Senoj Chronicles: Five

The Finale of the Senoj Chronicles is here. I’ll be doing another sneak peek next week from my book, RED FIST. Also, from here on out until the launch of my book, I’ll be doing informational content and other interesting shorts stories. Thank you all for following, I appreciate it immensely.

Claudius stops dragging me once we make it to the back, where we would usually wait until it was our time to enter the arena for our act. He swishes his tail back and forth and stands between me and the entrance.

“Come on you giant hairball. We have to help her!” I stand, pleading with the beast. He doesn’t move, and I wonder what he would do if I tried to move past him.

The clang of metal on metal is ringing in my ears. What the hell are they doing out there? Sword fighting? Why is Candy apart of some family of clown assassins? Claudius pads around the entrance, as if anxious. Can a lion feel anxious? I bet he wants to help Candy too.

“Come on big guy, let’s go get her,” I say, feeling stupid. It’s not like he is going to talk back. A giant cage plundered in darkness catches my eyes. I forgot all about him. We have more than just one beast.

The blood all over Candy’s body makes me dizzy. Half her face is red from a forehead wound, and her left shoulder is cut clean open, oozing blood. My eyes can hardly keep up with the battle. One clown is down, bleeding out. Candy darts back, blocking a barrage of blows from her sister’s cat-like dagger strikes with her own sai’s. As her sister pins her down, her father stalks her from the side, a long, crude, splatter of death and malice. He has his rapier sword pointed her way. I don’t think Candy sees him. He lunges toward her, fluidly, all water. I learn quickly, not to doubt Candy. She deftly, pushes in, going toward her sister’s rabid attacks. She uses her sister’s momentum to switch places with her, and when blood paints the ground, it is not Candy who is the artist. Her father yanks his needly sword from his daughter’s chest and falls to his knees, in dismay.

Candy watches, colder than ice.

He sputters and pounds the ground. “You wench! How dare you make me take the life of my beloved daughter! How dare you act as if you are better than us,” he shoots up, his face twisted in rage. “On Guard, I regret bringing such distastefulness into this family.” He rushes her.

I look behind me and make a sound with my mouth. Claudius zooms from the darkness, a bullet with claws, ready for carnage. Candy’s mother notices him, and drops down from her perch, the young boy who killed Tim Buck beside her. Claudius is rushing to stop Candy’s father, who is gradually eating away at her defense. The lanky man jumps, higher than any normal human should be capable of to avoid Claudius’s claws. He lands near the two remaining members of the Falthes. I watch them, the smallest clown eyes taking in the horrific scene. The young killing machine looks between his dead sister and unconscious brother, curiously. He must not understand the concept of death. He is far too young for this, and I pity him. He’s been made to kill, but not understand the consequences of the act. Candy walks over to her downed brother and flips him over with her foot. She is smiling down at him, a beautiful mess of crimson.

“Girl, you should know mercy!” A shrill, but elegant voice calls out. It’s her mother, finally speaking, fear in her voice.

Candy kneels, stroking her brother’s face. She is saying something I can’t hear to him. The three remaining members of the Falthes rush forward, knowing like me now, that Candy’s heart is laced with black, with vengeance. Mercy isn’t even a word to her now. Claudius roars, but they do not stop. He stalks forward, to protect his master. The boy challenges him first, throwing knives so fast that he cannot dodge. He moans, unaware of the mother, a crow, all death, in the sky, plummeting down with an ax. She lops off Claudius’s head.

I’m not prepared for the blood. Death comes quickly, I remember. It is often sudden and violent. My stomach lurches, I want to puke. I look to Candy, expecting a reaction, but she’s frozen, in her stooped position. Why is she not moving?

They’re on her.

I make another sound with my mouth. My friend, the Raging Bull, Dreamus, cries out, and steps out of the darkness behind me, his trunk screaming a war cry. He stomps forward, making the Falthes stop their advance. I rush to Candy. She’s cut in multiple places. Her legs are ruined. She can’t move. She’s losing too much blood. I let her know I’m here.

She slowly cranes her head toward me, tears and blood sprinting down her face. “They killed my best friend, Senoj. It’s only right–”

I do not know what she means until I hear the cruel sound of steel plunging into flesh. I look down at Candy’s hand, and I see her repayment. Her blade is deep into her brother’s neck. She yanks it out and blood spits from the man. He tries to stop it in one last attempt at life, but his fight is over. He dies in seconds. Candy falls unconscious immediately after. Dreamus stands between the Falthes and I. He stomps the ground while the Falthes bristle at Candy’s cruelness.

I turn to them. “This is over. Leave now. ”

“Insolent boy! You stand for a disgrace. You make war with those you cannot beat. You’ve now a target on your back. We will return. And we’ll make you watch her die while you bleed out,” Candy’s father smashes a smoke ball into the ground.

I brace myself, in fear of what might come out, but when it vanishes, the Falthes are gone, leaving just Candy, her dead brother, me, and Dreamus. I panic, my blood runs cold. Why did this happen? I don’t understand. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what just happened, and the only person that can give me answers is laying on the ground dying.