary a word for years and they had still disposed of him, yet they respected him until the end. Predators with respect for one of their own) was transformed into a beacon for all of London to see, and all the world to remember.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">His body would be a gruesome, darkly beautiful reminder of unconditional love and acceptance.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">Two pairs of eyes met, then a gaze of glaciers nodded once.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">His request granted, he smiled. There was no more need for words, only a calm acceptance and mild anticipation for what would come next.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">He slipped into the cathedrals of his mind, and met the Society there.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">He spared none but Artemis, Catt, and Lewis glances, those being the last faces he'd seen, aside from Elias.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;text-decoration:underline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Remember me. Tell stories of me. Do not forget me, lest I cease to exist entirely.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">They nodded, and all but Elias left the soaring sanctuary, clothes rustling ominously in the supernatural silence of the room.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">As they faded, in came a familiar sound.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:700;font-style:italic;text-decoration:underline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Tchlk, tchlk, tchlk.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">He waited until he and the stag were side by side, feathers slipping through skin, bone slipping through muscle and sinew. Hands shaking as he couldn't quite escape the pain he was still attached to (he was still alive, through the process of his transformation. He was grateful they allowed him to stay in this quieter place, where the murmur of their voices was like rain against the light of the muting air and the fading colors of the stained glass windows that paled next to the vibrancy of the frantic gaze before him.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">"Elias. Aš tave myliu, mylimasis."

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">Acceptance. Calm acceptance, always to the end. There were no seven stages of grief, for there was nothing to be bargained, nothing to be angry over, nothing except acceptance and perhaps guilt and regret over things that would not come to pass.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">Warm hands caught him as he and the stag fell, merging as one, the Wendigo he had once been emerging from a chrysalis of stained glass and metal rods. Were they his mentors or Elias'? In this, the most vulnerable of moments, he could decide.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">He chose Elias. He always chose Elias.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">It was not quite the right form, but this form could not speak, and neither could he. They had pierced his lungs and throat, much in the same way antlers had.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">Calm acceptance, control, always to the end, even in this, the most vulnerable of moments.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">He lay in the arms of his beloved on the cold stone floor of the Notre Dame, stained glass shifting into windows of a life he was leaving behind. The pieces were shattered, and out of order, and perhaps a little selfish, given he was leaving so many more behind than just Elias, but they were more easily reconciled with, members of a congregation that watched quietly.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">Elias, though, Elias was the organ filling worship with music and light, and deserved so much more than what he had offered.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">A list to disordered moments, soon lost to time, preserved in this, the most vulnerable and heart-wrenching of moments:

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">Elias had watched his graceful movement with a grin, arms crossing on his chest. He had leaned against a counter, and after a moment, laughed. "I like your humming." He'd giggled as his voice drifted into quieter, unclear words. His own heart had clenched almost painfully, though it was too warm from fondness to be truly hurt.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">He'd studiously avoided eye contact with the stranger,- handsome though he'd been (was, is)- and instead had chosen to pick out the details and the man's attire and of the two trunks he'd carried. 'A new lodger, most likely,' he'd thought.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">If only he'd been able to figure out what Elias would come to mean, sooner. <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">(Laughter over tea, the faint stirring of an atrophied love stretching it's tired wings. Rage and protectiveness and evenings spent singing in front of a fire, wrapped in each other's arms. Quiet mornings in the rain and the simple joy of existing, seeing, and knowing.) <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;"> Perhaps much of their shared pain could have been avoided, had he only listened to himself.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">Dozing off in vigil, and waking to feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, the faint smell of something unnameable but so familiar, so sweet. Surprise and a touched heart, tinged with confusion and a lingering distrust.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">"I s-shall endeavour to h-hum more often, t-then." Amusement, fondness. He had started to know, to See.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">"See? See?"

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">His thoughts were rapidly giving way to abstract thought and memory instead of conscious reminiscence. He was losing blood, fast. Taken care of with surgical precision. Respect and admiration, there was no cruelty save from fate.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">Now, his heart started to ache. It wasn't fair to Elias, wasn't fair to him. The world wasn't fair.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">All he felt was a lingering indignation. He was too tired to identify anything else, but he'd do his damndest to remember as much as he could.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">He owed his mylimasis that much, for what else could he offer but his love? He had wealth, but attached to it was a life full of nothing but bitter pills and remorse. He didn't have a kind heart at the center of it all, not really. Just hollow places in the bone-arena of his skull for the things he loved. Had loved. He'd be dead soon. They were taking his heart, he'd only have a few seconds before the lack of oxygen killed him (his lungs were still functioning, his body stubborn to a fault)

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">Jokes on stars and earthly matters, first impressions, the scratching of claws on tempered glass to a background of gorgeous scales (he was always gorgeous, even as a 'monster'), stories over tea, falling asleep in each others arms and singing and feeling words echoing through two chests, two hearts beating in time.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">A heart that now ached like a phantom in his chest, no longer attached.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">Scars revealed and shared at the moment of beginning

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">"C-careful, good Elias, s-someone might t-think you c-care!" Blushes and laughter shared, neither truly aware.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">Gods, everything ached.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">He wouldn't cry. He would die stoic as ever.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">Bright smiles, brothers reunited, flutters in his heart of hearts, butterflies taking flight.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">It w-would n-not surprise m-me, b-but I s-should t-think it w-would hurt."

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">It hurt, ithurtithurtithurt.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">He was losing Elias and it hurt.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">He had always wanted to die until the moment he found someone he wanted to live for again, to see his smiles and be better for.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">Blood falling between them, mostly his fault really, but it would always turn out right in the end? It had always before!

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">Elias would be all right, in the end. He had to be.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">He was just being ridiculous.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">Absolutely ridiculous. Pieces of metal arms falling to the floor, two brothers offering comfort even though he was his own fault.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">They'd understand in time, surely.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">"Got something on your mind? Is it me? Am I on your mind?"

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">"A-always, Elias. I f-find it hard to w-want you to leave it."

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">He couldn't feel anything. Elias' warmth had started to fade.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">The stag was breathing quietly, laboriously.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">He couldn't feel anything

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">"Amico, huh?"

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">"W-would you rather I call you mio amato o mio caro? Either c-could be a-arranged."

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">He couldn't feel anything.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">"What do you want it to mean?"

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">He couldn't feel...

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">"A.. f-friend of m-mine once.. s-said that to... l-love s-someone, er, or t-to let t-them k-know y-you w-wholly a-and c-completely, is t-to give t-them the power t-to kill y-you."

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">He couldn't...

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">Y-you d-do not q-quite h-have the p-power t-to.. kill m-me, per say, b-but t-the metaphorical k-knife is.. w-within reach. At t-the very l-least, y-you h-have the.. admittedly t-t-terrifying p-potential t-to do m-me great h-harm. H-hence the.. un...c-certainty I.. m-mentioned earlier."

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">He...

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">"W-which is t-to s-say, t-the words m-mean their l-literal.. t-translations, I believe."

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">...

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">"Richard, y- y'know, I'd be devastated if I hurt you, and I'm glad -- really glad, we're on the same page."

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">He...

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">"-still devastated for h-hurting y-you... we r-read t-the same b-book... t-t-terrified c-comes c-close to what t-the rest of m-me f-feels."

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:60pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">( <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">fadingsoundfadinglightflowersplacedinthecavitywherehishearthadbeen.)

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">he...

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">"I a-am n-not certain h-how to proceed w-with.. this, t-truth be t-told."

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">"Nor me, but... I -- I do believe that's something we can figure out together, yes?"

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">...

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">he...

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">A kiss on the cheek, awe and love, it had been <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;text-decoration:underline;white-space:pre-wrap;">love <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;"> under it all.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">h...

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:60pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">(chokedsoundsfadingwhispersithurtithurtithurtbuthisbodyfeltnopain)

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">"W-w-would you...a-allow m-me.. t-t... t-to k-k-kiss y-you?" (mineminemine,love, my love mylimasis, mylimasis, elias.)

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:60pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">(opened eyes, elias before him. face softly glowing, chuckling serenely, ethereally, [mio angelo don't leave me], wrapping his arms around person and nightmare, one)

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;text-decoration:underline;white-space:pre-wrap;">"Definitely."

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:60pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">(this time, elias tilted his head upwards. lips met lips, hearts embraced hearts, arms encircled empty chests.)

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">h..e...

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">~*~*~*~*~

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">(In death, he lost control.)

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">(In death, for the first time in two decades, he silently wept:)

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">(A single word on his lips, tears drying on his cheeks.)

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:90pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">"Mylimasis."

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">( <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">Beloved. Knife of my heart. <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">)

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">~*~*~*~*~

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:700;font-style:italic;text-decoration:underline;white-space:pre-wrap;">i am sorry.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:30pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">the teacup fell and the mirror

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:30pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">cracked.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:180pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">never to be

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:240pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">brought

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:330pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">together.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:700;font-style:italic;text-decoration:underline;white-space:pre-wrap;">mylimasis

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">...

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">i am sorry.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">...

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">...

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">..

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:700;font-style:italic;text-decoration:underline;white-space:pre-wrap;">mylimasis

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">~*~*~*~*~

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">In death, he stopped.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">~*~*~*~*~

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;text-decoration:underline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Epilogue:

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">In death, someone wrote of him, never having truly moved on from aspen-green eyes, flickering so quickly and fluidly between masks and emotions, showing none and feeling all so deeply they cut like knives.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">"The world mourned for him, and a sea of green filled the world's eyes, as they could no longer comprehend what had happened. Everything was backwards, wrong.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">"How did we get here?" The world sighed.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">"How did we get here so quickly?" The world cried.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">"The joy, sweetness, and life has been sucked from the earth leaving it green but meaningless." The world knew the truth, the world saw all things.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:4pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">"How did we get here?" The world had no answer to satisfy them."

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">The author had no answers.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">In death, the world had stopped.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">His world had stopped.

<span style="color:rgb(255,255,255);font-family:Arial;font-size:16px;font-weight:700;text-decoration:underline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Part 2 written by Hyde without a Jekyll (all pictures done by Doodle)

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">It was evening with the news came. Artemis heard it first, a whisper of a whisper drifting its way across the Society. Wandering down the halls, passing through doors--walls. It was on everyone's lips and in everyone’s mind. In hung in the air like a fog. It stale, bitter, disgusting fog. When it finally came to make roost in his ear, his stomach dropped and his heart stopped. <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">Oh god. <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;"> He couldn’t speak. What would he even say? I’m sorry? I didn’t know? Is there anything I can do? Maybe the words alluding him was the better option.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">The next thought <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">Elias. <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;"> He had to tell <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">Elias <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">. What would he even say? Was it his responsibility? Yes, it had come from him. It was the only option. Artemis was his brother and as his brother it was his task to deliver the news, no one else could do it. His burden to bear, his arms to comfort, his brother to hold. It was going to destroy him. Would he even be able to comfort what was left of his once brother? It didn’t matter he had to tell him. It was Elias’s right to know.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">He walked--no glided down halls of the Society as he could not feel his feet as they pressed against the floors. The only indication of movement were doors sliding past him. The cream wood and recognizable glistening gold knob was in front of him now. When did he get here? Time was fuzzy but the present was clear. Should he knock? No it was his room. <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">Just open the door. Just tell him. Just get it over with.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">The door creaked open revealing Elias...happy Elias sitting on the bed. The sound startled him and he slipped the journal he was scribing away in under his sheets like a guilty thing. Normally Artemis would have questioned it or pressed his looks upon the guilty conscious but he didn’t need that, not with the news that Artemis held in his heart.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“Arty! I-I didn’t hear you come in I was just…” Elias’s voice trailed off trying to come up with a lie before the sorrow that rested in Artemis’s eyes spoke louder than any explosion. The last time he had seen that face, those eyes, their mother had died. “...what’s wrong?” Elias stood up and slowly approached Artemis as though he was a scared, wounded animal.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">Artemis swallowed hard, “Y-You should sit down.”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“Why?!” Elias was worried now. What had happened?

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“Elias, please! Just sit down.”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“No! Not until you tell me what’s goin--”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“DAMNIT ELIAS!” Arty shouted as tears streamed from his eyes. Why did Elias have to make this harder? Why couldn’t he just do as he was told for once?

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">Elias quickly shut his mouth and sat back down on the bed. He had never seen his brother like this before. Artemis took seat next to him.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">All of his training and research and yet he couldn’t grasp how to tell Elias what happened. How dare he call himself a psychologist! Should there be an explanation at the beginning? Should he tell of the events that led up to it?

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">Just tell him.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“Richard is dead.”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">The words hung in the still air. The world went quiet. Everything stopped moving, breathing, living. And then the world came shattering apart. The words fell to the floor, splintering apart like glass--like the tinkling of shards of stained glass smashing into the wood--like <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">his <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;"> laugh...Richard’s laugh.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“No.” Elias finally breathed out. “No. No. No.” Over and over again his mind and tongue repeated it. What other sound could even describe... <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">This?

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“Honey,” Artemis wrapped his arms around the trembling body of his brother. Normally Artemis wouldn’t even dare attempt this gesture of comfort but Elias needed it-- <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">he <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;"> needed it. Maybe his strength could hold his brother together, keep him from crumbling to dust, or just dampen the agony for a brief moment of relief. “I know. I know it’s hard to accept but he’s gone. Richard is gone.”  Water splattered against Artemis’s sleeves. “There was an accident and Lewis tried to…”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">Elias wasn’t listening anymore. Why wasn’t he there? Why didn’t he protect Richard? Why wasn’t he able to save him? It should have been him! He should have died not Richard! The blood roared in his ears, and the reality felt so incredibly far away.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;margin-left:36pt;margin-right:72pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">"W-will you b-be able to walk on your own, o-or d-do you need to l-lean on me?"

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;margin-right:72pt;text-indent:36pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">"W-w-would you...a-allow m-me.. t-t... t-to k-k-kiss y-you?"

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;margin-right:72pt;text-indent:36pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">"A-always, Elias. I f-find it hard to w-want you to leave it."

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;margin-left:36pt;margin-right:72pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">"Y-you s-should, b-but I d-do n-not.. I w-want y-you t-t-to stay, and i-is t-that n-not.. t-t-the m-most r-ridiculous t-thing?”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;margin-left:36pt;margin-right:72pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">"I did n-not ask f-for this. T-they are all d-dead now. A-all t-the effort, and I c-could not s-save a s-single one. I w-wonder if I w-will lose y-you t-too. It w-would n-not surprise m-me, b-but I s-should t-think it w-would hurt."

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">It does hurt. <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;"> Elias answered the memory, <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">It hurts more than you will ever know. You always thought it was going to be...it should have been me.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">I didn’t want you to leave either.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">Artemis squeezed Elias tighter, “I know it hurts, sweetie. I know it hurts.” He felt drops hit his arm and glanced at it. His white shirt flowered into red swirls as the blood mixed his with brother’s tears. “Elias…”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">His brother stared at the ground in some far off land where Richard was. Where he would walk in at any moment, wrapped in a scarf and apologies. Where he tripped over his words and comforted Elias through broken stutters and excuses. Where he wasn’t dead. Where he could hear his words just once more and tell Richard what his heart whispered in every beat. <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">I love you.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">But Artemis was not in that land where the dead danced with the living, he was in that small room where he sat holding his brother, crying, comforting, consoling. Artemis did not see Elias dance and drink with Richard. He saw his brother, shattered in his arms. His body shaking,his face pale and his eyes blue as red dripped from the corner of his mouth.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“Elias…” Artemis sighed as he stood, retrieved a nearby bin and thrusting it into Elias’s hands knowing what was to come next.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">The next minutes were agony. Elias wretched into the bin, writhing. He didn’t scream as the pain of his body destroying and rebuilding itself ripped through his figure; for what physical pain could compare to this? He was puppet being jerked about by strings controlled by a hateful being. He wept enough to fill an ocean with his tears. His blood stained the ground and the blankets. The acid putrified the air, the stench reflecting what lie in his heart. Artemis never stopped holding him.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">In the last few moments before Elias took rest, Artemis looked into those blue eyes, so full of despair and pain they could have moved statues to tears and brought the dead back to life.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">And then he was gone too.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">Artemis embraced that twitching thing in his arms as whimpers and screeches emanated from its lips. When the worst of it passed, a weak voice broke the silence, “A-Arty, g-get off of m-me.”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">Artemis didn’t comply but only hugged the shaken Oliver tighter, “I-I said get off of me! I-I’m not Elias!”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">Oliver started to push Artemis away but he wouldn’t let him go, “I know you’re not Elias but you <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">are <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">a part of him and you <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">are <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">my brother too and--and <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">you both need this <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">!” Artemis held him closer, much to Oliver’s dismay.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">Finally wiggling his way free from Artemis’s vice like grip, he staggered across the room wiping the acid from his face, “I don’t need <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">anything <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">from you! I’m <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">not Elias! <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;"> I don’t know what he did and I really don’t care! Just leave me alone!”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">As Oliver began to march to the door, his pants pooling around his ankles and his large shoes plodding on the ground Artemis stared at the wall, “...You don’t know what happened...do you?”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“Nope! And I really don’t ca--”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“Richard’s dead.”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">Richard is dead.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">Oliver stopped, tears began to stream from his face, “R-Richard’s... <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:700;white-space:pre-wrap;">dead? <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">Artemis said nothing. Twice. Twice now he’s broken his brother’s heart. Twice he had made him cry. Twice he had destroyed him. Twice. He was a terrible person.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“N-No! You’re...wrong! He...he’s in his room! Or his workshop! Or he’s at a bar! Or he’s traveling! Or...or...or…” Oliver was stuck. He couldn’t move his feet. He couldn’t leave. He couldn’t move on. There was only <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">or <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">...or what?

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">Artemis stood up, walked over to Oliver, and gently turned him around to see that same look on his face. The look that could bring a house down, that could make the guilty mad, that could make any soul cry out in despair. That same look Elias had. “...you have his freckles...”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING!?” Oliver screamed, “YOU’RE LYING! HE’S NOT DEAD! HE CAN’T BE DEAD! ELIAS IS THE ONE THAT SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD--”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:700;white-space:pre-wrap;">“ <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:700;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">Shut up! <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:700;white-space:pre-wrap;">” <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;"> His words were cut short when the flat of Artemis’s hand struck. <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:700;white-space:pre-wrap;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">Oliver’s head was turned from the sudden impact and his mouth was agape trying to will his tongue to move but it refused. He had never seen Artemis like this before, Artemis had never hit anyone before. Tears silently streamed down his face. <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">Richard’s dead. <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">   <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">Richard’s dead. Richard’s dead. <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;"> The words echoed in his mind from the the past--from his memories and Elias’s.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“I-I’m sorry.” Artemis hugged Oliver firmly, “I’m so sorry.”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“He’s...dead?”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">As Artemis nodded and a violent convulsion racked frame he held onto. Pulling back he saw Oliver, crying, distraught, destroyed. His gold eyes wept-- Elias’s eyes wept. Blood trickled from his mouth but Oliver didn’t try to wipe it away. They both knew what was happening and for once Oliver didn’t fight it. For once he wanted to disappear--to be anywhere but here. To be in a world where Richard wasn’t dead, where he couldn’t hurt, where no one existed thus no one died. Where Richard may still make tea and sing.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">Artemis guided him back to the bed and bucket, gently lowering him to the soft cotton. The bed groaned and Oliver whimpered while the waves of agony began to wash over him. He gripped the pail as though it was the very thing keeping him alive. Artemis pulled out his hair tie and gently arranged Oliver’s orange mop into a loose ponytail. He tried to mutter out something (a thank you maybe?) but it was cut short by what was left of his stomach crawling it’s way up his throat and into the bucket. Artemis just held him for what else could he do?

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“I’m so sorry.” Artemis whimpered as Oliver screamed in pain, rage, denial. Richard couldn’t be dead. He just couldn’t! It wasn’t possible! He would walk in at any moment, Oliver was sure of it! Richard was smart. He was resourceful. He knew how to defend himself, and protect others. How could he be dead? He had survived so much, he had cheated death so many times--his body was a testament to that. Three limbs, one eye, endless scar tissue ruled in his favor. He just couldn’t be dead! He was willing to kill if need be and knew what it took to save a life! He could hurt. He could love. But what he couldn’t do was die. Oliver was willing to bet his life on that.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">Richard couldn’t die. Richard won’t die. Richard can’t be dead. It was impossible.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“Richard can’t be dead.” The whimper escaped his lips.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">Artemis gently rubbed Oliver’s back as the pain grew worse, “I’m so sorry, Hon...but he’s gone.” Oliver’s body seized again and he let out a desperate whimper. <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">He can’t be dead. He can’t be dead. He can’t be dead. He can’t be--

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">Artemis held the sobbing figure tight, rocking back and forth, stroking it’s back, letting out small words of condolences, anything to comfort him like he was a child. But in this place of torture he was a child. The whimpering died down and the thing wrapped it’s arms around Artemis’s waist as though Artemis was going to be taken away from him too. He didn’t want to lose anyone else.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">The silence crept on for eons until the faintest whisper drifted through the air like smoke on a cold london night, “...Is...he really dead?” It was Elias’s voice.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“I’m so sorry…” Artemis didn’t even need to finish the thought before a cry of anguish echoed through the halls, shattering glass, ripping apart souls, and letting the world know: Richard was dead and Elias knew.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">Time stopped moving in that small room. Artemis held them trying to make it right but it would never be right again. No one was able to accept what had happened, no one was in control, no one could take charge, and everyone suffered. Elias to Oliver, Oliver to Elias; both with the memories of the other, both unable to bear the grief, both with empty stomachs and broken hearts, both writhing in misery, and neither wanting to be there.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">It dragged on for hours. Artemis holding what was left of his brother as they shifted from one to the other screaming, sobbing, heaving, bleeding. Eventually they were so weak that Artemis wasn’t just hugging them but holding them up. They couldn’t move as their muscles cried for the destruction to stop, they couldn’t speak as the acid had eaten away at their throat, they couldn’t stop the tears that flowed from their eyes, they couldn’t stop that vile serum, and they couldn't accept what had happened.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">Richard can’t be dead.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">Artemis couldn’t be sure who he was holding anymore but he did know that they hurt. The body shuddered signalling the shifting of personalities but something was wrong. The figure whimpered as always, they flinched as always, they gagged as always but something crawled out of it’s mouth. They had exhausted the contents of their stomach long ago so what mingled with the fluids in the bucket?

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">Red.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">Blood.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">There was always a bit of blood and serum when this happened but the amount in the pail--it was too much. Artemis looked at the thing in his arms. Gold eye, blue eye, and red blood. It poured from it’s mouth gurgling and spluttering down the front of it’s shirt. There was so much and it kept coming. Gagging, coughing, vomiting, it kept coming. Everything was now drenched in crimson and it kept coming! It’s eyes pleaded for help. They knew this was wrong. This wasn’t supposed to happen but it kept coming.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">Artemis scooped up the figure in his arms sprinting down the halls. It seized and more of scarlet fluid dripped onto the cold ground. Ears, nose, mouth rejected the life inside. “HELP!” Artemis screamed.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">The infirmary door flew open revealing a strong and alter gentleman, Hen. “What’s happened?” His voice was calm but filled with concern. One look at the thing in Artemis’s arms said it all--this wasn’t right. “Quickly! Bring him inside and place him on a bed.”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">Artemis did just that, tears of fear streaming from his eyes. “What’s wrong with him?!” His voice managed to wobble out.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“I don’t know you tell me?” Hen started to inspect his new patient.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“I-I don’t know!”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">Seizures.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“We--he was--and Richard--and then--Oh god! There’s so much blood!” Artemis held their hand as the body convulsed.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“What was going on when this started?” Hen inspected the bleeding orifices.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">Internal bleeding.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“I-I-I just told him that-that Richard was dead...Please! What’s happening to them?!”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">Unstable form.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“Greif.” Quickly moving into action, Hen plucked a syringe from the cabinet, filled it with a clear liquid, and injected it into the body on the bed.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">Gold, blue, both eyes were filled with terror and sorrow. What was happening? Would they die? Would they see Richard again? They didn’t mean to hurt Artemis like this? They didn’t ...want this to happen...whatever... <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">this <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">...was.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">They’re eyes closed, their breathing slowed to a regular hum, their body settled on a form, and the blood slowed.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“A-Are they dead?! What happened?! What did you do to them!?” Artemis whimpered, terrified that he could lose his brother too.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“No.” replied Hen filling up another needle with a different liquid, “They’ll be fine for now. The grief of Richard’s death was too much for them to bear and it kept triggering the HJ-6 in their system. They were unable to establish a stable form and slowly the constant transformation began to degrade their cellular structure. To stop the serum I needed to sedate them so their brain would stop producing the adrenaline and other chemicals that trigger it.” He injected the liquid into Elias, for it was now his unconscious form laying on the table.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“A-And what did you just inject into him now?!” Artemis didn’t like the idea of his brother’s insides becoming soup.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“A blood coagulant to help stem the internal bleeding. I’m also going to hook up an I.V. to restore some of the liquid your brother lost.” Hen hesitates, “You might want to contact his love ones.”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“W-Why?” Artemis squeezed Elias’s hand tighter. Why would he need to contact the rest of the family? Elias was going to be okay! He had to be!

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">Hen sighed, he always hated this part, “Because until we are able to help your brother overcome his grief, I’m going to have to put him into a medically induced coma.”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“W-What?” Artemis’s face paled.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“We cannot have Elias awake until his body and mind has healed or else his form may tear itself apart cell by cell.” Hen’s voice was gentle but firm.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“How long?...How long will he be asleep?” Tears once again began to run down Artemis’s cheeks.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“To be honest, I don’t know.” Hen proceed in preparing the I.V.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“Will he ever wake up?”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“I don’t know.”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“Is he going to…” The last word of that sentence escaped him, he couldn’t utter the dreaded thing.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">Hen stopped and turned to Artemis whose tears now stained the sheets. He was a mess,covered in blood, wrinkled clothes, red eyes, hair jutting out in all directions it’s tie lost long ago; he was a mess. “Not if I have any say in it. You should clean yourself up.”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">Artemis looked down at his now filthy outfit. It was pristine this morning...what had happened? “No. I’m staying here.” He sat down in a chair, never letting go of Elias’s hand. “I’m staying here with him.”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">Hen nodded respecting Artemis’s decision to stay and threaded the IV into Elias’s arm before walking away to prepare a report, “If his condition changes find me immediately.”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">“Of course.” Artemis replied as the door closed giving the brothers some privacy.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;white-space:pre-wrap;">Artemis’s shoulders slumped and the dam broke releasing a flood of tears. He shook grasping onto Elias’s hand and whispered, “You’re not leaving me! You’re not leaving me because of a broken heart! You’re stronger than that! ...you’re stronger than that…”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.3090909090909089;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:5pt;"> <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">Three people died that day and no one slept that night. <ac_metadata title="Rica"> </ac_metadata>