Red liquid, a fourteen-year-old girl with a bloody sword, and a dead body laid in front of me. I looked down at Diaki, his used to be sharp face gaunt with no expression. His skin was white as a ghost-the parts not dyed scarlet with blood that is. I slowly looked up at Rin.
She clasped on to the metal sword tightly, her beautiful dress untouched. Her expression was anger, but she quickly composed herself.
"I said." Rin lifted the sword in my direction. "Take care of the body." She took a step forward. I took a step back.
It was difficult to keep my wobbling knees from buckling. The shock ceased to release hold of me. I seemed to be unable to speak. I barely managed a nod.
"Good. Now, go down to the Josephine River and dump it." Rin commanded with a snarl.
My vocal chords started to function again. "W-what h-horse will I ridin-ing." I stuttered.
"Idiot! You can't take a horse! Someone might notice its disappearance!" she yelled.
"Well, someone might notice Daiki's disappearance too!" I tried to be charismatic, but my voice cracked on the last word.
"Don't back-talk me imbecile! Use a wagon out behind the castle, cover him up, and walk there!" She took another step forward. I stumbled back and crashed into the wall.
"Uh-uh ay sir?" I unsteadily walked a few paces toward Daiki's corpse. "Do I just... pick him up? Or...?"
"Yes, pick him up!" Rin walked past me and into the doorway. "I'm heading back down to the party. The party will be over when you get back." She tossed the sword into the corner. "And dump the sword as well."
She slammed the door behind her. I fell to my knees besides Daiki. His blank stare pierced through me. My dress my already stained with blood. I rolled the corpse onto its back and attempted to pick him up by the arms. Attempted.
His weight was too much and he collapsed to the ground and splashed blood farther my dress. I could see his open wound. It was straight through his heart. I nearly threw up. I breathed heavily with my hands on my knees. I looked over at the corner and the sword. I picked it up and shoved it into Daiki's empty sword holster. She must have used his own blade to murder him. I thought. Murder.
I resolved to drag him by the legs. I managed to walk a few feet. The blood smeared the floor. Screw it. I'll clean it up later.
It took me a half hour to drag Daiki down four flights of stairs (I used steep narrow back staircases) and into the dirt courtyard behind the castle. I found an empty wooden wagon near the back door. Having succeeded in throwing him in and covering him with potato-less potato sacks, I went back and cleaned up the blood streaks that only lasted down one hallway, but took another half hour nonetheless.
Josephine River. It was a large river that ran down past many kingdoms including the Capitol. The only problem was, the closest bank to this river was ten miles away. Walk. Ten miles. With a corpse. Through the streets of the Capitol. Sounded lovely.
The loveliest thing about it was that as soon as I pulled the wagon out the front gates, it started to rain.
I pulled the wagon by the front prongs that a horse's harness would be attach to. I stood in the middle and pulled it behind me. The rain did not make it easy.
The sky was a depressing dark gray. The sun had already gone down but the moon's light was shrouded by clouds. Fogs rolled so that I soon couldn't see ten feet in front of me, but I walked. I knew where the bank was because one had to know directions in our kingdoms' strange government.
The road at first was made of stone, but when out of the center Capitol, the way was deteriorated to dirt. Mud crawled up on my legs the longer I walked. The smell of mud covered the smell of metallic stench of blood and a rotting corpse that was bumping behind me.
I passed by houses with candles in their windows. In a storm like that, no one would be outside or notice a girl trotting through with a wagon like a horse, but I tried to stay in the center of the road anyway. The last thing I wanted was to be caught with Daiki.
My forearms started to ache. It became harder and harder to walk, but I knew this had to be done. For my life and for Yuka's. Rin would kill her. And me.
What felt like a lifetime passed. It was only about ten hours. I finally made it to the river bank.
The land was swampier there. The mud reached half way up my knees. As soon as I could, I through with all the energy I had left the soaking wet wagon into the river. I watched as it quickly floated away with Daiki in it. A streak of rust trailed after it.
Every muscle in my body relaxed. I was soaked in mud and blood-some things cannot be washed off by the buckets of rain pouring down on me.
As if the sky knew what had been done, it stopped raining. I looked up and gave a weak smile. Just for the hell of it, I started laughing. I laughed and laughed a cynical humorless laugh that meant nothing and was for no one. I laughed for the sake of laughing.
My journey to home was less stressful. My smile soon disappeared as the hard reality sunk in. I made my way through the mud and the streets as the sun started to peak above the clouds.
I remembered the naivety of myself just a day before. Oh, it was a great night alright. I thought.
I walked on and on, no more wagon to bear me down.
When I got to the back steps of the castle, Len was there. He looked at me in all my glory-mud, sweat, blood. And he turned around and walked away. He walked away. I was consumed by a hatred for him.
"YOU KNEW WHAT SHE WAS GOING TO DO DIDN'T YOU! YOU KNEW DAMNIT!" I yelled at him as he continued. "DAMN YOU! DAMN YOU!" And I cried.
I sat down on the front steps and slept, not knowing what was to come.