Twilight of the Vast Expanses-Chapter 32: Twilight is the Red Nightmare

I walked in. And the familiar air that streamed through Craffold’s house greeted me.

I was home.

But... there was this iron smell...

"Old Man?" My voice choked up as I walked in.

"I... I’m home." I declared.

The more I walked in, the heavier that iron smell got.

And the heavier the smell got, the more tears welled up in my eyes.

"Craff?" It came out weakly, "Please, no.. no.."

It seemed like gravity had disappeared. Because at that moment, I didn’t feel any weight on my body.

And so, I staggered, walking slowly and cautiously, as if I lost my footing, I might float away.

I followed the iron smell.

Up the stairs.

My chest clamped and tightened with every single step I took.

"No.."

His room.

The iron smell came from his room. And...

His door was open.

"No.. no, no, no..."

I walked into the room.

Light spilled into the room from his open window.

It was a weirdly calm golden light that came from the evening sun, casting a serene sight in the room.

A sight that greatly contrasted with that which my gaze focused on.

Craffold sat on his favorite wooden chair, dressed in a brown, wool-knitted sweater. His chair was directly close to the window, and so the ephemeral rays of the golden light spilled directly on him, casting his shadow on the metal floorboard.

That brown sweater was completely soaked red with blood that dripped from his chest area. And his right hand tightly clenched that area as blood dripped, forming a shallow pool beneath his wooden chair.

"Ahhh..." I whispered, raising my left hand. My trembling left hand. My right hand covered my mouth.

"Ahhhhh..."

The tears poured.

"Ahhhhhhh..."

I took a step forward.

And as I did, Craffold slowly turned his head.

My eyes widened. And that caused an increase in the flow of the tears.

"Is that you, Stel?" He called out. His voice had grown weak, frail. Like the last whisper of a fading soul.

"Craffold..." I replied, covering my mouth completely as I walked toward him.

"I was waiting for you." He said, forcing a strained smile.

I think he thought it’d comfort me. But instead, it caused my heart to twist and knot within my chest.

As I reached him, I fell on my knees, and the knees of my pants absorbed the blood that pooled beneath him.

With my trembling left hand, I touched his face.

"I... I’m sorry, Craffold... I.. if only I hadn’t gone. If only I hadn’t left the.. if on–"

He held my left hand on his face. And he tightly clenched it.

His right hand still held that same chest area.

Craffold bit his lips as he clenched my hand tenderly.

"You did nothing wrong, Stella... you shouldn’t.." He let out a sick cough, and blood followed. "You shouldn’t hate yourself, Stella."

His strained smile widened. And a rather weak chuckle escaped his mouth. "You shouldn’t be getting beaten up over an old man’s death. I have lived a good and long life that I don’t regret, Stel." He whispered.

"Ahh..."

No.

Please...

Please stop saying things like this...

You’re making this harder for me..

The tears continued to pour.

He left my hand, and he cleaned those tears.

"I had nothing else to do... in fact, the fear of death was the only thing that still kept me here. But now... I can go meet my son. I can go apologize to him for not being able to protect him..." He continued to speak. "And I can go meet... my love."

"Please, I can still save you, Craffold. You don’t have to die... You don’t.." I tried to protest.

He shook his head slowly.

Then, he removed his right hand from his chest.

A gaping hole where his heart should be.

My lips remained frozen.

"It’s too late for me, my dear boy. And I.. I want to go."

"Why?!! Why do you want to die?!! I don’t understand!!!!"

"Love, Stel." He only smiled.

"What is this love you keep talking about?! What is this love that makes you so happy to die??!" I yelled out in anger mixed with frustration. "I want to know! I want to find it too!!!"

"You don’t find love... Stel" He shook his head, "..Love finds you..."

What?

"What do you mean by that?"

"You know, I do regret one thing. And that’s.. not being able to spend enough time with you.. The time I spent with you, although short, filled my old, withered life with light. With a feeling of joy that I lost the day I lost my son... so.." His voice began to trail, to grow weaker. His eyes began to close slowly.

He moved his hand weakly, finding mine once more. But this time, they had lost strength.

But still, his hands were no longer wrinkled and tender. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Instead, they reminded me of my father’s.

They felt large. Larger than me at that moment.

"I want others to feel that joy that I felt too..." He said, weakly.

"So go, go be the twilight of this dark world, Stel... Do not let them dull your light... Go and... shine..."

His words ended there. And his hands slid down from mine as, simultaneously, the one holding his chest gave out.

Craffold’s eyes closed forever.

It was the end of his story.

What?

Twilight?

"You can’t die like this, Craffold..."

"Ahhhh..."

"Arghhhhh!!!!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

I fell, back-first, on the floor.

The sadness that clawed at my heart melted, dissolving into something that bubbled, that boiled and raced.

Becoming something that dulled my rationality.

My thoughts blurred.

The world blurred around me.

And in the midst of the blur, only one thing was perfectly pronounced:

Rage.

Rage. Rage. Rage. Rage. Rage. Rage. Rage. Rage. Rage. Rage.

Suddenly, it became clear to me that the rage that overwhelmed my heart had a victim and a target:

Germaine.

My Te flared, heating the environment, causing the air to stir, destroying. Damaging.

Becoming a tool for the sole mission of death.

I will kill you, Germaine.

I will kill you.

I will kill you.

"I will kill you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I lost my sanity.

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Narrator

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On that evening, the entirety of that dejected Island, the world called the backlands, was thrown into a frenzy.

Mothers hid with their daughters, fathers hid with their sons. And spiffs hid safely.

All markets and all shops closed down immediately.

A massively and rapidly expanding heat had washed over the entire backlands.

The heat was unlike anything the residents of the backlands had ever witnessed.

The heat almost boiled their skins.

But there was familiarity in the heat, though.

The same kind of heat had flared in the entire backlands two years ago.

But the heat was not just ’heat’.

It was accompanied by quakes that shook the entire backlands, making buildings tremble softly.

And in every major and minor gang of the backlands, the ones at the top knew what the ’heat’ was.

Consequently, all sparrows and sparrow-ranked level spiffs that resided in the backlands began to make their move toward the source of that heat. To try to quell it, to quench the flames.

They knew what would happen if the fire remained unquenched.

Not only them, though. All citizens of the backlands knew.

Because the source of the heat was from the Te radiation of one man.

A legend in the backlands. The one who destroyed a major gang singlehandedly and broke the neck of two sparrows.

It was from the Te of,

The Red Nightmare.