'...Am I cursed?'
An unbidden thought...
The air had gone still.
His lungs wouldn't move.
The dead had stood rooted.
Even the snowflakes falling, dared not to fall any longer.
An eerie presence had filled everything...
"...Riv--"
Saphira called, voice cracking and stumbling over the word.
He didn't turn.
No-one did.
The villagers swayed, side to side, as they stood near the church entrance, staring at the figure.
A figure that stretched taller with each soundless step. Long limbs that cut through the mist. A mask pale as the sky. Burning slits that torched at their hearts.
'Death...'
"Hrruummm..."
He had hunted them from the very beginning....and he wasn't going to stop.
"I can smell you in there."
Thump! Thump!
The words dragged like stone grinding together. Low and endless, they echoed...
The Veil dropped in temperature at his call.
The villagers swayed like leaves, their groans silent.
Riven and Saphira shrank back without meaning to.
"...Haaa...."
Breaths coincided as they stared at the figure intently....fearing one look away would pull him closer.
Thrkk.
A metallic sound filled the air as the man lifted his hand to his face. Those bone-like fingers danced around....gracing the front of his mask.
"Hrrummm..."
Every hum.
Every sound that left that 'monster....'
It pulled at their hearts.
Thump!
Like deer stuck staring at headlights...
He was getting closer...
That long frame slid past the first house they'd stepped in, the doorway where breath had once shaken.
The second house followed, snow at its base scarred with their tracks, those dark gouges now tainted further.
The third house loomed as he he stepped....little by little.
The notebook...
Riven's chest locked. The scar of ink still crawled at his mind, words he couldn't scrape away.
"....ha...."
A part of him bled in that place.
...and now?
The figure walked past without pause.
Each step devoured the places they had hidden, transforming their fleeting safety into nothing.
"Did you think I lost you?"
Thump! Thump!
The words reverberated, threading through veins and strike bone.
Riven's chest lurched.
Was it his heart, or his mind that thumped so loud?
Beside him, Saphira's breath hitched. Her shoulders shook, the cold seemed to be a joke compared to this chill.
The echo of his voice crawled up her spine, settling in her skull like a second pulse.
Presence.
A presence so insidious...
It was the reason the wind held its breath.
It was the reason the villagers froze in place.
It was the reason Riven's soul buckled...and Saphira's blood turned cold.
Hope was a fleeting figment.
Saphira's lips parted, shaking as she tried to voice something.
Anything.
A prayer?
'...Isy--'
The prayer froze mid-step as she clutched her coat, fingers dinging into its heavy fabric.
Her mother flashed in her mind; beautiful raven hair, jewel-like sapphire eyes, with a perfect smile stuck in a haze of gold.
She was her rock.
She taught her to always treat people kindly, no matter their upbringing.
That you'd reap what you sow...
She'd taught her to rely on constellations and their grace...
To always value them, believe in them if there were ever hard times....
'Do I deserve this?'
The thought crept slow.
Thump!
'From comfort, prestige...anything I've wanted...' her crimson eyes shone a shade darker. 'To eating rodents...frostbite covering my skin....having death claw at my throat daily....'
She slightly turned to the boy next to her.
"....ha...."
His breath hitched just like hers. His chest fell unsteady just like hers. His fingers twitched just like hers....
'Is this my blessing....' she looked outside, at the rows of death all around. 'To die in this hell?'
Thump! Thump!
"Your heart calls me better than your voice ever could."
Thoughts that seemed endless, flowed simply for the monsters voice.
He had arrived....right outside the church, blocked by a parade of dead.
He halted, as the slight moans of the dead stuttered into silence...
What was this scene?
These mindless shells, figments of previous beings had feared the man in-front of them...
Thump!
"Hruummmm..."
His head tilted, the hum dragging through the mist as his gaze passed over the husks.
One by one, he studied them; not with curiosity, but with a hollow patience.
At the very front of the shambling line stood the smallest one...
It was the child.
The same one that had stumbled into Riven and Saphira's view, just moments ago.
The one that carried the blanket...
Its limbs were thin, shaking, frost clinging to its grey skin.
Those empty eyes rolled blind, yet somehow stared at the monster, as if waiting for a command.
"Hrummmm..."
It was slow....but it felt sudden.
He reached his long fingers out, resting it atop the child's head...
Was it a pat?
No.
It was a mockery of care, fingers draped like iron bars across its delicate skull.
For a heartbeat...
Thump!
The world seemed to hold its breath.
The wind would have howled, the snow would have screamed....but nothing came.
Crk...
The sound split the silence as bone gave way. Slowly, deliberately, the head bent, neck twisting until it lolled sideways.
THUMP! THUMP!
The child's body didn't fall. Its head hung loose, half-attached...
Its eyes rolled until they fixed on Riven and Saphira, watching from the window.
Its lips trembled, as a sound crawled out...
"...ah..."
Not a word.
Less than a breath.
More than silence.
Thum--
Hearts froze over, as breaths refused to leak...
The man's hand tightened.
With one motion, the head tore free, spine snapping with a wet rip.
Krrrchhhhkk!
He looked at it, those ember slits shining as a hollow hum rumbled.
"...Useless."
Thud.
He let the head drop, the thud echoing loud in that bubble of silence.
...Silence pressed harder.
---THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!
Riven's chest rattled.
His heart beat so violent, it hurt as it pounded against his ribs.
"...h....."
His breath stuttered, shallow, then caught entirely.
Lungs refused air.
Beside him, Saphira's lips parted, but no sound came.
THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!
Her chest tightened, strangled by the weight of that single word, as her pulse ran rampant.
The echo of all the sounds crawled in her mind, reverberating until her teeth ached.
THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!
Was it his heart? Hers? Both?
Or the sound of something deeper; souls buckling as they stared at this insidious presence?
THUMP THUMP!
The monster's mask shifted as he looked up.
Those ember-slits bore a hole into Riven's chest as he found him watching.
A sudden look, long enough to freeze the breath trapped in his chest...
Riven's jaw tightened, as he gripped Mael's Fang with panicked intensity.
His heart clawed at his throat...
But it just a glance, nothing more.
THUMP! THUMP!
The mask shifted.
Then it found her.
A silence stretched.
Those burning eyes lingered, staring at the girl, drinking her in....refusing to let go.
THUMP! THUMP!
Each second dragged raw across her skin, until her shoulders trembled, and knees threatened to collapse.
In front of an army of dead, with the wind as a witness....
THUMP! THUMP!
Those ember slits shone as he stared deep into Saphira's eyes.
"Every beat of your heart belongs to the Red Throne...
...and I, Drenn, shall deliver it."