At some point someone had brought him something to eat. Who it had been, Alistair didn’t remember. He didn’t even know what had been brought to him, as he never as much as glanced at the plate despite it resting right beside him. All he could do was sit and wait. Wait for the morning. Wait for his end.

  A sudden movement caught his attention. Slow, he looked up and saw someone approach. A few seconds later, the dark figure emerged into the light of his lamp and revealed themself as Hamish.

  Immediately he was wide awake and felt pure hatred boiling up to the forefront.

  “You?!”, he hissed. “Get yourself gone!”

  “Or what?”, Hamish asked with a malicious grin. “You’re caged like an animal. There’s nothing you can do to me. Even if you plead with your executioner and point at me during your execution, no one will believe you.”

  “I don’t care if the people of Harren believe me”, he growled. “I just wish you dead!”

  “And how would you manage that? You did beat me up pretty badly, but I still got your girl's heart to be freed from this damnable curse and healed up in the process. To be reduced to an insane, bumbling animal around every new moon… I only regret not seeing you suffer the same next new moon, as you failed your bet with Sedna.”

  “And what would know about Sedna?”

  “More than you think. That damnable witch…”

  Hamish trailed off and looked down at his feet. There was some regret within him, but Alistair doubted that it was any regret towards the people he killed with his brother. Angry, he slammed his hands against the bars of the cell and felt the door slightly opening. Luckily, it was heavy enough to move not by much, so Hamish, startled by the sudden motion, didn’t notice.

  “What are you even trying to accomplish here?”, Alistair asked the priest. “Are you just here to taunt me? To relish in your victory?”

  “Yes”, he replied without any hint of decency or hesitation. “I’m here to goat a bit and do my intended role. After all, the rest of this village doesn’t know anything and the knights have no solid evidence to make any sensible case. So I was sent to you to give you the final rites, allow you to confess your sins and leave this earth free of burden. The usual stuff expected of a priest.”

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “I do not wish to talk to you any further”, Alistair replied after taking a deep breath. “Go! Leave me be!”

  “As you wish”, Hamish said and shrugged.

  To Alistair’s surprise, he immediately turned around and walked away. Tired, Alistair sighed, but before he could do anything else, Hamish turned back towards him and walked once more up to the cell door.

  “I forgot to tell you”, he began with a smarmy expression on his haggard face. “Your girl’s heart tasted the best.”

  Hearing this did something to him. With more force than he thought possible, Alistair rammed the cell door open and knocked Hamish over. Stunned, on the ground, the priest pressed his hands against his bleeding nose and let out a pained groan. Alistair didn’t hesitate and jumped him.

  The fist fight that followed was a blur.

  Still, Hamish was clearly more experienced in such altercations and managed to push him off. Alistair rolled over the ground and hid a stump of wood with his back. For a moment, the air was knocked from his lungs. Stunned, he barely noticed Hamish jumping him and closing his hands around his throat.

  Panicked and barely aware of his surroundings, Alistair threw his hands around, hoping to get a hold of anything to knock the priest off. As his vision blurred, his fingers closed almost out of their own accord around a wooden shaft. With a last contingent of strength left to him, he slammed whatever it was against Hamish. Immediately, the priest let go of him and screamed out in pain. At the same time, Alistair felt something wet and warm spill on his face. Purely on instinct, he licked over his lips as he got up and regretted it.

  The taste of the blood made something monstrous screech within him, while he could hear Sedna’s malicious laugher.

  “Kill him!”, she nagged him on. “Kill him and eat his heart!”

  Groaning, Alistair tried to force her out of his head, but it was no use. She continued to laugh and even mock him. Goading him into become like Hamish.

  A pained whisper caught his attention.

  Slow, he looked from the bloody axe still in his hand to Hamish on the ground. The priest breathed labored and pressed his right Hand against the deep wound on his left, Alistair had caused with the axe. The smell of blood was pungent and much more intense than Alistair remembered being able to smell. It made him grind his teeth while the taste still lingered on his tongue.

  With reluctant steps, he approached the priest and raised the axe. That moment, Hamish looked up with a pleading expression, so unlike his usual self it made his face appear like a stranger’s.

  “I… I can see it”, he wheezed. “She’s talking to you… nagging you…”

  “Kill him and feast upon in his blood!”, she said inside Alistair’s mind, as if to underline his words.

  “Y-you don’t have to listen!”, Hamish replied panicked and backed away despite the clear difficulty of it. “I… I can help you! I can teach you to deal with… with her!”

  “The nerve…”, growled Alistair. “The nerve to offer me help when you killed the love of my life and doomed me to this!”

  Without hesitation, he hacked at Hamish with the axe. Yet, the priest proved still too nimble despite his wound and avoided the blow by a hair's width. With fear-driven speed, he scrambled to feet and ran. Alistair, having nothing left to lose, followed.