3. The Torture

Rai fell to his knees as soon as he heard their ear-piercing laughter. Rai crawled backward to get away from them. All his courage had vanished, like the blood dripping from his ears. Especially, when the monster's presence appeared before him.

Initially, it was only a voice that appeared. So now, one by one, the monsters appeared before him, fully formed humans. But only their bodies were human. Other than that, they had nothing worthy of being called human.

They are humans who lack blood, life, and soul. Their faces are also hideous. Some have sharp teeth, wide mouths, and eyes that bulge out of their sockets, similar to anglerfish. Some are reminiscent of ghosts from fairy tales and legends. It has big fangs, long, hairy hair, a head that is significantly larger than its body, and arms that reach almost to the floor.

Not only that, but their bodies also emitted a foul odor. It made breathing difficult for Rai because the more he breathed, the less oxygen he could collect in his chest cavity. His lungs, like the rest of his body, felt paralyzed. Rai gradually forgot who he was. Why was he in this location? What is his name? Who is he? What is causing these strange things to appear in front of him?

"I'm sorry, Jihan," Rai hissed.

But his sister's words echoed back inside Rai's head, strengthening him.

"You have to prepare yourself, Rai! I can't take care of you forever," said Aruna, their older sister, a police officer, talk to him. "From now on, you will take care of Jihan, Rai!"

At that point, Rai nodded reluctantly. Whether he liked it or not, he promised to protect his sisters because he was the only one who could be trusted. Rai wasn't too sure, but this was a promise he had to keep.

However, the conversation was very cryptic. He had now lost Jihan, but his promise hadn't broken. He could still keep it. As a result, Rai tried to come to his senses, even though he was being tortured in such a way by the endless laughter of the monsters. Rai tried to bite his lip until it stung, and his head began to spin from losing so much blood.

Rai began to lose consciousness; he could not stand the torture of the monsters, so he began to hallucinate. The voices of his father, mother, brother, and Jihan constantly echoed inside his head. Rai felt like he was going crazy. The monsters tormented him not only with the sound of their laughter but also with a deep sense of regret. All his mistakes appeared one by one in his head.

"Please stop...." Rai pleaded, tears welling up in her eyes. The torture was horrible.

But his pleas were ignored by the monsters. They continued to laugh. Their voices sounded hoarse and broken, like a sound coming from the depths of an abyss. And the louder they laughed, the more painful Rai's torture became, and the more blood dripped from his ears, nose, and mouth.

"Torture him...."

"Kill him! Kill!!!"

"Take his body..."

"Steal his soul...."

Rai didn't care what they said. He had never felt such a stabbing pain, like a sharp knife slicing through his skin. Stinging is very painful and terrible. His head felt like it was going to burst, and Rai tried to focus his mind on one side to try to relieve the pain he was experiencing.

Angry that the pain he was experiencing was not going away, he smashed his head against the crumbling, cobbled floor of the house. Rai did it repeatedly in an attempt to wake himself up. He hoped that everything he was going through was an illusion, a dream.

His head kept hitting the stone floor very hard. But, instead of coming to his senses, Rai became increasingly dazed and in pain. Because clearly, everything he was experiencing right now was not just an empty dream. Everything was real. It was those monsters that had kidnapped her sister. She must not give up or go mad because of their presence. If not, then Jihan's condition would get worse.

Rai attempted to brace himself in order to remain calm in the face of all of this. That, however, did not last long. One of the monsters approached, walking towards Rai. The foul smell of his body made Rai's lungs feel like they were going to explode; he was unable to stand the stench that came out of the monster's body.

Once in front of him, the monster roughly grabbed Rai's face with its slimy hands, causing Rai to throw his head back involuntarily. Rai could finally see the monster's face very clearly. And immediately, his fear got the better of him. Especially when the monster scratched Rai's cheek with its long nails, leaving him with a fifteen-centimeter-deep gash.

"Arghhhh!!!" Rai screamed in agony as the monster's long, sharp nails scratched his cheek.

But it wasn't just him who cried out in agony; the monster did as well. The monster's even took a step back from Rai, watching its nails smoke and disintegrate into ash. And it wasn't just the nails that were wrong; the hand that had injured Rai slowly smoked and dissolved into ash. It all happened so quickly that Rai was complete, unaware of what was going on, but the monster that had injured him had been blown away by the wind, becoming dust and nothing.

Knowing that one of them turned into ashes as soon as it wounded Rai, the monsters' voices echoed again. They were full of rage. The monsters grumbled and growled in a language that no one could understand. After that, they walked towards Rai, surrounded him from various directions, and one by one turned into puffs of black smoke and entered Rai's body forcibly.

"Arrrghhhh!!!"

Rai screamed, and the monster apparently attacked Rai by becoming smoke. They attacked from inside his veins directly.

"Argghhhhh!" The sound of Rai's screams of pain again echoed throughout the old house.

The monsters attacked him, entering his body, and Rai could vaguely see blood dripping more and more out of all his pores. Rai felt like he was going to die soon. His body was tossed into the air. His joints felt dislocated. His bones were broken forcibly, and his body appeared to be ripped apart. And his body seemed to be skinned. Rai had never experienced such agony in his life. To the point that he had difficulty thinking and breathing.

Rai's body began to feel cold and flooded with his own blood. While the monsters continued to whizz, in and out of his body, like thousands of needles and continued to destroy Rai from within. His blood dripped, coming out of every pore in his body.