"Wait—Donny, where are you guys going to?"
"Talia! Joss!"
Dorian's cry tore through the wind as his outstretched, bloodied hand reached out toward the figures that vanished down the ridge. Their silhouettes moved nonstop away from him, until the faint sound of laughter was all that could be heard.
The boulder pressed into his back. His spine was twisted, his left leg was broken, and blood pooled beneath him.
He could taste metal in his mouth, and his senses weren't doing much. His breathing was slow, controlled, so he wouldn't run out of strength or give in to unconsciousness.
The cold wind carried the stench of blood and rotten meat, despite the heavy downpour that had tried to wash it away.
Dorian's eyes remained fixed on the grey sky above him, the voices of his supposed teammates faded, replaced with a loud silence.
The type that made one's ears ring slightly.
He lay there, as still as the boulder on top of him, listening to the storm, the thunder crackling, as he registered the smell of blood around him.
His own and that of the beast laying lifeless not far from him.
His fingers twitched, as it was all he could move, and he wasn't even in control of them.
The rain began to change its direction. Droplets started falling sideways, then strangely upwards. He hadn't noticed it, neither did he care.
Then came a slow scratching sound, like stone being rubbed hard against stone.
His eyes darted around, searching for the source, as hope replaced his blank stare. At first, the sound came from somewhere behind him, then above, and finally, right under him.
The earth split in two, between his upper and lower body.
It opened quietly, without an earthquake or a rise of dust.
Nothing happened afterwards. Just the silence, backed by the wind.
The hope in Dorian's eyes vanished when he realized it was just a random noise. He let out a heavy sigh and raised his hand over his face.
His pale, slender fingers were covered in bruises, and there was an ugly, broken pinky, even he didn't know how that happened.
Suddenly, beneath him, he felt like his body was moving.
At first, it was small, like the vibration of footsteps on the ground. The air around him changed, and he was more confused than panicked.
The moment the boulder tilted backward, giving him a millisecond of freedom, his eyes widened.
'Wh... what's going on?'
He thought, rapidly moving his gaze around. He wanted to look behind, but each time he tried, it was only upside down, and there was no way he could flip over.
The ground moved again. Not like a shake, it moved upwards, easing the weight of the boulder.
The beasts he and his teammates had killed slid into the opening created when the ground started moving.
He felt the tower rise before he could see it. It just carried him with it, like a sacrifice.
There was the sound of pieces of gear, bones, and metal clinking and falling as they rolled off the sides of the tower.
The Rift pulsed above him like a heartbeat, as it expanded and tore through the sky, stopping right where the beast had been.
The field below seemed smaller, and so did the valley. From the corner of his eye, he could see the city and the red lights from the watchtower.
There was no way they could even see him, unless they saw the Rift before it was too late. At least, he would have been glad if he was rescued before he died.
Dorian gritted his teeth. His fingers curled again as if to grab onto something, though there was nothing to hold but sand and the smooth peak of the tower.
The air became thinner the higher the tower went, until Dorian could barely breathe.
The tower finally reached its peak and stood still, planted like a giant bean plant in the sky. Dorian's body came to rest with it.
There was supposed to be silence.
But then the tapping of bare feet echoed around him.
Turning his head to the right, he saw a figure walking barefoot across the tower's surface.
It was a woman. She was draped in a transparent dress that remained still despite the wind up there. Her white hair didn't stick to her face. She didn't even look wet.
And she was oddly calm.
Dorian blinked, assuming it was an hallucination. He wondered how she had gotten there, why she wasn't soaked from the rain.
He saw her stop a few feet away and turn to him. They locked eyez, at that moment he felt a strange pressure on his body, but it still couldn't be compared to the weight of the boulder on him.
She turned around fully and walked over to him. She crouched beside him, her hands resting on her knees.
She had red horns curling back from her skull. They matched the glossy pool of red in her eyes.
Her hair fell loosely behind her, forming a small hill of white. She didn't speak right away, she just stared at him, amusement and excitement gleaming in her gaze.
Dorian finally gathered enough energy to say something.
"First of all, you're real, right?" he asked, his tone barely above a whisper.
Who wouldn't ask that, if they were in his shoes? A strange woman appears at the top of a tower when there had been no one in sight.
She was beautiful, no doubt, but she looked more like a beast than a human.
The woman stared at him for a second before nodding slowly. "Yes. I am."
Her voice even sounded sweet, but he noticed it was distorted. It kept shifting in tones, like multiple people spoken at once in empty halls.
"What are you?"
"Not human."
"Yeah, I figured."
They were quiet for a moment. The wind didn't touch them, the tower didn't move. The world just stayed waiting, since the moment she arrived.
She glanced at the blood pooling beneath him, then at the boulder, before shifting her focus back to him. "You're not going to make it. You do know that, right?"
"I'm aware."
"You sound calm about it."
"Not the worst thing that's happened to me... so far."
She smiled faintly, but it didn't feel like a real one. More like something she'd seen others do and decided to try.
"You do not fear me... and you do not try to run or attack me. Why is that?"
Dorian's brow rose. He tilted his head like he was trying to get a better look at her, then shook his head and slowly closed his eyes.
The light from the Rift not far from them kept flashing, and it was starting to give him a headache.
He exhaled and replied simply, "I don't see any reason why. Besides, even if I wanted to, that would be impossible."
She nodded. She understood his condition, Then she asked, "Are you angry?"
"More pained than angry."
"You want to live?"
Dorian coughed out a handful of blood that slid down his jaw. Most of it got into his ears while the rest joined the pool at the bottom.
"What's the point?"
"To not die."
"Doesn't seem like a great deal," he said with a small smile.
She didn't say anything afterward, so he looked back at her face.
"Why are you here?"
"I always come to see the towers," she replied and pointed at the Rifts. "Each time one as large as that opens, I have to be there to leave my mark at the top of the tower."
Dorian was confused now. His eyes moved between her and the Rift. She didn't look like the beasts that came from them.
And from how carefully she chose her words, he could tell she wasn't from around here.
Yet, he found it hard to understand what she was talking about.
"I don't think I really understand you. Leave your mark—"
A painful hiss escaped his lips when the wind brushed over his open wounds.
The pain made his vision go blurry, with blotches of black floating in the air. He'd seen it before, when the migraines got bad.
"I'm half-dead," he muttered in a low tone, and she nodded.
"Yeah. That is why this is a good time."
She gestured around them lazily, "You're not getting out of this on your own. Your spine's cracked, your lungs are probably filling up, and your legs are... broken." She smiled warmly now, "I could help you."
"Really?"
She leaned forward slightly, until he was staring up at her."You want more than to get out of here alive, correct?"
Dorian averted his gaze as soon as she said that. She wasn't entirely wrong.
He would do anything to show those who abandoned him that his bloodline wasn't cursed for nothing.
He wanted to make sure the people who caused him pain felt it too.
And then there was the hatred, burning and bitter, for the beasts that had ruined his life more than once.
If it hadn't been for them, he would've been in school, happy and carefree for his age. Yet here he was, crushed under a boulder, bleeding out at the top of a tower that shouldn't even exist.
The only thing in his head now was survival, and vengeance.
"I could grant your wish," she said slowly, "but under a condition and for a price."
Dorian narrowed his eyes, he knew the condition would be something nearly impossible to exchange. But a part of him trusted her enough to agree.
He swallowed, "What is the condition?"
She smiled and placed her palms on his chest, "You have to kill me ..."