"I get it."
So said (Rozen), drenched by the violent rain, in a city with no houses anyone lived in. The ghouls were kept in huge enclosures, the ghosts lived in the gardens, the monsters paid no attention to the rain, and for some reason, no one bothered him anymore.
For five full hours, with the rain pounding hard on his head, (Rozen) lifted his face for the hundredth time, only to wash a face already soaked.
Then he stood, while the cold struck his bones.
He walked among the monsters. Some moved on four limbs, others on two, and all of them were deeply strange. Monsters with torn faces and no blood, as though their wounds had healed ages ago. Monsters with bodies that made no sense. One of them had an open back and was still breathing while the rain poured violently into its cavity, yet it seemed untouched by it. Another had a body shaped like a human's, but the front of its back was grotesquely hunched and bulging, and it possessed nothing but a mouth and two ears.
With tired eyes, (Rozen) kept looking from side to side. Their terrifying difference from his own condition stirred astonishment in him, and even a little pleasure. He had grown sick of his repeated deaths, and of returning in such an uneasy way. A strange lightness had entered the logic of his thoughts.
He had begun to find comfort in that frail kind of analysis, until he reached the end of a street where the rainwater drained well. The flood no longer rose halfway up his foot, but stayed below his worn shoe.
Then, from between the loud strikes of rain, he heard a whisper and a murmur.
"Rozen… Rozen, come into this alley… and do not answer with a single word."
(Rozen) was surprised. He had thought it was the Lady, and he had already decided he would not speak to her for as long as he remained alive. Yet this whisper had just agreed with what he wanted.
His caution quickly turned into indifference. He told himself he would be killed again either way.
The moment he entered the alley, the whisper spoke:
"The Lady cannot hear my whisper, or the whispers of my companions, but she can hear yours. You are still within her bounds. We were once as you are now, though we do not compare to you. You are what she wants most. But we want to save you. We will explain everything to you in detail."
(The Lady): "Rozen? What are you doing?"
The whisper answered quickly:
"Do not worry. She cannot hear us. Do not expose this."
(Rozen) answered neither of them. He only laughed hard, then dropped to his knees and began washing his face with the water running along the ground. He kept washing it for several minutes.
(The Lady): "The sight of you does not please me. I do not want to kill you like this. To be honest, I do not even want to speak to you today. Do not dare kill yourself."
Her voice disappeared for ten minutes.
Then the whisper returned:
"Rozen, I do not care whether you have lost your mind or not. I will not risk my life and the lives of my companions for silence or refusal. We live beyond the walls of Snow Nexus. Travel north until you see a sharply bending river. Walk along it until you see a hill and a great tree with no leaves. Reach it, and I will take care of the rest. As for getting out, it will not be easy. It may even be impossible. But I want you to know now that you are not alone. She does not read thoughts. She only hears voices and sees what she is able to see. Try to pass through the great Clock Building in the north of the city, in the Orange District. My only advice is that you stay calm. Stagger in your walk. Be very lost. And once you get the chance, do not hesitate. Even if the hope is bloody, do not throw it away."
The voice faded, and (Rozen) kept staring at the wall in exhaustion. Then he stood and headed north. He knew he would be killed anyway. Nothing moved in his blinded mind except one thought: how painful would it be to leave life this time? Would it be long or short? Would it be worse than that disgusting feeling of returning to life? Snow Nexus stood empty, its washed streets narrow and deeply desolate.
He dragged himself along and kicked through the water, which burned the skin sealed inside his shoe. When he reached the north of the city and entered the Orange District, the windows turned into eyes watching him hard. At once, (Rozen) closed his eyes and smiled the smile of defeat, but he staggered in his walk and moved wrongly on purpose. Before he came close to the walls of the Clock Building, he tried to stop and gather his strength.
Four footsteps rose from nowhere.
(Rozen) turned, and there they were, the two guards with wild rabbit helmets, each carrying a spear. He ran into the building at once, and they chased him with terrifying speed. (Rozen) ran through the corridors, trying with all his strength to maneuver. He thought for a moment that he had gotten away from them, until he turned a corner and a wall exploded above his head from a spear-strike that sounded like thunder. He turned and saw a gray arm, thick with muscle and swollen with veins. It belonged to one of the guards. Terror made him stumble, but he quickly rose and barely avoided a fist from the guard that smashed the floor. The guard pulled his spear free, and the other one arrived behind (Rozen), so the violent chase continued, until (Rozen) reached a wooden door. It was the rear exit of the building.
The only way out.
The moment he grabbed the handle and twisted it, he was shocked to find it locked. He looked back and saw one of the guards rushing toward him at insane speed, aiming to kill him with the spear. (Rozen) felt how weak his attempt was, but he had nothing left to lose. When the guard struck with the spear, (Rozen) dodged it, and the blow shattered the door.
(Rozen) came alive again and rushed out, but the moment he touched the edge of the doorway toward freedom, his body slammed into a wall of electromagnetic force, thick and resistant like heavy gel, forcing him back in a nightmare of slow movement, while behind him stood the fastest creatures alive.
The two rabbit guards sensed something and panicked, but one of them forced himself forward and grabbed (Rozen)'s foot, which was still inside the bounds of the building and the city, and crushed it so hard that (Rozen) almost lost his mind from the pain. Without thinking, he turned and drove an upward kick into the rabbit guard's chin. The moment his foot struck it, it shattered completely. That rabbit guard's chin was harder than reinforced concrete.
But it let go.
(Rozen) went mad. His chance of survival was almost nonexistent. It was zero. Yet he had made it out, and the two guards had stopped. He got up and ran, but the moment he did, he fell on his face. The back of his right leg was nearly destroyed by the crushing grip, and the front of his left foot was completely broken. But he was out.
He was no longer under the Lady's rule or within her sight.
That alone was enough to make him rise and run in a wild, crooked stagger. He was slower than a water beaver. He was barely moving forward.
(The Lady), realizing what had happened and screaming: "Kill him, or I will kill you both. Anything but this… anything but Rozen's escape…"
Then one of the rabbit guards lifted his spear and aimed at (Rozen)'s head. The moment he threw it, (Rozen) stepped on his broken foot and fell, avoiding the spear by pure accident.
The guiding whisper returned:
"Rozen! You're close, Rozen!"
For the first time in a very long while, (Rozen) felt that he had truly survived. His hope had come true despite everything. (Rozen) smiled in happiness,
just as the second rabbit guard's spear pierced the back of his neck and severed his head far from his body, which dropped at once.
What Rozen possessed was truly hope.
But it was a bloody hope.