DESOLATION

14, Lukis - Freezing

The scurrying of a mouse rouses me from my sleep, if you could even call it that with what happens as I sleep, still hearing the voices. These demons haunt me in my sleep, HERO would not have wanted this, this is not the work of our great GOD. I tremble as I wake, it is always so cold. So frigid. I cannot feel my hands, my fingers, my body, it is just that cold here, or it is just me. I look to the lava that is seeping from the walls and interally realize it is I that is just that cold, it is not the room around me. I try to push myself up off the ground but to no avail, falling back with a crack of my bone. It tears the skin slightly, but I am not scared anymore.

    This has become my normal, my usual. I can recall the feeling of these breaks singing on my skin even long after they have come from it. I can feel my arm now, blood seeps from a puncture caused by broken bone. I roll onto my back and stare at the ceiling, I wonder what Charley had decided this was for, if he really thought this was the work needed for HERO. He speaks of this as a test, a test of if I am truely one of HERO.

    Its like its just a game to him, testing how much I can endure. How much I can live through. My body has slowly begun its healing, I can feel the movement of my skin sealing itself, closing, bringing the bone back to where it needs to be. I hear the light tap tap tap of Charleys shoes against the stone of the ground, the cold stone, but it is warmer than I am. I look over at him and his cold disdainful expression, his hard eyes. This is not the charley I grew up with, not the Charley that came to Ethellia at ten and grew up with me and Steven.

    "Hello, Lukis." He says my name like it hurts, he cannot hide that from me. His voice sounds strained, like hes in pain, I scoff. "Hello, Charley." I sound weak. Broken, my voice is scratchy from both disuse and not being used. "You dont sound quite pleased to hear me, to see me." He says it like a fact, he can read me just as well as I can read him.

    "I am not." My response is simple, the wound on my arm has healed, I know if I try to stand again though I will most likely break another of my brittle bones.

    "Why is that, Lukis." His voice is calm, I look at him, now sitting there, his white shirt having some purple and magenta stains on it. He's turning too, and he has no way to stop it. "You know why, you brought forth these chthonic creatures, who would be enthralled by your presence." My words seem to hit him like daggers, sharp edged and deep cutting. "Dont fret over it too much Charley, you brought this upon yourself." I mutter the words, but he still hears them, I can tell.

    He just sits their silently, like a sponge, absorbing my words. I can hear the crack of his head as he lets his head fall against the bars of my cell, he doesn't react to it. "I do not expect your mercy, what I have done is no longer of greatness, it never was." His voice is soft, almost scared. "I do not want mercy, I do not need mercy. I need death. I cannot sleep at night as I am constantly haunted by these beasts that speak to be me. They are not me Lukis, for I am the only me, but why say you are such if you are not?" His voice cracks, he sounds so scared, may HERO save him.

    I am not thinking much about my actions, I have lightly begun soothing him, my hand rubbing his shoulder through the cage I am in. "Do not say such things." I whisper to him, "You do not need death, nobody needs such a thing."

But he deserves it.

Does he not?

He started the plague.

He cannot go back from this.

And. Neither. Can. You.