Kin lay on the floor, tears streaming down his face, as wave after wave of foreign memories assaulted his mind. The images were too vivid, too raw, as though he was truly living through each unbearable moment.
They weren't his memories, yet they flooded his senses with a crushing reality. His head throbbed with relentless pain, but it was nothing compared to the agony twisting through his heart.
He saw his siblings, each one dying before his eyes, their faces twisted in terror and pain. He felt the weight of their loss pressing down on him, their screams a constant, harrowing echo in his ears. He was forced to live each death, to feel the horror, the despair, the helplessness, as if it were his own life being torn apart.
And then came the last memory, more horrifying than any before. He was standing in a cold, dark cave, the air thick with the metallic stench of blood. His little sister, barely fifteen, clung to him with what strength she had left.
Her small body was broken, her left arm severed, the jagged wound still oozing blood, soaking through the remains of her tattered clothes. She pressed herself against him, her one remaining arm wrapped around his waist, her body trembling like a leaf in the wind.
"Brother…" Her voice was barely a whisper, fragile and broken, slipping between breaths that grew shallower with each passing moment. Blood dribbled from the corner of her mouth, and her eyes, once filled with the innocence of childhood, were now clouded with agony. "Brother… I can't feel my hand… I… I can't feel anything…"
"Rei…" Kin's voice cracked, thick with desperation and fear, as he tried to shield her from the shadows creeping closer. He raised his sword, the weight of it unbearable, the blade slick with the blood of creatures he could neither name nor understand. He could feel her shivering against his back, her tiny body wracked with pain, and he knew ... he knew ...
he was failing her ...
In the darkness, the creatures advanced. They moved with an inhuman grace, their forms twisted and nightmarish, eyes gleaming with an unholy hunger. Each step they took brought them closer, their claws scraping against the stone, making noises that tore through his soul. Kin's hands shook as he raised the sword, the blade trembling in his grip.
"I'm sorry… I'm so sorry, Rei…" he whispered, the words breaking as they left his lips. He swung the sword desperately, each strike filled with a frantic, hopeless energy. Blood splattered across his face, warm and sticky, but he barely noticed, his entire world had narrowed down to the fight, the creatures, and the fragile, dying sister at his back.
He could hear her breaths growing weaker, each one a struggle that tore at his heart. "Hang on, Rei," he pleaded, his voice ragged and raw. "Just a little longer… I'll protect you… I'll keep them away, I promise… I won't let them touch you." But her silence was like a knife twisting in his gut, and with each second that passed, his fear deepened.
"Rei?" he called, panic clawing at him as he kept swinging, cutting down anything that dared to approach. "Rei! Please, say something! Please…" He couldn't bear to look back, afraid of what he might see, terrified of the silence that wrapped around them like a shroud. His sword grew heavier with each swing, his arms burning with exhaustion as he fought to keep going.
"Brother…" Her voice came again, softer than a breath, fading into the shadows. "Brother… help… it's dark ... brother .. hel ..p .."
Her words were like shards of glass, cutting through his heart, each one more painful than the last. Desperate, he screamed her name, his voice breaking and echoing through the cave. "Rei! Rei! Stay with me! Don't leave me! Please, I'm right here, I'm right here ..."
But the darkness swallowed her voice, snuffing out the last light in his world. He felt her grow cold against him, her weight becoming unbearably still. The creatures continued their assault, biting and clawing, but he no longer cared.
He turned, his sword falling from his hands, his knees hitting the blood-slicked stone as he gathered her tiny, lifeless form into his arms.
Her face was pale, her eyes closed as though she had simply fallen into a peaceful sleep. But the blood still stained her cheeks, and her lips, once quick to smile, were now motionless and cold. Her one remaining hand, which had clung to him so tightly, now lay limp on the ground.
"No…" The word tore from his throat, a raw, broken sob that shattered the stillness of the cave. "No, no, no… I'm sorry, Rei… I'm so, so sorry… Your brother is useless… I failed you…" His voice crumbled into desperate, choking gasps as he held her close, cradling her as if his warmth could somehow bring her back. His tears fell onto her bloodstained cheeks, mixing with the darkness around them.
The creatures kept clawing at his back, but he didn't care. Pain was nothing compared to the emptiness in his chest.
He rocked back and forth, clutching Rei's lifeless body as his sobs echoed through the cavern, each one more hollow than the last.
He whispered her name over and over, as if somehow, through sheer force of will, he could bring her back. "I'm sorry, Rei… I'm so sorry…"
Back on the floor of his apartment, Kin lay crying, clutching his head. His body trembled, his chest heaving, his heart shattered into a thousand broken pieces. The image of her face was seared into his mind, painfully vivid.
He couldn't save her.
"I'm sorry…" he whispered into the darkness, his voice barely audible, lost in the emptiness surrounding him. "Rei, I'm sorry… I'm so, so sorry…"
He curled into himself on the cold floor, his tears soaking into his clothes. The only sound that filled the room was his own broken sobbing, echoing in the stillness of the night.