requiem

Requiem 0:8: Blame†From The Books Of The Lost Enclave“I had a dream once, but now that dream is gone from me."Date unknown
†Cherry pulled the black dress uniform over her head. Dawn lay just on the horizon, still stretching lazy red fingers into the velvet night. She flipped the collar down and stared out into a blank sky from her bedroom window. The folded scrap of paper felt heavy in her hands. Nicodemus’s rogue delivered it hours ago. Since then she couldn’t sleep, but that didn’t feel new. She dropped the note into the trash and left the room. The kitchen felt dead. Solitary. What is supposed to feel like? She wondered. I knew once, but now that notion is gone from me.Lina came out into the kitchen in a black gown. Cherry lowered her eyes to the table and watched her hands twine around themselves. Case would go into the ground today. Cherry tried not to think about it. Tried not to focus on the exact idea or person they were burying. A job, she thought, that’s all I asked for.The damp caverns of Ironforge flashed before her eyes. The man with all the abacuses, the catacombs. Cherry remembered it all. The rain, it always hung around her. What was so different now? She choked back a tidal wave of tears. Case was gone, the sooner she got that through her head the better.Lina dropped a black velvet bag onto the table. Cherry opened it. Her hand went through the rose petals inside. They flowed through her fingers like silk or water. She closed the velvet bag and tied it to her waist. It felt heavy, felt like a rough stone straight out of the mines. “You okay?” Lina asked.Cherry looked up, “Yeah, why?”“You’re crying,” Lina said.She touched her face and found tears there. Lina reached across the table and took her hand. “Do you want to stay?”“No,” Cherry said. She got to her feet. “We all go. We all pay our respects.”Lina nodded, “Sorry.”They left the house and headed down the road toward the central square around the Tower. The incinerator was there. A massive group had already gathered. Cherry wove her way through the people, bag secured. I’m not a doctor. Case, just Case.She remembered Dorian on the floor of the cobblestone room, Case having the beast in the cage sucking out as much venom as it could through two glass tubes. Did he scream? Cherry lined herself near the front of the mechanical track leading to the furnace. An hour passed in silence. Case’s body lay against a polished mahogany slab, her hair spread around her. A black dress fitted her, hands crossed over her chest. A calm smile covered the elf’s face. Someone had made up her features in deep lavender's and blue. Cherry forced back the clog in her throat. Bah-bah-bah, I don’t want to know names, safer if I don’t, Case whispered.The main center of The Gulch filled with creatures as dawn turned to morning. Cherry took in the faces of Taurens, Trolls, Elves, and Undead, all of them. She reached into the bag, and found Lina’s had there. The girl smiled at her in a sad sort of way.“You don’t need to do this alone,” Lina said.“No…I guess not.”Their hands clasped a scoop of rose petals. Together they spread them over Case’s body. Dozens of others did the same. Case’s body awash in a sea of crimson petals, a tidal mass of dark flowers. Cherry touched the woman’s hand. IT felt cold and rubbery. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “I never wanted it to end like this.”A piano and bag pipes sounded near the furnace. Cherry recognized it as the elfin funeral march. She spread the rest of her flowers over Case’s body. The face looked so peaceful. The smile, something that Cherry had rarely seen. Did you get what you wanted? She wondered.Near the incinerator Lilliam stood up next to a podium of burnt ghost wood. Cherry saw the woman out of the corner of her eye, her focus still trained on Case’s face. “We come here today, to mourn,” Lilliam said. The woman’s voice rang out far and clear. “And we will. Let us remember what this woman stood for, what she believed in, what she did for use.”Thousands of rose petals colored the sky. Cherry watched them, distraught, anguished. You don’t find that odd? Case asked.Case and Dorian almost came as a package deal. The furnace fires danced alive. Cherry felt the heat from where she was yards away at the end of the rail. Cremation, that was their only option, The Gulch was too small and people died too fast for there to be a graveyard. She watched a waterfall of rose petals descend onto Case’s body. The motorized track reached the incinerator and then lifted. Cherry watched the body fly into the fire. The scent of burnt roses filled the air. A tauren closed the shaft door to the incinerator, a small elf beside him. Cherry struggled to find a name but couldn’t. The girl manned the Tower that much she knew, but beyond that there was a cloudy haze. I’ve been packing, Case said, leaving.Cherry remembered the luggage, the worn leather straps and cases. Case was leaving Ironforge in search of better things, but where had she ended up? Pulling a bullet out of my chest, Cherry thought. The woman came back, and if it weren’t for her there’d be nothing left of Cherry but a rotted mess of tissue and a black slug in her chest. She touched the scar between her breasts. Case, just Case.You were supposed to outlive me, she thought. Case ‘s voice filled her head, “Don’t worry about the future. The real trouble is apt to never cross your worried mind, it'll blind-side you some Tuesday night. Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind, and the race is long. Be kind to your knees. Your choices are half chance. Use your body, it’s the greatest weapon you will ever own.”Cherry blinked. She reached into her dress and pulled out the small flask hidden in one of the pockets.Fire gobbled the body of the woman up. Cherry flattened her face against the stench of burnt rose.

†From The Books Of Luciola“Flow my tears.”Undated scrap of paper, unfilled.

By: Fallon QuinnAuthors Notes: Broken chapter.