Ekkehardt Gehring (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
spelleton) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
datadiving2019-03-15 12:09 am
spelleton) wrote in datadiving2019-03-15 12:09 am
spelleton) wrote in datadiving2019-03-15 12:09 am
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Ekkehardt!
[He struggles against the chains, twisting and turning, sending metal scraping against metal and stone. The shackles dig into his upper arms, the chains against his neck.
It's hopeless. Of course it's hopeless. What was he thinking?
But it's Ekkehardt. And Ekkehardt is dying here in front of him.]
Hold on! If... If you can just pack it enough you'll be fine, right?! You're a doctor! You can fix it!
[That's ice. Oh god, that's ice.
Vanessa did this.
Vanessa did this?
Vanessa killed his best friend.
His best friend came here because of him.
(He did this?)]
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Heat washes over him and delays the enroaching frost. What a mess he must be, he thinks numbly. ]
I used most of it up. Arguing with her. [ Fighting with her, he means. ] It's magic anyway. I can't -- fix it normally. I tried.
[ He tries to get up again, to make his body move, to do anything he's telling it to. Avery is upset, so he has to get up. He has to fix it, somehow.
(Do something, he demands of himself. Do anything, anything at all, that might mean you didn't die for nothing--)
The aches and pains and scrapes Avery has received from struggling against his chains, hanging there for so long, fade all at once. Ekkehardt doubles over on the floor, coughing violently, more red shards clinking almost melodically on the floor.
It might be a pretty sound, or a pretty sight, if it wasn't his own blood he was coughing up. ]
Sorry. I'm... I know it's not-- [ He glances up at him, expression pained. ] Not enough.
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I don't care about me, you fool! Stay awake! Stay awake, dammit!
[He sounds panicked. He feels panicked.
It doesn't matter how many chains are wrapped around him, the world is crumbling and becoming so, so small and cold. He's watching Ekkehardt die and he can't do a damn thing about it. But if he can just do something, anything at all!]
Don't... Don't leave me!
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Too late now. Too late for that. He keeps trying to fix things, and makes them worse instead.. ]
I'm not...going anywhere. [ He doesn't have enough strength to walk out of here any more. He'll bleed to death or his heart will stop; it's only a matter of time.
I won't leave you, he wants to say, but that would be a lie. He can't lie to him. He never really could. ]
I can't even walk...I'll just...stay.
[ He can drag himself a little closer, so he does. He leans against the wall; stone retains heat, so it's at least more comfortable. Easier to talk, to breathe, for whatever time he has left.
He doesn't know how much blood he's lost so far. At the edge of the torchlight, he thinks he can see the smears of it on the floor. By the way his head is starting to spin, it's probably a lot. ]
I should have just...stolen the keys, [ he says, after a moment. Almost conversationally, like he's not dying on the floor, like Avery isn't chained to the wall.
He laughs, weakly, even though he shouldn't. Bitter clarity is settling on him; it makes everything funny, in its own terrible way. ] It would have worked out...better.
[ It's hard to tell whether his erratic breathing is from injury, or from crying. Maybe it's both. He thought being half-frozen had stopped it, but he still has some left, apparently.
He doesn't really need to lose more fluid. But it's going to happen anyway. ]
But all I do is make things worse...
I shouldn't even...be here. Making you watch this...
[ All he'd ever wanted to do was be by their side. And look how that had turned out. ]
no subject
Funny. He thought he'd reached rock bottom and yet here he was, dangling above a bottomless pit. Ekkehardt's dying, Avery knows he's going to die when his magic runs out, and even now the only thing Ekkehardt can do is blame himself.
Doesn't he get it?
Doesn't he see?
He's the one who stuck with her for this long. He's the one who ignored all the warning signs. How clingy she could be, how jealous she could get, the little things she did to get her way, the way he would always have to maneuver to make things right... People don't go from 0 to murder that quickly. It had all been right there.
And he'd spent all this time trying to better himself, just for her--a man trying to shine brightly for a monster. And look where he was now. Look what happened to the people who really did care about him.
Shining brightly, only to be snuffed out in the dark... How hideously fitting.
Avery smiles and chuckles, his head lowered, but he doesn't reply to Ekkehardt.
There's screaming outside. Distant. Terrified. All because of a love-blind fool. What a prince! What a knight in shining armor! The damsel in distress fell in love with the dragon and was eaten alive. What a nice story.]
no subject
It's so cold. But as his body fights desperately to keep itself alive, even as it drives itself to death with every heartbeat, he feels warmer. Maybe it's just being around Avery that's doing it, being close to him.
Or maybe it's just because he's dying. ]
You're crying. [ His voice is quiet. He lifts his hand, an automatic response; he doesn't get far before what little strength he has left runs out and he has to drop it. But there's a little magic left to him; it produces little more than a slight, unseen touch against his friend's cheek, but it's there.
He can't physically touch him. This is all he has left to give. ]
It's not... [ The words are slow and painful. He's running out of air to speak. ] Your fault.
That I'm like this...that she is.
I promise... [ He's struggling not to close his eyes and just sleep. Sleep means he won't wake up. He knows that. ]
It's not your fault.
no subject
The dam breaks. He's laughing. He's crying. He can't stop.
It's all so pointless, can't he see? Everything he did, everything he wanted to be, the kingdom, his marriage, his best friend, it's gone! All because he spent those years with his head up his ass pretending it was all okay!
It's sure okay now, isn't it, Ekkehardt?! It's just FUCKING peachy!
And you know what?! He's going to die down here anyway! Might as well just get it over with!
He howls with broken laughter as the room grows colder, watches his breath puff up in tiny, blurry clouds, relishes every crack of ice as it spreads over the stone, into the cracks, into the very heart of the manor.
He doesn't care anymore.
It doesn't matter. None of it fucking matters.
Screw it.]
no subject
Avery's transformation, if it can be called that, is much more sudden.
Two, now. Two people he loved, in different ways (one in a way he'll never say, and probably will never get the chance to say), breaking apart, in a way he can't fix, and maybe it was inevitable. Maybe there was nothing he could do, and that hurts worst of all.
It breaks something in him too (finally part of him rumbles, waiting to be released). It's not as if he'd been happy before this, just pretending to be.
He just leans against the wall and watches him, eyes half-closed, entirely silent. (He's too much of a coward to take his eyes off him, to just sleep. He doesn't want the last thing he remembers, the last thing in his life, to be darkness.)
He hopes for one small mercy, if there is anything left of it here;
he hopes that when he stops breathing, Avery will be too busy to notice.
He slips away quietly, in the end.
Talented in unobtrusive exits, in death as he was in life.
(His soul clings; it remains, stubbornly. It lights up the dungeon better than a torch.) ]