So years ago I wrote this fanfiction like story that took place in the World of Warcraft, but almost all of the dialogue was lyrics from the album Minutes to Midnight by Linkin Park. After recent news of Chester Bennington’s passing, I wanted to post it here. Rest in peace Chester.

Part 1: Wake

Ragnosk, a Blood Elf priest, running through the entry way of an Alliance castle. He is being chased my many Alliance Humans in full armour. But he is only after the leader of the castle. He busted through the door leading to the throne room where he sees the human leader sitting with many guards around him.  Ragnosk blasts Penance at the leader but it just bounces off a shield like bubble around him. He stands up, with an angry look, and signals guards to seize Ragnosk.

Part 2: Given Up

Ragnosk, now held by both arms, was staring up at the guard. He thinks of the situation he is in, and how stupid he was to come alone. He remembers his secret weapon as the leader approaches him. Ragnosk thinks, -Stuck in my head again, feels like I’ll never leave this place, there’s no escape….I’m my own worst enemy…- Suddenly the guards get knocked back by a large shadowy blast as Ragnosk yells,

“I’ve given up!”
The leader moves back slightly to see Ragnosk enveloped in shadows. Ragnosk felt almost as if he watched his own self from a different perspective. This happened when he let his shadowform take over. “I’m sick of feeling.” Ragnosk said to the shadowform.
The shadowform ignored his inner voice and yelled at the leader, “Is there nothing you can say?!” Ragnosk sighed and told the shadowform, “Take this all away. I’m suffocating!”
The shadowform smiled and held his staff at the ready as he pointed it at the leader. “Tell me what the fuck is wrong with me!” The shadowform yelled with a crazy smile on his face.
Ragnosk could only watch as he knew the shadowform only liked to do things with violence. Not much the priest way, but it still got the job done. -I don’t know what to take,- Ragnosk thought as the shadowform started to mindspike and devour the very essence of the people around him, -Thought I was focused but I’m scared…I’m not prepared!-
Ragnosk started to look around and started to see only white. The image of what his own shadowform was doing had become a blur. -I hyperventilate…- Ragnosk thought while staggering in the vast white blur. -Looking for help somehow somewhere and no one cares….I am my own worst enemy.-
The shadowform was holding ready magic to blow away the Alliance leader’s mind. Ragnosk could feel like he had done wrong by letting this happen. He could only think -Put me out of my misery…Put me out of my misery…-
The shadowform started to say the same almost as he reached his magic closer to the leader head and said, “Put me out of my fucking misery!“ 

Part 3: Leave out the Rest

Ragnosk awoke in a cell, from a strange nightmare. Human made cell. It seems he was able to spare the leader after all. He heard a noise from the cell door. It was someone he knew. A female blood elf. Her name couldn’t quite reach his mind, because he remembered his dream. He quickly moved over to the front of the cell and said,

“I dreamed I was missing…you were so scared,”
She smiled as she reached her hand across the bars and grabbed his. “But no one would listen, ’cause no one else cared,” he continued, “After my dreaming, I woke with this fear, what am I leaving when I’m done here?”

She had a worried look on her face. Ragnosk knew she was thinking about home in Eversong. She was about to speak but he already knew what her words would be so he said,
“So if you’re asking me, I want you to know…When my time comes forget the wrong that I’ve done. Help me leave behind some reasons to be missed…And don’t resent me, and when you’re feeling empty keep me in your memory…Leave out all the rest, leave out all the rest.”

She began to look around to make sure no more guards would be coming, with her worried expression. Ragnosk said, “Don’t be afraid, I’ve taken my beating. I’ve shared what I’ve made.” Ragnosk smirked and then continued,

“I’m strong on the surface, not all the way through. I’ve never been perfect, but neither have you.”

She smiled as she saw how they were both equal in some ways. She was a rogue: stealing, sneaking, and such. “Forgetting all the hurt inside, you’ve learned to hide so well. Pretending someone else can come and save me from myself,” Ragnosk said as they both heard a guard coming. She had to run, but she gestured toward the lock of the cell. She disappeared. Ragnosk stood alone and calmly said, “I can’t be who you are…I can’t be who you are…”

Part 4: Bleed It Out

            Ragnosk heard the guard come closer down the hall and he also began to hear a familiar voice, followed by a gun shot. “Yeah here we go for the hundredth time, hand grenade pins in every line!”

It was Doomshlang, the Blood Elf Hunter. His giant Dragonhawk, Jaywing, pushed the guard against the wall and Doomshlang held his rifle to the guards face. Doom then said, “Throw ’em up and let something shine!”
He then looked over to Ragnosk and said while in a joking manner, “Going out of my fucking mind!”

He shot the guard and then grabbed the keys. He shuffled through the keys and remembered how Ragnosk is a priest and said, “Filthy mouth, no excuse.”
Ragnosk smiled and laughed. Doom had always been there to help Ragnosk out of tricky situations. He always mentioned the cells as any sort of death. Doom didn’t fail when he said, “Find a new place to hang this noose!” Doom gestured toward the cell.

“String me up from atop these roofs; Knot it tight so I won’t get loose!” Doom joked.

He would constantly mention how Ragnosk would get into these situations and he would not. Ragnosk was sure he would’ve come this time though. As they ran the way that Doom had come in, Doom started to explain his skills of rescuing Ragnosk,
“Truth is you can stop and stare, run myself out and no one cares. Dug the trench out laid down there with a shovel up out of reach somewhere. Yeah, someone pour it in, make it a dirt dance floor again.”

Doomshlang stopped as he noticed a group of guards spotted them.

“Say your prayers and stomp it out, when they bring that chorus in!”
Ragnosk readied his staff and Doom sent Jaywing forth at the guards. Ragnosk casted healing spells on both Doom and his pet. Ragnosk would only get hit once and awhile, but each time he thought, -I bleed it out digging deeper just to throw it away…- Ragnosk thought this as when he would be hurt, it led more to his dark side. Continually thinking,
-I bleed it out digging deeper just to throw it away. I bleed it out digging deeper just to throw it away…Just to throw it away…Just to throw it away.-

Ragnosk mumbled “I bleed it out.” Doomshlang continued his joking, as he would, when he killed more and more Alliance,
“Go stop the show! Choppy words and a sloppy flow. Shotgun opera lock and load! Cock it back and then watch it go!”
Doom then laughed as he quoted what he thought the guards were thinking running into Horde in their castle,  “Mama help me I’ve been cursed! Death is rolling in every verse! Candy paint on his brand new hearse. Can’t contain him he knows he works! Fuck this hurts, I won’t lie! Doesn’t matter how hard I try!”

Doom had then gotten serious as he said,

“Half the words don’t mean a thing and I know that I won’t be satisfied. So why try ignoring him? Make it a dirt dance floor again.”

Ragnosk casted Penance on Doomshlang, activating a magic bubble on Doom. Ragnosk then was hit by a guard’s stray magic blast. Ragnosk smirked and yelled, “I’ve opened up these scars! I’ll make you face this!!! I’ve pulled myself so far…I’ll make you, face, this, now!!!!” All Ragnosk could hear as his vision blurred was his thoughts trailing him.

I bleed it out.

I bleed it out.

I bleed it out…

Part 5: Shadow of the Day

            Ragnosk opened his eyes to see himself at his house in Eversong Woods, as if Ragnosk was watching his ownself, not the shadowform. He thought of the things he was doing.-I close both locks below the window. I close both blinds and turn away.- He read his lips, “Sometimes solutions aren’t so simple…Sometimes goodbye’s the only way.”
Ragnosk wasn’t exactly sure what was going on. He just thought if he could only say something to himself. He would say,

“And the sun will set for you…The sun will set for you…And the shadow of the day will embrace the world in grey..And the sun will set for you…”

Ragnosk’s vision blurred to another area of his house. He was now watching himself in his female friend’s room. He read his lips again, “In cards and flowers on your window, your friends all plead for you to stay…”
Ragnosk thought to himself, -Sometimes beginnings aren’t so simple. Sometimes goodbye’s the only way.-The sun began to set.

Part 6: What I’ve Done

             Ragnosk was now himself in his house. He wasn’t sure what had happened back at the castle after he let his shadowform take over. He noticed a note from his female rogue friend. He picked it up and read it. After reading it he said,

“In this farewell…There’s no blood, there’s no alibi. ‘Cause I’ve drawn regret from the truth of a thousand lies.” Ragnosk set the note down and looked to the bright sun. He yelled out, “So let mercy come, and wash away what I’ve done!”

Ragnosk moved over to a standing mirror. He said,

“I’ll face myself! To cross out what I’ve become. Erase myself, and let go of what I’ve done!”

Ragnosk then looked at the note.

“Put to rest what you thought of me, while I clean this slate with the hands of uncertainty.” Ragnosk wishes she was here to hear him. He thought, -What I’ve done…Forgiving what I’ve done…-

Part 7: Hands Held High

            Ragnosk walked into Silvermoon City and saw Doomshlang standing with a large crowd infront of him. He stood upon a stage and he said,

“Turn my mic up louder I got to say something. Light weights step to the side when we come in. Feel it in your chest the syllables get pumping, people on the street they panic and start running. Words on loose leaf sheet complete coming. I jump in my mind and summon the rhyme, I’m dumping.”

He was gathering people’s attention to the cause of the Alliance threat upon the Horde while Garrosh led it. He continued,

“Healing the blind I promise to let the sun in. Sick of the dark ways, we march to the drum and jump when they tell us that they wanna see jumping. Fuck that! I wanna see some fists pumping. Risk something, take back what’s yours! Say something that you know they might attack you for! Cause I’m sick of being treated like I have before, like it’s stupid standing for what I’m standing for. Like this war’s really just a different brand of war. Like it doesn’t cater the rich and abandon poor. Like they understand you in the back of the jet, when you can’t put gas in your tank, these fuckers are laughing their way to the bank and cashing the cheque, asking you to have compassion and have some respect, for a leader so nervous in an obvious way,”
Doom said as he pointed to a poster of Garrosh,

“Stuttering and mumbling for nightly news to replay. And the rest of the world watching at the end of the day in their living room laughing like “what did he say?””

The crowd was full of many “Amen.” Doom continued, “In my living room watching but I am not laughing, Cause when it gets tense I know what might happen. World is cold the bold men take action, have to react or get blown into fractions. Ten years old it’s something to see, Another kid my age drugged under a jeep, taken and bound and found later under a tree. I wonder if he had thought “the next one could be me?” Do you see the soldiers they’re out today? They brush the dust from bullet proof vests away. It’s ironic at times like this you pray But a bomb blew the mosque up yesterday. There’s bombs in the buses, bikes, roads Inside your market, your shops, your clothes. My dad he’s got a lot of fear I know, but enough pride inside not to let that show. My brother had a book he would hold with pride, a little red cover with a broken spine. On the back, he hand-wrote a quote inside When the rich wage war it’s the poor who die. Meanwhile, the leader just talks away. Stuttering and mumbling for nightly news to replay and the rest of the world watching at the end of the day both scared and angry like “what did he say?””

Ragnosk looked up to the sky and started to say repeating, “With hands held high into the sky so blue, as the ocean opens up to swallow you.”

Part 8: No More Sorrow

            Ragnosk traveled to Orgrimmar. He wsa thinking about Doom’s words. He knew he had to take it to Garrosh, the orc leader and leader of the Horde. He stormed into the main room of Garrosh’s throne. Guards tried to stop him because Garrosh was busy.

“Are you lost in your lies?! Do you tell yourself I don’t realize your crusade’s a disguise? Replace freedom with fear, you trade money for lives! I’m aware of what you’ve done!”

Ragnosk paced back and forth infront of the throne as Garrosh watched him. His expression seemed like he didn’t care what a blood elf thought. Doomshlang made Ragnosk realize that Garrosh had been letting some of these Alliance problem happen. Ragnosk was fooled to think that the leader he went after was a source of the problem.
“No! No more sorrow. I’ve paid for your mistakes! Your time is borrowed, your time has come to be replaced!”
Ragnosk’s words were almost treason against the Horde. Garrosh stood up quickly. Ragnosk continued,
“I see pain, I see need, I see liars and thieves. Abuse power with greed!”

Ragnosk shook his head and said,

“I had hope. I believed.” Ragnosk thought about the hope that Thrall stepping down was all bad, “But I’m beginning to think that I’ve been deceived. You will pay for what you’ve done!”

Orc guards ran to grab Ragnosk. He yelled,
“Thieves and hypocrites! Thieves and hypocrites! Thieves and hypocrites!”

Ragnosk’s shadowform was calling out to him. He felt his shadowform yelling, “Your time has come to be replaced. Your time has come to be erased!”

Part 9: Valentine’s Day

            Ragnosk thought of that moment. He thought,

-My insides all turned to ash, so slow, and blew away as I collapsed, so cold…A black wind took them away, from sight, and held the darkness over day, that night.-

His mind was lost of what happened when he was grabbed by the guards. Ragnosk looked up to the clouds, as he realized he was laying on the ground outside Orgrimmar.”And the clouds above move closer, looking so dissatisfied. But the heartless wind kept blowing, blowing.”
Ragnosk sighed as he thought of how he couldn’t escape his shadowform.

“I used to be my own protection, but not now…Cause my path had lost direction, somehow. A black wind took you away, from sight. And held the darkness over day, that night.”

Looking back to the clouds and thinking of what could be about his friend, he said,
“And the clouds above move closer, looking so dissatisfied. And the ground below grew colder, as they put you down inside. But the heartless wind kept blowing, blowing…”

He sat up. “So now you’re gone, and I was wrong I never knew what it was like, to be alone…On a valentine’s day.”

Part 10: In Between

            Doomshlang walked over and sat down. He said,

“Let me apologize to begin with. Let me apologize for what I’m about to say. But trying to be genuine was harder than it seemed, and somehow I got caught up in between.”

Ragnosk looked over to him. Doom was talking about how he had got them both stuck in a position of trying to actually stand up for what’s right. Doom continued saying,
“Let me apologize to begin with. Let me apologize for what I’m about to say. But trying to be someone else was harder than it seemed, and somehow I got caught up in between.”

They both looked to the sky and said,
“Between my pride and my promise…Between my lies and how the truth gets in the way. And things I want to say to you get lost before they come. The only thing that’s worse than one is none.”

Ragnosk thought of his friend and how he wondered where she was and if he could say anything to her if he did see her. Doom was thinking about standing up and speaking to the leaders of what he thought. Ragnosk thought of the words he may say to her, -Let me apologize to begin with. Let me apologize for what I’m about to say, but trying to regain your trust was harder than it seemed, and somehow I got caught up in between.-

Doom then nudged Ragnosk and said “And I cannot explain to you, and anything I say or do or plan. Fear is not afraid of you, but guilt’s a language you can understand. I cannot explain to you, and anything I say or do. I hope the actions speak the words they can.”

Ragnosk nodded and his mind seemed to drift along with the words they both had said.

The only thing that’s worse than one is none.

The only thing that’s worse than one is none.

The only thing that’s worse than one is none…

Part 11: In Pieces

              Ragnosk traveled back to Eversong. He reached his house and discovered his friend there. She stared at him. She knew all he had been through and done. More shadowform incidents. He thought of what she may say to him. Ragnosk decided to say,

“Telling me to go, but hands beg me to stay,”
He looked at her and she continued to stare. He examined her face and said,

“Your lips say that you love…Your eyes say that you hate. There’s truth in your lies, doubt in your faith. What you build, you lay to waste.”

Ragnosk thought of how they were never as perfect as he thought they were. He said,

“This truth in your lies, doubt in your faith. All I’ve got’s what you didn’t take. So I, I won’t be the oneBe the one to leave this in pieces! And you, you will be alone. Alone with all your secrets, and regrets. Don’t lie.”

Ragnosk almost felt bad for saying that. He didn’t want her to be alone, but then a part of him did. He continued with, “You promise me the sky, then toss me like a stone. You wrap me in your arms, and chill me to the bone. There’s truth in your lies, doubt in your faith. All I’ve got’s what you didn’t take.”

He tried to pull back words.

Don’t lie.

Part 12: The Little Things Give You Away

              Ragnosk sat on his roof as it started to rain. He and Doom had been sitting for quite a while now. Ragnosk watched as the rain started to run through his house, but he didn’t care. He just said,

“Water grey…Through the windows, up the stairs. Chilling rain…Like an ocean everywhere.”
He looked out to where his friend had left. He didn’t mean his harsh words. Most of his doing was his own fault, and to no help of the shadowform. Ragnosk continued,

“Don’t want to reach for me, do you? I mean nothing to you…the little things give you away…And now there will be no mistaking, the levees are breaking.”

He thought to himself, to his shadowform,

-All you’ve ever wanted was someone to truly look up to you, And six feet under water I do…-    Ragnosk ran his hand through his spikey hair and said, “Hope decays. Generations disappear. Washed away, as a nation simply stares.”

Ragnosk and Doomshlang sat there staring into the rain feeling like they didn’t accomplish anything. As the noise of the rain overtook the sound all around, Ragnosk could hear Doom say,

Little things give you away,

Little things give you away,

Little things give you away,

Little things give you away,

Little things give you away…