Bab 28: Promise between Widow and Crow
It had been a long and difficult journey to make it out of the sea of flames but they'd made it. Behind them, the flames within the town raged on and dawn was soon approaching, so he didn't need to worry about the other two creepers seeking revenge for earlier and he assumed the other died in the fire.
Marcus decided to look into Beatrice's condition as they walked, and his heart felt like it was going to shatter. Beatrice wasn't even looking up anymore as her head was hung low and only staring at the ground. She looked broken and defeated. He doubted she'd be able to go on for much longer.
This was a huge contrast to the caring and motherly image he had of her. Now she looked more like a corpse than a living-breathing human being.
Marcus studied the injuries all over her body and was angered at himself for taking so long.
He started to feel regret as he voiced his thoughts aloud.
"If only I'd arrived sooner or not wasted time with those other creepers. Maybe I-"
"...No..." Beatrice replied weakly with her head still hung low.
She couldn't even look Marcus in the eye as she continued to speak.
"...not...your...fault.
"...It's...okay."
These were the only words the woman could muster to comfort the boy beside her. Marcus didn't even try to refute Beatrice's words because right now she could barely speak and was in no condition to argue with him. The least he could do was not interrupt her as she spoke.
"Come...here..."
Marcus sat Beatrice down beside a tree to rest. He then leaned in closer to hear what it was the woman had to say.
Marcus could hear the woman's labored breathing. Each time she let out a breath seemed to be a struggle for her. She didn't have much time left and would most likely succumb to her injuries any minute now.
Marcus tried not to think about it, but it was hard not to when he was staring the woman directly in the face. Her eyes were unfocused and it looked like she wasn't even aware he was there.
Marcus started to doubt whether she had spoken to him or not until he felt something grab his head. He looked up to see Beatrice struggling to smile with her left hand on top of his head.
She pulled Marcus's head to hers and their foreheads touched.
Marcus's eyes were wide open as he stared at Beatrice.
"Thank you... Marcus. Thank you for being... here."
Tears began to uncontrollably fall from Marcus's eyes as he continued to stare at the dying woman before him.
He started to recall all his memories of her.
He remembered when he'd left the woman behind as they were running from the creeper and how she'd saved him from being seen.
He remembered being suspicious of the woman's motives and how she'd fed him when he was hungry.
He even remembered doubting her again about whether or not she'd leave him behind when they were ambushed, but she still chose to save him and hold back the creepers as he escaped.
Marcus had doubted her again and again every chance he got and now she laid before him dying because he'd arrived too late when it was his turn to save her.
He sank deeper and deeper into the sea of guilt he was drowning in.
He couldn't seem to pull himself out.
Luckily, he didn't need to.
Beatrice's next words were like a life jacket being thrown out to save him from drowning.
"I love you Marcus... like I'd love my own child.
"You may not be my Jeanne or my Sam, but it doesn't matter. To me, you're just like them. You don't share their hair and eye color, but you do share their kindness and compassion."
"But... I treated you horribly and I left you."
"And you came back... You came back Marcus," Beatrice said in a slightly louder tone.
Marcus could only close his eyes at this. He found it hard to agree with Beatrice's words, but she wouldn't let him drown himself again as she spoke in a firmer tone.
"Promise me Marcus...Promise me you won't lose that kindness and compassion... Promise me you'll never abandon that side of you."
Marcus opened his tear-stained eyes again as he answered Beatrice.
"...I promise."
"...Good," she said with her eyes closed and a smile on her face.
With those being her final words, Beatrice breathed her last as she was enveloped in death's cold embrace. She'd finally get the rest she deserved and join her husband in the afterlife.
"I promise I'll find them too, Jeanne and Sam. I'll get strong enough to find my family too and I'll protect everyone. I swear."
Marcus knew Beatrice had already died and could no longer hear his final promise, but he'd like to think the woman heard him from wherever she was.
Suddenly a towering figure emerged from the flames of the town. It was the creeper Marcus had burned with his Molotov.
It seemed it would take more than that to kill the F-rank monster.
The creeper was in a bad shape. Its entire body was a dark-green and black color with burn marks all over its tentacles. The tentacles weren't even moving around like normal and only clung tightly to the creature's emaciated body, and every second it stood there a flake from one of its tentacles would drop to the ground.
Its face was equally emaciated as the entire left side of its face was completely black with no tentacles to speak of. Even one of its eyes was gone from being burned along with that side of its face. It was unknown how the creature stopped the burning but this was irrelevant. The creeper now here for revenge.
The swamp creeper's one good eye was locked onto Marcus. Dawn had already arrived and the only reason it hadn't been burned alive was because the trees still partially covered the area they were now in. It couldn't go back to the swamp either because it wouldn't make it in time and even if it did, its fellow creepers would only kill it to gain more power to evolve.
After all, weakness had no place in Ebonscale's swamp.
Hadiah
-- Hadiah diterima Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone