Rejuvenation

Marie looked annoyed. "Get it yourself! I'm not your personal assistant. Hmph!" she says, crossing her arms. I carefully pick up a scalpel from a table next to me, and hover it over Paula's exposed hand. "I'm sorry," I whisper.

My body...It knows what to do. 

Make a 5 cm incision on the hand. Preferably crescent-shaped. Not too wide, but not too curved. Slowly slice out from the vertices of the crescents, preferably throughout the whole hand. After so, face the scalpel flat under a small part of the skin, and slowly but swiftly start to cut. Stop when the amount of skin becomes too big, or there is too much blood.

My hands move on their own. Of course, at the slightest pierce of the scalpel, Paula starts to wince a little. Marie, however, seems unimpressed. "Really? Is this the best you can do?" she says. 

"Shut up! I'm doing the best I can to-"  To what, really? Kill her? She certainly can't die. I mean, it's Hell. What? Make her torture lenient? That's not really the point of it, isn't it, Ethan? A voice resonates in my head. My hands shake as I slice the scalpel deeper, cutting into her arm instead of peeling skin. I slowly start to slice, Paula's screams getting louder than normal. It hurts to hear, but I can't-

Can't what? This sinner is screaming in agony. Her soul is being ripped apart at your very hand, don't you feel powerful? Her life is under your control now. She is your responsibility-

I face the scalpel up straight, the sharp part still inside her arm. In a fit of anger, I slice as hard as I can, cutting her whole arm off by accident. "Whoops," I say aloud. Paula, on the other hand, is screaming in agony. All of a sudden, I feel a hand grip my neck and push it against the wall. I see Marie glaring at me.

"Why are you half-assing this? I wanna see her more in agony! If I'm going to step aside, I wanna at least be pleasured too-" 

"Don't tell me what to do."

I glare at Marie, my eyes widening. Marie smiles a little. "That's the spirit!" she says, petting me on the head. 

"Whatever. You want entertainment? I'll give you entertainment all damn right." I walk towards the scalpel which appeared to be stuck in Paula's severed arm.

~~~~~~~~~

MARIONETTE

~~~~~~~~~

Oh, he's just so pretty! A man filled with malice, but soft and weak on the outside, such a beautiful specimen. He's feeling a lot of emotion for a being with emptiness, but I guess that can't be helped, with his stupid hybrid thingy.

I watch as Ethan exposes Paula's abdomen. He's obviously planning something, maybe evisceration? Disembowelment? Oh, so exciting! I wonder what will happen now. I take a seat next to Ethan, intending to spectate his work. As expected, he makes a small cut on it, blood flowing out of it. He carefully places two fingers in the cut and pulls the cut open.  Very creative, I thought to myself. 

This man...He's like an predator. He's neutral at first, but only shows himself when he's challenged. Hehehe...Just like me, huh? Just like in the-

Memories flash in my head.  A white room. A man in black. "Do it," says the man. Blood. Covered in blood. Screams. I can hear screams of the agonized. I wonder, will I end up like them? Or will I even get the chance to suffer? Will I die-

Maybe-Maybe Ethan is really like me-

I snap back to reality. I see Ethan gripping her kidney. "Ooh. What happens if I-" Ethan squeezes the kidney, making it explode. "Oops." He smirks a little. Wow...It's like he's a completely different person. 

Paula's crying in pain now. Ethan, as expected, in unaffected. Instead, he places two finger on top of her eyeballs, and pushes it down, gouging out her eyeballs. "Stop crying. You're so annoying." He licks his fingers, holy hell, he's so sexy-

"Hey, heal her." he says to me.  Whatever.  I snap my fingers, and some purple light emits from Paula's face, which restores her eyeballs. It's still a gory scene, with traces of eyeball still on his hand. Even so, he starts to beat her face in. "Pipe the fuck down," he says in anger. He continues to beat her up, blood and bone flying everywhere-

A realization hits me. A table. I'm strapped down. I can't move. Another girl is next to me. A scalpel hovers over her neck. A-one, a-two, a-three, blood spills all over, screams ensue, a-one, a-two, a-three, and there goes her-

I hold his hand before he can land a punch. "Hey! Please stop! Even I don't go this far. Chill!" I say. He tries to let go, but my grip is steely. No...I can't let him go down this path. I can't let him end up like me-

Ethan bowed his head. "I apologize," he says, in a solemn tone.  I thought I was prepared for this, but I...am I really destined to...I can't escape them, huh?

~~~~~

ETHAN

~~~~~

I walk out of the room, and out of the class, Sylvera and Halsten sitting on chairs. "Hey! How'd it go-" he tries to say, but his voice falters, as I slam the door shut. I look at my hands, my own hands that caused this violence, my own hands that tortured this sinner, this poor sinner that could have been redeemed-

Don't think. Just do.  A hand appears from my back. I turn around to see...myself?

Hey. He's talking in my head.  What's good? 

I fall back. "What the heck?!" I say in surprise.

Chill. I'm not here to hurt you. He winks at me.

"Who the hell are you?" I ask.  Connect the dots, dummy! I'm a failsafe just in case something goes wrong! Failsafe...Is something like that truly possible?

Yes, idiot. And yes, I can read your mind. I am your mind after all. You honed your own mind to be resistant to all kinds of damage, and even I'm rather impressed at myself. Anyway, I'm just the voice of reason in your head. 

"Wait. Since you're me, do you have any idea on my past?  Like...my life before Hell?" I ask, sounding hopeful. He chuckles.

I do, but telling you would just be way to quick, wouldn't it? Jeez, at least connect the dots that you're experienced at killing and torture. Maybe you were a spy? Anyway, I feel that you are doubtful of my abilities, so...I'll give you a demonstration. Have you noticed something?

"Yes?"

Most of the demons don't actually adhere to one emotion. Some of them don't even mainly feel the emotion they reside over. That's kinda weird, right? That means that their demonic powers most likely sets in an an earlier phase, and demonic powers for hybrids are based on what they were on their previous life. Interesting, huh?

"No shit, Sherlock. Even a baby can figure that out." I say, crossing my arms.  Hey! I'm trying my best!

"Anyway, Why the hell are you here now? Why not when I was  tortured a day ago, and got my ass beaten too? What's the point of a failsafe if you're not gonna tell me anything immediately?" 

Look, I'm only here when your mental stability is about to break. I don't give two shits when you're getting beat the fuck up. And secondly, if I gave you too much information at once, you'd explode, metaphorically speaking. Best to slowly reintroduce your instincts. 

"Okay. What, are you just gonna be a schizophrenic ghost that follows me at all times?"

Not all times, of course. I'm gonna be there for you when you're down on your luck. Think of me as the one responsible for your anime flashbacks sort of thing.

"Oh, okay. You know, you have absolutely failed at your job then. I feel no better than I was two minutes ago. Thanks a lot, genius."

Welcome. He bows. Anyway, I think someone wants to talk to you.

"What do you mea-" The door opens up, Sylvera standing behind. "Hey. You seem off. Let's walk," she says, leading me out the door.