Murder Mysteries Come to a Close

[solo_insanity]

The silver button landed on the floor with a heavy clank. The sound echoed across the small sitting room. Tyki's open hand remained on the armrest while the clock on the wall ticked away thirty seven seconds. He leaned over and picked up the fallen coat accessory and flicked it into the air again. This time he caught it.

He repeated the motion seven times before it clattered to the floor again.

Rinse. Repeat. Rinse. Repeat.

The borrowed day from the Countess had went well as far as he could have guessed. He'd left the girl staring wide eyed at him from from her chair. Accusing? Hatred? Surprised? He couldn't put an emotion to the gaze. Glad he didn't have to when a strong tug on his elbow motioned him out of the room. He didn't remember the path through the halls or the words Road had spoken to him as they went. He didn't remember the door opening or her pushing him into the chair. He was here, and that was that. No questions needed.

Had they succeeded? He wasn't sure. They had battled in the realm of Dreams. Him and his ally, the Road whom he couldn't ask for anyone else better at his side nor would want anyone else, had started the game. But it really wasn't a game. It was personal. Far to personal than he would like to admit. Even for a place that death had no hold, feeling the cold and unmoving corpse under his fingers dealt a blow he didn't think he could even feel anymore. It stirred up feelings long buried after years and years. He desired with his core to scar the culprit. This other Road, undeserving of the name, could never raise her hand again.

He tossed up the button again actually tracing it with his eyes for once as it went. His eyes still reflected the color of obsidian. Even after the time had passed and the desire for revenge began to wane, the color didn't fade. If his mind wasn't so bothered by other thoughts, this should have worried him, but it didn't. He stared at the silver as it fell end over end until another motion from his hand bade it to take flight.

In retrospect, his plan wasn't the best thought out. He had decided on using his own memories against her, but not the ones from centuries long past. His actual own experience. Incentive is what Tyki would have liked to call it, but in reality, it was more of a curse. An instinct so buried in the culprit's core that an open act of violence against any of the family would no longer be possible. A sense of dread so hollow pausing would be the only course of action. He pulled forth the only memory of his strong enough. The death of his own family.

He'd thought the memory had become numbed over the years. Maybe it had. The clarity of it had faded over time. Not that it wasn't sharp or didn't leave a chill throughout his chest when he thought about it, but he became accustomed to it. Learned to accept it as fact and move on. But seeing it in the Road's realm brought forth a realism, a vividness he had not experienced for a long, long time. The rooms had real color and not the muted tones of faded photographs. The sounds were clearer unlike the voices barely audible. He was no longer seeing it through a haze of time. The family members he loved so dearly were perfect. Infallible. Flawless. They always were in his memories. Because in the end memories were just a blend of real events plus the layer of perspective Tyki put on them. A thin gloss of paint added by his mind.

As he watched the events unfold, he couldn't fool himself that Road looked different than she normally did in this memory. She shifted between what she was, the ally at his side, and a girl with a long scar down her back. When he tried to focus on her, she constantly morphed to the next image. He also knew he never saw himself in the memory. The visions always came from his point of view to watch the events unfold. To see his longer haired twin was alarming. His mind was trying to tell himself something, but Tyki was doing his damned best to ignore it. He wasn't supposed to be here. A pity he couldn't convince the image in front of him to agree.

But then Road did her magic. She made her move to bind the memory to the other Road. To surface only when she dared hurt this family. Tyki wasn't really paying attention to be honest as she did her work. He was watching the papers burn and the paint peel from the wall. The beams above crackled, and he could hear shouting that formed no words. Too caught up in the moment, he missed the wicked grin on the little one's face as she did the deed. Apparently, he wasn't the only one with an idea in mind. But the scene faded away to the well furnished prison once again with one Road tugging as his arm and the other staring at him. They'd succeeded, right? Mission accomplished?

Then why was he still feeling like something wasn't right? He caught the button in his palm face down in a fist. More seconds passed as his mind wandered before he read the name on the back aloud.

Tyki Mikk.

He didn't even notice that the name was starting to sound foreign on his tongue as he stared at it with black eyes.



[ooc: Meant for dreamsofnoah, but anyone is free to hop in if they want.]