Strongest Nova: Path of Vengeance

Chapter 61: Simple

Pain filled Stanley’s heart as he remembered the memory of his mother from nearly a decade ago. She had died without him being able to do anything for her, even thought that was what he had promised her.

She hadn’t died because of him. Her death was not his fault. But even then, not being able to save her felt no different than being the one that killed her.

And the pain of that was too strong for Stanley.

’Stanley! Stanley!’ those were his mother’s last words. Her last words were her calling out to him for help, yet he had been helpless. He should have been able to do something to help her at the time, but instead all he could do was watch her die.

’It’s my fault,’ he thought silently.

The image of the young girl appeared in his mind, the one that had stabbed herself on her neck to die.

He should have been able to save her. Why did he not? Why wasn’t he able to?

Why did the people he want to save always die?

"It’s my fault."

Tears filled his eyes and slowly seeped around his eyes. He sniffled a bit as he cried as well. The feeling of sorrow had never been stronger than today.

"Are you crying?"

A voice spoke from near by him. Stanley quickly got alert and tried to look around. It was only then he realized that even when he opened his eyes, he couldn’t see anything.

Not only that, his hands and legs were tired as well, same for his head too. He couldn’t move anything at all.

"Who are you?" he quickly asked.

"Me?" the voice spoke again. "Hmm... I don’t know if I should tell you."

Stanley heard the voice and quickly recognized that it belonged to a girl. It was different to the voice that he heard inside of his head. Given that it was coming from outside, it definitely was a real girl.

"Where am I?" Stanley asked. "And why can’t I see anything?"

"You are in a room, with me," the girl’s voice said. "As for why you can’t see anything, that’s because of these.

Something rubbed in front of Stanley’s eyes, a thick fabric that seemed to be covering his eyes.

"Ew, its got your tears all over it," the girl said and quickly wiped it away.

"Can you take it off, please. I can’t see anything." Stanley tried to move his head, but nothing seemed to slip at all. His eyes were most likely bandaged all over.

’Were my eyes hurt?’ he thought to himself.

"Hm... about that, I don’t think I will," the girl spoke. "Let’s forget about getting out of that bed for now. You... you were crying, weren’t you?"

Stanley felt a pang of panic and fear grow in him when he realized that his vulnerable side had been seen. He didn’t want someone he didn’t know to see his traumatized side.

"Why were you crying?" the girl asked.

"I..."

"Was it because of the girl that died?" the girl asked.

Stanley’s breathing got uneven. The vision he had just been distracted from returned back to him.

The broken girl standing in front of him with the scissors in her hand. Her eyes screamed ’save me’ but he couldn’t. The scissors drive deep into her neck as a fountain of blood sprayed from behind her.

"NOOO!!" he shouted as he tried to struggle out of wherever he was. The metals rattled, the bed itself rocking left and right as he tried to get himself out of whatever was confining him.

"Oh wow! You really are traumatized, aren’t you?" the girl asked. "And I didn’t even ask about your mother. Apparently she died 4 months ago, is that true?"

The words from his mother came back to haunt him as well.

"Stop!" he cried out. "Stop! Please."

"You’re hurt," the girl’s voice sounded right next to his left ear. He could even feel her warm break on his left cheeks. "You’re in pain, aren’t you? In constant pain."

Stanley struggled some more but whatever was keeping him there was working too well. Even with his superior strength, he couldn’t free himself.

"Do you like pain?" the girl asked him, this time on his right ear.

"No," Stanley said in a half grumble.

"Haha, of course you don’t," the girl said. "You would have to be a super masochist to like this. This isn’t even pain. It’s just suffering."

Something suddenly fell on Stanley’s lips, a single finger. "I can make it all stop, you know," the girl said. "The pain, the suffering. I can make it all go away."

"Wh-what?" Stanley asked, confusion building up in his mind.

The girl’s finger slowly slipped downward, going from his upper lip to the lower lip to the chin, then finally falling onto the chest.

Her finger dragged onto Stanley’s chest, the nails scratching as it reached there.

"You can make it all go away if you end it all," the girl said. "I can help you with that."

Her nail pushed a little deeper, digging up a wound in his chest. "Just say it. I can end it all for you so you can go meet your mother in the afterlife," the girl said. "Well... not that there is any afterlife for us."

"I..."

It was all too sudden for Stanley to make any decision. "If I die here... I can be free?"

It all felt so tempting. The pain, the suffering, the regret; he did not want to dragged down by them anymore.

Maybe he should just do it. Maybe... that was the way to free himself from it all.

"You’re taking too long," the girl said. "Let me make the decision for you."

Suddenly, Stanley’s body got alert as the danger warning came back. Only, there was something else there.

An understanding of some sort. A knowledge that he shouldn’t really have had.

If he let the girl do whatever she was going to do, he was going to die without a shadow of a doubt.