He tried to process the news as he drank. He was the Sheriff of Nottingham. At last. At long last.
And he was alone.
This time, he had no one. Absolutely no one. No friend, no wife, no family. No one.
He felt like the last survivor of a time forever ended. The time when Vaisey ruled. He had had a sister in that time. Far away, never giving any news, but alive and at the time he had assumed she was well. And Marian. She had never been his, but she had been with him. She had been his only comfort when all of Vaisey's promises couldn't cleanse his mouth of its taste of blood. When she had gone, he thought he couldn't possibly live with himself. But Vaisey had roused him, insulting and humiliating him until he had finally got a response. And that way he had got on with his life. And when survival had meant getting rid of his master of ten years, he had got rid of him. Without a second-thought, but not without a backward glance. In a way he owed him. And he had betrayed him.
Forget about the past, focus on the future. He was the Sheriff now. Finally, he had all the power he had ever dreamt of. All he had ever dreamt of. Only it didn't feel as it should, to see his dream come true.
When he had thought about this time, he has expected to feel full, complete, as his life would be: power, money, security. All he had ever craved for, finally at his reach. But all he felt was emptiness. Want. Want of everything he had sacrificed to his ambition. Family, friends, esteem, respect, care. There wasn't anyone left who would be willing to provide any of these. All of those who had cared if he lived or died were dead. Isabella, Vaisey… Marian. Even Hood. To everyone now he was merely Sir Guy of Gisborne, Sheriff of Nottingham. Barely more than a name for most. He wouldn't be just 'Guy' to anyone. He had just killed the last person on earth who could have remembered him that way.
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