Original Fiction: Turning into Darkness

[Opinionated]

I was sitting, by the edge of the cliff where we had spent so many wonderful hours together, watching the sun slip beneath the ocean. As much as I tried, I couldn’t shake this sense of depression, and couldn’t stop thinking about what I had lost.

I should have been at the height of my life. By all accounts, me and my friends had done the impossible. We completely obliterated the sorceress that was ruining the earth, and defeated the spirit driving her magic. She was dead, by my hand. The spirit was sealed away, deep beneath the waves. People could live without fear anymore.

But I had lost. I lost my family, the friends of my childhood. But what stung even worse, I had lost the woman I loved. Dead by the sorceresses hands. The friends who followed me on this journey, said it was my leadership and determination after watching her die that allowed my final plan to work, to let that final battle end with her dead. To be honest, I don’t remember anything except a dull ache. I remember the battle, I remember how I led us to victory but… I can’t shake that ache. And even when I drove that witch’s own blade through her, that ache didn’t go away.

The woman I loved… She was an angel, to me. We met, when she was just an anonymous traveler, and I was just a mercenary. The first real memory I have of her, I was lying in a bed, covered in slashes and stabs, watching her tend me, unable to thank her. I remember her hands, I remember her eyes, how soft and brown they were, but how that softness concealed a sharp mind. Her voice, her laugh… I was in love when I first saw her. The more I knew her, the stronger that love became. She was the first one who took me seriously when I said I would kill the witch. She stayed by my side for the entirety of the journey. When I found she was the daughter of a foreign nobleman, I said… “So what? I loved her before I knew, this doesn’t affect me at all.”

I came to this spot, because this was our favorite point. We talked about ourselves, and our futures here. We agreed that we would go back, to her land, and be married, and raise a small family. We thought that paradise would be waiting for us after the quest. We held onto that dream. But… I suppose she found paradise before I did.

I’ve saved the land, but for what? What can I enjoy out of my victory? I’ll never be able to hold our child, never be able to show that child to my family, my friends, never once wake up lying next to her, and be able to just enjoy being near her, without any quests or responsibilities. I’ve lost my home. I’ve lost her. What did I fight for? Revenge? Nobility? Honor? My duty to the people?

I don’t know why I did it. I still don’t know how, we weren’t even close to being able to take on the sorceress. I don’t know how. All I know, is that I would give anything, do anything, become anything, if I could only hold my beloved again.

I don’t know if I really knew what I was doing when I stood up, and looked out at the ocean. I didn’t have any clear idea, only a conviction. I wiped away my tears, I picked up my sword, and turned to walk away from the sun.

Into night.