Hearing footsteps just outside the door, Alhen cursed to himself before he bolted to his chair and sat.

  He hid the scissors under his jacket sleeves before realizing that his chair needed to be moved as well.

  ‘Crap! I can’t slide it, or else he’ll hear it,’ he thought.

  He stood and struggled to pick up the chair with his one good arm, which shook and trembled.

  Alhen leaned the chair against his chest and legs, feeling an indescribable amount of pain that he kept inside of him and raised it with effort.

  The chair had a lot of mass, being heavy for its size.

  He briskly walked backwards, careful not to make a noise and alert the person outside the door.

  “Tap, Tap, Tap.” The footsteps were getting closer.

  Looking around to see if he missed anything in his hurry, he saw the cut rope on the ground.

  He rushed to it and knelt, picking it up in a flash before rushing back to his chair.

  Alhen struggled to tie his left arm loosely as he only had one arm, and in the end, he wasn’t able to.

  ‘Shit, shit shit!’ Whoever is walking through the hallways is just a couple of seconds away from stepping inside.

  His mind went into overdrive.

  ‘What do I do?’

  He acted on the first thought that came to his mind.

  Alhen moved his chair slightly, just enough for the table in front of him to cover most of his body.

  ‘Alright, the position of the chair should not cause any alarms for Kalle since I moved it just a little. The problem is if he takes a look at the bindings on my left arm…’ he gritted his teeth out of nervousness.

  He hid the scissors inside the sleeves of his jacket, squeezing them against the armrest so hard that they sank into his skin.

  ‘There is no way this will work, he will see me right away,’ Alhen thought, resisting the urge to move and staying still.

  He did everything he could at that moment, and it didn’t take long for someone to come in.

  Alhen was dreading the moment, sweating to no end, and his heart beat loudly against his chest.

  If he were discovered this time, it would be the last time he would ever be able to escape.

  The door opened, and just as Alhen had expected, Kalle came in with a smile.

  “Did you miss me? Here is the food that you asked me for,” he said with a wide grin.

  Alhen gagged, almost vomiting on the spot.

  Kalle carried a plate covered by a lid, and from the smell, he didn’t want to think about what was inside.

  Kalle stepped into the room and approached Alhen, unaware that Alhen wasn’t acting like his usual self.

  Alhen’s heart raced, ‘No matter what, I have to make my move before he realizes that something is wrong,’ he thought.

  His left arm was ready to move in a flash, seizing the scissors and plunging them into one of Kalle’s weak spots.

  Kalle was just about to see Alhen’s full frame, which would make him realize that Alhen didn’t have his restraints.

  He stopped, however, and looked at the tray of tools with his eyes lit up.

  Alhen observed his movements carefully, not wanting to miss the moment things would go sideways for him.

  Kalle held the plate with one hand and, with the other, grabbed the handle of the tool tray before taking it to the corner of the room, not looking at Alhen.

  Alhen’s heart rate peaked, unable to slow down.

  ‘Alright, I’m out in the open. If he looks back, he will see me. I have to do it now,’ Alhen thought.

  Kalle stood facing the wall.

  He had placed the plate on top of the tray with the tools, working with the torture experiment that he called food.

  The smell in the room intensified, smelling of old, sweaty socks and rotten eggs, making Alhen grimace in disgust.

  He slowly stood from the chair, being extra cautious not to make unnecessary noise.

  ‘His ears are probably trained, I have to do this slowly,’ Alhen thought.

  As he began approaching Kalle, he spoke.

  “No peeking, alright, this will be a surprise, and I think that you are going to love it!” Kalle said without turning back, sounding genuinely happy, at least to his ears.

  Alhen froze, ‘If I have to answer one of his questions, I will have to do it from here since he could hear my voice closer and turn around.’

  Just as he thought, after five seconds, the talkative Kalle spoke.

  “Alhen, what do you think about life? What are your thoughts on it? I am curious to know what the son of the Kovesh thinks.”

  Alhen gritted his teeth.

  He gripped the scissors with strength, looking ready to rush at Kalle and end him, but he held himself back.

  “That’s a broad question, don’t you think? It will take me a while to think of an answer,” Alhen said, not daring to breathe and be noticed.

  “So that is your answer? It is very boring. Well, I somewhat expected it from the Kovesh’s son,” Kalle said with a sigh.

  Alhen’s eyebrow twitched; for some reason, he felt attacked with those words.

  Deciding he had had enough, he activated his blessing.

  The iris in his eye grew white, the sclera became black with veins extending outwards into his skin, and the pupil dilated, growing white.

  The world around him went dark.

  ‘I should have done this from the start. This way I can see if he’s about to move five seconds in advance,’ Alhen thought, feeling himself gradually relax.

  He kept a sliver of caution at all times, as it would never go wrong in a situation like this.

  “Considering that you cannot answer that question,” Kalle began, “let me ask you another one,” he said.

  “If you had to choose between loyalty to your father and love, which one would you choose?” he asked, some emotion seeping into his voice.

  “Love, of course,” Alhen said, not thinking about his answer for a second.

  “Love? That is something I did not expect. The Kovesh’s son, the son of the most feared man in the world, choosing love over loyalty? It almost seems unreal, but somehow, I believe you.”

  “You have proved to be different, to hold spirit. Tell me, Alhen, is there someone you love right now? Someone important to you?” Kalle asked, not ceasing his hand motions over the plate.

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  Alhen thought about the question for a moment.

  The first answer that came to his mind when Kalle asked the question was no, but thinking it over, he realized there was someone he cared about.

  It was someone he had started to respect more and more since meeting him.

  ‘Alaran. I was afraid of my mentor at first, but he has grown on me. His jokes are somewhat rough, but he’s a good person, at least to me; he’s nice.’

  ‘He disobeys Father Vincent, and he has no trouble being confident and taking care of his problems. I want to be like him,’ Alhen thought.

  It had been a few seconds since Alhen began his monologue.

  He began to see that Kalle had been growing impatient, constantly tapping the floor with his foot.

  “So, what is your answer?” Kalle asked.

  “My answer is yes, I do, in fact, have someone I care about. I wouldn’t say that I love them, but they are an important part of my life,” Alhen responded.

  “Very interesting, I would like to meet this person, but I feel you will not tell me anything about them, am I correct?”

  Alhen gave a simple yeah before silence spread.

  ‘This is my chance!’ Alhen exclaimed in his mind.

  Kalle had ceased his questioning, now fully focusing on the task at hand.

  He had been too distracted by the questions to realize the smell had grown worse, and Kalle hummed a tune happily under his breath.

  Alhen could feel a warm liquid trailing down his cheeks, and he immediately knew what that meant; he had to hurry.

  Making sure not to make a sound, he took his first careful step forward.

  One step, two steps, three steps.

  The distance between them kept getting shorter.

  ‘If Kalle questions me right now, I will not be able to answer. I have to be quick and close the distance before that happens,’ he thought.

  Thankfully, he was barefoot.

  His boots were never among the clothes Kalle had given back to him, but were left in the corner of the room instead.

  Kalle had needed easy access to his toenails and feet for the torture, and the lack of them made his footsteps silent.

  “When I first saw you, I thought that your attitude would be different, that the Kovesh would have made you into an emotionless machine, but I was wrong,” Kalle said.

  Alhen stopped walking for a moment, taken aback by Kalle’s sudden words, before resuming.

  “You are different from everyone that I have had the pleasure to talk to, that is for sure, but you are not like your father, and that will be your downfall,” Kalle said.

  He began laughing, but not hysterically; he laughed calmly, with control.

  ‘Keep laughing like that, just don’t you dare turn around,’ Alhen thought.

  He slid the scissors from the sleeve of his jacket to his hand, gripping them with an inverted grip.

  Kalle suddenly stopped whatever he was doing, he stood still, and Alhen couldn’t help but freeze up.

  ‘Did he notice me? Do I strike now or wait?’ His mind battled with the two decisions.

  “Alhen, why are you not talking? Did you break already? I told you what would happen if that were the case. Please do not tell me that you did.”

  Kalle held the tray tightly, breaking off a metal bar in the process.

  The silence was deafening; you could hear a pin drop.

  ‘Shit! He’s going to turn around,’ Alhen thought.

  Kalle stood completely still, as if frozen, but Alhen was sure that he was paying attention to any sound that could reach him.

  ‘I can reach him in about five steps minimum, but if he hears me and is fast enough, he could activate his sign if he has one, and leave me no chance to kill him.’

  Alhen sped up, still trying to be calm and not make too much noise.

  Kalle started turning around, albeit slowly, as if afraid of what he would see.

  Once he did, the first thing that caught his attention was the empty chair; Alhen was nowhere to be seen.

  Kalle’s heart dropped, and his pupils dilated.

  “No! This cannot be happening!” He screamed in anger and desperation.

  Kalle looked to his right and then to his left, coming across Alhen’s intense eyes.

  He smiled widely, but his it dropped when he felt something piercing his neck.

  "Thwack!"

  ‘What… is happening right now? Am I… dying? There is… no… way…’ Kalle thought.

  He looked down to see what had happened and found the scissors had gone halfway into his neck.

  Alhen breathed heavily, his expression showed shock, but the next moment, it shifted into something else.

  Kalle noticed the expression on Alhen’s face, one of pure anger and relief.

  Blood started dripping down Kalle’s mouth, and he started gagging on it.

  Kalle reached out his hand to touch Alhen, but he didn’t allow it.

  Alhen, who still held the scissors, used his whole body to push deeper with his left hand.

  He used his shoulders and legs to push into Kalle’s body and throw him to the ground.

  Alhen landed on top of him, and the scissors went even deeper into his neck, coming to the other side and barely poking from where he held it.

  After Alhen collapsed with Kalle, he felt strengthless from the lack of food.

  He had barely felt it before, but now it kicked in with full strength.

  “How c-could you? I w-will k-kill you!” Kalle screamed, with blood coming out of his mouth.

  Alhen, who still had his blessing activated, sensed the danger before it could take place.

  He pushed himself off of Kalle’s body with difficulty before Kalle took out the scissors from his neck and swung them at him.

  Alhen barely dodged the attack, and Kalle began standing, looking at Alhen with such intensity that it promised death.

  Kalle staggered and almost fell to the ground, blood rapidly falling down his neck and drenching the floor.

  The next second, Alhen widened his eyes, not believing what he saw.

  The blood that had once been falling to the floor had frozen in midair.

  ‘What is happening? Don’t tell me…’ Alhen saw the blood slowly start to enter Kalle’s neck, even the one that had fallen.

  Kalle stood still, looking at the ceiling with a dazed expression, but his body seemed to regain color.

  ‘Shit! I need to run.’

  Alhen jogged to the door; if he ran any faster, he would collapse.

  “Thud!” A thud echoed in the room.

  Alhen looked back.

  Kalle had fallen, and he lay on the floor, unmoving.

  The blood stopped levitating; it dripped down his neck and formed a puddle underneath him.

  He had a slight smile plastered on his face, and his eyes were wide.

  Alhen froze at the sight, ‘Is it really over?’ That seemed to be the case.

  Life had long faded from Kalle’s eyes.

  ‘No, I can’t take any chances,’ Alhen thought before approaching his body and picking the bloodied scissors from his hand.

  He wiped the blood off of them and looked at the sharp edge for a few seconds.

  He could only thank himself in his mind that it had worked, and Kalle was finally dead.

  ‘This is just to make sure.’

  Alhen, despite everything, still had his blessing activated, and now he realized that’s what was seeping off the strength of his body apart from being hungry.

  He knelt beside Kalle and held the scissors aloft.

  Without waiting a second longer, he thrust them in Kalle’s eye.

  “Squelch!” It dug in with ease, and liquid sprayed everywhere.

  ‘That’s payback for my eye. Without the power of a sign, you truly are just a normal human,’ Alhen thought.

  He stayed looking at Kalle for a few more seconds, looking at the blood dripping down his eye, and then thought about the torture that he had made him go through just to satisfy himself.

  An indescribable feeling of rage took over his body, and he gritted his teeth with strength.

  Alhen deactivated his blessing and found himself crying tears of blood.

  ‘This guy, he just…’ Alhen grit his teeth even harder and squeezed the scissors in his arm.

  “I told you that I would kill you, and look at what happened… I wasn’t kidding,” Alhen said, his voice echoing in the room.

  Looking at the body on the floor, something inside of him snapped.

  “You bastard!” Alhen raised the scissors and swung them down with all his strength over and over again over Kalle’s face until it was left a bloody mess.

  “Die!” Alhen screamed as he thrusted the scissors to Kalle’s open head for the last time.

  “Huff, huff,” he breathed heavily.

  Alhen stood and looked at what he had done, feeling surprised by his actions, which he normally wouldn’t do.

  He held the urge to throw up, rushing to pick up his boots in the corner of the room and get out of it.

  His thuls were missing, and the artifact that the father had gifted him was gone as well.

  ‘I have to get out of here. I can always get new thuls, and maybe get another artifact,’ he thought.

  As soon as he stepped out of the room, the familiar hallways came into view.

  His eyes, being better adapted to the dark, navigated through them.

  ‘Where the hell am I?’ He thought to himself and then stopped.

  ‘Right, I don’t have my glasses. As soon as I step outside, I’m going to turn into a wiht.’

  Alhen brought his hand to his head, thinking about what to do.

  ‘It’s not like I can blindfold myself, I need to be able to see. There’s also Erne, I hope he’s not anywhere near here,’ Alhen thought.

  With nothing to do, he wandered around the hallway, carefully opening doors and searching for his equipment.

  Alhen entered a few rooms with beds and furniture, others were just like the room he’d been in, dimly lit and obviously designed for torture.

  ‘Why is this place so empty? There’s no way that I’m the only one here.’ He thought after opening the fifteenth door and finding no one once again.

  ‘This is bad, I’m almost nearing the end, and I still haven’t found my things.’

  Alhen had lost too much blood, and his body was beaten to no end.

  He could feel the cold starting to seep in, and he shivered without control.

  His body halted in another door, which had mold, and the wood looked ancient.

  He gripped the icy cold handle that sent a shiver down his spine and paused for a second to take a deep breath.

  He felt the air filling his lungs, revitalizing his body before being released.

  His hands had turned paler than normal from the cold; he could feel himself shivering, his arm shaking.

  “Creak!” Alhen opened the moldy door that creaked, clearly being unmaintained.

  The smell that hit him was nothing to scoff at.

  Alhen would have vomited on the floor if not for the fact that he had an empty stomach.

  Holding his nose with his hand, he grimaced and looked ahead at the source of the smell.

  A rotting body, filled with red flies flying erratically around the room, appeared in his vision.

  The upper part of the corpse’s head was missing, with some bone showing on its arms and exposed chest.

  Its rotten tongue stuck out, with there only being his lower jaw.

  Alhen was about to leave the room when he noticed something perched on the corpse’s thighs.

  ‘Is that what I think it is?’ he thought.

  Alhen approached, always covering his nose, and making sure that those red flies would land nowhere near his body before taking the object.

  Examining it closer, he pumped his fist into the air in a celebratory manner.

  “Yes!” He couldn’t help but shout excitedly before falling silent and unmoving.

  ‘Crap, I got too excited. I shouldn’t be shouting in case someone is nearby. But still…’ Alhen looked at the object in his hand.

  Glasses with a red filter, just like the ones he wore, lay in his hand.

  Putting them on, they felt the same as his.

  ‘Alright, time to leave this damned place.’

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