King of Darkness and The White Flame

Chapter 20

Everything was going according to plan. Hunter and his team had penetrated the castle. Jessie and his team are not far from me and I can see that Bears diversion had worked. The war was in full swing and Mole City was falling. 

A man in full armour runs toward me, knife in hand. I duck and punch up so his helmet flies off. Using the butt of my rifle I hit him in the nose. Someone else from my team uses a sword from behind and the man is down. We work in pairs. One would be attacked the other would strike from behind. In the dust, I keep my eye on Jessie and Bear. Hunter still hasn’t emerged from the castle with the people. Attack after attack, we bring Mole City’s soldiers down. Jumping over dead bodies and cause more to fall. 

The men are thinning out. Many of ours have fallen. I look for Jessie and don’t find him. Bear shrugs just before he’s attacked again and takes another soldier down. They wrestle with the sword in Bears hand. He lifts his arms above his head. The soldier looks puny against the height and weight of Bear. Bear lifts the soldier up and flings him like a ragdoll to the side. I run between bodies, scrutinizing faces to see if I can find Jessies, praying I don’t. I dodge flying blades and bullets in search of him. I start to panic and cannot decide whether not finding him is good or bad. I look back at the entrance to the castle, hoping Hunter would emerge with our people. I notice that the members of his team are not standing at their assigned posts. The air shifts. I feel a prickling at my neck and instinctively know that something has changed. Something isn’t right. I signal Bear that I’m heading into the castle. He nods and follows suit. 

The inside is eerily still. The only fighting we hear is coming from outside. Gunshots and the clinking of steel against steel. Bear waits at the entrance and I go in. Carefully peering around corners, ready to shoot at the first opportunity. The hallway is empty. With a full-blown war outside, one might think that there’d be more movement. The hallway is empty, so are the first few rooms. I’m near the throne room. There are no guards stationed at the door. 

The prickling at the back of my neck doesn’t go away. I look behind me and don’t see anyone. I hear a muffled scream coming from behind the door. I open and the room is filled with people, all tied up. All of them are on their knees, among them are Hunter and all of his soldiers. Right at the front, on the throne, is yellow eyes. 

“Well, we were wondering when you’d eventually join us, King Jo,” his smile is sinister, s******c. At his feet, kneeling before him is Jessie. His hands and feet are tied. 

“Let them go,” my eyes are fixed on Jessie. Yellow eyes notice’s my gaze shift. 

“Oh, don’t mind him, he refused to bow to me so I made him.” 

“I said, let them go,” he starts laughing. His laugh is devoid of emotion. “So brave, King Jo. Have you gained some sort of false courage in the last few days? I thought I’ve made it clear who’s in charge here,” he picks at his fangs with one of his claws. His eyes glow a brighter neon yellow. The rest of his pack are scattered around the room. Women and babies whimper around me. 

“Look, I’ve only come for one thing. I need us to have the agreement back to the way it was when your mother was alive. Rest her soul. None of these newfound rules that you’ve made.” The whimpering continues. “Oh, will you please SHUT UP!” everything goes quiet as if the air had just been sucked out of the room. “Take them out of here.” The pack leads the people out. One of the monsters picks Jessie up by his hair to make him stand, “NOT him,” yellow eyes says. 

The only ones left are me, Yellow eyes, two of his monsters and Jessie who still has not looked up from his kneeling position. “You see King Jo, your friend over here, thinks that I’m not good enough to reign. And you seem to share his beliefs,” I shake my head. 

“I didn’t say that,”

“Aha, so you feel that I could reign as King?” he asks

“Yeah, sure.” 

Yellow eyes throws his head back and guffaws. Just as suddenly as it started, it ends. “I don’t believe you. And just to make one hundred per cent sure that you and I are on the same wavelength, I thought I’d remind you who reigns over whom.” With one quick motion, he pushes his claws into Jessie’s chest, lifts him high and I watch as my best friends head lifts to the sky in pain and fall limp. My ears ring and sharp pain is sent through my knees, then I realize that my ears ache because I’m screaming and my knees hurt because my legs failed to keep my body upright. 

Yellow eyes does not wait till my anguish is over before he says, “These are the terms of the agreement, you keep your kingdom as chaotic as it has always been, no rules. Make your people happy. And I receive my pick among your newborns. Fail to do so and I will blow up every home with its inhabitants, I will go to your little girlfriends' city and do the same to her and every single person in that city. There will be none of you left and I will save you young King for last so that you can feel every bit of anguish that your people do. Everyone you know will suffer at my hands and their blood will be on you.” The tears don’t stop as I nod my head in agreement. I have no more manpower to fight him. I know that I’ve lost. My best friend is dead and his sister and the only love I’ve ever known is in danger. This is my only choice. “Good, glad we understand each other. No run along, I’m getting sick of looking at your pathetic face.” One of his monsters lifts me by my shoulders and drags me out of the castle. Every one of the kidn*pped members of my kingdom, across 11 small cities, are outside. The war has stopped and not one of Mole Cities people has survived, including King Mesha. I don’t make eye contact with any of the people. Hunter and Bear come close but I shoo them away. I’m too ashamed of what I had just agreed to. 

We walk back the way we came and pass the camp where all the women are waiting. Hunter, Bear and a few surviving soldiers run toward them. Some must explain to other women that their husbands hadn’t survived and I hear wails. I don’t stop at the campsite. I keep walking, hundreds of people follow. “Jo!” I hear Lilith scream. I hear the crowd complain as she tries to breakthrough. I cannot bear to look. I do not stop. I lead my people all the way home, with my head hanging and my heart sunk.