Page 111 of Souls We Rip

And then nothing. I breathed through the mending of my skin, looking the Elk straight into his eyes.

He took a seat on his throne, a king who crushed his family, one who wouldn’t care who died for his wishes to be accomplished.

The threads were cut, my body falling on the stone. “Nice room you have here, my brother,” I mocked, standing on my feet. “This is where I will meet my end?” I raised my eyebrows, my eyes roaming over the room.

“Yes, is it not pleasant for you? I wanted to see you die. For centuries, I held you on my leash, and something made it snap.”

Ana… she made that possible. She awoke me from my daze.

Blades brushed my legs as if waiting.

“And instead of killing her, I want to kill you. I’m tired of your face, brother.”

The whisperers laughed in my ears, travelling from wall to wall, as if our lives were a joke to them.

Dozens of blades plunged into my thighs with such a force that their tips got on the other side of my leg. I scrunched my face, the veins in my neck ready to explode.

The pain subsided as the blades retreated.

“Speaking of faces, why don’t you show yours?” I said, panting. “I want to see the face of the man who will end my life.”

He sighed. “I will indulge this one request, brother.” My eyes tracked as his skull flew from his head to the base of the throne.

I didn’t recognise my oldest brother. His head was pointier from the shape of the skull; there was no hair left on his once rich head. Darkness lurked in his eyes; too many souls were swirling in them. His nose was round and filled with bloodied scratches, his lips were thinner than the threads holding my wrists. The Elk had a beard longer than the cloak he was still wearing.

But just as he got the skull off, he called it back.

“Satisfied, little brother?”

Shaking my head, I took my eyes off him. “What happened to you?”

The Elk chuckled, the sound turning my stomach. “Decay, brother. I want to be anew. Like you!”

His hoof tapped the handle of the throne once, twice. “Mother always said you were the prettiest, but I knew better. You were also foolish. Even now in death, you have fallen in love with a mortal.”

“Don’t speak of her!” I roared, the candles flickering.

He laughed, rattling the ground. “I see. Well,” he sighed, “most likely you’ll meet in death.”

Another set of blades cut through my skin.

“Why did you leave me alive in the first place?” I asked, taking a step towards the throne, wincing from the pain. I felt his eyes on me, following my legs.

“A reasonable question coming from you, at last.” He tilted his skull sideways. “I wanted to see you suffer, so that you cannot be a human anymore. But you found a damn loophole!” he raged, his skull shaking.

Several actually.

“Even if I don’t kill the peasant, the death of you and the child will drive her to insanity!”

“Leave them out of it!” I screamed, shaking the candles, hot wax dripping on the floor. “Your quarrel is with me!”

“That just makes it better!”

I barely caught my breath when I heard a whip coming down on my back, splitting the skin. The blood flowed on my spine, my stomach flipping. As if it wasn’t enough, the candles which were next to the throne burned my clothes and my body, the smell of charred meat filling the chamber.

“Shall I summon the child for you to see his final breath?” he yelled over my screams. “Would that end you?”

My hands touched the ground. I was shaking from my core, the scents making everything hazy. “No,” I whispered, preparing to die.