Pain. Faint and distant, like a memory surfacing from the depths of a dark ocean.
Was I even alive?
The void surrounded me, thick and suffocating. Its cold, unyielding embrace held me in weightless limbo. My thoughts were fragments, scattered, and unreachable. No memories, no sense of time or place. Just the endless pull of darkness, vast and consuming.
Am I dead? Is this what death feels like?
A whisper, soft and insistent, brushed against the edges of my mind. I couldn't make out the words, but the intent was clear.
Let go. Sleep eternal. Let go.
The thought coiled around me, tempting and sweet. It offered peace, and release from the emptiness. I wanted to surrender, to let the void take me. Yet something lingered—a heaviness in my chest. A growing ache that refused to be ignored.
The pain wasn't gone; it was waiting, creeping into the corners of my awareness. It built slowly, pulling me out of the void, dragging me toward something far worse than the numbness of oblivion.
The pain sharpened. Hot. Wet. It burned inside me, moving, tearing. Something scraped against the flesh, a grotesque, alien sensation.
Tearing at me. What...? I tried to think, to grasp the slippery threads of understanding, but my thoughts were sluggish, each one a fragile whisper. All I could do was feel.
There was a tug—a sharp, sickening pull—and then the unmistakable sensation of something warm spilling out of me. The sound followed: a thick, wet slurping noise, grotesque and nauseating.
The fog in my mind lifted, and I wished it hadn't. The horror clawed at the edges of my vision, forcing me awake.
Shapes swam before me, blurry and shifting in dim light. My vision cleared slowly, dragging me back into a world I didn't want to see.
The sound hit me first. The low, guttural slurp of something feeding. Flesh tearing. The gnawing sensation deep in my stomach, sharper now, made my breath hitch.
My eyes drifted down, and my body froze.
Crunch, slurp
An abomination crouched over me. Its massive, grotesque form hunched low as it tore into my abdomen with ravenous hunger. Dark, mottled skin clung to an emaciated frame like withered leather stretched over jagged bone. Its face—gods, its face—was a twisted nightmare. A jagged, malformed maw stretched unnaturally wide, dripping with blood—my blood.
Its claws dug deep into my torn flesh, pulling at the shredded remains of my insides. I felt the wet heat of my own blood pooling around me, soaking into the ground.
I couldn't breathe. My chest tightened as I stared, paralyzed by terror. The creature feasted on me, oblivious to my horror, each bite sending a fresh wave of cold, burning agony through my broken body. Each pull sent another wave of cold, burning agony through my body, but I was too weak to scream
The voice whispered again, faint and alluring.
Why fight? Let go and sleep peacefully.
I wanted to listen. Wanted to surrender to the comforting pull of the void. The sensation of being eaten alive should have been unbearable, but there was only a dull, distant throb and it dragged me back to reality, sharper and more insistent with every passing moment.
As I started regaining my senses the smell hit me next, iron and bile, thick in the air, mingling with the stench of decay. I could taste it in the back of my throat, the rancid odor of death and rot, mingled with the coppery tang of my own blood. I wanted to gag, but I couldn't even manage that. My body refused to obey, paralyzed by fear and weakness.
The monster's head lifted slightly, jaws still working, chewing on the flesh it had torn from me. It turned its eyes toward me, and my blood ran colder. Its eyes were dirty yellowish, locked onto mine. There was no intelligence, no glimmer of sentience–just raw, primal hunger.
There was no recognition in that gaze. No malice. No thought. Just raw, primal hunger.
To it, I wasn't a person. I was just meat.
My mind urged me to move, to fight, but my limbs were leaden, numb. I couldn't feel my legs, couldn't lift my arms. I tried to cry out, but only a weak, gurgling breath escaped, wet and feeble. Blood filled my throat, choking me. Helpless, I watched as it sank its teeth into me again, the crunch of bone and sinew echoing in my ears.
I was dying. Slowly. Painfully.
Maybe I should just let go.
The thought whispered through me, tempting and persistent. The voice in my mind urged surrender, sweet and relentless.
Let go… Let it end.
But as the sweet voice called to me, something else stirred.
A flicker of light. A memory.
A boy stood before me. His face pale, streaked with blood and dirt, chest heaving with ragged breaths. He was terrified. His wide eyes, filled with desperation, stared into mine.
I felt his fear as if it were my own, a sickening knot twisting in my gut.
And then—pierced.
The boy's chest exploded, a dark bony monstrous hand plunging through his ribcage. Claws wrapped around his heart, still beating frantically like a caged animal. Blood gushed, splattering the ground.
His lips parted in a silent cry. His terrified eyes dulled, losing the light of life in a heartbeat. His body crumpled like a broken doll as the monster yanked its hand free, holding the heart aloft like a twisted prize.
No!
The weight of the memory crushed me, grief and guilt tearing through my chest. I knew that boy. Knew him deeply, though his name was lost in the haze of my broken mind. All I could feel was the unbearable ache of his death.
I knew that boy. I knew him. But... who was he? Why did his loss feel like it was ripping me apart?
The monster tore into me again, but the pain seemed distant now, overshadowed by the memory. The boy's lifeless body, the monstrous hand gripping his heart like a trophy—it burned behind my eyes, an image I couldn't escape. My mind spun, unraveling, grasping for something–anything–that could explain why his death struck me so deeply, why my heart felt like it was shattering.
Why? The word echoed through the hollow spaces of my mind, unanswered.
Who was he? Why am I crying for him?
I couldn't let go. Not now. Not yet. There was something I needed to remember, something vital my heart clung to with its final beats. The voice urging me to let go was wrong.
I couldn't–not until I…
The question pounded in my skull, louder, demanding an answer. But the memory was slipping away, dissolving like mist, leaving only fragments–his face, the claws, the blood-soaked ground. I tried to hold on, but the details blurred, darkness creeping at the edges of my vision.
No. I have to remember. I have to.
The voice in my mind–the one urging me to let go–was still there, but different now. Softer, sweeter, trying to comfort me.
It's better to let go... to sleep... it whispered. You don't need to remember. You don't need to feel this pain. Just let go, and it will all end...
My heart thundered, each beat sending waves of heat and anger through me.
Fragments of memory flickered–faces, names, flashes of light and shadow.
Mom... Aria... Aunt Nora... Each sent a jolt through me, but they weren't enough. I needed more. I needed to remember everything. My heart pounded faster, refusing to give in.
Who am I? Why can't I remember…aghhhh!
Edward.
The name struck me like lightning, sharp and painful, searing through the fog. Edward–my friend. His face flashed before me, vivid and clear, as if he stood right there. I saw him laughing, messy hair falling into his eyes, that mischievous grin.
And then... blood. His chest was torn open, a monstrous hand gripping his heart before ripping it free. I had watched him die.
As that grief built, so did something else. It swelled within me, a powerful presence refusing to be silenced.
The memory of Edward's death shattered, falling away like broken glass. In its place, a new memory surged forward, burning bright.
The sky... shattering.
I could see it so clearly now like I was living it all over again. The world above me cracked, the sky itself splitting apart like fragile glass, and beyond it… an eye.
A titanic, monstrous eye, so vast that it seemed to swallow the heavens. It peered down at me, unblinking, its gaze freezing everything in its path.
The air grew heavy, the ground trembled, and the world itself seemed to hold its breath under the weight of that gaze…
It wasn't just a look, it was a judgment, an all-consuming stare that pierced through flesh and bone, straight to the core of my being.
But along with the terror came a name.
Alexis.
My name.
Alexis Artoria Drakesier.
The moment I remembered, The floodgates opened. Memories surged forward, chaotic and overwhelming. Faces and voices.
Mom... Ari... Aunt Nora... Edward... Alice...Their names burned into me, each one a spark in the suffocating void.
Edward is dead.
The grief threatened to consume me, but from its depths, something else rose. A seething, violent hatred.
My eyes snapped to the monster still tearing into my flesh, its maw smeared with my blood.
The world around me trembled. The air crackled with energy, heavy and suffocating as if reality itself bent under the weight of my fury. The monster froze, claws still buried in me, its hollow eyes locking onto mine.
It sensed the change, the power building around me. For the first time, I saw hesitation flicker across its grotesque face.
But it was too late.
The rage erupted, exploding outward in a violent wave. The ground shook, and the monster was flattened by the surge, reduced to nothing but flesh and blood.
The power EXIRA as I remembered faded as quickly as it had come, leaving me drained, empty. My vision blurred, and I could feel my body collapsing, the strength leaving me as quickly as it had come. I hit the ground hard, my limbs numb, my mind spinning. Darkness crept in at the edges of my vision, pulling me down into the void once more.
But this time, I didn't fight it. As the world slipped away, The last thing I thought before the darkness claimed me was their names, whispered like a prayer.
Mom… Ari… Edward…