6 Flashes

"Finally," the woman whispered. Her soft tone would normally be too silent for anyone to hear it.

But that wasn't the case for Kil.

Surrounded by nothing but endless and never-changing darkness, he couldn't do anything. It was his body that forced itself to adapt.

Without sight, the most important human sense to rely on, Kilian's other senses sharpened up. His sense of touch was dulled by the constant pain. His sense of smell didn't work at all, as if his nose burned away.

With all three senses of his left practically unusable, only two remained. Sadly, in terms of the sense of taste, all Kilian could feel was the metallic taste of blood in his mouth. In theory, if he could open his mouth, he could taste the air, yet this task was still well beyond what he was capable of.

With all of that, the only sense that Kilian could rely on was his sense of hearing. And this sudden decline of his other senses made it possible for him to hear the woman's whisper.

"Stay where you are!" A sudden shout rang like thunder in Kilian's keen ears.

Something flashed.

'Huh?' Kilian thought, stunned by the sudden change. He saw something for the first time since he appeared in this new world. It was just a flash, a passing bolt of sharp light...

'It doesn't matter,' Kil thought, clenching his jaw. 'It doesn't matter how small it is; progress is progress.' Kilian forced this thought on his brain, desperately clenching his sanity around it.

"Calm down," the woman said in a voice slightly louder than usual. "It's Serene and Katan," she added in an explanatory tone.

"Sir Serene?" The masculine voice from before shook in surprise. "Forgive me my rudeness, please, pass through!" it added.

"We don't have the time for that," the low voice of the woman's companion sounded as he whispered.

"I know," Serene answered in a whisper.

Another flash. For just a split of a second, Kilian could see... or rather feel something.

'What the hell was that?' he asked himself, trying to figure out the answer all on his own.

Now that Kil was focused on his sensory responses, he could say with all certainty that nothing flashed into his eyes. He saw no light whatsoever.

But he still saw something. A glint into something so complex and beautiful, he simply couldn't comprehend it.

'That feels awful,' he thought, struggling to accept the reality he found himself in.

"Sir Serene?" the screamer from before asked, this time perfectly modulating his voice. "Is something wrong?" he asked.

Another flash. One that lasted just a split of a second. One that Kilian couldn't see.

But one that Kil could with all certainty feel.

This time, it was different. Slightly similar to what he felt when this strange situation happened for the first time and starkly different from what he saw just a moment ago.

Flash.

The sight from before returned. It was something that Kilian couldn't see, but simply something that he saw.

And it made his soul hurt for some unknown reason.

"I hate to break the news to you, but the time has come," Serene's voice proclaimed in a grave tone. "We won't be staying here, but you will need to make your choice soon," she added.

'What are they talking about?' Kilian thought, eager to simply ask the question. Sadly, as he already experienced before, carelessly using his devastating throat would only slow down its recovery.

And between healing up to talk like a normal human and endlessly delaying it by asking meaningless questions born out of curiosity, Kilian didn't really need to make a choice.

"I understand," the voice of the shouter sounded again. At the same time, another flash appeared, too distant for Kil to actually see its details. As for the voice itself, it was slightly down yet indicated that its owner was committed to the meaning behind it.

Whatever this meaning was.

'I don't want to jump the gun, but I really don't like what's going on,' the young man thought, only to curse at the sensory confinement he was in.

The carriage started to pick up the speed again. As hard as it was to detect such a dulled feeling, Kilian's sense of touch actually worked.

'Or is it spatial awareness?' Kilian thought, recalling all the theories about how many senses humans actually have. 'Well, whatever,' he thought, dismissing the idea. 'It's not like it matters anyway.'

"You know that if I'm right..." the coarse voice of Serene's companion sounded. Judging from his tone, Katan's mood was dragged through a layer of mud as he spoke.

"I know," Serene replied. "You don't need to remind me. After all," she took a short break to take a breath, "this is my burden to carry."

With this exchange, the voices in the carriage vanished once again. If not for the slight shaking of the vehicle, Kilian would easily fall asleep from the total sensory deprivation.

But this calm, relatively peaceful situation didn't last long. Before the young man could sort his thoughts out and figure out what important question he should ask next, the carriage shook violently.

Flash.

"I can't believe it," Serene whispered.

Between his flash and her voice, Kilian finally realized that the two had to come from the same source. Although unable to read what he saw, Kilian could now guess just what all those flashes were.

Because for whatever reason, they came from the same source as Serene's voice.

"I told you," Katan muttered.

A snap and the carriage bolted forward. The difference in speed followed by a small tumble, as if someone fell on the bottom of it with force big enough to make the entire thing shake.

"No, that's not what I..."

A flash. A red, bloody red flash. It exploded right in Kilian's face.

He couldn't see it. Yet, he experienced it with all his being. A flash of red so powerful it could stain the entirety of Kilian's soul with its hue.

"What do you mean?" Katan asked. But no further words followed his question.

"Those bastards..." Serene muttered.

This time, the flash didn't disappear. Instead, it lingered, only growing with intensity as the carriage dashed away from where they met the other man.

Then, it exploded again. A distant noise of fighting reached Kilian's ears, only to fade away as the carriage ran away from its source.

And then, the flash of red vanished as well, replaced by a hollow more terrifying than any kind of flash could ever be.