Alone In The Dark

"Do you..." her voice now quivering with fear "Do you know everything? Even what I-"

You don't have to say anything as your body language says enough. Before long you then ignore her gaze and revert yourself back ahead of you, looking at Hawk still hanging freely over the pit.

"P-Please, Darien, i-it's not what you think! J-Just let me explain and it'll all make sense to you, I promise!" her normally confident and booming voice was now petty and weak. She was caught in a lie and as friendly as she felt with you, a piece of her soul feared for her safety.

She steps forward toward you and places her hand on your arm, trying to comfort you as if she actually cared "I-I..." she stumbles, not wanting to say anymore. She recollects herself by taking a few deep breaths before she continues "I want you to know I never wanted the bounty to actually go live. I only agreed to Edmin's terms and helped fund the bounty to get on his good side." her head looks to the floor "After you won in Rathkin and came back to Murnic to confront me, I assumed you would come back to Rathkin with me. At that point Edmin would send word to cancel the bounty and nothing would happen, no harm, no foul. You have to believe me! Edmin told me as long as I kept you under control the bounty would get revoked, but if I couldn't control you then at least he wouldn't have to deal with you as every assassin in the world couldn't say no to the amount of gold that was placed on your head." Karisi goes silent just letting that sink in for a minute.

You didn't even acknowledge your Queen. Your eyes stayed focused on the man hanging from his wrists ahead of you.

"Please Darien, you have to understand. I had the best intentions for it. If I didn't help Edmin fund the bounty I would have never got on his good side. It was a good willed gesture for him, a friendly alliance with him." Karisi is pouring emotions into her voice now "Get on his good side, the old King's die, you come back to Rathkin and be safe with me and your bounty gets cancelled. That's what I knew would happen but...but..."

"I went north." your monotone voice interrupts her.

"Yes." she hesitates, the dread still in her voice "When you went north, the bounty went live and after it goes live it was too late at that point to have it revoked." her second hand goes up to your arm, trying to turn your body to allow her to look into your face.

You hold strong though, still facing forward into The Pit. "Darien, please, I only thought it was for our best interests, f-for your best interests!!" she pleads to you with as much sincerity as she can muster. "Trust me..."

You sarcastically let out a huff of air at those last two words.

"Listen, Darien." her tugging on your armor continues as she really wants you to face her and look at her "After you went north I met up with Hawk in Rathkin. I figured..." you actually hear her sniffle "I figured if I got him to shoot you with a non-lethal shot, then we could claim your bounty, get it cleared but also get all the gold in return! It was the perfect plan and would give us plenty of time to figure out what to do later on. At least after the armies got back to their respective cities."

Still, no words exit your body.

"Please..." her voice whimpers "Please look at me..." she tries once again to pull on your arm to turn your body into hers "I never meant to lie to you, I was going to tell you everything, I swear, but only after I figured everything out first. I would have told you everything, you can trust me Darien. I wouldn't ever lie to yo-" she cuts her words off.

You grin under your hood as you continue to stay silent for a few moments. You can hear Karisi to your side pleading with you, her voice weak, her nose sniffling every once in awhile. "Who would have thunk. The so-called scum of the world, the piece of shit leader of the Bandits, apparently he's more trustworthy then you, Karisi..." you finally turn your body into her own.

"You don't mean that..." her eyes look to have a thin layer of gloss over them. She brings her hands up to your hood trying to reveal your face but you grip each of her wrists and hold them in place "Let me see you, please." she asks softly. "Darien, I swear I was looking out for you..." her lower lip juts out and quivers slightly.

You just pull her arms down before letting go of them, keeping yourself shielded under your fur and fangs. "I've always looked out for you..." your voice is low "Always cared for you and didn't want to hurt you..." you close your eyes and take a breath "And then here you go, lie after lie. How can I ever trust you again?"

Her hand immediately reaches up again and goes under your hood. You feel her soft delicate hands on your cheek as she caresses your face "I'll earn it back, I'll do whatever it takes, I promise. Just...just let Hawk go. I ordered him to hit you, I paid for half your bounty, I lied to you, not him. Don't punish him for my mistakes, please."

The look of regret in her face seems sincere and is making your mind race with thoughts. That gloss in her eyes kept building up and soon a dribble of water ran from the corner of her eyes. You've never seen Karisi be so emotional with you, maybe she was being serious.

"Please, Darien. Please just let Hawk go and we can talk. I'll tell you whatever you want to know." she pleads "We can discuss everything, I'll tell you everything, I promise you can trust me."

Her hand felt so smooth on your cheek and even though she couldn't see your face, a crack of a smile did begin to form. "Yeah..." you grumble out as you reach up and grab her wrist, pulling her hand from your cheek once more before placing it back at her side. "Okay, yeah..." you step to her side as you make your way over to the lever which was holding Hawk up over the pit.

"Thank you, Darien. Thank you so much." Karisi turns towards The Pit again and grips down on the railing, looking up at Hawk "I promise I'll tell you everything, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry..." the pain in her voice continues.

You place your hand on that lever, ready to start to pull it to bring Hawk back to safety. You delay only briefly as you look back over your shoulder at Karisi who is staring off into The Pit. Her body still succumbing to her actions as it's still softly sniffling and shivering from sadness. You turn back towards the lever while taking a deep breath, ready to release Hawk from his prison.

Your hand pulls down on the lever as the chain starts to unravel. "For the Reach..." you mumble out quietly.

"The fuck?!" you finally hear him speak, the voice of a man you hate. "Oh God!!!" You can barely hear him over the sound of the chain spinning rapidly through the crank. You purposely pressed the lever to release the chain. It spun and spun through the crank as the screaming voice of Hawk began to plunge deep into the seemingly bottomless pit. "Ahhhhh!!!" Hawk wailed out in horror as he continued his fall deep within the mountain.

As the chain met the end of it's ravel it busted out of the crank, flew up towards the ceiling where it was anchored into the stalagmite above and snapped off that without any resistance. Hawk, his bar he was shackled to and the entire chain holding him up were now plummeting deep into the darkness below. His continued scream echoed through the cavern as his body disappeared into the darkness.

You slowly move towards Karisi as Hawk's spine tingling scream began fading through the air. Karisi's head was tilted down, looking into The Pit, watching that man vanish before her eyes. Her body was trembling in panic, her hands gripped the railings hard and tears were dripping down into the pit after him. You step next to Karisi and place your hand on her shoulder causing her to nearly jump out of her skin as she continues to cry.

An eerie feeling washed over your body as hearing the voice of a man falling to his death was nerve wracking. It wasn't like any normal scream of pain, it was something deeper, something that was of true despair. You held onto her shoulder for another minute until you no longer could hear anymore screams. The two of you stood side by side in nothing but absolute silence as the entire situation began to sink in for the Queen and yourself.

Tears were flowing down Karisi's face as she was scared for her own life. Her legs were wobbling, her mouth was going dry, her breathing was going in short bursts. "W-W-Why..." she managed to get out as her voice cracks badly.

You force her to turn towards you as your hand removes itself from her shoulder. You place it around her neck and look deep within her eyes.

Her hands began grasping at your wrist, trying to pull your hand off her throat as she assumed you may just slowly suffocate her where she stands. With your overpowering strength you lean her back, holding her throat tight as you start to bend her body over The Pit. Her feet are still on the ground but if you release her throat she will easily fall backwards into The Pit below.

She clenches her eyes shut as more liquid rolls down her cheeks and onto the ground below. With her breathing sporadic and her body twitching from utter dread, she was so terrified for her life at this point.

As you hold her throat you just growl into the Queen before you "Not too long ago the love of my life could have died." you begin as your voice goes very deep "And a man that I absolutely hate, a man that I absolutely need to kill..., he saved her." you look over Karisi's trembling body, her hands still gripping at your wrist trying to hold onto you to make sure you don't drop her "He said something that at the time I didn't think much of it, but now, the words he said ring true here." you grumble out "Open your eyes, Karisi." your monotone voice let's out.

Between a few more sniffles, Karisi eventually opens her eyes, tears are flowing freely from them as they are red, puffy and her nose is dripping snot all down her face. It was quite the change from this normally flawless creature before you as she now looks absolutely destroyed and broken. "You are the Queen of the Syndicate" you bring your hand that is wrapped around her throat forward, pulling Karisi into your body and slightly away from The Pit, you want to make sure she can see your face as you say this "But you of all people should know, very rarely are the Queens the ones who hold all the power."

Karisi whimpers and weeps with more tears of anguish as you pull her so close, almost under your own hood that she could finally see the white of your eyes.

"Lie to me again..." The anger inside you burns deep into her soul "And you will join him in The Pit." you release your grip around Karisi's throat and her body just gives out. She falls to the ground, right at the edge of The Pit as she immediately curls up and weeps into the ground.

You have no more words for Karisi anymore as you look down at the normally powerful and confident women. You turn to leave, making your way out of The Pit, abandoning your Queen who is physically in shambles, mentally broken, emotionally scarred and now, alone in the dark...