Hatred.
That was the only thing Liezell felt as he stared up at his killer. He looked at the boy's neck, still bearing the dark, purple-black handprints of his own grip. He looked at Keruim's eyes, still bloodshot and swollen from being choked to the brink of death. Liezell didn't feel fear. He didn't feel sadness, and he didn't feel despair. He felt a hatred so dense it felt like lead in his veins, weighing down his very soul.
"Fuck... you..." Liezell gasped, the words bubbling through the thick, metallic blood coating his throat.
"How dare you... how dare you still live after you made me kill him? Die... die... die... DIE!"
He began to scream the word, his voice cracking and tearing as he sped up. The curse became a frantic, rhythmic chant.
"Die-die-die-die!" With every syllable, blood seeped out of the jagged wound in his neck, pulsing faster and faster, spraying the stone floor as he poured the last of his life force into a death hex against Keruim.
Then, against all laws of biology, the dying man began to stand.
Keruim felt it then—for the first time, he felt the true weight of the hatred a human heart can bear. And with it came a cold, sharp sensation he thought he had left behind in the trenches.
Fear.
It was a human emotion, a "weakness" he wasn't supposed to have anymore. He was supposed to be the monster now. But as he watched the massive, blood-drenched silhouette of Liezell rise like a corpse from a fresh grave, Keruim's knees trembled.
"You need to die... you need to die..." Liezell hissed, clenching his teeth so hard that the enamel began to crack and splinter under the force.
Humans are weak. The words Keruim had whispered to himself that very morning echoed in his mind like a mocking laugh. He was still human. That was why he felt this paralyzing terror. He wasn't a god; he was just a boy who had poked a sleeping giant, and now the giant was awake for one final, murderous minute.
Liezell lunged. He was uncaring of the life force spraying from his neck with every second of exertion. He didn't care about the pain. He didn't care about his soul. He only cared about ending the enemy in front of him.
"I won't let you live for even one more second!" he shouted
Liezell's massive hands snatched at the air. Keruim broke out of his trance just in time, scrambling backward on the soot-covered floor. He had no weapon; the bone splinter was still lodged deep in Liezell's throat, acting as a grim handle for the man's rage. All Keruim could do was retreat into the corner of the cage, his heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird.
"I WILL NOT LET YOU LIVE!"
Liezell jumped, baring his teeth. He didn't look like a soldier anymore; he looked like a rabid dog. As his heavy body slammed into Keruim's small frame, they both tumbled onto the hard, jagged stone.
Liezell pinned him. He didn't use his hands—his fingers were broken and slick with gore. Instead, he used his teeth.
Humans can't survive in a shit world like this. Only monsters can.
The memory surfaced in Keruim's mind, but it was drowned out by his own visceral screaming. Liezell bit into his shoulder, his teeth sinking deep into the muscle and sinew. He pulled, tearing the flesh away as if he were eating ribs at a feast. Keruim watched in wide-eyed horror as Liezell chewed a piece of his own shoulder and spat it out, only to dive back in for more.
"I will kill you! Damn you, you will die here!"
RIP. "AHHHH! IT HURTS!" Keruim shrieked, the sound echoing through the dark mine tunnels like a siren of agony.
RIP. "STOP! IT HURTS! STOP!"
But Liezell was deaf to the pleas. He tore at Keruim's chest, his teeth seeking the bone. Every time Keruim felt the pain, it wasn't just physical—it was magnified. It felt ten times more intense than any injury should.
This was his cost. Everything in this world has a price. For every ounce of madness he wielded, he would be forced to feel ten times the agony in return. It was a balance he couldn't escape. He could only watch as Liezell literally tried to eat him alive.
Keruim began to sob, the overwhelming pain breaking his mind. Liezell was tunneling toward his heart, uncaring of anything in between. He bit, he pulled, he shredded. He spared nothing.
Liezell's teeth finally grazed the ribs protecting Keruim's heart. He opened his jaws for the final, crushing bite—the act that would end the monster once and for all. And then, he stopped.
Liezell's body went rigid. His jaws remained open, hovering just inches above Keruim's exposed chest, where the boy's heart hammered against his ribs like a panicked prisoner. The light in Liezell's eyes, which had been burning with the dying fire of a thousand suns, suddenly flickered and went dark.
In the end, Liezell had used every last spark of his life to reach his goal, but he had run out of time. He died right there, his life ending while pinned on top of Keruim—his teeth still bared in a final, unaccomplished act of vengeance.
Keruim couldn't move. The weight of the 220-pound soldier was a crushing burden, pinning him to the soot-stained floor. He lay there, just inches away from the cold corpse of the man he had once considered a brother. Liezell's sightless eyes stared up at the ceiling of the cage, identical to the way Keruim was staring up now.
Keruim's body was a map of missing flesh, jagged bite marks, and raw, exposed nerves. The air in the cage felt like ice against his open wounds, and every breath was a jagged reminder of the price he was paying. Fear. That was all that remained.
"What..." Keruim tried to speak, but his voice was a broken, sobbing mess. "What will I have to give... to truly become a monster?"
The thoughts swirled in his mind, dark and suffocating. Would he really have to be tortured forever? Would he have to be eaten alive, stabbed from head to toe, and broken over and over again? Was the path to power paved only with his own agony?
"What will my cost be in this world?" he whispered to the uncaring shadows of the mine. "What is the price of freedom?"
Freedom. That was all he wanted. He didn't want to be a slave. He didn't want to be a tool. He wanted to live—to truly, finally live. But the only way he knew how to survive was to give everything up. He had to surrender his humanity, his safety, and his heart.
"But it hurts," he sobbed, his tears mixing with the blood on his cheeks. "It hurts so, so much."
In the depths of his despair, a terrifying realization took hold.
He wanted to die. He wanted the pain to stop, to let the darkness take him just as it had taken Wade and Liezell. But death was a promise that would never be kept for him. Death was a mercy that lingered around everyone else in this hellhole, but it stayed just out of his reach. It was a phantom that teased him, always visible but never touching him.
How much more pain would he have to bear? How many more brothers would he have to kill? How much of his own flesh would have to be torn away before the world decided he had paid enough?
"I just want freedom," he croaked, his fingers twitching against the cold stone.
He lay there in the silence, trapped under the cooling weight of his only friend, waiting for the orcs to find the slaughterhouse he had created. He was a twelve-year-old boy who had survived a death sentence, but as he looked at his mangled body, he knew he was no longer a boy. He was something else. Something the world wasn't ready for. something he himself wasn't ready for
And the cost had only just begun.
Author's Note:
We have officially arrived! Today is the Potential Starlet feature day, and to celebrate, I am dropping a Double Chapter release!
Laughter of the Damned has just crossed 5,000 views, and the madness is only beginning. Keruim has survived the cage, but at what cost? The price of freedom is blood, and as you can see, he's paying it in full.
THE CHALLENGE: > If we can hit 20 Power Stones today or 20 collections, I will drop another 2-Chapter release tomorrow! >
I want to see if you guys have the stomach for what's coming next. Leave a review, drop your stones, and let's me show the editors why this story will be at the top one day