I woke up to the sound of laughter. Rousing from the sofa I had crashed on in the basement, I noticed that the room was full of smoke, the air thick with searing heat. I covered my mouth and nose, coughing as I stood and moved up the stairs toward the door, wincing. I could see a red-orange light glowing and flickering from the crack underneath. Fire. Carefully, I wrapped a blanket around the heated knob to open the door. I wish I hadn't.
Flames filled the room of the den. Thick smoke made it hard to really see too much. Standing a few feet away with her back to me was the woman who I had grown to admire, respect, and love. She had her quirks, but I had wanted so badly to help her, to be there for her. Her long hair flowed like a river of fire down across her back in a beautiful gradient of red to yellow. Her body was covered in blood, and before I could wonder if she was injured, I realized that she wasn't. The blood wasn't her's. Various bodies lay strewn about the room around her.
"Kendra...?" I choked out, the realization dawning on me that these lumps around me were bodies; bodies of my friends whom I had come to consider family rather recently.
The woman's head turned slightly, and she stared at me over her shoulder. I froze; those swirling, burning eyes of her's were so captivating but at the same time incredibly terrifying to look into. They were full of nothing but rage, though I could see a tiny, half-hidden spark of sorrow and pain in those fiery orbs. When she didn't speak, I tore my gaze away from her to look around again. My stomach turned as I began to see the full extent of what Kendra had done.
To my left, Serena laid awkwardly on her back, legs and arms ripped to shreds, barely connected to her body; a single black dagger pierced between her eyes. To my right, Casey was lying on her side in the fetal position; Kendra had used Casey's own blades to slaughter her, over twelve swords piercing through her burnt body. On the wall across the room, I saw Kanna's body anchored to the wall by daggers piercing her palms and chest; behind her, scrawled messily on the wall was a magic circle Kendra had drawn out using blood and remains from Aria, Kanna's daughter. I could tell it had been Aria by the specks of green hair I could see amidst the blood making up the circle. Emma was haphazardly tossed onto the couch, her body charred, her legs torn off and her throat ripped out.
I gulped down a wave of nausea as I found the next two victims, my heart breaking further than it had already from seeing the others: Rudy and Hope, mother and daughter, had been gutted like swine, their intestines and skin sewn together gruesomely, tongues cut out of their mouths. I looked around weakly, spotting someone's body burnt so badly that only charred bones remained. I wasn't sure who it was, but I was pained further knowing that they must have went through hell like everyone else.
"Want to see my masterpiece, Rin?"
It took me a few moments to register that Kendra had spoken to me, even daring to use the affectionate nickname I had helped her give me when we first became friends so long ago. I turned my gaze to her, stiffening and opening my mouth. Nothing came out, I couldn't even move. Noticing this, Kendra snickered and moved over, grasping one of my shoulders tightly and guiding me into my own bedroom.
It was dark. I couldn't see much of anything, but I could make out some sort of shape on the wall above my bed. As I tried to focus my vision to see through the blackness, I was suddenly blinded by the sudden light spilling into the room as Kendra flipped the light switch.
"Isn't she beautiful?" Kendra spoke, her voice full of dark pride and amusement, an even darker chuckle rising in her throat that made me cringe.
I raised my head slowly, and immediately wished I hadn't. My heart crashed straight through me to the floor, my body going completely numb the instant my eyes laid on the figure on the wall. There she was, my whole world--my everything--displayed like a trophy above my bed. The child's body was covered in severe lacerations, burns, and other gaping wounds. Her stomach and chest cavity had been hollowed out. The thick chains holding her to the wall were so tight against her wrists and ankles that the steel was rubbing straight through to the bones. Her jaw had been broken, hanging open in a silent scream of terror and agony. Her eyes were missing, the sockets staring at me, questioning me and asking why I let this happen to her. Her once beautiful, long golden hair was almost entirely burnt away, singed and tainted with ash and blood, tangled beyond repair.
"Aren't you going to thank me for your present?"
Those words made my blood, which had been chilled from the sight before me, boil with rage. In seconds I had tackled her to the floor, tears streaking down my face. "How dare you! Why?! Why did you do this?!"
"Easy. Because I wanted to." Kendra stared up at me blankly, her eyes void of any emotion, churning with bloodlust and that constant anger I had tried so hard to help her take control of.
Kendra had always been angry, ever since she was little, she had to try and find ways to cope with her near-constant rage fits and overwhelming frustrations with everyone and everything around her. She dealt with it in the worst way possible--killing. She killed many people, hundreds of them. She didn't know any other way to survive. When we met, I vowed to her that I'd help her. I'd help her tame the demons inside her heart. I'd help her find true happiness, something she had never had the luxury of experiencing before. I had had so much hope. She had gotten so much better lately. She was more social, she didn't explode at the simplest of things, she seemed to be relaxing more and more. I thought I had been helping. Until now. Now, I realized that it was just too much for her to handle. She could no longer control the demons inside of herself. She could no longer hold back those urges of murder and destruction.
Was I foolish for putting my faith in this woman? Was I really such a fool for believing she could change? I don't think she gave up. I can't think that, even now. Even seeing my lover hanging on my wall like some sort of morbid wall decoration, I couldn't let myself think that she'd ever give up like that. She had come so far, gained so much. Even so, she had lost the battle. And I found myself starting to despise her the more I looked at her.
I gritted my teeth and found myself pulling my arm back as if ready to strike her with my fist, shaking. I stretched my fingers out so that my nails pointed toward her, holding her down with my other hand on her shoulder. She didn't seem to fight me, as if she wanted me to finish her off. That thought alone made me hesitate, but after catching another glimpse of that little girl on my wall, I lost it. I let out the most pained shriek as I shoved my hand toward her gut...
"Erin, wake up! Wake up! Erin!"
I rasped as I jerked myself up to a sitting position, panting heavily and trying to calm my racing heart as I struggled to catch my breath. Sweat poured down my face. A dream...? I could see that I was in my bed, the room dark. No blood. No smoke. No fire. I looked around a bit more to try and sate my dazed paranoia. The only thing that reassured me that it was a nightmare was that little girl sitting on her knees next to me, staring at me with a worried expression. Rain. What a relief.
"Pip...?" I squeaked out one of the nicknames I had affectionately called her often, my voice strained as I tried to stop myself from shaking like a leaf.
"Are you alright? You were tossing and turning, and you kept making these weird sounds. Did you have a nightmare?" She scooted closer to me, almost hesitant to touch me. I'm sure she was just scared that I'd flinch away.
"Y-Yeah, it was just a dream. I'm really glad that's all it was." I hesitate before suddenly pulling her close to me, clinging to her with an almost crushing strength, shaking again. "I'm so glad, Rain," I mumbled, tears streaking down my face as I held onto her.
She didn't seem to mind my grasp, instead holding me close and even stroking my hair to comfort me. "It's okay, I'm right here, Tatsu-chan."
Tatsu-chan... That was one of her own nicknames for me. We had a lot of them, but that one was one of my favorites. I smiled weakly as I continued to cry against her, burying my face into her neck. After what felt like hours, I finally settled down, laying with her in my bed, still holding her desperately close, afraid to let go of her.
"Never leave me, okay? Always stay with me..."
Rain simply smiled at me with that innocence that had claimed my heart. That girl was my whole world, my absolute everything. One smile from her could light up the entire night sky with millions of stars.
"Always and forever, Erinya."
