Enderal:Night (Bad Ending)
At the attic of the house, a boy was still awake. A diffuse disturbance crept inside of his head. It might have been the oppressive darkness that kept him from sleeping, but the uneasiness wouldn't go away, so he took the courage and decided to go outside for a walk, where he might have freed himself of this feeling. To cast away the darkness at least a tiny bit, he took a lantern with a candle with him.
He knew exactly which steps of the old, wooden staircase were creaking, so he carefully avoided those and reached the kitchen in the basement almost silently. Through the window he could see the road behind the fields and noticed a cart, completely unlit, creeping forth the road to Ark. Quickly he turned around, stepped through the corridor and escaped through the back door into the night. He had just lit the candle to see the ground before him and passed the herb garden. What used to be a colourful and varied collection of all sorts of herbs became an unshaped grey-green in the dark. He then passed the well and went further to the big barn, when he noticed that many of the animals were nervous and awake as well. He climbed the ladder up to the attic where the hay was kept for the animals just below, and put the lantern on a workbench at the side. Then he stepped over to the large pile of hay and laid down on it like he often did on warm summer nights. He listened to the animals below, their snuffling, rustling and breathing, and closed his eyes. The animals could hear him as well, and they were used to the child's feet walking on the wooden planks above. He quickly fell asleep…
A loud squealing jolt him awake. Or did it just seem so loud as the silence sharpened his hearing? But before he could tell which pig woke him up, they calmed down again. Then he saw some light shining through a small window in the roof. He slowly got on his feet, and looked upwards through the wooden frame, where he could see some of the all familiar starlight breaking through the clouds. Then, all of a sudden, something grabbed him from behind, like claws clenching his shoulders. He tried to scream but he was voiceless. His gaze blackened, his arms got limp, his knees weakened. He was pushed forward, pulled back, thrown to the side, but not knocked over. Then, the grip loosened and the boy tumbled backwards, and before he could regain his balance, his right shoulder crashed into the workbench, throwing the lantern to the ground, where the glass shattered and the burning candle fell out.
Within seconds the hay caught fire, but the boy struggled to get on this feet. As he realized what was happening, he grabbed the corner of the workbench and pulled himself up. At this point, a whole pile of hay was aflame already, and there was no chance to extinguish the flames anymore. He ran towards the ladder he used to get up there; at least the animals should be freed and saved from this inferno. But his legs could barely carry him, and he stumbled upon reaching the ladder, falling down head first to the ground. His left arm cracked upon the impact, his head hit the ground hard, and his right foot slapped on a rock beside the ladder. The blazing pain and the fear kept him conscious, but he could barely move. He got on his knees, crept towards the big gate and pushed his back up against the heavy wooden bar that kept the gate shut.
The screaming and squealing of the animals hit him like a nail in the head, he didn't even care about his injuries anymore. “Malphas, help me, why don't you”. Tears dropped from his eyes, and the anguish and shame and desperation suffocated him. No matter how hard he pushed, the bar wouldn't move a bit. Soon, the pigs were running against the gate, and he could hear them burn. With a final effort he crept away from the blazing barn until he lost his consciousness, even though the shrieking and gurgling of the animals kept cutting into his thoughts for some more time. He should have joined them…
