When Worlds Collide

Chapter 26

When Wendy awoke she found herself locked in a cage in the middle of a frightening place. It was a dry, barren, rocky wasteland, perpetually covered in a fog that was casting a shadow all around and there were skeletons of dead animals littered everywhere. It made her heart stop when she first wake up and for a moment she hoped that she was having ab ad dream, but soon she realized that it was no such thing.

"Where am I?" She thought. "Hello! Is anyone there? Jellal! Romeo!"

"They're not here child." Came a cold and sinister voice. 

From the shadows she saw a figure step out to face her. A figure whom she recognized to be her uncle. The sight made her relieved for a moment.

"Oh Uncle Faust thank goodness!" She said. "Get me out of here! Quick!"

"I'm afraid I can't do that."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm the one who put you in there."

Her relief turned to shock.

"What? What do you mean? Why would you put me in here?"

"Because I need you to stay missing for a few more hours. Then I'll just kill you."

"Kill me?!" She gasped. "Uncle Faust what are you talking about?!"

"I'm talking about doing what is best for the tribe. Everyone knows that it would be best if I continued running things around here but they still have to follow that ridiculous tradition that the first born child succeeds the chief. So that tragically leaves only one option. You have to die."

Wendy couldn't breathe. Which each word her uncle said, she felt like a black mamba was constricting her.  

"It's nothing personal. I'm just doing what's necessary to keep the tribe in order. You can't possibly be a suitable chieftess and tradition won't allow you to just hand over the position. Death really is the only solution."

"But you're my uncle. We're family. You'd kill me? Your own niece?"

He leaned in close to the cage bars.

"Why not? I killed my own brother."

"You what?!" She screamed but it came out so breathless and quiet.

"Yes. I killed him. I asked him on that hunt, separated him and myself from the other hunters, and then I stabbed him to do death." His voice had no emotion whatsoever. No sigh of remorse or guilt. "I can still remember the look on his face when I stabbed him. It was just like yours, and with his last breath he kept begging me not to hurt you. It was really pathetic."

Wendy felt horror, rage, and heartbreak build up inside of her. 

"Monster!" She screamed, clawing her uncle across the face with tears of anger in her eyes. "My father! your brother! How could you?!"

Faust drew back in pain, surprised by the girl's ferocity but was also in a full force of madness.

"My brother stole everything that should have been mind!" He snarled hatefully. "He stole the power, he stole the tribe, and he stole your mother!"

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"You stupid girl! Did you honestly think your father became chief through birthright? I'm the oldest so how could that be? Your mother was the one born into the lineage and I was going to marry her to become chief. But then my little brother had to go and fall in love with her. He didn't even care about being chief, yet he still married her!"

"Because he loved her!"

"Love?! Anyone who considers love valuable is a broken fool who should be put out of their misery! And that's exactly what I did to your father! I never loved him! I hated him form the moment he was born and I hated you too! You're just as stupid and pathetic as he was and you deserve die the same way he did!"