Nero slowly blinked his eyes. He lifted his head as the realization hit him. It took almost a full minute before he understood that Eliza was dead. He recoiled, his eyes wide open. His whole body was shaking; he was too young to deal with so much loss.
"No..." he sobbed.
"Eliza, please don't!" Tears filled his eyes as he desperately shook his sister's body. "Eliza, please get up!"
But of course, Eliza didn't respond. She just lay there motionless.
"ELIZA, GET UP!" he yelled, tears in his eyes. He laid his head on her chest and grabbed her dress. He cried.
"PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE!"
He cried and yelled for almost an hour and a half before slowly running out of strength. "Please don't... please..." He fell to his knees, and his gaze wandered up to the dark ceiling of the cell. The torch in the hallway outside, which cast the only light into the room through a small slit, had gone out, but Nero didn't seem to be looking at the ceiling anyway, but through it.
"Please..." he pleaded, "If there really is a God up there in heaven... then please, give me my sister back. I don't want anything else, I don't want to leave this cell, I don't want to go home, I just want my sister to live again. Please, God..."
This wish filled him, filled his entire being. He wanted nothing else but for his sister to live again. He wanted her to hug him again; he wanted her to encourage him again. Without her, he was alone. He looked up with tear-filled eyes, but got no answer.
The only thing around him was darkness. Shadows enveloped him and his sister's body. At this moment, in this cell, they felt even darker than normal. A slight twitch ran through Nero's body. He looked hopefully at the spot where his sister was, but she did not move.
Nero looked up again. "I hate you..." he muttered.
"I hate you so much... All my life I was told that you protect us, that you have a plan. Was this your plan?"
Nero shook his head. "I... I... HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU!" he yelled, "DO YOU HEAR ME? I HATE YOU, GOD! IF YOU EXIST, THEN I WANT YOU TO DIE! No..." Nero slowly got up from the bed and moved away from his sister's body.
"I want you to feel the same pain I feel. I want you to suffer." The eight-year-old boy clenched his fists and looked down. "I want you to feel the same pain you caused me!"
He looked up at the sky again. "I. WILL. KILL. YOU!" he screamed. "I WILL..." His voice failed him and he fell to the ground, coughing. He didn't get up again. Hatred distorted him, hatred for a god who probably didn't even exist. His belief in this god would diminish over the next few years, but his hatred for him remained in Nero. It would accompany him, shape him, and lead him on his path. The desire to be powerful enough to never be helpless again. More powerful than anything and anyone. He wanted to become powerful enough to torture gods. He wanted to become a god.
But on this day, he was not yet ready. He was just a child, helpless and weak, the only thing he had was the hatred that burned within him.
Hours later, he was awakened by footsteps. A light approached him. Nero didn't even have the strength to sit up, but simply remained lying down. The light stopped in front of the door, and Nero could hear the torch being lit again outside. Then a plate of food was simply pushed through the slit, and the footsteps receded again. Nero had no appetite; he simply closed his eyes again.
Over the next week, he barely ate a bite and drank just enough to survive. He no longer went near his sister's bed, as he was too afraid to see what was there. Unfortunately, the stench soon gave it away. Nero's mind became increasingly clouded, as if in a trance. At first, he still felt hatred, grief, despair, and fear, but gradually those emotions faded away. It was too much for the little boy's mind to bear.
In the end, he had nothing left. He could hardly think clearly anymore, because whenever he thought, he immediately thought of Eliza. He could hardly sleep because every time he closed his eyes, he was plagued by hellish nightmares. So he spent almost the entire day lying there, in one place or another in the cell, depending on where he had last collapsed, staring at the ceiling. Without thinking, without doing anything, just lying there motionlessly staring. That for hours on end, until exhaustion forced him to sleep. Then he had terrible dreams and woke up with tears in his eyes. Sometimes he even woke up in completely new places, once even next to Eliza. Her body was already rotten, it smelled disgusting, her skin was wrinkled and discolored.
Nero had apparently hummed the melody that Eliza always played for him in his sleep, but when he woke up, he screamed. He hit his head hard on the stone floor as he fell out of the bed.
He immediately lost consciousness, but unfortunately woke up again. Fortunately, he had already forgotten what had happened and would not remember it for decades. Sometime later, he placed the thin blanket over Eliza's body so that he would not have to see it anymore. That was the last conscious decision he made during his stay in the cell. At a certain point, Nero no longer knew how much time had passed. Normally, he kept track of how often he was brought food, but he had quickly stopped counting. So it could have been a few days or weeks, or even months, that Nero had already spent in this cell.
Nero didn't know exactly why, but one day he had a particularly bad nightmare, only to be jolted awake by loud footsteps outside the door. Then Nero heard the loud click of the door lock as it was unlocked. He didn't even bother to get up.
He realized that it wasn't the usual grumpy man, but Leonard, the same person who had brought them here. He had a long, broad sword in his hand, dripping with blood. As he stepped into the cell, he staggered slightly when the stench hit his nose.
"By the Lord!" he said, "What the fuck is that smell?"
The man's voice was deep and rough, almost soothing. He walked over to Eliza's bed.
Nero only reacted when he reached out his hand to pull back the blanket and look underneath it.
"Please don't..." he whispered weakly, but the man didn't hear him. He pulled back the blanket and for a brief moment Nero could see his sister's black hair and her decayed face.
"FUCK!" the man cursed loudly. Nero screamed and turned away.
He couldn't see what Leonard was doing, but the next thing he knew, he felt the knight's hand on his shoulder. Nero flinched, but simply closed his eyes. He expected death. He even longed for it, but fate had other plans for him once again. Leonard grabbed Nero and gently lifted him into his arms.
He walked with Nero out of the cell and up the stairs. At the top, Nero could see a body lying on the floor. It was the simple-minded guard, blood flowing from a wound in his chest.
Nero said nothing. He didn't resist as Leonard carried him outside, away from the worst place he had ever been, but five armed men were already waiting for Leonard there.
One of the men, clearly their leader, stepped forward. "How could you do this?" he asked Leonard, who gently set Nero down on the floor.
"Do what?"
The man looked at him. "How could you betray the Church? You know that by doing so, you have betrayed God?"
Leonard looked at him with raised eyebrows. "God? In this building? Hahahaha."
Leonard laughed briefly before becoming serious again, "There hasn't been a trace of God in this building for a long time."
"How can you say that, traitor?" asked the strange man angrily, "This is the building of the Inquisition. The priest lived here, the same priest that this boy killed!"
Leonard looked him straight in the eyes, "This 'priest' took the poor boy's sister into his bedchamber night after night. A child, no less! And that's not the first disgrace this monster has brought upon himself; he even dragged me into it." Leonard clenched his fists. "He really made me believe that the woman was a witch. But as I learned, her only fault was not acting according to the priest's wishes. Unfortunately, it was already too late." Deep remorse could be heard in the man's voice. "But when he locked the two children in one of the cells, supposedly just for a few days, I became suspicious, but they wouldn't let me near the building anymore."
"You speak blasphemous words, Leonard. You will be crucified for this, you know that."
He shook his head, "I believe there is still good in the Church, not here, but in the Vatican. That's where I'm going, with the boy!"
"You're not going anywhere, Leonard! Not as long as I'm standing here!"
Leonard looked at the leader of the guards, a sad smile on his lips, "Then try to stop me!"