***
'...Man. I've really been through it, huh?
Drifting above them all was Malik, just a flicker of a soul no one could see.
His thoughts were a mess.
No more than ten seconds ago, he was in there.
Thinking. Doing. Reliving. Embodying.
He wasn't just watching his past self—he was him.
Dying, dying, dying… over and over and over.
It was Hell. A Hell he knew. A Hell he 'remembered.'
And like an idiot, he thought that he was ready for it.
Thought he could handle it because he'd already lived through it once.
Yeah, no. That was a joke.
Knowing something? That's easy. 'Remembering' it? Painful, but still manageable.
Living it again?
Feeling every punch, every scream, every heartbreak like it was brand new?
That was a whole different beast.
He was there, even in the moments they didn't see, the ones that weren't part of the 'show.'
