Rush

You can't spell "slaughter" without "laughter". (and how far will I let the rush take me this time?)

A/N: Okay, when I wrote this, I intended it to be read as Riku, but Jade insists that it could be anybody. Interpret it as you wish, I guess—it doesn't really matter all that much. I finally got tired of writing second-person (Why? Cause I'm sick of alla yous. Sorry, that was a horrible joke.) , so this is third-person. Rejoice.

Disclaimer: Well, if I need a disclaimer, it's pretty obvious that the source material isn't mine.

That's what it boils down to: it is him versus the black creatures that stalk the streets at night, when one can barely tell whose blood is flying and where his blade ends and he begins, and the only way to tell himself and his adversaries apart is to see who is left standing after the final blow is landed. The only thing now that separates him from the darkness is pure raw animal survival, and he loves it.

He loves to lose himself in the rush of power that narrows his focus, speeds his heartbeat, makes his fingertips crackle with energy. He loves the feeling of knowing that his life could end in a fraction of a moment. He loves the raw burn of overexerted muscles, loves the hollow aching tingle of leftover adrenaline and the salty-sweet-bitter tang of hot blood leaking into his mouth. All these and more that the rush brings, he relishes in, because they make him feel alive.

But as he grows stronger and older, in terms of struggles overcome if not years attained, he begins to find that it becomes harder and harder to reach that state, that pure sense of nothing but dark and light and constancy and motion. It has become too easy. He longs for a true challenge, a chance to test his boundaries and push his limits. He wants to feel the rush again.

It is this longing that burns in him, but also brings a question that haunts him at night, when he can ask himself the things he wouldn't dare confront in the light:

How far will I go to reach that rush

And how far will I let the rush take me?