Tyler had finally gone mad.
It was bound to happen sooner or later. There was only so much a human mind could take before it broke apart.
After being locked in a dark cave for a whole year without sunlight, food, or comfort, while being drained of blood every single day, Tyler's mind had reached its limit.
He knew it.
[You flatter yourself if you think I'm just a piece of your broken mind,
Have you ever thought that maybe you're the fake one here?]
It was that voice again, the one that had been haunting him since being thrown in here.
Other than the Magus and their chants, and the distant screams of other prisoners, this voice had been the only sound Tyler had grown used to hearing.
The strange part was that the voice didn't belong to someone else. It belonged to him.
It was his own voice.
Everyone had an inner voice, but Tyler's had gone a step further. It now had its own body, his body. The same face, the same height, the same tone, but different eyes and a different aura.
The voice, or rather the person, was him but not entirely him.
At first, Tyler had tried to ignore it. He thought it was just his imagination, a side effect of his suffering.
As the days passed and loneliness ate at his heart, he gave up fighting it.
Maybe, in a twisted way, he should be thankful.
Because even if this voice was madness, at least it kept him company.
Talking to himself was the only way he managed to hold on to what was left of his sanity.
Funny, isn't it? To stay sane, he had to make peace with the insane part of himself.
[So, when exactly do you plan to stop moping around and start thinking of an escape plan?]
Tyler sighed softly. "Escape plan?"
The voice laughed.
[Come on, man. Give me something. You are planning to escape, right?]
An escape plan? In a place where he didn't even know where he was? That sounded like a cruel joke.
[Don't tell me you can't see it]
"...?"
[Too many flaws around you just waiting to be pried on]
"Flaws?" Tyler repeated.
He was tied up, his body hanging in the air, chains biting into his skin. What flaw could there possibly be in this perfect prison?
The only flaw he could think of was that he had to relieve himself in the same corner every day.
[Look deeper, Tyler, What do you see?]
Tyler glanced around weakly. What was there to see?
Iron bars. A dirty floor. A wall across from him. Darkness.
That was all.
Maybe Ty was seeing things he couldn't. Maybe the inner voice had gone crazier than he was.
Figures. It was an inner voice.
[Answer me, Tyler. What do you see?]
Tyler groaned. "I think it's time I stop talking to you."
This was getting dangerous. He didn't want to lose what little sanity he had left.
A bit of madness was fine, he had learned to live with that. But too much madness? That was something else entirely.
[Just answer the damn question. What, do, you, see?]
Tyler sighed. The voice wasn't going to stop. And since he had nothing better to do until the Magus returned to cut him open again, he gave in.
"I see iron bars."
[Good, Now, past the iron bars, what do you see next?]
Tyler frowned. Was this some kind of riddle?
"I see walls," he said flatly.
[Imagine the walls and the bars are gone. What else do you see?]
Tyler rolled his eyes. If this was supposed to make sense, it didn't.
Take away the walls and the bars? Then what would be left to see? Nothing but—
Wait.
"I see… Great Magus Gulepas coming in with the others," Tyler said slowly.
The memory hit him hard. His body trembled.
He could almost see them entering again, the Magus, the knives, the chanting, the blood.
[You are just starting to talk my talk]
Tyler didn't understand what was happening, but it felt like the voice was leading him somewhere. Somewhere deep inside his mind that could help solve the puzzle posed before him.
[What next? The Magus comes in. What do you see next?]
Tyler's breath grew uneven. He didn't want to remember. But he couldn't stop it.
"Chanting," he muttered. "Blood… flowing. No! No! No more! Please! Don't cut me anymore!"
The memories came rushing back like a storm. The knife slicing through his flesh, the sound of dripping blood, the cold floor beneath him.
He screamed, shaking violently as the horror replayed in his mind.
His body remembered every cut, every scream, every cry.
Tyler's head thrashed side to side. "Stop! Stop it!"
[That's not it, Tyler boy. You're seeing the wrong thing. Don't let the pain decide what you see. Push past it. Look deeper]
"Deeper?" Tyler's voice cracked.
[Past the pain. Past the fear. What do you truly see?]
How could he possibly do that?
Ty spoke like it was easy, like all Tyler had to do was blink and the pain would vanish.
But for Tyler, the pain was everything. It had been his world for an entire year.
Yet… something about Ty's tone was different this time. It wasn't mocking or playful. It was serious.
So Tyler tried.
He closed his eyes.
He focused.
He pushed past the pain, past the screams, past the endless darkness that surrounded him.
Something shifted.
For the first time in what felt like forever, his thoughts felt clear. He could see.
"Power," he whispered. "I see… power."
Ty the inner voice, grinned, his reflection shimmering faintly before him.
"I see it," Tyler said again, louder this time. "I finally see it."
[My job here is done. You know what to do now]
And just like that, the voice began to fade away.
Tyler's eyes opened, glowing faintly in the dark.
For the first time in a year, his heart burned with a dose of clear determination.
He didn't know what had changed exactly, but he felt it.
"Yes," Tyler whispered to the empty cell. "I know what I have to do."
His eyes glimmered with a light that hadn't been there for so long a light of hope reborn from madness.
Tyler Lockwood could walk out free from this!