Curses and Will Chapter 25: Chapter 4: Twilight of Dawn

Read chapter 25 of Curses and Will by Simply No One on NovelPedia.

After the bloodbath, I lay unconscious for some stretch of time I couldn't properly measure, maybe fifteen minutes, maybe longer. Kagenken still held me close against his chest the entire time. Rain began falling from a sky gone black, washing over my torn, blood-soaked clothes and the wounds still bleeding through ruined muscle. My body had been pushed past whatever limit it was supposed to have, like elastic cloth stretched to breaking under the weight of something far heavier than it should ever have had to carry. But something else hurt worse than any of the physical damage. Seeing Kagenken soaked in blood that wasn't mine, wasn't the beast's either, but his own, his arm severed and lying some distance away, made my heart stop for a beat that had nothing to do with anger. Just fear, and the slow, sick realization of exactly what I'd done. An emptiness settled over my chest, heavy in a way that didn't seem interested in lifting any time soon. The bystanders who'd gathered looked at me the way I'd been looked at my whole life. Not with sympathy. Not with anything close to understanding. Cold, piercing stares, the kind reserved for something monstrous that needed to be removed before it could do more damage. Kagenken's face showed none of that. No bitterness, no fear, no anger anywhere in his expression. Instead, something closer to a man who had found something he'd believed lost for years. The look of finally getting back a piece of himself he thought was gone for good. The sun began breaking over the horizon, its light slowly eating away at what remained of the darkness in the sky. I couldn't hold onto consciousness any longer after that. I passed out completely. I remained unconscious for what felt like an unbroken stretch of black, days blurring together into something I couldn't separate into distinct moments. When I finally woke, it was already afternoon. I sat up slowly, bandages wrapped across most of my body. Kagenken sat right beside me, cigar between his lips, staring out at oak leaves falling past the window. My eyes found his cut arm almost immediately. A wave of emptiness and grief moved through me at the sight of it, and I didn't know what to say that wouldn't sound hollow against what it had cost him. Then he glanced back at me and spoke in a voice that had gone surprisingly cheerful. "Ahh, kid, you're finally awake. You've been out two whole days. You must be starving. Hold on, I'll get Annya to bring food." He shouted toward the rest of the house, joy evident in every word. "Annya! Suga! Your buddy's finally up!" A rumble of footsteps followed almost immediately, the quiet of the room dissolving into noise. Annya burst through the door, tripped over something on the floor, and landed flat in front of the mattress. Suga came in right behind her, already laughing too hard to fully stand straight. Annya pushed herself up, face flushed red, and rounded on Suga. "It's not that funny, you shorty!" Watching the two of them, my chest filled with something close to warmth, the simple, grounding relief of knowing they were both safe, both still here. Annya turned back to me, her voice softening into something stricter than usual. "You dummy. You don't have to keep hurting yourself like this. We were all worried sick." She wrapped her arms around me in a hug, her eyes already wet. My own chest stayed heavy underneath all of it, guilt and peace and something close to hope all tangled together in a knot I didn't know how to untangle yet. Then a hand landed on my back from behind. Kagenken's hand, what remained of it, patting gently. "It isn't your fault, kid," he said quietly. "Rest easy. You've got enough on your plate without carrying that too." The words hit me harder than I expected, like standing in a field of dandelions under heavy storm clouds and feeling the wind suddenly scatter every one of them at once, revealing warmth underneath that had been hiding the entire time. Tears started falling like someone had fi