The Bloodstained Brother

Bloodstained Brother part 2

I turned to Lucas who was standing in the doorway. He met my gaze and whispered in my ear,

"I thought you could convince him to stop terrorising this land, I've been told he has plans not to just stop with the castle, he's gone too far,"

"Gone too far have I Lucas?" John suddenly remarked, " Maybe you're right, I have gone too far. But don't you worry, I'll go much further than that,"

I witnessed John pull a sword out of a case attached to his waist. It was already stained with blood from his previous victims. Lucas pulled out his sword and locked eyes with me.

"Run," he told me, "I didn't know he was this bad, I knew him as a child and he was a lovely boy, he's gone mad with rage,"

I saw the chaotic look on my brothers face "You're going already Max? Why don't you join me? Brotherly duo, ruling the lands?"

I gave it a few moments thought then said, "Sure, I love the idea, let's get rid of this moron Lucas first,"

I walked over to him and he shook hands with me. I quickly grabbed the sword from one of the soldiers on the ground and attempted to stab John to end his reign of terror. He immediately moved and said.

"Thought you could kill me brother? I'm too good to be killed by my weak brother from many years ago. It's a shame you decided to trick me, I may just have to do to you, what you tried to do to me!"

His voice was rising as he reached the end of the sentence. Lucas pushed me aside and started fighting John. I made my way to the exit and started going down the mountain as fast as I could. Ten minutes later I heard the cries of Lucas coming from the castle. I found a small crack in the side of the mountain that I could just fit into and I hid there hoping to not be found. Weeks ago I had my little brother with me, him just being a normal six-year-old. And now he was slaughtering innocent people and I was hiding from him. How things can change.

I awoke the following morning I stood up and banged my head against the rocks above my and I started to bleed a little.

"What the hell?" I said to myself in pain.

I looked around and remembered the previous night. All the craziness that had happened with my brother and— Lucas was dead because of me. If I hadn't just ran away and stayed to help him fight back he could've got out of there. Or I could've sacrificed myself, what have I got to live for anyways? Lucas was a great man I had found that out in the short time I'd known him. I pelles put the crack and saw nobody around. I squished my way out and continued to track down the mountain. My head was still bleeding so I ripped off my pant leg and tied it around my head. Now I was freezing though. I must've been going down a different way than Lucas led me up because by nightfall I had found a little snow capped village in a small clearing. I made my way to the closest house to me and knocked on the door. A little boy, who looked around the age of 7 or 8 opened the door and called out,

"Mum! There's someone at the door!"

His mother came to the door. Her hair was greying and she looked very tired and stressed. She walked slowly and didn't even ask who I was and just got straight to the point,

"Oh dear, you're bleeding! Quick come inside out of the cold you'll get frostbite if you're out here any longer!"

She had quite a northern accent, sort of Scottish, Norwegian maybe? Different of course because she won't have ever been to any of those countries but still seemed similar. She brought me inside and led me to lounge where I sat by the fire. She bought me hot chicken soup and asked me my name and how I ended up at her door.

"My name is Max and I am not actually from this world. My little brother John had gone missing so a man named Lucas found me and took me to this world. He led me to the mountains and took me to a castle. In the castle I found my brother but he was an adult and had murdered everyone in the castle and now seems like a lunatic. He told me that when he traveled here the king adopted him and then later kicked him out so he vowed revenge. I ran away and he killed Lucas and I ended up here,"

As I spoke I felt tears forming in the corners of my eyes, it was strange, a man who meant nothing to me a few days ago I was now mourning. After I finished my explanation the little boy was standing at the top of the stairs eavesdropping and he loudly exclaimed,

"Woah!"

"Rildon! Get to your room!" his mother yelled at him.

"Rildon?" I asked, "That's an odd sort of name,"

"Really? It's quite common here, Max, John and Lucas are extremely odd names! Although I do know about John and Lucas. John did use to be the prince so yes I know who he is, and Lucas is famous for his work in magic although he is from another world, it must be your world he's from,"

"Oh okay," I remarked, "And what's your name?"

"Renilda, but just call me Reni,"

"Okay then," I replied, "Is it okay if I stay here overnight? Although I'm worried my brother might come to the village to try and kill everyone, he said he wasn't going to stop at the people in the castle,"

Reni's eyes went wide with shock.

"We have to leave here now and with haste, we mustn't let him catch up with us, you go with my husband Sio to alert everybody in the north side of the village and I'll everyone on the south side with Rildon, Sio can show you the way to the north side,"

So she awoke her sleeping husband who I hastily met and then he went with me to the north side of the village. We alerted everyone and we all evacuated and started travelling down the mountain. They had a proper path down the mountain which we took carriages down so that people could take turns sleeping. I was in a carriage with Reni, Sio and Rildon and their neighbours Guper, Lalia and their daughter Serlonia (who prefers Nia). It was quite squished but many villagers didn't have carriages so there was limited room for everybody. I fell asleep in the back of the carriage with two thick blankets over me that I was sharing with Rildon. I was exhausted and even though it was properly bandaged up now my head was still hurting badly.