I don't want this anymore…
Can't she just kill me?
I want to go back into the world of nothingness…
Or just break.
Yes that would be fine…
Even in the black world I still would have to suffer so breaking would be better.
Please grant me this one wish.
I had two short lives now and never really wished for anything, so I beg you;
Please break my mind and make me suppress all of this.
Turn me into something hollow like the Zeros.
Hang in there, silly me, we are nearly done.
...Of course we are nearly done you dumb rational me; any second now we will either die or break.
That's not what I mean. She said one hour and the time is up in 73 seconds.
This was just an hour? Did we already forget how to count because of that pain? This torture must have lasted for at least a week.
No, I counted right. 72 seconds just don't loose hope.
…
…
How could I still try to convince myself to have hope?
Even if it really stops after an hour then what?
Wait till it begins anew? I'd rather die.
But dying could mean that I would have to face my own personal hell again.
No… I don't want to die…
I want to be the empty me from my old life again...
A single tear escaped my still intact right eye but I didn't even realise that my body did something.
The woman however saw my tear and her bright smile got even wider from the excitement.
"Well aren't you the cutest?" She asked happily while ripping out one of my canine teeth with a pink tong. The pain was incredible but somewhere in this messed up session she burned my tongue so I couldn't taste my blood anymore.
She then held up the tooth so that I could see it too. It seemed a bit to large for a person of my size and some black liquid that I assume was my blood was still dripping from it.
"I would keep it…" she pondered "But it means bead luck so its best if you have it back."
With the face of someone who grants a great favour to someone else she pressed the tooth against my belly until it pierced the skin and sunk into my flesh were she let it stuck.
Admiring her work for a few seconds she then clapped into her hands.
"Okay I guess we still have time for a sweet little bonus, so which did you like most?"
While talking she gently caressed the pink tools she left on the ground. Not a single one was clean any more as all were covered in the black liquid that was gathered in quite large puddles all around me.
She picked something that looked like a knife without an edge, which could turn very hot and left countless smoking holes on my arms.
But before she lifted up the thing she decided otherwise and tapped on a small saw that was used to slowly shorten my pointy ears.
Again this wasn't her choice and her fingers wandered onto the next one; a Y-shaped potato peeler. There was no other way to describe it and its usage was clear just with the difference that in this case I was the potato.
All over my body were lines of raw, blackish flesh without any skin where she "peeled" me.
"This was nice." She whispered while peeling off the tip of my nose casually. "But sadly there aren't any good spots on you anymore."
She put away the peeler gently and then picked up some pliers. "Since they are back already we could enjoy another round of plucking, wouldn't that be fun?"
Would it? Well if you say so I guess it would.
Sluggishly my line of sight wandered to my hand. There was a small metal-stick pierced through the back on my hand. Actually I had them in both my hands, feet and all over my tail and the woman used them as handles so she could move my limbs around easier.
But that wasn't my point of attention.
They are back again huh?
Scattered all over the place were about a hundred small, tear-shaped, black things and some more of those are stuck in my body like the tooth.
What they were? The nails of my fingers and toes that she ripped out.
Why are there so many? Dunno. They keep growing back after a few minutes and the woman seems to really enjoy taking them out again.
She tipped against the fingers of my left hand with the pliers, as if she would play a counting game but abruptly stopped in her motion the moment a knocking sound came from the door.
"Already?" she murmured sadly.
Another, more energetic knock.
She stood up sighing and slowly walked to the door to open it unwillingly.
A man in a black military uniform was there.
The two of them exchanged a few words but it was to fast for me to understand.
It seemed to be something along the lines that she wanted to play more but the man didn't allow it and she started to sulk.
The man then said something I didn't understand at all but it must have been nice because the woman showed one of her brightest smiles yet as she turned around and nearly ran back to me.
"I got a little present for you!" she joyfully declared.
The she grabbed the metal-stick on my right hand and forced me to stand up. While doing that I got confused; how can my body still stand? Is that because of the phenomenon that wont let me move?
While the small part of my mind that noticed this was still pondering I got guided back into the bar.
It reeked of blood in this room and I didn't need to check twice to know why; there were corpses of Zeros all over the place!
Even though some of the military men were carrying out some of the bodies I still counted around fifty in an instant but I wasn't able to waste a single more thought for them as something else caught my attention.
In the back of the room on a small table sat the man with the book and gave the impression of someone who would die any second now because of overexhaustion. He was unnaturally pale, his whole body trembled and he stared with an empty gaze at something on the table in front of him.
It was the Book.
Well about half of this because it was disintegrating and turned into dust as time moved on.
Even this could only get the tiniest part of my attention for only a split second because of what was in front of me.
Three Zeros.
No not quite.
I never saw them before but the way they felt made it completely clear.
One, Four and Seven.
I stared at them with my one eye wide open.
I couldn't see the men behind them who aimed their rifles at them and neither could I see the red haired woman who walked over to them.
For me there were only those three beautiful little creatures.
"These were the only ones with an ego." the woman's sweet declaring tone made me feel nauseous.
"You know them right?
Are they your friends?" She caressed Four's cheek while walking in front of them.
"Your family?" The tipped against One's left horn.
"Maybe your most precious ones?" She stroke over Sevens head and then took an extra step so that I could again see all of them.
The woman then chuckled and snapped her fingers.
On that command the men synchronous corrected their aim and a single bang echoed through the room.
Only as if a balloon would burst.
Three small bodies dropped…
The feeling of three familiar existences . . . gone.
…
. . .
!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The world just cracked.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
There was a beautiful melody.
…
Not really a melody…
…
More a single sound that repeated itself chaoticly.
…
No pattern, no rhythm.
Just this chaotic little sound…
I love it.
It calms me down.
…
Haa~
It reminds me of rain, but in a smaller quantity. Only a few drips at a time.
What a pity… I like strong rain. It seems like it could wash away everything bad.
…
Hmmm~
I raised my hand and the dripping sound increased, nearly turning it into proper rain…
I slowly open my functional eye fixating my sight in the thing in my risen hand.
It was red.
Not just the hair but the face too.
The detached head of the woman was completely covered in this nice red and it even leaked more of it onto the already flooded ground.
"Don't give me that surprised look." I murmured calmly. I moved my lips this time and there actually was a real sound coming out too.
But who cares?
There was no one here who could hear it anymore.
With my free hand I plucked the head from the metalstick that pierced my palm and let it drop to the floor while I let my gaze wander around the room.
They were all dead but only the humans remained as the corpses of the Imps disintegrated after a while like the book did before.
I slowly stood up and created a mass of dripping with the movement but instantly sunk on my knees again.
WHAT THE FUCK!
I felt nauseous and started to throw up into the see of blood over and over again while an endless stream of tears ran over my face.
What is going on?!
What happened?!
Why are they all dead?!
Why am I still here!?
Why are my precious ones dead?!
Why?
WhyWhyWhyWhyWhyWhyWhyWhyWhyWhyWhyWhyWhyWhy?
WHY?!
I screamed as much as my lungs let me.
This isn't fair!
None of them did anything to deserve this!
They were pure, goodhearted persons who did nothing wrong!
I deserve hell but they didn't!
Something just flashed my mind and disturbed me enough to raise my head so fast that I fell over backwards.
…
No…
…
It's not me…
It's them.
I stared at the human corpses while a single thought sprouted in my mind.
Actually I did nothing wrong, right?
I never did, did I?
But then why do I deserve all this?
…
Do I even deserve it?
I... don't think so…
My sight stopped on the messy bundle of read hair that hides a head and the small thought bloomed.
THEY deserve it!
I might look like this but they are the monsters who should be gone!
He~
Hehe~
It started with a small chuckle but soon bursted into a full laughter. I never laughed before – what a refreshing thing to do.
But how could I never have seen it;
I rarely was at fault for any things!
Suddenly there was some noise coming from the open door that distracted me and stopped my laughter and with it the blooming thought.
Those were voices – many voices- and they got closer.
Someone is coming.
For a full second I just sat there in a pool of blood and surrounded by corpses, just waiting for the owners of the voices to arrive.
Then I realised the situation.
I need to get out of here!
Jumping up too quickly I stumbled over a rifle on the ground and nearly fell over again. Out of pure reflex I then looked at my feet, so that I would not trip again.
There was another realisation.
I am still naked.
Feeling a bit ashamed as I noticed that I had gotten way to used to being naked, I removed the jacket of a nearby corpse and took it. Just throwing it over myself I noticed that it was way to big but at least it would cover me nicely like this.
As fast as I could I stumbled through the room, aiming for the door that once got opened with my face.
I reached it in time and just slipped into the room as I heard voices coming from directly behind the front door. Just in case I locked the door and then turned around feeling relieved for a moment as I saw that I remembered correctly – there was a window here.
I ran over to it as fast as my shaking legs would let me and with a bit of force I could open the window.
Not even looking what would expect me on the other side I climbed up the window frame and just jumped out.
My naked feet touched some hard and cold stone. I looked up and found myself in a small, somewhat cramped alley.
Some backdoors from the tall buildings around lead here and next to nearly every one of them was a metallic box that gave of a rotting stench and reminded me of trash cans.
Not even questioning why this is so similar to my past world I just started running as fast as I could.
Where to?
Don't care.
Just getting away as far and as soon as possible.
I can think of what to do later.
For now I don't need to think. Just running and counting my steps until the number tells me that I got away far enough.