Hellfire

Night seven

At this point, Connor just wants a change. He wants something to change to stop this all before it even started. It's almost getting it the point where he'll just kill Kevin as quickly as possible to get it over and done with.

'Just kill Kevin as quickly as possible to get it over and done with.'

That is a statement only a broken man would say. Though, Connor would argue, he is a broken man.

Throughout the night, the demons make him kill Kevin over and over and over, and when I finally breaks, they make Kevin kill him over and over.

The worst part is, even though it's just one night it feels like thousands, and having to do this every night for goodness knows how long is probably going to kill him.

"Connor p-please..." Kevin manages in a choked whisper. That's the other thing, Kevin gets realer and realer every time they bring him back. "I thought you l-loved me...."

"I do," Connor replies, his voice breaking slightly, though other than the occasional slip, he learns to cut emotions from his voice. "But you don't." He says crisply, breaking Kevin's neck as swiftly as he possibly can. He feels the sickening crunch of another crushed life slither up his spine and he forces himself not to retch. Connor isn't sure what looked worse; the hurt on Kevin's face before or after he was killed. There is silence for a few precious seconds, before he hears another crack and crunch. Kevin's eyes shoot open.

He turns to face Connor, his head hanging at an ungodly angle. Every syllable he speaks is caught in his throat, and comes out sounding like nails in a bowl of acid, accompanied by the rattling of broken vertebrae.

"Why did you do that?" Kevin spat. "I thought you loved me." Connor recoils at the bloody, yet somehow animated corpse.

"K-Kevin..." He's going to be sick.

"What do I have to do to get you to see Connor?!" Kevin's voice cracks halfway through the statement as his voice rises to a shout.

Connor doesn't have a knife, or a gun, just his hands. There's no way to end this.

"Kevin please!" He whimpers, curling up in a ball on the ground. Kevin drags his broken body over to Connor, scraping his skin on the horrible scratchy rock floor. He grins, his normal smile distorted when he finally reaches Connor.

Connor just wants this to end.

Summoning all his willpower, he kicks Kevin in the chest, in an attempt to get him away, but instead, his foot breaks through skin and bone and gets lodged in Kevin's chest.

Kevin laughs. Connor can feel the ragged breath entering and exiting Kevin's lungs, and the beating of his heart. His eyes widen and he retches, coughing and spluttering.

All the while, Kevin is still laughing. He keeps moving forward and Connor heads another crunch. He can see his own foot come out the other side now, crimson and shining.

He can't take it anymore, and he finally takes off his tie with shaky fingers. At least they gave him this. He gives it to Kevin.

"Pull as hard as you can," Connor sobs.

Kevin takes the tie, and with surprising gentleness, wraps the light blue fabric around Connor's neck.

"I'm sorry, I do love you," Connor whimpers and nods.

Kevin's smile falters for a moment and Connor sees genuine happiness and sadness in the split second before his maniacal grin returns and his hands jerk outwards, pulling hard on the tie.

Connor jolted awake this time, grabbing his neck and gasping for air. Kevin was awake immediately.

"Elder!" He said, shocked. "Elder are you alright?" He took Connor's hands from his throat to make sure there was nothing there, and immediately Connor calmed down a bit.

"Y-yes, I'm fine..." Connor managed in a hoarse whisper.

"You were screaming..." Kevin added, a-are you sure?"

Connor tried not to cry. "Yes," he whimpered. "I'll be fine, you need to get some proper sleep."

Kevin nodded. "For the time being, with some room shuffling, everyone's pretty happy." Everyone had swapped round rooms, seeing as nobody really followed the 'never leave your companion rule' after he himself broke it. He pushed the other bed up along side Connor's and got in. "See? I'm right here," Kevin smiled.

Without thinking, Connor shot out his hand and grabbed Kevin's. Kevin's heart fluttered a little at that, so he didn't say anything.

The two drifted back to sleep as quickly as they could, Connor falling asleep quicker now Kevin was next to him.