Darkness….
It was the absence of light, a very fundamental aspect of human day-to-day life.
Alaric has always found it a mystery; he has only ever experienced it when he shuts his eyes close. He could only ever visualize the concept when his eyelids closed.
He has a very special eye, for as long as he could remember, he could see details that others tend to ignore; he could make out precise details of things in the night, making him oblivious to the weight of darkness.
This pair of eyes also came with other benefits that made his life during his first life on earth very easy, too easy. It made him lazy, adding to his already numb emotions. He was a walking disaster just waiting to happen, and happen it did.
With these eyes, darkness never bothered him, so he lived his life without truly experiencing it.
So, there he was now, in a cold 'pit' with his ragged clothes and dry skin, lying on the ground on his back, now fully experiencing a never-ending darkness; he had experienced it during the carriage ride before, but that was not his focus at the time. Right now, left with only his thoughts for comfort, he could experience the whole meaning of darkness, the absence of light.
His eyes were not covered; that much he had already concluded. The only parts that were physically restrained were his limbs. It felt as though he had been disconnected from his eyes completely. He instinctively knew that if something were to land on his eyes right now, he wouldn't feel a thing.
If it were any other 5-year-old going through what he had and still currently experiencing, they would be scared to death, but Alaric was calm and indifferent as ever. It had only been 4hours since he was thrown in this pit, he hadn't had anything to eat for days now, and he was famished. The weird thing about this world he was reincarnated in is that people don't get hungry easily; they could go for a day or two without getting hungry.
Right now, though, Alaric was feeling deprived of food and full at the same time. It felt as though his brain was trying to convince his body that everything was alright. During the past hour or so, his body would randomly twitch at the height of hunger, before calming down, and the feeling of hunger would then reduce subtly.
'What are they doing to me?' he thought while still trying to process his environment with little success. The only thing he could make out during the past 4 hours was the smooth, hard, cold floor.
That was when he felt some movement at his feet. Something had slithered onto his legs and was slowly moving upward towards his chest region. He felt it move on his exposed legs and could feel there was a smoothness to it.
'What is that?' he tried making sense of the situation, he even tried using his leg to push it away from him, but it kept coming back as if excited to reach him by all means necessary.
'A pipe?' He initially had the thought that it was a snake or a worm-like creature, albeit a girthy one, trying to get to his head region. Still, after a couple of minutes of struggle, his big toe had struck where its head should have been, and the only thing he felt was a circular hollow mouth with a smooth texture.
It managed to move closer to his chest after his struggles didn't pay off, then the pipe that had mysteriously come out of a carefully carved out hole in the ground, moved to the left side of his chest before raising its head and diving straight head first into his beating heart.
It ripped apart his clothes in the area, before shredding his skin and bones with surprising force, sinking into his heart as it wriggled into a comfortable position.
"aaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggg" A visceral scream came from Alaric at the top of his lungs, almost ripping apart his throat in the process. He could feel the pipe sink into his still-pounding fleshy heart without regard for his well-being.
He thought he was dead for sure after getting his heart punctured by a pipe, but he managed to survive, and after 15 minutes, his voice became croaky. He had almost lost his voice after shouting so loudly. It was truly the most agonizing experience he had ever had.
Tears fell from his eyes to the side of his face as he cried in silence. He wished for a quick death, but it seems the concept had rejected him wholly.
He knows he should be dead by now, either from the horrible injury itself or from blood loss; hell, he should be in shock by now. But something seems to be keeping him from meeting the grim reaper, just barely keeping him afloat. Whether it be divine or malicious, he couldn't help but curse whatever it was keeping him from dying.
He could have sworn he saw the other side. Weakness overtook him as his thoughts began to slow down, and exhaustion took over.
That was when the pipe, as if sensing his moment of respite, started to vibrate, giving Alaric a very ominous feeling. His already nasty expression fell even more as he wanted to shout out his thoughts, 'WHAT NOW?'.
The pipe, with apparent disregard, continued its vibration before a suction force came from within, slowly drawing fresh blood from him.
'They want my blood? But why?' he grimaced, not knowing why they would want his blood for anything. he could not make heads or tails of his situation.
Then his expression turned to one of relief, barely, 'I would certainly die after this,' he thought as his weakness became overbearing and he lost consciousness.
|TLF|
He felt his consciousness slowly stirring; he felt numb and disoriented. He was conscious, but everything was pitch black. He struggled to remember what was going on before his memories of the event that had happened before came slamming into his brain like a freight train.
"No, no, no, no, no, how?" The horror in his voice was evident as he was still bound in the pit. "How am I still alive? Oh, please no, this has to be a dream, I shouldn't be alive. I shouldn't."
Not only that, but his body was feeling a lot less sore, and his voice was back to normal, but the pipe was still connected to his beating heart. He hadn't noticed before, but the air felt different; it felt heavier, as his body hastily inhaled for more of it. It felt almost nourishing.
He couldn't help but smile bitterly. 'I have been betrayed by my own heart. Just stop beating.'