Heartless

Shyri by darksouls1

by darksouls1

by darksouls1

by Yuri_B

CHAPTER ONE

1) PORTRAIT

Look at me then, so full of heartache and terrified worry for my brother. My brother suffered terribly until he escaped from the Hand. Escaping their captivity was only the beginning. He had to escape Blackstone, too, but never alone. I went with him as the Hand kept on hunting. It was me I should have worried for, but how could I? His suffering was all my fault.

2) VANISH

Leaving our family and Blackstone was not enough. We made new lives in Honey Port, a lovely town farther up the Darkwater. A place mostly free of the Hand, but only because it was filled with their strongest rivals, the Silvers. Despite this, the Hand still tried to kill my brother. We needed protection from the Silvers. They demanded a heavy price that we had to pay.

3) ABANDONED

At first, the price was easy. It wasn't coin but time spent using the skills I had honed in Blackstone. I gloried in using my abilities, a soothing balm to my burning guilt. While I did, my brother learned and honed his own skills. I failed to see that he was learning his own skills. He abandoned all innocence, something I only realised when he made his first kill.

4) ENCHANT

We lived in Honey Port as a merry young widow and her youthful ward. It was an enchanting time, filled with the frivolities of a privileged life. But on some nights, dark and late, there was daring and dangers where failure meant the protection would end and my brother would die. The weight of his fate sat heavy upon me but I bore it. After all, this was all my fault.

5) MISFORTUNE

Things changed after his First Kill. The child that was my brother was never a child again. Though we still lived together in our pretend lives, we drifted apart. My heart was glad for him, yet deeply saddened. The guilt still burned but I never told him. Which was why when the circus came to town what fortune left within my heart was lost to a demon.

6) CHASM

It began with tantalizing dreams. Exciting escapes from the burn of my guilt. In the midst of my tantalizing distractions, I realized I no longer had to pay for my brother's protection. He was a Silver now, and a killer. He had earned his own protection. A chasm now separated our lives and I filled the loss with the ringmaster Nightshine. Like a fool, I gave that demon my heart.

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7) THORN

I thought I was declaring my love for him by saying he could have my heart. He took my declaration as permission rip out my heart and devour my love. With the last feelings within my soul ebbing away, he placed my beating heart in a jar with others. But he did not consume my guilt that grew into shame. I had failed to see through his rose to the thorn he was.

8) HOWL

I traveled with Nightshine's circus. My life was one of performing anything he wished me to do while I could do nothing but obey. Howl at the moon like a mad woman? Of course, my love. Without my heart, I simply endured it all, even: Let him kill enjoy himself killing me? Of course, my love. That vile jar would always bring me back whole by the next day.

9) MIRROR

The mirror showed I looked the same as ever. Never smiling. Heavy eyes. Always brooding. That last was new and only noticed from those who knew me before Nightshine ate my emotions. I used to small more often during the happier moments of my pretend life in Honey Port. The guilt no longer burns. It is simply there. I cling to it, a meager balm against the pain.

10) BROKEN

My guilt allowed me to accept the agony of my new life as a fitting punishment. It kept my mind nearly unbroken. Eventually, I realized I was using my guilt all wrong. My brother was still out there, and if anything more happened to him without me there, it would be all my fault, and so my guilt grew into a shield against Nightshine's command and into defiance.

CHAPTER TWO

11) ESCAPE

At first I made sure to resist his demans beyond his notice. Easy enough, he was always busy. Then, one night, he came to me. I resisted his temptations and command. He was too shocked to stop me taking up my pack and walking away from him and the circus. It was a hollow victory. My soul sat empty of everything but guilt, my heart still in his jar.

12) SLIME

I found an old abandoned chapel in a burned out village as empty as me. The reminded me of Fawkes and all the promises he kept inside that I had not wanted. Like a balm, the memory, and that chapel, eased my soul and helped me cleanse away the slime of all that had happened at the circus. The guilt remained, hungering to crush the last bit of my soul.

13) HAUNT

14) RUIN

15) MIST

16) WHISPER

17) SHADOW

18) SPIRIT

19) RELIC

20) UNQUIET

CHAPTER THREE

21) SHATTER

22) LOCK

23) DOOR

24) CURSE

25) POSSESS

26) ABYSS

27) ECHO

28) DARKNESS

29) HUNT

30) TEAR

31) DROWN

I watched from the ridge, too far to help. Arrows dropped his horse, sending them both sliding and rolling off the hill and down into their pursuers. A blade gave mercy to the horse, but not to Verti. Too broken to run, he was dragged to the bog. Hog bound and with stones tied about him, he was tossed into the brackish water. With a last few bubbles, Verti joined his beloved Gliry.

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