The Kingdom's Destruction by Charlie Reale

Author:Charlie Reale [Reale, Charlie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781732919907
Published: 2018-10-21T22:00:00+00:00

5

Cristina stared at Elinor in disbelief. Her eyes had yellowed. At that moment, Cristina realized Elinor had been coughing on and off for the last couple of hours.

The disease was taking over Elinor’s body.

“Well, the good news is you didn’t kill me with the blade. The bad news is it doesn’t matter anyway.”

“I’m sorry.”

Cristina scanned her memory of when she had pulled the knife out of Elinor’s back. Did the blade cause the plague to set in? Had the disease affected Elinor from the beginning and only surfaced now?

Elinor slipped out her sword and held it out toward Cristina. “You need it.”

After taking the weapon, Cristina gaped at the cumbersome blade in her hand. Even with a second hand on the hilt, she doubted she could wield the sword half as well as Elinor did.

“I’m sorry,” Cristina said. “I don’t know what I did wrong. How did I get the infection in you?”

“It’s not your fault. Maybe this storm, this green rain, infected everyone and it’s just a matter of time before they fall to this disease.” Elinor rested her sweaty hand on Cristina’s forearm. “You know what you must do?”

“It’ll be hard.” Cristina glanced out the window of the lookout tower. “Eventually, I’ll need to go on alone, but I’m not leaving yet.”

“That’s not what I mean.” Elinor coughed. “The plague will take over my mind, and I’ll become maddened. You can’t let that happen.”

“I don’t know how to cure you. I can’t—”

“I don’t mean cure. I mean stop the disease from killing me.”

“How?”

“By driving my sword through my heart.”

Cristina slid away from Elinor while shaking her head. “No. No. I can’t do that. No.” Cristina pulled back further. “I can’t even kill someone who threatened my life. How do you imagine I can kill one of my good friends?”

“Because you aren’t killing me. You’re helping a friend alleviate the pain they will go through.”

A mercy killing. The hospital allowed people the freedom to not live on with an incurable disease. Assisted suicide. In the fifteen years Cristina worked as a nurse, she never supported the idea nor ever partook in the assistance of someone taking their own life.

She shook her head. “I’m not going to kill you if there is even the slight possibility of a cure.”

“Do you really believe there is hope? This plague appears as if the gods decided we have progressed in a manner unbecoming to them. They are wiping us off the map. There is no hope, only death.”

“I’m not affected.”

Elinor twitched and coughed. “Which means the hope lies with you and not me. I was meant to get you here. This is the end of the line for me. I don’t want to become maddened. I need your help.”

“There’s still hope for you—”

“No there isn’t. If you won’t do it, then give me my blade, and I’ll do it myself.”

Cristina forgot Elinor gave her sword over earlier. The silver blade glinted in the moonlight, a false symbol of purity.

“I can’t.” Cristina kept her grip on the weapon.

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