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Ruskin, the secretary of Charles Augustus Milverton, was dead. He died a few months ago in an assassin attack. It was directed at Mr. Milverton, but Ruskin, like he always wanted to, like he always promised, gave his life away to save his beloved employer. Before he closed his eyes forever, he saw Mr. Milverton's terrified face leaning above him.
"Ruskin, you can't die! I need you! I order you to stay by my side." He asked, shouting and begging, but even this couldn't keep Ruskin back.
"I will forever love you, Mr. Milverton." He whispered with his last breath then his heart ceased to beat and his body became motionless from death.
He got buried a week later. The man who murdered him got captured and died while he got tortured in the basement. Mr. Milverton built an expensive, fancy grave for his secretary and under Ruskin's name, he got this engraved.
The one who died with devotion.
There were only a few people at his funeral as Ruskin didn't have relatives or family. Mr. Milverton was there when the coffin was placed into the grave and remained on its side until it got buried with soil. He left Ruskin's grave covered with flowers and returned to his home alone.
It was clear that despite his ruthless, evil nature, he was genuinely grieving. The one person who should have stayed alive to serve him. The one who planned to spend his own life with.
Ruskin, the secretary of Charles Augustus Milverton, was dead. However... he didn't stay under the ground forever.
It was a late autumn day. The rain kept pouring onto the umbrellas of the rich, onto the uncovered heads of the poor and the fancy or rundown gravestones in the cemetery. No one was there to witness what happened. It was a strange thing, whether it was due to a miracle or a curse. Ruskin's body couldn't rest still while a certain kidnapping took place to the other side of the city. The coffin's lid got torn apart by the bony fingers which was filled with the strength of hell again, fuelled by the devotion of the dead heart. The soil burst into the coffin as the corpse climbed out from the grave. The rain just kept pouring and pouring while the dead body rose from the grave. As the rain washed it down, baptizing it once again, showing the truth what lay beneath, a pair of black holes stared at the world soullessly from the rotten face. Wide brown eyes, which were once there, watching the one with devotion and love and this never changed, despite that they were gone forever.
The legs of Ruskin's corpse moved. He began to walk into the city to once again save the one whom he used to love - whom he still loved - more than anyone else in the world.
The kidnappers brought Milverton into a dark basement. His eyes were covered with a blindfold, his hands and legs were strongly tied with ropes. He was trembling from the fear, not knowing what his fate would be. Getting the punishment for all the evil he ever committed, tortured, humiliated, as he would have deserved. He didn't want to die yet, but the one who used to protect him, the one who was always there when he was in need, was already dead. And soon, he was sure that he needed to follow him.
Or... did he?
Before the knife could dive into the shaking man's flesh, the door of the basement suddenly opened. The kidnappers turned around, ready to kill who intervened, but the vengeful smile froze on their faces. The bullets couldn't hurt the one who stepped inside, who wore the expression of horror. The corpse walked into the room and the kidnappers scattered from the terror. They were not ready to fight the entity whose dead heart brought him back from the other side. The rotten corpse stepped to the man whom he once served. Mr. Milverton was already calm and his face was relieved. He could recognize the steps well and while he knew that Ruskin couldn't be here, he had no doubt that he somehow was. His devotion didn't let him rest for eternity. He was dead - but he was here to save him.
"Your loyalty to me made you able to stay in the end." He said with joy while Ruskin's bony fingers untied the ropes on his limbs. "You saved me again."
After Ruskin removed the blindfold, he looked up at him with a shining golden gaze. The scent of death, the appearance of rotting didn't make him disgusted, he saw his secretary as who he was while he was alive. Death could devour the flesh, but not the devotion and love. The bones and the fingers of flesh embraced each other for one more time - before the corpse turned around to return to the grave.
Milverton knew that he would be back again when he will need saving. Ruskin, the secretary of Charles Augustus Milverton, was dead.
But his devotion was stronger than death.