A misty, frost-like pupil flared to life.
My eyes moved as i scanned my surrounding with unwavering precision. Shattered glass glistened under the dim light, stained windows told stories long forgotten, and cobblestones, cold and unforgiving , grounded me in the painful truth.
This was real. It wasn't an illusion.
It had never been.
A wave of anguish surged through me- not physical pain but a searing ache that resonated deep within my heart to the depths of his soul. I wished, more than anything, for this dream. This nightmare to dissolve, for someone to shake me awake and pull me from the suffocating grip of this endless darkness.
But there was no waking up from this.
No salvation. There w-as... nothing.
My breath shuddered as a bitter laugh forced its way out. The sound, hollow and raw, as it echoed in the silence.
"Hahahahaha!"
I now knew the cold truth, yet somewhere deep down within me. I still wanted to cling onto that thread of hope, wishing it all to be nothing more than a mere hallucination.
Yet the more i pondered on it, the more i realized how stupid my hopes were.
I had also said it myself.
Having hope in this wretched and cursed land is no different from handing one's soul over to the devil.
I laughed, a bitter and hollow laugh as my knees buckled, the weight of the events sinking in as i collapsed onto my knees, the cobblestones beneath me felt the pain. The agony, and the faint hope that reverberated through every fiber of my being.
Tears came freely now, and so did his sobs. The weight of despair pressed down with unrelenting force as tears came unbidden, hot trails tracing the lines of my face.
I wished everything to be fake. How i hoped it never happened. How i wished he had never met Garren. I wished... on so many things, and despite the fact that i knew none of them would come true.
I still couldn't help but hold tightly onto them. I didn't want to believe it. What i had just gone through- Garren's betrayal.
...I really wished it had never happened.
There and then, It felt as though something within me had broken as i finally understood why despair and desperation are one of the strongest emotions.
They would claw at your heart, slam against the walls of your mind and chew you from the inside out.
Leaving nothing but a hollow darkness behind.
I laughed, a crazy laughter. My eyes now devoid of any warmth.
And as I rose to my feet. My legs shook, tears falling freely from my eyes. Yet i rose to my feet. A man can be beaten but a man can never allow himself to be broken.
I couldn't.
For once, i tried to look through the abyss of endless despair and agony.
I tried to peer through them and glimpse onto something useful. And the truth was Garren was a great mentor. Perhaps not a family nor a friend.
But as a mentor, Garren had gone far and beyond. He had gone as high as the mountains in the north could stretch. He had taught me what i would have otherwise never known or perhaps spent years knowing.
Garren, traitor though he was, had taught me survival- how to reset bones, discern safe food from poisons and navigate the cruel terrains of this cursed land. Lessons that now felt like bitter gifts.
"Thank you," I whispered, the words tasting sour and bitter.
I realized then that betrayal was not the end but a lesson. Trust was the greatest danger of all, and i would never forget it.
I wouldn't.
With newfound resolve, i rose to my feet, the trembling of my legs ignored, down to the pain that rippled through me. To the hollowness, the despair and the desperation that tightened around my chest like a vice.
Tears still tracked down my face but they no longer defined me. My eyes were now sharpened, focused on the only thing that mattered now- survival and escaping from it.
There and then, memory resurfaced on my final moments with Garren- The Amaraith.
How did i know its name?
No, i don't just know the name.
My pulse quickened, as understanding dawned on me amidst the ominous familiarity that clutched onto my mind.
...Amaraiths- born from the fractured emotions of a forgotten goddess who wept over a betrayal so profound, it splintered her essence into beings capable of embodying emotions.
From their ability to emotionally bond with their victims, to their mask that emits positive aura to the Durakxis saturation trigger.... The Heart clutch ritual and finally the supernatural metamorphosis.
I knew them all!
Slowly, the hidden pieces and clues fell together, falling and morphing into something wholesome.
Durakxis!!
Durakxis!!!
It echoed within my mind, hitting hard and fast, brutal and unforgiving even. My eyes went blank for a second there, tears threatening to fall from my eyes.
There! I had been given the most cryptic warnings.
Yet it said it all. It was short, cryptic even.
But it revealed it all.
It said it all, and yet, i had failed to catch what i- the past me had thrown at me.
I got blinded by hope.
By a desperate want for companionship.
For a family to call mine.
My eyes grew moist and red as tears streamed down the corner of my eyes. Falling freely onto the hardened cobblestones beneath me. Soft and subtle, they carried emotions better left hidden.
Emotions better left alone.
But even after all this, i still wished for them. I yearned so much for them. And really, was it too much to ask for?
...Was it!
Tears and sobs broke into the desolate atmosphere, the endless darkness my only source of comfort in this wretched and cursed land.
My knees threatened to buckle under the weight that sank onto me.
Yet i refused to fall.
I refused to be broken.
I have always been able to overcome every single obstacle thrown my way, and this one would be no exception. This wouldn't be any different from the rest. No matter what it takes, not only will i succeed, i will find a way.
...Find a way to leave this wretched and cursed land.
No matter what it takes me.
I will leave this wretched land.
A faint and weak smile that promises tales of unimaginable horror and mystery slowly unfurled within this small desolate corner of the world.
...I forced a laughter, the endless despair and sorrow sinking into the ground beneath my feet.
Layers of weird surging flames burning them from within me.
I would be free! Free from the shackles of emotions. Free from pain and agony. I want to be free from them all.
I hate them.
They were painful.
Agonizing.
They were just too much to take in.
I wanted them to stop.
I want them to all come to an end.
And i will do anything to get rid of every single one of them.
...I will.
With clenched hands and hardened resolve, I stepped into the endless darkness before him as my mind raced with frantic thoughts.
Ways to defeat the Amaraith.
Yet all except one fell into a bottomless abyss of unending failure.
It soon dawned on me. I only had a way to win this battle.
A single way of attaining a seemingly impossible victory!
I have to find an object imbued with an unbreakable promise or emotion.
And i would find it, no matter what it takes me.
I will.
I have to.
There is no other way around it.
Either I find it or i stays stuck in this unending cycle of pain and agony.
And i had rather do everything in my prowess to find this object than go through everything all over again.
My eyes blazed with a flicker of determination, heart pounding hard and fast as i dashed into the distance, untouched by the illusory forces that permeate the very corners of the haunted house.
I bolted out of the house into the endless darkness beyond as the space behind me morphed and warped until the haunted house receded into the endless darkness beneath it.
Yet i didn't stop as i raced towards an uncertain future.
...I didn't stop.
Not even to glance back.
I couldn't.