Skin of the Sinless (Part 8)

Chapter 8: The Wish

The seven statues that lined the chamber stepped down from their pedestals. Each holding the stone swords that sat in front of them. The suspended head above looked down on Requiem with anger, and uncertainty.

The little girl spoke. “Behind you is the door out of the tower. If you do not choose to leave, then we unfortunately must stop you from making your wish do to us not knowing what the outcome will be. If we are to lose our home, then we will go with it, and we’re unwilling to give up what we have come to be. Our choice is yours.”

Requiem looked behind him to see a door ajar with light pouring in from the outside. He looked back at the little girl while taking up his claymore in both hands. “So be it,” said the little girl. Two statues stepped in front of her and five stepped behind him.

One of the statues swung its stone blade at Requiem as its blade dragged along the ground in his direction. Requiem ran back between another statue’s legs. The stone sword crumbled one of the knees while he used his claymore to sever the foot off another at the ankle. The statue that had its knee shattered fell into the other that had lost its foot, making them crumble together to the ground.

Requiem was kicked in the back by one of the three statues left standing behind him. He flew in the direction of the other two protecting the little girl as one used an open hand to smack Requiem down into the pond. The other stone guardian protecting the little girl reached in to grab him, but met his blade instead. The claymore sliced through the fingers making them drop on top of Requiem inside the pond.

The other statue reached in to pick him up. It threw him into the air, but he didn’t come back down. The little girl looked up to see the panicking suspended head face to face with Requiem who was now standing on the chains holding it up. She cried out as the statues fruitlessly reached up and grabbed at him. “Don’t you dare touch him!”

Requiem ran along the chain with his claymore at his side. He brought his blade up the suspended head’s chin, leaving the face splayed open. Requiem watched as the statues started to sway after the blow to the head. He climbed up to the top, then plunged his blade into the top of its skull, giving it a twist while inside.

The remaining statues crumbled to the ground   where they stood. Requiem cut the head loose from its chains letting it crash to the floor below with him on top of it. The little girl stepped down from her swing in tears. She stepped towards her brother’s head that was split down the middle with Requiem standing victorious on top.

“JUST LEAVE, AND MAKE YOUR BLOODY WISH TO RID THE WORLD OF THIS TOWER!” The little girl hysterically cried. She fell to her knees in front of her slain brother’s head, and sobbed. A wave pulsed from under her making its way to the ends of her chamber. Everything it touched changed the garden into what it truly was before ending at the ceiling above.

Requiem looked down at the little girl. She was a frail, ghoulish woman whose skin fell from the bone. He stepped down from upon her brother’s head, and looked over at the soulless being beside him that seemed more human than himself. He rested his claymore against his shoulder, closed his eyes and took a deep breath knowing his suffering had finally come to an end. He then opened them to see that he stood on top of the tower with the warm, summer sun kissing his scarless skin.

Requiem got down to his knees, placed his claymore next to him and bowed his head facing the east. The thorned rosary loosened up before falling from his right forearm onto the ground next to him. The back of his iron mask cracked as he rose upright to look up at the blue sky. Requiem pushed his fingers into the crack of his unfastened iron mask.

He pried it off to reveal a young man beneath it with long blonde hair unraveling to the floor. The sun touched his face for the first time in centuries as a smile that spread from ear to ear. His body rapidly aged until it withered away into a figure of a man made of ash. A calm breeze erased him from the world leaving the gifts he was blessed with in case the next person to successfully scale the tower wished to contain man’s sin once again.