The Demon Sword: Sorataki

Chapter 24: Parting streams

Andrew came to the sound of horrid crackling and crumbling fire eating wood. He eyes pop open to the recollection of his mother's cottage set ablaze in a great glowing fireball. He stands a few meters by its front gate; just close enough to feel the heat prick at the front of his face, near enough to smell the burning of wood fill his panicking lungs. 

The heat felt just like the one time he stood just that bit too close to a campfire, the smell matched the embers he inhaled when running through the village of Lucas. With no standout difference saves for feeling like reliving a memory he just concentrated on what he saw, the raging fire stealing his beloved home.

A pillar of black ink smoke rose its way from the top to meet the starlit sky. Disbelief coiling into panic he runs closer to the fire to find his mother Trisha and sister Zoey. Shouting their names into the intense flames that engulfed them into nothingness Andrew's desperation only grew, in turn, his shouts grew louder however as if to mock him the harder he shouted the louder the crackling became flames drowned them out making his desperate plea all but mute in front of it.

Unable to comprehend how such a feat was even possible he backs away from the mocking fire. Stepping back however he trips on what felt like a body, looking down at it Andrew is met with Flynn's corpse all bloodied and bruised.

With sword still in hand, his ghostly silver eyes looked hollower than normal. Andrew was about to crawl up to him until he sees Sophie laying some ways beside him also deceased with weapon in hand. Her last laying pose was dishevelled and unsightly, a far cry from the Sophie he knew in the short smount of time being with her.

Andrew swallowed the burning lump in his throat; his mind trying to trace the steps on how things came to this. As if to answer his question he hears the screams of his sister and mother tear through the air behind him. In reflex, he turned around to be met none other than Epimetheus Holding Trisha up by her throat and Zoey by the scruff of her collar, glaring him down like one does a useless tool.

Andrew's body turning numb and blood becoming cold drunkenly moved up to them without recollection, step by step he looks upon the sight with total shock and disbelief.

"Stop this," he rasped in a pitiful whisper. "Stop it."

He drunkenly started to pick up his pace towards them with his hands stretched forth.

"I had hopes for you, but you've disappointed me gravely," Epimetheus said, his grip on Trisha's neck tightened making her dangling legs and desperate clubbing of his arm increase frantically.

Zoey, in turn, screaming both for her mother and her brother thus adding to the desperate tension already choking in Andrew's lungs.

"I SAID STOP IT!! LEAVE MY FAMILY ALONE!!!" Andrew shouted desperately.

He ran as fast as his legs could carry him but in a feat that he could only label as a curse, the ground between him and his family stretched further and further away, creating this black void between him and his loved ones.

A tear rolled down his cheek as he tried to defy these impossible barriers, as he tried to run faster, to burn his legs to ash only to buckle and fall onto the ground. Looking back up he is just in time to see the last of Trisha's life being choked out of her and his sister now crying in disappearing at the now lifeless corpse of her beloved mother.

"Running to your mother's house after confronting us was a mistake," Epimetheus continued before dropping the body of Trisha like a discarded sack of potatoes. "After all, you can't expect to have your cake and eat it."