'.....'= Thoughts
"....."= Conversations
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As the male vampire delivered his command, he disappeared from the room and was back within a few seconds with ten knives in his hands.
With great accuracy and speed, he threw each of the knife towards the ten people. The knives fell near the feet of the ten people who were still standing, albeit with difficulty.
"Each of you will kill the people you yourself have knocked to the floor," The female vampire ordered in a tone which allowed no room for any sort of defiance. "Your time starts now," She further added.
Ethan's heart raced as he looked at the gleaming knife at his feet. He couldn't believe that he was being forced to take someone's life. But he knew that if he didn't comply, the vampires would kill them all anyway. He glanced at the six people lying on the ground, all of whom he had knocked out in the previous round.
Ethan took a deep breath, trying to steady his shaking hands. He didn't want to do this, but he had no choice. He picked up the knife and approached the nearest person, a young woman with blonde hair. She was still unconscious, lying motionless on the ground. Ethan closed his eyes for a moment, trying to block out the image of what he was about to do.
He tried taking deep breaths as he he steeled his mind.
'If I was in there place, the same fate would have befallen me,' Ethan opened his eyes with that thought.
He didn't want to kill, but he was forced to kill. He hated the leader of the kidnappers, hated the vampires who were using him like a toy for their own amusement and most of all he hated himself for being weak.
Ethan knelt down beside the young woman and lifted the knife, his hand trembling slightly. His mind raced with conflicting thoughts and emotions, but he couldn't afford to hesitate. He could almost hear the vampires' cruel laughter echoing in his ears as if to taunt him with the choice they had forced upon him.
With a deep breath, Ethan steadied his grip on the knife and slowly brought it down. The blade pierced the air with a cold, slicing sound as it descended towards the young woman's neck. He felt a surge of nausea and revulsion, but he pushed the feelings aside, reminding himself of the inevitable consequences if he didn't follow through.
The knife made contact, and Ethan felt a sickeningly resistance as it cut through the soft flesh. He gritted his teeth, trying to block out the sound of the woman's labored breathing and the warmth of her blood on his hand.
The young woman lay still, her lifeless eyes staring up at the sky. Ethan felt a wave of overwhelming guilt and sorrow wash over him, threatening to consume him entirely. But still his resolve to survive remained unyielding.
He moved on to the next person, a middle-aged man with salt-and-pepper hair. The man's chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm, oblivious to the impending fate that awaited him. Ethan's hand shook even more violently as he raised the knife once again, the weight of his actions settling heavily on his conscience. He whispered a silent apology, praying for forgiveness that he knew would never come.
The blade descended, and the man's body convulsed in a reflexive spasm as the knife found its mark. Ethan's hands were slick with the warmth of blood, and he recoiled in horror at the sight before him. But he mustered every last ounce of strength within him to steel his resolve, pushing through the torment that clawed at his sanity.
One by one, he moved from one victim to the next, each time the feeling of guilt and remorse lessening. He tried to remember the time when these people had ganged up on him hoping that it would reduce the guilt he felt.
As he finally approached the last person, a young younger han himself, Ethan's resolve wavered. His breath came in short, ragged gasps, and his entire body trembled with an overwhelming mix of fear, sorrow, and anger. But he couldn't stop now, not when the vampires' cruel demands echoed in his ears, not when his life hung in the balance.
'Its either me or him,' Ethan resolved himself by repeating in his mind as he strengthened his resolve and also the hate towards the monsters who were making him do it.
The young man's eyes fluttered open just as Ethan raised the knife, and for a brief, heart-wrenching moment, their gazes locked. In that instant, Ethan saw the raw terror and pleading desperation reflected in the young man's eyes, a mirror image of the harrowing emotions that churned within his own soul. It was a silent exchange of understanding, an unspoken acknowledgment of the cruel hand fate had dealt them both.
The knife came down, and the young man's feeble struggles ceased as his body went limp.
Finally, it was done. Six people lay lifeless on the ground, their blood staining the cold floor. Ethan dropped the knife, his hands shaking uncontrollably. He stumbled away from the bodies, unable to bear the sight any longer. He felt like a monster, a puppet forced to dance to the vampires' twisted tune.
Ethan fell to his knees, his mind engulfed in a mixture of anguish and remorse. But in the depths of his tortured conscience, a bitter truth gnawed at him—For all the pain and suffering he had inflicted, Ethan knew that he had done what he had to do to survive.
Just as the vampires had coldly cast their judgment upon him, he had been forced to make the decision to ensure his safety. In a world ravaged by cruelty and mercilessness, he had become a victim of circumstance, a pawn in a game where the stakes were nothing short of life and death.
Ethan tried to calm himself as he looked at the other ten people who had also killed the people they had knocked out earlier. They, too, had similar expressions on their faces, just like him.
For a moment, Ethan had no idea why, but he felt a bit glad that there were similar people who had gone through the same situation as him. He was glad that he wasn't alone in this, even though the remaining ten people were complete strangers to him.
"Excellent!" the female vampire exclaimed. "Now let's make this game more interesting. How about fighting each other with knives until only one person is left alive?" The cold and seductive voice of the female vampire filled the entire room.
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