A slimy insect crawled into his ear.
It slithered, it crawled, it clawed.
Rummaging around in his head, dancing around his brain.
Slime on slime, sliding like a slippery snake in oil - latched onto Prince's brain.
What was it?
Surely it couldn't have been Parath's tongue.
Such a long tongue.
Prince - Prince was in a daze.
Hit by paralysis.
Chained by shock.
Bound to place by Parath's greedy hands.
When did he do that?
When did he grab hold of Prince?
How does he even have the strength to do so?
Wasn't he dying?
Agony!
No, not quite.
Rather Prince felt like killing himself.
Prince wanted to kill himself.
Prince was a prisoner.
He was a slave.
He was a pitiful fool.
What made it worse - Prince wasn't suspended due to shock, maybe at first he was.
Prince was suspended due to supernatural reasons!
He tried to move his body - he couldn't!
All that was left was an evacuating mind and a handsome doll of a body.
Prince couldn't see it - he felt it.
The snake was still slithering and Prince - Prince was hurting.
Agony!
Agony a thousand times over.
It's destroying me!
Sure, Prince's mind could have cracked at this moment, but what fun would that be?
No - no fun at all.
That's why I like you Prince.
Nine shadowy figures emerged within his mind.
Wrapped in shadows, made of shadows, mask of shadows, face of shadows.
Prince only saw their outlines - their shadowy bodies.
Prince was tied up - in the middle.
Like a fledgeling on a sacrificial altar - and the nine shadowy figures surrounded him, keeping a small distance though.
They stared, at Prince.
Prince was writhing in pain.
Despicable pain.
Until one of the shadowy figures spoke - from Prince's left.
"Look at you."
The pain which agonised Prince - tormented him, it subsided, the tiniest amount.
It was still like a phantom limb.
The shadowy figure next to the one that spoke said some words too.
"A child, in a man's body."
Prince was convulsing - his body was convulsing.
It was twitching, it was impulsing, it was deboning.
His body was a mess.
Imagine a skinwalker whose bones were protruding - trying to escape their own skin.
That was Prince - on the floor.
The third shadow spoke.
"Do you want to be comforted Prince?"
Prince was at a boiling point - the pain it was unimaginable.
His brain felt like goo - it was a dough that Parath was playing with, toying with, abusing.
How could Prince reply?
He wasn't allowed a moment of respair!
The fourth shadow spoke, following the counter clockwise motion.
"Do you want pity"
I want pity!
But no words came out - the figures didn't hear his cry.
Prince - you want pity?
The fifth shadow spoke.
"Do you want to be saved Prince?"
I want !
I want to be saved!
The sixth shadow spoke.
"Too bad - nobody is going to save you."
If Prince's heart wasn't already cracked - there definitely was a large one now.
His own mind betrayed him.
How can one stay stable when their own being rejects its soul.
But Prince - he refused.
If there was a crack - why Prince reached into the darkness, the unfathomable darkness.
Prince reached into it - grabbed a piece of the shadow and thrust it into his heart.
If there was a crack - Prince had sealed it.
Sealed it with shadow.
The seventh shadow spoke.
"The pain is still there - patch yourself up... as much as you want. But the pain - it still aches."
Did Prince need any reminder?
He was in the pain! Why would he need somebody to confirm it?
Prince grit his teeth.
"I know, help me."
Prince had finally managed to find some semblance of reason among the blinding pain. Just keeping this shadowy realm open was costing him his every ounce of will.
The eighth shadow spoke.
"Help? Sure. But your no king - you have no throne. You don't sit on it."
Prince's teeth were in a furious embrace, and through it he replied, "I am aware, this is your domain."
The ninth shadow spoke.
"Good."
The shadowy figures left all at once - flying through means Prince didn't know how to describe for they had no wings.
They were reinforcing the black confines of the dark realm - somewhere... somewhere far away.
But reassurance fled into Prince's veins.
His worry was at ease.
What insidious nature?
I wonder - was this the madman in the form of the nine shadows?
Agony!
The pain was still there - still as potent.
But somewhat manageable.
The pain, the intensity - it wasn't the hardest part.
It was the duration.
What was seconds, blurred into minutes.
Was it seconds?
I'm sure it was minutes.
Prince survived the moment - sure.
But his will was destroyed then rebuilt then destroyed again - countless times.
If only you could experience it yourself - you would understand what a harrowing experience it is. For those who think they do - tell me, are you rebuilt?