Matsya, are you still there? Who are we?

  “It was somewhat of a lie, my vengeance.”

  “Ey, quit the nonsense. Better to say nothing,” Eurig said with a rushed breath.

  “It’s fine, honestly, it doesn’t even hurt.”

  “It…doesn’t hurt?”

  “Listen up, just as Jaromir was dying… ‘Protect them…Otie, promise me…’ I took his hand… Although I myself wanted to know, vengeance was never what he wanted. If this is what he meant…” Otie placed his hands on the sizzling knife. “It ain’t half bad. You’re actually damn weak, so I just gotta protect you.”

  “Eh?” Urjohar couldn’t believe the diss.

  “You alright? You're sounding crazy…” Eurig said.

  “Pro-protect us… We’re weak…” Fester sniffled.

  “Oh shut-up!” Eurig said to fester.

  “Ah,” Walli voiced. “Ben, what are you gonna do? Killin’ a kid ain’t gonna look so good.”

  “Tch… There’s a hospital over there. Otie, best go, don’t pull it out and—”

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  “Ah, sorry…” Otie pulled out the knife, a spray of blood gushed upward. “Ow…”

  The afternoon ended with Otie’s fainting body in a hospital bed.

  Nine hours later, in the ducts of darkness, Ben Krow lit a cigarette. His hands continued to shake, his eyes dry with worry. The smell of sewage and rotting garbage permeated the air. Fingers took to his collar, unbuttoning his polo shirt. Sweat made his skin glisten even in the darkness. He could smell it off the end of his stick, death. A pike punctured his back, bursting through his chest. Evaporating blood lit aflame. Eyes bulging, coughing up his iron rich blood.

  “Mission complete…”

  “Wh-who?”

  “The new Lord, Lasul of Lapis.”

  “Ah…Haha…” Figured this would happen, sooner or later… Akli, Val, Horo, did I…

  “For how weak he was, his life force was quite strong. Hah! He still breathes, incredible,” Lasul took her club, smashing Ben Krow’s head as if it were a ripe avocado. Her cackle was infectious. With wailing swings left brain matter and stone clipping her face, yet her glee never settled.

  “Hmm,” Pedig, the medic in charge of Otie, mumbled. “This brain scan…something isn’t right here. What would you say, Netil?”

  “Looks like Larry.”

  “Haha, no not the shape. Right here, see, the mapping splits right here. Then if you look at his old scans from a year ago, they’re completely different.”

  “So he got a brain transplant,” Netil joked.

  “This is serious Netil! How can a brain change so much in such little time?”

  “I think you're overreacting. The boy was stabbed, add in puberty, ya never know.”

  “I question how you ever got your medical license,” Pedig sighed with a hand to his face.

  “Hahaha! Me too, me too brother!”