Ultima Book III

The Executioner's Proposition

                                    Susie's POV:

                After the trial, I went back to the resort to find Feng waiting for me. When she saw me, the smile that she had faded when she saw the bruises and still healing wounds from the Entity. "I told you not to go against the Entity," She said rushing over to me with Demo-pup at her side. She started to look at my wounds after taking me inside. "I am fine," I said pushing her away, "I can heal them myself." "I know that you are not like us," Feng said sympathetically, "But I know that even you can't heal from that in this realm without help." A crow flew in, and I grabbed and consumed it to heal myself and my wounds closed instantly. "Or you can just do that," She said sitting down next to me. "Why haven't you tried to escape the realm?" I asked the small Chinese woman. "Because I am not suicidal," She replied, "And because it is impossible to do so." "What if it is not?" I asked her while forcing my infection to radiate in my palms, causing them to glow orange. "No," Feng said realizing where I was going with this, "I am not going along with this." "I can't do this alone," I pleaded with her, "It will help you escape your trials, and I don't have to worry about crushing you every time we hug." "The Entity won't like this," She said holding out her arm for me. "This may hurt," I warned her before placing my glowing hand on her arm, infecting her with the Blacklight virus. She instantly recoiled in pain as I held her tight. I tried to calm her down, but I didn't know what to do to help her, so I just let her squeeze my hand. "It hurts," I said sympathetically, "Just breath and work thought the pain." "Why did I let you talk me into this?!" She screeched while squeezing my hand with a death grip. "I know it hurts," I said after kissing her forehead with tears falling down my eyes, "I didn't want to do this to you, but it was necessary for us to escape the realm." Demo-pup growled as gray fog descended upon us and an air raid siren sounded, and I instantly knew what this meant. "Pyramid Head," I whispered in both shock and fear. "Susie!" Feng said as her dark brown eyes changed to have bright orange irises, "We have to hide!" "I can't move you!" I replied, "The infection won't be able to fully bond with you if I do! If that happens, you will mutate rapidly until you become a beast!" I assimilated my arms into blades and turned to see the Executioner seam to materialize out of the fog itself, dragging his great knife behind him. He stepped closer to us but what he did surprised me, instead of attacking us, he dropped his weapon and held his hand out. Demo-pup still growled at him then started to circle the behemoth, but I whistled to stop him, and he walked to my side. "What do you want?" I asked after assimilating my arms back to their normal form. The Executioner simply nodded his pyramid covered head to his large, opened hand so I reluctantly took his hand in mine, and I was sent to his own realm. "I want to help you," The Executioner said, "I evaluated you for judgment and deemed you worthy of help. You see, I was created to give judgment to creatures to deem them worthy of life or death. I know that you want to help your friends in the real world and that makes you special. The other killers only care about themselves, but you, on the other hand, care for the people around you. I have seen many sights that this realm has to offer, and it showed me that everyone should be punished in the realm, but what you and Feng have, even I cannot punish something that pure." "You are going to help me?" I asked him filled with hope. "Yes," He replied, "Most of the killers both fear and respect me besides the Cenobite and the Blight. I can get more of the killers to side with you next gathering." "Thank you," I said giving him a hug which caught him off guard. "Don't thank me yet, little one," He said, "We still have much more work to do." The Executioner then brought me back to my realm then nodded his head after picking his weapon up before disappearing into the fog. It was close to nighttime in the realm which meant the day of trails are coming to a close. I checked up on Feng which was now asleep with cold sweat running down her forehead. Demo-pup was laying against her like he was protecting her. I kissed Feng's forehead and laid down next to her while stroking her hair. "We're back!" My friends said as they entered the lodge. "What happened to her?" Julie asked after noticing Feng. "I infected her with my virus," I replied, "I did it to make her stronger." "You shouldn't have done that, Susie," Joey said sitting next to me after taking his cloth mask off, "You have no clue if it would kill her." "I did it," I said with a small growl in my voice, "If I could handle the process then she can too." "Yeah," He continued, "But you are part werewolf, so you are much stronger than she is." "Joey," I said after a long pause with tears in my eyes, "Why didn't you defend me when Dad was abusing me?" "I actually don't know," He replied with a hint of sadness in his voice, "Maybe I was scared of what he would do to me, and I kept quiet. I told Mom what he was doing to you, but she ignored the problem like she always did. I did try to stand up to the man but in ended badly for me." He revealed a long scar going from the top of his neck down to his chest. "Well," He said covering it back up, "You see how that went." "I didn't want to kill you, Joey," I said with tears falling from my eyes, "I just couldn't stop myself." He pulled me into a hug, and I embraced it while he told me that it was okay. Little did I know, the Entity was listening in on our conversation and was planning to use our father's image to enrage us.