Midnight's Song (55 page)

By the time he
neared the top of the steps, Faolan stopped taking the life from
me. Instead, he began to loosen his grasp. Once he had neared the
top of the flight, Faolan loosened it further. With every step I
became more slippery; more apt to fall. Aurelian took another step
toward Faolan with his sword
. The grip
loosened
. One more step.
I was slipping
. Finally,
Aurelian reached the top of the flight and charged.
The grip opened.
Faolan
released his hands from around my neck, and I found myself
plummeting down to the ground in freefall.

“NO!” Aurelian shouted, throwing his
sword on the ground and leaping to the edge in an attempt to grab
me.

It was already too late. Before
Aurelian was able to do as much as reach for me, I came to a
crashing and silent stop on the ground. After the fall, I was awake
just long enough to see Aurelian reaching out aimlessly in grief on
the pedestal above me. My body had been broken now, shattered and
made weary. My eyelids suddenly became heavy, drooping further and
further each moment. Then, reflected on every glassy inch of that
room of 1,000 mirrors; I closed my eyes as if I was falling into a
deep, peaceful sleep.

That was the moment that I
died.

Aurelian watched me in
complete horror on the ledge above. How could this be? He had come
to save me – this wasn’t supposed to happen! Perhaps I was still
alive, he hoped. Though, there wasn’t a chance of it. The air
expelled itself from my chest, and Aurelian knew I was gone. I was
the only thing he had to live for, the love of his life. Now, I was
gone. The prince became consumed with grief; so much so that he
forgot where he was. Then – as if he no longer cared what fate
awaited him – he turned from his bloodthirsty brother and fell onto
his knees.

The protection of his sword and shield
sat dangerously and unwarily within Faolan’s reach, just feet from
where his brother lay defenseless on the ground. Faolan grinned at
the sight. This was it, he realized. His brother was broken and off
guard. This was the moment that he could finally rid this kingdom
of his brother once and for all. He quickly picked up the sword and
came up on Aurelian from behind.

Presently, the brokenhearted Aurelian
still remained prostrate at the sight of my body. It appeared that
he was helpless. Though, internally there was a new side to
Aurelian beginning to brew. Unaware of his present danger, he
looked down at my body again. He reminisced all that I had been,
all that I had done. I was all that he had – the only thing he had
found in his life to give it new purpose and meaning. Now, I had
been ripped from it. I had been ripped from it in the cruelest,
bitterest, harshest way.

He had hardly been
able to hold me in his hands before I slipped through his fingers
just like everything else he’d ever loved. It left a void in his
heart. The void caused him to feel complete despair…then, anger.
The anger welled up from within like a boiling cauldron, something
that didn’t seem part of Aurelian’s once-docile nature at all. Then
it became more than just anger. It became
rage.

In the next moment, he looked up and
stared blankly at the mirrored wall before him. He caught sight of
something that caused this newfound rage to overwhelm him. There,
standing right behind him in his reflection was Faolan; sword
raised as if ready to slaughter. Faolan saw the reflection in the
mirror, too. Instead of fearing what Aurelian might do to him now
that he had seen his intentions, he gloatingly smiled.

“I’ve taken
everything from you. The girl is dead, Aurelian. You have nothing
left to live for! Perhaps it is time that you joined her? Now I
finally get the thing that I’ve wanted since we were children;
your
head
,”
Faolan kicked Aurelian in the stomach so that he would fall
backwards onto the ground. “Then I’ll be able to reign
forever.
”

He raised his sword high, perhaps a
little too high. There wasn’t a doubt in Faolan’s mind that he had
won. He had stolen from his brother, defeated and broken him beyond
repair. Though, there was something that was about to come that he
would have never anticipated. In all of his pride, Faolan didn’t
think that he had broken Aurelian to the point that he might become
a new person. The next few moments were utterly surreal.

As Faolan threatened
Aurelian, the rage which had taken root in him caused the prince to
do something he’d never done before. Instead of letting himself be
slain; Aurelian suddenly grabbed the sword from his brother and
wrestled it out of his hands. He took the sword back into his own
hand and used an unwarranted and completely unnatural amount of
strength to kick Faolan to the ground. It was almost as if a new
person had overcome him, a person with such blind fury that he
couldn’t be recognized as the docile man that once was.

Aurelian thrust his sword into
Faolan’s stomach. Faolan was fatally wounded now, but whatever
beast lurked inside of Aurelian still didn’t ease up at the sight.
Aurelian was unmovable, made of cold stone and brute strength while
he continued to put all of his strength on the sword and use it to
pin his brother to the ground. He didn’t ease up for quite some
time, when his passionate fury was interrupted by the gruff sound
of his dying brother’s voice.

“Well done,” Faolan suddenly spoke up,
partly in surprise and partly in spite. “It seems you’ve turned the
tables on this…just as I had dreaded you’d do all
along.”

He began coughing up
blood. Aurelian’s impassioned outburst had been nearly fazed by it,
but he still didn’t ease up on the sword. Soon, Faolan’s blood was
everywhere. But, it was no ordinary blood. The blood of someone as
evil as he was would never be the same red color as everyone
else’s. No. It was dark and murky, the color of ink. Faolan
bled
black
onto
the ground.

“You’re more like me than I ever
thought you were,” Faolan spoke up again. As soon as he said the
words, Aurelian began snapping back into reality.

“No…” he replied, quickly phasing out
of his vehement state. His senses suddenly came back into focus and
his mind back under his same, docile control. Though, the damage
had already been done.

“Then why do you continue to drive
your sword into my body? You have already wounded me beyond
repair.” Faolan told his brother in a raspy, pressured
voice.

The prince looked
down and saw that his knuckles were white. They clenched the handle
of his sword with every ounce of strength that his body had to
offer. Aurelian’s entire weight had been placed on it, anchoring
Faolan to the ground. What he had just done to this man surpassed
the necessary. To Aurelian, it seemed almost like he might have
passed into the territory of
murder
. He let go of his sword and
jumped back in horror. What had he done?

“I’m sorry to have underestimated
you,” Faolan maliciously spat along with his blood, “You have
proved worthy of the throne after all!”

“You’re a liar!”

Faolan looked up at his brother, a
look of wicked astonishment overcoming him. He had underestimated
his brother, yet he still hadn’t. Just like Aurelian had been
running from this fate, Faolan had always known that he was doing
the same. He had always known this was how it would end; and it
caused him to have walled himself against the inevitable. Now,
there was no escaping it. But, he still could not accept it - and
the anger seethed inside of him to his very last breath. Seeing the
horror in his brother’s face as he distanced himself from the
sword; he pounced on the weakness this one last time.

“Am I?” Faolan
challenged. “This was always meant for you. The throne is yours
now. You are King! Soon the curse will begin pulling you
in…tempting you until you’ve been seduced by it. Then you will
begin transforming into the very thing you’ve always
feared.
”

“Then I’ll fight it!
I’ll fight it with everything in me,” “Open your eyes! This is your
fate! It’s only a matter of time before the power of the throne
consumes you. You can try to resist it, but no one can resist its
pull very long. It only takes one moment of weakness…then it
consumes all that you are.”
He stopped to
cough for a moment; more of his black, ink-colored blood seeping
onto the ground.

Aurelian continued backing away from
his dying brother in horror. He couldn’t have done this. It was
impossible! It is true that this world certainly did need to be rid
of this evil tyrant – but Aurelian didn’t see it like that. No.
This was the act of a monster. He had taken life, not given it. It
was the very thing that he had been running from all
along.

“The throne is yours now. I drove
myself mad with power because I tried conquering it…and even if you
resist it, you’ll find yourself with the same madness,” Faolan
warned. Aurelian stiffened. Even with blood on his hands –
justified or unjustified – he still couldn’t accept the
curse.

“Then I’ll go mad!
I’ll accept this title, but I’ll
never
accept the curse that comes
with it.”

“I won’t argue with you over this,”
the dying brother spat. “No king over this land has ever resisted
the Darkness. If you try to resist, you’ll find yourself troubled
with the deepest pains and fiercest temptations until you let it
take you.” Faolan took in a shallow breath, nearing the end. He
coughed one last time. “As for me…I suppose you’ve already given my
just punishment. An eye for an eye…a tooth for a tooth…

“Though, be warned,
brother. Even as I drift away from you at this moment – one day
you’ll wake and find that I’m still with you.” Faolan’s gaze
narrowed; his voice raspy but wickedly intensifying. “I’ll be
watching you from where I next sit; waiting for the moment that I
might take back what is yours and make it mine again. The throne
and all its power belong to you now, but they will not belong to
you forever. One day, I’ll be back. It will be easy for me to steal
your throne– because now I know exactly how you are. I know that
you’re exactly
like me.”

Faolan’s last
vehement wish went quiet. The last black drop of blood came from
his wound. His movements became weaker, then they became still.
Soon, the air left his chest and his whole body went stiff. It
appeared that he was dead.
Dead at the
hand of his own brother.

It still took a few
seconds for it all to set in before Aurelian realized what he’d
done. It was all so surreal; he still didn’t understand what had
really just happened. First, he felt shock. Then, terror. He was
horrified at the sight of the deaths before his eyes and
at the monster that had just surfaced from inside
of him.

Though, despite the horror he was
feeling in a few seconds his attention was averted back to
something that caused him to lapse again. He glanced over his
shoulder and looked down to the bottom of the ledge where my
seemingly lifeless body was laying.

The sudden memories of my tumult
rushed back into his mind and consumed him all at once, causing him
to temporarily forget about everything that had just conspired.
Unable to think of anything else at that moment, he darted from the
scene and raced down the stairs to my motionless side.

“Elissa!” Aurelian
approached the bottom of the stairs, acting as though I could hear
him.

He prayed it had been an
illusion. With every step he took, he hoped that maybe there might
have been some life left in me after all. When he came to the spot,
it became apparent that this wasn’t the case. Looking for signs of
life, the prince fell to his knees at my side and cradled my body
in his arms. There was nothing.

“Oh, Elissa…” he whispered, cradling
my mortal body in denial.

He took my hand and
touched it to his face. It was cold and stiff. The color from my
complexion had been drained, but it wasn’t ghastly. My eyes were
delicately closed and my lips pressed shut. My hair bellowed onto
the ground beneath it. Aurelian still held me, feeling a much
bleaker void in his heart than had ever been there before. Now, I
was truly gone.

“I’m sorry that I’ve done this to
you.”

In that moment of
weakness, the Curse began taking root in his heart. Without a world
dividing its power, the full force of the Darkness was weighing on
him. These were the very moments that it could prey upon its
victims – and in the weakness, it could pounce. In that darkest
moment, something inside of Aurelian was overwhelmed with an urge
to let the power come in.

It was like a stranger
knocking on his door, begging him to unlock his soul. Aurelian
nearly grasped it. He struggled, torn between one destiny and the
other. Then, he looked down at the pale, lifeless color of my face.
It was cold now, but he remembered a time when it was warm and
bright. To him, I was an innocent lamb, slaughtered without
cause.

He looked down at my hand and saw the
ring on my hand. The amethyst no longer swirled with color. Now
that the life had gone from me, it had ceased its changing and
reverted back to an unchanging purple. Beyond grief, Aurelian took
my hand and desperately clutched it as if it would bring me back to
life.