Tales From Crashdown: Beowulf

Chapter 16: A Banshee, A Devil And A Deal

     "I AM THE FINAL DEFENDER!" Boomed the robot's speaker throughout the night.
     Beo leaped off of the ground, narrowly avoiding the iron paw of the beast, landing near the treeline where her companion's cranium layed, placing the body next to it.
     With her hands trembling, she tried to pick up the head, rearing back away from it a couple of times before finally putting her hands on it.
     She immediately pulled her hands away from it again. When she looked at her hands, they were painted red with the blood from Frey's head wound.
     The world went black around Beo. All she could see was the red puddle beneath the head, the streaks down the front of the body, and the pattern on her palms.
     Her stomach churning, her heart beating, her mind racing, and her body trembling, Beo could only do one thing. In this void, she could only scream at herself.
     Then, the highlights of red became all she could focus on, slowly swelling until the colour red was all she saw.
     Beo's scream cut, but the tears continued to flow from her eyes like an uncontrollable stream. She ground her teeth as she stood and faced the 4-legged fiend.
     Beo stared into the glowing eyes of the foe, and felt her blood boil as she clutched her fists.
     "I remember. I remember the day I became Beowulf. I was only a teenager, no older than 14. I was out with my brother, exploring the woods and enjoying the sun's light. It was warm, and it felt like I was as free as the wind."
     Beo's skin began to change, deepening to a light red, then to a dark one.
     She continued, "We were young, we didn't pay attention, and we fell, fell off the side of the hill. He was just a kid, he didn't deserve what happened, he was just mimicking what dad would do carrying around his whittling knife. Right in his goddamn side! I don't know what he hit, but he bled so much. I TRIED to be a GOOD sister, I TRIED to make HIM feel SAFE! He couldn't walk, and I was too worried to just think for a moment about which way we came from."
     Steam began to surround Beo and the grass beneath her started to wilt and dry.
     "I can still remember, each day he lost more and more colour, each day he struggled more, each day he would look at me and ask 'Sister, where's daddy, where's mommy,' each day he shivered more and more and each day I would hold him, spreading my brother's blood on my arm like a tattoo. When I brought him food and water, he always refused to eat it all. He was such a sweet boy.....he was worried I was going to starve, he was worried I was going to go thirsty, he was worried I was going to freeze!"
Spots in the air began to pop like tiny fireworks around Beo, and the air became dry like a summer day.
     "Then came the day I learned the gods could smile and laugh, the day I learned they could look at me as a source of comedy. The blizzard arrived out of nowhere, and he huddled against me. I don't even know when he was gone, he was already so still and so cold when it started. All I know is when I looked down, he was a pale blue, and the howling winds laughed at me, like my torture was the gods show for a banquet!"
     The trees and the grass around Beo ignited all at once, creating a glowing inferno, all except where Frey's corpse lay.
     "That day I made a deal. I shouted, commanding heaven and hell to do as I wanted, to give me the power I wished for. I wanted the power to make sure nobody was ever cold again, to make sure nobody I loved would lose their life because of my misconduct! The gods took my eye and my wish was granted. Surtr, the name of the god I brokered with, the one who's power I call upon now!"
     The flames began to erupt, creating a blazing tempest of ash. The blazes were so powerful that the heat itself was enough to ignite everything nearby, it fed into itself. Fire from heat, heat from fire, fire from heat, heat from fire, until the entire forest was engulfed.
     The iron beast charged at Beo, but as soon as it went to pounce on her, she had already vanished.
It searched around, but couldn't detect her while surrounded by the flames, so it bolted into the air with its wings and tried to search from above.
     No more than a split second later, Beo blitzed through the robot's body, heating it from inside and exploding out of its back like a boil being popped.
It left behind a molten plasma in the hole, like magma from a volcano.
     The robot began to struggle, flying in a random pattern. Up, down, up, left, up, right, forward, up, no form of consistency.
     From above, Beo fell like a comet onto the the robot, sending both her and the robot plummeting into the ground. They created a crater more than 3 times the size of what the marble attack had done, sending the machine into thousands of half-melted pieces.
     Just as quickly as they had appeared, the inferno vanished and the chilling breeze returned, but the trees and grass were now bare, leaving only dirt and scorched bark.
     Slowly, Beo approached the corpse of her beloved Frey, and the red faded away until all she saw was the dark of the night.
She sat on the body's lap and laid her head on the chest of it, quivering like a baby bird without any feathers.
     In the black of the night and the cold of the wind, all that could be heard was the huffing and puffing of Beo as she soberly whimpered to herself.
     "Please" she whispered to herself, fighting to get her words out of her mouth, "Frey, please.....I'm so sorry.....please, stand if you can, please."
Her words fell on dead ears.
Then, the wind rushed through the world, carrying with it a noise. At first there was only one, but it soon grew to be dozens of laughing voices. The same ones Beo knew oh so well from her time as a child.
     She no longer tried to hide it, no longer tried to keep herself quiet, she screamed and shrieked like a banshee in the night. Whatever fight she had left in her, whatever sense of pride she had left, whatever last scrap of life she held, it was gone. For the first time in decades, Beowulf had lost a fight, and her beloved Frey. Beo decided to fall into the cold and the dark. After all, every fire must go out eventually, leaving only ash behind.
     "I heard there was a sacred chord, that David played and it pleased the Lord~." sung a deep, grout voice.
     Beo gritted her teeth, "Leave."
     "But you don't really care for music, dooo yooou?" Sung the voice as it approached.
     "Leave me be!" Yelled Beo.
     "What's the matter, my dear girl? I didn't believe you COULD cry, to tell you the truth." Answered the voice.
     "Why.....why are you even here? What is the point? Have you come to torment me?" Beo whimpered.
     "No, my dear, I came here to see if it was true." The being reached into its pocket and pulled out a white coloured ball, soaking wet. "I felt my pocket growing moist, and I wanted to see if you really were crying. I never truly expected it to happen, so I'm glad you've proven anything is possible."
     "Let me grieve." Beo answered.
     "And from your lips she drew the hallelujah." The voice continued to sing.
     Beo turned to the voice and shouted, "JUST LEAVE ME TO ROT, YOU-"
     "Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, halleluuuuuuuujah~." Sung the voice as the being smiled.
     Beo's stomach churned again as she watched. The person before her slowly swung it from side to side, like a hypnotist swinging a pocket watch in a cheap sci-fi movie. It dripped, creating a red stained line beneath it as it moved. The being before her had taken up Frey's head and was using it as a cheap pendulum.
     "You disgusting bastard!" Beo leaped at the figure, but plunged through it instead, leaving behind no mark on it.
     "Silly girl, you learned once before that I can't be touched by anything living." The being chuckled as it turned back to her, still swaying the cranium of beloved Frey.
     "Unless you're here for a good reason, I suggest you take your ass and go back to your little mead hall or whatever!" Infuriated, Beo cried.
     "Ah, but that's the thing, I'm here to help you. Well, more like I'm here to help her." The being motioned to the head of Frey with his free hand.
     ".....a deal?" Beo questioned.
     "Bingo~!" The person cheerfully said. "All I want is a matching set. Your eye, that's it."
     "If I give you my eye, I'll be totally blind! Even if you bring her back, I wouldn't even be able to see her. I wouldn't be able to look at her ever again." Beo somberly chattered.
     The person shrugged, "I will not force you to agree, that's not my style. Agree or don't, it ultimately doesn't matter to me. I only want to finish my set of eyes."
     Beo thought to herself, weighing her options. Then, she smiled and stood, "My eye for Frey to be brought back, deal?"
     The person took Frey's head, and it slid right into place, the wound sealing itself without any issue. "Alright, so?"
     "A deals a deal." Beo laughed as she pulled out her artificial eye.
     "Now hold on. I meant your REAL eye, give me the other one." The person angrily grumbled.
     Beo laughed, "Ahahaha, that's not what you said. You just said you wanted a matching set. So, here you go, a set of the same eye!"
     The person was silent for a moment before letting out a hearty chuckle, "Excitement overtook me, and my greed blinded me. Well played, Beowulf." and as suddenly as he appeared, he vanished with Beo's eye in his hand.
     "Ugh.....the hell?" Mumbled Frey, "So.....stiff."
     Beo jumped on Frey, "Babe, you're alright!"
     "Wha- what happened?" She looked around, seeing the burned, dry fauna all around them and the desomated mechanical menace.
     Beo quickly answered, "Uh- after you threw that ball at the robot, it exploded into a miniature sun! I brought you away from it just in time Actually, why DID you throw it at the robot?"
     Frey rubbed her forehead, "Why.....oh, right. The small android, I'd seen its model before. The attack only destroyed organic material, but the pipe in the ground was left. The android had a human brain. So when I threw the attack, it erased the brain. Had it not exploded, the brain of the android I fought would have probably taken over a minute later."
     Beo put her hands on Frey's shoulders, "I'm done."
     Frey was confused, "Done?"
     "Done fighting. You could have gotten seriously hurt, or even worse, and I am NOT ready to lose you, not yet." Beo answered, no ounce of jest or joke.
     Frey was baffled, but she didn't argue. Whatever had come over Beo was something that Frey needed to hear, to hear she was at no risk of loss.
     The two held each other for what seemed like forever. The roaring, laughing wind had long since calmed and the world grew silent, and the two of them only felt the draw of each other, like a moon being pulled to a planet.
     Then, the silence was cut as smooth as a hot knife through butter as Beo's stomach let out a powerful rumble.
     Frey burst out laughing, crying at the unfortunately timed gurgle. Then, after wiping her face, she softly said, "Why don't we go get you some dessert?"
     Beo laughed alongside her before responding, "Sure, ice cream sounds good to me."
     "Dibs on the mint chip!" Frey cheered.
     "Ew, you like mint ice cream?" Beo said with a mocking tone, "Sorry hun, that's gonna be a deal breaker for me."
     Frey stood and threw Bro over her shoulder, "Oh no, missy, you're stuck with me. Now, enjoy the ride."
     Beo smugly answered, "At least I'm tall enough for the ride."
Frey flirted, "Wait until we get back home, then you can ride the rollercoaster~."