Cadence of Death

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Notes:
   
    Black = the present
    Green = Val's POV
    Blue = more recent memories
    Red = older memories
    Clicking is for both past and present

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-- Click ... click ... click ... --

The young man sits in shadows, swinging his hand ever so slightly ... Head bent, golden eyes brooding, blue green hair hiding his face. Perfect stillness.

A village. Empty. Massacred. Bodies littering the streets, blood staining the ground, seeping into the stones, never to be removed, hazy smoke that pours from a gutted, smoking ruin. Ruin of the inn. Charred shapes that could be bodies. No sounds ...

Click ... click ... click ...

A house. Still standing. The door hangs open, bodies within and without. Blood everywhere. Empty of life. Of the love and hope that was once there ...

Screams. Cries. Fighting. The sky full of black and gold. Red painting it in crimson streams. Pooling from black sources. Falling into nothing.

Click ... click ... click ...

An offer I can't refuse. Something where there is nothing. Hope for the emptiness. Death for life. Revenge within my grasp. Garv-sama ...

A room. Broken door to mark the way, cloth blowing in the window. Curtains of lace. A child's room ...

Click ... click ... click ...

Snow. Falling softly. Swirling around their dark, crimson stained forms. The snow drifts down to cover them, cloak them in it's whiteness, as if to wash the stain away. In their midst, a child's crying ...

Click ... click ... click ...

The only noise. Soft and repeated. Undisturbed by war or death. Eternal and everlasting. A measured hymn of death to show the way. A measurement in time. Swinging in the still breeze. A child's toy ...

Click ... click ... click ...

A toy. Ruby globes, like blood, on slender threads, hung on a slender stick. A child's toy ... for a child.

The young man sighs, bowing his head in pain.

A single moment and all is wiped away. My clan, the village, the life of a child. Only the sound. Sound of mourning. Cadence of death. Fitting for a broken, grieving child. For myself ...

A single tear falls to the ground.

-- Click ... click ... click ... --

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