[LIV] - Awakening Nightmare

But before it could smash my head with a strength of a rushing train, something else happened.

Behind me, a flash of red aura brightened suddenly. I could see the light glowing in his eyes, turning them into a nightmarish violet color. His eyebrows crossed in an immeasurable pain.

Before he collapsed, gagging and spitting blood, an unknown arm grabbed me and pulled me backwards.

The holes all over his body, they spurted with red liquid, making him appear like a fountain. The unearthly screams, coming out of his body, pierced through the air and the walls, echoing terrifically in the long corridor. As if becoming insane, he grabbed his head and lamented in agony, his body slowly falling apart.

His eyes were moving rapidly in every direction. With every second, me watching him be in a state like that, I could feel the pain within him emanate to me.

Crystal tears were coming out of his face. It was the second time I witnessed him cry. He never shed a tear. He never showed any negative emotion, which could indicate his weakness.

I've always wanted to know, what is he doing in the time when he isn't with me. What is the place he calls home. Is it hard for him like it is for everyone else? What are his struggles, what is the sight he wakes up to every morning.

He never told me, he never showed me. Always being proud and confident, I saw him as a strong person with no pinch of weakness.

But his weakness was hiding what lied in his mind.

Maybe I could have helped him if I only insisted. If I only consciously noticed that there is something wrong. It all led us here, to this moment, to his pain.

He is terrifying, but he is also human.

Why is it that despite all that he has done...

I still want to save him?

"S-stop... Hurting him..." — His agony lasted as long as the light was on.

The hand which pulled me away from him...

I turned around to see whose was it.

To my astonishment, it was a man with long violet hair, being tangled in the air by the unknown force. He was standing proudly, his face being immovable like stone, with a long rod in his hand, which was the source of the warm aura.

Otto Lavande, the captain of the Order Officers and the chief of the district division, RR himself. The brother of the other man, lying calmly just a few steps away. The man who offered me help and reached out the hand at the moment I felt my life's is a mundane dream.

The person who helped us escape from the officers, over a year ago, is now killing the same one which he saved.

"OTTO! STOP IT!" — I grabbed his hand holding the rod, by surprise.

When only my fingertips landed on the metallic surface of the weapon, its light vanished instantly. It burned with hellish fire, making me immediately take my hand away, from the heating pain. But the aura didn't come back afterwards.

Otto glared at me with a surprised face, with the dead wand in his palm. He silently examined the weapon, and proceeded to fix it.

"He was about to smash you unconscious, yet you still defend him? Huh..." — The captain exclaimed in disappointment.

Behind me, I could hear the wails of a person which lost an incredible amount of blood.

I turned my head towards him, to see a man kneeling in a puddle of crimson. He was exhaling loudly, shaking like the ground when a train comes. It seemed, as the light ceased, the blood stopped overflowing from the wounds. Yet, the man appeared to be drained of all his strength, and about to fall in seconds.

But before I could grab his body and prevent him from falling, a merciless kick knocked me aside. I hit my head against the wall, making me dizzy.

"You will be dead, and I don't care what's going to happen afterwards. That's no longer my concern. All of this is just too much. Too much..." — Otto casually walked up to his brother's lying body.

He stepped over Paul's hand, making him grimace in pain, but the violet-haired man didn't seem to care.

Reaching out his arms, he grabbed the body of Icto and lifted him up. Putting him against the wall, Otto took the hair in the way of his brother's face, and stuck it behind his ear. With a melancholic look on his face, the man sighed.

"Why did you have to get involved... My poor boy... Wake up soon."

He put his body back on the ground, with its upper part leaning against the wall.

Otto the proceeded to turn around, towards us, and put a few steps closer to where Paul was coming to his senses.

The man reached into his pocket, and in the vast second that was between the silent click, and him pulling out the gun, my mind felt as if it was pierced by the bullet itself.

My eyes opened widely, the world becoming brighter all of a sudden.

Before I could realize what happened, my body found itself on the path between the metallic weapon and Paul. The ominous black hole from which the bullet would come was now right between my face.

Moments before the shot, there were only a few things I've seen.

Two terrified faces, so similar to each other. Both surrounded by sleek, lavender hued hair. Their eyes in the shapes of almonds opened so widely. The younger brother screaming to his older.

"NO! OTTO!"

I could feel the warmth of another body behind me. He grabbed me with his left arm, his right one flashing before my eyes. I was being pulled aside by a weak person.

But my hand reached out for his, pulling it out of the way. We both fought, for I don't even know what.

The bullet has broken out of its chains with a whistling roar.

Before it pierced thorough the flesh, I closed my eyes from the fear. It was about to go straight through Paul's head, but I covered him with my body. How is it to have your skull penetrated, anyways?

I would expect the answer any second, with my heart squeezing from the sudden feeling of hollowness.

I didn't want to die.

I didn't want to die.

I didn't want to-

...

It felt as if an explosion bursted out of an enclosed space.

A blue light appearing behind my closed eyes, it's brightness so high, that it burned through my eyelids. My skin felt its warmth, almost dissolving from the heat.

So strange.

Like if a celestial power descended down on earth, in a last resort act.

Before I sensed my head being blown up by the rushing bullet, I thought of letting my emotions out for a second.

But the light disappeared as quick as it came to existence.

The rain of warm droplets poured down my face. An unearthly scream run across my cells, with a sound of a body being dropped down on the ground.

Afraid of opening my eyes, all of my thoughts have disappeared. It was as if I subconsciously knew well what happened, but didn't want to realize it.

The blood from my fingertips drifted away, leaving a pinching sense of losing the sense of reality. I could hear my heart beating mad in my ears.

And then I saw a hand in the air, reached before me. The fingers were spread out wide, the palm shivering from the energy.

On the ground before us, lied a violet-haired man, with his torso being split in half.

On the ground before us, lied a violet-haired man, with his torso being split in half.

Next to him, was kneeling a ghost of a human, with his pale face covered in crimson rain. His eyes white as the full moon. On the side of his body, a growing red stain could be visible. The only family member he had left, now scattered like an ordinary mortal he was.

Before anyone could do anything, a sentence was said out loud in a mad and twisted tone, yet full of composure.

"You... murdered... my brother." — A flood of tears has fallen down his face.

Today was the day I first saw the two of my closest friends cry.

Why is it that people despise each other so much?

As the hand reached out before me started to slowly fall down to Earth, I realized. This place was a true hell, being inhabited by true devils. One were human, and one were monsters. But the second we're better because of one thing.

They wouldn't act foolish and reject the truth within them. They are born to harm.

While humans maintain a form of good, they reek of evil formed in a lie. It hurts more when you don't expect someone to do it.

Humans aren't monsters, they're worse.

They're devoured by senses.

I turned my head towards the black-haired man, which was holding me from my back.

His touch finally felt... Disgusting.

I didn't want to believe all of what has been said.

But seeing his face right now, a pair of his two eyes which once made my heart beat faster from all sorts of emotions, it now only beats filled with terror and pain.

"I..."

He didn't finish.

The bullet shot previously struck indeed.

I felt a warm sensation down my stomach.

The blood poured from the place he was holding my waist in. His left hand being pierced, the tiny metal penetrated the side of my body. Turning my head to see the wound, I could notice that the bullet went through me and stopped in the stomach of the person behind me, the scarlet liquid was over-present. Despite all of his other wounds being silent, this one pulsed with red.

The pain somehow...

Was faint in comparison to what my heart has been feeling. And it has finally been cracked. A final tear has fallen from my face, with a question coming out of my mouth.

"Why?"

Why have you killed again?

Why indeed. It's all a mess.

The sounds of Icto crying, mixed with steps that were coming from the end of the corridor. I felt for the first time in my life that I had enough.

I wanted to just dissolve.

Disappear.

It felt nauseous.

So nauseous.

I heard screams.

I closed my eyes and dreamed.