Heka stood frozen, his heart pounding wildly in his chest. Time seemed to slow as his eyes locked onto the horrifying scene unfolding before him. The lamp above his parents shattered violently, sending shards of glass flying through the air like deadly daggers.
Each fragment glinted ominously in the dim light, slicing through the space with merciless precision. An erratic electric current sparked from the exposed wires, crackling with lethal energy as it arced toward his parents.
His body went limp, as if the shockwaves of fear and disbelief had paralyzed him. The world around him blurred, the edges of reality bending and twisting in a surreal haze.
Was this real? Or was it some cruel nightmare conjured by his mind? He desperately wished it was the latter. He closed his eyes tightly, willing himself to wake up, to escape this torment and return to the safety of the human realm where such horrors could not touch him.
But the screams shattered any hope of illusion. The piercing cries of agony and terror echoed through the room, raw and unmistakably real. They clawed at his soul, anchoring him to the moment with brutal clarity.
What happened this time convinced him of daydreaming. He jumped over time. His parents had died right in front of him. It was unreasonable events. It was definitely a dream.
But there was something that convinced him that he was not dreaming at all. Everyone's screams felt so real to him.
This was no dream. His parents were dying right before his eyes, and the cruel hand of fate was mercilessly tearing them away.
When both of them felt down, he did not stay silent. He leapt forward, driven by desperation and love, determined to save them from the deadly shards and the electric shock. To determine whether he was dreaming or not.
Just as he surged toward his parents, a firm hand gripped his arm. Clancy's voice broke through the chaos, trembling with fear and urgency. "Heka…!!! Don't close!!! It's too dangerous."
Her eyes were wide with panic, her body trembling as she tried to pull him back. Around them, others joined in, their hands reaching out to restrain him, their faces etched with helplessness and dread.
Heka could only scream for them. He tried to escape from everyone who prevented it."Let me go! I have to save them!" But the invisible barrier of concern and fear held him fast.
Meanwhile, Clancy's father, his face pale and determined, scrambled toward the circuit breaker. His fingers fumbled over the switch, searching frantically for the power cutoff that might stop the deadly current.
And then, with a sudden, sickening crack, the power surged one last time before the lights flickered and died.
After the power went out, Clancy released Heka. She let Heka approach them.
It was too late.
Heka's heart shattered along with the lamp. The screams faded into a haunting silence, leaving only the heavy weight of loss and the bitter sting of helplessness. The nightmare was no longer a dream, it was his reality.
The others moved swiftly, their hands and voices working in frantic unison to free those still ensnared among the twisted wreaths.
The air was thick with tension, the scent of rain mingling with the metallic tang of blood and the acrid smell of burnt wires. Every second felt like an eternity as they struggled against the cruel bindings that held them captive.
But Heka's world had narrowed to a single point of focus. He dashed forward, his legs pounding against the wet ground, his breath ragged and uneven. When he reached them, he dropped to his knees and wrapped his arms tightly around their broken forms.
The rain poured down relentlessly, but it was powerless to wash away the torrent of tears streaming down his face. Blood seeped through the fabric of his shirt, warm and sticky, a stark reminder of the brutal reality he faced.
"This is not a dream. But this is all real." He whispered hoarsely, his voice trembling with disbelief and pain.
With trembling hands, he grasped his mother's wrist, searching for the faintest sign of life. His fingers pressed against the cold skin, seeking a pulse, a heartbeat. But there was nothing. No rhythm, no warmth, no sign that life still lingered.
His heart plummeted into an abyss of shock and despair. The silence screamed louder than any cry. There was no time left. No chance to save them.
Behind the veil of his tears, a haunting memory surfaced. Ansel's warning spoken with a grave certainty that now echoed like a curse in his mind. "Bloody marriage, that's what you have to pay for. So you shouldn't accept Soul Delivery."
At first, Heka had dismissed Ansel's words as mere bravado, a warning born of fear or superstition. But now, faced with the devastating truth, he understood the weight of those words. They were not empty threats.
He had been blinded by obsession, driven by a desperate hope to grasp Soul Delivery, to transcend the boundaries of life and death. Despite Ansel's repeated cautions, he had pressed forward, stubborn and defiant.
And now, the price had been paid in full.
It was his fault. His relentless pursuit had doomed his parents. He had sacrificed them on the altar of his own desires.
"Mom… Dad…. I'm sorry. It's all my fault…" His voice broke, barely more than a whisper carried on the wind.
The world around him faded into a blur of sorrow and regret. The nightmare was no longer a distant fear. It was his reality, and the price of his choices was written in blood.
Unfortunately, it was all too late. The cruel finality of the moment pressed down on Heka's chest like an unyielding weight. No amount of regret, no desperate wish to rewind time, could undo what had been done.
The shattered fragments of his parents' lives could never be pieced back together. No apology, no act of contrition, could breathe life into their still bodies. The past was sealed, and with it, the unbearable truth that some losses were irrevocable.
He had only wanted to escape the relentless torment of insomnia, that cruel thief of peace and sanity. Just a brief reprieve, a few days of restful sleep, was all he had ever asked for.