The world turned black… gray… everything lifeless. Why? Why were the colors disappearing like this?
I see their heavy feet dragging me like a donkey, each step booming in my head, each echo making my heart leap. Sounds mixed with the roar of blood in my ears, with the buzzing of a head that won't quiet. Where did the colors go? Did I close my eyes suddenly, or did the world itself die?
Everything around me became just a shadow, just a dark fog swallowing everything I knew about space and time. They reached a giant iron door that seemed like a gate to hell, only opening for those destined for torment. André was shoved inside roughly, sliding and falling to the ground. His body slammed against the solid cold, and the room swallowed him as an abyss swallows light. The door slammed shut behind him, its final creak echoing, then silence prevailed.
The darkness was thick, like a living thing crawling towards him. In the ceiling, a lamp hung from a rusty wire, with a feeble candle inside, dancing on the edge of extinction. The light flickered… and André trembled with it. André's eyes were half-closed, not from sleepiness, but from pain that gnawed at his face and his whole body, from the heat, from the pain, as if his body had become a piece of torment itself. Daniel… when will he come…? How long will I stay like this?
Every second that passed felt like an hour, and every heartbeat made the pain multiply, every pulse of pain etching me on the borders of helplessness and despair. Then the door opened with a sudden creak, and slow and deliberate steps entered the room. Every movement of the feet echoed in André's ears, as if it was putting pressure on his small body and weighing down the air around him. A voice reached the room: "Hello… hello."
Its effect on André was clear; the buzzing and dizziness swept through his body, his heart shuddered rapidly, and the air seemed heavier than ever before. It was Enzo… The voice reached him, wrapping the room like a cold knife, piercing his body from the inside, making his heart jump without mercy, and making the tips of his fingers tremble as if they were unable to carry the weight that was pressing on his body. Everything around him became heavy, even the air was pressing on his chest, almost suffocating him, and every breath he took passed with difficulty, leaving its mark on every cell of his trembling body. André raised his head with difficulty, his left eye almost closed from the pain of the burn, seeing the world with his right eye only, and everything seemed blurred and drawn with a dark shadow.
He caught a fleeting glimpse of Enzo, his heart pounding violently, and threads of pain interweaving with every movement. "You bastard… what are you after?" His voice came out broken, pained, but it carried a faint challenge despite his pain-ridden body. Enzo was standing before him, holding an iron rod that looked like a baseball bat, tapping his palm lightly with it as if he was testing its strength. His malicious smile… that bastard… he doesn't have any colors either.
Everything in him was dark and gloomy, as if he had swallowed the light itself and his soul. What is this? André thought. A sarcastic laugh poured from Enzo's mouth, filling the room then rebounding off the walls like a mirror echo. He leaned forward slightly, and his hand didn't stop tapping the iron rod on his palm, that small blow carrying a big threat.
"Don't be so dry with me… I just came to give you a little lesson." He spoke it in a sweet, cold tone, as if the words themselves were enjoying his delight. "Leave… I don't want to see you." André controlled himself, his body was groaning with pain, his heart beating violently, trying to persevere, trying not to fall before him, trying to prove to himself that he was stronger than that bastard. But every attempt collided with reality, with all the weight of the room and the darkness, and with Enzo's merciless eyes. But to no avail.
Enzo didn't leave, didn't move a step. That look that was on his face was enough to tell André that he didn't intend any good, he hadn't come to end it, but to start it. "Ha ha… too bad. I won't leave. It seems that you haven't grasped yet. You're in the hell room, that means there's no escape from me, you idiot."
His loud, cold laughter, extending between the walls of the room, was like a dagger piercing every hair in André's body, connecting his heart to fear and despair at the same moment. Enzo's steps approached more and more, until there were only a few centimeters between him and André. Every step of his was heavy, calculated, as if the earth itself was pressing on the child's chest. The air tightened, and every breath he took became a mission.
Enzo raised his hand slowly, and deliberately put his fingers on the burn mark; a touch like a second fire. A prolonged heat swept through his face, extended to the pit of his stomach, tearing every thread of the body's comfort. The pain exploded inside him, every part of his face began to shake, and his heartbeats became music for a storm. A scream erupted from him… sharp, broken, but loaded with a wild resolve: "I'm going to kill you, Enzo… do you hear me? I'll make you pay for everything!"
The words came out like a stone thrown from a pained chest; no voice could extinguish them. From a distant perspective, Enzo looked like someone waking up to an old desire. His eyes were gleaming with a comfortable coldness, as if the pleasure lay in observing how the other melts under his hand. Not just physical torture; it was a dance of testing, an attempt to measure the sharpness of the weakness then to enjoy it.
A faint laugh crept from between his lips, its sound echoing in the corner,