☼ ;; the hero never dies

                   around here, everyone had a story, shreds of an old life they would cling to like                    their dearest posession           there was nothing else to cling to, after all. it had                    somehow become a universal rite to share those shreds with someone when the                    state of mutual trust had been reached. ridiculously petty and insignificant as                    they were, those little things were what made people keep their sanity with the                    world around them falling to pieces. everyone was wary, everyone was mistrusting,                    and with that tension it was hard to confide in others, strangers despite the                    circumstances forcing them to work together in order to survive.

                             of course he had a story aswell, and someone to tell it to, and                              really, he wanted to tell her. this was the most intimate thing he                              had, though, and especially as a preferably quiet person it was                              a struggle to finally open his mouth.          the words broke the silence and cut through the familiar tension like a knife through          butter, and once he’d started hesitatingly, there was no going back. not that he’d           want to       he liked her, and in any other situation he’d have called her a friend.

                             ❝ i’ve got a sister. she’s older than me. was. i don’t know.                              she loved to make fun of me and embarrass me in front of my friends...                              back in high school, at least. but she’s a caring person, passionate. when                              i left home she lived with my father. he’s in a wheelchair, with an illness that                              came far too soon for his age. i hope she takes care of him and my brother. ❞

                    a small, humorless chuckle escaped his lips. they were all dead now, most likely. 

                             ❝ i left home a few weeks before all this started, i was going to go                              on a road trip with friends. that’s why i’m here, originally i’m from                              the south. for most of them it meant getting drunk every night. ❞ 

         he stopped. that had been their mistake, in the end. he tried to pick up where he’d          left off, but that was it, the moment was over. embarrassedly, he turned away and          fumbled around with his bagpack. 

"And the award for biggest ego goes to..."

"Are you so eager to meet your end?"

"Can I eat him?"

"Darling, we have to stop meeting like this. This is how rumours begin."

"Did you have to do that?"

"Do this one favour for me and you need never fear anyone ever again."

"Do we have any more booze?"

"Don't make promises you can't keep."

"For all I care, you can crawl back to Hell."

"Hey! Earth to you."

"Hold your tongue or I'll tear it from your gapping mouth."

"How dare you command me?"

"How long are you going to hate me?"

"I can't share my secrets with you unless we trust each other."

"I despise voicemail."

"I don't really care about what you want. Let's talk about what I want."

"I like how your mind works."

"I swear to you, the day will come when I'm not so easily subdued, and on that day, I will make you suffer."

"I was protecting you."

"I will fight for my family until my last breath."

"I will not leave you behind."

"I will systematically destroy everything they hold dear."

"I'm going to kill every last one of them."

"If I had a dollar for every mess my family has gotten me into."

"If I want something, I'll take it, and nothing – nothing will stand in my way."

"If you ever betray me, I will make sure you spend the rest of your eternal life in exquisite agony wishing for a merciful death."

"If you knew even a fraction of who I am it would break you in two."

"Is it evil to take what one wants? To satisfy hunger even if doing so will cause another's suffering?"

"Is that what you want, to be normal?"

"It just seems like you need all the friends that you can get."

"It's a little early for day drinking."

"Kill a demon today, face a devil tomorrow."

"Let's go kill them all."

"My hatred for you runs so deep it's difficult to pinpoint its origin."

"Please feel free to choke on it."

"Poppycock! I would never bite you"

"So you're having weird retro sex dreams, get over it."

"Sudden moves make me jumpy, and homicidal."

"Ten minutes ago I was fully naked."

"That wasn't me."

"That's right, you don't have any friends."

"The longer the game, the more they suffer."

"The monster in me can only be checked by the monster in you."

"There is a special place in hell for your kind."

"There is something fundamentally wrong with you."

"There's no real peace in revenge."

"This house is like a freaking swamp sauna."

"What better way to punctuate a day of peace than by killing someone."

"What have you done?!"

"What kind of monster do you take me for?"

"What makes you think I'm afraid to die?"

"What the hell are you doing, you ruthless bitch?"

"What wine goes well with treachery?"

"What's worth dying for is not love?"

"When I go after someone, I don't miss."

"Why don't you just kill me and get it over with?"

"You are the architect of your own unhappiness."

"You deserved far better than this."

"You disgust me."

"You do know you're entirely demented, don't you?"

"You don't care about me!"

"You have a warrior's heart. Perhaps I'll keep it as a souvenir."

"You relinquished your right to touch me."

"You waited too long before you came to rescue me."

"You will not break me."

"You will pay for this."

"You're gonna wish you never laid eyes on me."

"You're nothing."

"You're so hot when you're angry."

     She couldn’t shake her unease, she knew she was too worried,                                                     he could handle himself, but she was still skeptical. Their plan                                                       wasn’t exactly what she would deem as safe, going out where                                                     those things were waiting. Waiting for them        

           “I know, but you’ve seen those things, are the two of us enough?”

        he shrugged. frankly, this was very risky, they might both die in the         attempt, but any other option would be pointless      the longer they         waited the more wights would assemble outside the doors, making         it even more impossible to escape. no one would come to help them,         at least not too soon, and gods knew how long they would survive in          here without resources and the dead trying to get inside.

   ❝ i did indeed, thank you —- ❞ she pauses for a second at the title, a grin forming on her lips. ❝ i had no idea you were a prince. i’m indra. ❞