A Brother's Folly

Step by step, a silent crescendo swelled in his head.
Each footfall on the stone staircase echoed back the way Jared had come, and ahead to where he ascended. With no torches lit in the sconces for centuries, the oil lamp he carried was the only thing to light his path, the metal handle rattling as his uneasy hand held it in front of his awkward steps. He'd entered this place expecting silence, but the sound of drafts, and faint hisses that he hoped came from outside, plagued his ears and concocted all manner of vile images in his mind. His lip trembled slightly at the thought of his brother stuck in this terrible place. As he tried to maintain composure, his imagination sang at him, chanted and groaned, and scraped crude metal weapons against stone walls. He breathed heavy and unevenly, although he told himself that was from the monumental climb of the castle's tower. His imagination simply made it seem that he was terrified of shadows and darkness like a child.

He was perhaps four storeys up now, and knew the lab would be close. For the sake of his aching knees, he prayed it was, although prayer in this place was a fallacy. The very air of the place stank of evil, and it made him fear for his brother more. This lab was situated right in the middle of the tower; when he arrived by carriage, he knew without hesitation where it was. Instead of loopholes, one huge monstrosity faced out from the drum tower; an inverted cross, maybe ten feet high, to let in light and fresh air. To ventilate the room for whatever ungodly masses formed to blaspheme and sacrifice. It could have been a Lord's solar, with a grand view of the small keep and distant fields. But now, it held the fate of his beloved Stephen, and possible others. Charmed, sweet-talked, brainwashed some would say, into volunteering for a doctor with ideas and visions above morality. Creating men that were more than men. Warriors that could fight without pain, or even taking wounds. The mad scribblings of notes and research in the rooms of the castle's ground floor suggested the doctor fancied these warriors for someone other than king and country. Jared could only hope his brother was alive amongst what was happening here, but the silence and desolation of the castle shook his hope. Then again, silence wasn't the word he'd use to describe this place.

The lantern eventually revealed flat stone floor that meant Jared's legs could relax from the soft burning of climbing hundreds of stairs, and he stopped for a moment at the top. He held his lantern out, but had to walk further to see more than empty stone, and soon came upon an alcove, and ahead of it the door that once stood inside it now flat on the ground, its hinges bent and snapped. His stomach churning in knots, Jared walked slowly into the room, swallowing as best he could with a dry, course throat. He knew the lab would be the size of a great hall, but his lantern lit so little that he could have been in the depths of Hell surrounded by endless black. Where was the light from the cross? Had he been climbing for so long that night had snuck up on him?!

He stepped into the lab, no idea whether to go left or right. He had a pouch of matches, sulphuric and freshly bought, but without candles they were as useless as a cock on a barwench, as Jared was fond of saying in lighter times. He swung the lantern slowly left and right as he edged into the room, looking for a table or desk, and ideally a candelabra. He cursed in frustration while searching, and when he finally found a desk he gathered fists full of papers and piled them up. He arranged them as neatly as he could and lit a match...it's not as if he planned to preserve anything of this doctor's. The fire took quickly and Jared stepped away, his eyes adjusting to the light as he watched the room come into being. The table appeared dusty but old and strong. He turned to look behind to his left and saw a bookshelf, glad to have found a wall, giving himself some bearings. Before he could turn back, the fire dimmed. He heard it flicker, and by the time he'd turned it had been doused. He stood frozen in confusion that turned into fear as heavy footsteps came around him from opposite the desk. He dropped the lantern but it remained lit, long enough to be kicked away by a leg that he saw for a fraction of time. All he'd seen was blackness, a tree trunk devoid of light that had sent the lantern skittering across the floor, no doubt leaking the oil he so desperately needed to escape this place. He stood motionless, too scared to breathe, trying to hear the thing but it made no sound. It must be studying him, he thought, able to see in the dark surely, but Jared was more haunted by the fact he could not hear it breathe. If it studied him, it did so calmly. Was this one of the doctor's...beasts? Men?

Eventually Jared exhaled, and as he took a huge gasp of air in his vision turned to flashing lights and stars. The thing had made no sound or movement. The air seemed calm and still, as if there'd been nothing at all. Jared tried to avoid looking at his lantern so his eyes would remain adjusted to the dark, but he saw nothing. He was too afraid to remain standing, too afraid to drop to his knees. Whatever was in here with him didn't like the fire he'd started, but he saw nothing stir near the glow of his lantern. After a stretch of time he couldn't begin to estimate, Jared moved towards the lantern. Instinctively. With no other hope or option, it was walk to the lantern or wait to be killed. If he moved, at least he'd see his killer before it was over. He was so crippled with fear that his brother had escaped his mind.

Jared took small steps, trying to remain quiet, but anxiety drowned him in the darkness. He felt naked and alone, for miles in every direction, as if the walls of the tower were unreachable no matter how far he ran. He soon moved faster, and eventually strode at a pace, and when he tripped over something heavy he cursed again as his knee collided with the stone ground. He was about to climb back to his feet when a groan came from behind him and he yelped, shuffling backwards, his eyes focussed on the darkness where the sound came from. When his lower back caused the lantern to clatter from shuffling on his backside away from the noise, he reached around quickly and swung the lantern in front of himself, peering forward. He heard shuffling, but he didn't fear the thing that had attacked him earlier. This was clumsy, and the groans were human. Could it be Stephen?

At that very thought, Jared stood and moved closer, cautiously, to the sounds. When an arm reached towards him he yelped again and stepped backward, but it dropped straight back to the ground and began pulling a slugging body with it. Thick, greasy hair glimmered in the lantern's light before a face he didn't recognise looked up to him. If it wasn't for the moustache that Stephen had described in letters, Jared wouldn't have known this man, but now he recognised him as the doctor. Nieuwendyk was his name. Jared's face contorted, and he stepped forward. He would offer this man no sympathy; he would demand to know where his brother was, and if Stephen wasn't safe and well he would drive the dagger he had in his boot right through the doctor's heart.
But as the doctor dragged himself closer, and Jared approached him, he saw that the man's legs ended above the knee, and only tendrils of flesh and scraps of trousers remained. The doctor groaned again, possibly trying to form words, but Jared 's mind had already lost hope. If this was the fate of the doctor, then the beasts would surely have done the same to his brother.

'Don't kill him' the doctor murmured. He said it again several times before Jared paid him any attention. He lowered himself on his haunches and held his lantern to the doctor's face.

'Kill who?'

'The doctor looked up, clearly a painful and arduous action. His face recoiled in horror.

'Stephen...how...how did you?'

'Where is Stephen?! Where is my brother?!'

Jared felt his voice wavering like a madman's, but he did nothing to subdue himself. He grabbed the doctor by his thick, greasy hair and yanked his face up to face his own.

'Where is Stephen?'

'....you're the brother. You're the twin. Please, don't kill him'

'WHERE?!'

'I only wanted to progress us. To give a worthy king the men he needed'

Before Jared could ask again, and try get some sense out of this man before he bled out, Jared's arm was gripped and pulled away. The doctor's hair slipped from Jared's grasp, and he watched as a force coming from the darkness slammed Nieuwendyk's head into the stone floor, then again, three times and more. The doctor didn't even have time to cry out. There was no last breath, no death rattle. The attack went on without pause until there was barely anything left of his face, and eventually the body was dropped. Then Jared heard footsteps.

They were loud, and close, and heavy. He knew he faced what had put the fire out. He saw nothing, but an arm swiped at him. It moved so fast that he felt the wind of it more than he saw it, and the lantern was slapped out of his hand once more. This time the light was extinguished.

'Kill me'

The voice was contorted, and strained. He recognised a human tone, through pain and rage. He also recognised the voice, although he struggled to accept it. He wished he could have watched the doctor be murdered again as he realised what stood before him.

'Kill me, brother'

Jared thought about the knife in his boot, and the suffering behind the voice that croaked at him in a way that pierced his ears, but he pushed the thought aside.

'I...how can I?'

'End my pain. And don't look at me. Burn the solar'

Jared blinked away tears. If he could see anything, it would have been blurred.

'I can get you to safety. We'll fix whatever he did to you'

'NO'

Jared's breath froze. Steps shuffled closer to him.

'Burn the solar, end his work'

'What happened to you?'

A guttural sound hissed out, the heat falling on Jared's face and the smell made him hold in a retch.

'Give me death, brother. Clean'

Jared, sobbing, bent to his boot and pulled out the knife, horrified by what he was doing. He stood back upright. Holding the blade in his right hand.

'How can this happen?' he said through suppressed sobs.

'Just kill me. Let it end'

Jared felt he'd known since he left for the castle that his brother wouldn't be rescued. He did little but scoff at the idea of a twin's intuition, but he felt resigned to his brother's fate since he first saw the inverted cross that passed for a window to this place. He could only assume what had become of the doctor's other subjects, although it seems they'd reached a point where he lost all control. Jared felt, if nothing else, his brother could be proud to be the one who ended it.

'Burn everything'

Jared felt the cool grip on his arm again, but this time it gently moved his arm up until the blade rested on skin. The hand deftly moved Jared's hand so the tip of the blade prodded into what was surely the neck of his brother.

'I...I love you, Stephen. you're my best fr-

'Let me die. End my pain'

Sobbing, almost wailing, desperate to hear his brother's endless chattering one more time, Jared gave in and pushed the blade with all the strength he had. The body of his brother stood firm and faced the blade, and Jared pushed it in, past tough skin, and cartilage, and then bone. His brother made no sound but a quiet grunt, and as hot blood ran down Jared's hand and arm, his brother uttered his last words.

'Thank you...'

Jared let go of the blade and stumbled backward, wiping his hand on his tunic and trousers. Tears and snot ran down his face as he sobbed. He barely had any tears left, and what dried on his face now would soon feel tight on his skin. He had to find his way back to the staircase. Jared would honour his brother's last wish, and do his best to console their father and mother when he returned home.

He kindled fires by the bookcases, careful to not study the room as he did so; he'd remember Stephen as he was, and nothing more. Once the lab was an inferno, he descended the tower and lit more fires, burning every room that was home to the doctor's property. When he was out in the courtyard, ready for a walk back to town that would take a few hours before getting the first ferry home, the heat beat down on him even as he reached the road. He looked back to the castle once, and saw that awful cross in the tower, glowing orange and yellow.