Evening (Tue) Spring 2 Year 1
Rhen's bedroom, Resort Le Straza, Neotopia.
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Rhen emerged from the bathroom, felt relaxed and rejuvenated. With a towel wrapped loosely around his waist, he made his way towards the inviting expanse of his queen-sized bed.
The room was dimly lit, casting a soft moonlight glow upon the walls. He discarded the towel, revealing a toned physique, after which he doned a simple shirt and boxer shorts. He then lowered himself onto the bed, adorned with silky sheets,
Rhen can't help but let out an exhausted sigh after a long day's travel and encounters with a shadowy organization.
"(Finally, a bed.)" He muttered in his mind.
Rhen positions himself to his side comfortably and switches on a single lamp to drive away the darkness. He plans to close it later, but for now, he plays around with Lena's ring on his neck, reminiscing his time with her.
In the depths of Rhen's thoughts, a vivid image appeared—a woman with flowing locks of vibrant purple cascading down her back. Her presence was ethereal, her essence captivating.
Time, however, proves to be an unyielding force, gradually eroding the vividness of her features. With each passing day, her features such as the softness of her eyes, the contours of her face, and the intricate details that once defined her begin to fade.
Time has taken its toll on Rhen's memories. He may be one of the strongest men in Eternia, but for him, all he wanted was to be in her embrace once again no matter what the cost.
He remembers the first time Lena served him a bowl of bland-tasting porridge when he was still a child.
"Man, you suck at cooking." The younger version of him scoffed at Lena.
Which she immediately replied with a smack on his head, hurtling Rhen's face into the piping-hot bowl.
Rhen chuckled a smile from inside his bedroom, she wasn't the best cook, but it was one of the best meals he had in his life.
He grieves at her loss, she was his best friend, his partner, his teacher, and his lover. Most importantly she can also match Rhen's long lifespan which made her irreplaceable.
After a moment of grief, Rhen turns off the lights and closes his eyes until his mind drifts into a deep sleep, with his hand still clutched on Lena's ring.
...
Rhen's weary eyes began to flutter. His mind, burdened with the weight of his past, and so, as the world around him faded into darkness and he began to dream.
A young boy dashed through the cold dark forest, his heart pounding with a mixture of fear and determination. The moon's light struggled to penetrate the dense dark canopy above, casting an eerie glow upon the twisted branches that reached out like fingers.
Beside him, his small hand tightly clasped the hand of his younger brother, Azrel. The boys breaths came in ragged gasps as they ran through the treacherous terrain, his feet barely making a sound upon the damp forest floor.
The air was heavy with the metallic scent of blood, which stained their clothes and clung to their trembling hands. It was a sight that would forever be imprinted into their memories, the blood of their parents. The last words they told them were.
"Run!"
Suddenly, Rhen suddenly felt a tug on his arm. Looking back, it was Azrel, his hands snapped away from hid big brother and he tripped.
"I can't do this no more." Exhausted and in state of fear, his hands are tremble not knowing what to do.
"We have to go now!" Rhen yells at him, he grabs his brother's hand and pulls him up not wanting to lose his brother for he is the only family he has left.
Because of this, Azrel grits his teeth and managed to find the strength to go on, he knew that if he stays there, he will surely die a gruesome death.
Behind them, is a dark shadow sweeping across the forest. They couldn't shake the feeling that something sinister was lurking within it with an insatiable hunger. The void devours all that dares to cross its path, consuming not only the rocks and trees, but the very ground beneath it.
Like a ravenous beast, it engulfs everything in its dark abyss, leaving no trace in it's wake. The two brothers run with no destination in mind, all they want to do is to get away from it as fast as possible.
A pair of red human demonic eyes looms from beyond the shadow, they can hear the terrifying laughter of something as it gets closer by the scond.
Rhen doesn't know what it is, but whatever lurks behind him is something not of this world.
A few seconds pass, then minutes and then he starts to notice that despite running a good distance. They never left the woods as if they're are running around in circles.
Azrel runs there in silence, his gaze fixed straight ahead, lost in a world of his own. His eyes seemed distant, lifeless as if replaying a scene over and over again.
"Brother?" Rhen suspiciously calls out to him, but Azrel never responded, not even a single word.
Slowly, Rhen reaches out and touches Azrel's shoulders.
In an instant, he turns his face towards Rhen with dark ghastly eyes, dark as the void behind them.
"Ahh!" Statled, Rhen tumbles and falls on the ground, scraping his hands and knees.
Laying on the ground, he opens his eyes only to see his brother looking down at him with a pair of glowing red eyes and a grin so wide it looks eerily sadistic.
Rhen knew what is in front of him wasn't his brother, but a monster. It latches out, choking the life out of Rhen. It lifts him out with inhumane strength despite Rhen struggling.
"Guhh! Ga.s..p! Stttoop."
Rhen tries to shove it away, but the void starts to envelop everything around him until nothing is left.
The ground beneath Rhen gives way and he falls into a dark watery abyss, and he manages to kick it away. When he tried to gasps for air, he realizes he's underwater.
He tries to swim up, but without a source of light to guide him which way is up or down, he is helpless like being trapped in an enclosed space. Soon the urge to breathe takes over, he gasps and water filled his lungs drowning him into the abyss.
"GASP!"
...
Rhen's eyes open, his body drenched in sweat. Gasping for air, he struggled to catch his breath, his chest rising and falling rapidly. As his senses slowly returned, he became aware of his surroundings.
The power was out, casting the room into an inky darkness, and the once soothing hum of the air conditioning was absent. A drop of sweat trickled down Rhen's forehead with discomfort.
"Cazzo. (Fuck.)" He cursed, pressing his hand against his temples.
Just like last time, the nightmares felt far too real to be even called one. He looks around the room to find nothing out of the ordinary.
Rhen's eyes turn crimson as and scan the room again using his Magic Eye skill. With this skill, he detects traces of magic if there are any ghost-type monsters lurking about he can surely find it and kill it.
However, he finds nothing and heads to the kitchen for a glass of water to calm his nerves.
It's 3 am in the morning, and everywhere he looks, no soul is awake. The only noise he can hear outside are the dogs barking and waves crashing into the rocks beneath the resort.
Rhen let out a sigh and look at a mirror nearby, shaking his head at his vulnerability.
"What the hell is wrong with me, the greatest assassin my ass."
After drinking a glass of water, he heads back to the living room and sees a shadow shuffling behind the couch.
Startled, Rhen summons a blade in his hand but when he was ready to strike, he noticed it was a silhouette of a woman. She's standing there with her face covered in a veil of darkness. Despite not having a clear picture, it's someone Rhen knows very well, someone dear to him.
"Lena?" He muttered suspiciously.
Deep inside he knows it's not her, he knows she's is dead a millennia ago. Every fiber in his body tells him to fight back, to stab this unearthly creature with his weapon, or just throw a Fireball at it.
Instead, his heartthrobs in pain, longing for the woman he loved. Rhen walks closer trying to get a clear image, but at the same time cautious as to what this creature is.
Slowly, Her beautiful face unveils from the shadows as he gets closer. Her long beautiful purple locks just like how he remembers it.
"!!"
In an instant, he drops his weapon and it fades away into red and black particles or mana, he grab her by the shoulders and then holds her tightly in his arms. Tears run down Rhen's face as he felt her warmth on his chest.
"L-Lena, what happened, Hic! I have missed you so much hic!" Rhen can't stop himself from sobbing.
The pain and suffering he felt after losing her that night hit him all at once. On the outside, he is perceived are someone cold, calculative, and deadly. Now, he looks like a lost child weeping and crying at the loss of his partner.
"Hic! Sniff! I promise you, I will never let anything happen to you again."
A few seconds pass, and Rhen finally notices something isn't right, she isn't giving a reply, and her body went cold and limp.
"I something wrong?"
Rhen looks at her face only to see her glare at him with eyes as black as the void and a creepy grin, just like the one in his nightmares.
"Gah!" He pushes her away but she grabs his hand. Her strength is unreal, even stronger than Azrel's.
She opens her mouth and said something ghastly.
"It was you who killed me, Rhen." Her voice soft-spoken voice is overlapped by something sinister and demonic.
She cocks her head to the side with a grin as wide as a shark.
"I tried to save you! I never wanted it to happen that way!" Rhen retorted to the creature.
"Realy? do you want to remember, what happened that night?" The creature replied.
In an instant it drags him down under and Rhen's vision shifts into a dark rundown treehouse. He remembers this place as Lena's kitchen from many centuries ago. Lena used to cook her famous bland porridge in here.
In front of him is Lena with a large wound on her belly, her clothes are in taters. Her breasts and privates are exposed. Beside her are three dead chimeras, their heads are torned off by Rhen.
Rhen is sitting on top of her with his hands holding a bloodied kitchen knife.
"(Guh! Why is my body not moving)"
Try as he might, Rhen can't control his own body. He felt as if his hands being manipulated, no matter what he did, the muscles in his arms wont listen. Like a puppet, the creature raises his hand, ready to stab the still-breathing Lena.
The scene plays like how he remembers it back then, Lena is dying with no strength left in her.
She opens her mouth and musters every strength she has left to say a few words.
"I-I Love You."
That was the last word she spoke before Rhen pierced her heart with the knife.
"(Noooo!)" Rhen screamed in his mind, he tried to yank his hands out of the way, but it felt as if his mind is trapped in his own body.
He watches himself repeatedly stab her without remorse. Lena's face has an expression of glee as she watches her lover brutally murder her. Blood spurted from her chest and splashed onto her face and Rhen's
"(Stop it!!)" Rhen screamed again, his face would be in tears by now if it could.
When everything was over, Rhen stares at the reflection of his face from Lena's blood pooling underneath her lifeless body.
The thing that disturbed him the most is his face had the expression Wraith had when he was murdering your entire family, a creepy-eerie grin reaching up to his ears.
Suddenly, Lena's eyes snap open, and glares at Rhen.
"You killed me, Rhen, didn't you remember." This time, her voice is completely overshadowed by the creature.
Startled, Rhen jumps back, now able to control his body.
"You stabbed me again and again, I know you like it because." Lena stopped and paused for a moment before standing like a puppet on a string.
In an instant, she latches on to Rhen, pinning him against the rotting wall, her eyes red just like the creature. Its face is so close to Rhen with an evil grin.
"YOU HAVE THE SAME LOOK AS ME!!!"
It screamed right in front of Rhen with its cold and dry hands choking the life out of him.
"Rhen!"
He can barely hear something calling out from somewhere.
"Rhen!"
"Wake up!"
The creature whispered into Rhen's ear. "Where ever you will go, I will follow."
"Oi!"
"Wake up!"
*Slap!*
This time, Rhen wakes up for real.
...
*GASP!*
Rhen lets out the deepest gasp he had in his life. His pupils dilate and scans across the room only to see Azrel and Scarlet's worried faces.
Slowly, Rhen touched his pained cheek from where Azrel slapped him.
"W-what happened?" Rhen asked meekly.
"That's what I want to know." His brother asked worryingly.
"We can hear you screaming and yelling from the other side of the apartment. We tried to get in, but your room is locked." Azrel added.
"That's odd, I never locked the room."
There is a moment of silence between them as Rhen tries to piece together what's happening.
Scarlet sits at Rhen's side wearing nothing but her night gown.
"H-hey are you okay?" She too has a concerned look on her face, her crimson eyes shine brightly in the dimly lit room.
Rhen cast his gaze down without an answer. He wanted to explain what happened, but he has no answers to give as to what is happening to him.
Azrel holds Rhen over his shoulders "Look, brother. I don't know what's happening to you, but we need to talk about it." Azrel's face is serious, it looks like he's not leaving unless Rhen tells him everything.
Rhen struggles to find strength even with speaking the simplest of words, but he tells them everything that happened, starting from what happened at night when you are in the brothel.
However, when it came to the part where he stabbed Lena, his lips quivered and didn't spoke of it as this was too painful for him to reminisce.
Rhen blames himself for everything to himself for what transpired on that fateful night. If he was just stronger, faster, and smarter. It would never go that way and Lena would still be alive to this day.
Azrel notices Rhen's hesitation and wishes to change to subject.
"You're not taking anything right?" Azrel asked.
Rhen shakes his head. "No! I don't do drugs, and I'm not under a spell as well."
Being a licensed physician, Azrel thinks that Rhen has some sort of mental trauma causing him to act this way especially the part where he left out the details.
He turns towards Scarlet and asks her to go back to their room.
"Sorry Scarly, me and Rhen are going to talk, can you go back to the room?"
"O-okay."
Scarlet is usually gossipy about people's problems, but this time, she understands the gravity of the situation just from the tone of Azrel's voice.
"Just call me if you need me." She added.
After giving Scarlet a kiss on the lips, Azrel turns his attention to Rhen.
"How about we go for a walk." He said with a soft smile on his lips.
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[Tell him you're not weak]
[Politely refuse his offer]
[Go for a walk with your brother]
-
"Alright, lead the way."