The Hybrid Fateful Sorrow

The storm is approaching

The snowflakes fall on the entrancing scorching dreams only to melt before they could even touch the surface.

“Are you having a hard time falling asleep? Here is something that would help you,” Hoch said.

He removes the wooden cap of a lavender-like liquid revolving inside of the concoction. A potion meant to kill God; the stench it is expelling can already strike fear to the powerless Amadeus.

“Amadeus! Ex-knight! Father! Oh, no, please save us!”

‘I could still hear them!’ Amadeus thought.

Amadeus broke free from Hoch’s feet like a rabid dog as he fought the poison inside and continued to crawl towards the burning house. Scratching to every surface of his body that he could control as Amadeus struggled in the snow.

“You’re so powerful, huh!? Let’s see how powerful you are after bathing with this!” Hoch said.

Hoch poured the purest Godsbane into Amadeus’s body. The liquid slips into his leather as it burns and penetrates his skin, destroying him inside out.

Death! Death! Amadeus’s eyes enlarge as the color interchanges to dark azure and vermillion blood. Kill them all, his mind says with his fangs out, make all of them suffer.

“Did that feel nice?” Hoch said.

Then, with a glint in his red and blue eyes, Amadeus pleaded for the lives of the two sisters. Incapable of saving the two sisters, Amadeus turns his eyes at his opponent. I cannot feel anything. I am powerless when it matters, he thought.

“Please save them!” Amadeus said with a tremble in his voice.

“Huh? What is that you’re trying to say?” Hoch said.

The ravening fire continues to crackle, and as it eats the whole place, Hoch gazes at the helpless state of the house.

Fahrer glances back at the defeated Amadeus as he prostrates on the snow, gazing at his dreams. He left the site along with the warriors and emotionless Bran, who gazes below to nothingness.

“Please save Elise and Amelia!” Amadeus pleaded.

“Why are you acting like you’re human?”

Annoyed by his words, Hoch thumped the already down Amadeus.

“Seems like the potion is making you crazy. Hey! Don’t worry. You can have it all!” Hoch said.

Hoch poured the last of the Godsbane at Amadeus’s head, burning his scalp. The liquid flows to his face as it incinerates his whole right eye.

Amadeus convulsed from the poison, his heavy bones creaking with every move like a rusty machine that could collapse any minute.

“You are a soulless creature! A heartless motherfucker act like one!” Hoch said.

‘I couldn’t feel anything but the sound of my own heartbeat, and I have one?’ Amadeus thought.

The nearby snow melted from his steaming body, exhausting colorless vapor all around them, becoming a thin fog. The rain soon followed, basking in the land with a gentle touch of cold and wet, turning the snow into mushy with the rainfall extinguishing the half-standing house darkened by the relentless fire.

‘Elise! Amelia!’

Once again, Amadeus moves his arms to the mushy snow, his hand delving right in, gripping to what he can as he pushes his body forward. Move! Continue, do not give in! Keep on moving, he thought.

“You can still move even all that? You are a real damn beast, are you? How about if I cut your heart out?” Hoch said.

Hoch pulled the spear from Amadeus’s back, who disregarded the pain and continued to crawl forward. With Amadeus at his mercy, Hoch positioned the spear and was ready to attack, only to be interrupted by a voice looming behind.

“Pa!” A loud and deep voice of a man calls out to Hoch.

“Huh?” Hoch uttered.

Upon hearing that, Hoch turns around to see the vile, scarred creature.

“What are you! -” Hoch let out.

He stood stunned, with his spear in hand; he pointed at him.

“A dog that’s not on any leash. A hunter loyal to its real master. The black hound!” The creature said.

“ROLLO? Is that you, Rollo?” Hoch said.

A monstrous huge rabid black hound was standing in front of Hoch. A face clawed and bruised from the corruptions of humanity and the course of events. Almost as big as their house enveloped with the thin colorless fog. Rollo Longrider, The Black Hound, Spirit Bearer of Chulainn, and The Guardian of the Wild appeared in the cold of winter.

The Black hound blew his cold smell of death breath to the bewildered Hoch.

“You are Rollo right!? Why are you?” Hoch uttered.

“It’s time for me to do what’s right,” Rollo, the black hound, said.

“What? What is right?” Hoch said in a worried voice.

Hoch agitated as he realized what he had done. He threw the concoction at the hound, only to realize it was empty.

The black hound seized the bottle with his mouth, breaking it.

“It wouldn’t work for me anyway,” the hound said.

“NO!”

The black hound, enormous paws steadied on the mushy snow, extended his jaw, gazing his dark blue eyes to the frightened Hoch. There is not a leash that could stop him now, as Rollo has woken up from his dream.

With the hound’s mouth wide open, he plunges his mouth at Hoch, devouring him whole, clutching his fangs through and through his flesh with his paws thudding on the ground from satisfaction.

Inside the monstrous mouth of the hound was the terrified Hoch, too afraid to utter a word in the dirty dark mouth of the hound. His hand and feet are gradually being chewed down before the hound swallows him below the gooey darkness.

“Your path is laid, God of all! Do what you need to do,” Rollo, the black hound, uttered.

The black hound drags his feet away as he slowly disappears into the darkness outside the fog and through the forest. The storm is approaching, and they will all fear you, he thought.

With the rain gentle touch on the weary Amadeus body as he crawls forward, neglecting everyone but the one he cares for. The Godsbane on his body is dispersing as if his body is adapting to it, but the damage on his right eye has not completely healed, along with the burn scar that the Godsbane has touched.

Amadeus, back to a human form, strives to reach their house that was not about to give up yet as it struggles to remain standing waiting for Amadeus to save the two sisters—recovering from the poison as he stood up in front of the burnt house.

With a slight push on the darkened door, it falls and breaks down. Amadeus steps inside the now chilly and sorrowful house with nothing much left to salvage; he moves on to look for the sisters.

‘Are you sure you want to see them?’ A voice in his head said.

“ELISE!! AMELIA!! Where are you?” Amadeus shouted.

‘Why are you still looking?’ A voice in his head said.

The numbing feeling as he observes the darkened house. Not much is saved from the fire.

“ELISE! I came back! AMELIA! Where are you both!” Amadeus shouted.

‘Look at this place, Amadeus. Really look!’ A voice in his head said.

The floors are crisp; the walls are slanted and crying with its crack, and some roofs have fallen over, letting the frigid snow inside the house. You do not need a storm to crumble it down. Just let wild Elise run around, and it will, he figured.

“They are not here. I need to check the rooms,” he said.

Amadeus was about to check the rooms when he saw the back door was destroyed; he rushed towards it, hoping the sisters could escape. The back door is outside of the house and on the ground with its half-covered in snow.

The wooden wall inside the house near the back door has an ax stuck on it.

“They must have tried to get out this way! I can feel that they are still alive!” Amadeus said.

‘Where are they now? There are no snow prints because of the rain. But the important thing is they get away. They are alive! That’s what matters to me,’ Amadeus thought.

Amadeus concentrates his mind, listens to them, finds their smell, and nothing has worked, but a familiar scent has caught Amadeus’s nose.

“What’s that again? It’s coming from their room,” Amadeus said.

Amadeus trudges on the weakened floors with every step that breaks thanks to the pile of snow that supports some of it. Nearing their room, he pushes the door aside with wariness.

Inside the room, he saw the rainfall that slipped from a hollow hole in the roof. Amadeus moves the pieces of debris as he continues to find the sources of the scent. His eyes widened as soon as he saw human feet trampled and hidden from the wooden debris of the roof.

Lifting the large debris of wood that was once part of the roof, Amadeus finally found what he was looking for. The scent came from the blooming of the night-blooming flower placed in Elise’s hand.

“Elise, Amelia!” Amadeus said in a relieved and worried voice.

The two sisters, Elise and Amelia’s bodies, were grazed, mucky, and smeared with ashes but somehow were safe from the fire. Amadeus hurried to check their pulse, complicated by the noise of the raindrops.

You don’t need to listen to it. You can feel it, Amadeus thought; there is a beating! They are alive! As if the house were also relieved, it decided to move, reminding Amadeus to depart. He grabbed the unconscious bodies of Elise and Amelia as he jumped into the hollow hole big enough for all three of them.

Amadeus gets outside while the house, with its purpose done, crumbles and falls to the mushy snow, saying it’s a goodbye.