June 29th - Late Evening
Lochlan dozed in the corner of the "virgin". He had talked with the others for several hours, they had caroused, drank, even sang a bit. Eventually some of the men had drifted off to bed, some with girls, some without. Lochlan had moved to a small table in the corner and sipped his ale. There was only a few people left in the common room, which was now only lowly lit.
He thought of the evening, and of his comrades...no, they were no longer that, they were his friends. He was struggling to deal with that now. It had been so long since had been close to anyone, and it hurt...by god it hurt. He stared at the fire and slowly went into a light doze, and with it came the dreams, the dreams he had avoided for awhile. Wrathful, they returned with unspent fury.
He was in the village again, and they stood before him...faceless. He snarled at them.
"Get out of my way."
They laughed derisively. And as they did, they seemed to become more human, their features became mroe distinct.
"Why do you always prevent me?" He nearly screamed in frustration.
They just looked at him, shaking their heads. Wait yes he could tell they were looking at him, he could see their eye's. Their eye's were empty....
"Damn you!" He did scream now. "Answer me."
They continued to look at him mockingly, and then in a second it was as if a mist lifted from his eye's. He could see them. And he knew them.
"Aiieee." Lochlan whispered. "Gods of my fathers." He the blood drained from his face. "So you old demons still come for me."
For the first time one of them spoke. "You fool. We do not come for you, you come for yourself." It's, no his voice was rough and gravelly, as if not used in a long time.
"If I were to pick my demons, I'd surely pick one more threatening than you Dirk." Lochlan said, an old anger beginning to burn inside him.
"I see you recognize me now." The man said. "I assume you can see us all then." He paused, then spoke. "Do you know what we represent?"
Lochlan shook his head, then his eye's widened as the realization struck him like a thunderbolt. "Yes....." he said under his breath. "I do."
The man heard him anyway. "Then you know you can't get past us."
"I trusted you!" Lochlan spat angrily. "You were my brothers in arms, I would have died for you." That last came weakly, tears of rage began to seep from his eye's.
"Pity." The man said. "Maybe you should have." Then he smirked. Are'nt you going to try and save the children? Can't you hear their cries?"
Lochlan paused, stunned that he had not heard them before. Then they hit him like a hammer, he heard their wails. The rage grew within him, blinding him.
The man smiled. And his face began to blur, despite this...Lochlan knew he was still smiling.
"NO!" Lochlan shouted at himself. "I will not give in." He cooled the hot anger inside him. Distilling the rage in his sould, his face became completely clear. He looked at his enemies, his personal demons, and spoke in a calm voice. "Shall we then? I believe you have an appointment in hell." as he spoke his sword came out in a single move, while his left hand drew one of his fighting knives from his belt.
They man stared at him, knowing Lochlan could see him clearly. "Kill him!" He growled at the other four who had stood on impassively. They rushed Lochlan.
The first man thrusted at lochlan's belly, but the move was slow and jerky. Lochlan ghosted around the blow and stepped behind him, taking of the back of the mans head with the return blow. The second and third man came at him together, their swords promising death. He parried once, twice, a third time. Then he caught the second mans blade in the guard of his sword a,d flipped it away. The man looked surprised as Lochlans blade entered his belly. The third man fell under a flury of blows that came faster than thought.
Calm and detached Lochlan noticed something different about this fight. His enemies were fighting poorly, the worst he'd ever seen. And they were barely working together. For a second, he thought he understood, then it faded, and he engaged the fourth. He met the man head on trading blow for blow, til the fight came to its eventual conclusion. With the man laying dead at his feet, he looked at the one who had not charged into combat. His old comrade Dirk of Holstein, looked back, his eye's wide with shock.
"Come on Lochlan. We were as close as brothers, we were brothers." He sounded plaitive.
"Aye. We were." Lochlan said, his eye's were cold, there was no emotion left. Only retribution. "But just as family betrays one another, so you did to me. The only difference is, what you did wasn't human."
"Come on brother. You know we all lose our minds occasionally, you think those your with now are any different?"
"I don't know, I don't judge."
"Yes you do, with every moment, just like everyone else on this world."
Lochlan just looked at him, his eye's remorsless.
"It does'nt have to end like this Lochlan, you know I would have done anything for you."
"Even that?" Lochlan said, pointing his bloody knife at the burning village.
"Come on brother, we were just a little mad."
"No you were sick and no longer human." Lochlans voice was clod and final. He began to move forward, inexorable as death itself.
The final man, turned to run. Then he sprinted toward the burning village as fast as he could. Lochlan paused on the balls of his feet, a knife held by te blade in his hand.
"Goodbye, brother..." He did not sound regretful.
The knife flew thre the air, catching something that looked like Dirk of Holstein in the back, a man who Lochlan had once been closer to than his own family, before they had passed.
Then in an instant it all changed, there was no fire, and no bodies...and the children were laughing. He woke.
He stared at the fire in the common room, it could'nt have been more than a few minutes. He finished his beer, and headed upstairs to bed.
