Vikram gulped as he gazed at the 2D pixelated hero's sword pointing at him. Even though 2D figures couldn't point to the third dimension, the heroic character inside the game somehow could.
The Holy and Virtuous sword, familiar to Vikram throughout the game, was nowhere to be seen. It had been replaced with a baleful and demonic sword, its bloody aura illuminating the entire blood-red sky and the crimson moon.
"You are the One," suddenly, the voice that grated echoed throughout the room from the TV. The blood-red iris of the hero stared into his soul, making him feel as though he lay naked in front of those eldritch eyes.
Suddenly, he saw a virtual screen with a little red-filled bar. Vikram was confused, to say the least. But when he saw what was written at the top of the bar, a sense of dread seemed to immobilize his body.
[Pain: ▢▢▢▢▢▢]
The feeling of terror only increased when he realized he could not move, even if he wanted to. It was as if his entire body was stuck in place, suspended in space.
His heart pounded out of his chest as he felt his head move on its own. His head tilted upwards a little, and his mouth opened slowly. Slowly but surely, he realized that his opening mouth showed no sign of stopping.
Vikram's mouth stretched wider and wider, and slowly he felt the pain surpass what his mouth could handle. When he felt pain, he noticed the white bar with a little red fill moving. The light red color advanced as it slowly devoured the white.
Vikram's mouth seemed to stretch to the limit as his incoherent struggles and gasps filled the room. Even though his body was under the control of another being, his voice seemed to belong to him alone.
The incoherent struggles and gasping intensified as the eldritch force opening Vikram's mouth showed no signs of stopping. Vikram's mind teetered on the edge of horror and pain, utterly helpless and confused about what was happening.
Vikram's skin and bones stretched to their limits as the force seemed adamant on testing how much Vikram's body could endure. However, the human body was but a fragile vessel housing something profound.
The red bar increased in quantity and became a much darker shade, filling almost 20% of the white bar. But Vikram disagreed with the bar. His entire body and mind screamed in pure pain as his mouth stretched beyond what he thought was possible.
Finally, Vikram's jaw seemed to give up.
*CRACK*
A cracking sound resonated in the now dark blue-themed room. Blinded by pain and agony, the incoherent struggles, gasps, and moans intensified. Even though Vikram's body didn't budge an inch, his gasps and moans revealed his pitiful state.
Finally, the extended broken jaw came to a halt. Vikram looked at the 'pain meter' gradually going down. Vikram didn't know why, but he felt existential dread as he looked at the ominous red color slowly filling the white bar.
He felt that the moment the red color completely overwhelmed the white bar, something ominous would happen to him. So, he desperately wanted to keep it at a manageable level.
Vikram had thought this joke of a paranormal activity would come to an end. Even though he was in mind-bending pain, he still snickered to himself that this was good material for an exorcism movie.
Just as Vikram predicted, as he took the situation lightly and even joked about it, the red ominous color seemed to have no choice but to recede.
He was the self-alleged greatest treasure of humanity! It was a given that he would keep his head in the game even if he was in this sort of eldritch situation!
But Vikram's humor came to an end as he felt something entering his mouth. The red ominous bar was shooting up as Vikram felt a hand entering his mouth.
His spine stiffened and chilled as he wished he could scream in pain, but not even moans of pain escaped his vicinity. He felt like some laboratory rat waiting for its demise.
Vikram's eyes turned bloodshot due to the pain, and tears streamed down his face. The 'hand' was going inside Vikram's mouth, and each second was excruciating for him, akin to a helpless child.
Vikram's face, always adorned with arrogance, displayed a pathetic blend of despair and dread. His snot leaked from his nose as he tried his best to scream for anyone to save him from this wretched fate.
But those pleas were for naught as the 'hand' slowly descended deeper and deeper. The pain was unimaginable, and the ominous red was hell-bent on completely overwhelming the white bar, almost covering 80% of it.
Vikram had a premonition that the ominous red bar was becoming stronger when he saw it almost completely dominate the white bar. His mind reeled as he tried his best to ignore the hand reaching into his stomach.
His esophagus was enlarging to accommodate the invisible hand, but the stretching of his mouth brought immense agony to Vikram.
'What did I do to deserve this?' Vikram's heart screamed with injustice and despair to the heavens.
The invisible hand came to a stop.
But as if to mock Vikram, the hand burst out of the esophagus and grabbed hold of Vikram's heart.
As the invisible hand mercilessly tore Vikram's heart from his chest, an indescribable and intense wave of pain engulfed him. Contrary to the expected outcome, Vikram found himself in an utterly surreal and nightmarish state of existence, an unwilling witness to the grotesque scene of his own pulsating heart suspended mid-air before him.
The ominous red meter stood unrelentingly at 95%, a harbinger of the imminent and catastrophic threat looming over Vikram. Amidst the pain that seemed to bend his brain, Vikram really didn't want to give up.
Deep within, he harbored an instinctive knowledge that when the red meter reached 100%, it would signify his death.
Aware that the only path for the red meter to recede was through diversion from the searing pain, Vikram instinctively turned to humor, much like the previous situation.
Containing the pain that was coursing through his body, Vikram pressed on with a different line of expression, determined to keep the ominous red from completely dominating the white bar.
"Well, if you want my heart, you could have just asked, right?" He said, and if he had time to pay any attention, he would have surely cringed.
To his astonishment, the red meter exhibited a slight retraction in response. Buoyed by this unexpected development, he just couldn't crack another joke, because his heart started to move.
But he constantly tried to distract his mind from the pain that seemed to overwhelm him.
As Vikram's words echoed in his mind, the red meter seemed to waver, caught between the dark intent and Vikram's attempts at a different form of engagement. It became a strange tug-of-war between dread and a touch of whimsy.
Miraculously, this shift in tone managed to sway the balance, and the red meter began to recede, inching away from the ominous 95% mark.