Leon Estes was dead.

At least, it felt like he was.

After all, he had just been shot, right?

His eyes snapped open. He visibly trembled with anger as he clenched his fists.

‘I’ll kill them. I’ll kill them, the bastards!’

He punched a wall, denting it severely.

“WHY?! JUST WHY?!”

He grabbed his hair, trying to find a way to relieve himself of this intense anger. His breath quickened, anger pulsing every time he even thought about his little sister. What were they doing to her?

Reaching out to lean on the wall, he tried to calm down, emptying his mind.

“Whoo…” He breathed out, trying to push the anger back.

Calming down, and letting the adrenaline slowly fade away, he began to focus on his current situation.

‘Now, where am I?’ He wondered, staring around the room he was in.

The room was extremely bright, almost annoyingly so. However, Leon couldn’t see where the light source was coming from. The room’s walls were white, and so was the floor. It was like he was going blind.

‘Is this what death is?’ He wondered as he paced around the room. ‘Being stuck inside a room?’

However, as he was walking, a ding on his right jerked him back.

[You have entered the Abyss]

‘What?’ Leon tentatively reached out to touch the pale blue screen that had just appeared out of nowhere, but the notification quickly disappeared, replaced by another one.

[Endure the Darkness]

‘The darkness?’ He couldn’t help but laugh bitterly.

‘I’m in a room so bright I’m going blind. What darkness?’ He thought, just as the lights started to dim around him.

Soon the lights vanished completely, leaving him in complete darkness.

‘Oh. So that’s what they meant.’

Leon sat down on the hard ground. ‘Well, I guess this ain’t that bad.’

However, the darkness was a bit weird. It was just a bit too dark.

Normally, since the walls had been bright white, you should be able to see them a bit, right? However, no matter how much he strained his eyes, he could only see the darkness.

And soon, the darkness slowly became suffocating. It was like it was gaining gravity, bearing down on him like a huge weight.

Trying to break the silence, Leon began whistling a tune, a sharp contrast to the dullness of the room. However, he lost the will to do so and sat in silence.

Pretty soon, leaning against a wall, he fell asleep.

***

When Leon woke up again, he was so disoriented by the darkness that he screamed, thinking that he saw something horrific approaching him.

After he calmed down, he tried to figure out what time it was. How long had he been asleep?

He gingerly stretched his neck muscles. After sleeping leaning on a wall, his neck felt stiff as a metal pole.

Standing up, he started to pace around, trying to keep his muscles active. However, after bumping into the walls multiple times in the darkness, he soon gave up.

‘Ugh. How long am I supposed to be stuck here for?’

***

Leon wearily looked around the darkness around him. How long has it been?

Sighing, he stood up and stretched. Lately, that was the only question he had been asking.

The time when the lights had turned off seemed like a century away already.

He sat down and leaned once again on the wall.

Lately, he had had way too much time to think. Most of it was regret for his parents and little sister.

‘Why did you have to die?’ He thought. Although his eyes stung, he didn’t cry. He had used up all of the tears already.

However, his anger seemed like a waterfall, as it still hadn't trickled out. As he thought about the message on the wall, his fury slowly once again built in his heart.

‘You better enjoy life while you can, Victor. When I find you, I’m going to torture you so bad, that you’ll wish for death.’ Remembering the grand-niece part, he added, ‘whether you're my family or not.’

Though.. to call Ollie his grand-niece? That would make this Victor guy his grandpa’s brother?

Right? He wasn’t too sure about how family trees worked.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

To Leon’s knowledge, he hadn’t ever heard of his grandfather ever having a brother. However, he didn’t know his grandfather well, as he had passed away when Leon was five years old.

He stretched out across the floor, shivering at the coldness of it.

‘How long has it been?

***

Leon had started to hear a thudding sound that was driving him insane.

Trying to muffle it, he began to let out a sharp shriek.

The sound cut through the darkness, however, as his throat grew sore and scratchy, the darkness again pressed down on him.

Rubbing his throat, Leon wondered why he wasn’t thirsty. It felt weird to be here so long and not have to eat or drink.

‘Maybe it’s because I’m dead?’

Tiredly looking around the darkness, he wondered why nothing had happened yet.

“Hey! Notifications?! Are you out there?!” He shouted, wincing as his throat began throbbing from the shout.

“Let me out already!”

***

“Please just shut up!”

The throbbing had begun increasingly louder, filling Leon’s whole being with annoyance.

He swiped at the air, trying to hit something, anything.

He crouched down, covering his ears in a desperate attempt to cancel out the sound.

“Just please…”

“SHUT UP!”

However, the throbbing sounds paid him no mind. Instead, it became even louder, like it was mocking him. As Leon’s annoyance and anger exploded, he started yelling into the darkness, his face red with fury.

“AGH! PLEASE!”

“JUST FOR A SECOND!”

“STOPPP!”

***

Leon was whimpering on the cold floor, curled up into a ball.

However, no matter how much he tried to pull his body closer, he just felt so cold.

The dull throbbing had also evolved into a sharp knocking sound on his skull.

Why’s my room so dark? Did the power go out?’ He thought, trying to see in the darkness. Leon began calling out. “Mom… dad? Where are you?”

Where could they be?

Leon touched his forehead. It seemed like it was blazing hot. Was he sick?

‘Maybe they went to get my medicine?’

Yeah, that must be it.

They would be back any second.

He was sure of it.

***

Ghosts were surrounding Leon.

‘Why couldn’t you save me? Why are you so pathetic? Why?’ They cried, looming at the corner of his vision, but disappearing the moment he tried to look in their direction.

“No.. go away.” He murmured, cuddling into an even tighter ball.

However, one ghost finally had the nerve to go in front of him. Her plump, cute face peered down at him, the innocence in her eyes more piercing than any words previously spoken by the ghosts. He could almost feel her soft blonde hair tickling his arms.

“Bruwther. Why didwnt you save me?

“NOO! GO AWAY. I’M SORRY!”

In desperation, Leon lunged at the ghosts, trying to dispel them. However, his hands passed through empty air.

“P-please…”

Leon fell onto the ground in hopelessness. His bloodshot eyes looked into the darkness, trying to find some light within them.

“W-why?”

***

Leon was scratching at himself repeatedly.

Why was his face so itchy?

Lines of crimson appeared on his face as his uncut nails dragged jagged lines of blood into the flesh. However, he didn’t notice the blood.

He couldn’t feel the pain that was so insignificant to the pain he was feeling around his body.

At least he was now numb to the piercing cold. It seemed like he had become the cold now, feeling the cold had nestled even deeper inside his very being.

He groaned as the thudding in his head suddenly hit him like a hammer. Everything hurt now for him. It was like the darkness was pain itself.

‘Please… someone let me out of here.’

***

When Leon woke up again, all he saw was a huge, horrific face looking down over him.

Shrieking in terror, he scrambled back, his bladder letting loose urine in the shock.

However, the sickly smell of the urine seemed to excite the monstrosity even more, scrambling to get to Leon, the skidding sound it made on the ground as its claws skidded across the floor strangely made him even more sick.

“NO! GET AWAY FROM ME!”

He ran, until he tripped over his scrambling feet, smacking face-first into the floor. He cried out as he felt his nose and mouth rip open.

As blood ran down his face from the impact, the monster’s face slowly shifted to the maniac that had killed his family, his grin as wide as ever.

“NO! PLEA-”

As the ghost of the maniac began to giggle in that horrible screeching sound of his, Leon suddenly felt a pain he had never felt before, a feeling almost like thousands of needles had pierced him.

It quickly overcame him as he screamed, and tears he had thought he had dried out began streaming down his face. He started vomiting a white acidic liquid onto the floor, collapsing onto the ground.

Letting out an inhumane shriek, he began clawing at the walls. “LET ME OUT!”

***

The man stared impassively at the screaming boy on the screen in front of him.

“He endured far better than we had expected.” A voice came from behind him. Turning around, he looked at the women. With the smooth, silky white hair, and crimson eyes that seemed to pierce your soul, and the beautiful black dress that seemed to accentuate her curves, she was breathtaking.

However, the man had long lost his feelings for him to care about such trivial things. Now, he was just focused on the completion of his life’s task.

“Yes. Pull him out now. We can’t risk him losing his mind too much.”

“Okay.” She said, slipping out a small turquoise orb from a fine dark wood cabinet.

Then she crushed it, the fine blue and greenish shards falling to the floor.

Glancing at the screen, the woman sighed, her black dress fluttering.

‘But to last that long in there.. what kind of monster have they created?’

After all, even she wasn’t sure if she could last the eight months in there that he had.

“Where is he going now anyway?”

The man looked back to the screen. His impassive face closed up even more, making it look like he was wearing a mask made of human flesh.

“He’s going to go in deeper.”

“Deeper?” Although the woman wasn’t easily surprised, she was this time. “Can he even survive if he goes in any deeper?”

After all, not even the man in front of him could last that long in the Abyss.

“This is their last chance. They had to have given him something they never gave any of the other incarnations before.” He replied, turning back to her. “However, don’t question my actions again. Remember your place.”

Hearing his words, the woman visibly stiffened as the person's aura increased. Although the power increase was set so low, the woman could still feel the cold sweat pouring down her face.

“Y-yes. I’m very sorry. It won’t happen again.”

Turning back, the woman stumbled out of the room.

Leaning against the outside wall, she sighed with relief.

‘That boy may be a monster, but at least he belongs in this world.’

‘That man, however… he shouldn’t exist.’

‘He’s too powerful.’