You Killed Who?

I slowly opened my eyes and found myself in a familiar place.

"Hello, Althea. We meet again."

I found myself lying on a comfortable bed and hooked to monitoring devices. The first thing I did was glance at my right arm.

I sighed in relief. 

My chopped-off forearm has been reattached to my body. I slowly clenched and unclenched my fist. There is a tingling sensation but apart from that, it is fully functional.

There is a tingling all over my body, the remnants of the horrible pain that assaulted my body on the battlefield.

My torso is covered in bandages and my remaining limbs are heavily bandaged but they are not in a cast as the healers had mended my bones.

I sat up in bed and winced as the wound caused by the serrated blade stung like crazy.

"Whoa. Take it easy.", a familiar voice from the battlefield said beside me.

Each bed is surrounded by curtains for privacy. I moved back the curtains on my left and my eyes widened as I recognized the patient on the bed beside me.

"Captain?"

The captain of the newbie squad gave me a warm smile, "Greetings your Highness. quite the coincidence, isn't it?"

I nodded and looked at her condition. She looked better than me with only her upper torso bandaged and no other injuries.

"Are you okay?", I inquired, glancing at her shoulder. I remember how she was pinned to the dracium panel by the daemon arrow.

She shrugged, "I've had worse injuries. What about you? How does your first body reattachment feel?"

"I feel tingly.", I replied.

"That usually happens. Don't worry. You'll get used to it."

After that, there was an awkward silence. 

"Um. Thank you.", I blurted out.

She gave a curious smile, "What for?"

"You know, for helping me out."

The captain scoffed, "No need for that. I had no intention of helping you."

I blinked and stared at her, "What?"

She nodded, "The commander did tell us captains about you but he never told us to look after you."

"You were incredibly weak and was expected to die very soon.", she didn't mince her words.

I winced, "Ouch."

"Unfortunately, it's the truth.", she said with a pitiful gaze on me.

I cast my eyes onto my bandaged hands, "What made you change your mind?"

"Your desperation for survival.", the answer made me look at her and see understanding in her amber eyes.

"I saw how you stood up against the daemons. You didn't flinch when those smoky bastards slaughtered those around you and in the ensuing chaos you even realized that sticking with me was your best chance for survival."

"I saw the drive in your eyes. The drive to survive no matter what."

She shrugged, "I don't know. Perhaps that's what compelled me to help you out. You reminded me of my first time as a Deathwalker."

"I don't know how I survived back then. It was all luck. You were weaker than me when I first started and yet you survived not by luck but by your resolve.", she chuckled and looked at me.

This time, her gaze was filled with curiosity.

"You are different from the other newbies. Your mind never broke from the horrors of the Tear and the battlefield and your drive for survival is so intense that it is almost frightening."

"I have the weird urge to see how far you will go. Perhaps that's why I helped you."

I was speechless. I did not expect to hear those words out of her mouth. For a moment I thought if she was talking about someone else.

Did I look that desperate?

I shook my head. Anyway, I am grateful for her help.

"Even so. You have my gratitude. I would be on a casket to the Tomb if you hadn't reached out for my aid."

I bowed my head, which surprised her, "Thank you. Captain um..."

I smiled sheepishly, "I'm sorry. I didn't ask your name."

She gave a small laugh at my expression. It sounded refreshing.

"Oh my. You are cute.", she covered her mouth and after laughing she smiled at me.

"It's Sparks."

I frowned, "Sparks? That's your name?"

She nodded, "That's what everyone calls me."

I tilted my head, "What about your actual name?"

She gave me a sad smile, "I discarded it."

"You can discard names now?", I asked incredulously.

"I don't deserve to be called by my real name after the things I have done.", she replied in a melancholic tone.

"You mean killing the Deathwalkers who turned into wraiths? I'm sorry but we have no choice. It's either them or us.", I said, still confused.

Sparks shook her head, "It's not that. Felix didn't tell you?"

Okay. Now I'm really confused, "Felix didn't tell me what?"

"That half of the Deathwalkers in the Shield are criminals."

Oh. I gulped. He didn't tell me that.

"And you are?"

Sparks nodded, "A criminal and a vile one at that."

I unconsciously scooted a bit away from her. I was not bothered by that statement but this body unconsciously reacted in the presence of an actual criminal.

My. That feels hypocritical considering that I was a villain worse than a criminal.

"Sorry about that.", I mumbled.

She smiled, "It's fine. I'm used to it."

That made me feel even worse. I looked at her awkwardly and asked the sensitive question, "So. What did you do?"

Her smile faded and her eyes had a sad and haunted look in them. She looked away.

"Yeah. You should know about my sin. You are a High Prince after all."

She turned to me and looked straight into my eyes, "Your Highness. I killed my family."

The sounds of the infirmary faded into the background. The groans of patients, the clattering of instruments, and the footsteps of healers, patients, and visitors walking.

All of them faded away as her words filled my head.

"Oh."

"Usually people would jump away from me with repulsion or even be morbidly interested. You are quite the interesting one.", she said, amused by my reaction.

"I find it hard to believe that you would kill your family. Were you perhaps framed or were you controlled?", I replied.

Captain Sparks shook her head, "No. Your Highness. It was all me."

It took me a moment to digest that. I looked into her now sad and empty eyes.

"Why?"

I know what all of you are thinking. How am I, who tried to kill my father in my past life disturbed by this?

Yeah. I tried to kill my father. He was a douchebag but killing my family? That scared me.

I admit. I am a weird guy.

Sparks exhaled before speaking as if psyching herself to talk about something unpleasant. Her past.

"It was jealousy."

"Jealousy?"

She nodded and lowered her head, "I was the eldest of my family but I was a huge disappointment to my parents."

She pressed her lips together, "I was quite average and had little to no talent. A failure in the eyes of my talented parents. My father was a successful music artist while my mother was a knight."

"I did not possess the artistic and musical prowess of my father or the strength and skills of my mother. The only thing I was good at was baking cookies."

She chuckled, "And even those were burnt at times."

"And then there was my sister."

Oh boy. Cue the superior and highly talented sister.

"She was beautiful and very talented. A genius. But she was also the kindest person I had ever seen.", she said with the touch of a smile.

"She would be your age if she were alive.". Sparks looked at me with a sad smile, as if imagining her sister sitting in my place.

A thought occurred to me. Did she help me because I reminded her of her sister?

Captain Sparks continued, "So of course she was loved by all. My parents adored and pampered her. She was the perfect child while I was a great failure and was soon forgotten."

"But while my parents shunned me, my sister loved me, a fact that I realized after her death.", her head was down as she talked.

"She tried reaching out to me but I rejected her every time. Now I realize how childish that was.", she scoffed.

"I had no friends, my parents were disappointed and hated me, people looked down on me and even bullied me."

She gave me a sarcastic smile, "My life was fantastic and the worst was yet to come."

"One day my parents decided to disown me and kick me out of the family while transferring everything I had to my sister. That was the first time I ever saw her enraged as she vehemently opposed the decision."

"But the minds of my parents were set and I was to get out of the house by the next morning. My sister tried to console me and was even ready to help me in any way but I was blinded by shock, jealousy, and hatred so it all fell on deaf ears."

The air suddenly became heavy and chilly as she narrated the next part of her past.

"That night. While everyone slept peacefully in their beds, awaiting for another great day. I sneaked out of my room and cloaked in darkness went to my mother's armory."

"I got my hands on an axe and proceeded to my parent's room. It was quite bloody as it was quite difficult to break the ardor defenses of a warlock but I was able to do it thanks to some ardor training I did in secret."

Her lips curled into a disturbing smile, "The room was soundproofed so no one heard the screams as I chopped their lives one swing at a time."

I shivered and I scooted a little away from her.

This time it was me.

Sparks continued, "After my parents, I went to the two servants we had. They were much easier to deal with. They weren't warlocks."

She exhaled, "And finally, I went to my sister. I had saved her for last. My hatred and bloodlust peaked when I saw her peaceful sleeping face."

Sparks gripped the sheets and trembled as she struggled to continue, "As I stood over her, my axe ready for her throat, she slowly opened her eyes to see my bloody self looking at her with hate-filled eyes."

"She didn't scream or even look scared at all. She looked relieved to see me. As I brought the axe to her neck she told me two words before the blade severed her neck."

"I'm sorry."

There was silence and the sounds of the infirmary returned.

Well. That went dark.

Oh, wait. She wasn't done.

A single tear fell down her face, "I noticed that she was the easiest to kill, even though she was a warlock stronger than my parents. She would've been alerted about my killing spree with her heightened senses."

"She could've defended herself but she didn't do anything. It was as if she wanted me to kill her."

"After killing her I chanced upon her journal. Reading it I realized that she was quite unhappy with her life and her ardent wish was to help me, her elder sister whom she loved more than her parents."

Sparks clenched her fists so hard that they started bleeding, "Letting me kill her without a struggle was her way of helping me to be free of my family and it broke me."

"The next day I turned myself in and was put on trial. The High King himself presided over the case."

"I was given two choices. Either spend the rest of my life in prison or battle the daemons in Blood Valley for 25 years."

"Many prisoners would choose life imprisonment over the Shield when they are told of what they will be facing and the horrors but I chose the latter."

I raised my eyebrows, "And you chose the Shield."

She nodded, "Suffering greatly at the hands of daemons by fighting them seems to be the just punishment for the things I did."

"I still keep my sister's journal with me, a reminder of the sisterly love that I killed in cold blood.:

She looked at me with empty eyes and a broken smile.

"And that, Your Highness was how I became a Deathwalker."

There was great silence between us as I digested the things she just told me. I should probably say something.

"Well. You had crappy parents."

A small smile broke her melancholy when she heard my lame answer.

"Yeah. They were really crappy."