"You were supposed to lure her away from her crumbling world. That was ALL you were asked, eleven."
The masked, rose-haired figure didn't so much as move. He was guilty.
"You've done it before with failed guesses from other reaches of that broken, hopeless world, you fool. Why did this operation end in so much wrong?"
A stack of old, decrepit papers and study folders were violently swept clean off of a strange-looking desk.
"My liege, circumstances changed, a-and elements that were never a part of the plan seemed to meddle themselves into what I think-"
"Quit your rambling, you useless coy. I saw what had happened, and you know how I feel about failure."
The masked figure took a step back, but regained composure and took two steps forward.
"I apologize to the maximum of my abilities. It won't happen again."
Windows to the back of the space opened, sending a chill breeze into the damp, old stone room.
"I expect you know what to do, if you value what I have so selflessly given you."
"Sir."
"The thought of that wretched being, so out of place giving me orders, and then scolding me like some child in trouble - of all people! - makes my blood simply boil out of the pot. Sure, I let her slip, but that was because that stupid friend of hers pulled her out of the make-believe I had implanted within the park..."
It was all too perfect.
"She was the one, and I had let her escape..."
The masked man ceased his pacing back and forth in a dank, decrepit, rotting space of darkness, and stood still. Inhaling sharply, he stormed towards a fading, blackened dead tree amongst the terrain of the same fate.
Holding all of his strength in his clenched left fist, he punched right through the tree, causing it to crumble away like blackened sand in the wind. He screamed in frustrated agony. "Why now? The odds were all on my side!" he yelled down to the pile of blackened dust. "That's not what I wanted!"
Kicking it in a hateful manner, he walked away from it. "It was all according to plan. I let her spot me on the street before school, and found her in the park..." He found himself once again in paces going back and forth, only this time his pace was quicker, his strides longer.
"I had her in the palm of my hand... she was so mesmerized by the blazing crystal I had shown her! She wanted to know more. She wanted to see more. She knew it wasn't anything from this...dirty, decrepit, lost cause of a world," he recanted to himself, holding out his hand to reveal the same bright red, star-shaped crystal he had shown her, "and was willing to trust me. I could sense it in her heart."
His masked face shot up to his side, revealing a doll-like personification of a brown, shaggy-haired boy in his view. "But you..." The masked man sounded almost amused, bringing his pacing back and forth to around the motionless, emotionless, soulless doll. "You." He stopped in front of the doll, lowering his masked face down to the doll's emotionless face.
"You just had to step in, and ruin everything I had planned..." his voice dropped the amusement, and once again became cold. Heartless. He took a hold of the figure's chin.
The man snorted. "You brown-haired brats. All the same. All a part of the plan, that i had planned so carefully!" he explained to the lifeless figure, turning his nose up at it. "But all you want is to have it your own little way..."
"Your way or the HIGH-"
The man paused mid- sentence, and with lightning speed a scythe appeared in his hand,
"WAY!"
and sliced the doll's head clean off of its body. The figure's head fell to the ground, but made no sound.
"But now I have it my way, my companion."
The body soon fell to its knees, and then to the ground, greeting its other part. "Heh. Worthless." As quickly as the scythe came into materialization, it had disappeared.
The masked man scoffed at his own actions. "Just look at me." Turning swiftly on his heels towards the spot where the head used to lie, "No," he mumbled as he fixed his khaki colored pants, and his argyle sweater was soon to follow, "I don't have time for this..."
"I'll prove to him that I'm much more than the 'smoke and mirrors' he gives me credit for. I'll prove to him that I was worth his time..." His fists clenched, but he let his hands go limp to his sides, realizing the matter wasn't worth the frustration.
"Although..." The man lifted his mask and looked up to the blackened sky. "At least I did do something right," he whispered, his mouth moving into a smirk, "this place looks a lot less... polluted by people. A lot cleaner." He turned to the environment surrounding him, shouting out to it with open arms.
"Don't you think? Isn't it nice to have some peace and quiet, for once? No cars! Exhaust! Music! Horns! Lights! Anything!" The man laughed, almost insanely, towards the sky. He stood there for a moment, frozen in satisfaction, but then drew his arms back down, and regained his solemn, cold expression.
Moving his mask back down onto his face, his shape turned into a dark one- his entire body became drenched in the same darkness that soaked the crumbling world he lingered in. "It's time for me to show that shambling excuse of a master what potential I really have."
"You know, 'Bo peep', I always find you in these kids of seedy places," a cocky voice spoke up from in the shadows, causing the masked man's head to rise up in shock, "and you're always rambling to yourself!" The voice laughed, and the figure it belonged to disappeared from its hiding spot the shadows. "Got a charming imaginary friend you'd like to introduce me to?" the figure asked jokingly, gesturing to the spot that the masked man had summoned the lifeless doll, only to behead it.
"Fuck off. You're not supposed to be here," the masked man snarled, nervous, and once again clenching his fists. Why is he here? Why is he alive? Why now? How did he find me? "I never expected your 'person' to be so... manic depressive. Icky. No wonder you were such a dick in the castle! Ha ha!" the voice materialized in front of the masked man, appearing in the shape of a tall, slim, hooded man.
"You shouldn't be here, Axel, you shouldn't even be alive!" the masked man raised his voice towards the figure, which didn't faze 'Axel'. "Oh, but here I am, beating the odds. It seems as though even when you've been granted your person once again, you're still in a bloody rut," Axel began, "but to tell you the truth, so am I."
He was about to place a hand on the masked man's shoulder when his scythe materialized in his right hand once again. "I'll kill you this time, you bloody bastard, because I have nothing to hide!" The masked man screamed, charging towards the cloaked figure with incredible speed. "Ah-ah-ah," Axel caught him mid motion, slapping the masked man's scythe away in one swift motion, "now why would you do that to poor little 'ol me?"
The masked man could not reply. Axel had jabbed him in the chest with his knee, knocking all of the air out of him. "Hmph. That's fine too. Like I'd want to be introduced to one of your 'friends'." The masked man fell to his knees, the scythe thrown away had disappeared. Clenching his chest in attempt to regain his lost air, he gasped and wheezed.
The cloaked man stood above him, and kicked him to the ground, earning a cry of pain from his prey. "Listen. I came here to check up on an old 'colleague', and you charge at me like some crazed animal!" Axel began to raise his voice, but his voice only held pretend anger. "I figured you'd know where my person is!"
He slouched down to the masked man's body, heaped on the dark ground. "Do you know how shitty it is to live like this? Like a shell?" his voice seemed to rise and rise like a fire being fed with more air by the second. "Dude, I'm a fucking trench coat! I am this coat. Right now, this is me. Do you know how shitty that is?" The masked man simply groaned in pain, extending and retracting his leg in attempt to gain some leverage.
"I can feel my person somewhere. Somewhere, somehow, I'm still alive..." Axel mused, somewhat sounding hopeful, staring up at the sky. "You'd think a friend would help a friend, right?" He mumbled, shifting his gaze back down at the man. "G-go... find your own... friends," he choked out with great effort to the man standing above him. Axel scoffed.
"Fine, have fun finding your way out of here, person. Don't expect any help from me." he bid farewell rudely, and held out his gloved hand in front of him, revealing a shroud of black and deep purple mist. Stepping through it, he sighed, disappointed, and the mist disappeared.
He left the masked man, groaning in pain on the ground to fend for himself, as tiny glints of yellow began to pool out of the ground, hissing sounds faintly recognizable.