Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Riley
I’m yanked forward with such force that I go careening into something. My knees knock into it as I hit the ground, only able to catch myself with one arm since the other is tied to the god who wants me dead.
“Start repairing the wall now!” the guard snaps, and when the man tied to me doesn’t seem to be listening, they shock him again. It appears to be their only way to control the beast of a man.
“I don’t remember anything,” I say as I’m pulled after the man.
He never gives me any warning where he’s going, so I end up being thrown forward again before he begins to drag me across the ground.
I try to scramble to my feet only to be wrenched in another direction.
“I don’t remember anything. I didn’t even know that I was a horseman until about a week ago. ”
The man ignores me and just continues to heft something, although I can’t quite tell what he’s doing.
“Let me help you,” I say, thinking maybe an act of goodwill will get him to listen to me, but when he dumps something into my hands and the weight of it jerks me down and nearly causes me to drop it, I quickly realize it was a horrible idea.
He yanks my arm forward, and I finally do drop the item, then proceed to trip over it and crash into the very man who wants my head.
It must be his final straw since he reaches for my throat again.
I had unintentionally ducked away, so when I feel his hand coming, I jerk back.
But it’s not like I can go far when he’s tied to me.
He tears me forward and punches me in the stomach as I’m pulled in.
“What the fuck was that for?” I choke out.
“Just for existing.”
“Stop being a dick. I don’t know what I did to you. I promise I remember nothing.”
“Knock it off!” the guard shouts, and I feel the man holding on to me begin to shake before he drops to the ground. For people who claim to have forsaken magic, it sure feels like they’re using a magic device to control him, especially since it doesn’t affect me at all.
But the man I’m chained to is relentless. “You monsters killed them!” he screams at me as he falls onto me and is shocked again. I can feel the way it makes his body convulse and tremble. “You are a monster, and I will end your miserable life and the lives of your ‘siblings.’”
His fingernails dig into my cheek where I lie beneath him as he struggles to beat my face in while they shock him again and again, and I feel like a monster. I don’t know whose death I was involved in. I don’t know who I hurt… but I know every one of them must have had a name. A life. A family.
Why was my past self such a horrible person?
They end up dragging the man back to the cell, and since I’m connected to him, I’m dragged after him. And in some cruel form of punishment, they don’t unhook me from him, keeping me bound to him, but he says and does nothing after returning.
Eventually, I quietly say, “I’m here to stop the horseman. We stopped Conquest. I… I didn’t… I didn’t know until he told me who I was. Conquest was planning on destroying my world, but I refused to let him. I don’t know what the god wants who is pulling the strings—”
“What god?” he asks, finally showing interest in something I have to say.
“I don’t know his name. I just know that when Conquest hesitated as he was about to stab me, the god took his horse and dragged Conquest’s bloody body back through that Door.”
“Now you’re blaming your deeds on others? Are you hoping to gain my sympathy with this little act?”
I hesitate because I’m honestly not sure what I’m hoping to gain with this god. “I guess… I’m just hoping you don’t kill me.”
“Yes, because punching you is going to kill you.” He laughs.
“I don’t know what condition you think I’m in, but I’m not exactly invulnerable over here. Have any of my wounds healed?”
He’s quiet and I can’t tell whether he’s looked me over or not.
With a sigh, I slowly sink down to my knees as someone finally comes in to free me from the man. Once they’re done and I’m left with the silence of the room, I turn my body in the direction I know he’s in. “I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I really am sorry.”
“You’re sorry you were involved in their deaths?”
I want to shout at him that I wasn’t. I want to beg him to believe me, but instead, I just sit in silence and question what the hell I’ve done.
They bring food for me, yet I notice they don’t bring anything for him.
Though I’m not hungry, I’m thirsty, so I reach forward, but my hand knocks right into the plastic cup that tips over at the brush of my fingers.
“You can drop the act while in here; half the cameras in this place are broken.”
I slide the tray over to him as the saddest peace offering possible. But hey, food won over Torin.
“I don’t want this shit,” he says.
“Did they feed you already?”
“What the fuck are you talking about? If you push that tray into me, I’m going to cram it up your ass.”
“Doubt it’ll fit.”
“One way to see for sure,” he growls.
“I’m going to say this one more time just so you can ignore me again. Two hundred years ago, I guess I was killed by a god and reincarnated into… this, and I remember nothing from the time before.”
“Yes, and then I killed you thirty-seven years ago, just like I’m going to kill you again. I’m going to kill you every time your useless face pops up—”
My head snaps in his direction, even though I can’t see him. “This isn’t the first time I reincarnated?”
“Stop with this bullshit act. Any more of this nonsense and I’m going to shut you up for good. Now tell me more about this god.”
“Not until you tell me more about this other life I had. Like… I reincarnated right after Torin killed me? I guess it makes sense that I wasn’t just like… floating for two hundred years, but… was I still working for that god?”
I realize that I’m starting to feel hot again. Immediately, I reach for the hourglass that is no longer there. And if I have another attack right now, they’re going to sense the magic inside of me. I grimace and try to choke down my discomfort.
Even though I can’t see anything, I feel like it has to be morning. The god remained silent for the entire night as I lay curled up in the corner, trying to handle being away from the hourglass for so long. I’ve tried to ignore my misery but as the hours have stretched on, it’s only become worse.
I try to sit up but my head swims, and I have to lean against the wall to stabilize myself.
“I need the hourglass. I really need the hourglass,” I beg as my heart begins to beat wildly. It feels like I’m out of breath, like I’ve just run a marathon, and my body aches for that damn hourglass.
“What the fuck are you doing now?” the god asks.
“The hourglass they took from me, I need it.”
He scoffs. “I don’t know what stunt you’re pulling now, but it’s not going to work.”
Pain races through my limbs as I roll onto my side and curl up. It’s as though all I can think about is getting to that hourglass. It overrides all other thoughts.
“Don’t you dare die before I can kill you again,” he growls.
“T-Then you better get me that… hourglass,” I choke out as I try to crawl in the direction of the cell door.
I need the hourglass before the magic grows out of control and they discover that I’m not as magicless as they seem to think I am.
“Help. Please. The hourglass. I need it. H-Help me get the hourglass… and I’ll help you take down the rest of the horsemen.
We came here because we were told there’s one here. ”
He grabs me and hauls me up to my knees. “You know where he is?”
“No… but I can find him for you. I can figure out where he is if you help me.”
There’s a brief silence while I question whether or not the man is going to choose to listen before I hear him beating his hand against the cell door. “Get your asses over here before your prisoner dies.”
“What the fuck is going on?” a guard asks, finally caring enough to respond.
“I need the hourglass or the curse is going to kill me. Please, get me the hourglass.” I feel ridiculous begging for it. Begging for that damn horse, of all things.
“It’s already been destroyed. All magical devices are immediately destroyed,” he says.
“No… no, it hasn’t,” I counter, knowing that can’t be true because I can still feel the presence of the horse, I just have no idea where he is. I can hear the guard walking away, leaving me alone with my cellmate.
“Which horseman is it?” the god asks. “Which horseman is here?”
“I don’t know,” I admit. “I just know they’re here to destroy this world too.”
“They can have this world. But I want that man’s head. I need War’s head.”
The power inside me fluctuates, and for a little while, my mind feels hazy and I can’t concentrate.
I feel light, like I’m no longer connected to my body as I see myself floating through the halls of a building I’ve never seen before.
The tall walls are painted white and covered in picture frames, lit up by vibrant chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.
Everything is so imposing and pristine, beautiful yet cold.
And then at the end of that hall sits a door which opens up to a grand room where an older man sits. He looks sickly and his frail fingers emerge from long sleeves. He presses one finger on the top of an hourglass and then flips it over and watches the sand rain down.
“Hey! Wake the fuck up!” someone shouts, and I feel a swift kick to my side.
I groan as my head threatens to split and my hands and legs tremble, becoming aware that I’d fallen asleep. I’d gotten caught up in a dream.
“Get up, let’s go,” a man whose voice I don’t recognize orders, making me realize that it wasn’t my cellmate who delivered the kick but a guard.
“I don’t think he’s going anywhere fast,” my cellmate says.
“Carry him.”
The god scoffs. “Why the fuck do I have to carry him?”
“Now!”
I feel hands under me while my mind swims and I try to make sense of things. Wasn’t I just in that room being poked at by a sickly old man?