Chapter 16

Max's dour mood continued through the next day. After taking his Focal, he was surprised to find himself standing in a featureless stone room. In front of him was a black curtain, spanning one wall of the room. Seeing the nightmares had now deviated from anything he'd seen yet, his dread only worsened, as every time the nightmares deviated from 'normal', things had gotten worse for him, and he didn't expect this time to be any different. He knew this wasn't real, but he still dug his claws into his palms, just to be sure. A distorted voice made him stop. "You're a fool for coming back." The Alius said, its voice emanating from no particular place and dripping with derision.

Max whirled around, unable to find the source of the voice. "I can't-"

"No, you can." It said, sounding angry now. "It is the default option, in fact. Instead, you continue to choose to come back. I warned you weeks ago that you would regret coming here, and I had hoped that I'd have warned you off before we got to this point. You've left me no choice. Just remember that everything that happens now is your fault."

Max's eyes went wide, a fresh wave of fear at what was waiting for him, unable to fathom what could be worse than what he'd seen up to this point.

Some mysterious force drew the curtains to one side of the room, and Max let out a strangled cry when he saw what, or who, was on the other side. Strapped down to sturdy wooden chairs facing him was his sister Leah and brother Ben, both indistinguishable from a pure-blood goat-like Capran, both staring fearfully at him. Leah looked as she did when he'd left home, a young lady still in the height of youth with her golden brown fur and slightly haughty face. Ben still had the lankiness of a teenager, despite only being a few years younger than Max, and dark fur, bordering on black with his wide, friendly eyes. Ben stared dumbfounded at Max, while Leah thrashed at her restraints, the chair not budging in the slightest despite Max being able to see her arms straining against the restraints.

"Max! Get me out of these!" Leah yelled.

Max's blood chilled, disbelieving what he was seeing. In his mind, he knew they couldn't be his actual siblings, but why did it have to bring them into this waking nightmare?

"Now you understand the stakes." It said. For the first time, Max noticed it was standing between their two chairs. "I'm going to make it really simple for you, as thick as you seem to be. One of these two is not going to survive today, Max." It said, twirling a long knife between nimble gloved fingers. "And you get to choose who lives, Max, by killing the other."

This situation was even worse than Max had imagined. Both of Max's siblings started, looking in horror at the stranger. "What?! No! You can't!" Leah shouted. Ben let out a strangled sob.

"I can, and I will. You can't stop me, and neither can you, Max." It pointed the knife at the two siblings, then flipped the knife over to hold its hilt out to Max. "Take it." It commanded Max. "It's your choice, Max. Which will it be?"

Max stared at the Alius, utterly speechless.

"Take it!" It thundered, its voice deafening. When Max still didn't move, it yelled. "Take it, or I kill the both of them right here and now!"

With a shaking hand, Max took the blade from it, the knife feeling exceptionally heavy.

"Good. Now make your choice, Max. Who dies and who lives?" It said, its gaze staring directly at Max as it gestured to the siblings.

Max's gaze darted between his siblings. How could he make a decision like that, let alone carry out the act, even in an unreal world?

Ben jumped in to fill the tense silence. "Max, please don't kill me! I know I haven't always been the easiest on you, but we're brothers, right? Brothers who love each other. Brothers have to stick together, have to help each other out, right?"

Leah gawked at Ben. "That's ridiculous! Do you think I want to die either? I have more to live for than you do. I've got Seth to think about! What would he do without me, Max? He'd be destroyed to lose me."

"But I've got so much left to live for! I haven't had the chance to leave home, see the world, or even kiss Kate! If you kill me, I'll never get the chance. Never have the chance to find treasure, or kill a monster."

"You wouldn't leave home if it burned down." Leah spat back at Ben. "You're worse than Max, and we had to basically kick him out. Besides, I have another life to look after." She looked back to Max. "I'm pregnant, Max."

The room fell deathly silent, before Ben broke it with a wail. "I'm a dead man! Oh, I'm so dead! Nononono..."

Max's eyes burned as tears ran down his cheeks. He closed his eyes so that he didn't have to watch his brother's hysterical sobbing. It was the logical choice to pick Ben, if Leah was pregnant. It wasn't wild, she and Seth had certainly been married for long enough. But though he felt that was the 'right' choice in the strictest logical sense, he couldn't bring himself to do the act that saving Leah's life would require. Even committing to that choice seemed an impossible task. "I..." Max muttered to himself, closing his eyes so as to not have to look at either of them. "I...I can't."

"Yes, you can, Max!" Leah shouted. "It's not hard! Just do it already!"

"Which is it, Max?" It said coldly. "I'm not going to wait forever. Kill one of them or I kill both of them."

Max was silent, his teeth gritted together as he quietly cried.

"Kill us both? Max, what are you doing? Don't let us both die! Do what must be done!" Leah screamed.

"Nooooooooo! I don't wanna die! Please!"

Max's head hung low as the blade in Max's hand fell to his side, and then out of his hand to clatter onto the floor.

There was a cacophony in the room as the two siblings broke out into hysteria, the Alius's voice rising above theirs. "Fine. I'll kill them both then, starting with Leah."

Max didn't dare to open his eyes as he heard Leah snarl, "Damn you to hell, Max! Why wouldn't you do it?! Why would you kill the both of us?!" Her tone shifted to fear. "No. No, no please! My baby! No!"

"Why, Max?" Ben moaned.

Max couldn't give either of them an answer, other than muttered, barely coherent apologies under his breath. He told himself that wasn't Ben, that it wasn't Leah about to die, but it was no good. He couldn't keep his lips from stretching into a pained snarl, which opened up the way for a keening wail as he gave himself over now to grief, falling to his knees. He heard Leah's screams grow hysterical, then abruptly stop with a gurgling cry. He could hear her struggling to breathe as Ben's pleading intensified, until he too was abruptly silenced. The room was silent, and even Max's now completely uncontrolled sobbing couldn't cover the last shuddering breaths of Leah first, then Ben a few seconds later.

"It's all your fault." The Alius hissed, mere inches from Max's ear, making him jump. "You're so fucking weak. You could've saved one. They only both died because you were too weak to save one of them by sacrificing the other. So, now you get to live with the knowledge that you chose to kill both of them." Its voice dropped to a deep, menacing register. "If you come back here next time, I will make you kill one of your parents or lose both of them. Maybe you'll be strong enough then to save one of them, where you failed to save even one of your siblings."