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Darren saw his little sister Aurora. She's here? But how? He walked faster to try and get closer to her but when he blinked she was gone. Ah, so it was one of those again. Hallucinations. They started the first week they died. It started with him seeing his brother's reflection in the water. Then he began to hear his father call for him behind the trees. Occasionally he'll begin to feel his younger sister pull for him by his pants. When he licked his bruised lips stained in blood from biting down in frustration he could taste the faint memories of the food his mother used to make for him.
Reality was brutally shoved back into him as he felt a hand hit his back. It wasn't any form of a pat, it was closer to that of a punch. “Are you going to stay dazed forever Sisko?” His travel Companion. Companion? Companion was a stretch, abductor wasn't quite right, Snatcher was more accurate, Nym was his name. He had shoved past him to walk in front. His tail dragged behind him as he hummed a tune, his fingers tapping his lips as if pondering something. Darren growled from how he'd been referred to as. As badly as he wanted to correct him, he knew he was antagonizing him to say something, so he said nothing following behind the God.
How long had they been travelling together? 49 days. 2 months. When Nym had snuck into his family's village, he wasn't sure how he got through their defenses, he ripped through everyone one by one. Tearing through every house from top to bottom. Every memory, every semblance of his home, ruined. And he did nothing. He wasn't able to do anything aside from hide his little sister.
He was startled out of his previous thoughts into another when he looked down and saw his sister hugging him. It felt so real. The comfort. The need for it all. The need for home. He could smell the scent lingering from her playing in the mud. Her stubby fingers on his shirt. He reached down towards her to run his hands through her hair. When he blinked she was gone. Ha. Of course. Did he really think there was anyone left. Nym assured him there wasn't when he finished doing one last sweep through the camp. Of course it was a hallucination triggered from him thinking about her. He was the only one alive. The only ‘souvenir’, a ‘trophy’ for the slaughter.
Darren began to laugh and push his hands through his hair, tears attempting to form in his eyes but left dry. He couldn't even cry for the one thing left of his family, the graves and the ghosts. He dropped to the ground and began to pull at his hair. He could hear Nym stop in his tracks and tsk at the disruption. He heard the footsteps get closer until he saw 2 hoofs stop in front of his eyes. He didn't look up, he didn't have it in him. He watched the figure's hooves walk around him in a circle till it stood on the other side of him.
Nym hummed and leaned forward tilting his head over Darrens crouched body on the floor. “You broke earlier than I expected.” When Darren didn't respond Nym continued and sat down with him. “What do you keep reaching for?” Darren clenched his teeth and shut his eyes. “aw come on, I'm a wonderful listener. I understand you hate me but you know. You and I, we're not too terribly different you know.” Darrens blood went rushing to his ears as he rounded on Nym sending a punch to his face. He cursed to himself in his head. He gave Nym exactly what he wanted, a response. Nym caught it easily and examined him, waiting for his next move. He could see it in his eyes, even now he saw everything as a game. It was all a game to him. His pain, his grief, his loss.
“You don't get to say that. You couldn't, can't, even fathom to feel the hate, the spite, the abhor detestation of being near you, of seeing you.” Nym raised an eyebrow with a smile creeping on his face but didn't say anything. The sight made him want to hit him with his other hand. “Do you know what it's like, to feel every sensation of your teeth pressed against your lips, the blood and spit you choke up from your lungs from every food you see and taste. The struggle to chew and swallow a disgusting meal created by the very creature, monster, who slaughtered your family head to toe. The pinching sensation that's constantly under your skin and crawls when another touches you; As if beetles are tearing through every fiber of your being. Similar to parasites leeching their ways through plant filaments. Every day and night that I feel the brisk brush of my hair grazing a wall, the blink of my eyes, the conceptualizing of time as I am, as you are, constantly reminded, you lived, you are alive, when your family is not and it's your fault. You don't know me, you don't know the chip of the knot shore of hatred I've felt towards you. In your everlasting life you have no experience or will ever experience another who hates you. Not for your powers or your trauma or your emotions, or the story's told of you, or your antagonization. You.”
Nyms smile soured and they locked eyes as Darren finished his rant. “I hate you, Nym. I know what you are, and you're nothing but a monster.” Nym kept his sour smile plastered for a moment then dropped it as he crushed Darren's hand that he had still been holding when Darren threw his punch earlier. Darren didn't flinch, the pain he felt wasn't comparable to what his family had to endure through. It wasn't close to the pain he deserved.
Nym stood up right and forcefully yanked Darren up along with him. “There is something you and I both know to be true and understand that even you cannot deny. As much as you claim to hate me, you need me. I am the one thing keeping you together. A place to put your hate, your disgust, your spite and abhorrent detestation as you said. Let me ask you this, Darren sisko. Do you believe yourself to be a monster? Let me rephrase. ” He leaned in closer to Darren and lowered his voice. “Do you yourself understand what you are?” Darren used his other fist to try to punch Nym and it was caught by his other hand. “Fighting to avoid the truth won't make it any less so.”
Darren headbutt Nym once, then again, and repeated the process over and over again as he pushed with all his strength against Nyms hands. Nym pushed back against him bringing Darren to one knee. “Having fun?” Darren grit his teeth at the sneered comment and brought up his leg to knee Nym in the stomach, who lessened his grip on Darren's hands slightly from the impact of the blow. Darren ripped his hands from Nyms who left a deep scratch into both of his knuckles. Darren grinded his teeth tighter to bite back the pain but wasted no time and punched Nym in the face making him throw his head back in pain. Before Nym could manage to rear forward from the hit, Darren used the same arm to hit what would be a normal person's spleen and followed the attack with his other arm hitting Nyms jaw hinge. Nym let out a growl then punched the left side of Darren's face.
Neither relented as they dealt blows back and forth between one another. A deadly dance of ripped flesh, and blood. Darren knew he didn't have to fight Nym up close, as he was sure Nym knew himself he hadn't either. Either could have used their powers, but hadn't. Darren was disgusted to admit it, but he was enjoying the game they were playing. The game of blood and viscera. He felt his stomach churn. Seeing his fist bloodied in black with Nyms blood and blinking away his own from his eyes. It felt, good. He had noticed it when they had fought last time and the time before that. Their fights had become a release, for everything. The rush he was feeling was similar to that of sexual enjoyment.
Darren chuckled to himself imagining what Steven would say to it. “Your body's grown so accustomed to violence to cope, it's turned any physical violence into a sexual response. A way for your nerve endings to be stimulated, desire in no way being important.” and following their usual back and forth he'd then chime in asking if the desire for blood counted and then Steven would grunt and give him a coloring book, hold his hand and let him know everything was going to be okay. He was going to be okay. Steven, Dahlia, Mom, Dad, Milo, Aurora.
Darren was dragged back into reality as he realized his back was against the floor and Nym was above him beating him black and blue into the ground, Nyms punches never softening. Nyms face had been full of irritation that then shifted into a smug smile as he noticed Darren's dissociation ended. He stopped punching him and used one hand to pick Darren up by the throat and pin him against the tree.
“Is that all? Is that really all you have left in you.” Nym let out a dry laugh to see Darren's eyes still holding hatred. “I slaughtered your family, your village, right under your nose. And yet you never put your heart into it. Do you ever ask yourself why? No. No you don't keep your wits about you. You’d rather do nothing but lie to yourself.” Darren started to regain his strength and elbowed Nyms arm to get him to let go but he didn't budge. His grip just tightened on Darren's throat.
“You believed yourself to be the only one watching. But I know you Darren Sisko. Better than you know yourself. No matter your claims of hate towards me, I can see your soul. And that sensation of hate you feel for me is nothing compared to the hate you feel towards yourself. You enjoy everything I have to offer.” “And what could you possibly have to offer.” Darren spit out blood on Nyms hand as he huffed out the words. Nym smiled as he got exactly what he wanted. A response.
“The last thing you have to crave.” He leaned in close and lowered his voice to a growl. “Understanding. I am the only one who understands how much of a monster you are. It's why you know how much of one I am. Isn't it thrilling? The rush of being understood.” At each sentence Nyms' hand tightened. The pain wasn't just from the feeling of his vocal chords being crushed, but the pain of how close the words hit him. Nym knew everything he needed to know. Or cares to know about how their interactions made him feel. He felt sick of all of it. The beginning of this, them, the present of them, and the realization of how it was all going to end. With them.
When Nym noticed Darren wasn't fighting back anymore and had gone, a ghostly pale Nym dropped him. “Consider our fifth “date”, concluded Sisko.” Darren clutched at his throat for a few moments, his vision fading back along with the stir of pain in his throat that returned to him as he gasped and coughed for air. He sat for a moment and dug his nails into the dirt. His body aches all over, he could feel the blood from a cut above his eye dripping down. He managed to pull himself to his feet. He deserved this. At least he had the privilege to live through it. His family couldn't say the same. Darren spit out blood and limped along after Nym who hadn't slowed his pace.