A Dance With Death

|| Chapter 30 - Order, Chaos and Caius ||

                 

I was born as an artist. I used to draw whatever came to my mind. And mind you, I did pretty well. My mother used to praise me a lot for whatever my tiny hands made. I drew both happy things and sad things, as every child would. By the time I was five, I used to draw monsters. With big arms, really sharp teeth and terrifying faces, my own drawings used to haunt me. I used to cry a lot, just because I scared myself with my art. My parents had to somehow put a stop to those drawings because 'they could affect a child's nurturing mind'.

I grew up to believe that monsters were ugly and horrifying. But never would I have known that one monster could come into my life, taking the form of my best friend.

Yes, Caius is a monster. Only a monster would do what he has done. Only a monster could kill without hesitation. Only a monster wouldn't feel guilty.

And as that monster stands before me, I can't do anything. I'm helpless. The whole world is suffering because of this one being, who is with me and I can't do anything about it. I'm powerless in front of this being. However, I no longer am afraid of this monster. There's no need to fear such things.

I find myself standing on the edge of a rooftop. I look down towards my right and find the same garden I saw from Ava's room. Luckily, or unluckily, I'm still at the hospital. With Caius, who knows where I would've ended up. I think Caius wanted to keep my death simple. Whether it's a good thing or bad thing, I don't know.

I can see that the wind is strong, causing the shrubs and trees around the building to wave and bend. The rooftop is very wide, about 200 metres, give or take. The hospital stretches out to a large extent. Behind the main building, there are smaller buildings, but of the same height. I've seen this hospital many times before, but I never realised how huge it really is.

Being acrophobic, I shift away from the terrible height. I turn around and find Caius -- in Niall's body -- standing on a raised concrete platform on which a large AC compressor is placed. He's peering at the garden in front of the hospital, his face glazed.

"If you're going to kill me, why not get to it right away?" I try to act like I'm not afraid, but my shaky voice gives away my fearfulness.

Caius looks at me with a rather surprised expression. "Kill you?"

"Yeah, you clearly brought me here to finally put all of this," I move my hands around, gesturing to everything that's been happening, "to an end. So now would be a good time."

Caius laughs at my words. Sardonically, he says, "I'm not going to kill you." He laughs again. "Not yet anyway. There's so much to be done!"

I swallow, "You're not?"

"No! Of course not! But wait, did I manage to scare you? If I did, then that's totally awesome."

I gape at him, not really sure of how I should respond. I should be relieved that he's not going to kill me (yet), but I am not. I am sensing that there's more to it. He wouldn't bring me up here for no reason.

He jumps down the raised floor with absolutely no difficulty, considering that it is three feet above the ground, without so much as bending his knees as he lands on the ground.

"Why the long face?" he says. "This is the first time we're officially meeting. The last time was in your mind and I really didn't enjoy it that much. But this! This is real life."

"You made the door solid," I say quietly. "You stopped us from escaping."

"Wanna know how? Well, it's very interesting. I just used--"