[1] A Flame Rekindled.

[Nothing]

[cs=2][atrb=border,0,true][style=width: 400px;][style=font-family: trebuchet ms; text-transform: lowercase; text-align: center; font-size: 10px; font-style: italic; padding: 10 0 5 0;]I will show you something different from either Your shadow at morning striding behind you Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; I will show you fear in a handful of dust . . .[/style][style=float: left; margin: 20px; border: 1px #666666 solid;][/style][style=font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12.5px; text-align: justify;]It was the night's gripping cold permeating the uninsolated ruin that brought me back into myself, lids fluttering open to eventually accept the only visible light there was; the licking flame of a single lit candle. This disheveled shack, intended to be my tomb, housed the belongings of a long dead military general whose cadaver had long since expired. His garbs spoke of a time long extinct yet they'd managed to retain some vitality over this fleeting existence. I wore them and they provided the edge necessary to sustain myself despite the horrible conditions beset upon me. My face was gaunt, my body irreparably marred but bandaged. Sensations I'd learned to cope with long ago began to gradually resurface as unmistakable warnings of my approaching death's door. I could only mildly gesture my amusement in a half grin that teased my own ego, for I'd felt I was at life's end for some time now. In truth, I barely remembered my goal in this self-imposed asceticism; all that remained was a lingering disenchantment for life and the living in general. I despised it all, especially those qualities that remained in myself, such as the residual ache that dug into the marrow of my bones along with every caustic breath that filled my lungs. I had been fighting this battle of attrition for quite some time, losing pieces of my former self with each day that passed. I didn't remember that person and I doubted anyone who did would see him in me either. My heart ached for fresh blood with each struggling beat and soon my mission would be complete; to escape this realm of causality to return to my original state of being. Though I'd been wrong before, this seemed to be the closest I'd ever come to reaching this end. My eyes struggled to stay open and my lungs fought to retain wind. Hunger had ravaged my organs some time ago, drawing from this vessel whatever sustenance it could acquire to retain itself. Delirium forced me to live through instances I had long since detached from, though their validity was questionable. Still I often heard voices from beyond attempting to coax me back into the world of the living. Saotome-dono! There's a light coming from this building! I think someone's in there! Another fleeting memory that would also pass, I dismissed the voice in favor of my own failing heartbeat. Hey! Is someone in there?! Yujin, get the rest of the excavation squad over here immediately! I think we've found a live one! I couldn't muster up the strength to give a response though my inner voice droningly chanted my sentiments: Go away. You may not be able to hear me or respond but hang on for a little longer, will ya?! Help is on the way! Go away. Go away. Go away. [/style][/style]

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[Nothing]

[cs=2][atrb=border,0,true][style=width: 400px;][style=font-family: trebuchet ms; text-transform: lowercase; text-align: center; font-size: 10px; font-style: italic; padding: 10 0 5 0;]I will show you something different from either Your shadow at morning striding behind you Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; I will show you fear in a handful of dust . . .[/style][style=float: left; margin: 20px; border: 1px #666666 solid;][/style][style=font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12.5px; text-align: justify;]The intruders' presence was... excruciating to put it lightly. Their indiscriminate raucous only set me deeper into my worldly cage, whose fetters became more and more established as jolts of pain coursed across every inch of my being. If this unfortunate turn of events had any purpose, it was to strength my contempt for humanity. Why would this plane not allow me to ascend? I'd learned some time ago there was no duty to fulfill in fighting for humanity, whose method was cyclical and only served to propagate it's own existence. There was no end to justify the means because there was no desire to work toward an end. Hey! I can finally see something! I think it's a body! Hey! Can you hear me?! Sometime during my willful withdrawal I'd forfeited the concept of time in an effort to escape this plane's recurring nature. All I remembered of it was pious debauchery alongside tribal warfare, that of which I zealously opposed. With what little cognition I retained I pondered: is this the world that I have been forcefully thrust back into? If so, why? What debt do I owe this hellish place? Is that a mummy?! Okay guys we've got something big here! We have to be careful during the extraction. My being was so cold, so dead that I could actually feel the warmth of life emitting from their presence. The closer they got the stronger it became until it melded in perfectly with the relentless shock crawling across my vessel. Alright fellas, we're going to slowly move him from his position on three. Don't touch me... One... Don't touch me! Two... Don't fucking touch me! Three! "GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!" [/style][/style]

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[Nothing]

[cs=2][atrb=border,0,true][style=width: 400px;][style=font-family: trebuchet ms; text-transform: lowercase; text-align: center; font-size: 10px; font-style: italic; padding: 10 0 5 0;]I will show you something different from either Your shadow at morning striding behind you Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; I will show you fear in a handful of dust . . .[/style][style=float: left; margin: 20px; border: 1px #666666 solid;][/style][style=font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12.5px; text-align: justify;]I could feel my lids part but only darkness filled them. It was an emptiness that caused me to question my whereabouts; had I finally passed on to the plane of the deceased? My query found it's answer the moment I attempted to move only to be jostled by the residual ache I'd grown used to. I was still here, damned to this existence, but I was still perplexed as to what had transpired. The last thing I recalled had been the benign intrusion of a curious sect of excavators. Was this another hallucination, set into motion by ego's attempt to establish itself? I wanted to believe so but this felt too real to be such an incidence. Setting my hands at both sides of my hips, I attempted to stand for the first time in I didn't know how long. The body I inhabited was not so willing to bend to my will, letting it's preference resound through shooting pains that struck at my resolve with fervor. Wanting nothing more than to remain it beckoned me through distress but I would not falter. My first step was strained and thoroughly blanketed in agony, still I strove to see it's fruition and soon after came the others. They were troublesome but I found the rhythm easy to reacquire. That was until... ! My footing was compromised by some unknown protrusion. Instinct forced me to reach out to whatever I imagined would keep me from falling, a futile effort that only placed more strain on my tormented vessel. I could feel fibers tear from lack of use and with a resounding thud I was back on the ground, huddled, in more pain that I ever remembered. My heart raced at a level that seemed foreign after so long, as if it was going to erupt from my chest outright. I struggled to keep my breathing in check and soon found myself flailing about the ground looking for something, anything to hold onto. And then suddenly, within the abysmal ruin's numbing cold grazed a subtle warmth against the pads of my fingers. I fought, grunting and moaning to bring myself closer to this warmth until I finally pulled the greater portion of my torso into it's embrace. Everything from my head to my chest, and arms lay cozily within this fleeting warm that permeated the bandages wrapped around my body. Soon I could feel it through the wrappings and right up against my flesh, a coddling sensation that I yearned to keep for my own. I had been strewn across this makeshift tomb's floor with the side of my head rested against the warmth, permeating the bandages on my face until they'd finally reached my lips and tongue, both unhealthily dry and lacking vitality. My tongue, much like the rest of me, fought to commune with the subtle heat, and when they met I found myself struggling to label a unmistakably familiar sensation that came thereafter. I fought to remember not only what I felt but what accompanied it, the stimuli that profoundly resonated with my existence and the memories associated with it. A variety of events passed through my mind, most of which recounted times where I had been pooling for sustenance. Tttttaaaaste, I slowly recalled. Taste. What was I tasting? Another fleeting set of images set me on a journey to reacquire pieces I had lost through times passed. These images were far different from the ones I'd previously envisioned, whose nature inherently begot a sense fulfillment and to some degree happiness. These images were far removed from such feelings as each one that passed carried an imprint of repulsion and loathing. Countless visions of crimson splayed about the bodies of men, women and children forced my stomach into a knot as I then discovered the connection between the sensation and the characteristics of what I perceived. The warmth I felt was indeed that of vitality, that which had long since abandoned my decrepit figure, and with that feeling came the reminiscent taste of iron. At that point it was clear to me that I had been reveling in what I once abhorred, a pool of fresh blood belonging the innocent excavators. What had I become?[/style][/style]

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[Nothing]

[cs=2][atrb=border,0,true][style=width: 400px;][style=font-family: trebuchet ms; text-transform: lowercase; text-align: center; font-size: 10px; font-style: italic; padding: 10 0 5 0;]I will show you something different from either Your shadow at morning striding behind you Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; I will show you fear in a handful of dust . . .[/style][style=float: left; margin: 20px; border: 1px #666666 solid;][/style][style=font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12.5px; text-align: justify;]Time had passed -- however long it may have been it felt like an eternity and that still wasn't long enough. The excavators' blood no longer retained the warmth it had and like the hungry ghost I felt I'd become, I knew my appetite could never be satiated with more. Still I yearned for it and that desire that brought me strength, I found new vigor that eventually brought me to my feet despite how much it pained me. Deliberate steps toward the tomb's newly formed aperture left me sloshing through the pervasive liquid until the moonlight hit my eyes and the dilapidated remains of the city was all I could see. As foreign as this was, it didn't surprise me that someone's selfish desire would leave this once prosperous city disheveled and a shadow of it's former self. I emerged from my tomb covered in blood with nothing to credit my past life. I remembered nothing. I possessed nothing. I was nothing. exit [/style][/style]

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[Haretsu]

nothing: 40 EXP

Rate:
10/10
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I loved it!
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