I could barely keep my eyes open. Never before in my life had I felt this kind of pain. I got hurt numerous times both in my past life and in my current one, sometimes seriously so, but somehow I never fractured anything. Part of me was curious just how much strength Mathias had to cleanly fracture my leg like that. But a bigger part was cursing him, hating him so much.

“I hate you…” I cried. My head was cradled against his chest. He was carrying me bridal style, being careful with my leg. He tied a long branch with some cloth to stabilize it. Despite that, every time he took a step the shaking made me clench my teeth and more words to spill from my mouth. “You’re a monster. I hate you so much…”

He said nothing. His face was a mask.

“Say something at least, you bastard...”

The castle walls were coming closer and closer. Guards were alert and waiting for us. They bowed as they saw us but they kept their eyes strictly looking forward. They were purposely avoiding my gaze, out of guilt or incommodity, I didn’t know.

As soon as Mathias walked a few meters inside the castle with me in arms, a familiar voice called out to us, making the bastard carrying me halt.

“Mathias! What have you done?!”

I lifted my head slightly seeing Lucas running towards us. His face was pale, his eyes glancing from me, to Mathias, to my broken leg over and over. In the back of my head I wondered if he had been waiting for us. There was no else in the vicinity to say he was made to wait by his father, at least.

“Lucas, what are you doing out here?” Mathias asked with a calm voice, but I felt his hold on me tightening. I moaned in pain due to the hypersensibility of my body at the moment. Lucas’ eyes flew to my face, before looking at his brother again, his gaze fierce.

“Put her down” he pronounced slowly. Mathias raised his eyebrows.

“Lucas, listen…”

“I said to put her down!” he shouted this time, surprising us both. It was the first time I heard such anger coming from him. All this time he had been so meek, if just a little cheeky.

I could tell Mathias wasn’t expecting that. “Lucas…”

“Not ‘Lucas’ me! If you don’t put Elaine down right now, I'll make you!” he hissed, looking very serious and very ready to fulfill his threat. And although I was undeniably moved by his anger, I really didn’t want to be stuck in the middle of their fight. Enough I had with just lying unmoving in Mathias' arms and feeling excruciating pain nonetheless.

I looked at Mathias expectantly, hoping he would obey his brother. Like before, his face didn’t show his emotions, but there was a little frown between his brows. I could tell he was very troubled by his brother finding out what he had done. Regardless, after a moment longer of staring at each other without saying anything, he finally nodded, moving to lay me down on the ground, my back supported by a pillar.

I winced in pain again.

“Elaine, are you alright?” Lucas kneeled next to me, his hand hovering over me as if he wanted to touch me but didn’t know where. His eyes were wandering all over my body, probably trying to find out if I was hurt anywhere else. So much worry towards me made me admittedly embarrassed, to be completely honest.

“I have a fucking broken leg; do you think I’m alright?” I answered, becoming annoyed at the fuzzy feeling growing on my belly. I regretted my harsh tone immediately, but said nothing to apologize.

“Oh… well, you’re right” Lucas nodded, biting his lips and finally sitting down. He brought his hands over to my leg and sent me a meaningful glance for which I was surprised.

Mathias was as well.

“Lucas, what do you think you’re going to do?” he took a step forward, but when Lucas simply gave him a venomous glare, he halted altogether.

“Don’t you dare come closer! Mathias, you’ve disappointed me completely. I thought, regardless of what father made you do, you would always try to take the correct decision. I thought you were a good person! How could you do this to Elaine?!”

I really, really hated Mathias, but wow, seeing the expression he made after hearing his brother's words was something else. After all, it was for Lucas he was giving up all of his morals and behaving so horribly towards me.

Auch.

“Lucas, that’s not what…”

“Shut up! Just… shut up…” he shook his head, before looking at my leg again. “Elaine, I’m going to take the branch and cloth off for a little. I will try to heal you a bit, but I’m not really good yet with healing magic, so…”

“It’s… it’s alright. Thank you…” what else could I say? Healing magic was not Lucas’ forte. In fact, very few people could be count as having astounding ability in it, but the simple fact he wanted to help with what little experience he had made me feel… strange.

Unfortunately, before Lucas could move, another voice, different from Mathias’, interrupted us.

“You’ve brought her back successfully.”

Ugh… what is this? Why is my body shaking so much? Not only me, but Lucas was completely agitated as well. The two of us turned to look at the viscount at the same time. No matter how many times I saw him, every time I felt chilled to the bone as if it was the first time. Between him and Mathias, the latter was nothing but a sub-villain with the impact of a bug. That’s how malevolent his aura was.

Mathias stepped forward, bowing to his father who stopped right in front of us, both the necromancer and Adela behind him. “I had, father. I’ve also made sure she is unable to run away again.”

The viscount glanced at my leg, giving a disinterested nod, before his eyes focused on Lucas, whose hand was still hovering over me. Immediately, Lucas retracted his hand, but it was already too late.

“I heard from Adela exactly what happened, and how you three colluded behind my back.”

My eyes widened and I almost snapped my neck with how fast I turned to look at Adela. What did the viscount just say? It couldn't be she actually told him everything, right? After all, she was on our side. She helped us. It just couldn’t be…

As if sensing my perplexity, she scoffed, crossing her arms with a haughty expression.

“Really, how useless can you be? I gave you a perfect opportunity to run away and yet, what did you do? You got trapped again! Do you not care about your life at all?”

My jaw dropped. What was wrong with her all of a sudden?

“What do you mean, Adela? You’re the one who approached Elaine first wanting to help her escape!” Lucas got out of his surprise and spoke, frowning at her with anger and confusion. He was only answered with another look of ridicule.

“From the very beginning I said it was not my intention to help her survive. The only thing I wanted was to prevent my master from performing the ritual. But now that she’s back and security will surely increase around you two; what’s the point? Master is going to perform the ritual either way, so helping you any further is useless. Truly, the two of you are so pitifully stupid I can’t bear to look at you any longer.”

And with that said, she turned her head, closing her eyes and remaining like that. Truthfully, though I knew she never did help me for my sake, I couldn’t help but be completely dumbfounded. What was all this? She truly sold us out to save her neck? First Mathias, now Adela, were all the main characters of Zombie Time actually evil? So selfish and self-centered?

I wanted to cry. Even though barely half an hour ago I had freedom so close at hand, why did everything took a turn for the worst so fast?

Why was everyone so full of themselves?

As if reading my thoughts, the viscount spoke, this time his voice laced with scorn. “You don’t need to look so devastated, lass. The world works like that, after all. Everyone looks only after themselves. Looking out for others never brings anything good to oneself. I know that.”

He said this as if remembering something from his past that hurt him a lot, but one second later that expression was gone, and his eyes strayed off towards Lucas. I felt him wince, shrinking down on himself.

“As for you, Lucas, you have betrayed me without reason. You betrayed me just to save a girl that should mean nothing to you, even though you knew she was to be your replacement” his words cut like ice. Lucas could only glance down. However, the viscount’s next words made everyone, especially Mathias, freeze in shock. “As it is, you’re not trustworthy anymore. The ritual will take place as scheduled tomorrow night, but Lucas will be the sacrifice, not the girl.”

There was a momentary buzz of disbelief, before Mathias stepped forward. “Father, you can’t…!” he yelled. But one glance from the viscount completely stopped him.

What…?

“Mathias, you’ve done enough already. Go back to your room.”

“…I” Mathias shook his head. “How… how can you do this? I-I did… I did everything you told me to… you can’t just…”

He was blabbering at this point. He looked ready to cry from frustration, appearing so much like a small child or frightened animal. I simply watched him, astounded. What was wrong with him? He couldn’t be so scared of his father. I mean, he broke my leg, for fuck’s sake! How come he can starve a family for a year and torture a small innocent girl like me to protect his brother, but he's unable to stand against his father?!

“Mathias” the viscount repeated, his words low, threatening. “Go to your room, and don’t leave until the ritual is finished. This is an order.”

A dangerous expression passed over Mathias’ face, and I thought he was finally going to retaliate. But he didn’t. He simply nodded, all the while looking down, and turned around to go back inside the castle.

I could not believe it.

“What is wrong with you?!” I screamed at him, moving unconsciously to stand up. Searing pain went through my body. Lucas quickly went over to hold me before I could do more damage to myself, but I slapped his hand away. My entire being was burning with anger. “Are you that much of a coward?! After everything you did, are you giving up like this?!”

He didn’t turn around. He said nothing.

“Come back here! Do something for your brother! Show me you’re not the monster I think you are!”

“Elaine…”

“No Lucas!  He can’t do this! He can’t…” I didn’t realize in what moment I started crying, but I could feel it there. Fat drops scorching my skin as they rolled down my face. I was no longer a sacrifice, true, but I was not happy. Not happy at all. “He’s your brother and he’s abandoning you! How can y-!”

I stopped abruptly when I looked at him, and saw Lucas’ face completely pale, but more than anything, those same tears that were bothering me so much were staining his face. I found no more force in me to keep yelling.

“Lucas…”

“It’s alright Elaine, I… it was supposed to be like this from the beginning…”

It was not alright. I wanted to tell him that, but once again, we were interrupted.

“Take them both to the eastern tower. I’ll think what to do with the girl later, but in the meantime, lock the two of them up” the viscount gave the order.

And thus, we were taken away.

A.P.R.L.

The arc is starting to reach its climax. By the way, it really isn't my intention to finish every chapter with a cliffhanger, but somehow it always happens. Does this bother you all a lot?