Ringbearer

 There was a town where reflections of any kind didn’t exist for those who lived there. Mirrors would be called “colorless” glass, rivers and lakes never had any rays of sunlight gleaming over their surface, and the steel of the soldiers’ blades were only slates for the stains of blood.

 It was an exchange for protection by “the lord”, where the town no longer had to face the downspiraling chaos outside the barriers. And so, those who originally made up the town forgot their faces, and those born there would never know to begin with—everyone, except for the ringbearers.

 Every two years, a man and a woman would be chosen to be present at the statue of their lord, receiving the role of “Ringbearer”. A title that was the most honored in the town, as it was the foundation of their relationship between themselves and the lord. This year in particular, Angel Rivera and Carol Blackwell were the ones to have their ceremony.

 In no haste, the two walked to the edge of the town, where the sanctioned gate is at. A crossroads between the town and the outside world, meant only for the ringbearers to access upon being called upon by the lord. On each side of the gate lay no fence or walls, and if one truly wanted to, they could freely walk out of the town. However, not a single soul had that thought cross their mind.

 Arriving the dreary road up to the gate, there were no signs of life. Looking at the horizon, the grass became bleaker and drier, until there was only dirt and dust at the edge. The gate itself was vast and seemingly ancient, even though it had only been around twenty-four years since it appeared. Along the pathway were ten smaller statues of the past ringbearers, both men and women facing each other on opposite sides. Reaching the end of the path, Angel stopped to look at the last set of ringbearers– the ones who had their ceremony before them.

 “So this will be us soon, won’t it?”

 Grazing the cold arm of the male statue, Angel asked a question, but not one he needed an answer for. The status of the past ringbearers were only ever vaguely addressed by the lord, his statements usually consisting of “protecting our sanctuary”. So in a sense, Angel knew that this would likely be the last time he would be in the town.

 “You looked pretty eager back at the sendoff, how come you’re getting cold feet now?” Carol replied, paying no attention to the statues, passing each one without stopping.

 “I didn’t imply such a thing. In fact, I’ve accepted what’s coming.” Angel corrected, walking back on the path to the gate. He quickly caught up to Carol, now alongside her, but she gave no acknowledgment. Angel then continued. “What about you? I could tell by the look on your face back there, you weren’t too happy about leaving.”

 Carol gave no reply, instead ending their exchange with prolonged silence. Reaching the gate of the crossroads, the inside was dark and disheveled looking. Carol turned on the lantern she had been carrying on her waist, lighting up the stone entrance. As they both entered, neither herself or Angel could see each other’s faces clearly in the darkness.

 “Angel. I want to understand what it means to be a ringbearer.” She said with no kind of emotion in her voice.

 “What do you mean? We get to protect and serve the people we love and cherish. Being born as one…Isn’t it an honor?”

 “But you know about all the laws that were placed alongside having us be ringbearers right? Any kind of speech that doesn’t follow the lord’s beliefs is taboo, and all the traditions that we had in the past have been forced out. You call having to protect that kind of life honorable?”

 As the lantern shook on her hip, her face would be lit up every now and then, and Angel could see strain and malice in her eyes. He knew about the laws, but he had always looked past it.

 “My father says there’s always a price.”

 “And that somehow makes it okay?”

 “No. He never said it would be a fair price. In our case, I can say it’s the most unfair of all. But it’s worth it.”

 Looking down upon his dirtied shoes, Angel felt uneasy upon saying those words. His father was an intelligent man, so he must have known that what they had to give up was worth the lord’s protection.

 Carol glanced at him, her movement suddenly becoming unsteady. Just from her face, Angel knew what he said was the last thing she expected him to admit. He could only give a torn smile.

 “What matters most right now is protecting our home. That’s all I care about at least. You should as well.” He said. Carol only replied with a “I don’t”, making his smile go away.

 As the two kept walking through the stone hall, he could feel his eyes becoming harder to keep open. It was as if the atmosphere became denser and gravity pulled their weight harder and harder down–it was not just that, he could feel his mind become heavier as well.

 Again, he tried to speak out to Carol.

 “Don’t you want your parents to live in peace?”

 But she didn’t waver.

 “My mother hasn’t lived a day of peace in twenty years.”

 “Why’s that?”

 “Because she isn’t the one protecting me–the lord is.”

 Her breath was caught dry, not wanting to talk further about her mother. However, Angel was not able to understand her reasoning, but before he could ask further, the two had reached the end of the hall.

 Slowly appearing as the lantern exposes every detail, a statue of the lord was present, as ancient looking as the sanctioned gate itself. Holding out both arms in opposite directions, its hands are wide open and facing down, inviting for another to put theirs below it.

 “I want to see the lord with my own eyes. I want to see what makes you all believe in him.” She said, her voice strongheld. For the first time since they began walking, Angel could see her eyes widened, driven by an emotion. “All my life, everything goes back to the lord. The food, the quiet nights, the sunlight and moonlight–it’s all from the lord and yet… None of us has ever seen him face to face.”

 As she spoke, she placed her hand under the left palm of the statue, which began to glow subtlety, showing it recognizes her as a ringbearer. Angel followed suit, though his mind began to think in a way he rarely had before–a doubt now growing in his heart. Yet, a concern that had a larger presence was Carol herself.

 “Why are you telling me this?” He asked, placing his hand under the right palm.

 “You’re going to see him with me.” The answer relieved nothing in his mind.

 Both palms of the statue now glowed, becoming even brighter as seconds passed by. Then, the empty eyes of the statue started to manifest eyes made out of light, and it looked down upon them. Angel and Carol were enthralled by the sight of it. The next moment, it vanished.

 Without even noticing it, the two ringbearers were granted a flat, white monolith on their palms, the statue’s hands now completely shifted to behind itself. The monoliths felt like nothing they’ve ever held. It seemed weightless, and at first, Angel almost mistook it as colorless glass.

 “So this must be…”

 “The ringbearer’s reflection.”

 Made from a material so pure, almost enchanting even, the ringbearers would be able to see their own reflection on the monolith’s surface. It was the most well known benefit of becoming a ringbearer: to finally know who they are in full.

 “No… No way.”

 But Angel never expected himself to look like that.

 That was revolting. That could not have been him. That had to have been a mistake.

 Immediately straying his eyes away from the monolith, he stared at Carol, whose reaction was minimal, yet she couldn’t help but make a distorted sound with her throat.

 “Fuck.” she muttered, closing her eyes as she moved her monolith into her vest.

 “Carol–”

 “My mother was right, Angel. I came all the way here just to prove to her that she was— and–and now…” Carol could barely grasp her breath, facing him with her eyes now shaking with distress. “We’re fucked.”

 “What the hell are you talking about?” Angel sputed, his body becoming even more hesitant to move. Looking downwards, Carol took a deep breath before responding.

 “This is why we’re not going to see them again.” The room somehow felt even colder, the darkness starting to overtake the little light the lantern could emit. “We’re ringbearers, after all.”

 Angel was left mouth agape, hearing her voice suddenly become timid and calm, as if she had already accepted what’s to come.

 Wait. Didn’t I say I did?

 They already knew this would be it, but something inside him now screams after seeing that. He knew the price was unfair, but he never thought it could be to such a massive degree.

 I don’t want to go.

 Wasn’t Carol the one who had doubts, so why is he the one who’s reacting the most? Why is he the one who doesn’t want to believe?

 “The lord wants us outside.” Carol spoke, without any doubt in those words. “We have to go.”

 “What– how can you be sure?”

 “He called me.”

 Dropping to her knees under the statue of the lord, she began to utter a request to be let outside. Without a moment’s notice, the room began to shake.

 The walls and floor shifted rapidly, each stone block acting upon its own will. In mere seconds, the room’s dead end opened up to the outside. Yet, instead of sunlight creeping in, a cloudy red mist lightened up the room. Viewing the ground of the open field, the grassless dirt had trails of red leading up to the horizon.

 “I’m–There’s no way I’m staying here any longer.” Angel spouted, trying to go back from where they came from, but when he turned around, he saw the hall completely closed off by a wall of mossy stone.

 “What the hell… Let me back in!” Angel became infuriated, knocking with all the force he had onto the wall, but it made not a single dent.

 “We’re no longer men among them, Angel.”

 His fury sharply staggered hearing Carol say those words. Biting his tongue, he already knew what she was going to say next.

 “We’re only ringbearers now.”

 Choking on his own saliva, he let his arms fall down without any resistance. His heart had to adjust; there was no going back.

 Without saying anything more, he turned to look at the desolate path. Nothing, not even Carol, who had told him to come, seemed inviting. Putting himself back up, he walked on the path and Carol then followed suit.

 The air itself was nothing like in the town. It was dry and cold, the smell of faint iron and crusty soil were constant, making it hard to even breathe. The ground was completely flat, as if the entire area was leveled by thousands of horses. Most unnerving of all, the sky was scattered red and black, as if sunlight were non-existent. Yet, anywhere they looked, it was lit by the dim red strikes above.

 With the atmosphere so dreary, neither Angel or Carol spoke the entire time they walked. Angel glanced a couple of times at her, but never did she look at anything other than forward. It only made things feel more tense.

 After a whole hour of silence, Angel could see outlines of buildings fade in from the horizon. Finally managing to find something, he didn’t hesitate to rush to the scene.

 —Stopped dead in his tracks, he could barely contain himself from vomiting. A stench so potent caused him to cover his nose entirely with his shirt. Along the gravel pathways from house to house, remains of human bodies were scattered in incoherent patterns, stains of dried up blood covered the cracked walls, and a trail of unknown black fluid was seen having made its way to every doorstep.

 Hands shaking, his throat at its limit with constant gagging, Angel could only stand there in prime view of the carnage left behind from years past. He could only think to himself “Why did I have to be the one to see this?”.

 “Angel.” A voice broke through his daze. Turning his head over to the left, Carol was pointing towards a statue at the center of the town. Getting a closer look, it was one of the lord.

 Why is that there?

 His head began to hurt, but with Carol’s tone being demanding, he followed her to the statue without much thought. When they arrived at it, his mind only began to become more of a mess–the statue stood out compared to the whole town, with its surface and form completely absent of any stains or cracks. As if it were made just yesterday, there was no implication of anything ever touching it.

 It felt wrong.

 It was wrong.

 “The lord is ordering us to spend the night at the statue’s stead.” Carol said. Carefully pulling out her monolith, she sat on her knees in front of the statue. There was a second of hesitation before she went to look at the monolith’s surface, seeing her face once more. “He wants us to wait for dusk to come.”

 Angel didn’t respond. He could see disgust in her eyes as she looked down upon her reflection. He knew that he had to do the same thing, but he couldn’t bring himself to do so. He decided to just stare at the statue, taking in the lord’s presence.

 He had seen the face of the lord a thousand times before. There had been statues of him everywhere back home, all with the same expression of stoic determination. All in the same pose, all with the same foundation, all made with the same material—

 “Angel?”

 Glancing up, Carol immediately blurted out his name upon seeing his face. It was of complete despair. Eyes widened to an unnatural degree, teeth smashing against each other, skin becoming as red as the stains in the sky.

 “That… That piece of shit!” He screamed out, putting his hands on the sides of his head, unable to contain the rage channeling through every vein within him.

 “Angel!”

 “The lord did this–all of it! Every single corpse, every wrecked home–the very reason why our parents made a contract with him in the first place! He killed anyone who didn’t agree to it. He’s what is beyond the town.”

 Everything inside him was boiling.

 Everything within him was wrenching with denial.

 But everything in him concluded it was the truth.

 “They didn’t even get to decide for themselves.” He mumbled. Putting his hand into his jacket, he pulled out his monolith. However, instead of kneeling down, he held it up high in the air with both of his hands gripping it like he was holding onto a ledge between life and death.

 “What the hell are you doing?”

 “I’m going to decide! I’m not going to do what this fraud wants me to do!”

 Without even giving a second thought, Angel swung his arms with all his might down to the ground–his arms were barely halted by the small hands of Carol’s, her arms vibrating from the all force she had to take in.

 “Think about our families, Angel! What will happen to them?! You think we can just disobey the lord and he’ll stand idly by?” She shouted right at his face, spit hitting his cheeks, making him recoil. “Tch, just saying that makes me want to vomit.”

 Just as there was rage in Angel, there was disgust in Carol. Having to now fear a man who she had been so against… How could she have twisted herself that easily?

 Seeing such strong emotions coming out of her, Angel kept himself from reacting strongly, wanting to articulate his thoughts properly.

 “I know for a fact he won’t do anything to them. I don’t know why, but none of the ringbearers ever came back. Maybe the lord killed them, or maybe they ran away to somewhere far away from here. Whatever it is, the lord clearly didn’t care enough to punish the town for it—No… That’s not it.”

 At least one of the past ringbearers rebelled against the lord, yet there was never any repercussions for it from what Angel could tell. However, Carol was right. The lord couldn’t have just let disobedience slide. That’s why…

 “Maybe this is what he’s wanting from us. Maybe I’m playing right into his hand.” A chuckle came out of Angel’s lips. It was the only sounding reason he could muster. The lord must think he’s playing four dimensional chess with them, his ringbearers acting as the pawns on his board. “We never see him, but he always sees us.”

 More laughter spilled out of him. All he could do was laugh. No matter what they’d do, the lord would always act one step ahead.

 “If that’s the case, then–”

 Putting his face right in front of the statue’s, his eyes bulged out directly at its eyes. A wide, distorted smile formed on his face.

 “I’m going to do everything I possibly can to see you. And the moment I do…” Inch by inch, his nose was only a spec away from touching the statue’s, and all he could see was the lord.

 “You’ll cry.”

 He didn’t know how. He didn’t know when or where. He wasn’t strong. He wasn’t wise. He wasn’t competent, but deep down in his soul, he wanted to see him cry.