Levi: I guess I am evil. That’s what they think of me. Well, they do think I’m evil because if they didn’t, my best friend Levi wouldn’t be dead. I am Erwin Smith, the third member of the Guard. My colleagues and I are the rulers of the kingdom of O’kasis. We are wonderful rulers, I would like to say. So you are probably wondering why my best friend is dead and why they thought we were evil.
It all started about a week ago when we began getting death threats from the Outlanders saying that if we didn’t give them more food, they would make us pay. We are at the top of the social pyramid. After us there’s the Royals. Then there’s the Useless, and then there are the Outlanders. We all thought it was absolute trash. There was no way the Outlanders could hurt us. We had money and power. We were the five kings that had replaced the king after his death.
Levi was only one of these people. There was also Timothy, Ace, and our leader Margaret. She didn’t like us all that much and said that all of our ideas were the “dumbest thing [she] had ever heard of.” This, of course, did not help with my lowering self-esteem. That’s beside the point. We didn’t even know the Outlanders had to eat, so we never fed them. Was it our fault that they never ate in front of us? Absolutely not.
We thought that they had no excuse to threaten us, and we wanted to teach them a lesson. So we got our militia ready to fight them off if they were to attack.
I remembered Levi advising us: “The Outlanders would not get an army to fight us since they had no power and valued people of their own kind.”
Margaret always thought he was the dumbest of us all.
A few hours later, six: twenty-seven to be exact, we were all in our living room doing our own thing. I was reading on the couch being more and more sucked into my book by the minute. Timothy was playing cards with Ace and seemed to be winning. Margaret was sipping her tea in the largest chair in the room. And Levi, like the perfect person he was, was looking out the window commenting about the different colors of the birds.
I recall exactly what he said next--“Oh no! This bird is a person! Who can shapeshift again? Oh no, an Outlander!--Wait, it’s picking something up. OH NO, IT’S A BOMB! Everyone leave this building!” He looked down, facing all of us, and said, “My friend, Erwin, please make sure everyone leaves this building. Even if it means I die.”
I was shocked. Not only that he had a horrible vocabulary and he was risking his life for me, but that he had called me his friend. I mean, I always wanted to be his friend, like his best friend; I just didn’t know he wanted to be my friend. I made sure everyone left the building. Everyone was so scared that they didn’t say anything. They’d lived in constant protection for their whole life. We had defeated the king by poisoning his drink; everyone thought it was a vicious battle, but it really wasn’t. I made sure everyone ran away from the castle, and we were as far away as we could be before we went into the Useless territory.
As soon as we were all out of the building, I heard it. Glass shattering, wood breaking and the scream from one man. I tried to fight back the feeling of relief; everyone else was okay, I was okay. The person I cared about most was not okay, dead probably. Without thought I ran into the castle, pieces of the roof caving in, nearly falling on me. I heard multiple screams of “Erwin…!” and also the other members of the guard’s names... but whatever, it’s my story. I found him in the living room right where we had left him--lying on the floor with blood coming out of his forehead. The bomb had made his right arm and his beautiful raven hair fall off. He still had his glorious smile glued to his face but, in all honesty, he looked disgusting. Since I knew these were his last moments to live I wanted to run to him and tell him how I really felt about him.
I saw his hazel eyes light up from my appearance.
“Levi!” I yelled. “Levi! I want to tell you something important.”
He just nodded.
I gulped, “Levi, I always wanted to be your best friend.”
I kneeled down and Levi touched my face.
“Same,” he murmured out.
Then I felt his once-tight body turn limp in my hand. His breath became more spread out until it stopped. I realized my throat and nose were getting dry but my beautiful teal eyes were getting moist and my sight was blurred. I turned around to see my acquaintances facing me in disgust. We were supposed to be the strongest people in the kingdom, not show weakness. But guess what, I didn’t care. My possible bestie forever had died--in my arms! Everyone else was sad too, I guess, but not the way I was. I was devastated. We were supposed to live happily ever after forever (all of the Guard can’t die of age).
Ace turned towards me and said, “We better go home. Tim and I are going to the theater tonight and we don’t want to be late.”
I felt like I was going to kill them. How dare they tell me this now! This was literally the worst time to tell me this. I looked down, tears rolling down my face. Margaret's hand touched my shoulder, an attempt at a comforting pat. It didn’t work but I was glad she cared--at least someone did.
She squeaked out, “I have lost many friends in my day and I...I…”
“Thanks,” I say, “that really helped.”
I looked outside the next morning to something I would rather not see. We were in the backup castle in the Royal territory. All of the Outlanders were cheering, “The guard is dead! Long live the shapeshifters!” They had confetti and cannons and it was not a fun scene. Well, at least to me. They were celebrating my friend’s death.
Margaret called all of us into her room. When I got in she made sure I sat next to her. She gave me her favorite chair. Ten seconds after I walked in Tim and Ace stumbled in. Their faces looked tired and defeated.
“How was your night, you two?” Margret asked in her sweetest, fakest voice possible.
Tim burped and it smelled of alcohol. “Brutal.”
“Yeah, I guess you guys ain’t doing that good. You were drunk as Hades last night. You came home at three AM and any person could smell the whiskey from miles away!”
Ace just sneered and snickered out an, “I guess.”
Those boys never cared about anyone’s feelings, why would mine be any different?
“I have an announcement: we are going to hunt down everyone one of those Outlanders and kill them the same horrible way they killed our precious Levi and all of my friends. And the oh-so-polite Royals are funding us!” Margaret grinned.
I became sad, but I didn’t say anything. All of those people were gonna die; it was my fault for being sad and Margaret pitying me. Ugh! Why must I have such strong feelings? Margaret looked so proud of herself but I was dying. Levi wouldn’t want innocent people to die. He had a beautiful face and a beautiful mind. What I would give to get my sweet Levi back. I would give anything.
But not death. I could never let more death happen again. I didn’t want her to do this. I looked at her and decided not to tell her. She looked so triumphant, so proud. No one wanted to rain on Margaret’s parade. Especially not the man that felt every emotion all at once.
“Alrighty, hunting season starts today,” Margaret hollered.
Ace and Timothy both screamed, “Make them burn! Make them DIE!”
I just sat there in shock. Margaret seemed pretty pleased with their reactions.
Margaret then announced her plan to the whole kingdom. A few seconds later, the Outlanders ran away from the kingdom, or they hid in their houses while the workmen tried to build a barrier around their territory.
Sometimes I went outside in my super-secret disguise/ character. This amazing disguise consists of a giant hat that covered my sharp and well-cut blonde hair with dark roots. Levi always teased me and said it looked like I dyed it that way but I swear to God: it's all natural. I do not have to hide my face for it is already beautiful and delicate on its own. In my disguise I also have a large woman's jacket to hide my well-shaped figure. This jacket goes all the way down to my knees so I have to wear pants. If I didn’t wear pants it would ruin my feminine disguise. I also put on my fanciest pants to show that I care about my appearance. I only have one pair of shoes so I wear them. It’s a perfect disguise!
I walked up to a woman with a young boy wrapped up in a blanket in her arms. He was asleep. I asked her if she was going to run away or hide or something.
Her head lowered and she said, “When the proclamation was announced, my baby was born. I named him Levi after the poor guard that died yesterday.”
I was confused. “Why did you do that? Don’t you hate those horrible people in the Guard?”
This was part of my character: she doesn’t like the Guard.
“Well,” the young mom says, “I don’t know why the Outlanders are like this. We are mean and stubborn and,” she wipes a tear from her eye which I didn’t even know was there until she wiped it away, “my father was the one who bombed the castle.”
I gasped, really noticeably. Then my brain stopped working and I tripped on a nearby pebble. My hat fell off and my jacket unbuttoned itself. My blonde hair was out in the open and I was wearing my shirt for Levi’s 21st birthday. I silkscreened that shirt myself and wasted my magic making them. I made it for everyone in the Guard. These shirts had Levi’s face on it with the writing “LEVI, HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY!”. Levi’s shirt was his birthday present and it had an outline of a bird on it with the writing “Happy B-Day To Me!” on top of the design.
“You knew Levi?” The lady stuttered.
“Well,” I said laying on the floor all exposed, “you could say that.”
“Oh,” her face glooms up. “Were you in the bombing?”
A tear rolled down my face. “Yeah, Levi saved my life.”
“Oh sweetie, I’m so sorry.”
I didn’t realize until she said that that I was sobbing, heaving, sniffing. My jacket was the only thing that would wipe away my tears, so I ran back to the kingdom. The young woman tried to follow me but her kid woke up so she had to stay and comfort him.
I ran back to the castle, into my room, and slammed the door. I picked up my favorite book and read and cried at the same time. Margaret ran into my room.
“Erwin!” She screamed.
“Can you not bother me right now? I’m feeling not so great right now so--”
“No! Erwin! Trinity’s here!”
Trinity is the king’s daughter and just a few weeks ago she announced she was the princess or whatever. Levi and I never believed her but she always defends the Outlanders from us. She always wins these excruciatingly long battles between us and her. Also, she’s not even a real Outlander; she’s only there because her parents abandoned her there after they died.
“With the anger inside of me and the urge to avenge my friend’s death, I will fight alongside you this time, Margaret.”
“Yeah, I guess you have to make up the seven times you didn’t.”
“What can I say? I’m an extremely lazy guy.”
She smiled and tossed me my wand.
“Let’s go, Erwin.”
I walked down the stairs and there she was. She had a huge sword and smile. She clutched the hilt of the sword and raised it above her head.
Then this little jerk yelled, “For my friends! For my home!”
I have no idea why that offended me so much. No, wait, never mind--I had many ideas why that offended me. She destroyed all of those things she was fighting for. My friend and my home.
My anger took control of my mind I guess and then she was in our jail cell. Everyone looked shocked. I wonder what I did to get her in there.
Margaret ran up to the main window and yelled, “We have your princess captured! You’ll never defeat us!”
I never thought that we could defeat them, there was so many of them. But, in a fit of rage, it was the only thing I believed.
Then I heard thousands of Outlanders barge into the room. I wanted to scream, but they already rescued Trinity. The woman with the baby turned to me and mouthed the words “I’m sorry” before disappearing into the crowd. There was too many of them to fight off and in exactly twenty seconds they were gone with the girl. We gave up by then and declared that we would stop hunting down the Outlanders and give them a supply of food. A few hours later the Royals stopped funding us. To be honest, I don’t remember most of what happened in that hour.
The next day was Levi’s funeral. Saying that I wasn’t emotionally prepared would be an understatement. It was a small funeral; only the Guard and some of the Royals showed up. Margaret led the ceremony and asked if I wanted to say a few words. I immediately accepted this offer.
I walked up to where the coffin was and rested my hand on top of it. I requested the people setting up the funeral to ask Margaret to seal the coffin up with her magic. I did this so I didn’t have to see his face again so I could try to erase him from my mind. I looked around the room and realized I only knew three people in the audience.
I looked down and placed my hand over my heart. “I knew Levi all of his life,” I begin to realize that Tim and Ace are crying. “We grew together, and we were gonna stay together. Levi was more of a brother than a friend. I always thought he was the most caring of us Guards and not until I lost him I realized how much I really did need him. The castle seemed so empty without my ‘little brother’ around cracking jokes or looking at birds. When I saw him laying on the floor with blood everywhere, with his piercing gray eyes weakened, with most of his hair scattered around him, I knew it was over for him. All I felt was sorrow. Just last year he turned twenty-one, which is a very young age for immortals. But who am I to say that, I’m 25. I really did believe that we were gonna rule forever but I guess I’ll have to find someone else to rule with which will be a very hard task.”
I look around and realize nothing will ever be the same again.