Lilium || A The Last of Us story.

Joel's Revenge (TW)

TW

2 years later.

The slasher smile he wore on his face would terrify the dead.  Joel's eyes were empty as he held the blade high above his head. Five men were tied up, shivering like new born kittens. Each one sobbing louder than the other. Smoke bellowed from beneath their feet.  The tunnels now engulfed in thick darkness the wails and screams slowly dying down.

"What did we do?" The elder of the five choked out, thick arterial blood dripped down his face and into his mouth spluttering across the room as he gasped for air through a tyranny of wails.

Joel grinned, "Her name was Lily," He said coolly, kneeling before the youngest. His gaze never wavering from the elder.

"Not my boy, not my darling boy." The man cried.

The machete Joel had been holding slowly trailed down the boys nose, "How old are you, son?" He asked him, stopping the blade at his mouth, he placed enough pressure to cause a rip in the corners of his mouth widening it sinisterly.  He repeated the same motion on the other side.

"Th-th-thirty f-f-four..." He stammered with fear overriding his body.

"Got a wife?" Joel asked.

He replied with a tearful nod.

"She down there?" Joel pointed to the entrance of the tunnel town.

Another nod.

Joel shook his head, "Not any more." 

He circled around the five men, sizing them up as they continued to tremor.  He had heard that they were the five elders of the town, when one dies or becomes too ill they appoint a new one.  Which explained the young one.  

"Please, don't do this..."  Another pleaded. 

Joel spun furiously on his heel, "Her name was Lily and you destroyed her."

"What we did, it was wrong.  We...see...we know that."

Joel had heard enough from that one, he took his machete drawing it right down through the mans skull.  The body fell to the ground still attached to the chair, placing his boot on his neck Joel pulled his weapon free. 

"Is she okay?" The younger of the group asked, "Lily was my friend." He asked, a mixture of tears and snot running down his face.

Tommy, who had been leaning against the door frame of the garage that acted at the entrance to the tunnels let out a raspy laugh. "Friend?  I guess you weren't in on the perpetual rape as well then?"

Joel winced at Tommy's truthful words, the pain of Lily's past still fresh in his mind.  He had played out all the ways he would destroy this town for what they done to her.

The man glanced down guiltily.  

"That's what I thought." Tommy spat.

Stepping over the body into the middle of the group Joel held out his machete pointing it at the remaining men, "Believe me when I tell you that what I am about to do to you is in no way more painful than what you did to her." 

"Mhmm," Tommy bobbed his head in agreement.

"Is she okay?" The younger man asked again.

Joel glanced painfully at Tommy then shifted his eyes back to the group.

"She's dead."

The remaining mauled corpses lay on the floor of the garage, their pools of blood muddying into one giant puddle.  Joel threw a Molotov cocktail at each corner of the garage before pulling down the door, sealing them in.

"Did you cover every exit?" He asked Tommy, staring as flames engulfed the building.

Tommy dipped his head, "Every last one. There ain't a man or woman alive that can talk shit about Lily now."

"That's the last thing I'll ever ask of you," Joel said, brushing tears and sweat away from his face.

Joel went on to live out a lonely life in the cabin at the back of the town.  Ellie had her own space, something that she had never had before.  They still talked about their time with Lily, Ellie always knew that something else had happened that day at the hospital.  But until Joel was ready to talk about that, she wasn't going to question it.  For now at least.

The End.

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A/N:

I dreamt this last night.  It's really rough but I just felt it had to be published alongside Lilium.