There was no beginning. There was no end. There was only an endless scream in his head—a foreign, bestial scream, but somehow his own.
Kallen stood in the middle of the void, and suddenly something sharp pierced his back. Then his chest. His throat. His fingers.
He fell to his knees, but the fall didn't stop - he fell into the void, where he stood again... and again he was killed. Slowly. Again and again.
1.
2.
3.
He started counting.
14.
45.
291.
The fingers were torn off by hand. The eyes were squeezed out with metal spikes. The tongue was cut off and then shoved back into the throat. He was forced to eat monsters—live, writhing, slimy monsters with cold, hateful eyes. Then came the human faces.
Father.
Mother.
Norea.
Celia.
The Rhine.
He ate them like he was on a command. He cried and couldn't stop.
54 319.
78 030.
120 478.
"Stop it... please..." he whispered, but no one heard him.
192 394.
And at this number, the body could not stand. His mind was bursting at the seams. Everything around him was shining with white light, and a shadow appeared.
A dragon. Huge, black as the abyss itself. Its scales were made of intertwined shadows and red runes. Its eyes burned like two crimson suns.
— You're suffering.
— You died. And again. And again. And again.
— But you're still here.
The voice was deep, vibrating in his bones.
"You are my choice, Kalen."
"The new Shadow Lord.
— I believe in you.
"I will make you the strongest of all. But first..."
"Suffer on.
And he laughed. The dragon's laughter shook the very fabric of space.
Kalen woke up screaming.
His body was drenched in sweat. The bed was soaked through to the mattress. His chest felt like a block of ice. As he lay there, gasping for breath, he realized that the dragon tattoo on his chest had changed.
It stretched upward.
On the neck.
On the cheek.
All the way to your face.
And it throbbed.
Every pulse is like a second heart. Dark. Deep. Predatory.
Kallen stood up with difficulty and went to the mirror. His face was exhausted, and there were crimson circles under his eyes. And the tattoo... It was alive.
"Am I... alive?" he whispered. "Or am I still dreaming?"
He wanted to die. He didn't want to breathe. The nightmare had left an imprint on his mind, like a brand. It was a depression, but not like any other. It was a darkness that he couldn't shake off anymore.
And suddenly…
Click.
The sound of a door opening.
He turned around.
"Kalen?" A quiet voice. A woman's voice.
The Rhine.
She stood in the doorway, completely naked. Her scarlet eyes shone in the darkness, and her red hair fell around her shoulders. She was... almost inhumanly beautiful in that moment.
"I heard a scream. Are you okay?" she asked, coming closer.
Kalen forgot how to speak for a moment.
"You... why are you..." He blushed. Even after everything he'd seen and experienced, he blushed.
"I was sleeping nearby," she shrugged. "I thought... maybe it would make you feel better."
He looked away. His heart was racing. The tattoo on his face pulsed harder.
"I... I need to think," he muttered.
Reina stepped closer and ran her fingers over his chest and the tattoo.
"You're pulsating. Like an animal."
He gritted his teeth.
"Not now.
"Then... when?" she whispered, wrapping her arms around his neck. Her breath brushed his ear.
He shuddered.
"When I stop seeing myself eating my family," he whispered. "When I stop counting the deaths..."
Reina froze. She understood. And she retreated.
"I'm sorry.
Kallen sat on the edge of the bed and put his hands over his face. Voices were ringing in his head.
Reina, still naked, lay down next to him without touching him.
After that, they slept together.