The Ranch

Wakey Wakey (1)

Something that would normally take an hour at least to complete, is solved by Kai in less than thirty seconds. With the finished image in his head, he now physically moves all the pieces together to form a giant triangle.

Moving on to the next side, sweat drips down Kai's face as the mental pressure increases. The timer and the visible wall that's coming down adds layer to anyone that takes this trial. It takes immense mental fortitude to keep concentrating on the pieces in front of you. The awareness of the impending wall makes people lose focus and calmness. Even if you can focus of the pieces, the fear of being crushed makes your hands unsteady. Previous challengers would often drop pieces due to shaky hands and unfocused eyes.

Kai, on the other hand, is unnaturally calm in this unplanned situation. With steady hands, he finished the second and third shape, which were a hexagon and a pentagon. This type of mental fortitude is not something one is born with. It is something gained through experience.

Of course Tih would be a discrepancy. Speaking of that child, he is also currently going through his own battle. He has been for the past month.

Tih has been fighting for control of his body over the red blood that appeared in his eyes. His consciousness is currently in a purely black world, fighting with a blood red wisp. Tih looks like a fainter version of himself. Dark mist is seeping out of him, giving his a ghostly appearance.

The black and red sparks fly as the two collide. Tih's body grows fainter every time they meet, but Tih does not notice. He has no control as his body moves around uncontrollably.

They clash three more times. The wisp grows smaller each time and Tih's body grows even fainter. If this continues, they will self-destruct, taking each other down with them.

As Tih moves towards the red wisp once again, a subconscious voice rings through his head. "-ild."

The familiarity wakes Tih up somewhat. He turns towards the direction of the sounds, but before he can leave, he is attacked once again. Tih's loses focus and the voice is drowned out.

It's not until two hits later that the voice comes back, even clearer this time. "Child...come-"

The fog from his mind clears a little. He dodges the wisp before heading into the direction of the voice. The black void surrounding him starts to fade and the imagery of a forest comes into view. Tih walks onto the dirt that cuts of the black void. He passes shrubs and trees and the forest grows denser and denser. The further he walks the clearer the voice becomes. "Please wake up, my child. You need to wake up."

The shadow Tih finds a familiar old man hugging an infant's body. The old man is on the verge of tears, his face cut and bleeding. He grips tightly onto the small body, rocking back and forth as he respects his words," Wake up child. Please wake up."

Shadow Tih walks up to the not much smaller boy in the old man's arms. He sees a red haze around the child. Instinctively, the shadow swirls the haze, collecting it all into the shape of a ball. The haze is thickened into a dark red liquid the size of a drop. The black haze around the shadow move to surround the drop, trapping it. The shadow returns the now black drop into the child's body.

The child's eyelids move to reveal crystal clear blue eyes. The infant looks at the slightly older shadow child before the infant, old man, and forest disappear.

Pain ripples through the now conscious shadow as it grows fainter. Shadow Tih turns around to see a thicker and larger version of the haze around the infant.

Knowing what he needs to do, he struggles against the attacks and the weakening feeling of his conscious. The shadow can handle at most two or three more attacks from the red wisp. Luckily, the wisp is already in a weakened state from their fight earlier.

Finding a chance, Tih allows himself to get hit by an attack. He uses their close distance to wrap his black haze around the wisp. Realizing what the shadow is trying to do, the red wisp becomes agitated, wildly attacking in all directions of the haze. The attacks aren't heavy, but are numerous, slowing wearing the shadow down even more.

It's a race to see who can last longer. The shadow's black haze gets smaller and smaller, enclosing in on the wisp. Shadow Tih has already lost his consciousness again. Relying purely on resolution, the wisp coagulates into a thick blood red the size of a toothpaste cap.

Once the shadow succeeds, he completely fades away, leaving the blood trapped in the black haze in the empty black void.