The Wretched and Divine {Black Veil Brides}

12 - Days Are Numbered

    It was like someone had stabbed me through the gut with a sword of ice, the sensation spreading to each of my limbs and clear into my head.  The stench of blood and the defecation of the dead was overpowering, stomach up heaving air and bile.  I puked on the ground next to me, soon finding myself on my hands and knees while my eyes remained wide and heart agape.  This wasn’t right, this wasn’t fair.  Why was I to blame?  What had I done to deserve what he had just given me?  He had taken it all, the good feelings, the hope…everything went with him and all I could see was death and all I could hear were the moans of the dying.  I wanted to scream, to run, to hide but I knew in my heart that I could not.  I had to keep fighting against this oppression; I had to keep Sixx safe.

    Something touched my back, startling me and forcing me to leap up as I turned around.  Eagle shied away a bit, but his eyes were filled with a kindness I hadn’t expected.  I swallowed, reaching for the big creature before I wrapped my arms around his nose.  He seemed to enjoy the sensation as much as I did.  Amongst all this death and defeat, even the smallest of kind gestures could rally any soul.

    I turned towards the massacre, watching as the boy I knew I needed ran towards the evil in all haste.  A battle cry went up and in the distance I could see someone leading a large crowd of people towards the square.  My heart hammered in my chest as I watched the blue eyed angel rushing towards the death and desolation.  He dove beneath a slicing sword, dodged bullets left and right before he came face to face with the one person I had prayed would never be here…

    Especially not after what he had already done to Sixx.

    “You fool,” I whispered under my breath before turning back to Eagle, grasping mane as I pulled myself up onto his back.  The great stallion reared and I pulled out an arrow from under my cloak, urging the steed forward just as Cracken and Sixx turned back to the bloodied square, thousands of people fighting and bleeding for their freedom and their lives.  I growled and spurred Eagle to a brisk trot, not daring to go faster for fear the horse could slip on the cobblestones slick with gore.  His nostrils were flared, black turning to pink as his eyes widened and a nervous snort echoed from him.  I patted his neck.

    Everything seemed to be in slow motion as I watched the dark haired boy I had grown to care for raise a fist side by side with the maniac I despised.  All Cracken was, all he stood for, was hatred and the need to hold onto something that didn’t matter.  He wanted blood and gore; we needed peace.  He was the kind of coward who would stab you in the back if it meant his hide would be safe but I would never let him do that to Sixx.  I vowed that I would not, that he could not have my friend and if he tried, I would slit his throat.  Sixx bludgeoned a man in the face with a piece of wood while Cracken laughed maniacally, men pouring through the streets like a storm.  Guards fell, people cheered and my heart could not help but flounder.  Something was wrong and I could feel it…but I couldn’t figure out what it was.

    I wanted to call out to Sixx, to beg him not to trust Cracken for leaving him behind but I knew it would be in vain.  He couldn’t hear me anyway amidst the cries of his bloodlust.  I leapt off of Eagle, notching an arrow before sending it sailing into the neck of a guard.  He gurgled as blood filled his throat, eyes wide as he fell to the floor.  The man he had been fighting took the chance to smash the guard’s face with the brick he’d been fighting with.  The smell was pungent on my nose, taste buds reeking of rust and salt and sewage.  The world around us was crumbling.

    And people were cheering.

    This wasn’t what I wanted, not all this destruction.  Eagle followed me, kicking and biting at any man who came near me.  I hacked through the throng, fighting and soon becoming spattered with the ruby gleam of life as I tried to get to Sixx.  If he couldn’t protect himself from Cracken, I would rescue him.  I would do something…I couldn’t do nothing.