I could see Axel. The small town like a cluster of buildings in the middle of nowhere. To the east and north a set of fields followed the road. The border forest extended from our right all the way past the town and in the North-East a smaller forest sprouted closer. This was my home and just by seeing the familiar slanted roofs a sense of warmth filled my heart. We were still faraway but my goal was in sight.
Taylor, Lara and even Earnest exited the carriage sitting beside me and on the roof as we travelled closer.
"It's smaller than I thought it would be," Lara commented.
"Well compared to towns along the main road of course it would be," I replied with a smile. "We don't have any specialty goods either so there's not much reason to come by."
"I like it," Taylor said from beside me. "I've been all over the Empire and Kingdom but this place has a nice feel."
"Right?" I accepted the compliment happily. "When we arrive I'll show you around. There's not much compared to Greytree but we have our own fun."
"Yes, I'm quite interested," Earnest said a little forebodingly. I knew he was trying to pry into me but he really wouldn't find much. My family in Axel were normal. Though after having thought about it many of them were on the more eccentric side.
We reached the edge of the fields in the early afternoon. It was quiet. Well it was normally this quiet so far from the town centre. The only reason to come this far out would be for work so it was completely fine that no one was in sight. I gazed across the tilled land. There really was no one.
"Is something wrong?" Lara asked me.
"No it's just that I thought I'd see someone by now," I said feeling my anxiousness rise. "Mr Peters owns the land around here. He's usually outside about this time."
"Well it is around lunch perhaps he's on break."
"Right...," my jaw tightened. But it wasn't just Mr Peters, he had quite a few of the townsfolk work with him, to not see one of them was strange.... I calmed myself, it was still in the realms of possibility.
The carriage moved on and I looked to the skies over Axel's buildings. Most the houses and shops were two stories and built up in the centre spreading further apart as you left town. It was a normal day and a clear blue sky hovered between the clouds rolling by.
I frowned, "There's no smoke."
"What are you talking about?" Taylor looked to the sky as well.
"It's winter. Mrs Tiller usually has a fire lit all day but there's no smoke at all."
She placed her hand on my shoulder, "Rain relax. Just because one lady doesn't have a fire lit doesn't mean you need to freak out."
I clasped my mouth shut and nodded. My nerves were continuing to pile up. It wasn't just Mrs Tiller, Tarhand who ran the blacksmith and taught me how to work metal, Marcy the town baker, Nill and Bert who ran the inn, even Margaret my teacher in apothecary, all of them needed some kind of flame. To not see any smoke chilled my heart more than it should.
We were reaching the end of the fields and into the township proper yet still no one came to greet us. The windows facing our way, by now a smiling face should have waved my way. It wasn't like we were hiding. Walter and Lane our town guards, they were quite old now, not that I'd say it to their faces, but for them not to at least do a small inspection and let us roll in was just neglectful. Even if they missed us, the children never would. In the middle of the day the boys and girls would be running all around town playing. Just the simple sight of a visitor would have their hearts flutter in excitement. Yet why? Why was no one showing up? I could only think of one explanation. The town Mayor Sir Mattias the man who raised me the most, he must have called for a meeting. It was the only reason everyone would be in one place and gone.
"Something's not right," Earnest's words drove a spike through my chest.
"Earnest!" Lara snapped at him. "We don't know that."
"No Lara, we can all feel it," Taylor shook her head. "Rain we need to be careful.
My grip on Pina's reins tightened as I forced myself to look ahead. The paved streets of home so familiar to me felt foreign and foreboding. The buildings we passed by, the ones I had seen almost every day of my life, they weren't the same. I led the carriage down to the town centre where I hoped I'd find my family waiting. We travelled at a snail's pace as the other's kept a watchful eye and then suddenly I came to a halt. The path before us blocked by a broken wagon.
No. That was the last straw. I knew that wagon. It belonged to Ms Elena. She had only moved here five years ago to start a new life away from the Capital. She married Henry who ran the general store and together they had a bouncing and beautiful little girl named May. We made that wagon together as a present for Ms Elena's fifth year university in Axel. There was no reason for it to be here broken with no one nearby. The silence of the town usually so full of life finally broke me.
I jumped from the carriage and into the street unable to hold myself back. I needed to know now. Where was everybody? I couldn't stand not knowing for another second.
"Rain!" Lara and Taylor called after me but I ignored them. My heart was beating what felt like ten times too fast as I ran towards the town centre. It was a plaza that could fit everybody, where we held our festivals and celebrations. A web of streets and structures spiralled out from it to create Axel, my home. I cut through the final corner and skidded to a halt gazing into the familiar place.
'Surprise!' those were the words I wanted to hear. To see my family and friends the people of Axel laugh as they welcomed me home. That wasn't what I saw. The sight burnt into my eyes searing through my nerves to my brain and heart. I couldn't believe it.
"Rain don't just-," Lara's words were cut off as she covered her mouth in horror.
I stepped forward wobbling, "I... this isn't real. This can't be real!"
"Goddess be damned," Taylor cursed.
Earnest stood behind them hands on his sword, "What kind of monstrosity is this?"
"It's real," the words fell from my lips like an echo.
I collapsed to my knees before the mound of bodies. There was no blood or smell. The sky was bright as if nothing had changed, as if everything was fine. Yet in front of me was everyone I loved stacked together in some kind of satanic ritual, piled one against the each other creating a pyramid of death. The children, May, Timmy, Ona, Barthi, no one was spared. Mr Peter and his family, Morgan who taught me how to hunt, Margaret my teacher, all my fathers, all my mothers, those who I called brother, sister, aunty, uncle and on the top kneeling with a spear through his chest as if a garnish to finish it all off, Sir Mattias the mayor. Their bodies dry and pale as if hollowed, their screams forever sounding silently in a world I couldn't see.
I screamed. My heart wrenched in pain as if it would tear itself from my body. Why would they do this? Who could have done this? Anger, resentment, fear, sadness, emotions I could barely control struggled to make sense of themselves as I continued to stare at them all blankly. The black oozing paint crossing the ground around them, it circled the town centre like the spiralling of a mad man, crossing buildings, and body alike. The pits of burnt out fire near the bodies. The grazes against the stone ground. All of it I could never forget no matter how hard I would try. My home was gone.
"Rain you need to calm down your mana is going haywire," Lara called out to me, her voice sounded so far away. "At this rate you'll die!"
Ah, that's right. I could just die. There was no point in getting revenge. I didn't need to. I could just go back and fix everything. The people who did this, the demons, I'd find them and make them pay but before that I needed to end it all. A voice inside screamed for me to stop but I ignored it. My hand found its way to the sword attached to my waist. I had been wearing it since we left Greytree just in case. A gift from Ronalt. How handy it would come right now. The metal unsheathed with a satisfying grate against the scabbard. Its steel point directed at my neck. My hand shook. No matter how many times I had died I still hesitated even now. Was it really okay for me to kill myself? Was there another path I could take?
"Gah!" I involuntarily made the noise as the sword in my hands fell to the ground. A knife bloodied by my own blood burst from my chest. I recognised the knife. It was Taylor's. It twisted as if to seal my fate crushing my heart and lungs.
"I'm sorry," her voice was the last thing I heard. I died.