His eyes opened after a long suspension of sleep.
A ceiling whose details he could not distinguish.
For several minutes, there was no sensation in his body at all, as though he existed only as a seeing entity, nothing more than reflected light striking pupils that had been born anew.
Sensation finally flowed back into his face, like a river running across jagged stone. When it reached his ears, hearing returned with it, and once again he heard her voice.
"Rozen… did you sleep well? I do not think so. Sleep more."
His body stirred with sudden alertness. Rozen rose and looked around, only to find himself once again in the same smooth chamber, without doors and without windows.
Lilac light poured in from nowhere in particular.
A strange feeling seized him. Memories of his wounds surfaced, and he examined himself. They were healing, sealed beneath stains of some unfamiliar powder.
The young man opened his mouth, then closed his eyes and spoke.
(Rozen): "Whatever game you are playing here, I ask only that you end it. We have both seen what became of me. You have won, whoever you are. I admit defeat. Just… let this end."
Silence spread.
Rozen thought she was preparing a reply, but instead she abandoned him to an overwhelming isolation.
He began feeling along the walls, searching for the edge of the door through which he had entered before. The girl laughed.
" The door is gone. You will not leave unless you convince me to let you go."
Rozen looked up at the ceiling, searching for the source of the voice. He turned in every direction, then spoke.
(Rozen): "I understand now. You are deranged. You are torturing me to satisfy your diseased instincts."
She did not answer.
Rozen felt that he had failed. He spoke again.
(Rozen): "How do I satisfy you? Just let me out of this nightmare and I will do whatever you want."
Her reply came, stripped of emotion.
"Nothing about you, around you, or made by you will satisfy me."
Rozen's face stiffened as a deep cold passed through him.
(Rozen): "Then tell me what you want me to convince you of."
A table emerged behind him, positioning itself at the center of the lilac chamber. Upon it lay a hammer, impossibly clean and polished.
Rozen's facial muscles slackened as a sensation far beyond fear overtook him. The girl spoke.
"Guess what I want you to do."
Rozen's heart went cold. He could not answer for several seconds.
(Rozen): "Do you want me to break one of the walls?"
The girl laughed strangely. Her laughter continued until it became something that struck the soul before the body. Then it stopped. Silence stretched between them for several minutes.
She spoke again, emotionless.
" The walls of this room cannot be broken. There is no escape except by staining this hammer with your blood and fragments of your bones, until its color changes and it fills with echo. Only then will I assess whether you deserve to leave this room."
Rozen's eyes widened as though seeing light for the first time. His heart leapt past fear itself. What he had heard aligned with no logic. Despite the clarity of the demand, he could not comprehend it and turned it over slowly, searching for meaning.
He walked toward the hammer, studying its flawless surface and gleaming metal. He grasped its handle, examined its head, then its spike and sharpness. He set it aside, his laughter rising slowly. It was brief, hysterical.
He walked to a corner and sat, watching the lilac light drift through the cursed chamber. He remained seated until sleep took him, praying not to wake again.
Hours later, Rozen awoke with his stomach twisting in hunger. He scanned every corner of the room. Gathering courage, he seized the hammer and struck one of the walls.
A piece crumbled.
Excitement surged through him. He struck again. And again. And again.
For three hours he hammered steadily, debris piling into a mound of dust and stone. He wiped his brow and realized something deeply strange. Despite the relentless pounding, the cavity in the wall had not deepened at all.
The girl spoke.
(The Girl): "Place the hammer at the center of the table."
(Rozen): "Does this frighten you?"
(The Girl): "Yes. To save your time and mine, place the hammer on the table."
Rozen felt a rush of exhilaration and obeyed. The table sank, revealing another table bearing a larger hammer, even cleaner, even sharper.
Rozen froze.
The girl spoke.
"Do not delay. I have all eternity to watch. If you stain this hammer with anything other than your blood, flesh, bone, and skin, I will bring a larger one, sharper still. Perhaps I will melt its iron as well. Who knows."
Rozen stared at the wall he had struck. It was whole again.
He stepped away from the table slowly and sat in another corner. A day and a half passed. He rose and spoke.
(Rozen): "I will not break a fingernail to please you. If remaining here requires this, then starving to death is better than your absurdity."
She did not reply.
Three days passed as he moved from corner to corner, hunger and exhaustion consuming him, until movement ceased altogether and he lay dying, breaths heavy with collapse.
Then a door opened at the center of the room.
Rozen looked at it and knew with certainty that he could not reach it. He closed his eyes calmly and welcomed death with dignity.
Then she spoke.
"Enter, my brutal knights."
Two massive guards entered, wearing wild rabbit helmets. They carried a sack of nails and bundles of rusted knives and cleavers.
Rozen's body shook violently. He could not move. His breathing faltered as saliva spilled from his mouth in terror.
Each executioner seized one of his arms. He tried to resist, panic tearing his heart apart, but he was powerless. They slammed him onto the table.
Rozen screamed.
(Rozen): "What are you doing? What does this mean to you? Do not do this!"
The girl spoke.
"Beg me."
The executioners crushed his wrists until they shattered. Rozen screamed.
She spoke again.
"No. Do not hurt him. He is dear to me. He is the human most present in my thoughts."
They drove massive nails through his four limbs, pinning them to the table. They hammered the nails down to the rhythm of Rozen's screams.
(The Girl): "How dare you disobey my command."
Blood poured over the wild rabbit helmets, crimson mixing with the golden inscriptions etched upon them in an unreadable language.
For the first time, something broke within Rozen.
(Rozen): "Obey her command."
She spoke again.
"How dare you. Did I not order you to drive the nail of the diaphragm first?"
Darkness swallowed Rozen's vision.
"..What?"
One executioner produced a nail as long as a short staff and placed it between Rozen's abdomen and chest. Rozen convulsed, tearing against his restraints, screaming hysterically. Terror locked every muscle. Tears finally fell.
One rabbit struck the nail while the other held it steady.
Rozen screamed, a sound that split the air.
For hours they tortured him, hammering, cutting, tearing with everything they could find.
Minutes became days. Exhaustion brought no numbness. Rozen wept deeply, like a child who cries for the sake of crying, easing the weight of agony.
Three more hours passed.
Finally, his eyes closed. The crying stopped.
Like the lilac light fading into darkness, both rabbit guards vanished before complete stillness fell.
That was all.
It ended completely.