Walking down dark streets, the flickering lights made the atmosphere stiff and uneasy.
A boy wearing mudane clothing, almost similar to rags wandered,his eyes lifeless. He wore simple trousers and a oversized hoody.
Night walked fast, his face emotionless like his silver hair. His silvery eyes held no belief in reality. It was like the world had stripped the colour of emotions from his very being.
He suddenly stopped as a sentence formed in his head.
"You don't have much time left....but I'm sure you already know this."
‡ Why did I have to hear that?
He took a step forward, mind in complete disarray.
"Even now, its had to tell, when you're body will give up completely"
It wasn't fair he was alone, now he didn't have enough time to be alone.
"At this point, it's hard to say but even an elixir wouldn't change anything"
Still, after hearing it over and over in his mind, it was hard to feel anything. His mind and heart was completely blank.
Because....unlike most people in the world. He was a being born without emotions.
He continued walking until the dark streets slowly thinned leading into a ruined wasteland.
The destroyed part that was never tried to be rebuilt, even as the world rapidly recovered.
Searching through the rubble, while consecutively moving deeper into the ruins....he finally found it...a lone tombstone.
Covered in sand and dust, a single name was engraved on it.
"Asuna".
Dusting all the stones and sand on it, he looked terrible...
He did not cry, he just sat beside it and spoke:
"Nothing really is fair in this world. Because of my mistakes you died.
And I got to live….Why?"
He stopped for a moment, his voice was strangely unfocused.
And yet....my borrowed time is almost over…
I don't know what I am feeling or what I should even feel.
Sorrow, anger or maybe I am even happy that I could escape from all of this all.
It's just that, everything feels like a dream, no…. It feels like the nightmare that never ended that day".
When he stopped talking, the silence grew until…
It became suffocating.
He could only force himself to stare in the sky.
Even then, he still felt hollow.
He stared at her tombstone...mind constantly wandering, untill, something arrived….
Dust rose in the distance, from which something crawled out.
A pristine white lion, with a bulky build, its mouth and claws were covered in dried flesh and blood.
Its tail and eyes clearly distinguished it from a normal animal.
That was because it wasn't an animal. It was...
''A stray spawn".
It lunged straight at him, night moved back just in time.
The force wave caused by its landing sent night to the ground.
Still he was not fazed at all. Maybe it was the benefits of being emotionless.
But.... somewhere in that hollow heart of his....there was a sense of urgency growing in that situation.
He whispered beneath his breath;
"Should I run and let her tombstone be destroyed or
should I stay and die?".
Both were tempting. Dying did not mean much anymore.
The beast got faster, each time it moved. Normally, a normal human like him wouldn't be able to do any of this, but he was a bit different.
He was put in a more and more dangerous situation.
He could move freely because nothing was holding him back. He was holllow, and at that moment it was his only strength.
Slipping in-between his hood, he pulled out a foldable knife.
But beneath his chest, something was slowly rising.
He tried to ignore it, but something else recognised it,
"Desperation, fear and anger".
Maybe it was just a feeling but something definitely changed, he felt cold and afraid, his body began to stiffen.
He was actually scared and angry.
To him, this was the world's way to get rid of him. But that realization sent pain surging into his body.
The lion almost smashed his chest, only a thing gap between it and me. His clothes ripped by the force of the invisible impact.
Still, it somehow managed to send him flying into a bunch of rubbles. The pain was there, the invisible impact somehow managed to rip the sides of his hoody.
He was ready to give up. He thought;
"Maybe this is really the end"
" What was there to really live for, the pain of loss, the feeling of emptiness or maybe the overwhelming feeling of unfairness".
Still....
"It was selfish, but I still wanted to live a little longer, not just survive lifelessly like before....
I wanted something different"
A surge of something weird filled up his chest,
And alI he could think of was to find a way to live.
He grabbed a gripped the knife tightly and swung straight at it.
Blood splashed through the air.
The knife fell out of his hand.
Night's side was brutally cut by the lion's tail. Blood surged as the tail pierced deeper.
It wasn't fatal, but, it hurt far more than anything should ever feel. I felt like screaming.
But what was he expecting, he scoffed.
That was something he overlooked and now he was gonna die without any meaning to his miserable life.
His vision blurred out, he lost more blood than he could handle.Then his vision went blank.
Still, he felt sharp fangs piercing into his skin along with ranging winds crashing into him.
When he could see again, he realized, he was in the mouth of the beast.
And was brought to a cliff which led to the one place he thought he would never see.
The abyss.
My pain surged as he was flung onto a rock. His wounds ached terribly, but it was meaningless in front of the overwhelming feeling in his chest.
The darkness around him seemed scarier than the beast itself.
He could barely keep focus, the pain was overwhelming. He grabbed what seemed to be bone shards and ran towards the beast.
His whole body felt ragged, and along with that, it tried to use its tail but that wouldn't work again.
He grabbed it and jumped into its back.
Ignoring all the pain, he stabbed its body with all the might. He felt the beast struggle, but he knew, it was an illusion.
Somehow, It managed to bite him and threw him into the abyss. Night held onto the cliff, his blood dripping into it, not even a sound was made.
His body ached more as he felt every injury hurt more and more.
His grip loosened even more and at that moment a voice echoed in his ear.
[do you wish to survive]
The voice was calm and warm, it felt familiar like the voice of someone he cherished but had forgotten.
"What!?"
"Who.. no what are you"
There was no response to his question, just another sentence.
[You have been chosen]
A dark key surged out of the darkness. Everything stilled except for him, he pulled himself up.
He whispered cold and unintentional;
" A trial key"
Everything resumed, the beast lunged at him again and again, but this time it seemed frightened.
Avoiding it with all he could, injuries slowly formed across his body, moving was terrifyingly painful.
He was sure he was gonna die.
The only way out was the trial key and he had a grudge that would never cease.
He hated that damned being.
"The hex".
It took everything away, nothing in him could trust it, not even a little.
Without a thought, with his battered arm, he threw the key of the cliff. With it gone, the lion lunged straight for his chest.
He did not dodge, instead he gritted his teeth withstanding the pain as he dug his fingers in the small wound in its body.
Grabbing and tearing with all his strength. Till they both fell.
Wind crashed onto the both, falling at a rapid speed, neither were willing to let go.
Night slowly felt his consciousness drifting away. If he was going to die, it was better this way.
Suddenly, numbers appeared before him.
[10]
[9]
.
.
.
.
A countdown, he said still falling, the lion had long started feasting on his flesh. A last meal.
His pain was already numbed by the overwhelming pressure in his chest.
But somehow, he glanced down, the key somehow stilled in the air, a dozen meters from the two.
He screamed with all his strength, his anger that he never knew existed for years filled, sorrow and even regret poured out into one last sentence.
‡ WHY WON'T YOU LEAVE ME ALONE !!!
Then, right before he grazed past the key, he noticed something, the countdown hit...
[0]
Along with it, everything disappeared him, the lion and even the key.
Not knowing,
His hell....had only truly began.