Chapter 12: Witness
Thursday, 16th 2023
3:30 a.m
"Wh…at…?"
Gray sluggishly rose from the ground.
His head ached tremendously.
As Gray raised his hand to his forehead, dyeing the tips of fingers blood-red, he wiped it clumsily with his sleeve.
After dirtying the fabric, he slowly made his way ahead with the support of the neighboring, abandoned buildings, almost tumbling multiple times.
Suddenly, he heard a low buzzing sound.
He looked around for the location of the noise, noticing it came from his pocket quickly after.
He unlocked his phone with great difficulty, and after the brief moment of struggle, he noticed what was happening.
Kathy was calling him.
Gray quickly answered and immediately, he heard his sister yell, her voice strained.
"What the hell were you doing? Do you know just how many times I called you?"
Freed from his previous state of stupor, he was about to apologize, when Kathy suddenly interrupted him,
"Do you know how worried I was? Do you know how scared I felt when Rowan told me he didn't know where you were?"
"Can you even understand how I felt with every call, thinking that you were going to reply, when you never did?" her voice completely broke, rendering unable to continue speaking.
"…I'm sorry…" Gray weakly answered.
Kathy took a deep breath.
With every ounce of the authority she could muster, she spoke.
"I told you to say what were you doing."
Gray stopped in his tracks as he remembered everything.
'I-I saw It. I-I'm sure I saw it.'
'I became witness of a view that even the most mad and fervent devotees of old, apocalyptic religions wouldn't dare to think—a view that would eradicate everything that had ever existed, or was about to exist—a view that if watched in real life, would bring countless people to madness.'
'Seeing that their gods can't even compare to His greatness would make the people of all countries despair.'
'Their gods aren't high up in the sky, H-He is…!'
'This accused sight was a threat—a threat oozing sickly stains of madness, death and torture.'
'He showed what would happen if I even dared to utter a word in His ungodly, blasphemous name.'
"Listen to me!" she cried in desperation.
She cycled between many emotions—sometimes yelling, sometimes quietly sobbing, and sometimes struggling remain calm, failing relentlessly.
"…I was with some friends, I lost the sense of time..." Gray said, his heart aching.
Ever since he became a Nephilim, he had to lie relentlessly to her, all for with purpose of shielding her from the harsh truth.
She stayed in silence for a moment.
Then, she bit her tongue.
"Come back—you have school tomorrow."
"And be careful."
She then hang up.
Kathy silently sat near the living room's window. With empty eyes, she stared at the dark and empty neighborhood.
…
Gray exhaled.
'I'm sorry, Kathy.'
'This is the only way I can help.'
'I don't have the ability to shatter a mountain with a punch, nor do I have an invulnerable body, strong enough cover you from all harm.'
'You don't know how much I wish to let you know about what bothers me, and you truly don't know how much I wish for you to know what worries me.'
'But 'they' exist, and I can't let their sacrilegious selves be aware of your existence.'
Gray's eyes twitched.
'What I've seen—What I've seen was prediction of the future, and most importantly, I had it in real life.'
Somehow, he could bring Genesis inside the real world.
Gray smiled bitterly, forcing himself to see the good in the horrible situation he was in.
'What I've seen wasn't hidden behind any kind of symbolism to be deciphered.'
'If I were to utter His name, I fear that what I've seen would occur.'
'Somehow, I just know.'
'But what is The Monolith planning? What did I do to bring His attention upon me? I'm just a normal person with an ability—I can't even be considered as a full fledged Nephilim.'
'Even guys my age can beat me up without any struggles.'
Gray chuckled dryly.
'…How can I even talk about protecting Kathy when I'm not even able to do so?'
Just as he berated himself about his weaknesses, he remembered the eye and the communication device Casanova had given him.
After finding the tissue covering Dusk Catcher and the communication device, he heaved a sigh of relief.
"I didn't lose them…"
Gray kept on walking, struggling to ignore the eerie silence following the moonless night.
He moved fast, afraid of meeting an unknown creature.
Sometimes, he could see some small, dark figures running through the road, making him grow increasingly anxious.
But when he moved closer to them, he could clearly see them—a group of cats playing with each other.
He would've stopped to pet them, but it was too late at night; his sister was waiting for him.
He couldn't dare to waste a second of her time, for had already done more than enough.
Gray just couldn't let Kathy worry again.
He also didn't forget to do the test of lucidity, pointing his phone's flashlight on his hand.
While he was slightly afraid of seeing a warped, alien hand with no resemblance to his, he felt that—no matter his fear—being inside a dream was better than being stuck inside his new reality.
His hand looked the same, and this caused him to smile bitterly.
'I could have a Nephilim in my class, and now, an unfathomable being—a creature whose name cannot be spoken—has threatened me, exposing their all-ending, aeon old glory…'
'There was also—' he held his pounding head.
'There also was a creature carving something on my neck, wasn't there?'
Was this the creature who had watched him all along?
While Gray felt in the pits of his consciousness that the treat sent by The Monolith was bound to happen lest he followed bis orders, he didn't feel the same for this 'Sigil Carver.'
If so, since Genesis showed him the future in an abstract, fictitious manner, could the Carver of Sigils be a symbolic representation of Nekare?
Was Genesis telling him that she was a threat?
Gray shook his head.
'No, the feeling was vastly different than when I met Nekare…'
'Thus, could it someone be else whom I should be careful about?'
But even then, why Gray?
What did he do to make all these things happen?
And what was the link between The Monolith and Genesis? Why did his prediction have a sort of connection between them?
The first dream was like the Apocalypse spoken about inside The Book of Revelation—while the second may have a correlation with the first, perhaps by being a continuation of the dream after Gray's death.
Then, the prediction Gray just had contained The Monolith inside it, just like the first.
Thus, could He have been the arcane that corrupted him, turning him into a Nephilim?
Gray clenched his fists.
'If only I could tell Casanova about this maybe, he would possess the answers. Maybe, I wouldn't have to face these fears.'
'But I can't.'
'The Monolith would punish me in ways I can't even begin to comprehend.'
"No, not only me," he quickly corrected himself.
"…An immeasurable amount of lives pends from my lips,"
Not even a week ago, Gray was a normal person.
But now, everything was happening all at once, like the cogs of creation had decided it was the right time—the right time to perform an aeon old play.
Gray's lips trembled.
He was afraid.
He was afraid of the future that might unravel before them, especially now that The Monolith had seen him.
'But if he was able to see me…'
Gray's face turned ashen.
'N-no…'
Was He going to seek Kathy too?
Was his own existence going to hurt her?
'Should I run away?'
'Should I disappear from her life?'
Gray's clutched his face, hunching over.
The burden of responsibility was becoming heavier and heavier—to the extent where it almost crushed him.
Taking long, deep breaths, he knew his answer.
"No…I can't do that."
"I can't leave her alone."
"She lived for me her whole life."
"She gave up on everything…just for me."
'And what if a Nephilim or an inexplicable creature attacks her?'
'I'm the only one who can foresee it.'
"I can't leave Kathy."
'I'll stay with her, improving Genesis and learning its secrets awhile I'm training my body.'
'I will do my best to find ways of strengthening my fighting abilities beyond humanity, transcending them as a whole, just like a true Nephilim is supposed to.'
'It's the only thing I can do.'
'It's the only thing I must do.'
…
After 20 minutes, Gray was right in his home's doorway.
He was about to open the door when his sister beat him to it.
Immediately, Gray could see her condition.
Her eyes blood-shot, with dark circles marking them. Her face was red, especially the sides of her eyes and mouth.
She had been crying for a long tome.
Faced with her condition—a condition he had caused—Gray gritted his teeth.
With great difficulty, he apologized.
"I'm sorry…"
"Come in."
Even though she was facing him, it was as if her eyes were looking beyond Gray.
She turned around and made space, letting him enter their house.
Gray immediately noticed an empty pack of cigarettes placed on the table.
He wanted to ask her to quit, but felt it wasn't the right moment.
"Go to sleep, you have school tomorrow."
"Y-Yeah…"
Gray pulled his hoodie over his head, wanting to cover the wound he had received as he passed out.
Although it wasn't deep nor too painful, he felt that if Kathy were to discover it, she would get worried for him.
He knew she would inquire on how did he get hurt—and that, paired with him having gone home that late, would make her think he had gotten beaten up by someone, possibly by the 'friends' he made up on the spot.
Kathy went inside her room and locked it, all without uttering a word.
While it wasn't Gray's fault for going home that late, he still felt guilty—he just hated seeing his dear sister in those conditions.
Afterwards, he silently went inside the bathroom.
The wound on his forehead had already stopped bleeding—and luckily, his long hair was placed in way that covered it, rendering his sister unable to see it.
He checked his nape with a different mirror, and apart from the injury on his forehead, nothing else was amiss—there wasn't anything drawn or written.
Gray touched his neck with his fingers, almost caressing it, heaving a sigh of relief.
'Not broken…'
He then took Casanova's eye with great difficulty, his body cringing the whole time.
He carefully removed the pink tissue from it, discovering that the eye had been looking at him the whole time.
Gray inspected the eye for some moments, trying to familiarize himself with it.
He really wanted to avoid puking when pointing it at Nekare.
"…Should I wear gloves?"
As Gray turned the eye around, droplets of blood trickled on the sink.
"…I really should."
Gray took a new tissue and placed Casanova's eye inside it.
He then washed his hands thoroughly, repeating the cycle multiple times.
After that, he washed his face, cleaning the dried blood off his forehead.
Once he was done, he answered the call of nature and prepared himself to fall sleep.
'I'll shower tomorrow morning. I can't risk waking Kathy up.'
…
Gray unlocked his phone.
His heart immediately dropped.
Seeing the many missed calls, his hands started shaking.
'This is just like the Apocalypse I've dreamed about.'
'If she had been in danger while I was unconscious, does this mean she would have died alone, again?'
Gray bit his lip.
He silently sat at the edge of the bed, thinking of a way to bring Genesis inside the real world.
Gray brought his hand to his face and did the reality-check, wishing to speed up the progress of building the habit.
Sighing, he searched the word 'Nephilim' on the internet. Surprisingly, there were many results.
"The Nephilim are mysterious beings or people in the Bible traditionally imagined as being of great size and strength. The origins of the Nephilim are disputed. Some, including the author of the Book of Enoch, view them as the offspring of fallen angels and humans. Others view them as descendants of Seth and Cain."
Gray's eyes widened in surprise.
"So this is why it seemed familiar… It was written in the Bible!"
However, after thinking for a moment, his brow furrowed.
"Since the Bible knows about the Nephilim…is the church aware of their existence here, in the real world?"
"This Book of Enoch talks about them being the offspring of fallen angels and humans… " he muttered under his breath.
"Fascinating, though untrue."
"Casanova said that a human can turn into a Nephilim by becoming witnesses of the unexplainable…"
He shook his head.
"…Nonetheless, I must read his book, it might have important information hidden inside it."
He reread the paragraph.
"On the next line, it also says that others view them as descendants of Seth and Cain…"
"Cain was the one who killed Abel, but who's Seth?"
He searched his name, and after a brief moment, he got his answer.
Seth was the third son of Adam and Eve.
Gray scratched his head.
"I'm aware of the truth, but from an outsider's perspective, how come Cain and Seth's descendants have supernatural abilities?"
"It doesn't make much sense, aren't they normal humans?"
"Humans mating with angels sounds more realistic…"
He began to reflect on the issue, hoping to find some hidden insight.
"Although Cain was a normal human, he is the first who committed the sin of murder."
"And after it, God gave him the mark signaling that, if someone harmed Cain, they would get harmed sevenfold…"
His eyes widened.
"Could the mark be considered as a Nephilim's ability…?"
"Naturally, if Cain were to be a Nephilim, perhaps his son would have a kind of power too… And his son's sons too, thus, forming a new species!"
Gray now completely understood of why people thought the Nephilim were borne from Cain and Seth's genealogy.
"…While it's hidden, The Bible still has some knowledge I seek!"
…
Gray yawned.
As he kept on reading, his eyelids turned heavier and heavier.
He then checked the time—4:20 a.m.
Gray sighed.
He hastily hid Dusk Catcher and the communication device below a pile of his clothes.
He then turned the lights off and climbed on his bed.
Gray drifted off to sleep fairly quickly, turning his world jet-black.