The pain didn't stop.
It didn't lessen.
It didn't fade.
If anything, it got worse; sharper, heavier, deeper. Not like a knife in his chest or a hammer to the skull.
No, this wasn't a normal kind of pain. It wasn't the kind that screamed when you touched a flame or cracked a rib.
This pain was personal. Intimate. It clawed through his nerves, burned through his thoughts, and screamed through every part of his soul like it wanted him to die, but not quickly. Not yet.
Ren lay sprawled across the smooth floor of his dorm, his limbs twitching ever so slightly, but otherwise paralyzed.
His breathing was ragged, shallow, and uneven like his lungs were running some panicked rhythm his brain couldn't control.
His left eye pulsed violently, glowing faintly red, as if the rune embedded deep inside it had turned into a living furnace.
Every time it pulsed, another ripple of unbearable agony rolled across his skull, spine and soul.
