The Innards of Death

Thud...

The short, dark-haired boy trudged through the corridors of The Adler, with blood dripping down his; face, chest, arms, left thigh, and his mind.

His broken and battered mind.

Strands of dripping hair stuck to his head, embracing his shivering skull.

Sticking his clattering teeth together, Syllian slowly sipped oxygen through the bloody stench wafting about the ship.

'I'm weak.'

He was weak, and he felt weaker.

But that didn't change his goal.

It was now or never.

-----

15 minutes ago.

On the upper deck of The Adler.

A lifeless child slept with primal fear forever engraved on his face.

"Lanner!!!"

Allen broke into Syllian's constricted view, rushing to Lanner's side.

Grasping onto Lanner's body, Allen shook the body a few times while muttering:

"Wake up. Lanner, wake up. Wake up..."

The surviving boy gently wrapped his arms around his nearly identical friend.

Allen lowered his head into his chest. He didn't care about the blood draining out of Lanner with no end in sight.

It didn't stop him from crying his heart out.

It didn't stop him from gently rubbing the boy's face.

It didn't stop him from gently gripping his hands.

It didn't stop him from gently closing his eyes either.

Syllian had never felt intimacy from anyone other than his mother and her.

And it had been so long since he last sensed any intimacy from those around him.

But Allen, at this moment, wasn't simply having a reaction of a friend crying over another friend.

It was like someone losing their beloved.

Or...

"Lanner... Was he your twin...?"

Allen below him flinched and turned his face to Syllian with a glare residing in it.

"What, are you going to tell the Captain?"

His voice seethed with agony, pain, and underlying anger.

Tell the Captain...

There was something hidden in there.

Something important that Syllian didn't know about.

And something he couldn't ask about either.

"No."

Syllian shook his head and knelt beside Lanner's corpse.

Noticing Allen's volatile situation, Syllian very slowly reached for Lanner's hand.

Twitch-

Allen flinched with Lanner's body in his hands but didn't move it away.

Clasping one of Lanner's hands, Syllian chose his next words carefully:

"Thank you, Lanner."

He then paused, looked to Allen for a moment, then returned his gaze to the boy.

"...But why...?"

Syllian was confused, not for one moment did he think Lanner liked him. In fact, he was clearly apprehensive of him, worried that he might be the murderer or something.

So then, why?

Why did he save him?

Why did he die for him?

'It makes no sense.'

Especially to Syllian, Syllian could never do the same for others.

How could you sacrifice your life in exchange for the life of someone you do not care about?

Allen squeezed his brother's hand and bitterly, but quietly, spat:

"...for me. He did it for me."

"...?"

'For him?'

How did that make sense?

Why die saving me for your brother...?

"...because he's an idiot who cares too much for me."

The end of his sentence cracked Allen's voice.

Syllian had his answer.

But he didn't understand.

He couldn't understand.

But it wasn't complicated.

Syllian couldn't understand because he hadn't felt love for others in a long time. Nor was his love ever that powerful.

Powerful to the point where the mere thought of seeing your brother in agony over a close friend's death was too much to bear.

It was stupid love.

Obsessive love.

Irrational love.

But it was love.

-----

Tap...

His footsteps drowned in noise.

The sound suppression system voided all exterior noise, but the battle was ongoing in the lower deck as well.

Not much time remained.

Syllian didn't know if The Adler could even survive this onslaught, but at least there was a chance.

But if he didn't finish off the source of mutiny, then even if The Adler survived, he wouldn't.

Rumble!

The planks beneath him shook violently, almost throwing him off his feet.

'From below.'

The situation was getting worse by the second.

But it's fine.

Because he made it.

Planting his friction-burned fingers on the door handle, he twisted the handle and allowed the candlelight within to flood his eyes.

The familiar blood-stained grounds.

The hospital beds.

The bound crew mate.

And the surgeon.

Mr Rinton.

"H-help!"

Stumbling in, Syllian tripped over his feet, crashing into the ground.

Hissing out in pain, the boy pushed his face off the ground and looked at the apathetic doctor.

At the madness hidden behind those pupils.

Fixing his monocle, Mr Rinton stood off his chair and walked toward Syllian.

Syllian's heart pumped rapidly at that moment, causing his wounds to leak blood slightly faster.

Kneeling down beside the wounded boy, Mr Rinton fixed his monocle again and turned the boy over so his back faced the floor.

"Ugh!"

Biting down on his lips, Syllian looked into Mr Rinton's eyes with a pleading look on his face.

The man ran his gloved fingers over the child, analyzing the wounds contemplatively while double-checking his remaining supply of medicinal goods.

"I can fix you."

Picking up the small boy, Mr Rinton walked him over to the bed next to the frightened, bandaged man.

This was the second bed that was bloodied to the brim just a little while ago.

Laying him comfortably, Mr Rinton got to work.

Picking up a bottle of rubbing alcohol, a cloth, a sewing kit, and some bandages, the man walked over to Syllian, looked him dead in the eye, and stated:

"Grit your teeth."

Syllian felt his whole body burning up for the next minute as a swift, calculating hand disinfected, sewed, and bandaged his body up.

The steps felt excruciatingly long, and they were.

5 minutes quickly passed by, and Mr Rinton still wasn't finished.

Meanwhile, Syllian held his consciousness together with a thin strand of raging tenacity.

'Don't! Pass! Out!'

Growling through the cloth that had been stuffed into his mouth at some point, he felt the needle poke through the skin on his face, his thigh, his open chest, and the rubbing alcohol and bandages on the many other smaller wounds.

Fortunately, by the end, his tunic still covered his arms, leaving only his chest, abdomen, and left thigh open to the air.

It was a risk.

A risk that played on his wounds, their positioning, and how much the other party knew about his intentions.

And it succeeded.

Syllian wasn't prepared to face the rest of the journey with unattended injuries.

Letting the cloth slip out of his mouth, Syllian looked around the room with blurry eyes.

'Good, no one else is here.'

He lay silently, allowing the surgeon to throw away the used items and return his focus to whatever he was studying on his workstation.

'Just one minute.'

Breathe in, breathe out.

Relax my muscles.

Recover my energy.

Let the adrenaline pump through my body.

Brainwashing his mind, Syllian slowly felt his energy return, and his wounds burn brighter than before.

It wasn't good on his body, but Syllian had to make do with what he had.

"H-how are you- Cough!"

The man beside him spoke up.

"W-what is it l-like- Cough! -out there- Cough!"

Obviously, Syllian didn't respond.

Blacklist meant blacklist.

Regulating his breath, Syllian calmed his anxious nerves and played the plan through his mind again.

'Doable.'

"H-hello?!"

'But dangerous.'

Placing his hands on the bed, he slowly pushed himself off, gritting his way up through the pain.

"Phew..."

Turning his legs to the left, he let them hang off the edge for a second then placed them on the ground.

Standing up, Syllian felt himself wobble for a second and had to adjust his balance.

Mr Rinton glanced back, a stern look in his eyes:

"Where are you going."

Bracing his body, Syllian looked into the man's eyes with fanatic eyes of his own.

"I'm going to fight."

Mr Rinton clicked his teeth in annoyance and returned to his work, not bothering to look back at the suicidal boy.

"Waste of time..." He muttered under his breath.

Syllian lowered his head in shame, glanced at the bandaged, confused man, and walked one step at a time toward the door.

His steps were slow and excruciating; the emotions on his face played a thousand colours.

Until he took the step that led him behind Mr Rinton.

Until he took a look at the man's neck.

The emotions hiding behind his veil broke through the dams with ruthless ferocity, the look in his dark, downtrodden eyes was replaced with determination to see things through to the end.

No matter the outcome.

Moving his left hand to beneath the sleeve of his right arm, Syllian overexerted his hip muscles, twisting his body to the left and toward to surgeon.

Candlelight flickered off the metallic string that whipped out from beneath his sleeve.

Growling through his searing wounds, Syllian instantly wrapped the metal wire around the surgeon's neck.

The man lying down on the bed and the surgeon both stared in surprise, but the surgeon had a look of comprehension flash through the eye beneath the monocle simultaneously.

Pulling back with full force, Syllian and the surgeon toppled over, crashing into the ground.

Squeezing with all his strength, Syllian's veins bulged in his forehead, neck, and arms.

His heart rate doubled in that short second.

But the surgeon wasn't so easy to take down.

As Syllian pulled, he quickly realised the man wasn't getting choked out.

Mr Rinton planted the fingers of his left hand in between his neck and the metal wire in that short moment, barely saving his life.

Raising his right arm up-

Thud!

-he slammed it down, into Syllian's chest.

Grunting out a pained gasp, Syllian clung on even harder, wrapping his legs around the man's own in one wild struggle.

Tossing and turning through the room, Mr Rinton repeatedly slammed his arm into Syllian's chest, even attempting to smash him with his head.

"Ahhgh!" Screaming out unintelligible sounds, Syllian rapidly felt his strength depleting.

He didn't have much to begin with, and the surgeon was both older and stronger than him in the first place.

'Come on!'

But it was fine.

'Die!'

He just had to hold out.

Blood slipped out of his fingers as the metal began cutting into Syllian's fingers too.

As they rolled about, they ended up at the surgeon's workstation again.

At the same time, the surgeon stopped smashing his elbow into Syllian's chest, the man, instead, opted to free his legs.

Feeling the older man's legs gradually weave themselves out, Syllian's bloodshot eyes further constricted and he tightened his hold even more.

"Agh!!! Die!"

Clatter!

The man freed his left leg first, slamming it into the desk.

At first, Syllian didn't know why.

But then he saw the syringe filled with black liquid teeter at the edge of the desk about to topple over.

'No!'

Screaming his lungs out, Syllian pushed his body to its complete limit, feeling even his vision begin to give out.

Mr Rinton's head was also blood red at that moment, all his veins popping out and his fingers were about to rip off.

Slash!

And soon they did, pulling the line into the surgeon's neck.

'Yes!'

Thud!

The surgeon slammed into the desk again and down came the syringe.

Crash!

Squirming dark liquid splashed on the ground; moving on its own free will, the liquid seemed to 'look' around for someone, or something.

And it found it, the surgeon, Mr Rinton.

But that same second, it also stopped moving.

And so did Mr Rinton.

His life had been snuffed out with blood squeezing through the bloody wire, jettisoning the liquid within his throat.

Collapsed on the ground beneath Mr Rinton's corpse, Syllian wheezed in desperate breaths, his world turned upside down.

He did it, he killed him.

'Finally...'

And the Second Trial-

[Second Trial]

[A gift of mutiny plagues the ship, unravel the source.]

-sat quiet.

Incomplete.