Naren took another hit straight to the jaw.
He had his guard up, but couldn't see where the Lieutenant was attacking from. The room was pitch black after all.
'What do I do?!'
Another fist slammed into his stomach. Naren's ribs rattled under the force. He coughed violently, feeling the air leave his lungs in a rush. He stumbled back, every nerve screaming, but forced his knees to bend just enough to stay upright.
Another strike came—this time, he twisted away just in time, feeling the whoosh of air as the fist missed by inches. His heart pounded, but he stayed calm. 'Calm.'
His ears perked up.
A jab to the trachea, he ducked. A sweeping kick under his foot, he leapt. Each motion precise, calculated. The Lieutenant finally stepped back, letting Naren breathe for the first time since the fight began.
He exhaled slowly, tasting blood in his mouth. His body ached—every muscle on fire, ribs already tender. The room was impossibly quiet, blocking out every noise of the outside world. Another weird gimmick of this castle he assumed. Now, Naren could hear himself and the Lieutenant clearly. Every step. Every breath. Every heartbeat. He could discern all of it.
But why could he hear the footsteps now? What about earlier. It was inconsistent at best. On the deck he never heard it once, but in the castle only recently could make it out.
'Think. What's so different now.'
A hook whistled through the air, only to be snuffed out by Naren's forearm already guarding. The impact still rattling his bones.
'Too close.'
A sudden realization clicked. Why he could hear the Lietenant's footsteps in this pitch black room and why that void he was dragged into earlier had suddenly vanished with the dimming of Iris' glow.
Step. Step. A jab whistled right past Naren's ear. This time he was able to counter. A swift kick hit the Lietenant in the ribs. Soren gagged on his own breath as the kick landed solid. He took a couple steps back coughing.
Shadows. The bastard was moving through shadows just like Naren moved through reflections. A smile returned to his face.
"Tired? I just got warm."
Naren focused on the sounds surrounding him. Step. Step. His right. He weaved back to dodge.
CRUNCH The sounds of the bones in his arms cracking.
He heard it all. The sounds of Soren's footing. The whistling of the punch. But it was just too fast. Way faster than before.
He slammed against the wall, every nerve screaming. He clenched down on his teeth, swallowing the pulses of pain that every part of his body constantly oscillated.
His arms grazed across the wall, using it as leverage to slowly get back to his feet.
Step. Step. An uppercut smashed into his chin, sending him wobbling sideways. Vision blurred. He spat out blood, forcing himself to focus. No footsteps now. Soren hadn't moved.
'It hurts.'
Naren stumbled to the side, his head wobbly. If he could see straight before he definitely wouldn't be able to now.
Naren spit out the blood that pooled in his mouth. He listened in. No steps. Soren didn't move. He didn't come closer.
"Hey cursed tell me one thing before I kill you."
"You...can talk...normal.."
Naren's voice was raspy. His throat thick with blood.
"Why did you come here?"
"You know...just...sightseeing."
Soren didn't respond.
Silence filled the room once more. Naren could even make out Soren's heartbeat. Beating slowly. Lub...Dub...Lub...Dub...Lub...Dub. He held his other arm, limp.
"You...letting me..go?"
Lubdub...Lubdub...Lubdub. Soren's heartbeat grew slightly faster and louder.
"Which witch that cursed you?"
"...What?"
"What was her name?"
Slight agitation seeped into Soren's voice.
"Cen-Cendrine..."
Lubdub.Lubdub.Lubdub. Soren's heartbeat grew even faster.
"What's your fable?"
Naren sighed a raspy sigh. He knew he couldn't lie here. Something about Soren's tone told him that much. So much for keeping secrets.
"I can control reflec—"
The heartbeat didn't stop. It just went very, very quiet. The way sound disappears before something loud. Soren had gone still in a way that was different from before — not the stillness of someone waiting, but the stillness of someone who had already decided.
One second. Maybe two.
LUBDUB. LUBDUB. LUBDUB.
Naren never finished his sentence. He couldn't.
A knee caved into Naren's ribs. He coughed up blood, stumbling backward. Before he could recover, a punch smashed his nose—CRACK. Blood poured down his face. Another punch to his left cheek, then a hook to the liver. Pain exploded through him.
He staggered, the world tilting sideways as if the floor itself had shifted. The blows were no longer individual strikes—just a storm crashing over him, one after another, without rhythm or mercy. His thoughts slipped through his fingers, scattered by pain.
'Come on body, don't fail me. Plea—'
The thought shattered.
A fist collided with his face.
CRACK
The sound of cartilage snapping rang louder than the impact itself. Heat flooded his nose an instant before blood did, warm and metallic as it spilled over his lips. His head snapped back, vision bursting into white.
'Think like Bjorn always said. Think damn it!'
He barely recovered before another punch smashed into his left cheek. His teeth cut into the inside of his mouth. Copper flooded his tongue.
A hook buried itself deep into his liver.
'Think. Think. Don't-'
For a fraction of a second, nothing happened.
Then everything did.
His body seized. A strangled gasp clawed its way out of his throat, but no air followed. Pain radiated outward in violent waves, stealing the strength from his legs. His arms were both limp. Bones shattered.
'Don't think.'
He stopped.
Just sound. Just the air displacement of an uppercut coming, the direction of it, the height of it. Nothing else.
But Naren's body didn't follow it's flow. It didn't even try to dodge. Instead, he went towards the sound. Blocking out all other voices. As the uppercut slid past his cheek, he opened his mouth and took bite.
Something warm with a metallic taste lingered in his mouth as he spat it out. He couldn't see what he had bitten, but maybe that was for good reason. He didn't know if he could go through with it if he could've seen.
Naren turned back to change his stance but it was too late. He heard a hiss of pain and then something moving through the air. It was himself.
His jaw slammed shut with a sickening click as his feet left the ground. For a fleeting moment, he felt weightless—suspended in darkness—before gravity reclaimed him.
He hit the floor hard, ears ringing, vision swimming. The world no longer felt real. Each nerve screamed, yet his mind began to dull, retreating inward to escape the overload.
He tried to listen for footsteps.
Tried to count the rhythm of Soren's breath.
But the sounds blurred together.
There was only pain.
And the slow, terrifying realization that he was no longer keeping up.
His consciousness slipped away as his body fell to the floor.
He was submerged up to his neck in a black ocean. Nothing but a pitch black horizon surrounding him. A flickering candle providing a glow barely bright enough to let him see a feet in front of him.
A pair of hands shackled in chains rattled. The voice behind it coarse, but evidently female. It giggled, a giggle that sounded like students laughing with their friends at the lunch table.
"What's wrong my dear brother."
Naren's eyes widened. This was the first time it spoke to him. He opened his mouth to speak, but a hand came out from the waters shutting his mouth.
"You can't do this on you're own?"
Naren's normal lazy eyes glimmered with fury. He stared at the hands silently.
"Don't be like that. You're always relying on me anyways."
———
In the dark room, Naren's body got up on it's own like a puppet. His eyes empty.
Soren couldn't see what was happening but he felt something was off. He was sure that Naren wouldn't be able to get up. No way. But he could definitely tell, the boy was standing, now exuding an otherworldly pressure.
Soren clenched his jaws in anticipation. He couldn't move. It was fear.
A pair of ghostly hands in shackles caressed the cheeks of the unconscious Naren. Controlling her favorite puppet, a coarse giggle filled the room.
————
Naren bit the hand covering his mouth, it melted into the water, trickling away like a rippled reflection.
"Lay off."
His eyes were calm, resentment littering his golden pupils.
Another giggle emanated through the dark horizon.
"Fine, fine. What ever you say brother."
———
The oppressive pressure lifted from the room.
The golden glow returning to Naren's eyes. His legs slightly buckling. His arm broken. His ribs collapsed. He was bound to die at this rate.
Naren clenched his jaw. Tightening his fists.
He took one step forward. Slowly laying his foot on the ground.
Then his legs gave out as his consciousness slipped away into nothingness for the last time.
'Shoulda listened to you Alice. I really am cursed.'
With a thud, Naren's body landed on the cold hard stone floor. A deep lingering silence filled the room as two heartbeats slowly turned into one.
Soren finally sighed a deep hollow sigh. Blood trickling down his cheeks.
"Heee's finaaallly deaaadd."