~~ Back to Life ~~
A crack splintered in the sky.
Celeste and the version of Null that stood with his arms around her paused. The real Null stepped forward seemingly from nowhere. He stared at the pair with a look of guilt and disappointment threatening to break his otherwise calm facade.
"I'm sorry I lied..." Another crack split the sky. "I'm sorry for being a burden... For running away without saying goodbye..." The cracks far above webbed outward across the horizon. "For everything..." A long pause. More dark seams fractured from above down to the ground. "Maybe you would've been better off... if you'd just never met me..."
Then the world shattered, and feel to pieces. The sky fell around them like shards of glass. What remained behind the falling sky was nothing. Just a pitch-black abyss. The image of Celeste embraced by the Null of the past flickered like a glitching holovid. The Null who had been observing the memories kept his eye on the pair until they finally vanished.
~~ Hopeless Captive ~~
A thick chain burst out of the ground behind Null and wrapped around his wrist. He gasped and went to resist, but his arm could barely budge. Another chain shot out from the ground on the other side of him, wrapping around his other arm. "What! How-?" He choked from the next chain that came from the darkness in front of him and wrapped around his neck.
He went to take a step, to twist his body and jerk his shoulders forward, but he suddenly heard another five chains break out of the ground to bind around his torso, hips, and shoulders. They tightened and pulled him down to his knees. Null grunted and struggled, causing the chains to tighten even more. Then suddenly they yanked him down and dragged him into the ground.
Darkness completely enveloped Null. He screamed and kicked, only to hear himself muffled when more chains coiled around his mouth and ankles, overpowering and overwhelming the rest of him in the process. His ability to resist was suddenly gone. His energy drained as he hung with his arms out behind him and his head down. Raven bangs covered his dim blues while he remained still and quiet, accepting his defeat.
A deep gutteral laughter echoed out from a massive pale face that faded in above and in front of the broken slave, who was scantily clad in a tantalizing dancer garb and shock collar. A big matching hand appeared under the floating face and reached forward, wrapping itself around Null's neck while squeezing tight. The slave trembled and choked out a whimper. The face distorted into a sinister grin while one face after the other began to appear all around him.
"Please... I'll be good.. I'll obey..." He barely managed to speak. "Don't... hurt her..." A crack of the whip rang out behind him like an explosion. Null winced and gasped, nearly crying out for a second before he hushed himself and corrected his previous statement by adding, "M-master..."
The dozen giant faces all began laughing at him. Null hung his head in shame. The hand that had been around his neck released, formed into a fist, pulled back, and rocketed forward to drive its knuckles into his core. There wasn't even enough breath left in his lungs to cry out.
The fist pulled back, gradually growing larger than the slave's entire body until it nearly became the same size as the faces that all maliciously stared down at Null. He weakly gasped for breath while coughing up spittle. Then the fist slammed down, covering his entire body as it pounded him into the ground of darkness. It pulled back a moment later, the laughter of the distorted faces intensifying as they looked upon their slave's flattened body.
Then the darkness below the unmoving boy began to move, bits and pieces of it deforming and pulsing under him. He remained unresponsive, as though he were unable to comprehend what was happening to him while he lay broken and defeated. Unable to even speak or move a muscle. The fist slammed down on top of him again. Then again. And again. Each time he barely had the strength to cry out until the beating finally stopped. The first face then slowly began to hover down toward him.
The sickly squirming ground beneath him suddenly broke apart into a swarm of smaller hands. Null's eyes went wide and he gasped, beginning to panic as they reached out from the darkness and grabbed at him. Dozens of hands clawed at his flesh and began to cover him.
Null went to scream, but one of the hands reached up from under his head and clutched the bottom half of his face to shut him up. He twisted and jerked, eyes widening as the face came closer and closer, opening its massive maw wider and wider until it finally came down on top of him and engulfed his entire body.
~~ Dread of Knight ~~
Null shot up in bed with a loud gasp. Sweat trickled down his forehead. His chest heaving as he panted hard with heavy yet shallow breaths and tried to recover from the panic set on by his traumatized nightmare. He curled his knees up to his face, and buried his head against them as he trembled and tried to keep Celeste from hearing his hushed sobs.
It was almost always like this ever since he'd finally come back to life. Barely getting any sleep. Waking up in the dead of night, and suffering from the unending nightmares of past traumas he still couldn't remember.
1st: Dive to the Mind (active)
2nd: Stopping the Void (inactive)
3rd: First Words (inactive)
4th: Back to Life (inactive)
5th: Hopeless Captive (inactive)
6th: Dread of Knight (active)
2nd: Stopping the Void (inactive)
3rd: First Words (inactive)
4th: Back to Life (inactive)
5th: Hopeless Captive (inactive)
6th: Dread of Knight (active)
@LadyRen