Deprived of everything

"What a pathetic bunch of guards." Lord Abot seamed strangely calm. Unfazed. "A waste of money." he kicked one of the corpses. "As for you!" he finally turned to Keita. "The death penalty!" he shouted while spitting. "For intruding into my estate, the death penalty! For killing my men, the death penalty! For breathing the same air as me, the death penalty!" Lord Abot's face became red with anger.

He was as Keita though he was. It wasn't his puffy cheeks, his irrational words or his fat belly. It was his eyes that betrayed what kind of creature he was. Keita didn't see lust nor condemn. It was something he couldn't rightly explain. His eyes did not see humans. Only toys to play with and break as he pleased.

Keita approached Abot. He didn't even flinch.

"Where is Helene?" he asked.

"You lowborn scum! Do you even know who I am? I am Abot von Andes. My ancestor was the great Hero Abot von Merlis! The Hero that defeated the nefarious Greed of the Seven Deadly Sins. Not even the king can touch me. If you try anything, the gods themselves will smite you!"

Keita hit him as hard as he could with his knuckles. Abot fell down and spit some blood along with two of his teeth.

"Where is Helene?" he asked.

"Y-y-y-you made me bleed! A lowborn! Made me bleed!" Abot shouted.

Keita grabbed him by his collar and brought Abot's face closer to his. Just when he was about to start, he noticed a slight smile.

"Bring her in!" Abot shouted.

The door that led to the side room opened. A young guard - most likely a squire - entered the room. His face became pale at the sight of the bodies. He had his sword in one hand and a young woman on the other. His sword hand was trembling. He obviously wasn't accused to any kind of battlefield.

"Helene... is that... you..." Keita had difficulty speaking. It was not because of his joy but his shock.

That was indeed Helene. But her appearance was not what Keita expected. She had fresh bruises all over her body. Cuts on her lips. Dried blood on her forehead. Her teared clothes, her whipped back, her empty eyes.

'He...' Keita stopped thinking. His fury didn't allow it. He turned to Abot.

"You bastard!" he howled. He punched his face, breaking more of his teeth.

Abot, fell to the ground, whimpering. He was trying to say something. Keita turned him face up and sat on top of him. He took his sheath out and raised it over Abot's head. And then he brought it down.

First was his nose. Then his eye. Then more teeth. Then his cheekbones. Keita kept hitting. Breaking. Pieces of flesh and bones fell to the floor. Keita stopped to see his work.

"You basward! Kull the gwirl! Kull her!" Abot shouted.

Keita turned to the young guard. He was just standing there, too scared to move. Keita rose to his feet and approached him.

"You can leave." he said to the man with the blade on Helene's neck.

The guard dropped his sword almost immediately. He turned his back to Keita and that was the moment he was cut down from behind.

"Do you think I would say that? Do you think because you value your life more than that shit, all your sins are forgiven?" Keita asked the dead guard. "And you!" he shouted and turned back to Abot. "No one is going to die for you. There is no magical way for you to leave this place. No miracle. So here is what I am going to do. I will cut either your left arm or left leg. You choose."

"W-what?" Abot whimpered.

Keita grazed his cheek with his blade.

"Leg or arm. You choose. Better hurry or I am going to cut both." Keita smiled.

"A-a-arm!" Abot shouted.

"Good." Keita cut off Abot's left arm in a single swing.

After screaming, Abot finally calmed down enough to speak.

"W-w-wou awre done... wright?" he asked.

"Left ear or right eye?" Keita asked.

This was just the beginning. Keita tortured Abot until daylight. Until he was left with no things to cut. Abot didn't reply to Keita's question every time. When that happened, Keita true to his word, cut both members of his body. Until he went to the tongue. He couldn't do much about it since he couldn't talk, so he decided which body part to cut in Abot's stead.

Helene didn't move an inch. Even when the screams stopped. Even when Keita slowly pushed his sword to Abot's heart.

Keita's fury dissipated with Abot's death. The fire in his heart, extinguished. He finally realized what he has been doing in front of Helene for more than an hour. He approached her and reached to her with his bloody hand.

"I am sorry. I am so sorry..." he said with tears in his eyes.

He received no response.

***

Keita wrapped Helene in some robs and carried her like a princess. He held her tightly as he passed through the corpse-ridden halls. Keita was shocked when he saw the bodies of servants. He didn't remember doing that. He covered her head and proceeded to the dungeon. After walking through the underground city, he found the exit to the surface. The sun just rose so there weren't many people in the streets. Keita dashed towards the gates. The longer he waited, the greater the chances of him being caught. Thankfully, the guards didn't give much attention to him while leaving. It looked like they either didn't care or didn't want to know. He hurried to a forest near the North road. The road back to the village. But first, he wanted to let Helene rest. She hasn't said a word.

He found a lake inside that forest. It wasn't very far from the road but he decided he made enough distance anyway, in case there is anyone following. He set up a tent there and carried Helene inside the lake. He slowly undressed her and washed her body. He took particular care washing the lashes, on her back. They were deep wounds and have been left untreated.

"I am sorry for what I did. I couldn't control my emotions after seeing what that man did to you..." he said to Helene.

No response.

"Everyone will be happy that you are back. Your grandfather was very worried. Now that I think about it, I have to apologize to him. I said some terrible things before I left."

No response.

"I don't think we'll be able to stay long though. At the village I mean... They might be looking for us already. But don't worry, we'll figure it out. As long as we are together..."

No response. Helene's eyes were empty. Deprived of any light that existed inside them.

"We'll be fine..."

No response.

Keita's eyes begun to tear, as he washed Helene's back.

"I'm sorry I left..."

No response.

"Please say something!" Keita hugged her. "Tell me it's all my fault! That if I married you like everyone wanted, this wouldn't have happened. If I never left the village looking for glory, all would have been well. Shout at me! Hit me! Cut me! Just please... Helene, say something..." Keita cried, as he placed his forehead on Helene's back.

No response.

The girl that he knew was dead. She has been teared to pieces and only a husk remained. She has been tortured and beaten. Raped and whipped. Cut apart and put together again. Keita eyes, didn't miss her limps that have been cut off and then reattached thanks to a Priest or Shaman. Her nipples that have been ripped off. Her right eye that couldn't see anything. Her fingernails that have been pulled off.

"How can a human do this?" he asked, his hands trembling.

He stayed like this for a while. Until his lips were becoming blue and he started trembling from the cold.

Keita carried Helene outside the lake. He made a fire and let her lie down next to it, while he wiped her hair. He looked at the fire while hugging Helene from behind until dark came.

"From now on, we'll always be together..." he said as he put her inside the tent.

He stayed outside. It wasn't long before the exhaustion caught up with him and he closed his eyes.

The next day, after Keita woke up, he went to wake up Helene inside the tent. But she wasn't there.

"The smell of blood?"

Keita looked around but there was no trail of blood anywhere. He looked for Helene. She wasn't there.

"Where?"

The lake. That was where he found her.

"So you were still somewhere inside..."

These were the first words that came out of his mouth, when he found her corpse.

"My dagger..."

He picked the bloodied dagger off her still hands. He brought it to his forehead. The blood, dripping on his face.

"Haha..." he started to laugh.

"HahHHAHaahHAhahHAhaHhhahAHHAhHAhhHhaHAHAHhHAhAHhAHHAhAHHAHahhHAHAHAHHAhHAHAhHAhAhahhahahHAhAhHhAhAhahHAhAhAhAHhhahAHhhahAhhAhAHhAhAHHAhHAhaHAhAhAHAHHAhAhAhhahHAhhahHahAhhAHhAhAHhAhAhAHhahahAhHAhAhhaha!"

That was the final thing that pushed him over the edge. Keita was truly and utterly broke.