The Void

Chapter Thirteen. Before I Give It Away.

... I can hear the steady sound of horse's hooves clicking around me, my surroundings dark and muddy, the sun barely peaking beyond the thick clouds. I'm standing on the side of a dirt road, the buildings along this street are made of wood, but they all seem to be two stories, carriages rock down the road.

Not this again.

Looking down I see that I am once again without shoes, a ghost with her feet sinking into the dirt around me. Ladies have bonnets tied under their chins, hands clasping onto small hands as they hurry down the streets. Men stroll behind, pipes hanging from their lips. Then in the quiets, there's the men, women and children with dirtied cheeks and empty looks in their lives, as they do their best to stay out of the way.

"Kyle!" It's the gruff call of a name I can't forget draws my attention across the road, Kyle looks much of the same, except his cream shirt and black linen trousers are marked with dark stains. "You need this job, I don't care if they beat you dead, you show up and you bring back money for your Aunt, you hear me?"

I weave through the crowd, despite not really being here I don't long to walk through people. 'Bolts & Blacksmith' is hung over the dark wooden door, the left window is an assortment of tools used for carpentry, the right, a decoration of candles, cooking pots and pans, and eating utensils. The very bottom of both windows, showcasing railing that one could line their property with, even their windows, as a sign says in the corner.

Another says, 'Help Wanted: Training provided. Start: June 2, 1634'

1634, what the hell am I doing in 1634? The answer is obvious I suppose.

"Everyone knows why Mr. Bartemus cannot hold a worker, do you truly want me to be beaten Uncle?" Kyle asks, but there's a defeated look in his blue eyes, one that says he'll face it no matter where he is.

"You get what you fucking get" His uncle spits, "The sooner you get a job, the sooner you get a wife and if you can't be a man and do that, don't bother coming back!"

I can't force my feet to walk inside and watch what will come next, it's an environment I knew about, but I can't stomach the sight. Instead, I trudged around the back of the building and sit beside the back door, listening, to Kyle be hit and screamed until the bright orange sunset starts to seep through the dark clouds.

Shrouded in the darkness, just around the corner from where I sit, another person waits. A disheartened Kyle finally pushes open the back door, one of his eyes almost swollen closed, blood dribbling from a split lip and black smoke staining his cheeks. His face is hard, emotionless, and so different to what I am used to seeing, he's so alive in the future and for the second time I am grateful for what Rhydian did.

I push up, remaining a few paces behind as he rounds the corner and is hidden in the darkness of the alleyway that leads back to the main street. Where Rhydian lurks, waiting.

It's hard to make out Rhydian's features in the complete darkness, but as he always has, he steals my breath away, even as he clamps a hand around Kyle's mouth from behind and slams him against the wall. Kyle pushes back against his attacker, but it's with a half-hearted kind of strength.

"I've been watching you for weeks, it's no surprise that this fight is all that you've got" Rhydian grits, and it's with less kindness than I have come to expect from him. "If you're going to fight for your life, fight harder!"

Kyle's hands shove against Rhydian's shoulders, feet sliding through the gravel beneath him. "What are you doing man?"

"You'll fight me but not those men in there?" He taunts, keeping Kyle pinned to the wall with supernatural ease.