Tombstone ( Completed )

Imprisonment

Arthit POV------

A Child was the first to notice me, he was looking at my royal clothes with wide eyes. Seconds later he recognises the nature of my burden.

The child knows him.......

"Brother...!!"

He cries in alarm.

Heads turn, and I can see myself from a hundred..... different perspectives. In their eyes, I saw alarm at my status, then dismay as the people recognise the lifeless body I carried.

With my eyes downcast and heavy, dragging steps, I carry him to the door of the house, where the child from earlier has disappeared into. This house emits my mate's scent most intensely. I kneel on the bottom step and lay the body softly. I bow my head and wait......

A small crowd gathers around me, their eyes taking in the bloodless lips of the lifeless boy, unearthly paller and the gaping wound in his neck. The exposed flesh is bloodless, a strange peach-pink color.

They are confused. He was not the victim of an animal attack. Not any animal they are familiar with. The wolves and lions that roam these mountains..... tear and devour. Their teeth ravages the soft tissues of the throat and stomach first. But his body only has a single wound. His corpse is otherwise intact.

Heavy footsteps sound from within the house, bare feet on the hard floor. A man appears in the doorway, I watch him with anticipation. He is their chief, Graham, My Mate...... Whom I have brutally killed, was his son.

I bow lower, his horror and pain gripping me, like an chocking hold around my neck. Minutes pass before I find the strength to speak. Drawing words from the minds of those around me, by my power of telepathy, I raise my head slightly and greet him in his native language.

"Chief Graham, leader of this tribe, I come to you in great sadness and shame. A Murder was committed this day. I came offering justice. I..... I stole your son's lifeblood..... only realizing my mistake when his heart was no longer beating. I offer you.... my life, as payment for my crime. Cast me into the scared fire, that I may burn and eject this evil inside of me”

The chief looked at me with anger and hate dripping eyes

Then he looks down at his son, and the anger begins to fade, displaced by something even more potent. He sobs, his grief bursting through his surface thoughts, boiling over and spilling across the crowd. His pain rushes over me and drags me under. I am peering through the salty water, my vision smeared with my own tears. I shake my head, willing away the thoughts of the greiving father, reclaiming my own senses and grief.

I almost succeed, but one Shriek cuts deeper than the rest. There is a newcomer approaching, a man returning late from working in his fields. He hears the commotion before he sees the gathered tribesmen.

I look over their heads and see a young man, tall and muscular. He wears a leather coat and carries a knife in his one hand and a flambeau (a fire stick) in his another one. He calls out a question, and people turn, babbling out the details of the tragedy. His eyes meet mine over their heads, deep charcoal black... against.... vibrant blood red. I watch his gaze flick down to Graham, his father, clutching the body of his younger brother against his bosom.

His anger eclipses everything, he looks at me with so much anger and hatred in his eyes. His people shriek and scatter as that furious creature bounds toward me.

I know his thoughts......

I can see his intentions......

He wants to tear the flesh from my bones and scatter the pieces.  He wants to burn me alive and.......