Standing in front of Bryce, was the despicable Ericson Goldsteam or commonly known as "Eric" who was holding Miss Lily hostage. He never thought that he would see Eric's face so soon but this clearly wasn't the real world either. Nevertheless, he would overcome it with his life at stake.
Eric held Lily firmly in his arms as the gunpoint positioned at her head, threatening to kill her if the blonde one were to get close to him. Bryce personally found the situation to be cliche. He never once thought about Miss Lily being a damsel in distress and he would come to the rescue like some typical hero. One would have such fantasy with someone whom they loved very much. He however, felt painful and anguished by the sight. It was cruel to be reminded once more of the woman taken away from him, separated forever after.
"If you know how to be a nice boy, don't come closer. Or else this woman will have it."
"You condescending fuck..." He grunted, the wrinkles on his face displayed sheer irritation.
"Ha, what can you do now? You might have a chance if you don't possess such weakness like this woman here."
"Please... Bryce, don't worry about me and just go... I don't want to endanger you..." Lily pleaded as she showed visible sadness.
He did not expect much from a bastard, but what Eric just said had striked some nerves. The woman who helped him when he needed her, comforted him when he felt down, stayed by his side when he needed someone... was referred to as nothing but a mere burden? Unacceptable, truly unacceptable. This bastard who was only good at cowering behind his ego had bitten far too much than he could chew.
Every human had a limit on certain things, but were they to bottle up too much, it would cause a sheer imbalance in one's mentallity. The chalice of peace would be flooded with immense eruption, every bit of liquid threatening to break free from its container. At this very moment, the rain had already dipped his body wet yet something in him was about to leak.
"Ahahaha! Speechless huh? Or are you feeling powerless against me?" Eric chuckled. "That's right, I'm leagues above you and you should have never showed off that talent. It was your fault to make people thing that you are the better."
"Well... they weren't wrong now that I think about it." He grinned.
"What? What's with that face?"
Bryce proceed to walk closer, ignoring the bastard threatening him with the gunpoint. He than stopped on his track, looking at his beloved woman as they were only meters away from each other.
"Miss Lily, I have one request." He let out a sigh. "Could you please tell me that you love me, even if it's a lie?"
"My child, you have always held a place in my heart. From the day I found you, I knew that I must take care of you and and teach you about the homecoming warmth." She blushed slightly.
"Then..."
"Yes, I do love you." She smiled gently.
"That's good to hear. I will save you now."
With a knife in hand, Bryce stabbed Lily on her torso before Eric could pull the trigger. This time, he had won't. The bastard wouldn't get to torment him any longer. He looked at the womanly body crumbling slowly to the ground, tears came out of his eyes.
"Farewell, Lily..."
He wiped his face while holding the bloody knife in his hand, then shifted attention to the panicking bastard. Every step he mad was filled with the bitterness of heavy dread. Even though he could no longer be with Lily, seeing her one last time in an unreal world pleased his heart, for a bit at least. The presence of the man he hated must be dealt with. Before getting revenge for real, at least he could enjoy the trial version of what would come in the future.
"Don't you dare come here! I have a gun! There's nothing you can-"
"See if I care."
Bryce kneeled down and took one of Lily's heels and threw in at Eric's face. The bastard dodged, of course. But he let got distracted, allowing the blonde to stab his body. Tmanth had his weapon taken as well as tackled on the ground by a young lad. Bryce wouldn't simply end it there. He used metal bars to pin the man's limbs on the floor, starting with his right arm.
"PLEASE STOP! THAT HURTS!" Eric panickingly pleaded.
"You never stopped inflicting pain on me so why the hell should I?"
Pressing the pointy tip of a bar downward, Bryce ruthlessly crushed the bone supporting his right wrist. He proceed to go get another bar for the second pinning. Eric tried to reach out for his gun with the left arm while Bryce was away. Unnfortunately for the struggling man though, Bryce came back and decided to give his left arm the attention it needed by directly crushing the bones inside it with impalement.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!"
Eric screamed even louder than before, his face gone red as his muscles tensed up due to the sudden invasion of pain on his left hand.
"That's it. Scream with all your efforts as I rip away what was once yours. For every bit of pain you gave me for two goddamned years, I will repay it all."
Bryce picked up yet another metal bar, the next fountain of blood would be on the left leg, right above the foot. He aimed the tip at the lower part of Eric's leg and pierced through the cracking bones. The bastard once again screamed forcefully, not getting enough break for his lung between screams.
Bryce kept on ruthlessly delivering pain on Eric's left leg, tempering with the broken bones by the tip of the bar. His face was etched with ethereal satisfaction, even thought only for a brief moment. Would Lily hate him for this if she saw it from the afterlife? No matter, it was something that had to be done. The bastard ruined her chance to enjoy the remaining time she had in life. Something or someone had to make it fair, Bryce had volunteered to be that very one who would brought Eric's life to ruin.
Going on with the final bar in hand, he crushed the bones located on the similar position on the bastard's right leg. At this point, screaming was all Eric could do. He felt powerless against the lad's ruthlessness that he never displayed in the past. Even so, Bryce do not forget this world was simply something unreal so he chose to enjoy as much as he could before going back to reality for real.
Bryce took out the knife he stabbed the Lily of this world with, the blood that drenched the blade had dried. Then he kneeled next to the Eric still struggling with the echoing pain on his limbs, proceeding to cut his heart open. The whole session was filled with restless groaning of agony, the bastard became overwhelmed with the endless pain. Then there he saw it, Bryce gripping his exposed heart with force and crushed it into an erupting ball of blood. At the same time, Eric felt like closing his eyelids as he was too occupied with feeling pain to say anything at all.
Bryce stood up, his hands drenched with blood which was once someone's heart, reduced into a messy lump of flesh. Without able to control this world due to it not entirely something deprived from his mind, Bryce stabbed himself in the heart. He started coughing up blood as he crumbled onto the ground, lying right next to his dead adversary. A smile creeped up on his face, hoping to finally get his revenge in the real world.
His eyelids closed, his consciousness exited the semi-real world.
...
Bryce's consciousness activated itself, he felt dust on his body. Slowly, he pulled himself together and woke up. He saw a tree next to him, slowly withering away as an apple on one of its brached landed conveniently on his hand. Finally, the tree disintegrated and its remains was mixed into the air, vanishing right in front of his eyes.
He guess it was the seed that somehow revived him. He checked his body again, indeed there was no wounds on his body as expected. He noticed two dry corpses nearby, possibly belonged to two of Eric's men. Perhaps the lost of blood on his body was solved thanks to their demise. Miraculously, the seed turned into a tree and sent him into his own mind while his body was recovering. That was all he concluded from the experience.
There were only two questions in mind after coming back to the real world. Which were the motives of the crazy prisoner before and the purpose of the apple on his hand. The tree dropped it on his hand before completely withering away, meaning that the apple was meant for him. Still, it only looked similar to an apple but with a darker red and some weird symbols on the outer.
His belly started growing, hunger came back to him. He almost forgot about it due to being in his mindscape for a tad too long. With no better choice, he ate the apple. After all, he got resurrected by some mysterious tree. What could go wrong?
He ended up jinxed himself, a sharp pain ran across his nerves. He felt on the ground, wriggling his body in desperation to fought the overwhelming sensation.
'God! What is this sensasion? Is it... karma? NO! I did it fair, that bastard started it first! I can't die here! I must have my revenge! Stop mistreating me and Miss Lily, it's down right... UNFAIR!'
After about five minutes, the pain went away. Bryce panted in relief, tempted to know why fate had to put him through all the things in his mind yet the apple had to be poisonous. He sat up, the only good thing was that his hunger was dealt with. Looking back he had to admit that all that was intense. Perhaps it was fair that he got brought back from the death in exchange for a near-death challenge. His wording ended up making it sound hilarious, such was the flow of life.
He moved his feet, walking on the lonesome part. Suddenly, he realized the sensation of something being embedded on his body. He pulled the cloth only to see a cryptic writting in strange symbols, similar to the apple he ate.