The freezing cold is gone but he still shivers violently. Back in the damp iron cell, collapsed on the ground. So much pain, it devours him. He can’t help the keening wail that escapes from his lips, swinging his head back and forth as the socket where his eye had once been throbs and pulses with agony. Blood drips from the scratches around the open wound, falls from the rips in his neck. How could he ever recover from something such as this. Mauled and disfigured, a disgrace to his father. To himself.
Death. All he wants is death. ”No you don’t.” It’s a whisper and he slowly raises his head, tilted so his good eye could see. There before him is an old stallion, withered and graying. The bits of his flesh that remain are a dull chestnut like his but mostly covered by scars and wounds and blood. It’s flaxen mane is ropey and thin, it’s tail missing as if it had been burnt off. What makes him stare with his mouth agape is the stallions face. A missing socket with three scars across it and the remaining eye a dull brown with gold flecks.
”I am Ledger. This is what you become.” Any hope that young Ledger had left drains from him. He doesn’t speak, only stares at his future self with horror. Years of torture lay ahead for him, he was going to die here. ”No.” His future self shakes his head slightly, the sight sickening the real Ledger to his core. ”You can escape.” ”How?” He asks with a waver in his voice, still trembling violently on the cold stone floor. ”I am the key.” It whispers, it’s one eye locked on his one eye. ”Use me.”
The younger version still doesn’t understand, confusion clouding over his sight. ”Kill me.” It says simply and once again Ledger is dry mouthed and shaking his head, scrambling off the floor and backing further into the cell. ”It’s the only way.” Says his old self, lacking any emotion in the sentence. ”Give him what he wants.” He encourages with the faintest smile on his gray lips. ”You know what he wants.” Ledger shakes his head again, refusing to do it. ”Fine. Then this is your future. This is all you will know.” Pressing against the bars, Ledger turns his head from the future Self and takes his good eye with him. ”Coward.” Says the old stallion, contempt in his voice. ”You’re nothing but a coward.”
Slowly he turns towards the old man with gritted teeth. Seething against his pain he snarls. ”I am not a coward.” ”Then prove it.” Comes the quiet response. With a cry of frustration, grief, pain, and a turmoil of other emotions… He strikes his future self down. His hooves strike out over and over again at the stallions chest and barrel. He knows deep down what he wants. As the old stallion opens up beneath his falling hooves, blood splatters across his face and chest. He doesn’t stop, not till his old self’s chest is ripped open. Not till he can see it’s beating heart. For it is still beating and isn’t this what Carnage wanted all along? His heart? Refusing to allow himself to even question what he is doing, his teeth sinks into the pumping heart and pulls it free from it’s resting place. He spits it to the ground, an offering. ”Here it is! Are you happy now?” He screams into the darkness. The response comes in the form of a quiet click as the metal gate to his cell swings wide open. ”Go…” The dying him says, somehow still alive due to the magical torture it had endured for years. ”Run…” The words die on his lips but he doesn’t need to be told twice.
L E D G E R |
