The water that arrived on the day that would ultimately mark the beginning of the end was familiar. It caused the same seizuring and choking as the first cup that Brigwald had drank did. However, this time it was worse. It tasted off, that was a first, and the results were far more drastic. Dracius had taken a sip before Brigwald and the effects were immediate. He continuously threw himself against the iron bars, trying to knock whatever it is that had taken a hold of him out. The attempts were futile, Brigwald made eye-contact with his captor and took the tiniest of sips, making it look like he took a large gulp. Then he flings himself to the ground and mimics Dracius' convulsing, only actually feeling slight cramps due to the limited injestion.
His captor let out an audible chuckle, a feminine chuckle, before leaving back up the cellar door. Brigwald sat there for hours, waiting for his cramps to cease and watching Dracius. By the end of his experience, the boy was rendered almost lifeless.
"I can't feel my legs.." He says weakly.
"Rest, gather your energy."
"I - I can't move."
"Hold on."
Brigwald moves over to the boy and reaches down to flip him over when he hesitates. A thought crosses his mind. He freezes in place and mulls it over. Would he be betraying his moral code? No, he didn't care about that anymore. All he cared about was seeing the outside world again. But the boy was so young, only sixteen years old. The exact age Brigwald had been when his life began to send him in the direction he had always been meant to go. His thoughts turned to a secret, a secret he had kept hidden from even those closest to him. Not once had he ever told anyone. The only two people in the world who knew it were himself and the owner of the orphanage. Brigwald's thoughts turned to his son. He thought about how he'd never see him again if he didn't escape. The boy was only eleven, and was brought up to think that Brigwald was the man who had found him as a baby and taken him to the orphanage. Brigwald couldn't die in peace knowing that his son would never have the truth revealed to him.
"Sir?" Asked Dracius weakly, trying to turn his head in order to take a glance at the now silent Brigwald.
"I'm truly sorry, you don't deserve this." Answered Brigwald, the boy began to say something but Brigwald had already begun to move. He knelt down to the boy's level and snapped his neck in one practiced motion. He didn't move for hours, instead just stayed kneeling next to the lifeless body of the innocent boy that he had killed. The tears came and went, Brigwald now felt free to sob over everything he had done and seen during his duty. He was free from the public eye, and it was liberating to reflect on everything. However he knew that he had to move. He had to act now or else his plan wouldn't be effective.
So, he got to work. First, he stripped the boy of his shirt. Then he clawed at the dead flesh of his back, up near where he had snapped his spine. He used his nails to claw through flesh, muscle and blood. Then, when he was deep enough, he grabbed Dracius's broken spine again and knelt on his back before breaking it once again. Now he held a small piece of his spine in his hands. Perhaps the most challenging task was to sharpen it. Eventually, he found the most effective way to do it was to use the iron bars. After he had sharpened it into a crude knife, he applied some of the Dracius's blood to his own face and clothes. To make his captor believe that both of them had fallen to whatever had occurred down there.
Brigwald lost track of time as he lay on the ground, his face in the dirt. There was no sign of his captor for awhile, but finally the cellar door opened once again and a figure climbed down the ladder. A gasp broke a day's worth of silence.
"No, no, no!" Exclaimed a voice as it ran closer to the cell. Brigwald heard keys jingling and then heard the door to the cell open. The steps ran to Dracius rather than Brigwald. Brigwald didn't move an inch, he stayed as still as he could. Then his captor rose and he heard steps approaching him. When his captor knelt, he could feel the presence behind him. He could feel angry eyes eating their way into his back. As he heard the figure rise, he spun around, and jabbed the spine into his leg. His captor let out a wail and fell to their knees. Brigwald was surprised to come face-to-face with a woman. Not only that, but a woman he knew, May, a doctor from Bree who he had once interviewed for the position of physician of Combe. Brigwald pounced on her and began stabbing and stabbing, releasing his pent-up animalistic rage. Joy wailed, sending screams of desperate terror echoing out of the cellar. Brigwald didn't stop until there was at least thirty stab wounds in her chest. Then he cut her throat, to make sure she'd never come back.
Slowly, the soldier stood, he was covered in blood, guts and dirt but he was alive. He approached the gate to the cell as if he had expected it to be locked and pushed it open. His bare feet met cold cobblestone, it was a feeling he welcomed. The light shining in from the open cellar door was extremely bright. As he approached, he had to retreat. When he did, he noticed something odd. There was an open book on the other side of a large pillar that had once blocked his view from the rest of the room. It read:
Month One: Subject seems to be reacting as expected to the doses. Will increase doses soon. The Strangler seemed the most effective.
Month Two: Subject is stronger than expected. He's already lasted a month and doesn't show any signs of deterioration. Mentally or physically. Will increase the doses next month and see how he takes it.
Month Three: Subject is adapting to the doses, becoming used to them as he had before. Still extremely sane, I think that I made the men I hired did a good job at picking him. I think he's a Watcher but not too sure yet. I'm thinking about introducing him to a new playmate.
Month Four: The men made a decent catch this time around. It'll be interesting to see how the toxins effect the youth differently than the Watcher. I've deduced that he's of some importance after going through his personal affairs.
This continued for some time until the seventh month:
Month Seven: Somehow the Watcher is still alive. I've finally figured out who he is. Captain Brigwald Stoneheart of the Bree Watch. If I had known I had caught such a big fish earlier I may have done things differently. Too late for that now though. Finally he's showing signs of major physical deterioration and I could have sworn I heard him crying a few nights ago.
Brigwald's fingers trembled as he followed the words on the page. He turned towards the ladder and makes two attempts to climb the ladder. The first time he tries to pulls his weight up, he falls right back down. The second time was more successful. However, it took him about five minutes to push himself to the top.
It took his eyes a minute to adjust to his new surroundings, but when they did, he was confused. What he had expected to see was a vast tree line, and the building he had just climbed out of to be an isolated cabin. Instead, he saw that there were tall buildings all around him. The one he had climbed out of was a small, single-story home with hedges acting as fences. He was still in Bree.
Once again, Brigwald fell to his knees and cried. This whole time he had been maybe an hour away from where he had originally been taken. Where were his friends? Where were the Watch? Where was everyone?
Over the next few days, Brigwald begged for food and coin and asked questions about the disappearance of Captain Stoneheart. He learned that Nessya was no longer First-Watcher, but now Captain of the Bree-town Watch. He also learned that not a single search party was sent out looking for him, everyone had just assumed he grew tired of the life and left.
Brigwald felt a whirlwind of rage build up inside of him. Nessya, the pupil he had took so much time to train, had not even thought twice about his absence. Maybe most people thought that he had grown tired of his position and left but not Nessya, she knew him better than that. Brigwald lived for that job. Never took a day off, never complained and never put his own needs above the needs of the people of Bree. How could she betray him like this. He tried to go to the jail to gain an audience with her, but he was turned away at the gate. Told that he was a madman speaking rubbish, Captain Stoneheart had left Bree. No mutilated pretender was going to change that.
Over the coming weeks, Brigwald begun to think that that's what Nessya wanted. If she hadn't organized for him to be the 'subject' chosen herself, she still did nothing to help him in his greatest hour of need. But why? Of course, she wanted his position. She wanted to be the Captain of the Watch and to eradicate all other competition. She was power-hungry, how could he have been so blind to that before? No matter, she had become a threat to everything that he valued. She needed to be removed from power at any cost. That's what Brigwald set out to do.
