Night in The Nefari Town (part 3)

“I don’t know. Hit and miss, I think. How about you, Mark?” Brad kept his answer simple, avoiding the subject.

“Me? Pretty much, like the usual. Nothing changed.”

“I see, But, don’t you grow tired of those kinds of life? Monotonous, looking at the same scene at the same time. Walking through on your path without any purpose of whatsoever. Just blindly following whatever the path in front of you.”

“Me? Hmmm…. Probably not. I cannot see myself changing. Maybe I just cannot see myself changing anymore.”

“I see…”

Brad was silent after that, the atmosphere between them became awkward as they were walking in silent, with the only sound that can be heard was their footsteps.

Before long, they arrived in the intersection, which one of them leading toward Mark’s home, and the other way was leading toward Brad’s.

“Uh, sor…”

Mark knew, he cannot end it like this, so he opened his mouth. But before he can, Brad spoke up instead, interrupting him.

“You know, Mark. Maybe that’s what make you, you are. And, me myself.” Brad stepped forward, not toward Mark, but toward the statue in the middle of the intersection, as he continued his monologue.

Brad traced his eyes against the white statue in front of him. It was a tall statue made of white marble, with the height around 3 meters. Despite looking old with some parts already missing, and moss had overgrown it on the surface. The statue still looked majestic as once it was created.

Brad crouched down, brushed his hand against the nameplate on the pedestal, where some thick dust covered it. He blew the rest of the dust away. The word on the nameplate was barely undamaged, but some words were actually fine, as he read it out loud.

“Dedicated to the hero of known as…….. May the deeds of his….. Being remembered….”

Brad stood up, and still gazing at the statue, he continued.

“Maybe like a child in my age. When I was a child, I loved hearing the story of heroes in the books, or songs. And, even now, I still admired them. Even though, ten years or even half century had passed, their names still lived in the people’s mind. The deeds that they’ve done, aspired others. Don’t you think that is amazing?”

“It is, I also dreamed the same things.”

“I know. That’s why we met, and our interest aligned. But, I feel like our vision of it was different. Yours more into admiring from sidelines, but mine was just you know. Foolish. Childish.”

“No, I also similar. But, I just don’t have enough courage…”

“No, I think it's fine. Your vision is much better for people like us. You see, I’ve been running away from many things in my life, including from myself. I kept telling myself that it was the sake of my dream, so it should be fine. But, as the time passes, it became more lame excuses instead of reasoning. That’s why, I became a travelling merchant, so I can just keep moving without a need to be tied down in one place.”

“But, I think I’ve grown tired of running away. As I talk to you a lot, Mark. I become to understand the way I see was wrong. I cannot just keep running away. I need to face the reality. So, from here onward, I’m gonna change. You hear me that, right, Mark. That’s why, Mark–”

Brad paused, and took a moment to breath. Breathed in and breathed out.

“I’m gonna propose to Almaria! And I want you to witness it, Mark,” Brad spoke with a full of determination.

Mark moved toward Brad, and he tapped his shoulder. Brad looked over his shoulder with his face that red either from full of embarrassment or excitement. He welcomed by a full thumb from Mark as a bit of tear slowly failing on his cheek.

“No worries, I got your back, Brad.”

“...Ooh. Thanks, Mark,” he said, as he grabbed his friend shoulder before he shouted out toward the sky with one of his fist pumped toward the night sky. “Just you wait, Almaria!!!”

“Just you wait, Almaria!” Mark shouted to the sky too.

Both of them laughed so hard, until they run out of their gas and coughed so hard.

“Seems a bit drunk has its own merit. Thanks, Mark.” he bumped his fist on Mark’s chest.

“Hahaha, no worries. We shall celebrate this day as the day when Brad takes his step forward. And, we shall have booze too.”

“But, we don’t have any more booze.” Brad shook the bottle of booze that he carried the entire time. “Beside, do you think, there were any places that still open at this late, even more on this situation?”

“As far as I know, probably not. But, I’ve that covered. In my place, there were some boozes lying around that I’ve been saving for special occasion. And, I believe this is the right occasion.”

“OOooh. Holy, Mark. How well-prepared you are.”

“Yes, compliment me more.”

“Yo, the genius Mark. But, you live alone with your sister, don’t you? Do you think she would mind if some random barging on their place at this late?”

“Some random, what are you saying? Stop lowering yourself. And, I don’t think she wouldn’t mind, either. Even though, she is my little sister, she is more responsible and more mature than me.”

“I see. If you say so, then.”

“Besides, she would already fall asleep at this time. We can just sneak in and enjoy our time by ourselves without anyone disturbing.”

“So, then. What are we waiting for. Off we go!”

“Go!”

“Go!”

“Huh??”

Mark and Brad confused when he heard another voice chime in between the two of them. They looked over their shoulder where they met a man with a black attire and hood so low that covering half of his face. The distance between them were so close, feel like an outstretched hand can cover that distance in instance.

*Stab*

Mark felt something on his stomach, where a crimson liquid stained his clothes, it slowly spread into a bigger stain in the same spot. From beside him, he can hear a loud crash sound, as he saw Brad was kicked down, flying straight on to the hard and cold cobblestone street with his face landed first.

Mark was flabbergasted by this sudden turn of event. His mind cannot keep in with it, as the pain in his abdomen became more visible. A burning pain that he’d never felt before, as cold sweat dropped from his eyebrows.

Without any way of knowing of what happening, Mark looked over toward the protruded sword on his stomach, and toward the hooded man in the back. Back to back.

“... W-why??” Mark groaned in pain.

Why. That’s the only a question that surfaced in his mind. Why it has to be me. Why it has to be at this time. Question by question flooding into his mind. Was it because he was at the wrong place and at the wrong time. Was it because he was skipped the work. Was it because he breaks the night curfew.

He was silently waiting for the answer to be delivered.

But, instead of the answer, what he got was a smile. A wide smile that cannot be called a happy smile nor a deprecating smile, nor any resembles of that. It was an uncanny, and hollow, felt it was forced of.

Then, he laughed in a high-pitch tone, sounding like a maniac. He kept laughing, as the only sound that can be heard for several seconds were his laugh.

“Hahahahhahaahhaahahaahahahha!”

“....”

He addressed Mark in cold, and monotone tone.

“Maybe, it was fate. Maybe, it was a pure bad luck. ”

“....”

He pulled out his sword, and swiped it back and forth in the air, splattering red fresh blood on to the street. And, a moment later, he kicked him down, where Mark fell into the now red painted cobblestone. The man planted his foot on Mark’s back, to prevent him, trying to do any futile resistance.

“Maybe it was a simple dice of roll, and someone deemed you to die. Or maybe–”

The man crouched down, and whispered close into Mark’s ears.

“You’ve been marked, what do you think? M-A-R-K?”

Brad stood up on his knee. His vision was blurry, his mouth was bleeding due to him biting his own lip as he crashed. Yet, he cannot care at that for a moment, he needed to know the exact situation right now.

He looked at the scene beside him, where Mark was completely overwhelmed. He cannot shake the instinct to run away. Yes, if the old him was instantly run away. But the current him was different.

He ought to do something. He needed to help Mark, that’s for sure. But, with what? The man had a sword, simply charging forward would mean a one way ticket to after life.

Unless he had a weapon, perhaps. Yes, maybe with a weapon is plausible. Close to him, he heard a sound of a bottle rolling forward. He looked at it for a moment, and an idea formed in his mind. Brad gulped and tasted his own blood.

Quietly, he raised and grabbed the bottle. He knew surprise attack was his only advantage, so he ran toward the man as fast as he can, yet as quiet as he can.

With all his might, he slammed it toward the man’s head. Lady luck was on his side, as it landed perfectly with a loud, and shattering sound of glasses. It broke apart into a million of shards, some landed on Brad’s cheek.

Even so, the man’s expression hardly changing, even though a drip of blood was visibly drenched on his face. With a creak, he slowly turned his head toward him. Then, a big, uncanny smile formed on his face. He swung his hand, like a whip, toward Brad’s neck.

By a hairbreadth, Brad managed to dodged it, before he fell on his butt with a thud.

“… I-Impossible!!!”

Shocked, terrified, many emotions intertwined inside Brad’s mind. Blood drained on his face upon seeing the spectacle. All reasoning went out of the door. With one final glance toward Mark. He quickly rose up on his feet and running away with his dear life from the scene.

Mark, who saw that, can only lament on his fate, as the energy had mostly let his body. He tried to stand up, but the force that pushing him was too strong.

On his last breath, Before a darkness coming to envelop him, in his mind he was thinking of his little sister. What would happen to her? Would she miss her? He would know nothing of it, surely.

“I’m sorry, Lillia. I’ve never been a good brother to you

Before a darkness coming to envelop him, he heard a voice in the distant.

“Oi, what are you doing at this time!!”

“Fuck, guards. I don’t have time to deal with them.”

The man mumbled on his own the moment he spotted them. The man skipped over Mark’s body and run toward where Brad left. Two footsteps were approaching toward the spot where Mark was lying.

One of them crouched down, and gently shook his body.

“Damn, another victim. He's losing too much blood. Hey, get a hold of yourself.”

“Damn it, he is so elusive. I’ll chase after him. Maybe he would lead me to his hideout. You take care of him.” said one of the guards.

“Yeah, be careful.”

The darkness descended toward him as there were no more energy left on his body. His consciousness slowly drifted toward the non-existent. His vision became darker, and darker. He cannot hear anything beside him, even though clearly someone was speaking at him the entire time.

“Hey, get a hold of yourself. Don’t you dare to die!”

Brad can feel himself was floating in the air. But it was no use, as his consciousness ultimately slipping toward the non-existent. A pitch-black darkness enveloped him as a whole.

That night, one more victim was added to the list and one missing person added to the list as well.