MCYT Oneshots And Other Random Stuff

Hels Pt. 2

Mare is waiting for me when I get shoved back into our cell. The cell is a room built of cinder blocks and iron, with an adjacent bathroom and a door that remains locked at almost all hours. It's not very big, just enough space for three bunk beds in a row and a table with (hard, metal) chairs where we sit to eat our meals.

"Did you win?" Mare asks eagerly, his legs swinging off the edge of his top bunk. It used to be mine, but Mare gets anxious when he sleeps on a bottom bunk, like claustrophobia. We swapped beds after his first panic attack. I'm not going to let an eleven year old suffer because I want to feel special.

"Of course I won," I scoff, disguising my actual excitement. I'm almost there, at the point all of us down here strive to reach.

If I win my final battle, I'll be free.

Mare's orange eyes gleam, and I know he's thinking the same thing. "What're you going to do if you're freed, Shade?" he asks, using the nickname only he uses for me, just like how I'm the only one who calls him Mare.

I glance over my shoulder out of habit. Anyone could be listening. So I tell him, "I'm not free yet." A spark of understanding lights in Mare's face, and he retreats before he goes too far down that road.

I glance around the cell. Mare and I are the only ones present, and my stomach tightens. "Where are BT and Ex?" I know G is in Training right now, but it's not like the others to not be here. That means they're in the arenas— the battles are rarely at the same time from day to day, and we are not given a schedule.

Mare shrugs. "Fighting." He gives me a subdued smile. "It's been... really quiet." Instantly I feel terrible, even though battling wasn't my choice. Mare would've been expecting me to come back from my shift in the quartz mines a few hours ago, now. And if the others were all dragged off by obligation not long after... Poor Mare.

BT and Ex would offer a hug, but I'm not either of them. I'm not a touchy-feely person. So I just stand there silently and feel awful, and evidently Mare knows me well enough to understand, because he hugs me. "'S okay," he mumbles into my sandy chestplate.

So I whisper into his blond hair as I hug him close: "If I'm freed, I'll make all of them pay." I want to swear I'll take Mare with me, but I know I can't promise that, so this is the next best thing. Justice is something that we have all gone without, but it would be precious to any of us.

"You can't do that. The Aetherians will kill you." Mare has the good sense to keep his voice low.

I smile. "Oh, Nightmare. Not if I kill them first." I'm going to destroy everything they hold dear.

I'll show them all how a knight forged in the Nether acts.

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I wanted to write more Hels so I did
Meet Nightmare "Mare", Knight's sort of surrogate little brother