Chapter Fifteen

We got closer towards the old rickety fence there was a gate bound with chains, I barely touched the iron bars and the gate opened wide, I looked at the others and shrugged from their overly accusing stares. 

　　Walking in, I have noticed everything was falling apart, the stone that held up their homes seem to be decaying and turning into rubble, straw and clay falling away from the roof's as we slowly walked in further taking in our surroundings. It felt like desperation, sadness and despair a smell that was so sickly and sweet with the decay of flesh filled our noses, inside this sad little village. Time seemed to slow down, and just breathing the air made me sick. 

　　The air felt thick the deeper we went the more I wanted to leave, wiping the sweat from my brow, I've noticed Aemeon wiping away tears from his eyes as he reminisced what had happened here.

　　"Our village was dying, I wanted her to come with me. But she hated me, she had every reason to I couldn't save her mother but I hoped...I could have at least saved Arowen, but her stubbornness outsmarted her, and now look where we are," Aemeon blubbered on with large teardrops falling down his face onto his oversized tusks. 

　　"So that's what you think, stubbornness?" A female voice scoffed from behind us.

　　"Arowen, I..." Aemeon stuttered as he attempted to think of what to say, she angerly shook her head taking a step back.

　　"How dare you, just I can't believe you would-," She turned and ran from us tears falling from her over-sized face.

　　I looked back between Aemeon and Arowen as she disappeared into the hazy distance, as Aemeon stressfully rubbed his face.

　　"Well...That was smooth," I said slyly sighing.

　　Ariel elbowed me in the ribs harshly as a warning.

　　"Ow, I was just saying," I said rubbing my poor injured side, Ariel rolled her eyes.

　　"You should go after her you know, you're still her father aren't you?" Ariel prompted.

　　"She hates me, she always had. For what happened to her mother I don't blame her," He said with a sigh.

　　"So you're just going to let her wander in this hell hole alone?" Ariel raised her voice furiously.

　　"Well, I-" Aemeon started.

　　"Go after her, or she will hate you even more," Ariel said once more.

　　"Fine, okay, okay I get it. I'll go talk to her." Aemeon finally agreed. "Jeez," He muttered under his breath.

　　Merlin snickered quietly to himself.

　　We walked deeper and deeper, into the dying village I noticed the closer we got to the middle the more it smelled like smoke and the sick smell decaying flesh. 

　　There were large bonfires, but not large enough that you can see from a distance turning the foggy sky to a deep orangy-red. Troll's from old to young all surrounded the fires trying to keep warm, the air here felt like it was below twenty degrees even though it's close to August.

　　Children coughed as they cuddled toward their elders for warmth, babies cried from hunger and lack of sleep, and parents looked overtired and hopeless. 

　　As I looked closer, the fires were made out of bodies, which made me feel even sicker. I hope we aren't staying here long, it was almost unbearable and my fingers were becoming numb from the cold air. I brought my hands to my lips and I tried to heat them with my breath, it wasn't working I frantically put my hands into my pockets as we got halfway through the village.

　　It took a lot not to let the vile come up my throat the only heat from this place was the fire and there's no way in hell am I getting anywhere near those bodies.

　　 Although thinking about it and seeing all these people suffering. Was this how the world was all around? despair and suffering, was their no happiness left? Was there a point to really save the small village I came from if the rest of the world was worse?

　　"Those are all very good questions," A voice said in my head, the same one from before whispering.

　　"I think this world need's a retribution, don't you? Why don't we stop the pain and suffering for good?"

　　I shook my head trying to shake the voice away, but it didn't work. 

　　"That won't work, nothing will. We are combined now, we are one." It said laughing sinisterly.

　　I started panicking what does that even mean, 'we are one' are these my thought's or someone else's?

　　"Both," And that's all it said and disappeared again.

　Walking in a daze through the thick fog, thinking about what the voice said. I wonder what's going on with me lately, maybe I really did hit my head way too hard, and maybe those are my true thoughts, should I comply to the voice and get it over with, it's bound to happen, the more it talks the more everything makes sense, but shouldn't I at least try to save everyone, shouldn't I be a hero?

　　"Who exactly would you be a hero too, everyone in that village is either dead or past insanity. Not only that but the world is coming to an end, let me help you, let me help us we can own the world we can get salvation. A retribution!" The voice spoke very convincingly.

　　The more it speaks the harder it gets getting out of the daze, it's like the fog around me. It swallows me whole.

　　I begin laughing quietly to myself, my hands covering my face as the rumble of laughter grows bigger and louder I swipe a hand through my longish blonde hair, my blue eyes bulge from their sockets as I sur-come to my insanity letting it swallow my soul, my dignity until there's barely anything left. I can hear the voice laughing with me, wait a minute this isn't my voice that's laughing aloud, it's the sinister voice that has been along for the ride, and I finally let it take me.

　　"Luke, Luke can you hear me? Luke wake up, come on let's go I don't want to be here any longer, please, Wake up" Awoken by being shaken I look up at Ariel's worried and scared face, and suddenly she brought me back to my senses, or at least whats left.

　　"Whats going on?" I asked half worried.

　　"You have been dozing off for about an hour, I don't even know where we are, I just started following you," Ariel said nervously.

　　Sighing I look around, the more this happens the more I feel I'm fading away, is there no end to this torture?

　　The voices are starting take over more then before and I can barely keep concious enough to know what's happening.

　　It's dark, darker and murkier then before. Before it was desperation and decay, now it's pure death there are trees slowly dying from the spoiled earth that seem to be sinking like sand on a beach when the waves of the ocean run across your feet and bury them deep in the sand, they aren't even standing up right anymore.

　　Looking closer I see there is something hanging from all the branches, curious I walked closer not listening to Ariel's pleas of leaving, she followed worried and scared looking up again I realized what those hanging things were.

　　It is horrifying, the whole scene was disturbing. There had been bodies hung from the neck dangling from the branches, you could hear the branches crackling from the weight but they seem to be there for a long time so it doesn't seem to be ready to break.

　　The silence sounded like the wailing and crying of suffering victims, but these are trees not treants. I placed my hand on the tree, and that's where it came, a vision.

　　They were traitors or so they put out to be, they had been crying pleading for their lives to be spared. This had been some kind of sick entertainment. People screaming with anticipation both with despair and excitement.

　　The ropes around their necks have been tightened by the executioners and placed to the edge before their death.

　　I want to look away but something in me is forcing me to keep watching, I watched them fall off the edge and they had struggled for air ripping and tearing at the rope to loosen up, they had struggled until their last breath.

　　I came back to my senses and my hand automatically went to my throat as I collapsed to the ground, tears of hysteria burst from my eyes.

　　I don't know how much more I can handle without giving in to the demon inside my head.