The Segmented Empire

Chapter 5

TW: (Gore, Family Death)

  His training was difficult, to say the least. It went well of course, but the pain Anguish felt in his segments wasn't something he could dismiss. He was never good at handling pain, and how he looked at that moment only made it apparent. The boy was slightly hunched over in his seat, holding his arms close to his torso, gently rubbing his segments with his thumbs. He didn't want to be seen like this, but there wasn't much he could do. His parents had prepared a special feast as a way to celebrate the boy's first training session, yet he couldn't find anything to celebrate about. All Anguish wanted to do was rest, and forget about how today treated him.

  Once dinner had finally finished, he swiftly excused himself from the dining hall and hurried his way into his room. He sighed shortly in relief and buried his face into his pillow, the day had been long and he was happy he could finally lay down and rest his aching body. The night was long, many hours passed by, and yet Anguish couldn't sleep no matter how hard he might've tried. Tired, and out of options, he got up from his bed and made his way through the castle into his brother's room. It was a large space, quite a lot bigger than the younger one's own space, although it didn't bother him much at all. In all factors, he was glad that he got a smaller room than the one he was in now, the size intimidated him.

  "S-scar?.." he whispered, wrapping himself more securely in the blanket he had brought with him.

  No answer came, although that was to be expected. He could only assume that Scar was fast asleep, as normally anyone would be at this time. He silently sighed, making his way over to the large bed that stood in the middle of the room. Climbing his way up, he felt around, doing his best to find which side his brother was resting on, except he couldn't find any signs of life on the bed at all. No matter which side of the bed he was on, he felt a sudden panic shoot through him, pushing himself back onto the cold tile, he shuffled over to the nightstand, quickly lighting the candle that rested there, and swiftly retreating into the hall. Many terrifying scenarios ran through the boy's mind as he ran his way to his parent's quarters, silently opening the door, he stepped into the room and made his way over to his parent's bed.

  He paused, feeling something wrong within the room although he couldn't be sure what. He stood and waited, letting his eyes adjust to the darkness around him, looking carefully for any sign of movement. A noise came from beside him, causing him to jump, he turned and pointed the candle in the direction the sound was heard, seeing nothing out of the ordinary. He continued to stand there, carefully looking and listening to everything around him, he feared that any sudden movement he did could lead to his death. After what felt like an eternity, he let out a small sigh, he thought more logically on the situation at hand, perhaps his brother has just gotten up to use the washroom, the noise he heard could've just been a Ghast outside or even just the sounds of the warped biome the castle had resided within, could've even been the boy's hyperactive imagination after being so panicked. Whatever it was, he couldn't find a reason to continue standing in the middle of his parent's room like this.

  He walked back out into the hall, silently shutting the door, and making his way back to his bed, much calmer than before. Of course, though, he did stop by his brother's room to drop off the candle. Upon entering the room, he couldn't help but yawn, now that he was calmer, he had finally realized how exhausted he was. He stepped over to the nightstand, feeling a cold and wet type of substance under his foot, he directed his attention to below him and saw a dark crimson type liquid puddle under him. He jumped back quickly upon realizing what he was stepping in, looking around the room to find the source, his heart rate picking up once again. He looked towards the closest wall next to him, his entire body freezing in place as he stared at the sight before him.

  His brother sat there, sword in hand, his head limply leaning on his shoulder, a large gash, from what could only be an ax, running from the top of his skull down his face, ending at his cheekbone. His eyes were completely black as if a light had gone out in his head, an expression of pure shock and terror frozen onto his face. Anguish could tell this was recent, the smell of the corpse had not yet made its way around the room quite yet, and the crimson color of the puddle around him spoke many words that his brother now couldn't. The boy's eyes filled with tears of both fear and sadness, the only sound he could let out being the all too familiar ear-piercing screech that tore at his face as it would for any species of Endermen.

  He suddenly shot up, his heart still racing at an ungodly speed. He was in his room, on his bed, tangled in blankets, as the light from the nether fire outside lit his room, indicating it was now morning. A dream, that's all it was, a horrid, sinister dream that his brain decided to curse him with. He let a breath of relief escape his lips, untangling himself from his bedsheets and forcing himself to start the day. He pulled his avian cape closer to his body as he walked to the dining hall. He couldn't quite remember who had given him the cape, but his mother had told him it was from an old friend of the kingdom. He silently pushed the doors open, stumbling slightly over to his seat to eat breakfast, once again late. He ignored the odd stares he received from his mother, only paying attention to the eggs on his plate.

  "Anguish, dear, did you happen to have a nightmare last night?" she put her fork down, concern taking over her expression.

  He nodded slightly, "I did, but it wasn't all that bad, why?"

  She glanced over at her husband, who had just now noticed what she had, "did you happen to, at any point, ender screech?"

  Anguish was confused, he had, but how could she have known, "I did actually, how did you know that?"

  "Your cheeks dear..." she said, a sudden feeling of dread washing over Anguish after hearing her, "they're torn around where your face would split to fully open..."

  1149 words

   Okay wow, that took forever to actually write. I apologize greatly, I didn't expect it to take me this long to update this, I just recently started school again and motivation doesn't exactly come easily to me when I have a bunch of homework to complete, and even before all of that I just couldn't seem to get the right motivation to complete this chapter, luckily though, I finally got it done. I'll do my best to make sure the next chapter doesn't take as long to get out, but anyway. I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter, if you have any criticism or tips that you could give, I would actually appreciate hearing them as it will help me write other chapters and books in the future. With all my rambling finally finished, I hope you have a good day/afternoon/night and I'll see you all in the next chapter!

                   -The Author