豆豆小说阅读

**Warning: Vivid depiction of pain, torture, gore and self-harm. Reader\'s discretion is advised.**

The next moment, Ashton opened his eyes he saw a familiar, yet long-forgotten sight. He looked around himself to make sure he wasn\'t wrong, and he wasn\'t.

"What am I doing here?" Ashton mumbled before slowly getting off his bed, "Why am I back in the enclosure? The last thing I remember-"

The moment he tried remembering what he had been doing before waking up, it felt his head would burst at any moment. The pain was immense, but he pushed through and remembered bits and pieces of memories. However, they almost felt like he was trying to remember a dream rather than some kind of past.

His head felt like it would burst if he thought about his past anymore. So, he decided to drop it for now. Once that was done, he walk over to the mirror to take a good look at himself. To his surprise, he couldn\'t see anything in the mirror. There was no reflection of him.

"What the hell!?" He shrieked and fell hard on his butt, "I must be hallucinating... that has to be it..."

,m He got up and sure enough, this time he could see himself in the mirror. Just to make sure he was right, he began making silly faces and random gestures in front of the mirror. His reflection copied his every move.

"Phew... I thought there was something wrong with me." he sighed in relief, "Now, what-"

"Huhuhu... HAHAHA!"

Suddenly the reflection in the mirror began laughing like a maniac, giving Ashton another jumpscare. The next moment, a dagger materialised in his hands and he began playing with it. Ashton was weirded out watching himself play with the dagger, but before he realised, the reflection stabbed his shoulder.

"Argh!"

Ashton cried in pain as his shoulder got soaked in blood, but his reflection was just as clean as it had been before. However, the dagger was covered in blood... his blood. Before Ashton could even contemplate what was happening, the reflection once again raised the dagger.

Ashton tried to stop the reflection, but how was he supposed to do it when he couldn\'t even touch his other half? The dagger came crashing down on his thigh and when through it, like a hot knife through butter.

But the reflection wasn\'t done yet. Rather than pulling out the dagger, the reflection dragged the knife up to his knee, slicing the thigh in half.

Ashton\'s legs gave out, and the reflection kept smiling at him like a true sadist. After that, the only thing that followed was pain... immense pain of being stabbed in every inch of his body. By the time the reflection was done... Ashton was laying in a pool of his blood, pain was the only thing in his mind.

***

Days passed, but the reflection didn\'t stop. Every day he would return and torment Ashton again while laughing his head off. Ashton would beg him to stop, but his reflection wouldn\'t listen.

Not a single drop of blood was left in his body, but the reflection kept stabbing him over and over again. Ashton wanted to die, yet for some reason, he wasn\'t dead... even though his organs had been destroyed, his eyes had been gauged out, his torso had been ripped open for insects to feed upon and yet... he was alive.

"Pain is eternal... Pain is absolute..." The reflection mumbled while juggling with Ashton\'s organs, "Pain is the name of living... break free from it... break free from the notion of life..."

***

Months passed, but the pain did not. His reflection did not let him die, but it didn\'t stop the pain either. Until... at one point Ashton stopped feeling pain altogether. The only thing inside his head was pain and death...

It was hell.

His reflection began slicing off his skin next, but he couldn\'t feel anything anymore. It had been a while since his body had gone numb. The laughing noise of the reflection was the only thing ringing in his head... even though, without his ears, he couldn\'t hear anymore.

Soon he was reduced to a skeleton, but he was still alive. For what reason, he did not know. But he was alive.

***

\'Why... am I here... wouldn\'t it be better if I die? Yes... let\'s die... the pain will go away then.\'

Suddenly he felt something being forced into his hands. Without his vision, he couldn\'t see what it was, but the moment he grasped his fingers around the thing, he instantly knew it was the dagger that his reflection had used to torment him.

"You want to die? Then kill yourself and be free from the curse of living." His voice echoed inside his head, "Kill yourself and there will be no despair. Kill yourself and there will be no suffering. Kill yourself and there\'ll be no pain."

At that moment instead of being sad and angered, Ashton was happy. How could he not be happy? He was generously being given a way out of the dreadful mess he was in. Only a fool would choose pain over the sweetness of an instantaneous release from life.

"End your... despair. End your... suffering. End your pain... end your life."

Ashton smiled while subconsciously raising the dagger. Finally, he could end his pain and be free from the curse of living. But before he could stab himself, someone kicked the dagger out of his hands.

Ashton lunged to grab the knife, but someone pulled him back. He didn\'t care who was stopping him, he just wanted to die. Why couldn\'t they let him die in peace? Why do they have to torment him? Why do they want him to live in such a cruel world?

"LET ME DIE!" Ashton yelled at the top of his lungs.

*SLAP!*

The slap brought him out of his manic state.

"Oi brat, you good now?"

Although the words were harsh, the tone of the voice was filled with warmth. It was the voice of someone who cared, someone who wasn\'t going to stab him with a dagger.

Ashton slowly looked up and saw a man with golden skin, jet black hair and gigantic white angelic wings standing in front of him. It was the first time Ashton had seen the man and yet he immediately knew who he was...

"Astaroth?"