If anything, after all that transpired, Elwin felt more protective over the prince, not less. But looking around the room he really just wanted to crawl in beside him and go to bed himself.
Blood was everywhere. Even without the top cover of the bed, that had absorbed a lot of the mess, the stone floor, as well as the remaining bedding was liberally smeared, even puddled with blood and chunks of flesh one would rather not closely identify.
Was it even possible to clean this up? Would someone come looking for the woman? If so, how soon? As the weight of the nightmare at hand began to settle in around him, Elwin paced the floor. His every instinct was screaming at him, get rid of the body! Clean up the mess! But that was easier said then done. They were at the top of a steep stairway with only the one entrance and exit, as far as Elwin knew, unless you counted the window in the other room. Could the body be thrown out in the middle of the night? Someone would still have to get rid of it once it hit the bottom.
Then what would they do? Just continue on like nothing had ever happened? What kind of liar was Prin? Probably a bad one. Elwin had not known him to ever lie but, even when they were children and tried to fib to nanny about some small thing or another, the prince's face would usually give away the game. So if someone asked about the woman . . . what would he say?
Elwin put his still throbbing head in his hands. Okay, just take it one step at a time. What was the first step? Well, he needed water and cleaning products.
There were a few rags and a small jug of something used for cleaning, that the young woman had brought upstairs with her. As well as a small quantity of clean drinking water. And the dirty (but all things considering, not too bad) water and rags he had used to clean the prince up earlier after his injury, was still sitting there. This was at least something, though it seemed like a drop of water in the ocean compared to what was needed.
What was needed was more like the entire ocean, Elwin thought wryly.
Elwin picked up a rag and the jug of cleaner, which smelled like vinegar (yet another scent to add to the stomach churning tapestry), and went to the broken bowl first. He picked up the pieces carefully and put them in the bucket, and scooped up the spilled soup as well. He shook some cleaner out on a couple of the worse spots of blood.
Passing by the woman, wrapped up and hidden away in her colorful shroud, he paused. “Don't blame Prin. It's all my fault for leaving you alone.” He said. “I should have been here to stop it.” He laughed, a little nervous gallows humor that. He doubted he would have been qualified to stop anything. But maybe she could have run and gotten help while the prince was eating him instead. The thought didn't bother him as much as one might think.
Until he thought of what might happen to Prin afterward. He would be trading his life in the tower for a tiny cell way below, in the underground area of the castle. His parents finally writing him off as “dead” for all practical purposes. Or maybe if the wrong person had walked in on him with his meal, and the cover up was rendered impossible, he could be burned at the stake, as any proper monster would be. Elwin shivered. Other longshot possibility being, the king does whatever it takes to cover for him. This didn't seem like something he would do for his misbegotten eldest, but one never knew.
If he only knew him like Elwin did.
“I am sorry, anyway. For what little it's worth.” He told what was left of the woman. Still, no matter how sorry he was, getting rid of any trace of her was the only way forward he could see.
Elwin was dizzy, the up and down motion of cleaning combined with the headache had taken it's toll, and he couldn't stay upright much longer. He sat down hard on the bed with a sigh. If he could only rest for just a few moments, he could go back at the cleaning with renewed vigor.
Prin had turned over on his side, and Elwin seized the opportunity to lay down beside him with his head on the same pillow, face pressed into Prin's shoulder. This way he would know if the prince got up. With that thought, Elwin was dead to the world.
*
When Elwin woke up there was a chill in the air, a cold breeze was blowing down from the high window, and he was in the bed alone. He heard strange noises again, like a wet scraping noise, and had the terror of instant flashback to the sounds of eating raw flesh. His eyes shot open in a hurry.
At first he saw nothing, the light was dimmer in the room, and the candles not yet lit. Then he saw the prince, sitting on the floor and scrubbing it with a rag.
All looked pretty much the same as when Elwin had closed his eyes. Except for a couple of key details; the floor was looking a lot cleaner, mostly clean in fact, except for perhaps some dark areas where only the drying of the water would reveal if any blood remained, and the cabinet was open with some things pulled out on the floor in front of it, as well as some books pulled off the shelf in a neat stack.
“Good morning.” Prin said. “Or should I say good evening?”
“How long did I sleep?” Elwin wondered.
“A long time. Don't worry, it's still the same day.” Prin assured, reading his friend's mind.
“Oh my gods.” Elwin sat up in bed, getting an immediate head rush. “I'm sorry.”
“It's okay, it's okay!” The prince held up his hand. “You seemed like you really needed it.” His hands were the only things that were clean, the rest of him still covered with the sticky, mostly dried blood. It couldn't have been comfortable.
“What are you doing?” Elwin had to close his eyes again, just until the room stopped spinning.
“I'm not sure.” Prin said thoughtfully, as though it were the deepest question of his life. “I just thought the best thing to do while I'm trying to figure that out, is to clean up in here. It only seemed right.”
“Wait, what about your arm! Your injury. You probably shouldn't be doing that, and besides . . .” Elwin didn't want to cause offense, but did Prin even know how to clean? It's amazing that the thought had even crossed his mind.
“It's like I needed something to do with this excess nervous energy.” The prince said. “I woke up and wasn't a bit tired anymore.”
Elwin opened his eyes again, slower this time. “The last thing we need is for you to injure yourself further.” Maybe the last thing they needed was actually for him to eat someone, but since they had already crossed that particular bridge, further injury was right up there on the list.
“I feel okay.” Prin said. “The marvel is, I feel better then okay.” He was smiling, even though tears were rolling down his face. “It's not really right of me, is it. To profit off of what I did.”
Elwin wanted to pick him up and hug him, and make everything alright forever. The instinct was strong. It's too bad that last part wasn't within his capabilities.
Elwin got up, moving gingerly, and went to the middle of the floor where Prin was sitting. He reached down to him and took his hands. “That's enough of that.” He wasn't sure himself whether he meant the cleaning, or the crying. Probably both. He helped the prince into a standing position.
“How are your lungs?” He asked.
The prince held on to him, his legs wobbling a bit as he straightened them. He took a deep breath and his tearful blue eyes met Elwin's brown ones earnestly. “I've—never been able to do that before!”
Elwin felt a smile tugging at the corners of his lips that he had to force himself to hold back. “How about your arm?” he asked.
Prin looked at the bandage on his forearm, filthy and bedraggled but still in place. “Doesn't even hurt!”
“Legs?” Elwin asked.
“Good! But shaky, I don't trust them? I think it is a coordination issue since they don't hurt at all and should be sturdy.” Prin said.
“Your head?” Elwin wondered. He stopped holding back the smile and it spread across his face like good jam on a biscuit.
“Solid as a rock.” Prin teased. He was smiling too.
“Stomach?” Elwin asked.
“It doesn't hurt.” the prince said. He let go of one of Elwin's hands and put his hand over his belly. “Not anymore.” His face grew solemn again. “But I can't get it out of my mind, the way it did feel. When it wasn't full. It's haunting me.”
“Never mind it.” Elwin said dismissively. He couldn't think of anything to say, so would prefer they just both didn't think about it. The hunger.
He picked up Prin and carried him over to the bed. He was still thin as can be, with his arms and legs looking like there was nothing between the skin and the bones, but he definitely was noticeably heavier! He thought maybe even more so than he had been yesterday. Nothing Elwin couldn't handle for sure, but still. He plopped the prince down on the bed. He brushed a clump of Prin's matted hair away from his face. “We just have to keep moving forward. Like we've always done, right?”
“Right.” the prince said.
“You didn't want any of this to happen. You didn't ask for it. You shouldn't beat yourself up about it.” Elwin said. He realized with a pang that he was rapidly becoming more excited about Prin's apparent wellness then he was upset about the death of the young woman they hadn't even really known. Did that make him a psychopath? It was a little concerning he had to admit, but on the other hand . . .?
“That's true.” The prince agreed. “Even though I don't remember everything that happened, I know I didn't want this. That's why I have to leave here quickly. Before the boy has too much chance to get away. If I let him get too far ahead, I might never catch up. I have to make him take it back.”
Elwin blinked, this was a startling new development. “That didn't even occur to me. Wait, what boy? Are you sure your head is solid?”
“What boy?!” the prince squeaked. “My mind is as clear as crystal, you are the one with a head injury.” He gave Elwin a sheepish look. “I think, did I push you? I am sorry for that.”
“No need to apologize, it will be all better soon anyway.” Elwin said dismissively. “However, there is no boy of which you speak. That's what I mean by, what boy.”
“Maybe it was a girl after all.” Prin conceded, “I couldn't be sure.”
Elwin narrowed his eyes in concern. “You've lost me.”
“The healer. Or so called healer.” The prince urged. “Did you not see them?”
“I saw an old woman, who was the oldest woman anyone has ever seen. By saying boy or girl, I feel like you're implying youth, and believe me when I say, she was no youth.”
Prin tilted his head to the side. “Shape shifter.” He concluded. His eyes sparkled, for a moment delighted by the awe soaked possibilities, before the fact that this was reality came crashing back down on his head. “That will make him so much harder to find. Who's to say which one is real? If either.”
Elwin shook his head. He remembered the smell in the room when he had entered and, rather then an actual shapeshifter from a fairy tale, it was a lot more likely that the envisioned boy was just a hallucination brought on by the witch's drugging. However, Prin seemed very sure of himself, and Elwin didn't want to argue.
“So that's your plan? We take off, and just leave here?” Elwin asked.
“I didn't say we.”
If anything, after all that transpired, Elwin felt more protective over the prince, not less. But looking around the room he really just wanted to crawl in beside him and go to bed himself.
Blood was everywhere. Even without the top cover of the bed, that had absorbed a lot of the mess, the stone floor, as well as the remaining bedding was liberally smeared, even puddled with blood and chunks of flesh one would rather not closely identify.
Was it even possible to clean this up? Would someone come looking for the woman? If so, how soon? As the weight of the nightmare at hand began to settle in around him, Elwin paced the floor. His every instinct was screaming at him, get rid of the body! Clean up the mess! But that was easier said then done. They were at the top of a steep stairway with only the one entrance and exit, as far as Elwin knew, unless you counted the window in the other room. Could the body be thrown out in the middle of the night? Someone would still have to get rid of it once it hit the bottom.
Then what would they do? Just continue on like nothing had ever happened? What kind of liar was Prin? Probably a bad one. Elwin had not known him to ever lie but, even when they were children and tried to fib to nanny about some small thing or another, the prince's face would usually give away the game. So if someone asked about the woman . . . what would he say?
Elwin put his still throbbing head in his hands. Okay, just take it one step at a time. What was the first step? Well, he needed water and cleaning products.
There were a few rags and a small jug of something used for cleaning, that the young woman had brought upstairs with her. As well as a small quantity of clean drinking water. And the dirty (but all things considering, not too bad) water and rags he had used to clean the prince up earlier after his injury, was still sitting there. This was at least something, though it seemed like a drop of water in the ocean compared to what was needed.
What was needed was more like the entire ocean, Elwin thought wryly.
Elwin picked up a rag and the jug of cleaner, which smelled like vinegar (yet another scent to add to the stomach churning tapestry), and went to the broken bowl first. He picked up the pieces carefully and put them in the bucket, and scooped up the spilled soup as well. He shook some cleaner out on a couple of the worse spots of blood.
Passing by the woman, wrapped up and hidden away in her colorful shroud, he paused. “Don't blame Prin. It's all my fault for leaving you alone.” He said. “I should have been here to stop it.” He laughed, a little nervous gallows humor that. He doubted he would have been qualified to stop anything. But maybe she could have run and gotten help while the prince was eating him instead. The thought didn't bother him as much as one might think.
Until he thought of what might happen to Prin afterward. He would be trading his life in the tower for a tiny cell way below, in the underground area of the castle. His parents finally writing him off as “dead” for all practical purposes. Or maybe if the wrong person had walked in on him with his meal, and the cover up was rendered impossible, he could be burned at the stake, as any proper monster would be. Elwin shivered. Other longshot possibility being, the king does whatever it takes to cover for him. This didn't seem like something he would do for his misbegotten eldest, but one never knew.
If he only knew him like Elwin did.
“I am sorry, anyway. For what little it's worth.” He told what was left of the woman. Still, no matter how sorry he was, getting rid of any trace of her was the only way forward he could see.
Elwin was dizzy, the up and down motion of cleaning combined with the headache had taken it's toll, and he couldn't stay upright much longer. He sat down hard on the bed with a sigh. If he could only rest for just a few moments, he could go back at the cleaning with renewed vigor.
Prin had turned over on his side, and Elwin seized the opportunity to lay down beside him with his head on the same pillow, face pressed into Prin's shoulder. This way he would know if the prince got up. With that thought, Elwin was dead to the world.
*
When Elwin woke up there was a chill in the air, a cold breeze was blowing down from the high window, and he was in the bed alone. He heard strange noises again, like a wet scraping noise, and had the terror of instant flashback to the sounds of eating raw flesh. His eyes shot open in a hurry.
At first he saw nothing, the light was dimmer in the room, and the candles not yet lit. Then he saw the prince, sitting on the floor and scrubbing it with a rag.
All looked pretty much the same as when Elwin had closed his eyes. Except for a couple of key details; the floor was looking a lot cleaner, mostly clean in fact, except for perhaps some dark areas where only the drying of the water would reveal if any blood remained, and the cabinet was open with some things pulled out on the floor in front of it, as well as some books pulled off the shelf in a neat stack.
“Good morning.” Prin said. “Or should I say good evening?”
“How long did I sleep?” Elwin wondered.
“A long time. Don't worry, it's still the same day.” Prin assured, reading his friend's mind.
“Oh my gods.” Elwin sat up in bed, getting an immediate head rush. “I'm sorry.”
“It's okay, it's okay!” The prince held up his hand. “You seemed like you really needed it.” His hands were the only things that were clean, the rest of him still covered with the sticky, mostly dried blood. It couldn't have been comfortable.
“What are you doing?” Elwin had to close his eyes again, just until the room stopped spinning.
“I'm not sure.” Prin said thoughtfully, as though it were the deepest question of his life. “I just thought the best thing to do while I'm trying to figure that out, is to clean up in here. It only seemed right.”
“Wait, what about your arm! Your injury. You probably shouldn't be doing that, and besides . . .” Elwin didn't want to cause offense, but did Prin even know how to clean? It's amazing that the thought had even crossed his mind.
“It's like I needed something to do with this excess nervous energy.” The prince said. “I woke up and wasn't a bit tired anymore.”
Elwin opened his eyes again, slower this time. “The last thing we need is for you to injure yourself further.” Maybe the last thing they needed was actually for him to eat someone, but since they had already crossed that particular bridge, further injury was right up there on the list.
“I feel okay.” Prin said. “The marvel is, I feel better then okay.” He was smiling, even though tears were rolling down his face. “It's not really right of me, is it. To profit off of what I did.”
Elwin wanted to pick him up and hug him, and make everything alright forever. The instinct was strong. It's too bad that last part wasn't within his capabilities.
Elwin got up, moving gingerly, and went to the middle of the floor where Prin was sitting. He reached down to him and took his hands. “That's enough of that.” He wasn't sure himself whether he meant the cleaning, or the crying. Probably both. He helped the prince into a standing position.
“How are your lungs?” He asked.
The prince held on to him, his legs wobbling a bit as he straightened them. He took a deep breath and his tearful blue eyes met Elwin's brown ones earnestly. “I've—never been able to do that before!”
Elwin felt a smile tugging at the corners of his lips that he had to force himself to hold back. “How about your arm?” he asked.
Prin looked at the bandage on his forearm, filthy and bedraggled but still in place. “Doesn't even hurt!”
“Legs?” Elwin asked.
“Good! But shaky, I don't trust them? I think it is a coordination issue since they don't hurt at all and should be sturdy.” Prin said.
“Your head?” Elwin wondered. He stopped holding back the smile and it spread across his face like good jam on a biscuit.
“Solid as a rock.” Prin teased. He was smiling too.
“Stomach?” Elwin asked.
“It doesn't hurt.” the prince said. He let go of one of Elwin's hands and put his hand over his belly. “Not anymore.” His face grew solemn again. “But I can't get it out of my mind, the way it did feel. When it wasn't full. It's haunting me.”
“Never mind it.” Elwin said dismissively. He couldn't think of anything to say, so would prefer they just both didn't think about it. The hunger.
He picked up Prin and carried him over to the bed. He was still thin as can be, with his arms and legs looking like there was nothing between the skin and the bones, but he definitely was noticeably heavier! He thought maybe even more so than he had been yesterday. Nothing Elwin couldn't handle for sure, but still. He plopped the prince down on the bed. He brushed a clump of Prin's matted hair away from his face. “We just have to keep moving forward. Like we've always done, right?”
“Right.” the prince said.
“You didn't want any of this to happen. You didn't ask for it. You shouldn't beat yourself up about it.” Elwin said. He realized with a pang that he was rapidly becoming more excited about Prin's apparent wellness then he was upset about the death of the young woman they hadn't even really known. Did that make him a psychopath? It was a little concerning he had to admit, but on the other hand . . .?
“That's true.” The prince agreed. “Even though I don't remember everything that happened, I know I didn't want this. That's why I have to leave here quickly. Before the boy has too much chance to get away. If I let him get too far ahead, I might never catch up. I have to make him take it back.”
Elwin blinked, this was a startling new development. “That didn't even occur to me. Wait, what boy? Are you sure your head is solid?”
“What boy?!” the prince squeaked. “My mind is as clear as crystal, you are the one with a head injury.” He gave Elwin a sheepish look. “I think, did I push you? I am sorry for that.”
“No need to apologize, it will be all better soon anyway.” Elwin said dismissively. “However, there is no boy of which you speak. That's what I mean by, what boy.”
“Maybe it was a girl after all.” Prin conceded, “I couldn't be sure.”
Elwin narrowed his eyes in concern. “You've lost me.”
“The healer. Or so called healer.” The prince urged. “Did you not see them?”
“I saw an old woman, who was the oldest woman anyone has ever seen. By saying boy or girl, I feel like you're implying youth, and believe me when I say, she was no youth.”
Prin tilted his head to the side. “Shape shifter.” He concluded. His eyes sparkled, for a moment delighted by the awe soaked possibilities, before the fact that this was reality came crashing back down on his head. “That will make him so much harder to find. Who's to say which one is real? If either.”
Elwin shook his head. He remembered the smell in the room when he had entered and, rather then an actual shapeshifter from a fairy tale, it was a lot more likely that the envisioned boy was just a hallucination brought on by the witch's drugging. However, Prin seemed very sure of himself, and Elwin didn't want to argue.
“So that's your plan? We take off, and just leave here?” Elwin asked.
“I didn't say we.”
