Good Bye

Author: Kiah
Stepping up to the house was like walking back into a nightmare. Kiah stood in quiet contemplation, staring up at the old house that was now currently falling apart. Eight years could, apparently, do a lot to an old house. Around her, Stormwind bustled as everyone went about their late afternoon business, and inside was a sick old woman completely unaware of the threat that stood outside. 
In one of Kiah’s hand was a letter, hand-written by the owner of the house stating that she had “important information” regarding her family. In her other hand, a palm sized dagger that had been recently laced with an extremely deadly poison. She was carefully twisting in and out of her fingers with ease, never once nicking her own skin. The woman inside of the house wasn’t stupid, the threats Kiah had made eight years prior as she left for what she had thought was going to be forever, were not empty threats. There must be a good reason for this requested visitation. 
Glancing down both sides of the street Kiah gracefully slipped the blade into a notched piece of leather at her left wrist and finally made her way to the door where she was greeted kindly by the attending nurse. They both walked quickly to the room in the back where Samantha Briarstone laid, as if knocking on death’s door. The room was littered with dead bouquets of flowers and not a single sliver of sunlight made it through the covered windows. Samantha wasn’t an old woman, regardless of how old she looked, but a life of wreck less killing and fighting had laid her body to the waste of space it was now. 
“Ah, Kiah! I’m surprised you got here so quickly... I didn’t think you spent much time in Stormwind these days” Samantha was quick to sit herself up and seemed slightly disappointed when Kiah would come no closer than the end of the bed. “How long has it been dear?... Eight years? Yes, I believe it has. Come here, let me have a look at you!” Hands waved it quick anticipation, beckoning Kiah to step out of her comfort zone and to the old woman. She obediently went to the side of the bed where Samantha took both her hands, cold gray eyes looking over the young woman. 
“You know, I always told Alexander that you were trouble... that perhaps if we helped raise you we could pull you away from your dark ways...” Cold eyes scanned Kiah from head to foot; dark leather, the daggers, the branded mark upon the inside of her right wrist. 
“Do you have any children, dear?” Samantha literally threw Kiahs’ hand away from her, like she might catch some kind of horrible illness if she touched her much longer.
“No.”
“Married?”
“No..”
There was a pause, a disappointed look crossing Samantha’s wrinkled features. “A significant other of any kind?”
Kiah sighed, shaking her head. “No...”
“Pity... you always were a strange girl, it’s so sad that you and Lut-“
Kiah cut the words off there, not wishing to reminisce about things of the past. ”Samantha... please just tell me what the important information you have for me is” 
Samantha paused, settling back into her bed and motioning for Kiah to sit in the seat beside the bed, reaching once more for Kiah’s hand as the young woman hesitantly sat down. 
“There are a lot of things that were lost, about you, when my Alexander died. Many things about your family, your parents... the life you would have lived had they not died so tragically. He didn’t tell me things of that nature, because he didn’t want to build any walls between us, I think, while you were growing up.” 
Kiah felt ill as she listened to the woman speak, as if she had been a loving mother figure and not a tyrannic witch who had little to do but torture a young girl and find fun in it. She wanted to rip the woman’s tongue out and then make her eat it, but ... she sat still and calm, her expression faultless and flat. 
“But, there is something I know about your family that I think is important. Something that I’d hate to have lost forever because I didn’t tell you, something I think you have the right to know.”
Get on with it, wench. 
“You were not an only child, Kiah. You had a brother. He was young, just a baby. You were such trouble for your Mother that when your Father was away with Alexander and Morgan she sent him away to some family friends of her’s to look after him. They planned to go and get him the day after your Father returned from war.” 
She could feel her expression change, the calm turned to shock as she listened about a long lost brother? The idea struck her as completely untrue, but how could she be sure? She remembered nothing of her parents before their death, so why would she remember a brother? Shock slowly turned to almost hope... the idea of having family aside from this horrible woman and her two spoiled sons was something Kiah could easily get used to. She squeezed the old woman’s hand, almost smiling. “Really?” 
As if the witch simply could not stand to see Kiah feel and ounce of joy, she struck the notion down... waving the hand Kiah did not hold in a dismissive manner. “Yes, well... you know how it is in Westfall.. It’s such a bleak, horrible place to live, I’m sure he died at some point in his life like the majority of farmer children there.” 
The joy melted from her features, a blank expression followed by narrowed eyes at the hateful woman. Her grip, however, did not falter a bit... but maybe tightened on the old hand and. This obviously surprised Samantha and the look of alarm in her eyes only caused Kiah to squeeze a little harder. 
“You ask me to come here... to tell me important information regarding my family... and then tell me that family may be dead?” 
“Well, you never know... he could be alive, I’m not sure.” Samantha quickly back-pedaled, trying to release her hand from Kiah’s firm grip. 
“Mmhm...” Kiah nodded slowly, grasping the woman’s hand with her left hand as well, holding onto her tightly. “Thank you, Samantha... for reminding me that my family is gone.” 
“Well, you’re quite welcome, dear. You know, I never know when the end will be for me... and my boys they never come se-“ 
Samantha’s speech was cut off abruptly, and Kiah felt the satisfying warmth of blood rushing over her bare hands as the palm sized dagger sliced into the wrinkled flesh of Samantha’s hand. The skin broke easily, and Kiah knew the poison would quickly cling to the cells and fibers on the inside of Samantha’s skin and travel through her body with an amazing speed. 
“I know when the end will be.” Kiah stood, releasing the woman’s shaking hand and laying the blood stained dagger on the night table beside the bed. The woman held up her bleeding hand as it convulsed trying to speak or call for help. Whether speech wasn’t possible from shock, pain, or perhaps the poison worked more quickly in those that were already ill... Kiah didn’t care. 
She stood slowly, grabbing one of the clean white linen cloths from beside the bed and wiping the crimson from her skin. A thorough scrubbing would be required, but not here. She would not spend another extra minute in this house. 
“Bye, Samantha.” 
And she walked away, dropping the cloth on the ground in a heap at the door she made her way outside. The sun was still setting but most of the busy bodies seemed to have gone home. From her backpack she pulled out her gloves, putting them on over her hands, not caring to be interrogated on her way to the closes sink. 
The day had definitely turned out much better than she had anticipated. 
Category: Stories
Category: Alliance Stories