The Dead King

The three headed back upstairs from the basement, and began grabbing the bodies, moving them away.

As Gus began to pick up body parts, he became visibly sick.

“I don’t know if I can do this, Marin,” he stated.

“Steel yourself, Gus. You’re alive, aren’t you? Would you rather be dead?” Marin said back as he picked up a rogue member under his shoulders.

Gus silently shook his head to himself. He had to put out of his mind that what he was picking up was once alive. At least the gooey monster that Eisen had destroyed earlier had helped him in getting used to handling organic material such as this.

Once the bodies had been taken care of, they took a small break in the basement.

“Thirty-seven, total,” Eisen stated. “I can’t guarantee I killed all the attackers, there’s a chance some fled, but any that had an encounter with me are all here.”

Marin couldn’t believe how messy Eisen had been with the rogues, he expected someone of his skill to perform cleaner kills, but he had no room to complain, seeing as he had kept Gus alive.

“This is all of it, then?” Marin asked.

“Every body, every bone, every liver. I did two passes,” Eisen confirmed.

Marin then took a step forward.

Eisen and Gus watched as Marin extended his hand, and began freezing the pile of bodies. It was a unique form of ice Gus had never seen before. It wasn’t transparent as normal, or even opaque. The ice was foggy, and impossible to see into.

After the ice had covered the entire pile, Marin took a moment, and began subtly moving his fingers. The ice cracked at each movement.

Whatever ability Marin was performing, it wasn’t instantaneous like Gus had always seen. Marin was such a master at his element, that every move he used had been immediate. Whatever he was doing now, it was actually taking him some time to get right.

His fingers wiggled more, as if he was conducting some sort of symphony from within his palm. After a few more seconds, he finally clutched his hands into fists, and the ice broke, crackling onto the ground, and began dissolving away.

Marin turned back around to face the two of them while the ice continued dissipating.

“That’s taken care of,” Marin said, as he walked back to the stairs leading out of the basement.

Gus watched Marin walk by him, then he turned back to the pile. When the final bit of foggy ice disappeared, so too had everything that was contained inside. The bodies were gone, not a single trace of anything was left from what he had froze.

Gus could tell Marin was deeply disturbed by everything that had happened, he was not in a good mood, even more so after having to dispose of large pile of bodies in such a brutal way. It was an impressive move, but one he could tell Marin never ever wanted to do.

Doctor Eisen then headed upstairs as well, leaving Gus standing down there alone. He continued to stare impressively at the now empty floor, replaying in his mind how Marin was able to make things literally disappear.

He started thinking how long it would take him to learn that ability. Was Marin still going to teach him like he said? His King was very upset for the time being, perhaps he could cheer him up.

Gus headed up stairs too after a minute. In the kitchen, he saw Eisen drawing a cup of water from a barrel, now looking more tired than he had been earlier.

“Where’s Marin?” He carefully asked.

“Sitting on the porch, I believe.” He took a gulp of water. “If you’re going to see him, let him know that I’m going to clean myself up.”

Gus acknowledged, then headed down the hallway to the living room. From the room, Gus could see out to the front yard due to a lack of a door and most of the wall missing.

Sure enough, Marin was slumped on the porch stairs, sitting, looking out into the front yard and beyond.

Gus approached, and took a seat besides his King on the wooden stairs.

A few moments of silence passed as they sat there in contemplation.

“Did you get your cross back?” Gus tried, finally.

“No.”

Gus slumped his head down. He was not off to a great start. He wasn’t sure what to say next. He couldn’t think of any thing that would help the situation. He felt unworthy to try and give him any advice or words to cheer him up. Was that even his place to do so?

“How’s your wound?” Marin eventually asked.

Gus perked up. “Oh!” He pulled up the side of his shirt, revealing a nearly healed patch. “It’s doing great! I almost can’t feel it anymore. Every once in a while I still feel a twinge of pain, but that’s completely manageable.”

“Good, good,” Marin replied. “The doctor did well, I’m glad I didn’t lose you.”

Gus shrugged. “Everyone has to die one day. At least my time wasn’t this week,” he stated.

The words echoed in Marin’s undead mind. Everyone has to die one day. Did that apply to him? Was he doomed to live forever? Perhaps one day he would take it upon himself to keep that statement true.

“He saved my life twice now,” Gus added. “Although I’m now afraid of him now more than ever before.”

“How so?” Marin asked.

Gus shook his head. He turned around to make sure Eisen wasn’t anywhere near to listen.

“I think the Doctor has done quite a few experiments on himself. He must’ve pumped himself with some insane formulas. I’m talking body altering stuff.”

Marin looked over at him in silence.

“When the rogues attacked, he… he somehow found a unique way to kill each of them. And he enjoyed it. At one point, his jaw unhinged like a snake, and he bit off one dude’s head.”

“What?!” Marin yelled.

Gus jerked his head around behind him to again confirm that Eisen wasn’t listening. When he was sure of it, he continued.

“One guy… One guy he drained all the blood out of his body in like two seconds, leaving him a dried husk. He was laughing hysterically as he did it.”

Marin took a deep breath.

“The things I saw, Marin. You’re right. There’s a whole side of the world out there I never knew about. What I witnessed, I would’ve never believed if someone told me about it. He is truly a mad scientist. I mean, do you know anything about his past? Anything about what he’s done? Should we be trusting him?”

Marin brought his hands up to his mask, deeply in thought.

“We have to. We have to because I need his help in a very… secret affair,” Marin explained.

“Really?” Gus asked.

“Yes. I understand that he is a bit crazy. Well, more than a bit. But he seems to understand right from wrong, and not ever cross those lines. Although he might blur them sometimes, from what I saw earlier.”

Gus nodded.

“Do you know what he’s doing right now?” Marin asked.

“Oh, yeah. He’s cleaning himself up. I guess he somewhat-”

Gus was cut off from the approaching of several guards.

Marin immediately stood up. Gus did too.

The Tarenfall guards had on chain mail and helmets shadowing their faces. They had their swords drawn, and slowly approached, ready to attack or apprehend the two of them.

“What’s the meaning of all this?” The guard in the front said in an intimidating tone. He looked ready to make an arrest.

Marin didn’t respond immediately.

Gus guessed that Marin was weighing whether or not to avoid the hassle and just freeze them. Before he let Marin make that decision, he stepped in front, and tried talking to the guards.

“Good evening, officers. What seems to be-”

“Cut the crap,” the guard immediately said, interrupting him. “What’s happened around here? We’ve received reports of disturbance, loud explosions and people wailing. As I can see, that would be true.”

The guards were looking at Eisen’s destroyed house.

Gus responded by trying to come up with an excuse, but it was a pathetic attempt. As he tried smoothing things over with the leading guard, another one handed him some paper work.

“This is Doctor Edward Eisen’s house, correct?” The head guard asked.

Gus nodded.

“Where is he? And you there!” The guard pointed at Marin. “Remove the mask!”

Before anything else could happen, Eisen appeared.

He hopped down the stairs of his front porch. He was in a brand new, white lab coat with very little staining compared to his old one. His hair was back into a neat ponytail, and he had somehow found himself a new pair of glasses.

“Ah, Doctor,” the guard said in a calmer tone after seeing the man. “Care to explain what all this is?”

“Forgive me. I mixed two chemicals together that you shouldn’t mix, if you understand.”

The guard took a moment.

“You caused this?” He finally said.

“It was a careless mistake,” Eisen lied.

The guard looked back down at his paper work, then back at the ruined house.

“Yeah, well… that still doesn’t explain the cries that were reported earlier!”

Eisen leaned in to the guard. “If you caused the same explosion I accidentally did, I’m sure it would also cause any house guests you had some major distress.” Eisen turned his head to look at Marin and Gus.

The guard also looked at them. He then turned to his backup troops, and began talking among themselves, quiet enough that Marin couldn’t hear. They looked over the paperwork a few more times.

Finally, the main guard turned back to Eisen.

“Well if that’s the case, you wouldn’t mind us having a look around then, would you?”

“Not at all. Please, look around as much as you’d like,” Eisen offered.

All five guards walked forward, their swords now sheathed, and began studying the house. Marin and Gus stepped out of the way, and allowed the officers to walk by. They entered, and started looking around.

The doctor approached Marin as the guards were inside.

“You came in the nick of time,” Marin quietly told Eisen.

“It’s a good thing we took care of the bodies when we did,” Eisen said back in a hushed tone.

“We almost didn’t.”

“Sorry about that. I wasn’t acting myself.”

Marin slowly nodded to himself. That was for sure.

The guards spread out as they searched for anything that would give them evidence otherwise to what Eisen had claimed. They kicked over debris, that made up parts of the house as well as his possessions. Much of the potions that Marin had taken time to organize and make neat were shattered all over the floor.

The captain guard took the stairs into the Doctor’s basement, but neither Marin or Eisen were worried, Marin had taken perfect care of the situation.

The three of them exchanged some conversation as the guards continued their investigation.

“So tell me what happened,” Marin asked them.

“It was about – what, 2:30?” Eisen started.

He looked to Gus, who nodded.

“I saw two of them in the hallway, never heard them come in. Shocked me, for sure. They made an attack, and I dispatched them quickly. Gus came out to see what the commotion was, but by that time, more were crashing in through the windows,” Eisen started.

“That’s when the doctor told me to stay put in the corner,” Gus added.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Eisen nodded. “Anyways, at that point, it was just a blur, really. They kept coming, and I fought each one. Judging by the remains of the rogues, I might’ve gotten carried away,” he admitted.

“You really got carried away. Bodies were crashing through the walls,” Gus stated. “And you ate a head!”

He had said that part a bit louder than what was comfortable, and Marin gestured for Gus to keep it quiet so the searching guards wouldn’t hear them.

“Yeah, ah, that. Well, you gotta do what you gotta do.” Eisen replied, a feeble attempt to validate what he did.

“Anyways,” Eisen continued, “I found a rogue left that hadn’t met his death yet, so I figured, eh, why not try this new formula I developed on him to record the results? I haven’t had a test subject in ages, and figured to take advantage of the situation.”

Eisen looked at Marin, who only looked back through a silent, black mask.

“Well, as you shared, it wasn’t such a good time,” Eisen ended.

Eventually, the guard returned to the three of them, done with his search.

“Everything checks out,” he stated. He wrote a few notes on the paperwork. “If I were you, I’d be more careful about your little experiments, Doctor Eisen. Especially with guests in your house,” the guard said in a condescending tone.

“Of course, of course,” Eisen concurred.

“Had that little explosion killed someone, I would’ve booked you for manslaughter.”

“We wouldn’t want that!” Eisen replied.

The guard nodded. “And you,” he said to Marin. “Why are you wearing that mask?”

“Personal reasons. I’m quite self conscious,” Marin tried.

The guard tapped his foot. “Yeah, well… You should get over that. It makes guards rightfully nervous when they arrive at a potential crime scene and someone is hiding their identity.”

“I understand,” Marin respectfully replied.

“Alright then. Boys! We’re outta here.” The guard yelled for the rest of his soldiers to vacate the premises.

Shortly after leaving, and Marin confirming they were out of sight, they headed back into the torn up house.

“What’s next?” Gus asked.

“What’s next is that we start thinking about returning to Nocturne Castle. I think we’ve been away from our Kingdom long enough,” Marin stated.