Tragedy of the Greatest Heroes

Chapter 21: A Creature of Hatred

I saw Roland’s arm get bent further and further backward by Kione. Roland struggled, fighting back against Kione and the rising pain in his arm. But the physical difference between them was far too great for Roland to be able to fight back effectively. I heard an audible crack and Roland’s arm snapped in half like a twig. His arm flopped around like a rag onto the ground.

Roland screamed out in pain and attempted to fight back against Kione more, only to be stopped when Kione twisted his arm. It was a simple and effective but brutal method of suppressing opposition through pain. Roland’s arm hung limply in its now disfigured form. I could see his eyes turn red as the sting of the injury began to increase. A glistening shine from water began to glow from his eyes.

“Any surrenders,” Eric, the man keeping me down, asked.

This time I didn’t say anything. Anything I had said previously only resulted in Eric slamming my head into the ground. My nose was already broken and bleeding all over my face. Saying anything more wouldn’t do anything.

Eric shook his head and grabbed the bridge of his nose. His face scrunched painfully as though he had just eaten a sour lemon. When he spoke I could make out a sense of regret in his voice.

“Lin, same thing,” he said.

“NO!” Violet yelled, only to be flipped onto the ground.

‘Damnit. There has to be a way out of this. Are they just testing our mental willpower?’

Violet put up the best struggle she could, but the difference between her and Lin was even larger than the difference between Roland and Kione. It was like a toddler trying to fight back against an adult. Unlike the rest of the examiners, Lin broke Violet’s arm instantly. Violet’s arm was smaller and so much more easily broken than the rest of ours. Lin pulled back as hard as she could and instantly Violet’s arm flailed around as though her joints had vanished.

I heard Violet scream and saw tears begin to enter her eyes. Lin looked away from Violet, unable to meet her eyes. It would be my turn next. I struggled with all my might. Trying to twist, turn, wiggle, squirm, anything I could do to try and get Eric to shift off his weight even a little. But all that happened was Eric slamming my head into the ground again. My already broken nose was practically shattered by this point and a dull mixed with sharp pain radiated from it. Blood had begun to spread all across the lower half of my face, if anyone looked at me now they might think I was a cannibal who had just finished a meal.

As my entire world spun I couldn’t help but think about why this was happening to us. This wasn’t an exam, this was torture. This was merely performing torture on us. Even criminals wouldn’t be subjected to something like this. This wasn’t fair, this wasn’t right.

‘You… all of you fucking examiners…’

“Please, would anyone like to surrender now?” Eric said.

I turned my head and looked him in the eye. I could feel my heart pumping and my face grew both hot red in rage and pale in fear. Eric looked back at me before shifting his gaze away uncomfortably. This son of a bitch refused to even look me in the eye.

I felt Eric drag out my left arm and begin the process of breaking it. I attempted to pull my arm back down but couldn’t do anything except barely slow Eric down. Like the others, I was physically no match for Eric. An aching pain began to creep up in my elbow, turning into a horrendous, dull, neverending pulsation. It was getting closer and closer every second.

I closed my eyes as I braced for the inevitable pain. All in an instant I felt it. An unimaginable, piercing, burning pain. It was like a knife was being plunged into my arm over and over again relentlessly without allowing me even a moment of peace. Eric let my arm fall to the ground, releasing his grip on my broken arm. Each impact that my arm made with the ground sent shockwaves of rolling agony throughout my entire arm.

“FUCK! DAMN YOU ALL!”

I continued to scream to distract myself from the experience. My skin, muscles, my entire arm were overwhelmingly sensitive to pain. Even a touch from Eric would send my mind reeling into a world of hurt. Any distraction, anything to focus my mind elsewhere but the pain. I felt blood run down my face and began to taste iron in my mouth. I latched onto the disgusting taste. I examined its every subtlety, every sensation, every moment of it in my mouth. Anything to dull the pain, to distract me from this nightmare.

I recalled how earlier in the application I had severely injured my hand by punching a wall but this was on a whole other level. The pain wasn’t just concentrated in one spot now, it spread throughout my entire arm. It was as if my arm was splintering across every section.

I felt the world begin to chill and my body go cold. I recalled lessons from my mom and dad about what would happen to the body when it received severe enough injuries.

‘I’m going into shock.’

I felt myself start struggling to breathe yet nothing was preventing me from doing so, my body simply began to struggle. I could feel my heartbeat, rapidly thumping like a drummer. It pulsated with an unnatural strength in my chest. My right hand felt clammy and my face felt unnaturally numb. The blood warmed the space between my lip and my nose, providing me with a small amount of comfort. I embraced the warmth, disregarding the usual discomfort I would feel from it, providing me with an escape.

‘Damnit. I’ll kill all of these bastards.’

“Now, please… anyone?” Eric asked.

I observed each of my friends. We were all a mess of tears with broken arms. Each of us was completely helpless to our examiners. With how things were going so far, it was easy to know what would continue if we didn’t surrender. They would break more bones, over and over and over again, until we had either satisfied some standard of theirs or surrendered. Yet none of us said a word or even nodded.

Eric slammed his fist into the ground and looked around painfully.

‘If it hurts you so much then let us go!’

“Hadley… her right leg.”

Vivian began to cry even harder realizing that she was now going to also have to experience the pain of a broken leg.

“Please, don’t. Don’t hurt me more. I’m begging you,” She said through her pained whimpers.

I turned away as Hadley began to pull back on Vivian’s leg. I heard her scream out in pain and a crack shot out into the air. My eyes watered in equal amounts for my pain and my sympathy for my friend. I saw her leg red and bent unnaturally to the side. Her knee practically didn’t even exist anymore.

I looked at Vivian’s face and we locked eyes with each other. When we had first met I had thought for a moment that her eyes seemed filled with an odd brightness. A glimmer of curiosity and excitement as she stepped into a new world. Her heart burned with a fiery passion. Those thoughts had been replaced by an appreciation for her appearance.

But now, those thoughts resurfaced because I could no longer see that bright glimmer. All I could see was a girl, screaming in pain and fear. Her eyes were consumed by sorrow and fright. Tears streamed down each one a representation of a fraction of how she felt. I saw in my mind the faces of each examiner flash by and I clenched my jaw. Harder and harder I clenched until I felt my teeth begin to ache.

‘You… you bastards.’

I began to feel the pain in my left arm flare up even more as I began to tense each muscle. Yet despite the pain I continued to push through, trying to distract myself from the growing emotion in my heart. I turned towards Eric and felt my breathing begin to move out of my control.

“Girl, Vivian I believe, why are you not quitting? Out of everyone else here you are the one taking it the worst,” Eric asked. The more he spoke the more I began to tense the muscles in my body.

I looked at Vivian. Her eyes flooded with regret and sorrow. Her face was cute, beautiful, full of life and energy, broken and shattered. I remembered how she acted when we made dinner together, sharing jokes and presenting the meal with enthusiasm. I felt admiration for her, that she was able to act so happily. I wanted to get to know her better, to know the girl of light in front of me. That wasn’t the Vivian I saw before me.

‘They took her…’

“Because,” Vivian responded, “then April will have died for nothing.” Vivian struggled to say anything now as she began to cry uncontrollably.

‘They took her away from me…’

“I see… you must’ve met that bastard Jerricho,” Eric said shaking his head. “He is an outlier among us all. I’ve always wanted to see how effective his methods were though.”

My breathing grew heavy and began to shake. No matter what I did I couldn’t control it anymore.

‘Don’t you dare…’

“I’m sorry about this. But I need to teach him that his methods aren’t perfect, or else he’ll do it next year too. Hadley, the other arm and leg please.”

“NO!” Violet screamed out. “PLEASE, DON’T DO IT!”

Roland and Violet began to scream out in their protest but there was nothing they could do. Vivian closed her eyes and turned her head towards the sky, praying, and begging for help. But there was no response, the gods did not deem her worthy.

‘YOU… YOU FUCKING BASTARDS!!!’

When Vivian’s other leg snapped Roland and Violet screamed with her. They exclaimed in hatred, and Vivian yelled out in pain and fear. Her two legs were swollen, red, and unusable now. Soon they would be joined by another broken arm.

‘I WON’T ACCEPT THIS!’

Hadley dragged out Vivian’s right arm without resistance. Vivian had no strength left in her body, there was only pain. Slowly, Vivian’s arm was bent backward. This time Vivian could only let out a moan as she had become overwhelmed by pain. She didn’t even have the strength to scream. Her head bent downwards as she began to fade off into unconsciousness.

‘I’LL KILL ALL OF YOU!’

It bent back further. I tensed my left arm and began to move it. My heart filled every vein in my body with a fire. Every section of my arm screamed out in an exploding agony but I couldn’t even feel it anymore.

‘EVERY LAST ONE OF Y̴̨̛̛͍̗͙̱͉̏͋̓̂OU WILL DIE!!!’

Vivian’s arm snapped and fell to the ground.

…

“I’m sorry-”

Violet saw Eric suddenly stumble off of Mark holding the side of his face. He was bleeding from his lip and looked around in surprise.

‘Mark got him off?’ She thought to herself.

Violet turned to look at where Mark was standing, only to be met with fear. Violet attempted to shrink away from the sight she witnessed. She felt nausea wash over her instantly. The tears running down her face stopped instantly.

Mark now stood. His broken arm had a bone peaking through the side, piercing through his skin. He had used it to punch Eric in the face despite the pain and this was the result. Mark’s shoulders rose along with his chest expanding. Each breath taken shook his entire body yet was also slow and deliberate, as though he were attempting to calm himself. His legs shook slightly and his arms were barely held up into a fighting position. Despite his broken arm, he was still willing to fight. But that’s not what surprised Violet the most.

Mark’s face was smeared with blood that had come out of his nose. It fell across his mouth and all over the lower half of his face and yet more still came. It made him look completely mad like he was someone who had long gone past the threshold of insanity. His nose was shattered to the side making him appear oddly inhuman. His jaw hung open, trembling uncontrollably, shaking even more every time he breathed in or out. His now disheveled hair hung down in front of his eyes, largely covering them. But…

From the small windows, the tiny openings, the gaps in between Mark’s hair, Violet could see through to his eyes. They shook and burned with tears, rage, and incomprehensible resolution. Violet turned away, unable to look at them. She didn’t know how she knew, she didn’t know why she knew, all she did know was that whatever Mark was feeling right now could only be defined in one word. Hatred.

This was not the hatred Violet felt when her brother broke her toy doll as a child. This wasn’t the hatred that a child felt when they thought of the most disgusting vegetable they could. This wasn’t the hatred a teenager felt when they talked about that one annoying person in school. This wasn’t the hatred an adult felt when they had their pay cut or got into a car crash.

This was the hatred Violet had towards her father. A deep running river that flooded the heart with fire and a burning rage. A horrifying, overwhelming, life-altering emotion that consumed one's entire heart, soul, and mind until nothing was left except a desire to relieve oneself of that hatred. This was true hate.

“You…” Mark began to speak. The entire room watched him in a deathly silence, each of them frightened at what they were looking at.

“You three had better stop me…” he said. The examiners and Violet’s team looked around at each other. Which three was he referring to?

“Because… I’m going to kill him now.”

It was the blink of an eye from Violet’s point of view. Mark’s psychic powers were still sealed away, but his emotion drove his physical abilities to the complete limit. In a flash, he was in front of Eric and tackled him to the ground.

Mark immediately mounted and began to pummel Eric’s face into the ground. With each hit, Mark roared out in hatred as he slammed down into Eric’s skull. Blood began to taint the floor around Eric’s head and his nose broke into a position like Mark’s.

Eric grabbed one of Mark’s arms and lifted his hips, he leaned his body to the side of the arm he took and caused Mark to tumble downwards, allowing Eric to return to the top, although not in mount.

Before Eric could do anything, however, Mark grabbed him and pulled him downwards. He headbutted Eric and blood began to sprout from both of their foreheads. Mark’s entire face had become a canvas for running blood to paint on.

Eric fell to the ground in a daze, quickly followed by Mark, who proceeded to once again go on the attack. The assault was brutal and unrelenting, Mark refused to give even a second of rest. His broken arm tearing and breaking more and more until it was completely unusable and he abandoned it. Eric’s face was dented and bruised over and over again until he had become a pulp unrecognizable from his previous form. A puddle of blood from their injuries began to form around them.

None of the other examiners did anything though. This was a possibility they had accepted when they volunteered for the position. So, the examiners continued holding down Violet and her teammates. Until…

Violet felt all the blood drain from her face. The entire room was filled with Eric’s sudden screams. Across the entire unrelenting assault from Mark, Eric had not once screamed. But now…

Mark was not sane, he was not in control of himself. He could hardly be called even the same person. The examiner’s left behind Violet and her teammates and each assisted in dragging Mark away from Eric. Mark clawed against them, scratching deep into their skin and causing bleeding in all the exposed places he could find.

Vivian had fallen unconscious following the breaking of her right arm, overwhelmed by pain. While Roland and Violet were still perfectly awake, they did nothing to help Mark. They both sat in horror at what they witnessed. A chunk of Eric’s face had been taken off, underneath they could see the muscles of the face and the bones of the skull, clearly visible. The injury wrapped around his eye, where all that remained was an empty socket. Eric clenched his face in pain, hiding the injury from view and he groaned. Violet felt her hand shake as she brought it up to her mouth, her gag reflex had triggered. It wasn’t the view of Eric that had terrified her and Roland.

Mark struggled against the three examiners holding him back. His strength had grown incomprehensibly, driven by an overwhelming desire for vengeance. He raged and flailed uncontrollably like an animal, desperately attempting to return to Eric and continue the assault. It was taking all three of the examiners to keep him under control. To stop him for a moment, Kione kicked Mark in the stomach, causing him to regurgitate some things.

Violet threw up at the sight. A squished eyeball, blood, and flesh fell onto the ground, away from Mark’s blood-red teeth. Violet thought to herself, truly, when someone is consumed by hatred, they are not the same person. This thing standing before her was not Mark. This was a creature of hatred.

End of Chapter 21