24 Crimson ruby

That gaze instilled immense amounts of fear. The whole world went red as his eyes. Color red, like blood and the beautiful ruby gem. All walls were changing into the blood. And they also fell, all men changed into bloody pulps when I looked at them. His eyes started glowing stronger and I lost strength in my legs. Shaking as if they weren't mine I started coughing blood. "What the fuck is this!" I shouted but no one answered as no one was here.

Everything started melting. Earth, humans, and water changing into red substances. Even the men not close to us. Everything became dark red blood as far as the eye could see. And even that then disappeared and I was left only with him. Floating in an endless space of the crimson world. Swallowed by the light of his eyes. Shining bright like the sun, but red. "Trash. You lost to a mere stare." He said in that world and it echoed throughout this empty space.

He didn't finish yet. He then raised his hand and closed it into a fist. I don't know how many but there were at least a hundred swords that appeared around me in a kind of dome. It surrounded me. I couldn't even say a word. My mouth was silenced by fear. The swords, then one by one slowly started piercing me from different angles. I felt each blade slowly penetrating my body destroying everything on its way. All of the insides of my body. It also burnt, all of my muscles and tendons and they mend together into one… Thing…

"Why do I always… Have to go through this… It's so painful…" After, the ten swords. All of them just pierced through my body. I got healed and the process repeated… Again, swords… Again burns and all insides cut… And like this ten times. Five times... Five. Fucking times!

"I will… Kill… All of you! Everyone!" I was screaming in my mind. I knew that he would never hear it. But I did.

It's the fiftieth sword. The other fifty were not piercing. They were slashes that slowly cut through my flesh and bones. Merging both together and somehow all the shards of my bones molded with muscles and flesh. I felt all of it. That pain. Soaking right through my mind and soul.

The last sword… Then, it became ten more. It changed into 10 miniaturistic shivs. They came to the place of my chest where the heart is located. They sank through my skin without destroying it. But I felt those swords on my heart. They moved very slowly… Millimeter by millimeter got closer to my heart… I felt the spike at the end getting into the heart without piercing it… Slower with each slightest movement… The ten swords then… In an instant… Went through it. Through my heart. Popped it like a bubble. The pain again surged throughout my entire being like a thunderbolt my whole body moved on its own as if lightning went through me. And as they did that, they disappeared.

The heart was no longer. There was only a void of tissue. I felt… Healing me. Remaking all of what just happened… "Or was that just… Hallucination?" I thought. But it slowly became the reality as I woke up in a pool of blood. The man still standing in the front of the cell, he looked at me one more time… With disgust. And left our cell not taking anyone. All that pain I suffered in there… It's here with me. Again…

"Why is this so cruel! Why me! Tell me! God! If you exist! Why the fuck do I have to suffer so much!" I was screaming in my mind as the body didn't respond to my own thoughts. I saw the three of them standing around me. Estel told Marcus something… It was very unclear so I don't know what he did. I don't know… Anymore… Again… I will have to go to sleep…

When I once again closed my eyes. The crimson world did not disappear. It was still there in my mind. As I left the consciousness outside of this apocalyptic nothingness. Scary… Cold… A feeling of blood slowly crawling into my sleeves.

But when I look at it… It goes back to that dark red void. It was neither water nor real blood. It just… Was.

It tries to consume me… Digest… From the outside it's the entire being, trying to reach my heart. Swallow it whole and destroy it. But with my gaze, it always goes back to where it came from… "Came from? Where? There is… Nothing…" Then I realized that the whole place… Was the being itself. And that I was surrounded. By my own mind.

"You will die here!" A voice from far away struck my mind with its demonic sound.

"..." I did not answer. There is no point in answering a voice of no man.

"Trash. Even if you leave this place. You will never accomplish anything!" Another voice… More stoic. Sounded like that of an old sage.

"..." I again chose not to say anything in the way of crimson. I felt as if the thing that was talking wasn't even here… It was very Distant.

"I hope you were never born!" A shout that resembled my mother's voice. "You are not worthy of being my son!" Her hard voice resonated in my mind as it was so… Annoying.

"I…" I was interrupted mid sentence once again. I was hesitating at first but now…

"You! No one! Don't you dare call yourself a Moonshine!" My father's voice… A strong voice. It struck my heart… I never really knew him as… Father. But this time… That pride was taken away from me. Is now residing in his voice. And that. Made me very… Very mad.

"I will… Kill! All of you! You! Will regret it! I will… Destroy the whole city! And all the people inside… For what you've done… Or rather what you didn't." I screamed as hard as possible. Veins on my throat almost exploded. "Or… Why? I… What can I do!" I screamed one more time as the veins on my throat became scarily explicit. But there was no answer. Nothing. I looked around and the crimson world started falling apart. Like glass breaking into small pieces. Then I stood up and looked around. Making circles around my own 'orbit' so to say. As all of the pieces fell into impenetrable darkness.

The whole place became the cosmos. Stars and galaxies… Galaxies? That word just came to my mind as I saw many different stars in cones. Many… Maybe thousands… A world, so beautiful that I may never forget it.

The thing under me… Something I used to walk on. Was just a plate made of glass. Under me… Even more stars. Suns. Moons… And other outstanding creations. A sight worth being alive. And I have it in my grasp… As if I could grab it with my palm.

While walking on that invisible trail looking around at the sights around myself. It reminded me… "Is that… The world of dark… The one where I always came to? With that small sun in the sky and a shroud of ice surrounding me. I felt completely… Free? Why… What happened?

"What did I do!" I shouted into the now not empty void. "Why am I here now! Fuck!" I screamed again into the stars. No answer. "Why am I here… It's not like… I did anything…" I laid on my back and stared into the infinite void of stars. Those then started consuming my mind as that was the only thing in my mind now…

I closed my eyes and fell into a deep sleep. I felt so safe… As if nothing was on my shoulders, no responsibility… Nothing.

"Hayden?" I heard a voice. More like a mumble than a real voice. I think it's Marcus...

"You alive?" Another voice. A little clearer but the only thing I knew was that it belonged to a man. Is that Matthew?

"Look, his eyes are moving!" Oh… It's them. I'm alive…

"I think he hears us," Estel said with concern. I only heard footsteps around me and two people holding me.

"I… What…" A small voice came out of my mouth. Something so quiet it was almost impossible to hear. I felt like one of them slowly leaned towards my mouth. "I… What happened… To me here?" I whispered to somebody's ear.

"Well…" Estel again said something in a very weird manner. It sounded as if he was afraid and angry at the same time.