So we come to the end.I'm not going to say what kind of an ending we have , it's an ending simple as that. Before we go on i just like to say thank you to Norrsken aka Stefanos for letting me use the elephant scene from our joint story line Empire of Ashes - shadow of murder.
It was night and all was quiet and everyone was sleeping peaceful, including Hephaistion. Since Alexander had thrown back the curtain and they found no hooded man things had started to fall back into normality. Once Alexander had gone leaving Hephaistion bewildered yet relieved he had ran down sword in hand to have a closer look at the spot hoping to find something to suggest that there had been someone standing there for a long time, but there was nothing, not even a foot print. It was the same the next day and the day after when he checked to see if he had returned and each time he let out a sigh of relief when he found the spot free from its inhuman occupant. It was with these comforting thoughts he managed to sleep easy.
Sometime later something woke him. It had been a noise, a soft clicking noise, the sound of the door opening and closing softly as not to wake him. He had been facing the door when he had woken up, yet he could not see anything even when his eyes adjusted to the dark so he lay perfectly still and softened his breathing which was echoed by a heavier more ragged breathing. It was at this point that two night men carrying torches went passed; as they passed the room was filled with a faint orange glow long enough for Hephaistion to see a figure like shadow stood in front of the door before the room was plunged into darkness again. He stayed awake long enough to find out if he was alone, which he was.
Trick of the light he thought rolling over and closing his eyes.
Just as he was starting to go back to sleep he was grabbed by the arms and yanked out of bed with almost enough force to pull them out of the socket. He was dragged along the floor. They ignored his struggled and protested and simply picked him up by the throat and slammed into the wall causing his head to snap back and held in place by his arms with bruising force as if he was made of nothing at all.
He came face to face with his tormentor.
"Go away!" he called loudly hoping someone would hear
The hooded man laughed
"Not yet my pretty, I have a message for you."
"What is that you want?"
"Death." it said in that whispery hiss of his
"Whose?" Hephaistion asked though he dreaded the reply
"Yourssssss."
He raised his arm and Hephaistion saw a flash of sharp pointy sliver come towards him, the eyes reaction not to see anything coming kicked in and he squeezed his eyes tight shut and waited for the death blow.
When he didn't feel the cold blade sliding into his flesh or any pain and didn't hear the pit a patter sounds of his life blood dripping on to the floor he opened one eye followed by the other only to find him alone.
He moved away from the wall but was pulled back, he looked down at his shoulder to find the hooded man's dagger impaled in the fabric of his clothes. His hand went up and he took hold of the hilt and pulled, it refused to budge no matter how hard he pulled. He let out a small sound of frustration and had one more failed attempt before calling for some help.
A little while later Ptolemy followed by Casssander, Crateros, Perdiccas, Stefanos and the other companions along with a few guards came in to the room to report to Alexander.
"If there was anyone here they have gone now," said Stefanos "I've sent men out in to the town they won't have gotten very far."
He looked at Hephaistion who looked up and then back down at the floor.
"Don't worry we'll get them." he said to both Alexander and Hephaistion
Alexander dismissed them all with a wave of his hand, that just left him and Hephaistion and he could tell by the way Hephaistion followed him around the room with his eyes that had darkened he was pissed.
He was sat in on the edge of the bed with a damp rag to the bump on the back of his head just the way the doctor had left him.
"Sorry." Alexander found himself saying
Hephaistion took away the rag wincing a little.
"What for?" he asked looking at it
Alexander shrugged
"I don't know I just have this… need to say sorry ."Alexander replied
"Oh." came the reply as he put aside the rag,
Hephaistion stood up, the bump to the head a made him a bit light headed when he stood up so he held on to the chair arm till the feeling had passed.
" So now what do we do?" he asked
"Well we wait, see if the men come back with anything." Alexander replied it was the only he could think of this time.
Hephaistion went to stand out in the balcony door way, he sighed a long deep sigh, it was filled with trouble, what did the hooded man mean he's death, why didn't he just kill him there and then yet knowing the hooded man as he did he would or had turned it in to a game. It was now a question of how, where and when and that scared the living shit out of him.
Outside in the street the guards and companions checked every nock and cranny of the keep finding nothing, the intruder had vanished into the night.
But something to quick for them to noticed moved in and out of the shadows leaving those that were unluckily enough to pass it's hiding place with a cold feeling that went deep into their souls.
It had used the shadows to gain access to the keep where it delivered it's massage of harmful intent before using the shadows to slip away.
In it's hiding place in the shadows looking on in amusement was the hooded man. In the hood that covered it's face the deformed lips formed into a smile. He liked playing games with his victims before the end once you had been in the clutches of the hooded man you could not escape, and the game he was playing now was coming to it's unpleasant end.
He would go away for a while but he won't go far. He would slip in now and then at night to leave behind a rose, his calling card. He'd like to watch his victims sleep and would reach out to touch them with the feathered of touches, he also like to hear their reaction when they woke to find the grim massage beside them.
The sound of men approaching his shadowy hideaway, with knarred fingers it pulled out a black rose with cruel and sharp thorns that had been dipped into the blood of some innocent victim who had stumbled into it lair attached to it was a scroll of yellow, blood stained parchment and dropped it to the ground just as the first man came into view and took off in to the night.
A month from now Hephaistion died.
THE END