Hellbound Heart

In the darkness, two blurry figures landed on top of a building. But one of them failed to land cleanly and rolled on the floor.

Elijah turned. His face and neck were drenched with blood. Even the squirrel that was on his shoulder, its fur was stained wet with blood as well.

"I'm sorry... Your Highness. I don't think I can make it." Mike grinned rather helplessly. Blood was flowing out of his mouth as he gripped his hand over the gaping wound on his chest. "Please go on without me. Alexander might still be coming after you... trailing our blood. You can't be caught by him."

Without responding, Elijah just stared down at the man. His grey eyes dimmed as he surveyed his long-time side kick lying in an ever widening pool of his own blood.

"Go now, Prince Elijah." Mike begged again. Urgency and worry were brimming in his eyes.

But Elijah did not leave like what Mike had urged him to do. Instead, he approached him and crouched down. "Shut up, Mike. When did I allow you to order me what to do?" he said, emotionlessly.

And then he picked Mike up in his arms. Causing the man's eyes to widen.

"Prince... Elijah... don't do this. I'm already a... I can no longer survive this. So please don't burden yourself with my hopeless body anymore –" Mike truly was worried for his Lord and did not want to be a burden that would slow his progress.

"I told you to shut up, damn it." He hissed. "I'm going to take you to a much higher building and drop you from there for an even quicker death. So just shut up!" And Mike could do nothing but zip his mouth as Elijah scowled at him.

And in the next second, he leapt along with Mike in his arms.

But time passed and he did not drop him like he had threatened earlier. Elijah simply carried him as they traveled through the city unnoticed.

Smiling, Mike sighed helplessly. "Are you satisfied with the outcome of everything tonight, Your Highness? It seems... Alexander somehow managed to arrive earlier than expected again."

"No. He came just as I expected." Elijah replied and Mike sighed again.

"If only you didn't stall too much. I sometimes wonder if you were actually doing that on purpose. Had you not wasted so much time cooking and feeding the princess, even giving her time to see to her private needs... there should be more than enough time for you to execute all your plans before Alexander's arrival."

Elijah did not respond and simply continued running. However, Mike knew that he was listening.

"So, it seems, this is a failure too, huh..." Mike's voice weakened. "I was hoping you'd at least get what you wanted from this so I won't feel like I would be dying in vain." He teased, laughing soundlessly.

"It's not a failure." Elijah replied. "I've already gotten what I wanted. So even with Alexander's interference, it does not matter. Sebastian..." a cold and heartless smile tugged at the corner of Elijah's lips. "Now he knows what it feels like..." something unfathomable gleamed across his eyes before it was concealed and disappeared from the surface. "That's more than enough, for now."

"Ah, I... see... that's a relief then." Mike's eyes began to dim even as he said these words.

And Elijah slowed. He took a turn, entered the forest and continued moving on until he arrived at an old cemetery.

When Elijah settled him gently on the ground, Mike smiled at him again. "What are you going to do from here on, Your Highness? After this, Prince Sebastian might come at you without any reservation from now on. Even Alexander might not be... able to stop him anymore." His voice now only a whisper.

"You don't have to worry about me, Mike. You know I will always survive even if they all come at me." Elijah's voice sounded unconcerned.

"Right." Mike's smile widened as he thought that Prince Elijah indeed would definitely do just fine even if he was gone. "You will be just fine even without me too... I'm relieved... I'm... well then, Your Highness... good... bye..."

Elijah quietly watched Mike close his eyes. And once his body went limp and lifeless, Elijah laid right next to Mike's corpse and looked up at the starry night.

"As long as Ezekiel doesn't come back, no one could outsmart me and catch me. So, I will continue to play with Sebastian's life while I can... Hopefully, he'll be broken beyond repair before that man ends up returning." He continued talking like Mike was still listening. "No, I will make sure that if Ezekiel ever returns, his completely insane brother would be the one to welcome him."

"I still don't understand why you changed our plans like that." A woman's voice suddenly echoed behind him. She sounded pissed and angry.

Elijah did not even bat an eyelid and continued staring unblinkingly at the sky while stroking the squirrel that was now sitting over his chest. After Mike had stopped breathing, the squirrel had then sat up and chattered for a while before jumping over to seek comfort in the embrace of Elijah.

"The plan was to torture her in front of him. If we made the prince watch her get tortured and then get killed... he should've been driven insane by now!" the female voice continued. "But what did you do? What is that crap you –"

"We are still not certain if Sebastian loves her enough that he'd go crazy if she dies." Elijah cut her off, still never moving to even look at the source of the voice. "But depending on the result we saw tonight, we will know. I already told you... I will only let her get killed if I'm certain her death would cost Sebastian's sanity."

The female sneered and scoffed. "And because of that stupid rule of yours, you lost your long-time companion. You are wasting so much time and chances, Elijah."

A tiny muscle in Elijah's jaw ticked after hearing her comment. But when he replied, there was no sign of him being bothered by the owner of that voice at all. "Don't you forget about our bargain. I'll get what I want in this first before you. I never told you that I wanted a quick result, right? I wanted a slow but satisfying vengeance. I've waited long enough for this and can wait a little more to see it done perfectly. I don't have any plans to end it in the blink of an eye. I'm not going to end it so easily for him! I wanted to drag Sebastian's torment out for as long as I can!"

The voice tsked before it finally disappeared.

Elijah shut his eyes closed and drew in a long-suffering breath after he was certain she was truly gone.

After an immeasurable amount of time, Elijah finally opened his eyes as he finally felt the presence of the men he had summoned.

Men in black appeared one after another behind him. Two of them were holding an intricate coffin while the others were holding shovels. All had their heads slightly lowered and kept silent in respect to the now still man that was lying beside Prince Elijah.

Pushing himself off the ground, Elijah took his jacket off and before he covered Mike, he softly uttered the word "Good bye".