“Alhen,” Catherine began after closing in on him, “I need your help. I want to kill my mother.”

  Alhen opened his mouth to say something, but stopped when he heard and processed the words that came out of her mouth.

  He took a second to think and couldn’t figure out the why of her request.

  She had everything she could ask for; she didn’t even have to suffer through her life and had it all handed to her, so what could have happened?

  “Why would you do that?” he asked, and Catherine gave him a slight smile, which would have looked better if she weren’t dragging a corpse behind her.

  “You know, Alhen, I have always disliked her. She gives me many orders and places many restrictions on me. With your help, I am sure that we could figure something out to stop her abuse.”

  ‘Abuse? She has only treated you well… right?’ Alhen felt that he had forgotten something important.

  He didn’t have time to dwell on it, however, because Catherine interrupted his thought process with words.

  “I brought you food; here, you will need it if you want to have enough energy for what we are going to do,” she said before throwing the body behind her on his lap.”

  “I don’t want to eat; also, take off my handcuffs,” he commented.

  Without saying a word, she took off his handcuffs and waited for him to begin eating. Alhen looked at her and shook his head.

  “I am not eating this,” he began, “just tell me what you are planning to do so we can get this over with earlier.”

  Catherine stared at him for a few seconds with a serious expression, making him think that he had said something wrong, but she relaxed and threw the body off his lap onto the floor.

  She sat on the bed and began explaining what was on her mind. “Very well, this is the plan. My mother has gone out hunting, and I know where she went.”

  “Every time she takes a nap in the same spot, our job will be going there and waiting for her to do that so we can kill her.”

  “Are you sure that this is going to work? Won’t she realize that we are nearby before she even falls asleep?” Alhen questioned.

  “Worrying is useless; we will not know unless we try, and I say that there is no better time than the present,” she answered.

  Alhen sighed and ultimately agreed, causing Catherine to smile widely and take his hand, guiding him past the corpse on the ground and into the living room, where she gave him his thuls.

  “Where did you get this? It almost looks as if they appeared out of thin air,” Alhen commented before receiving his thuls back.

  “I had them all along,” she answered. “Now that you have that, let us leave. I will guide you there; just follow me and do not lose me from your sight.”

  Alhen nodded and said, “Lead the way.”

  Catherine obliged, humming happily and skipping to the front door of the cabin. They left the cabin and took in their surroundings.

  The white, glowing forest—he would never get tired of looking at it.

  He dreaded the moment when he would have to leave this place and return to the kingdom; although he wanted to, this was simply better.

  As he took in the air, Catherine nudged him from the side and pointed in one direction.

  He immediately saw Edith walking away from them into the forest with a carefree expression.

  “Look, there she is; we have to follow her quietly,” Catherine whispered.

  “I thought that your mother had already gone hunting. Why is she still near the cabin?” he asked.

  “Did I say that? I am sure that I told you that she would be leaving soon. That is the whole reason why I decided to leave now instead of later, so we can trail behind her and figure out if she changes one part of her schedule.”

  “Was that truly what happened?…” he asked himself out loud, but then dropped the topic.

  He felt that he had been forgetting many things lately, and he didn’t know what to think about that.

  “Come on! She is already far ahead; we will lose her from sight if we are not fast.” Catherine took Alhen’s hand until he was walking and moving forward.

  “Be careful and do not run; we have to be as stealthy as possible,” she commented.

  Alhen agreed, and they followed Edith from behind. It took a while to walk, but they eventually stood only some meters away from her.

  She was walking slowly, without a rush, but having an objective, as her gaze was fixed and didn’t stray away from the path.

  Catherine and Alhen tried their best to be silent and hide any type of sound that would alert her that they were there.

  They looked at each other, with Catherine having a firm gaze, and Alhen wondering what she was thinking about.

  It didn’t take long for them to reach the place; Edith stood near a beautiful sight. The stars could clearly be seen, and even the moon hung in the sky.

  Alhen felt that something was off in this situation. He thought hard about what it was, and then he realized that he didn’t have his glasses and was looking directly at the moon.

  “What is happening?” he lowly muttered to himself, receiving a bad look from Catherine for making noise.

  He sent her an apologetic look and decided to remain silent for now.

  This phenomenon was strange, but it didn’t take his mind. He forgot about what happened in record time, focusing on the task ahead, which was killing Edith.

  Edith sat on a cut tree and gazed at the stars; there was even an aurora borealis in there and a shooting star passing by.

  Edith took a deep breath and moved herself to the ground, where she lay on it with her hands behind her head.

  She closed her eyes, and as she did, Catherine beside him started to smile wickedly.

  At that point, he started to think, ‘Should we really do this? I barely remember why Catherine wants to kill her mother in the first place.'

  'In my eyes, she hasn’t particularly done anything wrong,’ he thought.

  Catherine, however, seemed to be dead set on wanting to kill her. Her eyes were all over her mother, hungrily waiting for her to fall asleep so she could strike.

  Alhen pulled on Catherine’s dress and sent her a look asking her if she truly wanted to do this. She caught on to his implied meaning and gave a nod of reassurance; she even smiled at him.

  Taking a deep, silent breath, he steeled himself to kill Edith. Catherine touched his shoulder and gave him a nod, almost as if saying that he made the right choice.

  He shifted his gaze from her to her mother and saw that she was already starting to fall asleep.

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  Her chest was rising and falling slower, and she had a serene expression on her face.

  As Edith got more and more deeply into sleep, Catherine’s smile began widening even further before she finally looked at him and gave him the signal that it was time to act.

  Before Catherine could take the first step, he held her back and gestured in her direction, asking a question about what they were going to do to kill Edith.

  Catherine simply pointed to the revolver he had at his hip, and that’s when Alhen realized how this was going to go.

  He nodded, and they walked closer, but not beside her, until they truly knew that she was asleep.

  They waited ten minutes, standing still without moving a muscle, fully attentive to her movements.

  After making sure that she was asleep, they stood beside her, and Alhen picked up his revolver from its holster slowly, making sure not to make a sound before pointing it at her head.

  Catherine looked at him from the side, looking ready to jump in celebration for what he was going to do.

  He placed his finger on the trigger and calmed his trembling hand, ready to shoot and blow her brains out.

  ‘Should I really do this?’ he thought. ‘There will be no going back after I’m finished.’

  Looking at his hesitation, Catherine urged him to take the shot, but Alhen couldn’t; he was frozen.

  His heart started to beat faster, and his body was pumped with adrenaline.

  He gritted his teeth and closed his eyes, pressing on the trigger, but before it could kill her, he shifted his hand a little and the gun fired.

  “Bang!” Catherine’s smile dropped. She was expecting a bloodbath, and what she received was totally different.

  The bullet had missed and landed right beside Edith's head.

  “How did this happen!?” Catherine exclaimed, looking livid and scared.

  She shifted her eyes to look at Alhen with pure disbelief, appearing to be hurt by his betrayal.

  Edith opened her eyes and shot up from the ground, standing up and looking at the situation. She looked surprised, and all Alhen could do was lower the revolver.

  “Catherine,” he began, “I am sorry, but I cannot kill her,” he told her.

  Edith didn’t understand, but when she saw Alhen’s gun and the bullet hole beside her, she got scared and took a few steps back.

  “Catherine, what are you doing here? And who is this?” she asked, almost frightened.

  She ignored her mother, looking at Alhen with a deadly expression. “Very well, if you do not want to help me, then I do not need you.”

  Before he could fully comprehend what he meant by that, she charged at him and began clawing at him.

  Despite her weak appearance, she was still older than him, and her nails felt like knives gliding through his body.

  “Catherine! Stop!” Edith screamed, but she didn’t stop.

  Alhen covered his body and shook in pain, asking himself whether he should kill her or not, but ultimately decided not to, even though the urge was strong.

  ‘Crap! She has gone insane; I have got to do something,’ he thought.

  Without realizing it, Catherine had taken the revolver from his holster, and when she aimed it at him, his danger senses flared up.

  Without missing a beat, he moved his head just slightly so the bullet dug itself into the ground.

  That wasn’t all, however; she kept on firing and managed to shoot two bullets before Edith came from the side and tackled her to the ground.

  “I will kill you!” Catherine screamed, shifting her attention from Alhen to Edith.

  They fought on the ground, rolling and scratching each other.

  The revolver had dropped to the ground and now lay beside Alhen. He took a few painful breaths, shaking as he stood.

  He took the revolver from the ground and aimed it at the mother and daughter duo.

  ‘This has gone too far; I have to kill someone,” he thought.

  His revolver kept swaying from side to side from the pain; his head was ringing, but he shook it aside.

  The targets shifted constantly; he pointed the revolver at Catherine and Edith in an endless loop.

  ‘Which one!?’

  He couldn’t decide, but after everything that happened, there seemed to be only one answer in his mind: he had to kill Catherine.

  With shaky arms, he pointed the gun at her and stabilized it.

  Catherine got on top of Edith and started raining down punches on her mother, and she looked like she was on the verge of dying.

  Edith’s arms had dropped to the side; she couldn’t muster enough strength to put up a fight anymore.

  Tears left her eyes, and it was clear that her nose had been broken. Blood flowed down her pale face, staining her lips and going down her neck.

  Her hair was disheveled, and her arms were laid out beside her, open and twitching from each punch she received.

  Alhen couldn’t watch much longer. Without even thinking, he placed the gun in its holster and tackled Catherine to the ground.

  “Ughh!” she grunted before falling and hitting her head on a rock, going limp instantly.

  His eyes widened, and he breathed heavily. ‘Is she dead?’ he wondered as he panted.

  Taking a closer look at her head, she was bleeding heavily, her blood mixing with the soil. Alhen inhaled sharply, doubting what he'd done.

  Putting his ear to her chest, he heard her heart beating and calmed down somewhat, but if they didn't receive treatment for long... Looking at both of them, he wondered what to do.

  They both for sure needed some medical help, and he had absolutely no experience whatsoever in the topic.

  He didn’t want any of them to die, although he couldn’t really tell why. He took a deep breath and stood to his full height.

  Closing his eyes, he thought about the situation, and looking at it closer, something strange came to mind.

  ‘Why am I here?’ he asked himself again. No matter how much effort he put into thinking about the reason why this happened, his mind came up blank.

  After thinking for a while, he came to the conclusion that it was useless for now; he had to think of a way to fix this mess.

  Opening his eyes, he looked at something that he hadn’t expected to find.

  There was a dark humanoid entity with Edith and Catherine in his hands.

  Edith was barely breathing, surely about to die soon, and Catherine seemed like she was already dead, but he could see that her breathing was becoming weaker by the second.

  He widened his eyes and almost jumped in surprise, but managed to collect himself at the last moment.

  Holding the revolver tightly in his hand, he collected himself and pointed towards the creature.

  “Drop them right now,” Alhen said while maintaining calm.

  There were a few seconds of silence, and Alhen wondered whether he should press the trigger, but decided not to.

  ‘It doesn’t seem to be doing anything, but I also don’t know if my bullets will have any effect when this thing doesn’t even appear to have a body,’ he thought.

  Alhen decided to attempt communication with the creature before he tried anything that would have irreversible consequences.

  “Let them down; as soon as you try something, I will shoot,” he said, hoping internally for the creature to have understood him.

  “A-Alhen,” it began, and he flinched. “Choose… Edith, or Catherine,” it said with a raspy and guttural voice that sounded like a demon.

  He gripped the revolver in his hand tighter, and as soon as the creature released those words, he fired his revolver, but the bullet passed straight through his body, not even tickling the thing.

  “That was unwise. Choose again.”

  “I am not going to play your games. What do you want in exchange for them? Why are you even doing this?” Alhen asked.

  “Hehehe!” the creature laughed lightly to itself.

  “Just because it is fun,” it began, “but if you try to be funny or take any longer in choosing, I will kill both of them. Reach a decision quickly,” the shadow hurried him.

  “Wait, just answer my question—”

  “Five, four,” the creature began a countdown, and all Alhen could do was grit his teeth in desperation.

  ‘He’s not going to give me a chance at all!’

  “Three, two, one.” He didn’t know how, but he could see the shadow smiling at him before raising his hand high up in the air and aiming to kill Edith.

  Before he could make further progress, however, he shouted, “Kill me instead!” The creature stopped dead in its tracks, looking at him with confusion.

  It scanned him, looking truly surprised that Alhen had said the truth.

  “My reason for living is selfish. Just kill me instead,” he said, truly meaning it.

  “Hahahaha! You are so fun. Did you really think that offering your life would be enough?" The creature asked.

  Alhen clicked his tongue and asked, "If my life is not enough, then what is?"

  "Your choice," the creature responded. "Choose again."

  "5, 4," The countdown started again, and as the numbers kept on decreasing, this time he was at a loss.

  He had to choose someone, he knew that, but...

  "I... I want both of them to live," Alhen said once more, but the creature didn't seem amused this time.

  "Think again, choose. If you do not, they will die, and then I will kill you."

  The countdown started again, and Alhen could only grit his teeth.

  "I want both of them to live!" Alhen shouted as he saw the life about to leave their bodies.

  His eyes were determined, and the sheer determination emanating from his voice was enough to leave the creature quiet for a few seconds.

  "Very well, wake up,” the shadow said before the world around him disappeared.

  The transition was forceful; his surroundings turned and shifted with strength, causing him a strong headache until he became aware and opened his eyes abruptly.

  The first thing that he saw was the red sky due to his glasses, and then he saw the huge wall beside him, staring at him, and he could see a faint smile on its mouth.

  “It was about time that you woke up. If you did, that means that you passed the test,” Edith said.

  It was then that he remembered what had happened, and all his memories returned to him. Even after thinking about it and trying to make sense of his experience, he couldn’t.

  “Stand up, creature; we have to keep moving,” she said.

  Alhen knocked off his daze and took her hand. As he stood, he noticed that his whole body hurt and that he held the same cuts he received during that weird reality.

  “Ughh!” he grunted. “What happened to me?” he asked.

  Edith simply smiled and told him, “You were made to fall into a deep sleep and forget almost everything until what remained was your essence."

  "The first few hours in that dreamlike state were just the assimilation process; the test came after. Whatever you did in there would be the same as you would have done in real life.”

  “And how did I pass the test?”

  “You would have failed the test if Catherine or I died. Whatever happened in your dream, I know nothing; those were simply the conditions,” she answered.

  Alhen began thinking about his experiences and couldn’t help but have a bad aftertaste with the whole experience.

  ‘I was almost in a daze throughout the whole time. She also said that what was left was my essence, so why would I be willing to sacrifice myself for Edith and Catherine? It doesn’t make any sense; I would never do that.’

  His question would have to be placed on hold for now as Edith urged him to follow her despite his physical state.

  “Come on, it is time for the final test, and I have a feeling you will like this one,” she said ominously, and Alhen couldn’t help but dread the moment of truth.