Janus 02.Redemption #Wattys2018

2.01 Lost Cause

" I welcome Thee, Stranger, Son of None, Father of Dead Souls" Faceless told Ed as he was coming near, holding Shylock on his hand. Ed stood still. He realized that the Outcasts had invaded his dominion, hunting down his people like they did with his dogs before he entered that door.

" Despair is dragging you around like a whore. Choice is an illusion that you can no longer claim for yourself." Faceless let Shylock slip from his hand but he grabbed it again before it reached the floor.

" So... Lord of broken promises, Lover of the Departed One, Fallen from Grace, Conquistador of Dishonesty, do you surrender to my will?" Faceless asked Ed and let Shylock slip his hand which riveted on the floor.

"I surrender." Ed replied without getting any cold feet other than those of Eden's who was half dead. Even if she survived morphine's overdose, she couldn't survive the infection.

"Those 3 days that she was lost, she had been my bitch, obeying blindly to every vice of mine in exchange for a fix. I fixed her so well that once I was done, even worms would despise her dead corpse. Do you surrender to my will?"

"I surrender" Ed bowed to him as Faceless was stabbing his inner wolf in the heart and was twisting the blade viciously.

"She, who travelled among the dead ones, is lost. The one, who will come back, shall not remember you. She will die whenever I decide. Do you surrender?"

"I surrender" Ed answered as he was letting Eden down on the floor. He wasn't letting her down. He was letting down everyone and everything that had come to pass and all that were no longer meant to be.

"So be it." Faceless took Shylock, removed the blade and took a vial out of the handle.

"Look at me, Father of Lost Souls, Child of Lost Causes. I took a vow to yout Father to never split a drop of your blood. Even when people cease to exist, promises don't. Thus I never said anything about avenging my brother's death."

Faceless broke the vial on Ed's face. As the liquid started running down on his face, burning his flesh and disfiguring him, he fell on the floor in excruciating agony. A single tear vanished along the shreds of his muscles that were revealed.

"You had never been anything more than a self fulfilling prophecy, my Son. Welcome back home. You can keep Shylock. It's truly yours, now."

Faceless took Eden from the floor and moved on to another room carrying her, closing and locking the door behind him. Francis was a young boy again, locked up his father's dark room till he was ready to comply with his commands. He reached for the syringe in his pocket. That young boy had lost faith in Purgatory long before he disavowed every aspect of virginity. He nailed it on his leg and passed out as his pain and breath were slowly crawling outside his body.