(pov : Roum)
Everything is black.
But I hear you.
I can still hear them.
Asmara .
Her voice keeps echoing in my head, like an echo that refuses to die.
His cry
Then nothing more.
Just the wind.
And that sound… that sound of sticky flesh.
I can't feel anything at first.
No pain. No cold.
I felt like I was floating.
And to run out of air
Then something crawled up my neck, like shiny threads.
Things are stitching me back together. Pulling me upwards.
I can't see very well, everything is upside down
My head is aligned. My breath returns.
I see.
Initially unclear.
Then clear.
Asmara, on her knees.
She's trembling.
She is not crying, she is suffocating, her mouth open without sound.
In front of her, a liquid.
And before me, an army of shadows
Then joy
Or what's left of it.
Part of her no longer has a form.
It constantly breaks down and rebuilds itself, as if her body can no longer choose a stable state.
Shadows emerge from her, detach themselves, crawl on the ground and disappear into the capsule.
They were smiling.
Yes… the shadows had turned the whole capsule upside down.
But how long was I in the dark?
I feel like I've forgotten something.
I feel something inside me.
Not a pain.
Something more… profound.
A presence.
I feel strange, I can't move despite wanting to; I stay put as if half-awake, my body feels heavy, very heavy.
"Come back. It's not over. My king."
I straighten up.
The filaments detach themselves from me slowly, like veins being torn out.
My head was perfectly stable, as if…
Silence
I should be dead.
Yes, I remember.
I know I should be.
But I see everything.
It's like I'm waking up
What was I doing?
Who am I?
How I ended up here
It's as if I'm becoming aware of my own existence.
I can smell the forest, the blood, the fear.
Everything is clearer, very clear.
Even Asmara's breathing resonates like a drum in my ears.
I want to talk to him.
I want to tell him that I'm here.
But I wasn't moving yet, a little drunk.
I wasn't in control.
"Don't run away."
That's my voice.
But it wasn't me.
Something else uses it.
I feel trapped in my own body.
It's as if I were locked behind a glass pane, forced to watch what they do to my skin.
Joy is approaching.
Her eyes were empty, but her distorted, wide-open mouth was moving.
- Welcome to our group.
His words seep into my head like poison.
I want to scream, but nothing happens.
My body responds to his call.
My hand goes up.
And a clean cut.
Asmara steps back, shakes her head, unable to scream.
His eyes are fixed on me.
She understands.
She knows I'm not myself anymore.
I want to tell him to "run".
I want to save her, again.
But my arm falls.
And the slice.
She collapses
Cut in two
Joy .
Fall.
It wasn't her anymore
It slips into the blood.
She crawls, grips the ground, searches for the exit.
I look at her, almost amused…
Amused? I'm discovering that I like something that would have made me throw up a few hours ago.
She's still breathing. She'll make a beautiful offering.
Offering.
That word triggers something.
An image.
Silhouettes.
The experimentation room.
Scientists.
Screams.
People immersed in a black liquid.
Then total darkness.
"What's that?" I murmured.
I did not come back to life.
I returned to them.
Shadows surround me.
They crawl on the walls, infiltrate the circuits.
The air becomes heavy, saturated with the smell of iron and burning.
I see the light gradually going out.
Then, in the background, a sound.
One heartbeat.
THUMP.
THUMP.
THUMP.
My heart.
A memory.
Another mystery opens up in my mind.
Why didn't I remember?
And then they approach.
Silhouettes.
Bodies I recognize.
The same.
Their faces are empty, erased.
I'm starting to get tired of it…
I whisper.
"Always the same trick, you have nothing else in stock."
Joy turns towards me, one of her halves
- My king, why? We are finally all here.
I can feel my legs moving on their own.
My arm reaches out towards her.
She's still crawling, exhausted.
She whispers:
You were supposed to... bring us back. Free us.
I would like to respond.
But I just wanted to get rid of that horror.
I hear myself saying:
That's what I'm doing... I'm setting you free.
Then everything goes black again.
But this time, I am no longer in my body.
I am among them.
In all of them.
I became one with space, I swallowed everything, devoured it like exquisite fruit and absorbed it with such appetite that I wanted to eat it too, what could it taste like, just a little taste, just a piece.
I watched her bending in a corner, she was so delicious, I ate her
I approach delicately, just a part of you, I'm not going to kill you.
She was trembling so much that the walls seemed to move too, she stared at me, unable to flee, just a fragment
NOOOOOOO NOOOOO
What are you doing? No, no, no, no, no, NOOOOO, IT'S NOT TRUE, I I'm not aMONSTER NO I AM NOT A MONSTER
It wasn't me, I'm sorry
Don't look at me like that, don't look at me like that, no, I'm not a MONSTER, I'm sorry, stop, not that look, not those eyes of terror, I can't, I'm sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, kill me, I'm... I'm... how could I have thought of that...
A MONSTER, "A DEMON"....
She was right.
I am indeed one of them….
Who am I now?
Who was I?
I killed everyone
They are all dead
It's my fault, it's my fault
I grabbed my head and pulled my hair, spinning around and banging my head with my fist.
Before seeing him
Him in the reflections of the capsule
- A DEMON, DEMON, DEMON, A DEMON, THERE'S A DEMON, A DEMON, ASMARA THERE'S A DEMON, HELP ME, HE'S GOING TO KILL US
covering my eyes