(Long) Excerpt from The Last Wrath:
@lassiesandiego @lyutenw @rickie-the-storyteller @writernopal
This scene belongs to my current medieval dark fantasy WIP - The Last Wrath. The characters in the scene are brothers, Zephyr & Jamie, one of which has been cursed and now grapples with what it might mean to their lives.
“[...] “What’s happening to me?” Zephyr whispered, a sound trapped between disbelief and a sob, holding one trembling hand in front of his eyes as he watched the bleeding cuts on his fist heal - and pitch black tendrils, glimmering in a dead grey hue, spread from within, pulsing from his arm towards his hand like rotten, dead blood. He could feel the magic in his blood, and it wasn’t his, it wasn’t right. It hurt like searing fire, but only at first, before everything turned numb.
In front of him the shattered mirror, bloodstained, stood like a condemning monument. Only, Zephyr didn’t remember doing this. He didn’t even remember coming here. He watched, in terror, as even the blood on the shards of clear glass turned from normal red to black as tar. Zephyr couldn’t move, couldn’t scream. Like there was an invisible barrier that kept him in place. Even his thoughts seemed like whispers in a hurricane, they seemed like someone else’s. It felt like he wasn’t here, but even worse, it felt like he wasn’t himself. Not anymore.
Everything was as if underwater, blurred, distant and suffocating. And he was the one drowning in it. Frozen, he was an spectator to the strange flashes that crossed his mind. He saw a kingdom besieged, a familiar one. The smell of the world burning around him assaulted his nose, and he heard the distant clash of swords that haunted his dreams every night. He saw the day they were betrayed, felt the blood gushing out of his wound like it once had, as a blade ripped through his side. The blade that would have killed his brother otherwise. In the mirror, a familiar face stared at him, accusation and disdain written in his eyes behind a strands of white and black hair, an otherwise handsome face destroyed by hatred.
Zephyr’s breath caught in his throat. He tried to step back, but his feet were locked in place. The young man in the mirror smiled, and Zephyr swore he could hear his laugh. The same laugh as that day, so many winters ago, when death had been so close to them, as the figure suddenly started to morph … into himself. The darkness in his blood pulsed stronger, colder, as it called to him. Zephyr heard a bloodcurdling, horrifying familiar scream as his doppelganger laughed. The image twisted, and he saw his little brother lying dead on the ground. He couldn’t breath.
Before he could lose himself any further, a pair of arms wrapped around his chest, holding him as if someone dragging him from the bottom of an icy lake would, and awakening back to reality. A gentle, familiar voice was calling out to him, but he couldn’t yet hear the words.
He saw himself back in his room, a floor filled with toppled books and the welcoming sounds of the early morning wind. Home, he was still home. Kneeling on the floor, he barely realized his throat was raw from screaming. The black tendrils in his hands dissipated slowly, until only his pale skin remained. In front of him, a figure knelt between him and the shattered mirror, shielding him from its sight. Kind brown eyes, ridden with worry and guilt, met his.
“Jamie” Zephyr wept in a weak, hoarse sound, his arms shaking as he lunged into his brother’s arms, desperately clinging onto his shirt, because he was alive. His brother was still alive and they were safe, they were home. He wasn’t a monster, at least not yet. Jamie didn’t say anything, allowing the older boy to hold on as tightly as he needed to as he gently returned his embrace. Tears fell unbidden from Zephyr’s eyes and into the younger’s tunic, as his hands dug panickedly into his back, as if he might disappear at any moment “Jamie, I’m losing myself. I - I saw you die, I can’t… I couldn’t protect you. I’m becoming a monster.”
The words were desperate, a strained line of thought panickedly strung together. Jamie held him tighter to his chest, before pulling away and getting the older boy to calm down. He placed his hands on Zephyr’s shoulders.
“Listen to me. You’re the best man I’ve ever met, you’re not going to lose yourself like this. We’ will find a cure.” Jamie said, every word spoken with utter sincerity as he willed the other to meet his eyes, like Zephyr had done so many times when the roles were reversed “I will make things right, and everything will be fine like it used to be.”
Zephyr scoffed gently, tired irritation seeping into his voice.
“You don’t know that. I could be dangerous and I wouldn’t even know how to stop before the worst already happened”
Jamie sighed, noticing how Zephyr’s eyes flitted between him and the broken mirror behind them. He hated how that day had made Zephyr hate himself so much and how uncertain it had made him.
“Yes, I do know. You would never hurt me, not even if that guy or his magic tried to force you to, I know you wouldn’t let that happen. You’re my older brother, I will never be afraid of you. [...] ”