Ep.53: A Painful Betrayal, Part 2

Cinder remains silent.

“Oh no… Ohhh, no no no! …This is not good! Professor Gwyn, are you okay?!” Maka attempts to stand only to have his legs buckle beneath him, sending him face first onto the floor.

“Why?! Why would you do this?!” Anaea sobs, choking on her held back tears. “Cinder!”

“Damn it! What the hell is wrong with me?” Ramsey cries out as his legs begin to shake. “Why won’t my legs move?!”

Upon hearing the voices of my friends I force myself to stop. I look at the ground, shaking with rage. “How could you? Cinder…” I turn my fury towards Cinder. “How could you do this?! Answer me!”

Cinder remains silent.

“What about the jungle? I thought we were going to save it together?!” Unable to hold back my fiery storm of wrath, I scream, “Cinder! Say something, damn you!” I try to stop my hands from shaking by clenching them into white knuckled fists. “Fine. I’ll come to you, and make you answer me, Cinder.”

“Young Fukai…” Gwyn raises his hand while breathing heavily. “Please… please don’t come any closer.” Gwyn places his second, bloody hand on the spear and smiles. “It looks like we frightened the kids, Cinder.”

Cinder continues to remain silent.

A deep cough rattles through Gwyn, ejecting more blood from his stained lips. As the coughing subsides, Gwyn smiles. “Why so quiet?” Gwyn says warmly, almost like he hasn’t just been stabbed through the chest; Like he’s expecting an answer regarding a theory they’ve been discussing. “Say, Cinder, you know you don’t have to go through with this… I’m sure we can work something out if we put our minds to it.”

Cinder’s silence speaks more than any words.

Gwyn looks into Cinder’s eyes; there is a calmness about both of them. “I see.” Gwyn looks at the temple entrance, the warmth of his smile reaching his eyes. “I guess our journey together ends here, Cinder.”

Lightning strikes off in the distance, shortly followed by a calamitous clap of thunder. The suddenness of it shakes me out of my fury.

“Huh, it’s starting to rain,” I wonder, as a raindrop falls on my head.

drip

-----*drip*

drip-----*drip*

-----*drip**drip*-----*drip*

Within the next flash of lightning, Cinder nods his head and swiftly tears out the spear and drops it to the ground. It lands with a clatter and retracts into a rod.

“Professor Gwyyyyyyyyyyyn!!” Anaea screams, horrified, watching the blood fly through the air, following in the spear’s path as it’s ripped out and cast away from Gwyn’s body. Gwyn falls forward, his hands and knees hitting the ground with a thud.

Unable to do anything, I freeze. “What… do I do?”

“Damn it. I didn’t think it would be this painful,” Gwyn rasps while keeping pressure on the gaping wound. “Agh!” Gwyn rolls heavily over onto his back to look up at the sky. “Fuck. Rain.” Gwyn’s breaths come into his body heavy and labored. “Am I to die here?”

Cinder straightens his coat and begins to walk placidly towards the temple entrance.

“Dammit! Where do you think you’re going?! Cindeeeer!” I shout out, my eyes locked on Cinder, fury burning in my gaze.

Cinder pauses for a second, still refusing to respond to me. “…” Cinder turns to address Gwyn one last time. “Farewell, Master. May your legacy be forever untainted.” Cinder says calmly, then, taking a deep breath, he turns to face me.

“Huh?” I gasp as in the blink of an eye, Cinder is gone. “Where…?” I swiftly look around and catch Cinder out of the corner of my eye as he dashes past all of us, heading towards the entrance. “How did he…?” Turning to fully face Cinder, my legs tense. “I’m going to chase him down and force him to answer me!” Only, instead of thrusting forward with purpose, a heavy burden comes over me. “Huh, what’s going on?” I cry out as I fall to my knees. I look back at my legs that have buckled underneath from an unknown fear. “Move!” Maka, in front of me, is overcome by the same unnameable fear. “Move!” Ramsey, right next to Maka, is struggling to stand. “MOVE!” Anaea, first to recover, sprints over to Gwyn’s side. “Dammit! Mooooove!” Unable to move despite pouring all my strength into my legs, my breathing becomes ragged and labored. “I’m… I’m sorry, Guardian… Reaper…”

Cinder turns and looks at us one more time, just a silhouette in the fading light. Lightning strikes, illuminating him in the doorway looking back with a stoic look, and then, before the thunder claps, he’s already gone.