Death of Matthias.

Night had fallen and all was silent. Three moons were risen, but only two shone, one half, the other crescent, not allowing much light to seep into the pitch blackness; in this part of the countryside, the only light was from the moons and from the thousands upon thousands of gently twinkling stars.
The serenity was interrupted suddenly. A flash of bright blue bit through the calm darkness. For a moment, everything went silent again, almost mockingly; then the light appeared again, this time remaining. The silence, too, was shattered by a blood-curdling scream, half of agony, half of fear.
A dark figure leapt, screeching, from the center of the illumination, followed by rattling, white-hot chains. The shape hit the ground and rolled, the chains running out of slack just before sinking into his soft flesh. Then, just as abruptly as the light had appeared, it vanished.
The figure panted heavily, sounding vaguely reminiscent of an asthmatic that had just completed a marathon race while holding their breath. After a few moments, the breathing became normal enough to produce sounds vocally; the instant it did another scream cut the air, then another, then another. The screams eventually broke down into murmured swear words, then into the original silence.
The voice had proved that whoever lay on the ground was, indeed, a who and not a what. The voice was deep enough to be noticeably male, somewhere in his lower twenties, but with a twinge to it that denoted a lifetime of suffering. The man's hair was oily, ragged and tousled, a reddish-brown color (not that it could be noticed in this amount of visibility) with a hint of blue at the tips. His skin was a charred red color with the occasional chunk of black, and slick with sweat. The entirety of his right arm was made of an apparently light metal, coated in buttons and dials. It was obvious, however, the machine no longer worked, as a huge spike was driven through part of it every few inches, the first in the palm of the hand and the last in the shoulder. The figure lay on the ground, naked, shivering, and still breathing unevenly. His eyes deep green eyes opened slowly, pupils wildly contracting and dilating. After a seeming eternity, he opened his mouth and breathed a single syllable.
"... Free..."
His world became blackness as unconsciousness claimed him.