147. The worst of night, 3

(Rose)

Blume is making music. She mimics the sounds of a violin roughly.

She's feeling sad, and plays that old music like a song her non-human voice can make.

A song centuries old that sounds like a possessed instrument trying to paint something imposing the with very fast-paced and energetic sounds. And yet it carries a sadness I can grasp.

Because we're ready and she's afraid.

She does not want to go to meet her end.

Once again I feel alone making what seems to be the oldest choice, because I feel left alone to march on that road. Mother left me. Father left me. My true father left me. My true mother and my sister abandoned me even before their death.

And the road I walk on looks like nothing would grow around me anymore. The Ogre poisoned this land down to every grass and tree. A world of decay worse than I thought opens before me.

And I recall sadly all the people that more or less willingly abandoned me on my way.

Mother, sisters, Father! I miss you... And you too...

My sweet blue bird, what haven't I done just for a chance to see you once again. Then the crow, and then her.

Unconfident now that I am. Maybe I thrive better when the whole world thinks I would fail. Maybe I go further when hope is darkened by loneliness. Maybe I'm stronger when the ones closest to my heart are not as supportive as I wished they were.

Maybe I'm another kind of monster and cursed being. One that tries hard to prevail when the world says I shan't.

I step inside the hunting ground of an ogre more dangerous than anything I can imagine, with nothing more but a knife and my will. I'm not a hero. I'm just insane. She doesn't like that side of me, that can be able to wage war with nothing but myself, against monsters that shall be as gods.

I have confidence in my plan and her power.

Were I alone I would have given up. But I trust her. I have faith in us, even if like you before she can't fully grasp it.

And as of yet I walk alone once more. I walk for two as she's not there, as she's afraid. As absent as you were, in another dream, in another world, a safer place, where I'm not, where we are not facing dire consequences for my choice. But a dream world where we're not, and you leave me alone again to face is the coldest face of reality as I fight for us both on my own.

I will survive, probably. And we'll be able to be together a little more, oh flower on my heart...

R - You still won't talk to me?

I walk on desolate grounds where every plant died the past days. And nothing truly decays as even mushrooms and insects are dying in this place. The ogre cleared its ground into a safer place where nothing alive but itself shall survive.

Hopefully she protects me from the invisible miasma killing all things across miles.

She's protecting me. But she's in shock and panic and doesn't respond anymore. She only plays some violin from time to time. They're not words these vivid sounds, but I can hear her crying through them.

She's crying in fear like never before. Because I'm bringing her closer to death and ruin than she has ever been before.

She had a taste and liking of paradise on my heart, and now I threaten it all.

Because I want something more for my life, something I did not have. Hubris might cause my fall like for any human. But I want to see an evil gone. One that was close, one that was close to my heart...

I'll always be somehow hypocritical.

My choices were never followed, but they always felt right and dear to me. And despite none in the world believing in me, I managed to prevail.

I have a fair chance to prevail once again. When all is lost when hope fades, when others flee or abandon me... I rise up again and prevail.

Ogre, roses will grow again.

That thorny side of my self I don't like is waking up again.

~

The dead roads gather toward a city with more blemish colours than I ever saw. Ashes and chalk were powdered everywhere. We cannot feel the summer anymore and even the empty sky lost its colours.

We are on the territory of a monster. My flower once had one too, more red than carmine, cinnabar, paprika and blood. An ominous red from earth to skies, also poisoning some specific lifeforms. The transformed humans and cattle from my time.

Whereas here, that thing is not only killing human survivors in the end. It's putting an end to all life and colour all around. Even the sunlight and fire turns white here...

This is how the world ends.

In the mouth of a dark ogre craving not to consume life but to end it only, and leave it to dry...

I see corpses mummified here and there. This place is born from nightmares. Reality surpasses fantasy sadly today.

I hold tight to my rose, to the flowers on my chest, my only remaining light against darkness as I walk in this endless valley of death. Oh monster close to my heart protect me and help me cross this valley of hell, as I have otherwise no chance of success.

I fear not failure and death as I believe in you, I have faith and love for you. You're the closest one to my heart and I know deep and high in my soul that you will protect me as I will protect you.

Goodness dear, even though you're reluctant and scared, you save me and we will be. We can prevail. We can face evil bigger than you and pass nights darker than your light can be.

And I know deep down you also believe in me. Poor free thing with boundless emotions and thoughts. I know where you went lost. You face despair and loss of confidence like every rose do...

I know you won't abandon me, that you have a promise to me yet to fulfil. You're only staying behind for now. You let me walk ahead for now. When the time of need comes, you will rise and stand with me.

I have faith in you. And you know, I love you.

Ahead I see mountains of debris and fallen buildings. Towers are protruding from that sea of man-made stones.

Somewhere in there lies the Ogre. It has not seen me yet thanks to you.

Have confidence. Rose will thrive once again.

~

I reach streets with chopped up corpses drying silently here and there. There were still humans around in the end. On that point sadly she was wrong. There were humans left around.

And the worst was yet to come.

A few steps further, mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, families were crucified together, next to each other. Men and women of all kind and ages were turned into gruesome art along the damaged concrete walls of that street. They decorated it in a macabre way, painting strings with now dry blood looking grey.

Everything was monochromatic in this area, so far from what I found before in another city. I could still see the suffering on the corpses faces. The bodies dying silently in vain, only there to scare what could maybe come this way. They were killed for nothing. Adults, elders, children from around ten years old or older. No infant at least, though that doesn't reassure me. Maybe they're elsewhere.

It killed a few families, crushing them against walls until they could stick to it for some of them. Impaling others, crushing and nailing the last of them.

A fate that would have also been mine, hadn't my flower been with me before. A senseless death, tragic, painful, needless, pointless. I now see the hell she did not want to set foot around.

Because I can only imagine the devil ruling here whereas she fears an evil she has set eyes upon.

I'm discovering hell when her gaze was once led upon the devil of this place itself. She saw it and chose to flee, scared for her and me.

She knows a little more than me about evil and thought at first that it's a fight we shouldn't dare.

I'm sorry Flower... I'm human...

I can challenge the gods when my fate is not fair enough. I can hate them, fight them, turn to another. I can even deny them.

Had more humans survived, I wouldn't be the first one to come and try to bring the Ogre down. We will always fight in the end... Humans are so hard to tame that gods themselves have troubles dealing with us.

How can you believe that a mere Ogre could stop us? I'm but a rose, but I carry that human will somewhere in me like any other woman.

But I can't win because of my will alone. I will, because of you. I owe my life and freedom to you. And I want to owe you that we liberated this land from the poisonous being it's hosting here.

I get closer and find a living child. A boy maybe ten years old. It's chained up to a pole like a dog. It's starving and barely human anymore.

I get cautiously closer. I fear a trap being set there. The boy sees me. He screams as he looks at me. His eyes bleed, his face distorts. His head trembles.

A sudden great spurt of flesh and fluids replaces his head and torso. It bursted suddenly, entirely. Red reappears in my eyes as its blood stains the street up to my shoes. I feel my stomach twisted, and I hear a distant laugh.

A long, very distant but clearly distinguishable laugh haunts me. It's but a rumble, the waking of the beast at the barking of its dog. I hear it as a maniacal laugh, reminding me very meanly of my red sister.

B - The Ogre... Is playing with us.

That ploy was a taunt to us... And I think that through the boy's eyes, it saw us...

R - It knows that we're here.

B - I fear so. We should move quickly if we want to proceed.

At least, Blume is back.

I hold myself and manage not to vomit as I come across the ruptured fleshes of the child. I step on bones and escape through a narrow street, feeling worse than ever now that the smells linger. That scream and face will haunt me.

I saw despair and pain in his eyes, suffering from his own flesh being torn away and ripped from inside.

I hold back nausea and hiccups with difficulty but move on. I will try that it was not in vain for that boy.

The street is thin and dark, I vanish through it before the Ogre arrives.

~

I manage to find my way through solid darkness.

Blume stops talking and ringing. I see the sky darkening as if night was suddenly falling.

The shadow of death stretches across the sky to hide everything in sight.

The Ogre is coming.

I escape through a building. I step on debris and rubbish long abandoned inside rooms or kitchens. I go from an apartment to the other. Every window is gone and most of the doors are also.

I exit the building in another street, that smells like skinned animals. But the daylight is there again. The ogre is behind, checking on its trap.

It's now looking for its new prey, which is me.

I catch my breath and try to keep my cool despite my stress.

R - Are you ready?

B - I am...

I bring my good hand to my pocket and grab the pouch inside. I open it with my bad hand and reveal the corrupted gift. The poisoned hare to kill a predator...

I look sadly at what should have been a happy gift and was turned into a weapon meant to kill.

I'm about to throw it out in the distance in order to lure the beast. Something that smells like human meat and looks too delicious to pass. It will, as soon as Blume unveils it from the magic she cloaked it in.

I hear the sounds of a wild beast being furious, not far from here.

It's destroying walls, it's unleashing an incredible wrath and it's getting closer rapidly.

It's going through the walls one after another. The building behind my back shakes, being crushed. My heartbeat rises. I'm scared and tremble too.

The sounds and earthquake stops for a few quiet instants. I wonder. I rise my hand in order to throw the glowing rock in the distance.

The wall explodes beside and behind me. I lose my balance as the Ogre comes out.

Something big as a whale steps outside and hides the whole street from the sky.

I'm standing up, catching my balance back. The stone lies between my feet and its paw on the ground. Is it looking at me, or at it?

The dark silhouette looks at it, but then raises slightly its dark void of a head toward me instead.

My chest hurts. My neck has cold sweat.

~