Ryan was standing in front of the rickety wooden door. The muttering from inside had stopped, replaced by heavy silence...
"I'll teach you some manners, you... don't scream..."
then the sound of a slap.and the sound of a small body hitting the wooden floor.
Ryan did not hesitate. He kicked the door and it burst open violently, crashing against the wooden wall, making the whole wall shudder.
What he saw made Rayan stop breathing.
The man was standing in the middle of the room, barefoot, his shirt dirty and torn. In his right hand, he held a thick leather belt – not an ordinary belt, but a beating tool he had used so many times that the leather had cracked.
And He saw a girl...
She was on the ground. Face down. Her hands over her head trying to protect herself. Her thin cotton dress was torn at the shoulder and back. Her dirty light brown hair was scattered over her face.
But her face... her face was what made Rayan forget everything.
She was have a dark blue bruise beneath her left eye, swollen, as if she had been punched.
And a long red scratch on her right cheek, still bleeding slightly, the blood mixed with dirt.
Her lower lip was split and swollen, almost bleeding.
and Red finger marks around her neck – old and new strangulation marks.
And other scratches and bruises on her outstretched arms.
She was trembling in silent crying, not sobbing loudly, but short, gasping breaths, like someone who had learned not to scream because screaming only brought more beatings.
Her eyes were open but almost empty
Without Ryan even thinking
His hand moved of its own accord.
His sword—still attached to the belt Anna had given him—came out of its sheath with a sharp sound like a suppressed scream. Rayan did not remember when he grabbed it. He did not remember when he moved.
But he suddenly found himself standing over the man.
The man fell on his back after Ryan hit him. His small eyes were wide open with fear, unaware of what had happened.
Ryan didn't realize he'd punched the man, but that didn't stop him.
He hit him again. With his fist on the man's face – he heard the sound of bone hitting bone. Then again. Then again.
Ryan paused for a moment. The man was gasping, blood from his nose streaming onto his lips.
But Ryan was not finished.
He kicked the man in the stomach. Then in the chest. Then in the face again.
The man fell onto his side, trying to protect his head with his arms, but Rayan continued.
Ryan shouted, his voice hoarse, he had never heard himself like this before.
"You hit her?,You hit her with this?"
He grabbed the belt from the ground. Looked at it. Looked at the old blood stains on it.
Then he hit the man with the belt. Once. Twice. Three times.
The man was screaming. Begging. Crying.
But Ryan could not hear.
In that moment, Rayan was no longer in Lusaris.
He was in another place. In another time.
He saw a flash – a quick image, no details: light brown hair... burning eyes... the sound of a slap... then silence.
Then a small voice whispering: "Don't cry... don't cry... it will end soon..."
Then nothing.
No complete image. No clear details. Only a feeling – a feeling of losing something that could never be recovered. A feeling of a young girl he could not protect. A feeling of unforgivable guilt.
Ryan had remembered someone. A girl. He had loved her. And he had failed to protect her every day.
But the details were blurry, like an old memory he did not want to return to.
But the pain was real. Burning. Filling his chest until he nearly choked.
Now, Ryan was looking at the man on the ground, but he did not see him.
He saw another face. A face from the past. A face that used to beat a young girl every night. A face that did not cry when she died.
Ryan raised his sword.
He did not raise it to frighten the man. He raised it to end it.
He placed the sword on the man's neck. The cold blade touched the man's skin. A small drop of blood appeared where the sword touched.
The man was crying. Begging. Saying: "No... please... I won't do it again... please..."
But Ryan could not hear.
He saw the face of the girl he had lost in his eyes. He saw her small cold body. He saw her eyes closed forever.
"You will never hurt anyone again" , Rayan whispered. His voice was not his own. It was a strange, cold voice, like death itself.
He tightened his grip on the sword.
But then he heard a scream behind him:
"Stop!"