Morray finally finds his dearest friend and brother, but witnesses something he could never forget.
@hopethesillyheartwitch (cuz idk who else to tag for this lmao)
It had been weeks since Kurloz disappeared.
Morray only knew small bits of what happened before the purple blooded troll took off, though most retellings of the story confused him. The only explanation that made any kind of sense was Meulin’s account.
According to her, Kurloz had woken up from another nightmare with a scream so loud it had deafened the olive blooded troll. Afterwards, Kurloz fled and no one has seen him since.
Morray knew there had to be a good explanation for all of this. After all, Kurloz always had nightmares that left him badly shaken, this was no different. As well as that, Morray and Kurloz were so close that the two considered each other to be brothers. If it wasn’t for the difference in blood color and appearance, one could assume the two were hatchmates. If Kurloz was going to open up to anyone, it would be Morray.
Whatever questions Morray had, it was determined to find the answers today.
As Morray slowly approached the church looming before it, it couldn’t help but feel a shiver shoot up its spine. The church seemed abandoned, the windows were shattered and tattered curtains hid the inside of the building.
Morray’s tail lashed back and forth, its nerves threatening to turn it around and run back to safety. But if there was any chance Kurloz was in there, Morray had to find him.
Every step towards the church made Morray’s bloodpusher beat harder, as if it was trying to break out of fins chest. Fin felt every violent beat, but he wasn’t willing to turn back.
Once Morray reached the door, coral took in a long breath. Kurloz needed coral, coral can’t back out now. Morray’s fingers brushed the church’s large doors, deep scratches covering every inch of the old wood. Carefully, Morray opened the door and took a few steps inside the desolate room.
Morray couldn’t see a thing in the room’s pitch black darkness, but gill could smell something metallic. Suddenly, the stench of death attacked gills senses and made gills blood run cold.
“Kurloz?” Morray’s voice came out shakily, panic beginning to set into his think pan, “Kurloz are you in here? Where are you?”
As Morray whipped its head around frantically, its vision slowly adjusted to the darkness. It stopped and stared at the walls, though it desperately wished it didn’t. In different colors, what seemed like hundreds of smiles were painted on the wall. Multiple splashes of color similarly stained the wall, and Morray’s gaze slowly followed to the source.
There were corpses, so many corpses. They were mutilated and bloody, but Morray could recognize a few. Fin might not have seen them as often, but he considered these trolls his friends. Fin felt sick, fins breathing was shaky and fin could feel tears slide down his cheeks.
But then coral saw the troll at the farthest end of the room, another painting made of bronze and jade blood on the wall in front of him. He kneeled above another body, Morray didn’t want to see if coral knew them too, mumbling something inaudible. Morray noticed the long, twisting horns protruding from the troll’s head. Coral recognized the bone patterns that lined the troll’s sleeves.
Morray silently begged for him to not turn around, to keep gill in the dark without knowing who it was gill was looking at. But gill already knew.
As the troll heard Morray’s footsteps grow louder, he turned to face the violet blood. His painted face was stained with blood and tears. Kurloz’s wide purple eyes stared right back at Morray.
“What have you done?”
The silence after Morray’s question stabbed into its bloodpusher, its anger slowly rising. Kurloz opened and closed his mouth as if he wanted to say something, even as Morray got closer and closer. When the violet blood got close enough, it grabbed the purple blooded troll and forced him to meet its gaze.
”I will give you one fucking minute to explain yourself,” Morray said as fin gestured at the scene around them, “to explain ALL of this.”
Every second of silence made Morray even more enraged, tears spilling down corals face as corals brother remained silent. Violently lashing corals tail, coral screamed “FUCKING ANSWER ME KURLOZ.”
It was one sentence. It came out weak and raspy, as if his vocal cords were strained. As purple tears streaked down his face, Kurloz gave his answer.
“I had no choice.”
Only one troll left the church. Running back home as fast as gill could, violet tears clouding gills vision. It felt like something was slowly squeezing the air out of gills bellowsacs. He was barely aware of how much time had passed before gill approached a group of trolls. His friends.
“There you are, finally! You two took your sweet time returning-“ Kankri had cut himself off when he saw Morray alone, it looked like he was about to collapse. A wave of dread hit Kankri as he approached the violet blood.
“Morray. Where’s Kurloz?”
All Morray could do was scream, agony and despair dripping off each cry. It wanted to scream until the sky shattered into a thousand pieces, even if its voice gave out. The image of the mutilated corpses plagued its vision, the knowledge of knowing those were his friends infecting it with an anger it never knew it had.
Fin couldn’t focus on anything other than what fin had seen. The trolls gathering around fin felt like ghosts, like they weren’t even there. All fin could think of was Kurloz. He killed them. Kurloz killed fins friends. Fins brother was a murderer.
But Morray didn’t really have a brother anymore, did he?
