TRUST

Chapter 6: A Sense of Doubt (Part 3)

I was sitting on a rocky bench, one that had been tangled with vines and foreign flowers . Where was I? Though I could not make a sound, my lips were sealed with some sort of tasteless and colorless power. All I could do was look around and wait for the reason I was there. 

"You are being a fool, brother," Hypathios's voice startled me, Suddenly, he materialized from thin air and was sitting beside me. He did not look at me; his gaze was fixed on something way ahead, though all I could see was darkness. The light was only bright enough in this small space, the rest was pitch dark.

Fool? I have done nothing to deserve such calling. Where was I? Was this...heaven?

"Am I dead?" I whispered.

"No. You are not—Yet," he laughed.

The way he laughed reminded , back in the day when we were both in our kingdom. That kind of laugh used to mean that I said something stupid.But this Hypathios looked completely different. He was...at peace, would be the word I use. He was so white, pale, even. Was he... dead?

"I know not of what you speak. Your accusation is wrongly pointed," I said boldly, I did not want my brother to know what it was I was about to do. He would never do it, He would have seen it as a disgrace.

"Ah... but what it is your mind is weaving is a path to nothing but destruction. Am I still wrongly pointing?" he said again, still calm and turned his head towards me, looking exactly into my eyes. He knew. I looked away.

"There is no other choice, every choice has been considered but the stake has not been reached. This is the only way for the deed to be done," I whispered, trying to sound convinced.

He chuckled though it was more like a laugh of pain. How he could not believe what his brother had become. A killer.

"A Golden Warrior. There was a reason you were called that one lifetime ago. A reason that should be remembered soon or farewell to a life where you are the one who make the choices," he said. Then he stood up and started to walk towards the darkness. I felt so scared because all that darkness could remind me of was all the bad things, as if that was hell.

"Hypathios! No! Wait, do not leave!" I screamed, but he would not listen. He kept on going into the darkness until he was nothing but a lost memory.

I woke up breathless, air wheezing in and out. Trickles of sweat as large as olives were streaming down my face. It was just a bad dream, I told myself. A dream full of whispers and aching ending but it was still just a dream. Hypathios went into the darkness. What did these dreams mean? Why did I keep having dreams about my brother? I did not understand.

I took two long and deep breaths, trying to gain back control over myself. These dreams were not a sign. It was just a part of my coward mind trying to prevent me from doing what it was I must.

No, it might not have been much of an honor what I was doing, not in the eyes of my brother or the Athenians, but it would have been in the eyes of my father. And that was all that mattered.

I knew that I had been wasting time getting to know this Princess but my emotions were not to be an obstacle to my duty. I have made my decisions, I will steal the weapon and once it was in my hand then she will die. No questions asked and no stepping back. 

Yes it would be hard, yes it would hurt. I just could not run away from it. 

I found myself standing in front of her door, knowing behind it stood the princess herself, It made me feel guilty. Knowing she would greet me with a polite and cheerful smile, trusting this man that she did not know , the one that was secretly on a mission to kill her.