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The rain pelted down onto the ground below, like a thousand tears cried too late. As the dirt sizzled from the droplets, so did the monster crawling and oozing into the earth. He watched as he desperately fought to twist his words and morals to survive, like a dagger in the back- something that Phillip knew how to do so very well.
Though, it was no use. The Clawthorne's were a stubborn sort. There was nothing that could stop one of them once they put their mind to something. It seemed that was what led all of the "weirdoes" to find one another, bravery and ingenuity. What made a Clawthorne wasn't their blood, their bile sacks, or their lineage... It was their strength. Their wonderful ability to imagine a better world, and fight tooth and nail for it. That beautiful determination to stay true to themselves despite all that may stand against them.
And that was exactly what Luz was doing. She learned from his mistakes without even needing to be there firsthand, refusing to listen to that man's insane reasoning. Perhaps if he had been stronger back then, he could've stopped all of this from happening. If he had just listened to Evalyn's worries, and like Luz, denied him even the breath of a response, there would've been a chance that it hadn't have had to end this way. Or maybe if he had tried to raise him better, leading the boy on a better path that didn't end in so much bloodshed. But that was the past, long and gone. There was no use dwelling on it when it was almost over.
As the rain melted the man like a witch from their old childhood fables, he couldn't help but let out a disappointed sigh. Even until the end, he tried to argue that he was still human. It was heart wrenchingly pathetic that he still couldn't see the error of his ways. He clawed towards the human but couldn't lay a hand on her.
And in an instant, the fellow Clawthorne's were there to fight by her side. Curiously, he moved closer to the scene, wanting to get a better look of what would likely be his brother's, and his own, last moments. The three stood protectively in front of Luz and began to stomp the gooey mess that had once been a human into the soil.
All that was left was his eyes, and skull, whose gaze flickered over to Caleb with a look of absolute remorse. For the first time in what might've been decades, he felt a smile tug at his cheeks. His mind flitted back to the years the two had spent in Gravesfield before all had gone wrong. The young boy who had fallen from grace, who once believed that goodness lived within everything, who was now entirely unrecognizable. Those years they spent singing hymns and reading psalms, ones that had originally been meant to spread love and peace... But like everything that reached Phillips ears, had been corrupted.
Quietly, he sang a line to one of Phillip's favorite hymns when he had been younger. One that he barely remembered the tune to anymore. "...When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish."
He stood beside the Clawthorne's, watching as the eye followed him wordlessly until he stood right in front of his skull. It seemed that his brother knew what was coming, didn't he? Phillip may have been a Wittebane, but they both knew whose last name he had been planning to take.
As he raised his foot, he spoke gently one last time.
"It's time for us to rest, Phillip. Let's hope not god, nor Titan, will have mercy on our souls."