God’s Cube

Time stood still. Thesi knew it was all part of the Cube’s test, he knew that child was dead, he knew this was all fake, he knew, yet it was more painful than any pain he had ever endured. Not the experiments, not the torture, not the kills, none more painful than this very image in front of him. He stared at the child’s brown eyes, his disheveled hair.

Then, in an instant, the child was upon him.

The small figure ran into him, leaving Thesi barely any time to react. The child’s hands held onto his arm. The grasp felt desperate, the eyes full of horror, the feelings the little kid exhaled were so strong. Thesi was frozen yet again, trying to understand the events unfolding before him.

"Help me, please, help me!" 

The child’s voice had a range of emotions mixed in, sadness, fear, desperation, he was pleading. His eyes wide with panic, the emotion etched into every line of his young face. 

"They're coming for me!" 

The child shouted, he wasn’t even able to breathe properly at this point.

Thesi’s mind ran wild, like a computer trying to brute force through a problem. There was something wrong, something that didn’t add up. His gut was shouting at him that this scene wasn’t natural, not that this was a fiction created by the Cube, but that even if he truly was back in the forest, something still wasn’t right. It was then that he saw it.

It was so tiny, insignificant, an untrained eye would’ve missed it, but not him, not after his childhood of torment, that shift was unmissable. A change in the posture of the child, a flicker of the eyes at a speed that no one would pay attention to, was directed toward Thesi's belt, where to his horror, a bloody knife was present, another cruel gift put on him by the Blue Cube.

Thesi's heart skipped a beat. He tensed. The child's hands suddenly gripped tighter, his small frame pressing into him with more force than felt natural. The alarm bells started shouting louder in his mind.

"Let go,I said, let go!" 

Thesi’s words came out as a growl, but the child didn't listen. Instead, his eyes darkened. All emotions started to fade, his fear replaced with an endless abyss of cold and methodical calculations, actions executed with the fluidity that spoke of practice. The child stopped and all of a sudden his free hand shot toward Thesi's knife. The precision was that of someone who had done this a hundred times before. The knife was now in the child’s hand.

Thesi's eyes widened. He had realized, but only now was the feeling of dread and understanding at the scene in front of him truly starting to kick in. This was a trap.

He launched his hand at the kid’s wrists in an attempt to take back the knife, but the child wasn’t going to give in. The little one’s eyes had turned feral, his nails clawing at the challenger’s hand trying to stop it from dragging the knife someplace else, the pain forced Thesi to give in, but just as he withdrew his arm, he free’d the other one in a planned move to surprise the child, and surprise him he did. His grip on the knife loosed and the two came into contact, the knife flying away. 

Thesi stumbled backward, regained his footing and pushed at the child once more, he had to get the situation under control. Stubbornly refusing to injure his attacker, he couldn’t kill again, not here.

"Stop! I don't want to hurt you!"

The yell had a mixture of frustration and desperation, but the child didn’t slow down, instead, he fought harder, the other hand clawing at his face, teeth snapping dangerously near his neck. Thesi felt his resolution falter, he struggled seeing a human in the beast that was currently attacking him. 

"I said, stop!" 

Thesi shouted again, the words would only reach deaf ears, the sound drowned out by the child's feral growls. His eyes told Thesi one simple truth. The kid in front of him wanted nothing less than to kill him.

Thesi tried to get into the child’s mind, diving head first into the memories and the instincts he had tried so desperately to suppress, they all screamed the same thing, the kid was gonna go for the knife. The knife, right, that’s the element he had ignored. 

Both of them dashed at the knife, but Thesi wouldn’t let a mere child beat him to it. He was faster, not only from his more developed body, but as well by his body enhancements. It wasn’t even a contest, by the time the child took his first step Thesi was already upon the knife. 

Thesi grabbed the knife, his fingers wrapping tightly around the familiar cold steel. He turned to face the child, who was already charging at him. The child's small hands collided with Thesi's chest, but it felt like nothing, they weren’t close, in physical ability. It was just Thesi’s mental ability that made the fight equal, his mind that was spiraling out of control. Thesi barely moved, his enhanced body had barely registered the hit. But the child persisted, throwing his entire weight into Thesi, it fought tooth and nail to get control once more of the knife.

"Please! Just stop!" 

Thesi growled, his voice was a mixture of frustration and desperation. He held the knife low, away from the child, hoping to avoid causing any harm in the boy. But the hammering was relentless. No humanity was left in the child, his teeth now attempting to bit his opponent’s arm off.

"I don’t want to hurt you," 

Thesi muttered, it felt more directed to himself rather than the boy turned beast in front of him. His heart was pounding. He could end this fight in mere seconds, that much was obvious, but despite his instincts were screaming, Thesi held back. He truly didn’t want to kill the being in front of him, regardless of what he had become. Finally one of the child’s frantic swings connected, in a moment of distraction, and blood started to spill. Nails deep in his flesh, thesi started feeling that warm sensation of blood in his arm once more.

Thesi winced but didn’t retaliate. 

"Why won’t you just stop?" 

Thesi screamed, trying to shove the child away. He didn’t lack common sense, he long knew the child wouldn’t listen, but he had to relieve his stress somehow, and screaming at the feral beast seemed like his best way. The boy only pressed harder.

The child's gaze fell back on the knife in Thesi’s hand, he let go of a growl before lunging at it. Thesi fought his instincts while swiftly avoiding the kid’s blind swipes. He attempted to push the child away once more, holding back to avoid causing physical harm, but the child wouldn’t let go.

The boy had a sudden burst of strength, superior to the limits Thesi’s calculations had attributed to him. He didn’t have time to readjust his force and react to the newfound strength, the boy twisted the knife toward Thesi, the sharp edge now dangerously close to his chest. His instincts took over. Thesi’s body reacted before his mind could catch up, his power multiplying to his enhanced state. He shoved the boy back with a forceful push. In doing so, he felt a small crack, it wasn’t a bone of his own, but likely one of the child. In doing so though, Thesi hadn’t accounted for the child’s reaction to the shove, which to his surprise wasn’t one of confusion, but instead a smile creeped it. The hand had shifted just enough to weaken Thesi’s grip on the knife, and the boy’s body movement when pushed back was enough to make the knife fly away. 

It was just a foot away from the child, but no matter. Thesi lunged for it and so did the child.

Their hands collided in mid-air, and Thesi felt the cold hilt of the knife press into his palm. His speed was inhuman, enough to make up for the difference in distance. But the child wasn’t done. He snarled like a wild animal, his small body throwing itself against Thesi with a strength that seemed impossible for someone so young.

And then, it happened.

Thesi felt the knife connect with flesh. A sickening smell filled the air as the blade sank deep into the child’s neck.