Sin: Path of Poison

Chapter 2 Part 3

Silver stopped abruptly with a mix of anger, disgust, and worry crossing his face. If I hadn't seen this mix of emotions from him today I'd never believe such a thing could happen. What exactly happened to him over the last four months?

"Come back. I've never asked anything from you before, but I'm asking you now, marry Angst." Silver pleaded. For the first time all of my defenses came down. Maybe I was too tired to continue, maybe I was in too much pain, maybe somewhere deep inside I wanted to fulfill his plea. Not because I wanted to marry Angst but because I couldn't bare to see him like this in front of me, begging. Deep down inside something fought and screamed and tormented me.

"She doesn't love you." The words left my mouth so quietly yet rang so loudly. My shoulders slumped and my face turned soft. My hand went to my side where one of the glass snakes seemed to be getting closer to something vital. For the first time my expression matched all of the pain I was enduring just to keep upright on my feet.

"Why are you doing this? I've seen your acts so many times before, you don't have to act in front of me!" He yelled back, probably hurt by my words, but a small part of me knew he honestly couldn't tell the difference between my sincerity and an act. Something I'd come to terms with years ago. I couldn't look at him, I didn't want to look at him, but I heard the crisp ring of his sword as he pointed it at me.

"I'm taking you back." He declared.

"Try." I replied, not feeling confident but mustering the courage to put my facade back in place.

I had no weapons and nothing was in my favor. Meanwhile the person in the woods had come close enough to watch. It was Torch, assuming he'd already taken the name. He didn't appear to be with Silver and he stayed some distance away, smartly aware of which way the wind was blowing.

Silver came at me quickly using a series of palm strikes and sidekicks. I was able to keep his sword at bay, but my moves were sluggish. I wouldn't be able to keep this up. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Torch trying to come closer, he held only a small dagger in his hand. Why would he think he could help me?.

I stepped forward into Silver's reach but pivoted around him easily, retrieving one of the throwing knives kept at his belt without him noticing. I carefully threw the knife within a few inches of Torches approaching steps, a clear message to stay back. He got the message and stopped approaching. I circled back around Silver so I could keep an eye on Torch. I wasn't in need of a savior, despondent as I was.

The air thickened around me as Silver gathered his energy and opened his channels. Either I stopped Torch too soon or I saved his life. It was too late to contemplate now.

Gathering my energy would result in more unbearable pain, I hesitated as Silver came quickly. I managed to dodge the first few attacks but my sluggish motions couldn't keep up as he stabbed his sword into my lower left side. It wasn't deep enough to kill me, but as my eyes focused on Silver, the pain went deeper than the metal pierced.

A small trail of blood spilled from my mouth and a larger pool of blood ran onto the blade of his sword. He watched as the blood ran down the blade towards his hands. Around the tip of his sword a red stain bloomed on the simple white tunic I wore. His eyes widened, a look of confusion was followed by sadness and finally disgust as he stared at the blood moving closer to his hand. He pulled the sword out and let it drop to the ground with a dull thud.

Abandoning my previous hesitations, I gathered some energy and opened my channels. The glass worms in my body began moving, trying to find the source of the energy. I sucked back a scream of pain as I lunged forward, a palm strike to Silver's shoulder caught him off guard. I quickly pressed several of his acupuncture points with my fingers, causing him to drop to the ground. I dropped to my knees behind him, using the cleaner of my two hands, I grabbed the pouch within his robes.