William's body hunched over, as his head drooped and his lungs hyperventilated. He clutched his chest as if it were about to burst open at any moment.
[Attribute: Monster, Holds the floodgates closed with all its might!]
Releasing his chest, he turned to look at the real Reiner, who was sitting cross-legged on the ground with a disfigured and mangled Nox in his hands.
"It's beautiful, isn't it? The rawest of emotions…" He murmured before turning his head to meet William's gaze.
"You seem…troubled. Let me share a story to appease your concerns."
He licked his lips with a foggy grin. "Once upon a time, there was a child who lived in a wealthy home, pampered, spoiled, and rotten. He was a brat, and he knew it. Then one fateful day.." He took a short pause, twirling a silvery knife in his hand, holding it very close to Nox's right eye. "A young woman came to town, charmed the boy's oh so charming and wealthy father, and made him toss the old garbage into the can." Chuckling slightly, he slid his left hand's index finger and thumb around Nox's right eye socket. "The two forsaken puppies had to make do with only scraps, with the mother having to do any type of job to make ends meet…" His fingers slowly dug into the edges of the socket, while Nox screamed and thrashed in pure, undistilled agony. His eyes were wide, unable to blink.
Smiling uncannily at William, Reiner continued to dig even deeper in Nox's skull. "And with this, 'wonderful' gift, the boy turned to a life of...unorthodox jobs. Being a conman, private investigator, petty thief, you name it. It was a simple life for him, and his mother was able to take things easier because of the influx of money, which he lied about the origins of. Miraculously, she didn't question it, out of pure desperation..." His hazy black eyes peered directly into William's soul. "Then one day, a fancy-looking businessman offered to take the two of them in! A true savior!" Cackling maniacally, he clawed at the edges of Nox's right eye, tearing slightly into its flesh, while Nox barely clung onto life.
"He took the two abandoned rats into the comfort of his home, then into the dark basement he had underground."
"The mother was blinded by hope, and only the child could think straight, realizing the situation they were in, yet was dragged along by the mother amid scornful yelling. Then, the man locked them in a cellar. Brandishing a pristine steel cleaver, he planned to harvest their organs and sell them for copious sums of money."
Staring into the distance with unfocused eyes, he clenched into Nox's socket and yanked out his eye in one fell swoop. This caused Nox to lose consciousness from the sheer amount of pain he felt in that moment. "The mother was quite broken after realizing the man's intentions, bawling, sobbing, crying pathetically. However, if there was one thing that fear couldn't take away from her, it was maternal love. She laid down her life, screaming, punching, kicking, all for the sake of her child." His voice shook, as if recalling the memory with machine-like accuracy.
"Though, since the woman was starved and weak from living on the streets for so long, the man easily overtook her. He butchered her into small cubes right in front of the child, splattering her blood, guts, and organs all over the basement. Now, get this…" He laughed while staring at the torn-off eye in his hand. "The kid laughed and smiled, before taking an opportunity and stabbing the man in the eye with one of his mother's bones, penetrating his skull...and ending his forgettable story." As he spoke that last word with vigorous intent, he squeezed the eye with all of his strength, causing it to burst, gushing all sorts of gnarly liquids all over his hand.
"Then the kid lived happily ever after..."
Reiner laughed sarcastically.
"You see, Truthseeker, this world is out of line. I'm not an insufferable villain or a blind hero. I'm just the person who shows the world how crooked it really is." A glaring ghostly grin flashed.
Then, he gripped Nox by the neck and swiftly put an end to his suffering with an echoic 'crack'.
Dusting his hands lightly, he assumed a more concentrated, composed posture.
"I'll tell you the rest of the story if we ever meet again after today, William! But it's time we get to business, that being, you."
He calmly walked towards William; with each step he took, the night echoed.
Still clutching Lian's body in his arms, William stared equally as hard back, as a tension arose in his jaw.
Wanting to do something so badly, but unable to bring himself to move.
His hands shook repeatedly, as his facial expressions took on an even more vacant look. In short intervals, even his breaths were forgotten, still caught up in an illusion of the past.
On her arm, he had noticed a unique-looking bracelet with strange engravings and made of an illusory metal.
Shaking his head lightly, he declined the urge of avarice. It'd be disrespectful to the dead.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Reiner walked ever closer, as calm as could be.
"I see her every second of every day…Ain't that fun? Just bits and bits of what once was a human being…" His voice was shaky and punctuating, yet somehow steady and soft at the same time, a mutilating dichotomy.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
As he crouched down in front of William, he grabbed his chin with frightening speed.
"Who do you think was in the wrong, the father, or the woman who tore him away from his family?" He put his left hand on William's forehead whilst licking his lips, his bloody hands leaving crimson imprints all over Will's skin as he began to speak with him.
In a deadpan voice devoid of all emotion, he replied succinctly. "Both are guilty."
Reiner chose not to make any reaction to William's words. "That's a correct answer. However, the true answer is that humanity itself is at fault. Everyone is guilty in this world, even a newborn infant bears sin."
William stared emptily into the endless void above, allowing raindrops to pool into his eyes. "I see. " He took a short pause before continuing. "I wonder...why me of all people?"
"I have my own reasons for keeping you alive, one being that we are alike and opposites at the same time." His lips curled with a comical grin. "A man pretending to be a monster, or a monster who lives as a man, which one do you think you are?"
[Attribute: Monster, lashes out in anger.]
Upon seeing the notification, Reiner laughed. "Anger? I remember a time when I was enslaved by anger. Bitter memories, those were..." He pulled his hair as if enraged by something immaterial. "...Nevertheless...Anger is the loser's game, so don't play it."
Running his fingers through his hair, he spoke the next sudden sentence with unwavering conviction.
"You...are my antithesis, the yin to my yang, the-
"The ketchup to your French fries? Sorry, don't know what got into me just now..." William provocatively called out.
Reiner stared at him with a dead expression, before lighting up and continuing like he hadn't said anything. "I have been...observing you for quite some time now...I'm sure you know by now, and with thou comes the truth. The most vile thing about you..." He effervescently bellowed.
"You hide yourself beyond a mask of erroneous depth, a persona that protects your true self from all that opposes it. Your inner 'monster', of sorts."
"..." William's jaw fell slightly, as silence poured out of it.
"Well? Cat snatched your tongue, is it?" As he said this, he reached into William's mouth and grabbed hold of his tongue, twirling the silvery knife in his other hand menacingly.
Suddenly, a chilling bident was thrust in Reiner's direction, forcing him to let go of William's tongue and step back.
A shrill bass of laughter rang out. "I see...you've still got some fight in you." He raised his hands as a showing of unwillingness to fight. "Well, there's no need for that. I may have orchestrated the death of your allies and comrades, but out of all those people, there was only one you really cared about, and even then, it was an echo."
Feeling rage boil inside of him for the first time in more than half a decade, William took a deep breath, stared blankly into the distance, and replied calmly and slowly, whilst thinking of everything that had happened in these short few days.
"I must say, that is quite the speech you just said; however, you got one thing wrong."
[Attribute: Monster vehemently denies your action!]
Reiner's eyebrows raised. "What was that thing, pray tell?"
As Lian's corpse was laid to rest on the cold, muddy earth, William coldly stared at the notification that appeared in front of him, finally choosing to acknowledge it.
"That's enough from you."
[Attribute: Monster rejects your will!]
William coughed and sputtered as if being electrocuted. Although he hated to admit it, what the man with platinum blonde hair said…
'It was true. And so…I think my time of passivity is finally coming to an end. Because...' A mournful smile was worn on his face.
Gritting his teeth, his gaze fell on the notification box once more.
"I said…That's Enough."
He firmly placed his hand over the notification and gripped it tightly.
Crash!
The notification cracked, glitched, and dissolved into a glitchy mess of illusory text in quick succession.
[Attribute: Monster, has been deactivated.]
'deep down...I cared about every single goddamn one of them.'
And with it went William's consciousness, as he fell to the ground with a 'thud'.
"It seems I was right about you after all. Thank you for the assistance." Reiner chuckled to himself before his smile vanished.
"Ah…I hate laughter."
He approached William's unconscious body and pressed his left index finger on his forehead, while placing his right finger on his own forehead, activating one of his abilities to follow him discreetly.
—--------------------------------------------------