Blood

"Who are you?!" Emile yelled into the dark night, "What do you want?"

Suddenly a cackle erupted from the top of the carriage.

"I want you, silly!" The voice responded.

The carriage continued to collapse. The windows cracked and shattered, but the red crystal still blocked all of the exits.

But then the world started moving. The red crystal that molded itself around the carriage began to recede, scraping against it in the process. Then, all of the Crystal was gone.

Emile stayed in the carriage and checked his surroundings. Silence returned to the night, as well as a tinge of fear.

Emile grabbed the door handle and pushed it open. He slowly poked his head outside, then took a step until he was completely outside.

"Took you long enough." The voice resounded again.

Emile spun around, following the voice. Laying on top of the carriage, with his arm propping his head up, the boy from the wall smiled at Emile and waved his hand.

The boy had long black hair that hung to his shoulders and he was concerningly small. Emile had assumed he was the same age as him and he just had some developmental issues because he barely came up to Emile's belly button, but he really did look like a child.

High pitched voice, rosy cheeks, and he had that overall blubbery look that all kids had, 'baby fat'. He was dressed in some spectacular garnet, a black suit complimented with an array of gold feathers fluttering around his person.

But the one part of the boy that didn't seem like a child's was his face. His scarlet eyes were too clear, like he saw some truth to the world that others couldn't see. His grin was too sharp, too twisted to be a child's.

"Who the hell are you?!" Emile roared at the boy.

"Oh a fiery temper—I hope you're able to keep that up!" The boy stood up and bowed to Emile, "It is a pleasure to meet Fallen Sky's newest healer. You can call me Blood, yes it's my name, no I didn't pick it."

Blood stayed bowed long after he finished speaking. Emile couldn't run and he definitely couldn't fight. Why was Blood here in the first place?

"Why are you attacking me?! Why did you kill the driver?! What did I do to you?!" Emile asked question after question, panicked and just trying to figure out what was happening.

"Oh right—that—I'm kidnapping you, taking you hostage, that sort of thing."

"…"

"No?" Emile said.

Blood flicked his wrist and immediately all of the blood from the beast and driver's corpse erupted into the air and flew towards Emile. A ring of blood tightened around Emile and then hardened into a belt of crystal, locking his arms to his sides.

"No?" Blood asked.

"The Forerunners! They're expecting me in a month! You can't take me!" Emile grasped for any reason not to take him.

A small giggle interrupted Emile's struggling.

"Did I say something funny to you?!" Emile screamed.

"No, no, no, you didn't say anything funny. The Forerunners are scary I guess, but they're not scary enough to stop us from taking you." Blood then turned around and hopped off the carriage. As he started walking away, into the ruins of the kingdom, the blood crystal around Emile rose into the air and began following Blood.

"Hey!" Emile screamed.

"We're not done here, Blood!"

"…"

"Hey!!"

Emile continued to squirm and struggle in his crystal harness, but he didn't move an inch. He also kept trying to talk to Blood, but Blood never responded, he just continued walking between the rubble throughout the kingdom.

Hours passed in deafening silence. Emile quit struggling soon after they left. The lights dimmed to simulate a sunrise.

Currently, Blood and Emile were almost to the edge of the cavern. They had passed the walls of the Fallen Sky kingdom not too long ago. Emile couldn't even look back at the place he's been living, the place that housed his sister.

He was stuck, forced to look ahead and at Blood's small frame. What kind of name was Blood anyway? Obviously it was tied to his gift, he controlled blood in some capacity.

But he must have been named before he received his gift, so Blood must be a false name, or a nickname. And how old is he? Is he a young child or is he an adult?

How has he not run out of essence? Emile has been floating for at least five hours, his essence must be close to empty at this point.

And where were they going? Blood didn't answer any questions!

Another long stretch of time passed, Emile guessed it was close to dark again. Blood and Emile had finally reached the edge of the cavern the kingdom resided in. They were still upright on the ceiling, the whole cavern seems to be upside down, not just the kingdom.

Blood approached the marble wall before them and sat down, leaning his back against the wall. The Crystal, too, slowly floated besides the wall and dropped, allowing Emile to stand or sit as he'd like.

Emile watched the strange boy lean against the wall, his eyes were closed without a care in the world. Emile stepped past Blood, and Blood didn't react, so Emile attempted to tip-toe away.

But the crystal glowed a soft red and levitated into the air and back to the wall.

"I can feel the flow of essence idiot," Blood said with his eyes still closed, "what are they even teaching you at the base?"

Emile glared at Blood and frustratingly dropped into a lunge, then to his knees, then spun around to sit on his bottom.

Emile sat and gazed at the kingdom in the distance. Not a single thing stood in the way between them and the walls. Not a tree, or a boulder, no buildings in sight. Just a long stretch of uncarved stone.

"Can't they see us?" Emile suddenly asked.

"Nobody is stationed on this side of the wall." Blood finally broke his continuous silence.

"Why is nobody stationed there?"

"Because look around you. If an army was coming somebody would see it a long time before they would reach the wall. Not to mention there's no access over here, it's just a wall." Blood said.

"If nobody is stationed there then who would see the army?"

Silence returned between the two. Seems like Blood didn't want to answer that question.

"If there's no exit then why are we here?" Emile asked again.

"Normally there's no exit, but we have a way around that. He should actually be here soon."