A man may live after losing his life but not after losing his honour.

Nessa's here now. Also, Anton got FUCKED up.

 Every part of your body connects to your spine. Think of it as the centerpiece of the human skeleton.

 You don’t realize till you hurt your back, but try moving a part of you and focus on your spine. Neck, arms, legs, move any of them and instant pain. Breathing was pain back then, so you can use that as a field of reference for what hurts.

 I was able to muster the strength to look up, but could see naught but two stark blue eyes,  a smile glowing in the blackness of the winter night, and, when my face hit the snow, those red dress shoes.

 My head was pushed deeper into the snow, the pain skyrocketing with each step as my assailant walked across me and stopped on my back. They turned around, heels digging into me. Before I even had the chance to let out a wheeze in reaction, they bent down, grabbed my head, and pulled it towards them. I couldn’t see the shape my body was in then, but I’ll take a shot in the dark and say it wasn’t natural.

 Suddenly I felt two daggers in the right side of my neck. I could feel everything, every pain receptor in me was firing off at that moment.

 You aren’t supposed to feel your blood coursing through your veins. Hell, you don’t even think about it, it’s just one of those bodily functions that happen and you pay no mind. I felt akin to when you do a handstand and your blood rushes to your head, except it was all going to my newly acquired neck holes.

 I felt my essense slowly fade away with every second that passed. Until... I noticed the sensation slowed. Aside from the obliterated spine, I felt my body relax and grant me what felt like a gift of comparatively lesser pain. Before I could try to collect myself, injection. The opposite of my previous experience entirely, but just as painful- if not more. Whatever had entered me, I could feel it stain my bloodstream like ink in water as it flowed throughout my body.

 I cried. Silently bawled my eyes out. I couldn’t make a sound. I could only scream, beg, and pray within the confines of my mind.

 No one knew I was hurting, no one knew I was dying, no one was going to come to my aid.

 I slumped back onto the ground. And there I laid, left to endure a cacophony of pain within a world that doesn’t care. I twitched and foamed from the mouth until my vision was encapsulated in darkness, then silence.

 “...Keiran...”

 I could hear a distant voice echo from the dark cold.

 “...Keiran...”

 In the soft void I was engrossed in, I could hear the vaguely familiar voice yet again. Haste in its tone.

 “Keiran!”

 I opened my eyes to blinding whiteness and a tapping. As my eyes adjusted, I made out a silhouette hovering over me, tapping their foot. I shot up, on my guard.

 “Ah! Back, demon! You will not take me again!” I shouted, my arms guarding my face and my body tense.

 “Yes, yes, you’re quite the comedian. I’d laugh, but I seem to have lost the ability. By chance, you wouldn’t suppose it be from finding you passed out outside my door? Or maybe, in trying to wake you for the last 5 minutes, I’m late for the early morning sales at the farmers market.”

 I could recognize that sarcasm and paddy accent anywhere. I lowered my guard and looked unto the familiar figure.

 “N-Ness...?”

 “Who else, you miserable eejit? And is that any way to greet your big sister?” she said.

 Groggy and head throbbing from a raging migraine, I struggled for a response. I went with what first came to me.

 “I’m older than you...” I mumbled, tripping over myself, both mentally and physically.

 “Hey, hey, hey!” said Nessa as she rushed, scooping me up before I made an all too soon reunion with my good friend: the ground. “Age is but a number, brother.” she said, dragging me into her library, “A number that has no bearing on mentality and maturity.”

 “Sh-shut up.” I mumbled in my daze.

 “My point exactly.”