Once again, the footsteps became louder. Jin had heard those footsteps for more time than he bothered to count. Each time it approached Jin, it would point the barrel at Jin’s head. “All you have to do is speak, and I will disappear from your life.” That low pitched voice said the same thing yet again.
Jin did not know whether he should give up or if he should accept the voice’s proposal, he had been hearing the same thing for hours…for days maybe even weeks.
“Everyone carries a shadow.” The voice spoke as it slowly paced around Jin and this time around, he placed the gun at the back of Jin’s head.
“The less the shadow is embodied in the individual’s life…” The voice paused his sentence and Jin could feel its presence lurking right beside his ear. Jin did not dare to move since any drastic movement would result in colder harder chains tying him up even tighter than before.
“The blacker and denser it will be.” The voice was so close to his left ear that he could hear the person breathing. Did he merely imagine stuff? Or was that really a person in this total darkness? Jin was sure that the room had been empty when the lights went off.
“I am willing to bet that your thoughts are just as dark…” The voice moved away from him yet again, and he heard a spinning sound. This was the first time he overheard that. That mechanical spinning sound made it feel like that person…or thing was holding a revolver.
“If not darker.” It was at that point the revolving cylinder stopped, and pieces of metal dropped on the floor.
“No fun at all.” The voice complained. “Why don’t you and I play a new game?” The voice was now projected at his right ear.
“But my time is up so till then!” The voice once again faded away as Jin heard that ‘person’ having thrown his gun on the floor.
Jin waited for a while after counting up to a minute in his mind before he sighed out loud. His willpower was fading. Each time the voice visited it got harder to resist and each time it returned it approached him even closer. Jin felt himself being charmed to say something. Only through sheer determination did he manage to resist that urge up until now.
Perhaps, Jin was already bleeding in his mouth as there were times he could feel that his tongue wanted to move involuntarily and he stopped it from talking. Was there no way out of this situation he was in?
This whole situation made Jin become aware of how much he missed seeing his monsters, his bellators, Qiu Yue, Zhen Qing, Yun and even Ming. He never imagined, that at one point in time he could feel so alone without any of them around. All he desired was to see them just one more time before he was taken over by this madness. Jin could feel the insanity slowly infecting his thoughts and trying to fit itself into every crevice of his mind.
“Did I ever tell you the definition of insanity?” The voice suddenly came out of nowhere which scared the hell out of the brooding Jin, so much that he cried out in surprise.
“AHAHAHAHHAHAHA YOU SPOKE! YOU SPOKE!!!” The voice was so exhilarated that Jin could hear him jumping up and down, celebrating the fact that Jin finally opened his mouth.
“Brilliant! Just god awful brilliant!” The voice exclaimed as it went towards Jin once again.
“Come, talk to me. I know you can hear me now. I know you can speak now. Come talk to me!!!” The voice commanded in an ecstatic tone.
“If you don’t talk, I am just going to stay here with you for all eternity.” The voice goaded Jin.
“F.U.C.K! FINE! SCREW THIS! I WILL TALK!!!!!!” Jin shouted, but at that moment a metal piece covered his mouth. It was the same metal barrel that he felt through the time he was in total darkness.
Jin had enough, he bit the barrel to the side of his mouth and focused his eyes to the top as if he was trying to look the person at his face. “Shoot then. I am not afraid. I have had enough of you babbling! If you want to shoot me, just shoot!”
“Woooo so angry! So much anger and hatred within you.” The voice expressed joyfully as it pushed the hammer down.
“How about it… Let’s play Russian roulette? You answer a question honestly, I will put the gun on my head and push the trigger. You answer me with a lie, and I will shoot you instead. I have one bullet in here.” The voice explained as it once again spun the gun cylinder with the barrel in Jin’s mouth.
“Do you want to return to your old life? Where you walk blindly through life till death? Wherever fate brings you, you follow it obediently? Yes or no.” The voice asked.
Jin refused to answer.
“Not answering? You are willing to risk your chance of survival in my hands?” The voice questioned as it took out the barrel from Jin’s mouth and slammed the handle of the revolver on Jin’s head as it aimed once again at him. This time around, the barrel was pointed at Jin’s right eye.
“No matter the odds, the game is rigged.” Jin claimed as he spit his saliva at the person who was holding the gun.
“Clever. So clever.” The touch of the barrel suddenly disappeared from his eye, and a flash of light appeared abruptly. It was too blinding for Jin, making him unable to even take notice of what the shape of that ‘person’ was. His eyes were simply too used to the darkness.
All of a sudden, Jin felt pain in his thigh. As if something was biting him, trapping him, and eating Jin’s life away bit by bit. He started to feel something like claws scratching his leg and he could not move an inch apart.
“Next Question. If Qiu Yue and Zhen Qing were in the same position as you right now and you had the power to save one of them, who would you choose to save?” The voice demanded another answer as he turned the revolver’s cylinder once more.
“Both.”
“Honest answer, but invalid.” Another flash of light appeared, and Jin could feel another creature biting his torso. Right now, he could roughly feel two canine-like beings chewing away on his flesh, and all he could do was shout in pain. His tears were rolling down continuously, and Jin kept shouting until he was drowning in his own echoes. Jin’s body involuntarily moved from the constant gnawing resulting in more chains appearing and squeezing at the wounds that were inflicted by the mysterious ‘person’.
“Tell me, what has this period of darkness taught you? So I can end your life… Then you will not hear from me anymore. I did promise you that after all.” The voice yawned as he said that. It was as if he had his fill of fun with Jin.
“This darkness?!” Jin nearly lost his voice from all the screaming, but he began to feel faint from the supposed loss of blood, but at that moment, he felt like he could see a glimpse of the room. Everything that was within that room. He noticed two foxes were biting through his flesh, the multiple bloodless chains on his body and a silhouette of a man wiping his revolver.
“What else?” The man inquired as he now pointed the gun at Jin’s head. Jin knew that he could only defy the man one more time before he was shot in the head. That man was not joking anymore. Jin could see the killing intent in his eyes, his body and in his gun.
“Thanks to this darkness, it showed me the beauty of light!” Jin answered as he tried to rock the chair despite the two black foxes biting him with the little mobility he had left.
“Hmm… haha… HA HA HAHAHAHAHAHA!” The man laughed as he placed his left hand on his forehead.
“After this much pain and suffering, you still think that you have learned a lesson from this?” His face now turned serious and he looked at Jin. Despite the teary eyes, Jin could recognize the movement of his finger.
“Now!” Jin thought to himself as he rocked the chair backwards, causing it to topple slightly. Before Jin hit his head on the floor the chains started appearing and stabilizing the fall. Nevertheless, the shift in height resulted in the bullet only scraping the scalp of Jin’s head.
“HAHAHAHAHAHAH!! Excellent! Excellent!!” The man started clapping.
Suddenly, Jin saw that the two foxes stopped biting him and returned to the man’s side. “It seems my new master is at least worthy of my slightest attention.” The man walked towards Jin with heavier footsteps now as he knelt right beside Jin and placed his hands on the chains.
“Master. I am your newest Bellator at your service. Please pardon my way of testing you. Name’s Kraft.” The man solemnly bowed his head before he ripped apart the chains trapping Jin. Because of his previous action, Jin and the chair both toppled over, but he did not care.
Jin was finally freed from the chair and like a newborn baby, he moved his arms and legs within the darkness of the area, trying to get a feel of the place.
“At the very least, you have somehow unlocked the Dark Sight from your so-called Inverse Eyes.” Kraft said as he helped Jin up and aided him to sit on the chair.
“Now, let us talk for real. Master.” Kraft took the second chair that was left behind by Ming and sat opposite of Jin who was busy rubbing his tears away with the hoodie that he was still wearing.
