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Previously on Listening For That Sweet Tune:
I rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn't seeing things but there he was, Bale in all his glory and another Wretched that I had not met yet. Bale smiled at me and opened his arms towards me hinting at me to give him a hug. I was afraid to see what would happen if I refused so I walked into his arms and hugged him back. He began to walk forward to the other end of the hall as the other Wretched opened his arms to give me a hug as well. This man had thin long black hair pulled back behind him as he wore a purple dress shirt and black pants. A black overcoat was in his arms as he continued to hug me then proceeded to follow Bale towards the previously swinging doors. I hesitated for a minute then ran to catch up with them.
Crossing past the swinging doors I looked down to the ground to see that the men's footprints were burning into the tile charing anything that was close to the prints. I looked behind my own and to my astonishment mine did the same but to a slight degree. Bale turned around one of the corners as I continued to run to catch up. As I reached the corner and turned I saw the two men waiting for me at a set of steel doors. Soon as I made eye contact with Bale he looked down and opened the doors and walked in. In here was a large room with high ceilings and a stage towards the end of the room. The view of the stage was blocked off by a set of red curtains that gave off a strange feeling through my veins.
'Ben. How have you been? Still looking for that girl of yours I see,' Bale said. 'Oh pardon my manners this is Vitiate.' Pointing towards the knight according to the chart. 'He's been the one that has been stuck in here for a while now that the townsfolk claim to be terrorizing them. Now we may have started a war with the people of this world but it doesn't mean that we're going to live with them. Vitiate was going to destroy this church because the people aren't worshipping anymore but they attached this abomination to it! Vitiate has been doing a matter seperation between the two buildings so we can take what's rightfully ours but then this girl just wanders in here.' Bale began to pull on the ropes of the curtains showing me what's behind it. A girl in a cage.
'Now don't get me wrong this girl is going to die regardless of what the townspeople told you.' He continued. 'I just wanted to know if you wanted to be part of the process. See how it happens that maybe you would change your mind about not wanting to join our ranks. Hell I'll even let you choose the little Wretched's future name if it pleases you.' I scratched my head in confusion because I didn't know what I wanted to do but I did have one lingering question and that was what truly happens once you become one of them.
Was I the one to condemn a child to death? The thought of it weighted on my shoulders as I looked back towards the poor scared child in the cage. She was going to die wheather I wanted to watch or not. If I was to just walk away how would I explain that to the townspeople? The little girl began to cry because she new herself that her life has ended but maybe it's something that you shouldn't be sad about. Death was only just one step forward towards something new and maybe it wasn't all that bad. Is the name how it works? That everyone is named after dark evil things and that makes them dark and evil? What if I named her something better, something that means good or light that maybe there would be less evil within her body. Just enough that she can resist whatever will be inside of her, that's all.
'Name her Lana,' I said.
'So be it.' Bale snapped his fingers and everything slowed down around me. Bale turned around to look at Vitiate who was standing by me then placed his hands in his pockets. Vitiate nodded towards Bake then looked over his right shoulder back to me and his eyes flamed with darkness. The snap of Bale's fingers echoed in the distance creating one than another snap vibrating around all the acoustics in the theater. The sound was neverending as it continued to ring from one ear to the other. A deep lost hole shined back at me and I felt true fear for the first time in my life.
Vitiate reached into his black coat--in which he was holding--with his right hand and took out something long. At first I didn't notice what it was but after Vitiate dropped his jacket down on the ground he turned around to look at me again as if waiting to see my reaction. I was motionless. I stood paralyzed in place wondering if it was Bale himself that took away my permission to move. It was the suspense that ached me the most. From what could take minutes to seconds took hours as I watched Vitiate stride along his way to the stage.
When Vitiate turned around to see my reaction I looked down to his hand to see a knife. It was a long stiletto blade with a white handle that could have been made out of ivory or an even darker thought, human bone. It wouldn't phase me if it was human bone because that kind of stuff I wouldn't put past a Wretched but the question is who? Who could be apart of Vitiate's knife that is important enough to him to become one with his piece? Was it a honorable foe or could it be one of the many?
Vitiate soon approached the wooden stairs that went up to the stage on its far left end. At the top of stairs--when walking up--you would approach Bale, the king of The Wretched. Both of them had this sick grin on their lips that only a murder of a child satisfy. I felt my stomach hoping that it was turning awaiting what was about to happen but I felt nothing. Regretting what I was becoming I thought if it was all worth it. The numbness, the feeling of darkness within my body. I guess I was to see if the heartache was worth it.
I then felt my face to check if I had a smirk myself, reveling to the thought of the Wretched and how they found joy in their lives. Darkness overtook my soul and I could only feel sorrow for my own body. This is what I've become and I can't say that I was proud of it being infected from the unholyness of the thing known as Wretched but what's done is done and there was no stopping what I was anymore. I wanted to scratch at my own skin and tear it off hoping to see that under my skin was just muscles and bones just like everyone else that's clean or pure but I wouldn't be.
This was the horrible truth. What I've truly become. I never really thought it would end this way but here I am willingly ending someone's life for the sake of something greater? Vitiate was now at the six foot cube that the girl sat in crying. Reaching out to Bale with his open left hand, Vitiate motioned to put something in his hand. Bale shuffled in his jacket pockets for what I would assume to be the cure to the girls sentence. A key was taken out of Bales inner jacket pocket and placed into Vitiates hand. He then took the key calmly to the cage and swinged the cage door open.
The girl--soon to be Lana--crawled backwards into a corner of the cage holding her arms up blocking her young face from the upcoming horrors. She began to scream and yell out on the top of her lungs but everything still seemed to move slowly so I couldn't make out the words propelled into slow motion but I did know it was her last words. Vitiate took the long way to her by walking by the outer edges rather than walking straight while clinging his knife on every single metal bar that held the roof and caged the girl within.
He couldn't just kill her but play games with her till she lost her will to live. A sick way to end things. He bent down next to her and began to talk to her and she talked back sobbing between every word. I moved to the right towards the stage hoping I could get a better view on what was happening but by the time I moved it was already to late. I heard a muffled scream as she flailed her limbs trying to get free but it was no use. Vitiate raised the knife over his head and killed her with one steady stab or slash.
Standing up, Vitiate reached for a handkerchief in his back pocket and rubbed it along the length of the blade smearing the thick red blood off of the thin steel and onto the fine linen. Vitiate walked back words a few steps then turned around and approached the edge of the cage but did not leave he held the knife out by holding its blade lightly and motioned to Bale to take it. Bale's eyes were fixed on me at the moment and it took a little grunt to get Bale's attention. Bale let out a small sigh and walked towards Vitiate to take the knife and returned to his position by the cage while placing the knife where the key once was.
Vitiate turned back around to face the girl and several events took place in my head as he walked towards her. I thought that he was going to defile her in one way or another just to add insult to injury except she was dead now and the aftermath was still to take place.
'Get away from her!' I would say but what real chance would I stand against Vitiate and Bale? I could rush up towards Bale and grab the stiletto blade on him and give him the one two into his gut but I would be sitting at the question, can I really kill a Wretched? I doubt I would be able to and Bale would just be angry at me and whatever deal he had lined up for me would disinigrate through my fingers. I thought back to when my previous jailer told me to kill it then leave this place. Specifically he meant The Wretched but taking the sentence out of context could mean basically anything and with that said I guess I did what he said just not who he wanted. Either way Vitiate was to leave as soon as he would be able to whether it be a matter of days or hours. I guess it depended on how far along he was separating the buildings. I didn't see any gaps while I inspected the building outside so I guess he was just starting.
Vitiate crouched down next to the girl as I stood motionless waiting for his next move. He crouched down next to her and lifted his arms towards her. For what I expected to follow to be filled with sin did not so meet my expectations. He picked her up and cradled her in his arms as if she was a baby. Walking out of the cage I saw her arm fall from off her chest and dangle below her. Blood dripped down her fingers from her wrist down her arms that flowed out her chest. She looked peaceful laying in Vitiate's arms in her light pink night gown full of flowers and bunny rabbits as if she was only sleeping.
Vitiate layed her down in the center of the stage and folded her arms across her chest. Blood began to pool underneath her and even though it began to ruin her clothes it couldn't have been a more perfect sight. It seemed like flower pedals fell from the sky and onto the floor. A slight breeze rolled through the hall and into the theater pushing tree leaves through the door. As the doors swung open then closed and swinged back and forth I saw the dancing couple just on the other side dancing their cares away as if there was no such thing as death. Maybe that's why they are there, so they can comfort you in someone's passing but only the dancers will know that question.
Up next in Listening For That Sweet Tune:
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