~Chapter 12~ First, Ridge betrays us to the king for a sack of gold and gets us all locked up. Then, not even a full day later, he's managed to take out the castle guard and frees us all? Maybe it's just my sense of skepticism taking over here, but I find all of this hard to believe. Around me, the scene continues to unfold; a too-happy ending, everyone celebrating, not even bothering to question everything that's happened. Does none of this seem suspicious to them? I take a few cautious steps back from the rest of the group. So far, I've played along, letting Ridge do his dramatic performance, although the way he treated the guards' corpses was... cruel. Disgusting. Then, something catches the corner of my eye. I turn and immediately realize what I'm seeing: A dark aura, the shape of someone's soul twisted to such a degree as to be nearly unrecognizable. It takes me a full second to see past the aura, and I recoil in shock. The king, who had been tied up, now lies on the ground, no longer bound by ropes. Slowly, he sits up, a demonic smile on his face. Realization dawns on me as I put the pieces together and finally understand... the king was possessed by an evil spirit. And here I am, the only one witnessing what's going on, not even doing anything about it. I snap out of my stupor and cry out to the others, drawing their attention to the dilemma before me. Immediately, Thomas steps away from Eliza and draws his sword as I follow suit. Ridge gets out his knives, and Amora prepares her lute. Edwin begins panicking, so Renn goes over to his side, but he seems to be muttering something under his breath, likely a prayer. In this situation, that's probably the best we can do--if the demon is possessing the king, then by attacking, we won't be hurting the demon, only the person underneath. Thomas doesn't seem to get that far in his thinking, though, and charges headlong towards the demon, who appears to be exuding a dark atmosphere around itself. Then, before Thomas can reach it, a bright flash burns into my eyes and the world goes black. ~~~ I blink awake and immediately feel a sharp pain in my arm and on the back of my head. The others are all around me, also appearing to be waking up, although some of them seem a little confused--probably not remembering what happened. But I remember everything, down to the emptiness in the king's eyes. The rancid stench of blood fills the room and hits me suddenly as I try to get up, but as soon as I put pressure on my right arm, I feel a horrible surge of pain that threatens to knock me out again. A scream escapes me, and the world blurs before my eyes until I lie back down. I must have landed on my arm when I fell, crushing it under my armor. Faintly, I hear Edwin and Renn's voices over me, but I'm too dizzy to open my eyes. A minute or two passes before I try to move again, and by then the others have helped me into a sitting position against a wall. This is terrible timing for something like this to happen--I'll be severely handicapped if we go after the king, and we don't really have another option. After all, we're here in the first place to rid this kingdom of corruption, not let it roam free. I'll think of something. It is my duty, and I have taken an oath to rid this world of evil, one way or another. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ That's my chapter, sorry it took two years because sOMEone forgot to tell me it was time to do my chapter *cough hack cough* Art by me. If there are grammatical or historical mistakes I made, tell me in the comments please :) Thomas: Eliza: Amora: Ridge: Raven: Renn: Cory: tHaT's Me Edwin:
