𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬 || 𝑾𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝑾𝒐𝒍𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝑪𝒓𝒚 𝑶𝒖𝒕

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐈𝐈: 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫

CHAPTER II: WHAT COMES AFTER
300 AFTER CONQUEST

꧁BENGET꧂

"When you are lost in the darkness...reach out to the light."

Came the whisper in the darkness. The words felt they were a cold breath down his neck, making his rigid, cold body shiver even more as he fought to open his eyes. His face lie down on a pillow is snow, it felt like. He could remember what snow felt like. He lived in it year-round. But as to why he was lying in the snow face down was something he was unsure of.

"The light..find it."

"Jon?"

He could not open his eyes, but slight feeling returned to his body, his arms, his shoulders, his legs as he forced himself up off the ground he found himself lying on. Ben fought to open his eyes which had felt frozen shut, and when he did, he wished he had kept them closed. The ground he lay on was snow, like he had felt. What he didn't expect was the red that was on it. The red that stained it. The stench of iron was heavy and thick in his nostrils as he struggled to begin breathing, his body feeling as if it were thawing out, and so too, the pain that was numbed by the cold began to come back with a vengeance. But the physical pain paled in comparison as the realization of where he was came storming back.

"Jon! Look ou—"

He had begun to shout in a panic, but he found there was no air in his lungs, he couldn't breathe. Sharply snapping to look up, he knew he was too late. Jon, his twin, his brother, lied on his back in the red snow, his eyes facing towards the sky, darkened. Gone.

On his knees, Ben was panting heavily, his breathing becoming more rapid as with each breath, he felt himself not getting the air that he so desperately needed. He was drowning out of water. Panic, fear. That's what it was. Panic of what happened, and fear of the unknown, of what comes after. He knew how this story played out, how his coda came.

Swallowing thickly, Ben turned around, putting on a brave face, a front against his sworn brothers who turned on their words and on their own morals. Who turned on their Lord Commander. Turning, he couldn't help but stare in horror, trying in vain to prevent the scream. Thorne, Marsh, Yarwyck, it wasn't them that stood behind him as he remembered they did. Darkness stood in a terrifying presence behind him. A figure with a crown-like array of horns made from ice wrapped in a cloak of darkness. Through it cut blue eyes that burned.

Ben screamed, tried to move, tried to hide, run, anything, but there was no one left to hear the screams, and there was nowhere left to run.

"Why are you up, love?"

Lurching forward, Ben near shouted as he swung his right fist hard and in wild fashion, nearly connecting with a woman of shadow that lie in the bed beside him, eyes piercing through the dark not unlike his own. Despite the swing that came from him, the woman simply moved her head back, as if it were practiced. Clicking her tongue, him panting heavily with his fist still raised, a hand touched his cheek, soft. Warm.

"I told you we'd face it all together, didn't I? I won't leave you alone."

"Alone.."

Swallowing, Ben lowered his fist, but looked around the room that was covered in darkness. The air wasn't a wintery cold anymore. It tasted of spring. A slight chill to it being still early in the year, but when the sun rose above the horizon, the earth itself warmed and grew with life. He looked down at himself then, and saw the black he wore. gone, his body bare, a gnarly scar formed over his heart where his wound he swore he just took was. Where it should be.