Skylar Caldwell

Princess Nymeria, Amelia and Rohan all escorted Levi to one of the last carriages and put him on the back, with Amelia sitting with him to make sure he didn’t try to escape. The remaining survivors were told to load into a different carriage, and that they’d be coming with us.

A few feet away, I heard a woman say loudly, “No! You should let that hero go! He did all of us a favor! That summoned mistake had to have been the reason we were all attacked by aberrations in the first place! Good riddance!” I watched as she then spit on the ground.

“Hey!” A man yelled at the woman. “I told you to stop already! You yelling at Michael earlier is probably what caused him to go into the aberration zone in the first place.”

I looked back at the woman. She shot me a satisfied smirk. I walked up to her, and slapped her across the face as hard as I could muster.

“What the hell?” She screamed. “Why would you do that?”

“How dare you talk bad about Michael! I have known him my entire life. Not once has he ever been a mistake! I promised him long ago that I’d always be there for him! To protect him! And now he’s gone! You really have some fucking nerve talking about him like that!”

Her eyes narrowed, and her voice got sharper.

“I have some fucking nerve? You would defend that mistake? He was nothing more than an abomination that caused the deaths of almost every person here!”

Before she could say another word, I tackled her to the ground. I had never been much of a violent person before, but I drove my fist into her face without a second thought. She stared at me in shock and her nose was bleeding. She raised her hand to grab me by my hair, but I punched her in the face a second time before she could. I lost count of how many times I had hit her before I was forcefully pulled off of her.

“That’s enough!” I heard the princess yell. “Skylar, I know you’re in a lot of pain right now, but that’s no excuse to beat that woman!”

I said nothing, instead glaring down at the woman I had knocked unconscious. Good riddance my ass. She spoke badly about Michael. She deserved worse than what I had just done.

Don’t worry. Not everything is lost yet.

I looked over at Calvin, who was walking towards the carriage that Levi was currently sitting in.

“Calvin,” I said, and he turned to look at me. “Did you just say something?”

He looked at me, clearly confused.

“No… are you… ok?”

“Yeah, sorry. I just thought I heard you say something is all.”

That was strange. I swear I heard Calvin tell me not to worry. I must be hearing things.

The man who had previously yelled at the woman walked up to me slowly.

“Your name is Skylar, right?” He asked. “Look, about what she said, don’t take it to heart. She was frustrated. I don’t believe what she said was right. I am truly sorry for your loss.”

He turned and started walking away, but stopped and gave me a small smile when I said, “Thank you.”

Rohan came up to me next. He led me to a horse, and he got on. He then held out his hand, and helped me get on the horse behind him. With all the remaining survivors of the attack in one carriage, Levi and Amelia in another, and the rest of us on horses, we all started heading back to the tower.

The three hour journey was mostly quiet. Almost nobody spoke about what had happened. I saw Rebecca riding a horse close to me, and I could tell from the look on her face that she was working through what had happened. I knew that she, as much as I, didn’t want to believe Michael was gone. It didn’t seem real. I had just spoken to him minutes before he disappeared. Minutes before I was told that Levi had practically killed him.

I looked over at Rebecca for what seemed to be the thousandth time, and I could see her silently crying. I started crying as well. Rohan looked over his shoulder, and told me that I could talk to him if I needed to. Instead of talking however, I simply put my face into his back, and cried even harder for the second time.

Once we got back to the tower, it was dark out. We had been gone since early this morning. And we had already experienced so much death. I knew, ever since Princess Nymeria talked about what was going to happen today, I knew that death was unavoidable. I knew not everyone would survive. I was stupid for thinking Michael had to be exempt from that.

I helped Rohan and the princess put each of the remaining survivors into their own separate rooms. Nothing as fancy as the room I had been living in for the past three weeks, but at least they had somewhere to sleep. Levi was saved for last. I watched as Amelia escorted him off the carriage and into the tower, with him shooting me one last look of remorse before they disappeared into the building.

Princess Nymeria walked up to me.

“Skylar, I will leave this decision up to you. We can either interrogate him tonight, or tomorrow morning.”

Without hesitation, I said “Tonight. I want some fucking answers.”

She nodded in response, and yelled out loud enough for Amelia to hear her.

“Take him to the interrogation room first!”

“Yes, your majesty!” I heard Amelia’s voice from inside.

Princess Nymeria then led me and the others inside. Once we walked through the doors, we walked down the hallway for a few minutes until she came to an entrance. She gestured for me to follow and I walked in with her. The room inside had a chair in the middle with Levi sitting in it. On the wall behind him was a large white sheet, which made me think of a movie screen.

Levi was strapped to the chair, with chains around his ankles as well. Amelia stood beside him, with a serious look on her face. Rebecca and the others walked in ten seconds later, and Princess Nymeria instructed them all to stand by the entrance.

“We’re just waiting on one more person,” she said, then walked over to me. “We are going to get answers tonight, just like you asked.”

I barely looked at her when I heard one more person enter the room. I looked over, and saw a man I hadn’t seen before. Princess Nymeria had him stand next to her, and introduced him.

“This is our interrogator, Quill. Quill has a memory thread, and is able to directly see the memories of the person he’s interrogating.” She gestured to a device that I failed to notice when I originally walked into the room. “This artifact will allow him to transfer Levi’s memories onto the screen behind him, allowing all of us to see exactly what happened. Quill, you are free to start the interrogation.”

Quill bowed and said “Yes, your majesty.”

He walked to take Amelia’s place beside Levi, and placed his left hand on Levi’s head, and placed his right on the artifact. After a few seconds, the artifact started glowing, Levi’s head jerked upwards with his eyes wide open and he gasped, then an image projected onto the screen.

In Levi’s memory, we saw him run to help Michael and the two other injured soldiers who we had left behind to prevent them from further injury when we ran to the caravan. We saw the aberration kill one of them, before standing over Michael. I was shocked to see the aberration attack the other man instead of Michael who was right there. 

In his memory, we saw him punch the aberration, sending it into the zone behind it. He helped Michael to stand up, before turning and running back towards the caravan. We heard Michael call out to Levi, telling him to slow down, but when Levi turned around, we saw an aberration instead of Michael.

We watched as the memories on the screen continued to play out. Levi bolted to the aberration and punched it so far hard that it flew backwards. As it flew backwards however, the aberration slowly morphed into the form of Michael. 

“Wait, Michael?" Levi’s voice sounded in the memory. Michael landed in front of the zone, and Levi stepped forward. He started running, and we saw the aberration’s hand come out of the zone, and impale Michael through the chest. As it lifted Michael into the air, Levi turned around and ran. We heard one last scream from Michael, before Levi stopped suddenly and looked down. 

We saw in the vision that Levi was encased in stone, and when he looked up, Amelia was walking over and calling him a traitor and a coward. The memories being projected on the screen ended as Amelia brought Levi over to us and threw him on the ground.

It felt weird to hear my own voice asking where Michael was before the projected memories finally stopped. Quill slowly took his hand off of Levi’s head, and Levi let out a huge sigh, as if he had been holding his breath the entire time.

“So,” the princess spoke suddenly, making me jump, “something caused Levi to hallucinate Michael as an aberration. Most likely the aberration he had knocked into the zone had an illusion thread, and targeted Levi, knowing that Michael was its easiest target.”

“You’re saying it’s not Levi’s fault?” I asked, trying my best to not get angry. “He could’ve still saved him. He still could’ve saved Michael!”

“Yes, you are right,” she replied. “But attacking him isn’t his fault. The aberration forcefully made him hallucinate. I know that you must be feeling a mix of emotions right now, but please don’t let that distract you from the greater threat. You still need to work with each other. Amelia, release Levi from his bindings. He didn’t intentionally betray any of us.”

I watched as Amelia slowly unchain the restraints around his ankles, then the ones keeping him on the chair. I glared at the princess, then at Levi. “Whatever princess. I lost the last person that truly mattered to me. But yeah, I won’t let this distract me. I’m going the fuck to bed.”

I stormed out of the room, and heard Rebecca call out after me, but I ignored her. I needed to get stronger, to truly avenge Michael. I decided in that moment, that I would live for him.