Imprisonment. It’s not a new concept for me. I’ve already spent 100 years locked in the ever-twisting halls of Helm’s Hold Sanatorium. What’s a week in some dingey, musty dungeon. My chains rattled and clinked as I shifted onto my knees and my gaze lifted to the moonlight filtering through my barred window. I could hear the drip, drip dripping of a leak in the hall, and the sound of heavy footsteps approaching. A shiver of excitement ran down my spine as a grin split my cracked lips. I turned just in time to see my favourite friend entering my cell. He had that same nasty sneer that I loved so deeply, his sword glinting like stars in the light of his torch.
“Kilira! Long time no see my friend,” I announced with a sweet giggle. Kilira didn’t seem all too impressed. He rolled his eyes, but I knew he was just putting on a show for the horrors in the halls. He can’t let them know we’re such good friends.
“Pipe down, hellspawn. I’m just here to check your wounds.” Kilira stepped closer and I remained perfectly quiet as he has instructed. My lips still stretched into a smile as I looked up at him, my closest friend. My Kilira. With his auburn hair and those beautiful green eyes. He was like fire and forest combined! A beauty unlike any other. Kilira made a funny face as my thoughts wandered, and I tilted my head in curiosity.
“What is it, my friend?” I asked, my eyes never leaving Kilira as he knelt in front of me. I could smell him, so close to me. He smelt of woodfire and pine, and my eyes slipped closed as I smiled and reminisced on happier times. Kilira and I, arm in arm by a fire in the forest, twinkling stars smiling upon us.
“How are you so happy?” Kilira’s voice took me out of the daydream, and my eyes snapped open as I looked at him. He looked concerned. Had I done something wrong?
“Why wouldn’t I be happy, my friend?” I asked, my smile faltering as Kilira scowled.
“You’re a freak for starters. But more importantly, you’re in jail. And the way you’re going, you won’t be getting out any time soon.” Kilira sneered as he spoke, venom in his words and sadness in his eyes. He cared for me so deeply. It was touching. I laughed, shaking my head as Kilira lifted my arms, his hands, meticulous and swift as he lifted my shirt and checked the gashes along my ribs.
“Prison? Why Kilira, my friend, this is no prison. This is paradise!” I giggled again as Kilira looked at me. His expression was… something. He was becoming harder to read. A blur. My heartbeat quickened. “You see, my friend, I have the moonlight. I have you. There’s no screaming, no clawing, no gnawing no madness! None at all, none at all!” I laughed with joy, kicking my legs as Kilira took several steps back. My laughing died down, my heart racing faster as I looked at his face, a smudge of features I didn’t recognize. His eyes, green like the toxic spew of the Sanatorium, his hair red like the blood a pulled from my skin. He was ugly. I screamed.
“There’s definitely still madness here,” Kilira muttered, though his words were muffled against my ears as I screamed and rocked in my cell, hugging my knees to my chest. Kilira walked out, slamming the cell door which startled me quiet. What had happened? “May the gods guide you to sanity, Maelstrom.” Kilira turned to leave.
The gods? The gods?! I yelled, rushing forward and catching Kilira by the leg. My hands grabbed and ripped at him through the bars of my cell, like the spell plagued monsters that clawed at me all those years ago. Kilira yelled but I heard nothing.
“The gods?! I yelled. You cried, I begged, you screamed for a century. I prayed night and day for the gods to help us, AND NO ONE FUCKING ANSWERED!” I saw red as I yanked Kilira’s legs and sent him toppling to the floor. He screamed, I screamed. “I begged for mercy, and when that never came, I begged for death,” I laughed. My face felt wet, my eyes stung. “And they couldn’t even gift me that.” I could hear them again. The horrors in the halls, spell plagued monsters howling and chittering and crying. The sounds were everywhere, cacophonous and deafening and I screamed, desperate to be heard over the wave of sickness. Suddenly everything fell silent. I froze. Kilira kicked me in the face, sending me back into my paradise as I laughed and laughed and laughed. I smiled at Kilira. My friend. “I’m so… so sorry Kilira.” I offered a kind smile as I tilted my head, but all I got was spit in my face. Kilira stood and brushed himself off as I giggled.
“You hellspawn are all such freaks!” His words stung, but I knew he didn’t mean them. The horrors in the halls were coming. I could hear their thundering boots and piercing metal as they shouted. Had they heard my friend and me? I suppose I could have been quieter. I giggled through fear as I scurried to the wall of my cell, bathing myself in the moonlights glow once more, a sanctuary from paradise. I looked up at Kilira, his face a clear sheen of terror and concern. I had done something wrong. Oh no. I wiped at the tears that leaked from my broken eyes and I looked at Kilira with apologies on my tongue, but no words came out. Only harsh sobs that hurt my ribs and my throat and my heart.
“And for the 100th time. My name is not Kilira!”
I stilled. Silence came to my mind. I looked at Kilira, with his boring brown hair and sad blue eyes. Who in the nine hells was this guy? I couldn’t help myself. I snorted, and then I laughed. How silly of me, to forget my Kilira. My friend. He was… where was he? Where is my friend? My Kilira…
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