107: Emptiness

There were four heirs left now: me, Liam, Xavier and David. Some selfish part of myself wished that I’d be paired up with David. That I’d be spared one last stage in preparation of taking the life of someone I loved. But as the sand began to fly in my face and the ground beneath us all shifted, a deep sense of fear began to take over, as though I already knew what was to come in this the third stage. The dome was now divided into two different sections, one in which I stood and another in which David and Xavier stood. I couldn’t help but feel completely and utterly hopeless and disappointed. A lump began to form in my throat and my fingers clutched at my trousers. There was no way Xavier was going to win against David. He was strong, much stronger than Xavier could ever imagine. Then, I glanced up into the dark eyes of my opponent. There was no way Liam could survive either. My gift of strength was now rendered into a curse.
“We are now in the semi-finals, with four heirs left! The stakes are high, and tension is rife within this dome. Which two of the four will move on to the final round? Long live the eternal monarch.”
The silence within the moment that followed was almost deafening and it was soon shattered to pieces by the ringing that signalled the beginning of the second last stage of this brutal game of slaughter.
Liam immediately walked up to the weapon rack. From it, he grabbed a sword. But he didn’t keep it for himself. Instead, he threw it towards me. It fell to the ground before me, shimmering underneath the dimness of the light of the dome. I took a moment to gaze at it before my eyes met his again and I shook my head. “I won’t be fighting you with this. It won’t be fair.”
Liam snickered before clutching at another of the swords. “Yeah, for you.”
He then came rushing towards me with his sword, hardly giving me any chance to react. As he passed me, he raised his blade in the air and it made a loud slicing sound. I expected him to cut through something, but I didn’t feel any pain anywhere in my body. His sword was also clean, unstained with blood and so I gazed up at him curiously, wondering what exactly he was trying to prove. But it wasn’t until half of my hair came cascading down my back and onto the floor that I realised where exactly he’d been able to leave his mark. I turned around and glanced in shock at the hair on the floor before touching my fingers to the hair left dangling above my shoulders and hanging in my face. I hadn’t even known that was where he’d placed his blade and I hardly felt him cut through my hair. He was so fast and precise with his movement. Perhaps I would need that sword. Cautiously, I bent down and retrieved the sword that he’d thrown toward me earlier. I flipped it around in the air before adjusting my stance.
“Good choice,” he said before swiping his sword towards me. Immediately, I lifted mine in the air and both of them collided with each other. He grunted and I growled as we pushed at each other until we finally broke away, landing a distance towards each other. Liam immediately ran towards me, holding his sword in the air. He was extremely quick, and I just missed the fury of his blade as he swung it at me. I turned towards him and dodged another of his attacks. It soon became clear that his attacks were offensive while mine were defensive. I didn’t want to hurt him, but the more the two of us fought, the less of a choice he was giving me.
“That was almost my head!” I yelled as I bent over backwards to avoid being decapitated.
“The next time it will be your head. Stop fighting like you don’t want to fight!” He yelled before lifting his leg in the air and then thrusting his foot right in the middle of my abdomen. I gasped as I flew through the air and then landed on the sand beneath me.
With a grunt, I got off of the floor and shook my head, saying, “I don’t want to fight!”
Liam chuckled before launching himself into the air and then diving towards me, aiming, once again, for my head.
“You don’t have a choice.”
I dove away from him, filling my clothing with sand. But before I could get back to my feet, Liam jumped on top of me with his blade in the air, ready to strike. As soon as he lowered it toward my face, I caught it between my hands and tried to push it away from me. His sword was so close to my face that I could see the tip of it hovering over my eye. A little further forward and it would slice right through it. We stayed that way, with him pushing towards me and me pushing away, trying to get his sword out of my face. Eventually I over- powered him, but Liam was nothing if not prepared for his next move, lodging his sword right into the side of my thigh. He lodged it in deep enough so that the tip of his sword stuck out from the other side of my thigh. I howled out in absolute agony as pain shot right through my leg. It was so intense that I ended up dropping my sword in the process and Liam retrieved it, already anticipating his next attack. He struck this one right through the shoulder which had previously been injured before. The pain in my leg was nothing compared to the excruciatingly painful sensation burning through my entire arm and shoulder. Once he removed his blade from my shoulder, I collapsed to my knees. I was in so much pain that tears had begun to fill my eyes and my jaw clenched tightly. Slowly and with shaky hands I tried to remove the sword from my leg to get it to start healing again. As the blade left my flesh, I screamed out so loudly I was surprised that the glass walls of the room didn’t break. I clutched the blood-covered sword tightly in my hand and panted heavily as I tried to endure the pain and keep myself calm. But I couldn’t. The pain was too overwhelming and as it coursed through my body, anger and frustration joined it. I was no longer in control of my body. Instead, that animalistic part of me was. I was blinded by it completely, and as I took to my feet, I realised that I was so high on the adrenaline now running through my veins that I could barely feel the pain anymore. I growled lowly at Liam and saw him smile in satisfaction. This was exactly what he’d hoped for, for me to be consumed by that part of me that felt nothing, the part that knew only to kill. And so, guided by it, I swiftly swung my sword into the air. Liam tried to dodge it, but I was now faster and so my blade grazed against the side of his cheek. He grimaced and touched his fingers to the blood on his face before drawing his attention back onto me. The sound of our blades colliding in the air and tearing at each other’s flesh filled the air and by the end of it, it was Liam who was in worse shape than I was. He clutched at his arm and stumbled forward on shaky legs.
He gave another clumsy swing of his sword in the air, which I dodged before exacting my revenge and plunging my sword into his thigh. He yelled out and as I removed the blade from his thigh and fell to the floor. I towered over him now, watching him writhe in pain and his body heaved and shivered. All I had to do was remove his heart, simple as that. But as I gazed down at him, all of our memories began to flash into my mind, flying by in their golden, nostalgic glory. The day my golden eyes first met his dark ones. The first smile he gave me, the first taste of pleasure, our first kiss. The memories were so clear, so real I could practically taste his lips on mine and feel the softness of his touch on my skin. I could see his smile, hear his laugh, smell the soothing scent in his clothes. That was when I realised that no matter the circumstances, I couldn’t go through with this. I couldn’t say goodbye to Liam, to the man I loved.
He glanced up at me with a pained and confused look on his face and asked, “Aren’t you going to finish me off?”
I stayed silent and just stared at him absently as more memories played over in my mind. And when they ended, tears began to fall from my eyes and down my cheeks. I whimpered before letting out a cry and then shaking my head furiously.
“I can’t Liam… I can’t kill you; I love you too much,” and as it left my mouth, I cried even harder.
Liam reached up and gently touched at my face. His touch startled me, and I gazed down at him. His lips were pulled into a soft sad smile, and he nodded at me.
“I know, Phoenix, I know.”
Suddenly, he reached for my hand, the one still clutching tightly onto my sword. I was about to let my weapon drop to the floor when he swiftly raised it in the air before guiding my blade into his chest. It all unfolded so quickly that I could barely process what had happened. Liam gasped and blood spluttered from his lips, but still, he pushed the blade deeper into his chest, burying it into his beating heart which slowly stopped beating.
“L-Liam…” I uttered out startled. More blood spilled from his chest and the lids of his eyes grew heavier. I let go of the blade immediately, leaving it lodged into his chest. His blood now covered my hands, intensifying the scarlet colour it already was.
I knew there would be no saving Liam now. That blade that had pierced through his heart was designed to kill vampires. But still, I held onto hope as I pulled him close towards me and clutched at his body with the blade sticking out from his back.
“N-no Liam! Stay with me! Stay with me Liam!” I yelled as tears fell down my cheeks. My voice was shaky, and my throat was sore as I tried to hold back my tears, to hold myself together.
His smile never left his face, and as he gazed up at me, he whispered gently, “I love you…”
Those were the last words I ever heard him utter, and once they left his lips, his smile faltered, his eyes closed, and his body fell limp against mine.
“Liam?” I whispered out panicked. I shook his body, trying to get a response out of him. But he was gone now and no matter how much I wanted him to open his eyes and smile at me, I knew that he wouldn’t. Staring down at his dead body, I felt as though my own heart had been pierced, as though I’d been severely wounded, as though I’d been killed. My screams of agony, of loss, of sadness filled the whole room, and tears blurred my vision. I didn’t want to say goodbye, to let go of him, to spend another minute without him. And as I thought this, my eyes met with the ghastly sight in the other room. Xavier’s lifeless body was on the floor. His head was turned towards us, and his arm reached out almost as though the last thing he did before he died was call out for us… only to be left unanswered. That was when the pain in my chest intensified, and I began choking and gasping for air as I became consumed in loss. I’d lost two men that I loved in what seemed to be a second. Emptiness consumed me, filled me to the brim and everything just seemed to be rendered meaningless and insignificant.
*What was I fighting for again?*
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Stay safe! Stay healthy! Sending my love!