Ashes of Revenge

Thousands of small needles pricked Raven as the snow thrashed and beat against her. Her eyes watered, and her fingers and toes numbed - the feeling was somehow similar and yet different to being burned, and she was barely able to suppress the memories of the fire. Swallowing, she focused on the wet coldness that was trying to get into her boots.

Turning around to face where they had come in, her eyes widened when she saw there was now nothing but miles upon miles of snowy forests. The snow and mist were so thick she couldn’t see the town.

They were truly trapped in their own deadly decision.

Colt, Raven, and Richard made eye contact, and she could tell they were mimicking her thoughts.

“We need to move fast to get to tha first cave!” Ash yelled over the whistling shouts of the wind. They stepped forward and found this journey would be prolonged, difficult, cold, and painful. With each step, the snow became deeper, and the temperature dropped.

Raven clamped her teeth down on her lip, her scars itching and burning with every new second. Until this point, she had forgotten how much she hated the cold.

The same thought echoed throughout everyone’s heads: I hope tha cave is near.

***

Ash turned around and faced the group that was trailing behind him. The cold was more annoying to him than anything, but it could mean death for the others. Hypothermia could set in, and if they didn’t reach the cave and make a fire, they would drop dead, and the Monstros would feast upon their bodies. Those grueling images forced them to move.

Raven’s gloved hands were wedged under her armpits, trying to prevent her fingers from freezing. If her fingers were to freeze and the tissue was to die more, then there was no doubt in her mind that she would lose her fingers and possibly her hands. Her nerves couldn’t take any more damage.

Richard moved the fur of his coat closer to his face in an attempt to un-numb it. He wished his wings could be out, wrapping around him to help warm his body, but he knew they would freeze. If they died, then he would essentially die with them. For a Farian to lose its wings was like a Mundus losing their hands or a Shifter their knives - something that each species couldn’t cope with the loss of.

Colt felt all around uncomfortable. His red nose was so numb it felt like a blade had sliced off the tip. His entire body was dulled, and his bones stiff, as if the knives in him had frozen. His right arm throbbed in pain, feeling like his skin was being scraped off once more.

A noise caused everyone to freeze where they were and look around for any signs of life, but all they saw were trees. Slowly, one of the branches rose and moved, slamming into the ground. Another branch followed, and it didn’t take long for them to realize it was a Monstro. The branches created specific designs and twisted limbs along with its pointed chin and hallowed eyes.

Ash turned away from the Monstro and looked at the group again, knowing they couldn’t take much more of the frigid cold and hidden creatures. He glanced up and saw what they had been moving towards the entire time: a cave. Ash pointed upwards, and everyone looked up, happiness and relief washed over them. With this newfound emotion, adrenaline coursed through their veins.

They began to climb as fast as they could. Though the rocks were covered in ice and snow, they all pushed on — the thought of getting into some warmth and away from the Monstros kept them going.

Ash climbed into the opening of the cave. He grabbed Raven’s hand and pulled her in before they grabbed Colt and Richard and helped them as well. This method continued until everyone was inside.

All of their hard breathing fanned out across the air.

Ash walked deeper into the cave, and everyone followed, thankfully finding that the deeper they went, the warmer it got. Finally, Ash stopped in a room that only had one other tunnel.

Pulling and ripping together whatever they could find, they made a small pile of burnable items. Raven’s shaking hands struck together a few times, causing sparks to fly through the air. Her hands were so numb she couldn’t feel them hitting one another. At last, one of the sparks grew into a fire.

The men crowded around it as they took off their gloves and boots, warming their frozen limbs.

“These caves have plants we could eat,” Ash said, his voice not shaking like it was expected to. “Also, I know it’s not ideal, but small Monstros live in here that we could eat as well.” Everyone nodded. “I say we split up into groups an’ cover more ground.”

Raven was the first to leave the fire. Parts of her body had such damaged nerves that they didn’t need the management the others needed. Stopping the itchiness, numbness, and tenseness was really all she cared about.

Richard’s wings expanded, and he began to warm them up. Colt did the same to his knives.

“I an’ Raven will go,” Ash said. Raven nodded in agreement.

The two of them walked through the hallway and into the next room.

She froze when the light from the fire disappeared. Raven turned around and saw that the opening she had walked through was now a solid wall. A hand grabbed her shoulder, and she was thrown back. Shock entered her body when she didn’t hit the floor.

Raven was falling into an abyss.

***

Richard looked down at the fire for a split second, and when he looked up again, the entrance Raven and Ash had entered was now a wall. Colt and Richard stood up, but before they could step forward, the light suddenly disappeared. They turned around, finding they were now in a blocked off room, the men and fire gone.

In the darkness, they both looked at each other as fear overtook Colt, and realization struck Richard: they had been led into a trap.

Richard tore part of his clothing off. Colt did the same before his knives extended. He hit the blades together multiple times before one of the sparks managed to catch the cloth on fire.

The light illuminated Colt’s reddened and tear-filled eyes and showcased Richard’s pale face.

A small moment of silence fell between the two.

“Fuck!” Colt screamed. His fingers latched onto his hair, and his breathing became sporadic. “Shite!” he cried more.

“Colt, calm down,” Richard said.

“Don’t tell me to fuckin’ calm down!” Colt yelled as he began to breathe heavier, falling into a panic attack. His mind transported him back to his old Kingdom.

He was in a cell.

Alone.

Bloody.

In pain.

Trapped.

Trapped!

Trapped!

We’re trapped in here!

We’re not gonna get out!

We’re-

His thoughts halted when Richard roughly grabbed his shoulders and pushed him against a wall, keeping him from moving.

Richard’s dark storm grey eyes glared into Colt’s tear-filled ones. “Now is not tha time to freak out. We need to find a way out of here, an’ I can’t do this alone,” Richard said in a calm voice.

Colt swallowed as his breathing began to pick up again.

Richard embraced Colt in a tight hug, forcing the Shifter back to the present. Colt flinched against Richard, but his iron grip held. “It’s ok,” the Farian murmured. “I’m here an’ yer safe. No one can hurt yeh an’ we will get out of here . . . with Raven.”

Colt’s shaking body began to calm as his breathing slowed.

Richard placed his forehead on Colt’s and grasped his shoulders. “That’s a promise.”

Colt nodded.

Richard stepped back and looked around the room. The ceiling was high, and the only way to get to it was by flying. He shrugged off his coat, and his wings expanded again. He flew up to the ceiling and turned himself upside down, so his wings were facing the ground, and he was facing the ceiling. Painstakingly, he began to search for any way out.

Colt looked at a crack in the wall and slowly approached it. The blade from his hand extended, and he began to try and pry apart any dirt and rock that would give, hoping they could find the way out.

***

Raven’s body collided with the ground, bouncing off it and landing with a giant thud. She remained unmoving for a few seconds, trying to find out what was broken and mangled. Weirdly though, she couldn’t feel any pain. Taking in a sharp breath, she sat up, expecting to have her bones move, but nothing was broken, and most shockingly, she was alive. The only remnant she had fallen was the sinking feeling in her stomach and a small headache.

Raven’s fingers fumbled with the sword as she pulled it out. It collided with the ground and bounced against the rock. She fumbled yet again with her hands, and she finally managed to light the metal on fire. Grabbing the handle, she stood up and looked around - her sword the only light source. When she saw she was in an inescapable pit, her steady breathing began to pick up.

“Ash!” Raven screamed, anger and concern lacing her voice. “ASH!”

“Yes?”

Raven froze when she felt air pan across the back of her neck. Turning around, her eyes landed on the owner of the voice, staring into obsidian, lifeless eyes.

Though he didn’t look like Ash, she knew it was him. The figure was towering over Raven by at least a foot, and he no longer looked around Raven or Colt’s age due to his sunken in cheeks and overall slimmer and sicker build. His onyx hair floated on top of his head, moving as if in water. The pearly skin had changed into a graphite grey. He was wearing black pants and boots with a black leather shirt covering his chest, the sleeves stopping at his wrists. The only thing that still resembled Ash was the black fingers.

Raven stared at him with an unchanging expression.

He tilted his head to the side, his hair swaying with the movement. “You don’t look scared.” His accent was even different now. It didn’t have the thickness of her accent or the faint shift of the Britannico one. The voice was one that she had heard before, but she couldn’t place where from.

He smiled.

Raven sliced her sword towards him, but it went through him as if he were air. He looked down at the sword and snapped his fingers. As the noise bounced off the walls, the weapon began to turn into ash. She grasped at the fragments in desperation, but the pieces dissolved at her touch.

Her hands froze in the air, and she watched as her gloves began to dissolve. It took all of her willpower to force down the horror of her protection being taken away, leaving all her beloved rings and bloody bandaged hand on display. The weight in her arms lightened when her throwing daggers dissolved.

Just like that, she was defenseless.

Her jaw clenched and tightened as she looked up at him. In the palm of his hand was a fire, lighting up the room again.

“That was rude.”

The smile returned.

Raven remained silent, her brain not allowing words to come out of her mouth. “Come on, spit it out.”

The words that had been trapped rose through her throat, making her feel as if she would vomit if she held it in any longer. “Who are yeh?” she asked.

“My dear, I’m Death itself. Mundus’ and Irlandians know me as Bas. Monstros as Tod. Teliks as Olum. Shifters as Morte. Farians as Deces. But, my name is Death. And if you don’t believe me now, you will so let’s move on to the next question.”

There was a moment of silence as Raven contemplated this. Death, or Bas, was a character in stories. Nothing more. He wasn’t even a main character, rather someone who would show up, not speak or act, but would either show mercy or kill a person. It was simply folktales. And Bas looked nothing like Death.

She was only rarely allowed to listen to such tales when younger, so she only knew of him, not about him. But, she decided, focusing on those details wouldn’t help her.

“What do yeh want?”

“You.” A wave of confusion swept over her. “I’m sorry, my dear.” Raven’s breath hitched in her throat. That voice. That voice had woken her every night since the fire. It belonged to him. He, Death, was the one that was haunting her nightmares. Fear finally found its way to her, and the foreign feeling made her want to crawl out of her skin.

Taking advantage of her dazed state, he loosely latched onto her throat and pulled her towards him. His finger began to trace the bottom of her jawline, running over the rough, leathery skin.

She pushed against his arm, but his grip held.

“You figured it out, didn’t you?” he asked. “You’re welcome, by the way.” Death tilted her chin up more and pulled her closer. “For saving your life.”

She tried to shove away from him, but he only jerked her closer.

Death tilted his head to the side. “Do you think you survived the fire or the torture you were put through? My dear, you died. I kept you alive when the lack of food should have killed you weeks before. The flames burned your body and ate your flesh. I’ve been there the entire time.”

Raven spat a curse and tried to move away from him once more. He remained relaxed, only tilting his head to the side in thought. After contemplating it for a second, he continued, “Some see me as mercy, kindness, suffering, evil - you may perceive me however you wish, but I should warn you: if you villainize me, then that’s what I shall become. How our relationship turns out is up to you, my dear.”

She managed to shove herself away from him, and he allowed her to do so this time. Her body felt like it was entering some form of shock just from the pure aspect that she had died and didn’t remember a single thing about it.

“W-why did yeh save me?”

Death was silent for a moment.

“Poetic justice,” he finally said with a nonchalant shrug. “I believe in an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But you, my dear, had your eye, tooth, hand, and foot taken from you, and I frankly found that unfair.”

She glared at him.

“I decided to give you a second chance at life and look at how well it has turned out for you.” Dramatically outstretching his arms, the fire grew in his hand. Stepping to the side, his body slid into one of the shadows, and he disappeared.

Raven looked around the room again.

“Now, you owe me a favor.”

Raven turned to the side, and Death’s cold hands seized her wrists. He pulled her closer to him until her chest was against his. His head tilted once more, and though he didn’t open his mouth, Raven heard those voices echo in her head. She listened to it for a second, the favor being told to her.

Her eyes slowly widened, and her face grew pale. “No!”

“No?” Death asked. “Why? You’ve never feared it before.” He studied her face and saw the unwanted tears in the corner of her eyes. “Or is it by whose hands will be doing it?”

“Why that?! Why do yeh care?!”

“I like it when things come full circle. I want you to succeed and get your revenge more than anyone because we’ll both get something out of it . . . but not at the cost of the Monstro Kingdom.”

“Why do yeh care about this Kingdom an’ how will me succeedin’ help yeh?!”

“I like the creatures and the King, we’re actually friends. I want to see them rise to what they once were, and that’s frankly not going to happen with you destroying their villages.” He smiled. “You’ll have to figure out that second part.”

“No,” Raven gritted out.

“Your situation won’t be permanent.” He breathed out a laugh. “You had your fun, and now it’s time for me to have mine. Besides, if you disagree now, then you will later. I’m a patient being.” His grip on her wrists tightened before his cold fingers slipped from around her, and she stumbled back.

He smiled and faintly chuckled. “I am sorry, though.”

Raven’s eyebrows furrowed together.

“For spying on you . . . the dead tend to stare.” Images flashed in Raven’s sight of everything and everyone she had killed. After death, their eyes followed her. “By the way, this is the part where you believe me.” He pointed behind her.

A hand landed on her shoulder. Death and the unknown person turned Raven around. As soon as her eyes fell on the source, she crumbled to the floor. The decaying, frail corpse of a woman stepped closer.

“P-please!” Raven screamed to both Death and the woman as her feet desperately kicked against the ground. Her breathing increased, and her muscles began to shake. Hands grabbed her shoulders and hoisted her off the ground.

Death wrapped one arm around her neck, and the other latched onto her hair, holding her head in place. The woman walked closer and closer, and Raven fought against Death.

He found it amusing that this was one of Raven’s fears. Not the Monstros or death itself, but this decaying woman that stood in front of her.

A firm elbow to the gut snapped Death out of his thoughts.

“Just go to sleep, my dear.”

Raven’s body slowly grew weaker, and she found it harder to keep her eyes open. She looked at the women one last time through teary eyes before they rolled into the back of her head, and her body went limp.

Death held Raven for a few more seconds before his grip loosened around her, allowing her to collapse to the ground. He looked at the woman and motioned his head to Raven.

“Don’t be shy,” he said with a giant smile. He knelt beside Raven and moved a strand of hair out of her face.

The smile increased.

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