When Darkness Falls

Hi readers, I know there's a lot of scare going on with the whole Coronavirus outbreak so I get if you don't have the time or the mindset to read fanfiction, I just hope that you and your family are safe and I wish you all good health.

Since I'm basically quarantined in my house, I think I'm going to use this time to try to focus on some more writing, so look forward to that.

Disclaimer: this is without a doubt the darkest story I've ever written. However, I do hope you enjoy it nonetheless.

I stood there, looking down. I was standing on a large rock hanging above the falls which lead to the entrance to the world that for a brief moment, was all mine. Below the falls I saw many pointed rocks that stuck out of the water like daggers sticking out of a pool of lava.

My body was telling me to just go for it, to get it over with so I can finally achieve the relief I've been needing for some time now, but my mind didn't want to let go just yet.

Before I could do what I had to do, what I needed to do, I had to look up, close my eyes, and think back to how it all began.

(Flashback)

I suppose it all started a couple of months ago when the most tragic news I could ever hear got to me.

I had found out that my best friend in the entire world had died at the ripe age of 77, which from what I've heard is a pretty good age for people like him.

Now, this was something that in the very depths of my mind I had always figured would happen. The simple fact is that creatures like him don't live nearly as long as creatures like me so I had always had the idea that I would outlive him by who knows how long, but that didn't make the news any less sad in my mind.

It was a real shame too. He and I had quite the life together before I had to leave him to claim my throne as the king of my species and start a family of my own,

So, that was enough to keep me down for a bit, though I tried to keep my head up best as I could. I did get a little bit more easily distracted in the following 2 weeks, I once nearly missed a fight to break up that was happening right in front of me because I was in my own head for too long, but I figured that was normal.

It didn't help that he made something that allows me a certain basic ability and that I have to wear it, otherwise I'm good as dead, and that every time I look at it I am constantly reminded of the amazing time we spent together.

At one point, at the 3 week mark, I finally told myself that stuff happens and I should just move on and hope that thing get better from here. Boy was I wrong.

After a month, a few others started to question whether or not I deserved my title as a king, something I always dealt with from time to time given my relatively smaller size, but this was different. Apparently, a lot of the ones that once put their fate and trust into my hands noticed how distracted I've been lately and thought that I might have been slacking way too much.

While I do admit that I have been slacking off my normal work a little bit to focus on my own emotional stability, I didn't think it was that bad. That is until something just as terrible as my friend's death happened to me.

Unfortunately the way things work for my kind is that if someone truly feels like their king isn't up to par, they can challenge them to an all-out duel, to the death if necessary, and also unfortunately my title got challenged on the exact 1 month mark. I had suspected something like this would happen, but who would do it to me I never even suspected.

It all happened so suddenly. I was walking through the halls near my place when I was stopped by one of my oldest and what I had considered to be my closest friends.

Apparently, that flaming, hook toothed bastard decided that I wasn't cut out for being king and he challenged my honor. A bunch of others had already gathered in order to witness the battle and, surprisingly, there was a near 50/50 split between who was supporting me and who was supporting him.

Of course, by my kind's law, if a king is challenged then he has to accept. The battle itself did get somewhat bloody so I'm going to spare you most of the details but basically it started with me giving him a few shots before he retaliates and throws me down, giving me a series of scratches and punches that left me with no choice but to admit defeat.

So now, my glorious title which I literally fought a titan for, was now stripped from me and my former friend is the new king, making me feel even worse than I already felt.

I spent the next few days at home recovering from the battle. There weren't any broken bones or serious injuries but there were several bruises and cuts and a lot of pain when I even tried to move so I was pretty much bedridden.

Even though the pain was gone and my injuries were mostly healed by that point, I still chose to not even leave my house. At that point, I had entered a state of full on depression. I was hardly eating, hardly sleeping and wouldn't really speak to anyone much less leave my home.

After another week of depression, I had started to get a glimmer of hope in telling myself that I had nothing left to lose. Once again, I was proven wrong.

Throughout this whole ordeal, my darling wife and our loving triplets have been there for emotional support, showing me love even when I was clearly going down an obvious path to depression and I always assumed they would continue to do so.

Nope, was even more wrong than before. It would seem that my wife just couldn't handle taking care of triplets and a depressed husband, so she left me. And it happened so quickly too.

One day, at the month and a half mark, she flat out told me that she was done with all of this, that she was, her exact words, tired of raising four children, and she found another place to live and was leaving me and taking the kids with her. She didn't even say goodbye, she just said, I'm sorry.

I wanted to stop her, to finally stand up and tell her to not go, but my mind was still racing with everything that's been happening, so much so that I couldn't even say anything to her, so she just left.

I didn't think my depression could've gotten any deeper, but at that moment, well, that's exactly what happened.

At that point, all my mind could think of was this. I had officially lost everything. My best friend, my title as king, and now even my wife and kids. The only thing, the only thing I still had was a roof over my head and my health, but unfortunately that just wasn't enough.

I spent the next week thinking, trying to figure out some way for me to change all of this, a way to end my depression and possibly make me happy again, but nothing came to mind.

That is until, after two months of dealing with all of this, I realized that I too have had enough and that maybe, just maybe, there is only one way for me to be happy again.

(Flashback ends)

So there I was, standing on the falls that protects the entrance to what was my world.

Of course I was alone. I never told anyone what I was doing, but then again, given everything that's been going on, I don't think anyone would listen.

I thought to myself, this is it. I'm really going to do this. Hopefully, by doing this, I will be able to be happy again.

Before I did it, however, I decided to take one last look at the device my best friend made me. The one I have been wearing since I left him to live with my own kind. I took the device and ripped it off me before throwing it down the falls, ensuring that I will be successful at this.

I took a few deep breaths before stepping to the edge of the rock I was sitting on, looking down the falls to see a series of sharp stalagmites, all of which would be fine but there was one in particular that stood out to me, one that was just in the center of the falls. It required some aim but accuracy was always a specialty of mine. And even if I miss, I could just settle for keeping myself under the water below.

I took one final breath…and I jumped. I fell head first to ensure success. I managed to line myself up perfectly with that stalagmite, so with knowledge of success in mind, I close my eyes.

And just before I felt my head smash against that sharp rock, my mind uttered one final thought.

"See you soon…Hiccup."

Man, that was an emotional story to write.

I hope you enjoyed it, if you did please let me know.