Merlett: The BloodFairy Romance

Stone Cold, part 2

- ...he either leaves by himself, or I'll make him go. - said Sevrik to Lantra, the winged-individual from the previous part, whom I totally did not forget the name of and therefore I did not try to deliberately not say a name at all, totally not fearing that I may fuck it up. Not at all.
The anger in his voice didn't tone down since the others told him about what Mevrik tried to do. This scared the latter, if only a bit. But he couldn't focus more on the conversation, because Gaylord, who has been following him since he started searching for Sevrik, poked his shoulder:
- Did you really expect to outrun me?
- Gaylord, please go. - replied Mevrik, with an unusual seriousness from him. 
- No, I won't. Our souls are connected, I won't let you leave, and I don't care what do you want to say about this. I stay with you. - said Gaylord. He seemed and sounded like a small child, not wanting his dad to leave for milk. 
- You cannot, I... I fucked up. I need to go alone this time. - said, as he lowered his gaze to the ground. He really did fuck up. But at least no one got hurt... physically. He tried to think about alternate routes before, but regarding his lack of time, this was probably the least shitty outcome. 
It needed to be done.
- But I could help! - Gaylord was usually hiding behind a wall of self-confidence, and Mevrik could see this falling apart, word-by-word. He was desperate not to let his friend go. At least without him.
- Trust me, Pupo, you're better off with the others while I do this. They can take care of you, until I return...
-  I don't need caretaking! I need you! - both felt the importance of these words. Gaylord finally caring; and Mevrik finally feeling cared about. But before either of them could put this feeling into words, Sevrik showed up behind them:
- Mevrik, if you need to go, Lantra will teleport you. Right here. - Mevrik turned around to face Sevrik. He looked much wiser than anytime before. Fixed posture, clear speech, and a sense of deep determination within his eyes.
Like a true monarch.
- Yea, I could use that, after I said my goodbies. And Sevrik...
- Don't even try it. And do not think of this as anything more that I wanting you away from me as fast as possible. - and with that, he started walking to the village. - We will be in the safehouse.

...

"You dare ask me for help! You only live, because I let you. Because you are a tool. You always were."
Scarlett got jumpscared by Zachary swiftly (TAYLOR SWIFT OMG SAY YOU'LL REMEMBER MEEEEE STANDING IN A NICE DRESS STARING AT THE SUNSET BAAAAAABE) waking up. She sat next to him in the room for half an hour now (👉👈🥺), waiting for him to wake up after he passed out so suddenly earlier. But as relieved she should be, something was not right. The way Zachary moved was uncanny. 
- Zachary, are you...
- Where is Mevrik? - his voice sounded uncanny as well. Not demonic, or the sort, just not the tone he usually speaks in. He sounded much more cold. Evil, you might say. This made Scarlett scared a bit, but not for herself. She was angry at Mevrik as well, but Zachary sounded like someone who might actually kill him, if given the chance.
- Well, he went off, but don't you need some water or...
- Where. Is. Mevrik. - he was facing her now. Something was definitely not right. His once dark-green eyes have turned into a deep, black-purple foggy mess. And it was moving. Even outside of his eyes. It started to become an outline as well. He stood up from the bed, and grabbed one of his shortswords from the table.
- Why do you want to know? - asked Scarlett, afraid of what the answer might be.
- None of your concern. Now, if you may... - he gestured towards the doorway she was standing in. No, she couldn't let him go and search for Mevrik. Whatever happened to Zachary, needed to be contained. 
She just realized, that the ranger was smiling. And the worse; even Jeremy was sitting in the window, almost as if he feared Zachary.
- No. - said Scarlett. Or to be exact, she whispered, as Zachary was getting closer and closer. 
[Š̷̞̱͍ͅT̶̝̿͐̕R̵͔͓̾̌̏̽͘͝Ẽ̶̛̥͍͈̲͘N̶̩̈́͐̂͑̊̎G̶͍͉̺͖̤̞̃H̷̨̪͚́̿̏̊̚T̶̛̩̊͋͐͘ ̵̧̯̳̣̘͇̔̔̄Č̸̖̼̩̏̔̉̚͠H̴̝̗̺̃̀̓̕͠͠Ȩ̴̛̩͍͇͒̌͘͘͠Ć̴̨͕̘͙̂̒͘͜͝K̷̝͓͊̇͠]
- I don't want to hurt you. Move away. I won't say again. - threatened the ranger. As he finished his sentence, Tia got to the second floor as well, with some water.
- Scarlett, I got the wa... what is going on?
- Don't let him out! - as she said this, she could feel Zachary pushing her (😳😳) away from the doorway. She knocked up Tia as well, and the latter dropped the water. The EDÉNY broke, and Zachary was already moving downwards, with uncanny speed and smooth maneuvers. She started chasing him as soon as she got up ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NU-O84QQWo ), and Tia followed her:
- What the fuck was that?!
- I don't know, he looked possessed, or something, he might kill someone! - replied, as they made it outside.

- MEVRIK! - she heard Zachary scream. She looked at the direction the scream was coming from, and could see the ranger move towards a group of people, with his sword at his side.
All of a sudden, he stopped. Or to be correct, Tia stopped him with a spell. The druid started to move up, with his left hand held out towards Zachary, keeping the spell up. 
As soon as Zachary realized, what was going on, he spoke to Tia in the same voice he did since he got up:
- Let me go. Now. 
- Zachary, you need to calm down.
- I. DON'T. NEED. TO CALM DOWN. - his voice sounded even more fearsome now that he raised it. Slowly, the villagers started to gather around in a circle, to watch the vents unfold. He continued:
- I need to get at that fucker. Look at him, he's smiling - as he said that, he toned down his voice, directing the next part to Tia - , but I assure you, for the last time. Don't you want to see him dead? Suffering? - Tia started to focus more on the spell. If he let this madman loose, no guarantee he wouldn't hurt others. He walked up to face him. Zachary's eyes were nonexistent at this point. Replacing them were a pair of fluorescent, purple balls (balls? 🤨🤭), outlined by a dark purple fog upwards, and a pitch black one downwards, even extending the lenght of his head. Whatever was this, surely it was not Zachary anymore. 
- Don't tell me you don't want to see the person who tricked you into selling your soul lying lifeless, coated in blood. - his voice started to get an echo, some kind of reverbed, twisted voice, as if speaking with Zachary from another source. The way he smiled, was like a predator, stalking it's prey, already dreaming of the feast after the hunt. Tia couldn't say a word. Altough he was full of Mevrik's shit as well; this was something else...
- You hear me, you wretch?! Look at you, hiding from your fate again!  - he laughed. Scarlett catched up to him and Tia, only to find herself face to face with a monster in a man's clothing. As Zachary was laughing, Mevrik and Gaylord walked closer a bit, with Gaylord going first, holding out his arm slightly in front of Mevrik.
- Zachary, between the two of us, who is still running fom his mo...
- You think you can play with lives as much as you want?! Why not play with your own, then? Why not face the consequences of your actions? Why not face ME? - now, that Mevrik had a clear vision of Zachary, he realized he shouldn't use passive-aggression this time. 
- You think I do not face it every day? If you kill me, the souls I got will be in vain, and... - he couldn't finish, as Zachary started to laugh again:
- Oooohh, I see, now that YOUR life is on stake, suddenly, they matter? Don't fool yourself, you feel no remorse. But even better. I won't feel any as well. After I'm done with you. - he started to show his teeth now. - You know why I told you that I'll end your miserable existence if you hurt any one of us?! - as he finished this sentence, he looked around. - Because I... - Tia was focusing their every might on holding him still. And they were scared. But not as much as Scarlett was. Not for herself, still. And not only for Mevrik. She was worried about...
"...about me?"

Tia felt Zachary ease up under the spell's effect. He looked at the ranger; his eyes were clear now, altough slightly wet. He lifted the spell, waiting for the worst, but it didn't come. It was just Zachary, standing still, looking back and forth at them, at Scarlett, basically everyone that surrounded him. He dropped his sword, and murmured:
- I'm not like my mom. - as he started to ran away. Tia could see Jeremy flying towards him, but the ranger soon disappeared in the crowd.

Zachary sat down on the walls. There was a nice view of the half-moon. The air was clear, and the stars were bright. Jeremy was sitting on his lap, as he tried to figure out what happened. 
He couldn't. But he remembered everything, every move, word, and thought.
"Because I knew it would happen, and it would've justified it." He remembered the feral urge to tear up Mevrik with his bare hands. He remembered what he was going to tell him.
But it wasn't true. He still didn't know what was that whole ordeal, but that wouldn't have been true. He did not want to kill Mevrik; he wanted to protect his friends.
His new family.
As to why he suddenly returned back to normal, he couldn't fullly remember, only a shred of a sentence...

"...and I ... more than I hate him.
I... what?
I...
I... her...
I... her...
I... I...
...L...
...O...
...V..."
He couldn't finish the thought process, as a familiar male voice disrupted him:
- Zachary, if you want to talk, I'm here. What say we get a drink? Just the two of us (WE CAN MAKE IT IF WE TRYYYYYYY). - it was Mevrik. He was alone. Zachary didn't feel the need to kill him anymore, but he was still mad:
- I don't need a drink. Half an hour, you get to explain yourself, no more. I hear you. - so, Mevik began...
...IN THE NEXT PART! [háh, csak sikerült végre egy rendes cliffhangert beleírnom ebbe az istentelenségbe]