Role

Chapter 2

One excruciating long month had past since her lips last touched his.
Time now seems to fade together, day and night blurred. Lohik found
himself pondering what might have driven his dear Lucinda away, but
sure it couldn't have been his treatment toward her, for she was his
beloved.

Lohik would lay in his bed, humming various melodies in an attempt to
drown out the painful thoughts flooding his mind. At times it felt a
great weight was upon his chest, making each breath more painful than
the last.

Friends and family would stop by his meager forest home to express
their concern. Lohik, however, had no desire to talk about his anguish
and would only hum louder when they knocked, forcing his loved ones to
leave discouraged, and heartbroken.

It made so little sense - Lucinda was just a human, foreign to the ways
of Lohik and his people. Her understanding of their culture could be
labeled, at best, as ignorant. Yet Lohik found himself captivated by
her when together, and in utter despair with her departure.

Time continued to trudge on and Lohik found himself again able to
go through the motions of life, but the fire that once set his
soul ablaze had been extinguished.

Night was the worst for Lohik, as he often found himself battling great
bouts of insomnia. The only time he was really able to find rest, was
when the moon in the night sky was full. Lohik would stare into it, as
he did so many times when he was a boy, but no longer saw visions of
great adventure, rather he saw the lovely face of his dear Lucinda
smiling down at him, bringing him solace.

For months Lohik would look forward to the full moon, using it to fill
the gaping hole in his heart. One night, however, as Lohik stared at
his lost love's face in the celestial orb, darkness began to creep in
completely eclipsing the moons comforting light. Lohik focused upon
the sky intently, frantically hoping the eclipse would end. It was not
long and silvery beams began to fill his room again, and Lucinda's
face greeted Lohik - but no longer in the moon, she was standing right
before him in his bedroom - she had returned!

Lohik rushed to his love, barely able to breathe as he reached out for
her. He did not make it close enough to touch when the light illuminated
Lucinda's features. It was indeed the woman Lohik had been dreaming
of seeing again for all these months, but half her face had shed its
flesh exposing only bone, sunken empty sockets had replaced her beautiful
eyes, and long hands of bone seem to crackle with a dark energy.

Lohik screamed out in terror, shocked at Lucinda's appearance!

The Lich spoke, "My dear Lohik, surely you must have known the arts
I practiced as you slept?" Lohik could do nothing but cry out in agony.
The death of his brother and sister, the desecrated graves and the strewn
out corpses, could it really have been the work of his sweet Lucinda?