(Book 4) Hayden Mackay and The Fest of Vrindahina

34.2 Vengeance Approval

I jumped down into nothingness.

Nazira moved closer, clenching my arm tight to hide her trembling. Besides her sharp breath, I heard my drumming heart, pumping nervousness through my veins.

Arena seemed to have turned into a literal dark oblivion- no sun-drenched sky, no noticeable environment as that of the realms, no tree of Vrindahina visible. It was as if we entered the void of something- silent and timid. However, there was a feeling, a notion of that something screaming in despair for its freedom.

"Flame Formation!"

I held my palm up. The darkness must be thicker and unrelenting. Even the intrusion of light didn't push it away. My fingers were lit, but I was still deprived of sight.

Nazira, staying close, never appeared in my mind. I slowly moved my palm down towards her. Beautiful eyes of hers glanced askance at me. It was just the face I could see, darkness surrounded her, her forehead shooting the bullets of sweat, eyes moistened and lips slightly quivering. We kept looking at each other, confused and lost. My mind was surging perplexity, devoid of what was supposed to be done. I just waited, increased the intensity of my fire. It was just an attempt to warn Shaytan Rup, that I was here.

Then there was a sudden shift. Nazira broke her stare. Her eyebrows creased and she blinked rapidly as if she was startled by a sensation bothering her.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

She refrained from answering. Instead, she began inhaling deeply with her mouth, her eyes slowly enlarging. Her face twitched as she slowly raised her hands and placed them on either side of her cheeks, covering her ears.

And then she screamed.

"Nazira, wha...?" My heart hammered with the mounting terror. I tried to hold her when she bent low without taking her hands off her ears. She dropped to knees, writhing, screaming and crying.

Filled with utmost anxiety, I sank beside her shivering body. I moved my fire lit palm closer and detected the shining crimson leaking out from the gap between her fingers. Aghast, I harshly pulled one of her hands. Her ears were draining blood, streaming down her cheeks and down on her lap. Strands of her hair were getting wet. I tried to wipe away the blood with the cuff of my shirt.

It was useless. The crimson stream wouldn't stop leaking. Her cry of pain was piercing me, digging deep and kept going through everything and anything. My shirt was dampening but the flow wouldn't stop. My eyes filled with the tears of agony watching her getting slumped to the ground.

"Nazira, please...."

Then I heard a loud scornful laugh, that forced out a deep shaking emotion off my chest. My face muscle tightened. I looked around into the darkness trying to figure out where the person, who I comprehended to be, was stationed. When the silence suddenly fell in the Arena once again, I checked back on Nazira. Her eyes were closed and her head lolled aside.

I noticed blood stopped streaming out of Nazira's ears. The surge of laughter resumed and I could sense a momentary flare of anger groping every ounce of my body. He gave her the crippling pain and it was far from my anticipation that he could hurt her this way. I lifted her up in my laps and tapped on her cheeks, trying to wake her up.

"The thirrrd Corrrrnelian ussserrrr!" The voice reverberated, and my heart skipped a beat. Wasn't it the voice I had heard in my room a month ago? "Yeh will gah down in the historrry!"

"Where are you?" I yelled, angrily, "Show yourself, you coward."

The laugh came from within and that irritated me to the core. My eyes were continuously in function, looking everywhere for him. The words that I had uttered must have created an impact that the whole Arena suddenly shimmered with zig-zag lightning, falling down like a confetti, cutting through the darkness, flashing and flickering.