Chapter 12: What?

As he is slipping in and out of awareness, he, again, sees the same things happening all over again. The ground under him, the person's legs and behind, the changing terrain, the city disappearing into the horizon, and the emptiness ahead between the person's legs. Again, he hears more people, but the fogginess of his hearing is making it difficult to even know they are talking. Plus, the ringing is making it almost impossible. He can barely see anything at all. All colors look the same to him. He then feels that he is outside. Now he feels like he is hanging. Things go dimmer and dimmer the more times passes, and the more times he becomes aware again.

And finally, he is able to gain back his full awareness and can finally concentrate. He looks around and sees that everything is still the same. The wide building to the side, him hanging there, the bowl, or tub, whatever is the thing under him, and the potential of what will happen next. He looks around quickly, and his breathing is slightly heavy, but he is calmer this time. He knows what's going to happen, he is afraid, but the fear this time doesn't take over. He fights it, and wins. Even when he looks at the wide building to his side, his eyes widen and his breathing heavy, but there is still determination in his eyes. Determination to get out of here this time. He tries to calm himself further, by breathing deep breaths in a rhythm. He doesn't know why he thinks this will help, but he does it anyway as his subconscious makes it feel right. Now that he has given himself time to become calm, he needs to think of a way to get out and escape. He looks around, but he is careful to not move around too much so that the first shadow doesn't notice that he is awake, or aware, he doesn't know yet, but the point is, he can't afford the shadow telling the others, so that the final event doesn't happen yet. He looks up, able to now properly see the wooden structure holding him up. He finds that the rope on it it's tied to it from a protruding extension of itself, but unlike how his hands are tied tightly, the rope on it is tied well yes, but it's way looser, with a significant gap at its bottom. It looks like what was previously thought as what a raindrop looked like, but upside down.

He then questions himself to why he knows so many details about things that don't matter right now. He thinks for a moment, trying to not fight himself in his own mind. He thinks of how this could be useful, as his mind won't alert him of such detail if it wasn't something important. He thinks and thinks until it finally clicked. He should scoot himself out by tugging the rope till the edge of the extension holding him up, so when the rope is free, he would too, and then he could run. A brilliant plan that is flawless, but still, it means that he needs to move around a lot, and this means that this might alert the first shadow, and this will start the final event. But maybe if he is quick enough, maybe it wouldn't matter. As he finishes that thought, he breathes heavier now, fear starting to grow in his mind and heart. Memories of him being stabbed in the chest appear right before his eyes, his perspective of it, but this time, they don't make him afraid, they make him determined to escape this time. He won't let them happen again! His breathing becomes heavier and louder, and his face contracts, both reflecting the courage he is gathering and his determination. From how much he is determined and doesn't think of anything but escape, his body starts to move, he is moving it yes, but it feels like more it's moving itself in ways it knows how to do the task he wants. And, in a swift motion, he pulls his body up with his arms, feeling pain on his wrists, but he ignores it, he then shoots his hands forward to pull away the rope, but he barely was able to put any force on it at all.

When he falls back down, he feels a punch of pain on his wrists as a crackling sound echos in the empty void that is surroundings him, only light by a single source of light that he can't see properly. (He doesn't concentrate on these things, I am just making you, the reader, imagine the scene better). He lets out a loud deep scream at the pain on his wrists. As he is swinging around and spinning now, his mind is almost taken over by the pain, as his eyes are wide open and his breathing loud and clear with grunts in-between every breath. He quickly tries to pull himself together and concentrate. While he is swinging and spinning from the fall, he quickly and desperately tries to see if the shadow is there or not to know how much time he has left. As he is spinning and swinging, he looks and finds the shadow moving away and is about to disappear in the direction of the wide building, but now, his eyes widen further, and this time, he is able to see something he hasn't seen before. Time feels like it's slowing down as he looks at the shadow. He sees that the shadow isn't a shadow, nor a robbed figure, as he was barely able to spot golden hair swooshing around as it walked away

As the shadow is now gone, he just keeps swinging there, not trying to move around, but his body still tense and his breathing is heavy as he looks towards the ground, more like through it with his eyes more wide than thought possible. He doesn't understand... Why is she here?! His mind is in full disarray. He doesn't understand what's going on at all. Was this where she always have been when she lead him here!! Leaving him when she saw him suffering and hanging here!!! He calms himself quickly and tells himself, "No, no, I should think like that.", he thinks and remembers all the food she fed him, and the care she gave him. No, there is no way she let this happen. She must have left to hold back the robbed figures so they don't hurt him. He then feels a pang of pain in his head. All the 'trying to remember things she has done' made him remember something else. His mind then hurts a little bit more and then he remembers what happened before he lost awareness. She punched him. Even after he apologised. Even after he wasn't in any way a threat to her. Even after he threw his axe to the side!! And she even looked just like the thing that made him lose awareness in the second loop! Was she... DELIVERING HIM HERE!!! No, no. This can't be. THIS CAN'T BEEEEEE!!!

He tries to deny the truth, but he finds that there is no way she isn't the one who got him here so that this would happen to him. The way she looked both times when he was about to walked through the wide building door, and when before she punched him in the head. The look of guilt. It disgusted him. She only saved him from the three people so that he just suffers here! It enraged him. But then he felt a pang of sorrow. He asks himself why, why is she doing this to him? What did he do to upset her? Tears start to fall from his eyes as these thoughts went through his mind. Why couldn't she just be the angel she has always been to him? His saver. The one who took care of him. Why? WHY WOULD SHE DO THIS TO MEEE???!!!

Saif is now fired up due to his rage. He refuses to lose this time. To make her get what she wanted. He pulls himself up again, and as painful as it is, the pain he feels in his heart, the betrayal he feels is more potent. He pulls himself up and tugs on the rope, but like last time, he barely puts any force as he over shoots it and falls again and his wrists crackle again. He screams out him pain again, but ignores it and just pulls himself up when though his wrists now are screaming out in pain for him to stop, but he doesn't. This time, he doesn't pull himself up enough from the pain, but before he falls, He does one more desperate pull, and this time, he was able to apply a lot of force on the rope. He now figured out that he keeps over shooting it as he kept pulling himself up too high, and so the rope had more space to move in the higher his weight was, but the lower it becomes, the more his weight is tugging on the rope and the more forc-... . Another crack echos through the dark void around him as he falls again, but he fights through the pain again and pulls himself up, slowly, he is putting everything he has into pulling himself up again, but as he is pulling himself up, he tries to remember when he figured out all the things he just figured out about how to be able to apply a lot of force on the rope and not over shoot it again. Was it… when he was falling? Can he think that fast? Before he can think of anything else, he pulled himself up, and he made sure to not fully let his arms bend, which indicates he is not at pull high, which means he can apply a lot of force. "How do I know all these complicated words? And better yet, why do they all make complete sense??" He says to himself as he tires to brush away his confusion. He hangs there with him pulling himself up half away, gathering his courage again to try one more time, as he needs all the bravery he can muster due to him knowing the pain that will follow.