Flames roared around him, but all was tuned out. After all his cries were the loudest. Cezne dragged Kai's almost limp body amidst the corpses that surrounded the now bloodied floor of Swanhilder. Kai had stopped resisting the moment the last of his comrades met the ground. His white hair was gripped into a ball of fist by Cezne.
"Ohh child." Cezne threw Kai to the altar with a sigh, his blackened inhuman eyes scrunched up. As if he was trying to show...pity. "If only you did what Moira had decided for you."
Kai looked up at the bastard, eyes barely staying open from all the blood that flew out of him from…..everywhere. He scoffed. "Dont blame the actual gods, you bastard." He smiled. "You will be punished."
The satisfaction that ran through Kai's heart, when Czene's pale demonic, cracked face scrunched up in anger, was short lived. A gore scream tore out of Kai's throat as he felt himself lifted into the air, hands bending at an impossible angle, cracking at the joints. Blood flowed from his cut off left arm
Images flicked through his mind. Mother, Father, Home, Noah. His only sister Bella-blood streaming down her chin as she smiled before falling to the ground, cold, lifeless. Inara, Raine.
Navarik.
His comrades that law sprawled across the ground in front of him.
Ben who now lay motionless. He shouldn't have been here. A denire should have had nothing to do with all this.
Ah….
He's gonna die.
Was all that…..for nothing?
Kai felt his throat get crushed under Cezne's power. Blood flowed down his cheeks. Pain roared in each and every vein of his being. But there was nothing anymore that could come out. The beast he had tamed was no longer enough.
Maybe this is the end. Dossier will perish. Along with its fools that believed in gods.
Gods that will soon be the reason for their extinction.
Kai closed his eyes.
I will wait for you in hell you bastards.
If hell will have us that is.
The ground trembled as the first drop of Kai's blood touched the altar. It really is the end.
"Kai" A disheveled voice inside his head.
"Kai." Again.
Was there any soul left?
"Kai."
Ben!
Kai's eyes flew open to Ben who lay on the ground, panting and gritting as his lips moved, flames roaring around him.
He's alive?
Ben struggled to draw out his broken hand, trembling as he tried to ball them into a fist.
What is he doing?
His eyes caught Kai's-widening for one moment and then they softened, almost desperate, but still hopeful. No. Not hope. Pity.
No.
Ben gritted his jaw and balled his fist, his lips moving faster. Ice cold shivers crawled up Kai's spine.
No.
Cezne flinched before Ben, head flinging back towards him. He yelled something frantically, but Ben never turned his eyes away from Kai.
Kai felt the constriction in his chest.
My heart?
He continued speaking. At last when Cezne grabbed him and held him in the air like a ragdoll, he stopped his spell.
Kai felt the blood vessels burn inside him into flames.
He smiled. He mouthed something and then released his fist right before Cezanne's claws went straight through his heart.
But Kai couldn't see it any more.
His heart had already stopped.
Forgive me, Ben had murmured.
"If there really is a second life, I wish I will be born a denire." Bella leaned back into the couch, brown eyes staring at the fire that crackled in the fireplace.
"To do what? Become a robber and run from the police again." Lance scoffed, playing with his marbles.
"Shut up, marbles." Bella rolled her eyes.
"It's not that fun you know?" Ben smiled from the side, pulling his blanket closer, leaning back against Kai's legs. "Boring actually."
Bella laughed. "Boring is fun, Mr. Manchas. Mal would agree." She looked at Kai for confirmation.
"You would still be annoying." Kai said flatly.
Bella paused, then sighed. "What did I even expect from my asshole brother."
The fire popped. Someone laughed. Someone breathed.
Kai didn't know why, but he thought—If there is a second life, let it look like this.
But…..
Why did he think that?
Ben shifted beneath him and Kai closed his eyes to the warmth of the fireplace. But soon when the silence started to chew him up, he opened them again. Why were the kids so-
Kai felt his eyes widen. "Bella?" He straightened in his seat. "Lance?"
Kai looked down at the floor where Ben sat just a moment ago. "Ben?"
Kai pulled up from his seat and looked around, breathing unevenly. "Guys?"
He dashed across the basement, opening the doors to find them anywhere. Maybe they went outside. Or maybe this was just a prank.
"Bella! Lance! Ben!" Kai came back to the fireplace. Glasses stayed on the table. Bella's half filled vodka, Lance's empty glass, his own tea, Ben's fully filled ginger ale. "Guys!"
Kai felt panic rush in. He picked up his swords from the side. He sheathed one and held the other in his metallic arm. He left the other bare.
Power hummed in his veins in a familiar tune.
"Malakai." A woman's voice. Kai didn't waste time, his sword drew into position and hands stretched up front, slamming a leg down in the inner conduit of his mind.
But there was no one.
Cloaking spell?
"Malakai."
Again. Raine awoke in the back of his mind, anger thrumming inside.
"Who is it?!" Kai breathed hard.
"You need to wake up, my child."
What? "Who the fuck are you?"
"You can't stay here."
"Why don't you say that by actually coming in front of me?" Kai growled.
"Malakai.
Kai felt his chest tighten and throat being crushed, the sword falling from his hands. Before he knew it, Raine was asleep-
No
He was gone?
Where did he-
He tried to summon mana, but failed miserably as he felt his knees give out and fell to the ground.
Right.
The souls perished.
Cezne killed me.
No.
Ben did something.
Cezne was-
"You don't belong here anymore." The voice whispered.
Kai clawed at the floor rug.
"They need you."
Kai jumped awake, eyes widened, breath caught, sweat flowing down his temples. His hands flew to his chest gripping at the fabric that covered his body. Only that there was no blood.
Kai froze, neck craning down to look at his arm. It was there? And there's no blood? He tried twisting his iron arm around slowly as if it would pop out of its socket again.
He breathed. He pulled his hands and touched his face. Again, no blood. He tried to pull his hair to the front to see if they were white, but there was nothing to pull. His hands ran through the back of his head. His hair was short. Really short.
Did I die and reach hell?
He lifted his head and looked around.
But why does hell look like the factory we used to hideout in?
It was the same. The same old rusty closed down shoe factory with cloaked machines and oil dripped around from everywhere. The same old smell of leather fixed with a faint tint of grease.
"What are you sleeping around for? We got work to do, Mal." A familiar voice.
Kai's head whipped around so fast, he thought he got a whiplash. His eyes widened at the figure. Slightly shorter blond hair than he remembered, identical brown eyes, the same disinterested impression, the old tunic with the loose black pants.
"Bella." Kai whispered.
Bella blinked. "Yes?"
"You-you are here."
Bella stared at him with furrowed brows. 'Where else am I supposed to be?" She narrowed her eyes with suspicion. "What is it? Why are you acting like you saw a ghost?"
"I-You." Kai stuttered, breathing unevenly. "You look younger."
Bella's face relaxed and then she beamed. She smacked Kai's back in appreciation. "Now that's how you talk to a lady. Did sleep fix your manners, Sir. Malakai?"
God
It really is Bella.
Kai was already out of his bed and pulling Bella into his chest as tight as he could Bella squeaked before getting slammed into Kai.
"Da fuck?!" She cursed in Russian, trying to push Kai away.
But Kai just trembled, tears welling up in his eyes. His sister was in front of him, alive, in the flesh. If this was hell, then maybe just maybe-
Bella pulled herself enough to look Kai in the face. "Why are you being so disgusting-" She stilled, her eyes widening.
"Chto sluchílos?" Bella whispered, asking what was wrong.
Kai shook his head, not caring how moist his cheeks felt from the tears. "Nothing."
"Did you have a bad dream?"
Kai inhaled, sniffling. He nodded slightly. "Yes."
"A very long one."