Flashbacks

11: FLASHBACKS

It had been almost a day since the incident and I hadn't seen him move from where he was. He hadn't eaten and spoken. I tried to feed him myself but he wouldn't open his mouth. The situation made me extremely frustrated with worry.

I hadn't left his side and neither had Fenris. If I didn't leave him, this wouldn't have happened. If I only stayed by his side at all times he would have grown up with all the love and care in the world. If sticking to him like a leech would have left me single for the rest of my life I wouldn't care.

Iltut's fingers left markings on Lucian's neck. He had yet again added another marking on my brother's form. I had seen every scar on Lucian's body and memorized where they were placed. I refrained from asking about them because I did not want to trigger grisly and nasty memories. There was no point in inquiring anyway—the scars already told the history.

Fenris neglected his own nourishment. Me and him didn't have the appetite. If not for Ikesha then both of us would have emulated Lucian in his fasting.

'How can he recover when he sees the two of you joining him in his despair? Do not let yourselves be devoured by the monsters that haunt him. The two of you need strength to provide him the support he needs," she scolded.

I only hoped that he won't reenact his flashbacks or else we would have no other choice but to deposit him into the treatment floor of the hideout. There was a knock on the door that temporarily snatched my attention from my sleeping brother.

"It's me." Ikesha pushed the door slightly and peeked.

"Come in."

"I'd rather you come out, Lucius. I have something to tell you."

Paranoia tapped my shoulder. The thought of taking my eyes away from him made me uneasy. I released a sigh, placing the book that I stared at for the past few hours on the bed before standing up.

"Keep watch," I told my wolf-associate.

"Ruf!"

I kept the door slightly ajar, sneaking glances every now and then.

"What is it?"

"Iltut still won't answer my inquiries. He continues to feign ignorance."

I clicked my tongue.

"We have no need for him. Have Aramastus finish it already. You know how much he hates leaving things undone."

He was the perfect assassin.

"I was hoping that you could interrogate him yourself. Wouldn't you want to know how a supposed dead man suddenly shows up in a bloody-coating with broken bones?"

"If you send me there I'd torture him rather than interrogate him." I was already itching for the opportunity.

There was nothing else that I would want to know from him. He was a scheming hound. I felt nothing but betrayal for him and our parents.

"Lucius, I know it's hard for you to control yourself, but I was told by Aramastus that he slipped the coin he found from Iltut's grave into the wicket. I was thinking that—"

"He…What?" I snapped. "Monte de merda…(Piece of shit)."

I will gut that idiot alive. I told him to keep the coin safe and not do anything rash with it. We still had no idea of the wicket's mechanism and he acted on his own and got my brother involved in his idiocy.

"The only information Iltut gave me was that before he died, he was tortured in various and unspeakable ways that were so malevolent. He ended up screaming as he succumbed into the horrors of his recollections. Did your brother have an older friend with red hair?"

I released a scoff. "Not that I know of but if he had I'd like to meet that friend and invite him for a drink. What was that person like?"

"He only mentioned a red-haired man with immense power. He came out of nowhere. He said he resembled—no, that's impossible," Ikesha brushed off the thought.

"Who?"

"Iltut's mind must have been playing tricks on him. He said that your brother's friend looked like the deceased King."

"Jiji?"

Jiji (Grandfather) must have been haunting him for all the fucked up things he had done.

"No, not him," she disapproved.

"You mean that king? King Asahi?"

Lucian's friend must have looked like him but that person was definitely not him. Iltut was delusional.

I had no clue if Lucian had any friends back home. I doubted that the Higher-Order permitted him to keep them. But if Lucian's friend was able to put Iltut into a crippling state of hemorrhagic burst, then he was some friend indeed.

But someone with red hair…Red hair? I got nothing. I must have missed him when I came back. That or he must have been dispatched once he was discovered to be acquainted with my brother.

"If you don't wish to interrogate him, I will ask Aramastus to dispose of him and retrieve the coin again."

"Wait, can you please watch over Lucian? I'll hear it for myself." Ikesha nodded and patted my arm in reassurance.

"Very well then, leave him to me."

I went to the bottom floor of the hideout, hearing the echoes of Iltut's screams. There weren't many prisoners here. Actually, the only prisoner we had was him.

"Keep quiet rego do cu (ass crack) or else you'll hear your own screams in the afterlife," Aramastus drawled.

He sat on a chair in front of the cell confining Iltut with his sword staked to the ground in front of him.

"Kisama… (You)" I muttered, catching his attention.

"Ah, Lord Lu—"

I slammed Aramastus' head against the wall, creating branching cracks from the impact. My subordinate shook his head to shake off the dizziness, keeping his feet on the ground.

"Lord Lucius, your orders sir?"

I smacked the back of his head. "Tofu no kado ni atama wo butsukete shine!"

"Very well my Lord, I shall do my very best to die from having to hit my head on a tofu!"

If he wasn't so powerful I could have kicked his ass out of here a long time ago. He may act like a guileless idiot, but Aramastus was far from being gullible. He was a cunning asshole who knew how to rent space in a person's head.

"Lucius…Lucius! Get me out of here! He's coming for me! I need to die…I need to die!" our prisoner screamed, wriggling pathetically on the floor, limbless.

I once had great admiration for him. He was like a second father to me.

"Calm your nuts old man. Who's coming for you?"

But now…I had nothing but a great desire to bury him alive and suffocate him with filth.

Iltut stared at my face with a shaken expression, an expression that my brother must've had in every single day he spent with this piece of shit. My entire body was rigid. My jaws were clenched shut, teeth grinding so much I was creating heat.

This man had shown me the brilliance of living and taught me ways of becoming the knight that I was. I believed in him. I admired him. I blindly looked up to the person who made my little brother's life a living nightmare.

"Your brother did this to me! He did this to me! He is a monster!"

A burst of laughter erupted from my throat. Instead of having joy as the source of my amusement, I could merely taste the acerbic flavor of resentment. I opened the cellar door, entering the cramped space.

"You say that my brother is a monster…"

"He is—"

I rammed my foot against his head. I straddled his hips, crashing my knuckles on his bloodied and swollen face.

"Fuck you, fuck you! Shut the fuck up! You don't deserve to live! You deserve more shit for what you did to him!"

My own voice nearly drove me to deafness. The clouding darkness that I couldn't show to Lucian turned into an inner storm.

I exploded. The more I realized that he wouldn't last long, the more it vexed me. This did not compare to the years of suffering that my brother had to go through. My limbs ceased once I noticed that underneath me was nothing more but a corpse.

This wouldn't do.

"Aramastus"

He appeared for not less than a second. "Yes my Lord."

"Bring me the wicket." My fingers dug inside his throat, fishing for the coin. As soon as I pinched the token in between my fingers, I twisted around, pushing the token inside the slot.

I will bring him back from the dead for as many times as it takes until he begs death for salvation."

…

…

…

I plodded the stairs that were leading to the third floor. My hand held on to the blood-stained wicket. My thoughts had sailed to another continent. I was more of a foul ghoul than a royal prince at the moment.

"Lucius! Lucius!"

I met Laeroth halfway up the stairs. Beads of sweat covered his face and arms.

"It's Lucian, isn't it?!"

"He's having a flashback. Ikesha can't steal control of the elements from him!"

I scurried past him, sprinting straight to Lucian's room. Many of the scums aided the attempt to dominate the elements that my brother was orchestrating. The young prince floated above the bed; his entire body was enveloped in a sphere of water. He thrashed inside the globe, spumes replacing the full sound of his screams.

The signs of burn on his feet reemerged. The lesions on his arms reopened, releasing a smoky appearance of blood in the water. Fenris' whines and anxious barks filled the room.

"Lucius!" Ikesha gasped. "He's drowning himself. We have to do something fast!"

If Ikesha couldn't gain command of the elements that only meant that Lucian had greater power and mana than her which was known already to everyone given his history.

Trying to pull him out wouldn't work because the water will merely pursue him until he perishes.

Wait, I know!

"Hand me the belt!"

I hopped on top of the bed. Ikesha tossed me the belt that kept Lucian's powers at bay.

He must have been experiencing perilous flashbacks that endangered his life so many times that the Higher-Order decided to forge this for him.

My arms pierced inside the icy cold domain, clasping the belt around him. A prevailing force was released, sending everyone crashing against the walls. A pitch black mist swirled within the sphere, tinting the waters in complete tenebrosity.

The ball cracked like glass. Red bright beams punctured holes that led to a complete shatter. Before Lucian could land on the shards of glass on his bed, Fenris leaped and shoved him out. I was instantly on my feet, catching and securing him in my arms. Purple roots of lustre on his porcelain skin dissipated. I blew an exasperated breath.

I couldn't believe it but…

"He can control it," Ikesha concluded. "Your brother can control the side that we always perceived as a curse to our kind."

Whispers flooded the room. Most of the concerns were about Lucian being a threat to the Scums. I zoned out. Their murmurs made my blood run cold. How dare they?

Fenris stood guard in front of us, growling lowly at the air of gossip.

"Enough!" Laeroth's voice boomed, drawing silence to the conflict. "This young boy does not deserve to be shunned, especially by us. We are Scums, we are the exiles of society. You of all people do not have the right to judge him. We all meet with our other half once we die so what difference does it make?"

I gave Laeroth a nod of gratitude. His little speech hit the light in the state of confusion.

"Most of you know the history of the prince. He is no ordinary boy. He is special. The souls of the brave lives lie within him so do not let their sacrifice be in vain," Ikesha added, turning to us. "Take him to another room, Lucius."

The members of Scums parted for us. Fenris led the way with a proud chin up. We occupied another room and hopefully, this will be the last one we'll move into. I treated Lucian's wounds with herbs that I grew on my palms. After he was patched and settled, I plopped on the chair, leaning back on the soft and white cushion.

My eyes had gotten so heavy that I had to close them for a bit. I was dead tired. I needed sleep but the moment I'd catch sleep my fears would chase the drowsiness away.

The sound of bones cracking popped. My lips slowly curled into a smile.

"So you finally decided to change?" I asked without looking.

"Get some rest…I'll keep watch," he replied.

Ah from the sound of his voice I guess he was a really big man. As expected from a werewolf.

"There are some clothes in the cabinet. Feel free to explore," I encouraged, yawning. "Your wolf is called Fenris so what about you?"

I heard that the wolf spirit and the vessel had different minds. They could converse with each other which seemed difficult in my opinion.

Having your own thoughts raging inside of your head can already be frustrating.

"Caleb, my name is Caleb," he replied. "I am your brother's mate."

My grin spread wider. I hummed in amusement.

"I know…that's why I trust you."