Chapter Ten; Darkness Comes for Albrecht

It had gotten dark, just before they managed to make it to Brightwall. Albrecht had stopped Busty right when the sun had hit the tops of the mountains in the distance. Of course he could not tell her it was because of his fear of darkness that they stopped, but he had come up with a pretty convincing argument about how they were both tired and should rest before they take on a big challenge for that crazy little man from the dweller camp. Busty had sighed with relief, to his surprise, but his plan had worked and he hadn't had to embarrass himself in front of the girl. 'As a grown man you aren't even allowed to be afraid of gunfire, so what makes you think you can be afraid of the dark?' Albrecht had thought.

Busty had curled up underneath a tree. At first she had tried to imitate him by leaning up against the trunk for support, but found that was more uncomfortable than lying down on the cold ground. He had taken his favorite pair of spare trousers and placed it beside her head and after a while he noticed her head had found its place on the pants for a make-shift pillow. He had wanted a nice rest as well, but as soon as his eyes closed he felt as if he could suffocate on the darkness. He'd never had problems with the darkness behind his eyelids before, only that from the lack of sun or in dark tunnels- which he was glad that the tomb and caves following it had been pretty well lit for being places that one would consider to be naturally dark. 'You are thinking too much on it," Al thought. 'It's starting to consume you with fear, because you keep thinking about it!'

From her spot Busty yawned and turned over onto her other side and was now facing away from him. "Look at her lying there with not a care in the world," a voice hissed. No, it wasn't one voice, it sounded almost like a small choir of voices singing into his ears. "She will only slow you down."

He jerked away from the voice, when he turned around he saw that it was only the tree behind him. He was quite sure it was not a wolf either, because he did not think they could talk and even if they did, did they sound so terrifying? Busty let out a small utterance of something he didn't catch and he heard the voice attack his ears again, "Just put her out of her misery, Albrecht. You will be a hero. You will be The Hero."

"No, no! I don't know who you are or where you are, but she is helping me and I will not let anything happen to her." He felt almost nutty for talking to the empty night air, but something had spoken to him first. His eyes flickered back over to Busty, but she was gone. In fact he could not see anything, now. It was completely black everywhere he turned his head, at least he felt like he was turning his head, but to see it would be the proof.

After a moment of total fear he saw a light in the distance and got up slowly, not feeling the ache of his limbs as he had been since he awoke in the marshes with no memory. The light drew closer, or rather he drew closer to it and saw Busty standing right in the middle of it, and her eyelids were mostly closed as if she were still sleepy. "Ayleth!" he shouted, trying to snap her back to awareness, but something dark landed on her shoulder, it was a hand and it belonged to the slender figure beside her. A second hand came down on her other shoulder, also belonging to yet another lanky figure. They were whispering just low enough that he may have passed off the sound as the wind blowing, but he heard them! "Let her go!" he called out.

One of them replied with a chuckle and stated, "He did his work. He got his hands dirty. Big deal. We all must play our assigned roles. We will have a nice burial for him when we return home."

Albrecht stared at the figure, they were a silhouette and thanks to that he could not make out its appearance, but it definitely sounded like it was a man. The other figure waved one of its hands as if to dismiss the other's statement, but it remained silent. His eyes went back to Busty who was swaying in their grasp. "Busty... who are these men?" Albrecht asked her, softly.

Her head began to tilt forward and something resembling a curtain fell over her. With its appearance came the disappearance of the two figures. The curtain was now suspended over Busty's form and it was still, as if there was nothing underneath. Albrecht fingers lightly stroked the fabric and it crumpled to the ground with his touch, revealing the emptiness where the girl had been prior. "Ayleth?" he tried again to call her. There was no answer, and had he really expected one? "Busty! Where are you?" He continued to call until his chest felt heavy. The small amount of light he had been standing in was waning. He couldn't breathe, even though he had been in an open area the walls were closing in. When had it gotten so frigid out?

Something grabbed him by the arm and his body twisted in protest, a small feminine voice whispered, "Albrecht... Al, please, wake up. You are having night-terrors. Wake up, Al."

Slowly he raised his eyelids and saw Busty's face contorted with worry, something he had yet to see from her and it made him smile. The girl's face relaxed when she saw this. "Sorry to worry you, Ayleth. I guess I fell asleep and started having nightmares. I thought I was still awake."

The girl frowned at him and her brow was creased, he wondered what he could have done now to deserve such a heated look. "Please, call me Busty. I already told you this."

Albrecht shook his head. "I apologize, but at the same time I feel like Busty is not an appropriate name."

"Why not?" Busty ask as she leaned back, now that her concern for Albrecht had completely subsided. Albrecht cursed at himself for stirring up a tiff as soon as the girl had felt something besides anger at him. Even if the walk down the mountains had been pleasant enough, they'd still had a row or two over who should kill the wolves until Busty would raise her gauntlet and cast fire down upon the poor creatures.

He moved his hand to his head and ran his soiled fingers through the graying mess, trying to construct a way to break it to the girl. The idea of just pretending it was nothing also crossed his mind, but it felt it was better he tell her than some random perverted man down in Brightwall. "That name is in regard to something physical. Something large...Well two large somethings."

The girl watched him with confusion. "I don't think I understand..."

Albrecht really did not feel it was his place to spell it out, but for her, he was starting to grow weary that he may have to. The girl had grown up without a mother figure, so he'd taken from the context of the tombs, where the two sarcophagi rested. "It's your bosoms, Busty! That man in Dweller camp was trying to tell you how big they were!"

He watched her as her face drained of all its color and her head bent forward as she looked down at her chest. "I... I thought it was... like I would bust the heads of my enemies..."

Albrecht reached out and touched her shoulder; he cringed at the flashing images of the two figures from his nightmare, but gulped down the feeling and tried to give Busty as fatherly a look as he could muster, since he was not a father, at least he did not believe he had been before he lost his memories. "It's alright. If that is truly what you want Busty to mean then let it be so."

The girl gradually nodded her heard. "Thank you, Albrecht. You really are too kind you know. Still I want to apologize for everything from earlier."

He let out a faint chuckle. "I just don't want my fellow hero to be put out by something as trivial as a name. Now, do you think you are rested enough to head the rest of the way to Brightwall?"

"I suppose I am as ready as I can ever get."