To A Thief - Chapter 5: Live for Me

Is this real? Could it be an illusion by the darkness created from Stiff's heart? Or was he simply re-living the past?

"To think they would come out this far..!" One of the sisters called out as she huddled the children together, her voice quivering in fear. The orphanage resided behind the town just a ways to the north that was being rebuilt and had been heavily guarded.

Sister Eri held her staff in front of her as she stood by the door ready for a possible break in with a few other of the sisters beside her. Her robe's hood had been lowered, revealing her entire head of long, golden hair. She bit her bottom lip and gulped, trying not to lose her focus. "If they got to the orphanage, the town must have been raided as well.. a full-scale attack, possibly," She thought out loud, gripping her staff readily as the growling outside grew louder. The door nearly broke against the force of the beastmen's weapons.

Stiff's frightened gaze fell upon Sister Eri, watching her stand in front of the barricade bravely. Seeing her so focused and ready filled him with a bit of hope but didn't remove the helplessness he felt within himself. He wanted to help but he was frozen in fear.

Sister Eri turned to the group of frightened orphans, looking each one of them in the eye and stopping at Stiff's gaze. She gave them all one of her comforting smiles. "Don't worry children. We'll protect you... I'll protect you," She assured, looking directly at Stiff upon saying that last bit.

With that, she cast a giant protect spell that fell upon everyone in the room, then fading away after having reinforced their bodies' defenses.

The barricade eventually crumbled into nothing and with it, the door which stood between the raiding beastmen and the group. It was hard to make out what they looked like, but they towered over any other person in the orphanage. Their orcish silhouettes were tall, wide... and more frightening than Stiff could have ever imagined.

Pushing violently through the doorway as all the children screamed, spells and weapons began to be thrown about.


The fight was brutal...

I had always pictured myself fighting off beastmen once I was old enough, but I never imagined it would be anything like this. This was just one big massacre, blood being splattered all over the walls and some even over us orphans. What was scarier was the fact that some of that blood wasn't just the beastmen's blood. 

I wanted it to stop. I couldn't take it anymore. Such bloodshed to be witnessed by us orphans... wasn't it enough that we had our parents taken away?

Murdered by the same monsters that now threatened to kill us... why did we have to go through all of this?

Did the Altana the sisters made us pray to every day and night truly exist?

Where was she now?

And then... 


The beastman had suddenly turned their attention towards the huddling orphans, seeing so many vulnerable targets huddled together all at once. They began a relentless charge towards them, pushing through the sisters and others falling to their spells.

The sisters could only do so much. It had been hard enough keeping the beastmen away from the children with their focus on the sisters, but now that's all they seemed to be going after.

The children began to scream as the beastmen got closer, raising their frightening weapons and ready to make minced meat of them.

Stiff had been at the front of the huddle and now looked up at a growling beastman; the overpowering stench of blood on its armor nearly making him dizzy as it lifted his weapon. He began to scream as the weapon came down hard.

Before it could hit, the beastmen were suddenly flung about the room by a gigantic wind spell that formed a tornado between them, sucking in every one of them in its perimeter. How it targeted the enemy specifically and not anyone else is unknown, but it was definitely one of Sister Eri's ancient spells.

She stood at the end of the room, holding her staff out in front of her and concentrating heavily with her eyes shut, chanting another spell. Her eyes opened menacingly once the deadly spell was cast. This one was also very big, but seemed to have a lightning-based element to it that she fused with the tornado that flung the beastman about and continued to suck them inside. There was a loud sound that could not be described in words, but it was the cause of the two spells being fused together. Immediately after wards, the beastman's howls of pain echoed across the walls and then the spell burst into an explosion. Blood and beastmen bits flew everywhere.

The orphans and all the other sisters witnessed in both fear and amazement, left speechless by the godly display of magic power Sister Eri had just shown- Stiff, especially.

He had always thought of Sister Eri as a simple white mage... it was obvious now that she was more than that. He looked up at her as he lowered his arms, face full of shock. "A... Amazing," He whispered. "Sister Eri... that was... amazing."

She smiled weakly at Stiff but fell to her knees completely exhausted. Fighting to catch her breath, she forced herself back onto her feet before anybody could worry and nodded reassuringly. 

"Don't worry... I'm okay," She gasped between breaths. The spell fusion had obviously taken a toll on her body. "Are you all... alright?"

Suddenly, she threw her head back and let out a pained yelp. The sound of a sheathing blade could be heard coming from the doorway behind her... and through her belly, was the end of a short and rusted beastman sword poking out.

More beastmen had arrived and were running fast towards the little orphanage from outside, spreading about the building like ants. One of their long ranged fighters had thrown the weapon swiftly at the unsuspecting sister. This new wave of enemies had most likely been attracted to the sudden display of magic that was probably visible from outside within the town.

Stiff's smile of relief suddenly faded, pupils dilating as he saw the glint of the blade coming out of Sister Eri's stomach. Everything had suddenly stopped and gone into slow-motion. Sister Eri looked down at the blade protruding from her stomach before shortly looking up up at everyone with dimming eyes and dropping to the ground limp, her beautiful golden hair trailing behind her.


From that moment on... I began getting acquainted with darkness.

I tried to run to her, but the tunnel of darkness that was beginning to cloud my vision forced me to stumble back down.

No matter how hard I tried, I simply slipped back onto the floor. It was as if the ground was made of rubber.

Everything had gone quiet. I heard nothing else, not my own screams, the screams of others, nor the sisters trying to stop me. All I heard was a distant ringing in my ears and a slowing heartbeat. Whether it was my own heartbeat or Sister Eri's, I did not know.

I couldn't run to her, so instead, I crawled..

I crawled as fast as I could for what seemed like an eternity until I finally looked down at my dear friend, my guardian, my could-be sister, my could-be mother...

I could hear her breathing now, but the breaths she drew became slower and slower. As I rested her head on my lap, she looked up at me, but not quite at me... she was staring through me.


"Sister Eri.. I'm right here! I'm right here!" Stiff cried out. "Look at me, please!" He shook her gently, his tears landing on her forehead.

Her blue crystalline eyes looked so dim now. Blinking slowly, her eyelids flickered before those eyes of her truly met his own. She gave a weak smile as the blood began to trickle from the corner of her lips.

"Oh, Stiff... it's you," She whispered quietly, bringing a hand gently to his cheek and tracing her fingers to his chin. "Forgive me... it looks like I won't be able to watch you grow... and become Sir Stiff, Grand Adventurer Extraordinaire, " She said, her dimming eyes welling up a bit. "It's a shame. I really... wanted to see that. You are not like the others, Stiff... one day, you're going to become-"

She coughed suddenly, choking out some more blood and wincing her eyes in pain.

He brought his forehead to hers and shut his eyes tight, wrapping his arms around her head. Seeing her like this made his chest feel like a thousand shards of glass were poking through. "Don't talk, Sister Eri! Save your energy... w-we'll get help... we will!"

All she did was smile, looking through him once more as she continued to speak. "My only regret... is that I won't be there with you... on your future endeavors. I know you're going to have great ones. I can see it now, actually. Yes... you look so strong and handsome."

Stiff just whimpered, "Please stop, Sister Eri. No more... no more!" He couldn't handle this. She was leaving him. How could she leave him alone?

"You're going to make... so many friends.. and have such good times. Laughing through everything... and being the stubborn boy we've known you best as." She whispered, her eyes dimly falling upon his as he rose his head.

"Stiff... live strong. Live happy. Live for tomorrow," She continued, reaching her hand up and giving him a small pat on the head. "...Live for me."

Stiff's eyes went a bit wide at her words, feeling them sink into his heart.

Her hand slowly dropped from the top of his head and brushed along his cheek before falling to the floor. Her head finally went limp in his arms.

Sister Eri was no more.


What happened with me then, I have no clue even to this day... but it was definitely the cause of the darkness; this emptiness inside of me.


All sounds and more seemed to have returned to Stiff. In fact, he had never heard this clearly before in his life. It was as if his hearing had increased ten-fold.

Stiff's wide eyes continuously dilated, the darkness that tunneled his vision suddenly blanketing everything until he saw nothing but black. It was strange, but somehow he could make out the figures before him standing in the door way perfectly.

The entire whites of Stiff's eyes had gone black, leaving only his brown eyes in color. He lifted himself off the floor suddenly, staring directly at the incoming beastmen who pushed through the doorway. Then, he began to run fast right back towards them without saying a word or so much as blinking. He was intent on getting revenge.

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Continued in Chapter 6: Walk of Shadows

Author's Note

Comments and Reviews MUCH appreciated! :)