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Pain.
Pain beyond pain beyond pain.
Every inch of his skin felt much too tight, pulling with every movement. His spine shifted and writhed under his flesh. His brain felt like it was on fire, about to burst out of his skull. Finally, his body couldn't take anymore, and he felt something on his back pop like a button on a too-tight shirt. The tension immediately halved, but the pain increased tenfold.
He screamed, in paralyzing fear and in indescribable agony. This was how he was going to die. He was sure of it.
Through bleary eyes, Vezok could just barely make out Hakann as a splotch of red, slowly backing away. A long object in his hands dropped to the floor, gleaming silver in the light, the origin of his torment.
He couldn’t move. It hurt too much to breathe. He could feel something pulling at his innards from within, tugging at his bones, yanking tendons and muscle until it finally began to emerge. His vision went white.
When memory returned to him, the first thing that he noticed was that the pain had dulled immensely. Everything still hurt, but at least he could move. His hands were shaky. He could hear voices, but he wasn’t processing anything he was being told. He felt nauseous and dizzy, his head full of a thick, dark fog.
As he tried to sit up from the cold stone floor, he felt lighter. Weaker. His arms trembled like he’d been at the gym for hours.
Finally, he looked up, seeing the faces of his teammates. Horror. Shock. Disgust.
But they weren’t looking at Vezok.
His eyes followed their gaze, finding a seventh being in the Piraka’s midst.
He was covered in blood, the red stark against his milky pale skin. Uneven wisps of silver hair were matted against his scalp with the deep crimson. His small, scrawny body was naked save for Vezok’s long coat. He didn’t remember taking it off.
The being turned to Vezok, his bright red eyes sending a shiver down his aching spine. But all fear, all confusion, everything was overtaken by an unendingly burning rage.
The spark of that first fire, and the clouds of fog in his mind, never left him. And they would never leave him.