"I ran as fast as I could toward the sound
of her dying voice." I could see something flicker in his eyes. He raised the
non-bandaged arm and ran his fingers through his hair. Stress. He loved her.
"James." With that one word he sighed again.
He slowly looked into my eyes and then he gave me a sad smile.
"You looked at lot like Juliana, Hel. When
I found her, there was an arrow through her heart. Her white dress was stained
with her innocent blood. She was shot in the back, Hel. I couldn't save her!"
He balled his hands into fists, his fingernails digging into his skin. There
was blood dripping down his arms. I never remembered James ever hurting
himself; he was always the strong one.
He started to rock back and forth slowly,
and then he gradually started to rock faster and even faster. This was getting
out of hand. "James, you agreed that it was the best idea," I stated. "It just
turned out badly. You can't blame yourself for her death." He looked back up at
me. Eyes filled with tears wanting to fall. I looked back at him, but this time
I let my emotions fill my eyes.
I know he just saw that I still cared for
him. "It'll be alright, James."
He nodded. "It will. Now, that you're
here…" He gave a genuine smile.
***********************************************************************1
Week Later
7:00 PM
Hallway
***********************************************************************
It's been a week
since I've come to supposedly be the new council member. Of course, that had been
just a lie. I was just here to comfort James. He's still weeping over Juliana's
death, sadly enough. I was heading towards Diablo's Room. A message I had
recently found on my bed covers told me to come to his room when the night is
full, meaning, at midnight.
I looked from
left to right. Diablo said that to find a door with a purple marking, 'and ye
shall find thy room'. Yeah, yeah, and ye shall find thy room. Sounds a bit too
formal. There. Here it is. Now, the letter said to knock three times, stop, and
then another three times. Great.
Knock, Knock, Knock. Pause. Knock, Knock,
Knock.
Then the door
opened. "Hel. Come in. We've been waiting." I stepped inside the room. It was
dark, darker than night. The only light came from four candles in each corner
of the room. "Hel, we'd like to thank you for trying to comfort James."
"We?" I asked.
"Yes, that's
right. You haven't been properly introduced. Hel, meet Riska." Then he looked
over to Riska. "Riska, this is Hel. She's the one I've told you about." Then he
looked back over to me. "I've told Riska all about you. I've even told her how
you did your best to comfort James after Juliana's death.
"Riska is here to
help us." He spoke.
"Help us with
what?" I wondered.
"The war." War? "I
heard about the argument you and Throm had. Throm may have lost against you in
the argument but he's determined to win the war."
"You mean Throm
is attacking Angelus?" I questioned.
"Yes…and every one
of your allies." Shit.