((No, I'm not dead and no I'm not giving up on my other stuff. I just wanted to post a bunch of old stuff! :D My larger stories have a lot written but I rarely write them in order, it just comes to me in scenes, so I'll get to them eventually.))
Esther peered through the crack left in the bathroom door, finding the tall, silver-haired priest hunched over the sink, grasping it tightly, knuckles white. He was panting softly, the tremors that wracked his body visible even beneath his lengthy black robe. She creaked the door open further, and stepped inside.
"Father Nightroad?" he glanced back at her for a fraction of a second, pallid skin stained and eyes reddened with sorrow, his hair falling haphazardly from its tie, round spectacles dropped to the floor. He continued to shake as she spoke, her soft whisper echoing in the tiled room. "I know that must have been hard for you… Even if you were angry with him, he was still your brother. I felt the same way when I found out he'd killed Dietrich; I may have hated him, but we were so close during his time at—" she yelped softly when Abel's hand slammed against the mirror in front of him, a crack zipping across the surface.
"No… You couldn't possibly understand what I feel… What it took to end his life with my own hand…" his tone was bitter, the words spoken through clenched teeth. There was something about him that was… Off. He wasn't the awkward, flamboyant priest she remembered saying goodbye to two days earlier.
"Father…?"
"You weren't there, didn't see him dying, didn't hear what he said to me…" he rounded on her, approaching her slowly, "Tell me, have you ever torn your soul in half and loathed the other half so much that you'd do anything to see it destroyed?"
"I—"
"And then, when you finally succeeded, did you realize you just murdered your better, once sensible, half?" he grasped her arms tightly, shaking her once, "Did you?!" Tears welled in her sapphire eyes, dripping down her cheeks.
"N-no, I… I…"
"That's right… Of course you wouldn't know… " he was getting closer, whispering in her ear, his tone and gestures making her exceedingly uncomfortable as she was pinned between his hands and the wall with no escape. "He forgave me… Damn it… WHY?!" Esther recalled what this man was capable of, and realized the lengths he must have had to go to if he wished to see his brother's demise. A Krusnik that had lost his grasp on reality was the most dangerous being one could ever come in contact with. She knew her life could be in jeopardy were she to stay here with the man she had once thought so highly of, the one who could once talk sense even into the most delusional finally succumbing to madness himself. "You've lost a few in your perfect life… But you are royalty… I was an experiment… A toy… No more significant than two chemicals to be mixed together…"
"I'm so sorry… I didn't… Didn't know…" she sniffled, tears continuing to stream down her cheeks as she felt a change in Abel's demeanor. He shifted against her, falling to his knees and releasing her, at which time she edged toward the door.
"God help me… I've killed him…" he whispered, head tilted toward the dim lights above, tears once again dribbling from the corners of his crystalline blue eyes, "Killed him… I'VE KILLED HIM!" he screamed, collapsing into loud, hysterical sobs, his voice magnified in the tiny room. Esther reached the door, shaking as hard as he, pushing it open as he continued to scream and cry for his brother, and dashed out, weeping. She'd lost him to the darkness already, and what should have brought him happiness and relief had destroyed him. Alone, she wept late into the night.