"W-What are you talking about Hiro," Xylvia asked, trying to pretend that what I was saying was some dumb joke. "Seriously, you're starting to creep me out a little."
"I did it..." I said. "I walked into the town, I saw an opening, and I...I...killed them...all of them..."
The bodies ripped to shreds all around me. The blood and innards splattered as far as the eye can see. The red sky. The screams and cries echoing in my ears. The vivid image of Leona in tears and running away. There was no way in hell that I would ever be able to forget about that.
Then, I suddenly realized something.
"That's right," I said. "I forgot about what I was supposed to do. I'm supposed to kill the Army of Darkness, then myself. I can never be forgiven. I always find a way to mess up. I should never have come to this world. I should've stayed home. I should've just let my own depression kill me instead. No one would've had to die if I was never here. No one... No one no one no one no one no one NO ONE NO ONE NO ONE NO ONE NO ONE NO ONE!!!!!"
My words turned into screams of terror and agony. I always wondered what it felt like to feel true pain. I think I finally know. The pain of losing someone that you love. The pain of never wanting to be needed. The pain of being alone forever. The pain of killing someone. Bearing all of this pain might be what will drive me to insanity.
"STOP IT!"
The sorrow, desperate cry of Xylvia, followed by her arms wrapping around my body, was what snapped me out of my painful trans.
"STOP BEATING YOURSELF UP LIKE THIS! I know you can't take back what you did, BUT YOU SHOULDN'T KILL YOURSELF OVER IT! You want to find a way to make up for it, right? Well here's an idea: LIVE! LIVE FOR ALL OF THEM! LIVE FOR THE LIVES THAT YOU TOOK! And if you can't bear all the pain that you caused, then...THE LEAN ON ME!"
Xylvia's grasp on me grew tighter and tighter as she did whatever she could to keep me from losing myself.
"I've lost too much in my life, so please...DON'T MAKE ME HAVE TO LOSE YOU TO!! PLEASE, WAKE UP! WAKE UP AND FIGHT!!"
An overwhelming emotion suddenly surged throughout my entire body. I felt a tight pain in my chest, but this pain didn't really hurt. In fact, it felt gentle. Wet streams of tears coursed down my face and landed on the ground. And before I realized it, I found myself crying.
I remember something like this happening before. I did the same thing with her and Leonna when I was afraid that they would leave me if they found out my truth. But they didn't. They accepted me, despite my dreaded past. And now, even after I've done something even worse, Xylvia still accepted me.
"It's not your fault Hiro," Xylvia said. You were led to doing these things by bad people. All you need right now is a helping hand from all the people that care about you."
She's right. I need to stop letting myself be controlled by others. I need to decide for myself what my next move is.
"So what do you want to do now Hiro?" Xylvia asked.
I wiped away the warm, salty tears from my face and looked up at her with a smile. Well, not really a smile. More like a smug smirk.
"We're going to kill Gleam." I said.
"Sounds good." Xylvia said with a smile.
"But how are we going to get out of here? We're still chained...wait a minute."
I looked around and found a few scraps of metal on the floor. I reached over and picked up a couple of pieces that looked thin enough and started to pick at the locks.
"I remember watching some random videos on the internet, and one of them was how to pick a lock with random pieces of metal." I said.
"Inter...net?" Xylvia said, a little puzzled.
"Umm...just something from my world.
CLICK!
"Yes!" I said.
The lock fell from my foot and I was able to take the chain off my legs, but the pieces of metal were too bent to be able to use to free Xylvia and I couldn't bend them back in place.
"What now?" Xylvia asked.
"Umm...wait. If the cliches are true, then the keys should be..."
I opened the door that led into the room that we were in and found the keys hanging on a wall to the right of the door.
"...right here." I said.
After I freed Xylvia, we walked through the door and out of the building that we were in. What we found, however, was not what we wanted to see.
"What the hell?"
"Where...are we"
We were surrounded by an endless sea of red skies and black ashes.