Eternal Malediction (RE)

The barnyard was quiet in the way graveyards were quiet; it wasn’t peaceful, not serene, but hollow. The kind of silence that felt carved out of the world, leaving only the echo of something terrible waiting to happen. The bonfire crackled weakly, its flames bending away from the two figures standing in front of the gang as if even fire understood fear.

The eyebrowless girl knelt in the dirt next to the hay, her body trembling so violently it looked like she was shivering in a blizzard. But the night wasn’t that cold, and the air wasn’t that harsh. Her body wasn’t reacting to temperature.

It was instinctively reacting to them.

Her eyes darted left and right, shaking so hard it looked like her vision was splitting. She didn’t dare look up. She didn’t dare lift her head. She didn’t dare acknowledge the two silhouettes standing in front of her. The beings who had turned fear into something physical, something alive, something she could feel crawling across her skin.

Her breath came in sharp, broken gasps. Her fingers dug into the dirt. Her hands trembled uncontrollably.

She tried to look.

Forward.

She tried to look at the two people before her, as she didn’t see their faces back on the street and before the truck went flying to the Thames. She always looked down, never forward, as it was easier to look away from everything than to look at it.

But her body refused.

Her throat tightened. Her lungs felt too small for her body; her heartbeat thrashed against her ribs like it was trying to escape.

The pain was unbearably dull.

Slowly, painfully slowly, she raised her eyes to see fear making life. Made God.

And as her gaze climbed up toward the two silhouettes, the world began to drain.

The colour black erased from her sight.

Not darkness. Not shadows. Not the night.

Black itself. The concept, the shape, and the boundary peeled away from her vision like paint melting off a wall. The edges of the world dissolved. The outlines of the barn, the crates, the dirt, and the fire – all of it blurred into a terrifying, colourless void.

Her pupils widened. Her breath snapped. Her chest tightened.

”I— I can’t see,” she whispered.

Then she screamed. ”I CAN’T SEE! I CAN’T SEE!”

Her voice cracked, raw, desperate. Her hands clawed at her face, her eyes, and her temples, as if she could pull the blindness out with her nails. Her breathing turned irregular, sharp inhales, choking exhales, a rhythm that didn’t belong to a living person.

Nova stepped closer. ”Look forward.”

She didn’t respond, as her mind was gone, swallowed by terror.

Nova slapped her.

Not hard. Not cruel. Just enough to snap her back into her body.

Her vision flickered. Colours returned in fractured shards but not completely. But the fear stayed, heavy, suffocating and crushing her lungs.

The Hooded One moved.

In an instant, faster than thought, he dragged the man in front of her. The man who had touched her. The man who had taken pieces of her life and twisted them. The man who had smiled while she cried.

He was healed now, whole and now awake, yet confused. His eyes darted around, hazy at first, then widening as he realised where he was, who he was in front of, what had happened.

Nova’s voice was now low and cold. ”Has this man done anything you didn’t want?”

The man panicked immediately. ”H‑hey, hey, listen—listen, sweetheart—I didn’t—I didn’t do anything wrong, okay? They’re lying. They’re trying to turn you against me. I never— I never touched you like that. I never—It was all consensual—you gave me—permission, you remember?”

She nodded.

A tiny, broken nod, even though she was still blind, looking at the floor as she responded.

The Hooded One’s jaw tightened.

The man’s face twisted. Anger, fear, and desperation are all fighting for space.

”You little—you lying little—you think they’re going to save you? You think they’re going to protect you? You think—”

He stopped.

Because The Hooded One unsheathed his sword.

The sound alone made the girl flinch so violently she nearly collapsed again. The man crawled backward, scrambling like a trapped animal.

”Wait—WAIT—listen—listen to me—if you touch me, if you hurt me, I swear—I SWEAR—I have people—I have people who will come after you—they’ll hunt you—they’ll—”

The Hooded One stepped forward.

The man’s voice died in his throat as his left hand’s palm faced The Hooded One begging for mercy.

Nova didn’t move, and the girl didn’t breathe, as she heard everything happening around her.

The Hooded One raised the blade, his face full of disgust. His voice was low, steady, and terrifyingly calm.

”I sentence you straight to hell.”

As the sound of a sword gliding in the air flew outwards.

The shockwave cracked the earth beside the man, sending dust and embers from the bonfire exploding upward in a violent burst. The flames roared, swallowing the air, casting monstrous shadows across the barnyard.

The head and the left hand of the man dropped, and a second later so did his body.

The girl, now slowly gaining her vision back, saw the hand drop, the same hand she tried to resist and failed.

Kieran flicked the blade downward, releasing the blood.