The Cursekeeper

I Don't Want To Lie But I Have To

"Imbecile!  Fucking worthless imbecile!" Darrach thought to himself angrily as he punched the grain filled bag he had hanging in his personal gym.  "You failed your daughters!  Played around like a fucking moron!  You don't deserve the power you were given!"

Darrach continued punching the bag furiously, trying to drown out his guilt riddled conscience.  He failed Lilly, Rose and O'Callaghan enormously.  It was his job to guide them, help them blossom and ensure their safety.

"You had one job and you blew it!"

Sweat beaded on Darrach's skin, wearing a white under shirt and black pants as he continued to punch away his anger.  But his anger wasn't going away.

"You should've intervened the moment you found out about the door!  No, you should've intervened the moment she was cursed!  You were supposed to protect her from all the damn monsters...fuuuuuuuck!"

This wasn't enough.  Darrach marched over to one of his baseball bats and grabbed the wooden handle before pulling it from its shelf and storming back over to the punching bag.  He swung, hitting the bag hard.

It still wasn't enough.

"Pathetic!  Useless!  Can't do one fucking job right!"

Darrach continued to allow his guilt to consume him, making him even angrier.  He hit the bag faster and harder each time, eventually to the point where the bag split open and grain poured from the broken bag like a waterfall.  The soft hissing of the grain spilling from it gave Darrach no comfort from his woe. 

"Three daughters and you can't keep a single one of them safe!"

He went around the room, breaking and hitting things with the bat.  He shouted and raged, tears falling from his eyes.  Darrach never felt anger like this before and it was almost too much to bear.  Wood splintered and cracked when he threw the bat and it hit the wall, pieces flying everywhere.  He fell to his knees, breathing heavily as he bent over, cursing himself again and again for the failure that he was.

"Darrach?" a voice called out.  Darrach turned around to see Vu standing at the platform door with a very concerned expression on his face and a tray of food in his hands.  "You alright?"

Darrach sniffed and wiped his nose before standing up.  "Yes, I'm alright," he mumbled, facing him with a sad grin as he wiped his face.  "You brought food?"

"Thought you might be hungry," he said before looking around the place with a smirk.  "Now I know where Lilly get her lack of cleanliness from," he giggled.

Darrach's cheeks turned red and he ahemed before looking around.  "No, this is...this is new," he said. 

Tree roots came down from the ceiling and started cleaning up the mess.  Vu set the tray of tea and food down on the floor and sat down in front of it.  "Eat.  You been here long time."

Darrach nodded before grabbing a towel and wiping the sweat off himself.  He tossed it aside before sitting across from Vu, both of them preparing their drinks.  "Has anything important happened?" Darrach inquired, grateful that Vu wasn't bringing up his little freakout.

Vu shook his head.  "No.  Queen still in healing bath.  They're gonna call banners, rescue Aynaet's kids from prison and come up with plan to defeat Mallacht and his army."

Darrach sighed as he cut into some chocolate potato cake.  "He has an army.  Great," he mumbled.

"Aynaet has army, too, but now she have advantage."