Midnight CEO

56.

Carters POV

I watched from the darkness of the room as Leon cut his arm again with the blade of a dagger. His blood ran down his skin to his fingers as he smiled softly and closed his eyes with the sudden release from the madness. I could see the marks on his shirtless body from the previous cuts of the blade. He was obviously on the edge of insanity right now, and I knew that it wouldn't be long before it took over.

"I know you are there, brother." He said calmly as he cut his hand with a blade. "I've missed you."

"Leon, you know what I have to do. You have gone too far."

He smiled to himself. "Come now, brother, we both know I've only just begun."

"It has to end now." I walked towards him slowly. "We don't have to do this. We don't have to fight to the death."

Leon laughed softly as he cut along the edge of his fingers tips, one by one. "You were always one for happy endings, weren't you? Well, as long as you were happy, it didn't matter what anyone else was feeling, right? You got the girls and the power, and I got what? Huh? What did I get from your happy ending? I got to go slowly insane in your shadow."

"Leon I...."

"Do you know how many times I've tried to kill myself?" He looked up from the blade. "Every single damn day, for nearly two hundred years. EVERY SINGLE FUCKEN DAY!" He pushed the blade of the dagger into the table in front of him. "That's when I realized that I couldn't die, could I carter? No matter what I did to myself, the darkness would never let me die, would it?"

"I'm sorry, brother. I had no idea it would control you like this. I thought...."

"You thought your life would be easier without the darkness, and you decided to curse me with it, but what you didn't realize is that with all the madness and pain it has inflicted on me over the years it was actually the biggest blessing you could have given me." He smiled, and his yellow eyes twinkled at me from the light of the candle. "Because with this curse comes invincibility. I cannot die because I'm not actually alive, am I, Carter? I'm not actually who I thought I was. Inside me is a rotting corpse and nothing else."

"You were dying, Leon, and I couldn't let that happen. Our father couldn't let that happen and we had no choice. We didn't know that the darkness would consume you like it did."

"You had a choice once I died in our mother's arms that night, and you and our father took it into your own hands to curse me with this darkness. You should have let me die that night. I'm a sickness that keeps on killing, and this is your fault. Everything that has happened is your fault. Our father's death is your fault. The world's end is your fault." He banged his fist on the table. "And yet you still get to be the hero, and I'm still in your fucking shadow."

"I'm here to fix that. Please, let me help you end this. We both die tonight, and the pain stops. Brother, please let me help you. I don't want to go to war with you anymore."

His eyes fixed on mine. "But, I'm not ready to forgive you yet, brother." He suddenly lunged at me, knocking me backward onto the floor. "You need to pay for what you did to me. You need to feel the pain I feel every single day. You need to be reminded of the feeling of having no control over your body. You need to suffer." He held me down to the ground with one hand around my throat. "The world needs to realize you are not a hero but a pathetic weak little creature who couldn't take the pain of the darkness." He hit me in the face with full force, and I felt my nose shatter under his fist. "You will not be the hero this time." He hit me again across the jaw.

"I have no intention of being the hero. I have told my family the truth of my betrayal to you, and I can assure you I will not allow the pain of my darkness to hurt you anymore."

He laughed loudly, "Oh my dearest brother, you really have no idea, do you? You never have."

"What are you talking about?"

"When will you learn that there is always a twist in our story. I was always going to win this war; you were just too arrogant to see it." His eyes shone with pure delight as he looked down at me on the floor. "Did you really think I would allow you to kill me?"

"I wasn't going to ask." I shoved him backward, and he went crashing into the wall. "I might not be the hero in this story, but I'm certainly not the victim either. I'm truly sorry for what my darkness did to you, but unfortunately for both of us, it has to end tonight whether you like it or not." I stood up and wiped the blood dripping from my mouth. "And I'm not asking for your permission anymore." I clicked my broken jaw back in place and twisted my neck back into alignment. "If you want to fight me, then go ahead, but it ends right now."

Leon pulled himself off the floor and smiled wickedly at me. "Are you sure about that, brother?" He laughed deeply at his words.

"I'm positive." I lunged towards him, knocking him through the wall and into the next room. "We both die tonight, and nothing is going to change that." I pulled out the silver dagger from my back and held it over his chest. "I'm truly sorry for everything I have put you through."

"I'm not." He smiled. "My revenge has only just started."

"It's too late for that."

"I beg to differ." He smiled. "Witch, it's time." He called over his shoulder towards the shadows.

I looked up to the shadows to see the witch elder walking towards me with a concerned look on her face. She was carrying a book in her hands, and I knew straight away from the engravings on the old leather cover which book she was holding.

"The book of the damned." My body shuddered at the pure sight of it. "How did you get that?"

"I'm sorry, Carter." The witch elder said as a tear fell down her cheek. "I'm so sorry."

"Stop your tears and read," Genevieve growled, walking in behind the witch. "Read the passage or your coven dies."

"What have you done, Leon?" I stood up and took a step back. "The only way you could have gotten that book was to make a deal with the devil himself. Leon, what have you done?"

"What do you think I've been doing this whole time? Sitting on my ass and wishing you dead? Please." He laughed as he stood up. "I didn't just make a deal with the devil brother. No, I promised him the one thing he wanted more than little old me."

"Leon, you didn't."

"I did." He nodded proudly. "In fact, he was quite insistent on it. I give you to him, and he gives me your life. I think an eternity in hell for you and your darkness is quite satisfying, really."

"You get my life? What does that mean?" Ebony flashed through my head. "What do you get in return for me?"

"What I've always wanted, dear brother." I heard the witch start to chant from the book of the damned. "I get to be you." Leon laughed throwing his head backwards. The chants became louder, and the air around me started to turn so hot it felt like my skin was burning.

"Leon, this is not the answer. The darkness will find you again."

"Not from hell, big brother." He winked as a portal opened up behind him. "Nothing gets out of hell."

I heard the sound of a wolf howling and knew straight away what it was.

"Can you hear them, Carter? Can you hear the hell hounds calling you?"

The howls were so loud I dropped to my knees and covered my ears. "Brother, don't do this. It will not stop the darkness." I begged as the howls filled my head, making my ears bleed. "Leon, this is not the answer. Please..." I fell to the floor, screaming out in agony. My head was filled with the howls of the hell hounds and the screams of the damned.

"Goodbye, brother. Enjoy eternity under my feet." I heard his laughter through my screams, and then I felt the worst pain I have ever experienced shoot through my whole body. I tried to grab onto something anything around me as the hell hounds pulled on my leg, ripping the flesh off my bones. My nails dragged along the wooden floor as I desperately tried to crawl away from them. "Leon, please," I begged to try to reach out to him. "Don't do this, brother."

"I win. I finally win." Leon laughed and waved me goodbye with a smile on his face as the hell hounds dragged me straight to hell.