The Betrayed

Chapter 2: Evasion

Remember everything that isn't the plot or some characters and OCs of this story doesn't belong to me but to their respective owner/artist/composer.

Written during a dialogue like this: Normal talking

Written during a dialogue like this: Thoughts

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Verraten's breathing became erratic, his heart racing at a crazy level. The memories flooded back before his mental eye just like every single time this ghost of the past came back to haunt him. It didn't matter how much the boy would appear before him, it would always provide the same reaction in Verraten: fear and regrets.

"W-What do you want, n-now? Have you not haunted me enough?!" Stuttered Verraten as he backed off, only for the ghost to step forward.

They continued until he felt his back pressing the cold wall of stones. Leaving him staring in despair at the haunting spirit who never blinked.

"Talk. I just want to talk." Answered the ghost, its whispering and ethereal voice echoing in thousands of whispers.

"How am I sure this is not a trick to end me?" 

Verraten looked around, trying to find a way to escape the situation but there was none.

The ghost smiled while tilting its head.

"If I wanted to hurt you, wouldn't have I done it by now?"

The young man took deep breaths and started to calm himself. He didn't trust the spirit but at least it was keeping him company, unlike everyone who abandoned him after he was arrested for treason and heresy.

"You still didn't answer my question though." Pointed the spirit.

The two stared at each other. The child's ghost then floated to Verraten's face, their noses almost touching while they gazed into each other eyes.

"What did it cost you?" It asked.

Verretn couldn't bear to look into its eyes. He looked down, ashamed to even think about it.

"Everything that I had..." He sighed.

"And what did it bring you?" The ghost tilted its head to the other side.

"Nothing..." Verraten grunted, feeling the pain in his back awakening.

The ghost floated around him, never leaving its eye off of him.

"Yet you fought on and still hope to get out of here. Why?"

The ghost turned upside down mid-air, back into Verraten's face. It's voice echoing in his ears.

"What can possibly make you hope? Is it your mind, that still can't accept the reality you're in? Perhaps, it's you who don't accept your fate? Your name will soon be but all a memory cast out from the history books spat on and forgotten, so you may truly die."

The Imperial didn't know what to answer but there were some truths in those questions. It didn't look like it but he still wanted to fight on, to prove he was not what he was accused of, but that fire grew weaker. 

The man in jail was but a broken shadow of the one that was called the Mysterious Duellist, a man who lost everything in mere seconds. While thinking about this whole new ordeal, the spirit sat down next to the broken man while still looking at him.

He heard a lock not too far being unlocked as footsteps grew closer. The spirit seemed unbothered as it pressed on.

"Well?"