silent in the trees ┊ DEATH (O)

[truce.]

[align=center][div style="width: 430px; text-align: justify; font-family: verdana; font-size: 6pt; letter-spacing: 2.5px; word-spacing: 0px; line-height: 12px; color: #000"]Lucia was well acquainted with death.

Ever since her birth, it was all that she knew. A plague that followed the Stirling family wherever they walked. Perhaps it made sense considering their line of work, but then with that understanding it ought to have only been the family to have to meet their own demise. But no — in her life, countless innocent lives were lost as a result of the family’s actions. Friends, acquaintances, strangers whose families never had the chance to say goodbye, all for greed and the desire for power.

That was all that this was, wasn’t it? Greed and power. Not survival, but the yearning for something more to make life worthwhile. How many more people had to die before they realised that this simply wasn’t worth it? Lucia was by no means an activist for peace, but this? All of this senseless killing? It was astounding. These were all once faultless beings — she never quite believed that a person could be born inherently evil, despite having two brothers which ought to defy that opinion — that did not know what it meant to be so barbaric.

Lucia was that way too, once upon a lifetime ago. She used to be innocent, like the rest of them, but she wasn’t so modest now. This was now her life; the blood and the bruises, the jagged wounds like teeth against flesh and that hollow void nagging within. Something there was missing nowadays and it made her feel rotten and sick.

She wondered whether this emptiness was what led one to kill. Observation led her to that very conclusion. Frederick, for a start, saw no true pleasure in life. At least, he lived life with the knowledge that his death would and should be thrilling, one to mark him a hero in the eyes of many. Sometimes, it seemed as if he obsessed over his death so much that his life was so swiftly passing him by. A hollowness of the lack of meaningful memories to show that his life meant more than his death.

William, on the other hand, with his shallow emotions and shallow remorse. Nothing fazed her eldest brother, because he cared too little to hold any sentimental meaning over anything in his life. A hollowness in his soul because he did not care to let anything into that space. It frightened her, the way she began to sympathise with the ones she felt such distaste towards.

❝ Hey, we need some help out here! ❞ Alarmed, Lucia looked towards the source of the sound out in the woods as a man shouted. Surely the others had not yet returned from the fight just yet, and so Lucia was left puzzled as to what he needed help with. Treading through the snow, she listed off what she may potentially come across when she’d arrive.

She never expected to see Seb, laying in the snow.

❝ Oh my God. ❞ Lucia choked out, gawking at Ian before rushing to Seb’s side. ❝ What are you doing?! Do something! ❞ Falling onto her knees, Lucia quickly tucked her hair behind her ears before trying to feel for a pulse. Anything. He was still warm, but he was already gone. ❝ Shit... ❞ She uttered shakily below her breath, shaking her head slowly before looking up to Ian. ❝ What happened? Did you see who did it? ❞ His death was recent; the perpetrator had to still be out here somewhere.

// Seb :-( I'm literally so gd sad