Kenopsia

And To Think I Tried To Save You

Spere pulled her sword out of him. Mayhem first fell on his knees, then onto his stomach, letting the snow underneath him melt as it soaked up crimson, and he went silent. Spere for a moment just stared down at the sword in her hands, dripping with hot blood, her hands gripping it painfully tight and shaking. She only looked up when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Cloudy's. She noticed he was shorter than she. Which made sense; he was younger than her.

"You're okay," he said softly. Spere didn't know what to think. Mayhem, believe it or not, used to be her best friend. Stable, kind, and gentle.

"What happened to him?" She whispered, her lower lip quivering. "What happened to him? That's not the Mayhem I know."

"Politics," Windy growled loudly. "Stonehenge is changing the people of that town. It used to be a good town. I'm not sure what he's up to, but whatever it is, it's digging a deeper hole with the war with the second town, and it's causing members of Stonehenge's town to sway. They do whatever they think is best to get in his good graces, or they do whatever they think they can to get his power stolen. He's turned it into a dictatorship." Spere nodded, not truly collecting what he said. She slowly slid to her knees, and let the sword clatter across the road as she threw it far from her, striking a streak of red in the shallow snow. Cloudy sat beside her, a hand on her shoulder.

"It's okay," he said again. "Things like this happen." She nearly jumped at a hand on her other shoulder. It was Windy.

"I know what it is," he said, and leaned down beside her, too. "At the town, we've got a full brewery of poisons. Some of them can make you crazy."

"How so?" She asked.

"Mood swings. We use it to get information out of people sometimes, but only on rare occasions, since it's hard to make... It's possible Stonehenge was using that to control people," Windy explained.

Spere shook her head in disbelief, "I'm so confused. Could it even have stayed in his system for that long?"

Windy looked away, "Thing is, the poison... It's permanent. Does something to your brain. Another reason why we never used it often."

"And if the entirety of the town had been poisoned, that would explain why they're acting crazy. But why would he do that?" Spere asked, tempting to cry and ignoring the pain that the cold of the snow beneath her brought.

Windy shook his head, "It's like a disease now. Stonehenge might've not known what it was used for or..." his eyes widened. "He probably used it as a weapon so he could climb to the top. Those who oppose him, get poisoned."

Spere nodded, and grumbled, "That sounds like him."

Rebel sat down in front of her, and sighed, "So it's just us now. Again."

"Just us," Cloudy confirmed. "It'll be better this way."

"How is this better?" Spere asked quietly. She covered her face with her hands. "I'm a killer. I have been for a long time."

"For a good reason," Cloudy said. "If you kill someone for a really good reason, then it's worth it, and you shouldn't feel bad. Mayhem was going to hurt us. He was unstable. He was poisoned. It's lucky you got rid of him before he tried anything." Spere was quiet, and moved her hands out of her face. She let his words bump around in her mind for a short while. Maybe Cloudy was right. But what consisted of a good reason?

Did saving the planet consist of a good enough reason to kill as many people as she could? She didn't want to think about it.

"We should get moving," she said, and stood, but nearly fell from lightheadedness. Cloudy helped her up by the arm, and Windy put his arm around her waist.