As uncomfortable silence pervaded the room, Matthew kept his eyes on his friends as they stood frozen in fear. Tapping his foot, the knight knowingly added to the tension permeating the air, hoping to force one of them to break.

“Well, what were you doing?”

“We were just taking time to enjoy the city before heading back.”

“Don’t lie to me! You’ve been asking suspicious questions lately Adri, and now you’re forcing me to use my lie detection. Tell me you were really doing.”

Shutting her eyes, Adriana stepped forward, fearing becoming miserable acceptance. “Do you need to ask?”

“Yes, because some part of me wants to assume the best. Please, tell me you didn’t…” Matthew stopped, looking at Adriana as if he were about to cry.

“We did…”

“You killed her, didn’t you?!”

The rogue nodded, tears breaking through the dam that was her closed eyelids. “It was for your own good.”

“My own good?! What good would come from killing my sister?! The only good thing that came from this is that it made me realize that I can’t trust my ‘friends’. Brian, Jessica, Eric, Sarah, you were all in on it, weren’t you?”

“No, not Sarah. We made sure not to tell her.”

“Man, if you’re going to kill anyone for this, kill me. I’m the one who stabbed your sister.” The dragoon stepped between the two.

“I helped Adri, I won’t let her die alone.” Eric joined Brian.

“I deserve as much as anyone else.” Jessica joined the two, the trio now shielding the rogue.

“I won’t kill any of you. I just…I…I need time. I don’t want to talk to any of you until we get home. If anyone dies, it’ll be the queen, even if I die trying.”

The knight retreated to his room, where he stayed all night. Sarah was forced to take Brian’s bed, the dragoon agreeing to sleep on the inn’s couch.

The knight woke up first among the group, his sleep cut short by shear chaotic yelling outside of the inn. Dressing and exiting the inn as quickly as humanly possible, he could still see the source: a bunch of people were fighting, hitting each other with wooden planks, purses, metal pipes, and various weapons including their own two fists.

Plunging his sword into the ground, the knight focused on creating iron poles all around the mob, pulled his sword up after doing so, and slammed it against the nearest pole with all his might. To his astonishment, the people reacted to the sound, pausing briefly but picking up the fight once they recovered.

Making his way into the fray, he bashed various people with his shield in an attempt to knock them back while causing minimum damage, but every person he knocked back simply dove back into the angry fight pile. Holding his sword skyward, Matt unleashed a blinding light, causing the entire crowd to reel back. Once they could see again, the fight resumed.

It was at this point the knight decided to cut his loss, assume the people of Branton had all gone crazy from some disease or this was a Branton tradition, and get his former friends out of here if they weren’t all crazy as well.

Clang clang clang

The knight smacked his sword and shield together, a random thought in his head had him realize this was the one time he combined his weapons together for a single purpose.

“You rang?” The dragoon jumped out, the others rushing out to join him.

“We need to get the hell out of here NOW! The people outside are trying to kill each other, let’s not give them the chance to kill us.”

“Have you tried hitting them?”

“Jessica, I’ve tried hitting them with my shield, blinding them with my light, deafening them, and even reasoning with them. I don’t even know what they’re fighting about, there voices are all muddled together.”

Without any further questioning the group fled, making a break passed the mob that had expanded further since Matthew managed to escape. As they traveled back to Gnash, a dark and terrible sensation welled up in the stomachs of the group, each one feeling queasy and anxious.

“Do you guys feel that?” The elf shivered, rubbing her arms while the others nodded.

“My hands are standing up and I feel like I’m gonna throw up.” Brian began to wobble, the mage catching him and helping him stand while using him to help herself stand.

As the group entered Gnash, the same scenario played out, an angry mob of people spouting incomprehensible nonsense circled around a small part of the town. Inspecting the buildings, some of the stores were broken into, the display glass broken and only a couple items remain to rule out the possibility of an empty building. Needless to say, the group spent no time in Gnash and quickly trotted toward Lumina.

Passing the gates of Lumina was the ominous wind the six had ever felt in their life. Walking down that same old road, approaching their typical meeting place, and walking toward the castle, one unmistakable aspect was omnipresent: the city was empty. There was no speck of life, no person, no animal, even nature itself seemed to have abandoned the city as the wind stood still and not a single leaf loosened its grip. Only the echo and the buildings were around to greet the group. Even the castle seemed void of life, not uncommon given its size and lack of staff.

Reaching the queen’s throne, something seemed amiss, something Matt and friend’s weren’t immediately privy too. Looking at the throne, it hit him: her throne now sat in the middle of the room, jutting out from the wall it once laid against. The queen herself was present, behind her was Matthew’s mother. The monarch initially seemed bored, but as she noticed the group’s presence, her expression became a sly grin.

“We’ve returned, all of the sins are dead.” The knight’s tone reflected the cadavers he referenced.

“I am well aware.”

This news shook Matthew.

‘How does she know? They hadn’t spent but a few weeks killing the sins, and the sins were rather unknown now that they stopped causing chaos.’

“There’s just one problem: you missed one. Well, maybe not missed, but somehow that sin managed to slip away.”

Matthew was unsure of how to process the information. ‘Did they not actually kill Lucy? Were they simply lying to …actually why would, so how would it be possible? “What do you mean, slipped away?”

The queen stood from her throne and stepped forward, stopping just in front of Matthew.

“I wanted ALL of the sins dead so that I could continue with my plan. One of them didn’t die, or perhaps didn’t stay dead. Unfortunately, this puts a damper on what I intended, but I have found a solution between then and when you arrived.”

Matthew was still confused at what she was talking about and now was beginning to grow impatient. “So did my sister have to die or not?!”

The queen gave a simple giggle at the young man.

“She did, but her death was in vain. Don’t worry, your effort was not. Now that all the sins are dead, I can restore Lumina to its former glory.”

Before the group’s very eyes, shadows started to race toward the queen. The six couldn’t even react in the time it took for these shadows to crawl all over the Queen, enveloping her in a black silhouette. The group reeled back in horror as the shadow started to gain shape.

Upon gaining shape, the Queen’s body was now a pale, pronounced white. Eyes with glowing red sclera dotted her body, all nine feet of it. Her clothes, now tattered, clung to her body as best they could. Her head was filled with long, flowing raven hair. Up top of her head were six horn’s that curved to form a crown, two thick tails slithered from her back, six draping wings extended from her upper back, and on her exposed stomach was a mouth full of razor sharp teeth.

“You…you had us kill those innocent kids just so you could become one of them?!”

“No Baronia, not one of them…all of them! I have gained all their abilities, all of their powers, and even all of their consciousness. I can hear them right now, SCREAMING for release.”

Gathering more rage than he had ever known in his entire life, Matthew leaped forward to strike the monster. However, as he came within inches of the creatures, he stopped dead. Suddenly, the knight could no control his body, his body holstering his sword and shield against his will.

“Silly boy, did you really think you could just slice me up like some animal? You, your friends, your family, your countrymen: from this day on they will all be under my control whether they like it or not.”

The woman leaned close to Matthew, pushing her tongue less than an inch away from his face before pulling it back.

“You know Baronia, so many people question my rule. They think they deserve ‘better’, but they don’t realize that better doesn’t exist. Do you think Pyora is better? Because I’ll tell you this, we have everything within our grasps. For now, just sit pretty you cutie pies.”

Matthew wanted to scream, he wanted to cry, he wanted to say or do anything, but his body wouldn’t budge. All he could do was think. As he watched the world spin around, he saw his friends, clearly under the same control.

“Matthew, I love.” Was the last thing Sarah could utter before her lip were sealed shut. “Sorry Matt.” Eric had briefly defied the mind control for he too was silenced. Brian merely trembled assuming before his body stood unerring. Jessica had begun to cry but had halted immediately. Adriana merely lowered her head in shame before having it raised back up.

Just as things seemed bleak, the knight watched in pure hellish anguish as his girlfriend, the woman he loved for four years, was covered in black sludge. Her silhouette was completely devoured and transformed by the tar before it dispersed and revealed an abomination of a devil creature. It’s arms, legs, torso, waist, and everything else were misshapen and oddly proportioned. The arms were long and thick, the legs tinny and thin, the waist slim and the torso fat, the head thinning out and looking too small for the broad shoulders it sat on.

As Matthew marched forward to be next, his mind filled with a few thoughts before his world went dark.

Father, Aunt Shelly...Lucille…I’m sorry. I’m failed you all. I was the queen’s pawn. I should have listened to you all and left. Now everyone’s going to be a mindless puppet and it’s all my fault.