Echos In The Catacombs

Chapter 25: The Pleas Of An Older Brother

Vice's P.O.V

Myself and Lizzie had split up a while back. I say 'a while back' because there is no concept of time in this place. I've probably been wandering for five minutes, but it feels like eternity...

I carried on searching, wandering without aim, just to see if I could find anything.

I turned a corner and a voice became clear. It sounded like a young man's voice, no older than 15 I'd imagine.

He sounded upset, like he was desperate.

I carefully looked around another corner. It was a wide open space. There were two people standing there. They looked like brothers. One had light blonde hair, the other had hair whiter than snow.

The younger was standing facing that hedges with his hands over his face, he looked no older than 7, the older was on his knees. He was distressed.

"Edmund you have to listen to me please! This isn't like you..!" The older brother pleaded.

'Edmund?!' I thought to myself.

Edmund simply shook his head.

"Look at me Edmund." He spoke, his voice wavering.

Edmund did as his brother asked.

"Do you know me? Do you know who I am?" He asked.

Edmund shook his head again.

"It's Elijah." He spoke, gesturing to himself. "I'm your brother, Ed."

"Not brother. Not Ed." Edmund croaked.

"Not Ed? What do you mean 'not Ed'?" Elijah asked.

"Ed gone." Edmund spoke.

That's when I noticed Edmund's eyes. They were grey, like there was no form of life in them at all. 

"Gone?" Elijah questioned. "What did you do to my brother!?" He was yelling by this point.

"Took him." Edmund responded.

I was examining the whole scenario by this point. There was a difference, a significant difference, between the two. 

Elijah looked normal, he looked alive.

But Edmund? No, he looked like his skin was made of stone. It was grey, it was cracking.

He looked possessed or, if not already, dead.

Could Elijah not see that his brother wasn't okay?

"Can you not see?" Edmund asked. "Not okay."

"Not okay? You look fine, Ed. I don't understand what you're talking about." Elijah answered.

Edmund shook his head for the third time. "Hopeless. Don't tell Emilia."

"Don't tell Emilia?!" Elijah raised his voice. "She's your sister, Ed! Your twin sister!"

Edmund tilted his head to one side. "So?"

"So she has a right to know!" 

Elijah was getting irritated by the lack of co-operation coming from his younger brother.

"I'm going to tell her. You're not okay Ed, you're dying." 

"Not dying, living. Gonna live forever." Edmund laughed, it was a very disturbing laugh at that.

"You're insane. You're not my brother. He wouldn't do this." Elijah sighed. "You used to tell your sister everything. Everything."

Elijah stood up. 

"You don't make deals with the Devil, so I won't plead with him." He spoke as he turned to walk away.

He managed a couple of steps before he froze.

A cracking sound shattered the silence.

Elijah turned to face his brother.

My eyes widened.

Edmund was facing the hedge again, the skin around his jaw was cracking. He seemed to be pulling at something.

Then there was the unsettling sound of bones snapping and breaking.

Edmund threw something on the ground and it landed close to his brother's feet.

It looked like a jaw.

'Did he rip off his own jaw?!'

My attention went back towards Edmund. 

His eyes were empty. No emotion, no soul.

No jaw.

I think that's when Elijah saw the Edmund I was seeing.

"Ed?" Elijah spoke with a trembling voice.

A single tear rolled down Edmund's face before he fell backwards and turned into ashes.

Elijah took a few steps back before turning and running. He soon disappeared around a corner.

"No wonder he never told Emilia what happened, or anyone for that matter." I spoke to myself. "Nobody would've believed him.."

I walked over to the ashes scattered across the ground.

There is was. One half of the key. 

I picked it up gently and clutched it in my hand, careful not to disturb the ashes.

'Rest well Edmund.'

Now all I had to do was find Lizzie and get out of here.
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Hope you enjoyed Chapter 25 of Echos In The Catacombs
Chapter 26 should be out soon

Catch You Later~