TW - violence

Chapter 9

-Lord of Death-

I’m not sure what I expected Tevic’s real body to look like, but it took me a moment to realise who was who in the memory, until this Rachel woman called the other woman ‘Vickie’. The nickname ‘Vic’ made more sense, after that.

In his past life, Vic was a beautiful woman with a friendly smile. Victoria smiled a lot, and clearly loved her friend Rachel. Several sad memories are interwoven with the happy ones of Rachel, giving me little clues about Vic’s past life. The world he lived in confuses me, being so obviously different to mine, but the memories are over so fast that I barely have time to focus on minor details.

Some memories linger for more time, so they must be ones of more significance. Ones like the funeral, and when Victoria met Rachel for the first time. And then we make it onto a memory relevant to our goal: something about this ‘story’.

Only it’s about me. 

And it’s all true.

This book knows the future. Somehow, it knows exactly how I will die. Well fuck that. I will never let that scumbag king or shitty prince kill me; I’ll actively do everything in my power to ensure that he doesn’t succeed.

He treated me like a son. He even told me that he thought of me like the son he never had. And then I found out the truth - I hadn’t been taken in by the king: he had killed my parents. I was furious. I was…heartbroken. The man I had trusted most in my whole life had been lying to me about something this disgusting. 

And then he betrayed me a second time. He sent me to die, and had the audacity to be surprised when I appeared before him again, as alive as ever. No; I was more alive now. I had Death at my side and I was more fuelled by rage - that’s why Death was drawn to me in the first place.

It’s been a long time since then: over a decade. I’ve calmed down a lot, but the rumours and stories of my awful deeds are still as prominent as ever. I did some horrendous things in those first few years after becoming a lord; I had just turned 20 and I had a lot of power and a lot of anger. I secluded myself in my territory, only speaking to Death and eliminating anyone who entered uninvited.

Tavatta was the first to survive. They fought back and they fought hard; I decided to let them live. Now they are the person I trust the most, although I don’t really trust anyone completely. Even Death, who lives in my mind - I cannot trust that it has my best intentions at heart. It only wants as much destruction as possible; it survives off it. 

Without Death, I would be dead. If Death left me, I would die. It isn’t the same for Vic - Life brought him to a new body, giving him a new life. Life can come and go as it pleases, but Death…Death can never leave. Not without killing me, anyway. 

Death can’t be forcibly removed, from what it has told me. Not by mortals anyway; if Fate was stronger, then maybe it could. But Fate gets weaker the more that I deviate from the path it gave me. So if I help to keep Vic alive, as well as Lisette - who are both supposed to be dead already - then we can continue weakening the almighty Fate spirit.

That way, I can make sure that it never takes Death from me.

I continue watching as Vic sifts through all his memories of Rachel, some containing information about the story, and some not. We’ll have to consolidate everything when we wake up; there’s quite a lot, and we have to assume that everything is important.

The next memory confuses me at the arrival of a new face. Most of the memories with Rachel in have her physically there, but in some, she is apparently…in? On? A small shiny object. Whatever the hell that is.

“Stop, I’m supposed to be meeting up with Rachel! You know how upset she’s been since her dog died. And we planned this literally ages ago,” Victoria says, pushing the man away. He frowns, grabbing her wrist and pulling her back towards him and away from the door. “Come on babe, don’t be like that. Just tell her you’re too busy, she’ll understand.”

Victoria shakes her head, trying to push the man away again but he’s tall and holds onto her wrist tightly. “Jack, let me go. I told you that I’m meeting her for dinner! Stop, you’re hurting my wrist,” she says firmly, but the man just glares at her, a threatening look in his eyes. Feeling angry at how this man so obviously treats women poorly, I step forwards, meaning to push the man away from Victoria, but my hand goes right through his shoulder. 

Fuck, I keep forgetting that I’m just in a memory. And I’m supposed to be the one here to help Vic get out of the memory at the end. Pretty useless considering that I keep trying to get involved in the memories. 

Thankfully though, Victoria is able to take care of herself. 

“Jack, I’m being serious. I’ve told you before; you can’t treat me like your ‘thing’ to control. I’m not a fucking object, now let me go,” she tells the man fiercely, her eyes burning. The man - Jack - finally relents, releasing her wrist and putting his hands up in surrender. “God, fine, calm down. Always so dramatic, aren’t you? You know I love you, babe.”

Victoria chews on her lips - something that Vic does too, I’ve noticed - before nodding. “Yeah, I know. And I love you too. But you’ve got to stop acting like this, it’s scary.”

The man starts saying some more bullshit that I wouldn’t believe in a heartbeat, but Victoria is beginning to look swayed. But more than anything, she just looks tired. Like she’s fed up of dealing with his shitty attitude. The strange shiny object starts glowing and Victoria holds it up to her ear, speaking through it.

“Rachel? Sorry yes I’m leaving now, see you soon! Can’t wait. Love you too!” She says brightly, but her expression doesn’t match her voice at all as she looks at the man. The memory switches again and it’s another one which Rachel isn’t physically in. Victoria is holding that object again, speaking into it. I can hear Rachel’s voice through it somehow, talking about the book again. 

“Vickie? You still there?” Rachel’s voice sounds through the item and Victoria hums. “Yeah, I’m nearly home,” she replies, suddenly glancing behind her with narrowed eyes. She looks scared, and her fingers tighten slightly around the item in her hand.

“My shift is about to start, but message me once you’re home safe? Love you!” Rachel’s voice cuts off just as Victoria whispers “yeah, love you too.” She shivers, before freezing. I can practically feel the tension radiating off her. Glancing around, I can’t see what is putting her on edge - of course I can’t. I can only see what’s in Vic’s memories.

Victoria takes a deep breath and then suddenly starts running; I dash after her through the odd looking streets, before stopping abruptly when she runs into a man. “Victoria!” I shout out as she is punched in the stomach and shoved against a wall. Her mouth is covered, stopping her from screaming, and she is hit again. I try to shove the man off her, but once again to no avail. 

“Fuck you, Victoria,” the man spits, and all I can do is watch as she is stabbed in the shoulder, and then the thigh. She tries to scream again, but the man keeps his hand over her mouth, forcing her into near-silence. Anger boils in my gut as I watch the man stab her again and again, whispering words into her ear while she cries in pain.

“I never even loved you, not one bit,” he tells her, his tone venomous. And it’s then that I realise who this man is. 

This is Jack.

This is Victoria’s shitty lover. 

And then I realise that this is how Vic died. He was killed by a man who pretended to love him.

He was betrayed. 

He was meant to die.

Just like me.