"Stop, stop! I'll tell you... what I know," I said, desperately, despite my difficulty breathing.

He had definitely broken one or two of my ribs, I could move but the pain warned me that if I pushed too far I could do some permanent damage inside, so fighting or running was out of the question, and I couldn't risk the girl dying over an attempt. I had to try talking it over, I didn't want to mention Zanir but it was the only useful information I had, and I didn't know enough to lie. Was there anything else I could do? Buy time, somehow.

Buy time to what? No one would come, even if they did, by how people were acting near him, this guy seemed to be the kind of person that no one would do anything about, no matter what he did.

"Go on," he said.

"I..."

Another pop and the girl shrieked in pain and continued wailing.

"Yes?"

The ease with which he tortured that girl... his expression and tone were both so dull that he might as well have been snapping twigs.

Sorry, Zanir.

"I know a man... called Zanir," I said.

"Zanir, you say?! He's alive?" he said, back to his enthusiastic and distastefully friendly self.

"Yes... I met him when I woke up in the tunnels," I said, "he saved my life."

"This is huge! Then the Cleave still exists?"

"I'm not sure... I only ever saw him," I said. Half-truths were dangerous, but better than lies. Or the full truth.

He didn't seem pleased with my answer, but as long as he didn't hurt the girl, he could go fuck himself.

She still sobbed, kneeling awkwardly under him while holding her arm still in his tight grip.

"Why were you in the tunnels? Are you a Red?"

Red?

"I...don't know, I don't remember anything before waking up in there."

"You don't remember," he said.

It was more of a crack when he broke two of her fingers at once, the girl only managed one second of scream before he grabbed her head and slammed it on the floor.

"Stop!" I shouted.

She reached for him weakly, mumbling, "Sorry..."

He did it again, getting only a mindless moan as a reaction out of her.

"You son of a bitch! Stop, you fucker!" I got up despite my body's warnings, but he kicked me on the side again, twice, drowning me deeper on the pain.

"It's quite hard to control the strength of these," he said, pressing his boot on my throat, they reached halfway through his shin and were metallic green, they bifurcated at the toes and had hair-like spikes growing out of the calf.

I felt he was just about to crush my neck when he took his foot off, releasing a hacking cough trapped in my throat.

"They're still a prototype, but work remarkably well."

He slammed her head again. She went silent.

"Stop, please! Wait, wait," I said as despair took me over, "h-he said something before we parted."

"Who?"

"Zanir! Before we parted, he said something about having to go back to 'them'" I lied.

"'Them'? Other members?"

"I don't know! I came here instead, but maybe."

"Why didn't you go with him?" he asked.

"I-I thought maybe I could find something about who I am, here," I said.

He stood before me, still holding her by the wrist.

"This is definitely something, I have to warn father as soon as possible," he said, a smile forming in his face, "do you remember the path to where he is?"

"Yes," I said, "now let the girl go."

"Is that an order?"

I clenched my fists but swallowed whatever pride I had at that point. "Please."

"You don't have to worry about her, as long as you cooperate," he said, releasing her to drop on the ground, walking out of the house.

The girl laid facing me, eyes closed, blood on her forehead sticking her hair together. I couldn't believe how useless I was, I killed a few monsters but couldn't do anything to save a girl against a man.

It seemed no matter where I went, there were always people like him, who easily hurt others, people like her, who couldn't protect themselves, and people like me, who failed trying to protect anyone.

Back then I was still a child, so I could forgive myself on not being able to help Asha, put the blame on the world, but now I was a man, there was nothing to blame but my weakness.

Fuck!

I heard footsteps approaching, Hadrum came back and stood in front of me. He looked around the scene with a thoughtful expression, as if pondering something.

"Is it far?" he asked, finally.

"What?" I asked.

"Is Zanir far from here?" he asked, impatient.

"Around... fifteen fades."

He went back to thinking. "Closer than I expected, but still far. Tell me what you remember from the path."

I didn't remember enough to draw a map, let alone describe the way. I would have to go back in the tunnels to find the right way.

"So? You weren't lying, were you?" he said, putting his foot on the girl's head, "because that would be a mistake,"

"No! I..."

Wait.

"How can I be sure you won't hurt her after I tell you?"

"You people really are dumb, huh? The only thing you can be sure is that if you don't tell me, I will kill her, then you," he said, "I won't ask again."

What could I do? Should I just tell anything and see what happens? He wouldn't know if I was lying until it was too late, so he had to keep me alive, right? At least until he saw Zanir for himself, I could think of something else until then.

"I understand..." he said, sighing, turning her face upwards with his foot "you're not taking me seriously enough."

"Wha—"

I couldn't utter a sound as he brought his foot down on her face, heavily, on the second try her face cave in, on the third I stopped reasoning. There was only the feeling of my heart thumping and a wet crunch ringing in my ear as he did it over and over again.

Let go, Michael, I heard, the same raspy whisper from before.

I could feel the pull of Lu getting stronger on my left arm.

I can kill him, it said. I could feel my control slipping away, I was letting go of it.

"Drak told me about the girl. Mina, was it? Maybe she's more willing to talk," he said, walking towards the door, making a trail of red footprints.

A deep grunt was all I could manage to stand the pain, a guttural scream as I forced myself up and tackled him. He didn't budge, gripping me by the torso and hitting me repeatedly with his knee, I could feel my chest crack, followed by a sharp pain, making me almost lose my grip on him. I was dizzy, my grip loosening. I was about to fall when I heard it again.

Let go.

I did. I felt a burning pain everywhere for a split second before my body went numb, before falling, I heard Hadrum scream in pain. I looked, his side was red with blood.

"You, what did you do? How did you? Huh!?" he said, kicking me again. I barely felt anything.

"Thishouldn't-how dish you," he said, slurring.

He tried kicking me again but it was weak, slow, he lost control and fell to his knee. His breathing started to get weaker depite his struggle to inhale and he fell to the side.

I looked at my arm and thought seeing something move on my finger, but at that point my vision was already blurry and my head pounding, breathing was hard. I laid there, almost passing out but never really getting there, the pain was only felt when I inhaled or exhaled too hard, making me cough, this time with blood.