The Broken Flame

A large beast, the height of two Enderman combined, seemed to crawl from the hole before standing at its full height, showing off the black color of its hide. Red eyes and markings on the monster’s face glowed brightly in the dark of the cave. Its features were sharp, as were the teeth in its mouth. Claws sprung from blackened limbs… and the two other arms it had sprouting next to the darker ones. Two arms were like an Ender’s, two were like a zombie’s, and a skeletal tail like a dragon swung back and forth. The worst part of it all? They knew it was Tulip. Her hair, tattered remains of her dress, and a golden crown clothed the monster. 

It was Tulip, but it wasn’t.

“Tulip!” Cebrina shouted, about to make a run towards the monster. 

“Cebrina, no!” He quickly grabbed her shoulder and yanked her away, only seconds before the monster swiped down with one of its Ender like arms. She looked up in horror of what had become of her sweet younger sister. The once wonderful and innocent little girl was now a wicked best, something barely recognizable as her sister anymore.

Cebrina felt Herobrine let her go and she looked at him in terror of the beast. “Brine, that’s Tulip! What happened to her?!”

“Cebrina, stay back!” He quickly swung his sword when the mob attempted to reach for his wife. “I’ve seen this before. It’s a curse, a curse that only most powerful beings in this world can cast upon a living being. I’ve only seen the Gods of this world be able to use this curse before. And even then, it’s considered taboo to use it.”

“Is there any kind of way to reverse it?!” Cebrina shouted as the monster tried to swipe at them again, the princess barely dodging the attack.

Herobrine bit his lip. He had seen this curse at work. He had seen how it could spread through the body and just keep twisting and tearing the body of the cursed person apart. He knew that curse could spread and do the same to other beings unless it was stopped. And he knew what the only way to be rid of this curse was. 

“We have to kill her.”

“What?!” Cebrina shouted, snapping her head to look at her husband.

“Cebrina, I’m sorry, but I’ve seen this curse before. There’s no way to stop it other than killing whoever it’s been placed on. If we don’t, it’ll tear Tulip apart and then kill her in the most painful way possible. Then, it’ll start spreading to other creatures and can act like a disease! There’s no way to reverse it! There’s nothing else we can do! If we don’t kill her… we could be next.” 

Cebrina felt tears rolling down her face. “But, Brine, that’s our sister! We can’t just kill her! We can’t!”

Herobrine took one of his wife’s hands in his. “Cebrina, listen to me! I know what this thing is like! I’ve seen this before! I’ve seen people try to make cures for this curse. There’s nothing we can do for it! It’s viscous and can’t be stopped any other way! I know you don’t want to hurt Tulip! I know! But she’s already gone, the curse is too far to do anything else! We have no choice! Besides, what would Tulip want you to do if she knew there was no other way?”

Cebrina thought his words over. “...She’d want me to fight it. And to do what we have to.”

“And that’s what we’ve got to do.”

Cebrina looked up at the monster that he sister had become. She then nodded. “Let’s do this.”

The monster swiped at Cebrina and she quickly ducked under the limb, bringing her sword up to slice at its arm. It howled in pain as the Demi-God took advantage of the moment, jumping and swinging his blade at the same arm. He managed to land a hit but the hide of this monster was tough and his blade barely made a dent. He rolled into a crouch as he landed and the monster turned on its heels to look at him. Cebrina ran forward and swung her blade into its back, making it scream and turn again. Herobrine ran its side and swung at the ribs of the beast, making it shreik again.

Celina could only watch with tears falling from her eyes and Herobrine and Cebrina took turns fighting the monster their sister had become, seeing it getting more and more wounded with every passing moment. A few times, Brine would swing a moment too late or Cebrina would let her guard down for a second, and they each gathered their share of wounds. It made her heart ache and pound painfully in her chest and Celina clutched her shirt. 

“This isn’t fair… this isn’t fair!” she shouted. “Tulip didn’t do anything wrong! Anything! And she got cursed and--and--it couldn’t even be reversed! It’s not fair! She was innocent! THAT’S NOT FAIR!” Though she knew she couldn’t stop it or change the past, she couldn’t help but feel tremendous anger. She didn’t hear Herobrine respond to her as the fight continued, and she knew he must have been having a hard time with what was happening now. She couldn’t even imagine how much it must have hurt him to show her these terrible moments from his life.

Herobrine and Cebrina stood back from the best, seeing it on its hands and knees. It was panting hard, a large wound across its chest. Herobrine looked to his wife and nodded. The two took one step back, before running towards the monster, shouting in fury as they reeled their swords back. Before the monster could react, they brought their swords down.

A loud shout of anguish and fury ran through the air, slowly dying down to a cry of pain. Herobrine fell to his knees before the monster, his diamond sword falling from his hand. Cebrina watched the monster with him, seeing its large form beginning to shrink down and change. Herobrine’s wounds seemed to hurt more and more as he watched the monster turn back into the smaller Tulip. 

“Tulip,” Cebrina murmured as she walked over to where the girl was. She fell to her own knees as she saw Tulip before her. Her sister. Her beloved little sister. She carefully took the younger into her arms and brought her to where her husband sat. Tulip was still a stone, and for a moment, Cebrina thought she was already gone. However, Herobrine said, “Tulip?” and received a response. 

The younger princess slowly opened her eyes, weak and weary in her barely visible movements. She managed to look up to her sister and brother-in-law. “...Brine? Ce… Cebrina?” Her voice was quiet, barely above a whisper. 

“Yes… yes, it’s us, Tulip,” Cebrina responded. “Baby Sister… what happened?”

Tulip seemed to give them a pained smile, her whole body almost as still as the rock below them. She blinked very slowly, putting a hand on Herobrine’s arm. The being shook his head. “Tulip, save your strength. I’ll heal you, let me--”

Tulip slowly shook her head. “No, Brine.” She took a few gasps for breath. “The… the curse. It’ll… come back… if you--do.” She seemed to be happy despite the blood dripping from the corner of her lips. “You did… the--right… thing.” She chuckled weakly, before closing her heavy eyes. Herobrine could hear her pulse getting ever so weaker with every second. That dreadful beat pounded in his ears, until it slowed, slowed, slowed. 

“Herobrine? Ce...Cebrina?” 

The two looked to her face. “Yes,” the older girl asked.

“Thank you.”

And with that, the beating stopped. One last heavy breath escaped Tulip’s lips and she went limp in Cebrina’s lap. Herobrine’s eyes almost immediately filled with globules of clear fluid.

No.

No.

They were too late.

There was a heavy silence as Cebrina realized what had happened. “Tulip?” Her voice was wavering.

The girl didn’t move. She was still.

Cebrina began to shake her sibling and shook her own head in denial. “Tulip? Tulip?! No, no, no, Baby Sister, wake up! Please?! PLEASE?!”

But Tulip didn’t even move from breathing. Because she wasn’t breathing.

Not anymore.

“TULIP!” Cebrina shouted, throwing her head back in sorrow. She began to wail in despair, throwing her hands over her eyes and shouting hysterically. She couldn’t control her own emotions and when Herobrine offered his embrace to her, she took it without a second thought.

Celina’s face was still covered in tears. She dropped to her knees on a ground she couldn’t see. Her heart ached so badly, her chest felt like someone had wrapped their claws hand around the beating organ in it and constricted it. She shed tears, but had words for the sorrow she felt. She let out a few small sobs. 

As much as Celina was tempted to ask Herobrine to stop these memories, she had a feeling this wasn’t the end of it. And she just had to see it through. Maybe it was her desire to help Herobrine. Maybe it was morbid curiosity. Whatever the reason, she had to see the end of this.

“Do you… want me to stop?”

She could hear how hard Herobrine was trying to keep himself together. Celina shook her head. “No… keep going.”

*****

The memory was now back at the castle, with Cebrina and Herobrine making their ways up the steps to the palace. Tulip’s body was cleaned and put in fresh clothes, and she lay in the Demi-God’s arms, wrapped in a blanket with her face visible. She looked so peaceful.

As the husband and wife entered the castle with their sister in their arms, all eyes turned to their movement. Gasps and shouts of surprise filled the air as Rita and Robert stood from their thrones. “Herobrine? Cebrina?” Robert spoke. He and his wife ran as fast as they could to their daughter and son-in-law. “Did you two find her?”

Herobrine nodded, pushing back a little of the blanket as he laid Tulip on the ground. Rita let out a sharp gasp, as did her husband, before the queen fell to her knees and began to shout out her sorrow. She could only make pained noises as she looked at her daughter’s body, seeming to be begging the Gods to give her child another chance. She was sobbing loud, wailing in the feeling of losing one of her children.

Robert’s eyes flooded over, as did the eyes of everyone else in the room. He looked up to Herobrine for an explanation. 

“We found her in a cave. We found an Ender blood trail leading us into a cavern on the outskirts of the forest to the west. .” His voice was surprisingly strong for the despit he felt in his heart. “We followed it inside and… she had had a curse placed on her, one that turned her into some mob amalgamation. It warped her and twisted her to be animalistic in nature. And… there was only one way to reverse the curse, or else it would spread.”

The king looked to his daughter as she picked up where Brine had left off. “We had to cut her down. Or else it would have torn her apart and spread to any other living creatures the curse could find.”

Robert soaked in her words, before leaning down with his wife and picking up Tulip’s body into his arms. The king and queen cried and sobbed out as they cradled their young daughter, their mourning seeming to spread to everyone else as some of the knights began to sob out too.

Celina could hear everyone weeping and crying over the death of Tulip. And it was taking everything in Celina’s power not to fall onto the floor and just weep with them. She stood there, tears streaming down her face. She sniffled. 

A small chuckle had her snapping her head up with anger. She knew that voice.

Rose stood near the thrones, seeming to be chuckling with a devious tone. Celina suddenly felt like something bad was going to happen. She knew how much Rose hated Brine and his happiness with Cebrina.

This wasn’t going to end well, was it?