First Flesh Of The Two
Like a maze, life had been adding unsolved riddles and unquenched desires contouring connexions of my existence. Everything started with her, and I felt everything would end with her too. But this guy comes here and deviates from letting us in on the truth with his ludicruous falsity. Maybe Delran was a jester in some king's court in his past life, judging by his humorist ways which he thinks, are making him look smart.
"How charming. No, you tried your best, I'll give you a five on five for effortless acting and spontaneous lies. But playtime's over now. I was thinking of letting you off if you gave away the truth but seems like you want things the hard way. So be it then. You are going to tell me why exactly you came here and who's buried under that marble gravestone you were cleaning earlier. I'm not going to be as forgiving and patient this time."
I ripped off the coat and shirt he was wearing and pinned him to the ground, letting all the cold of the ice sting his body as he kept gasping and bellowing from the impact. I took out the fixed blade pocket knife from my pocket which I always kept hidden away with me and slashed his back, but not hard enough to cause too much bleeding.
"You rotten son of a -"
He couldn't finish that sentence as I made another gash on his back, tracing the blade along the same line where I made the first cut, earning a loud scream from him.
"You need to make me hear what I want to know. Say something other than that and I'm going for your throat next." I warned him and placed the knife before his throat.
"Okay, okay! The body beneath that gravestone belongs to Analia Hansel. It was her last wish to be buried in the very place she was....ruined. They said her last words were that she would want to return to the same land that soiled her so she could remain as the stigma of this earth, a sort of remembrance for the horror which took place here. Nobody ever told me what happened to her. The Aita brothers said it was unspeakable, and that they would tell me when the right moment came. That's why I came all the way here to pay my respects for her. But Montel told me something else....he said you could've prevented Analia's death. He said she believed so, but she forgave you as an act of kindness. You always run away when someone needs your help. With Analia first, then Loralie...how many deaths more would you cause till you understand the desperation of a life in need for help? You're really pathetic, just like how Loralie used to describe you once. A weakling. We're both void of sanity here, but the only difference between you and me is that I have the courage to admit my mistakes. Do you, Blaine Bennnett?"
Fury began to consume me with this boy's baseless conclusion. Heck, he didn't even meet her!
"Analia would never blame for her death! You have some nerve raising such a sensitive topic."
He chortled and coughed, clearly exhausted and shivering.
"I'm telling you what I heard and I wasn't surprised with that. You already did that with Loralie, how could I not believe you displayed such behavior with Analia?"
Then this thought hit me.
"That time there was nobody else here, except for me and her. How did Montel come to know of this? Nobody knew that I was there that time before those people came and....anyway, I left this lake promising myself to never return, after a small argument with her and that incident took place later, when I was gone. I got to know about it years later. What else did Montel pour in your ears?"
He shook his head.
"I've already told you enough. I am loyal to them. They gave me a family when nobody wanted me. I can't bite the hand that fed me. I can't say more than I have. But this I will never deny that one way or another, you are solely responsible for the Hansel twins' death. I hope you carry this guilt to your grave and afterlife."
I looked at Elwyn, who was staring at the scene before him.
"You knew Analia? Why didn't you ever tell me?" He asked.
I sighed in defeat.
"It was our secret, the fact that we were friends. She asked me to keep it under wraps. She was my first friend, so I could do nothing but oblige."
Analia Hansel. As real as any other girl, as untouchable as an angel. Ethereally beautiful inside and out, as if the Gods took aeons to pour out each, a particle of themselves into her. A polar opposite of her younger twin, Loralie Hansel. In a world full of unknown dangers in the darkness, she was the first one to reach out to me, other than mom. The aura she bore made you fill with glee in just her presence. She was mercilessly killed in this very place, near this lake. But that's a story for another day.
"You are a waste of space, you know that? If it had not been for you, both of them would have been alive today." I heard Delran's comment.
"I’m aware of that. But Analia would have been happy, if only she could see me now..."
Delran scoffed. "But she won't. Thanks to you, she's down there. There." He pointed to the gravestone.
Not a single day has ever passed when I didn't wish that it should have been me who died...not them. Insecure and scared by my own foolishness and greed when I was eight and eighteen years old, two lives were lost to the drapes of midnight. And the one who could've stopped it all lives a free man today, but with the demons of guilt and burden clawing their ways into my heart, squeezing and piercing. The provision of the universe shows no clemency to low lives like me. After all, of what use are riches when you fail to protect and cherish someone you deeply love?