"I'm finished." I whispered to myself, my voice barely audible, then sighed slowly and weakly, looking at my bandaged hand. A stillness choked the place, a stillness that wasn't normal... it was terrifying. I called out quickly, trying to break this heavy silence:
"Guys! This quietness of yours... it scares me!" I said, panting from exhaustion, my eyes fixed on the strange ring, my body still slightly trembling.
"Don't worry," Liam said in a tone he tried hard to make reassuring, but the sigh that followed revealed his anxiety. His voice slightly trembled. "We are just... trying to process it. We couldn't process it earlier... because we were afraid for you."
"Now... for God's sake, where exactly are we?" Meliss interrupted, her voice slightly broken, carrying a sharp sting of worry, as if she was struggling with herself before speaking.
"I don't know, but I've figured out three things," Luca said with a forced calmness, as if wearing a mask of composure, but he was breathing heavily between words: "First, everyone is paired up except Louyan: Meliss and Liam, Alain and I, Yuna and Evan, and Louyan is alone."
Then he called out to Evan and Yuna, his voice slightly shaky, as if it took effort to control himself:
"Second is the bag issue, and Evan and Yuna will tell us about that."
"We know... the bag..." Yuna began, her voice tense and weary, barely able to gather her words. "While we were running... don't ask us why, we'll tell you later... okay? Evan yelled that if he had his mechanist's bag, we would be better off. Then he shouted loudly and desperately: 'My bag!' Suddenly, this bag fell on us! We discovered it was his old travel bag from two years ago! To make sure, I shouted my bag's name too, and my bag fell! That's all I know... besides the fact that it contains all our stuff, even though I haven't searched all of it."
So, that's how they figured it out.
"As for the third, I'll tell you: What is the nature of the world you have?" Meliss asked, her tone a mix of curiosity tinged with horror, but she was stuttering slightly. "The world I have combines a dark forest containing tall purple trees, along with deadly gaseous lakes! What about you?"
"A frozen lake surrounded by volcanoes everywhere," I said with bitter sarcasm, my voice sometimes intermittent due to my exhaustion, the disbelief still evident in my tone.
"As for us, it's a hell that combines thunderstorms and water," Alain said in a sharp, sarcastic tone, but he was slightly panting after his words. "And you know what happens when they meet! Plus, the thunder burns the trees, so the view with us is super beautiful... between thunder, water, and fire!" I imagined his sarcastic smile as he described that terrifying beauty, but his smile looked tired.
"Oh! That's a beautiful view! Come and see our view!" Evan grumbled, exhaustion and despair weighing down his voice, as if he was struggling to speak. "It's withered trees, twisted in a creepy, laughing way! Plus, there are strange, scary insects with us! I swear one of them is looking at me right now!"
"I see the situation is fair for almost everyone," I said with a light, sarcastic laugh, my voice a mix of tiredness and astonishment, an attempt to lighten the mood after everything we had been through.
"Oh Meliss, what's wrong? What happened to your foot?" I suddenly remembered and asked.
"I'll tell you. We woke up in a spider's nest, so we had to confront them, but Meliss got injured. Don't worry, it's a slight injury," Liam said.
"Don't worry, my mental and physical state is below zero, but I'm breathing, and that's what matters... Hahaha," Meliss laughed with bitter sarcasm, her voice almost a tired whisper. A heavy silence prevailed before it was broken by Liam's exhausted voice.
"What do you mean by that?" Liam asked in a weary but argumentative tone, as if every word cost him a tremendous effort. "In that moment, I exhausted every remaining ounce of intelligence in my tired brain, and you exhausted all your strength. Also, Meliss, you have a ring too, use it! Why are you talking on mine?"
"It's strange to talk this way when we are in the same place, and I prefer to talk like this," Meliss replied with cold, tired logic, trying to ignore the exhaustion that enveloped Liam's tone.
"As for us, we woke up surrounded by insects... scary, big insects! Haaaaaaaccc!" Evan's voice started trembling with clear panic. "It was terrifying, I was shivering at that moment! I don't know how we ran at full speed! It was adrenaline and, worst of all..... boooogh!" Amid Evan's trembling voice, we heard him calm down for a moment, then it was followed by the sound of violent vomiting.
"Evan, what's wrong?" Meliss said, her voice filled with sudden worry. Then Liam followed, asking his younger sister, his tone mixed with fear and caution:
"Yes, Yuna, what's wrong? Are you two alright? What happened?"
Yuna replied in a trembling voice that was almost a suppressed cry: "The worst is... a very large bird thinks we're prey and food, so it kept chasing us. Then, you know the insects are chasing us, so the bird and the insects started chasing us! Suddenly, both of them collided! And when they noticed each other's presence... well, well, calm down! Let me process what I saw... Oh... Ah... Oh! Ooooh! What the hell did I see?! They ripped each other apart! Then blood and guts got everywhere... Oh my God!" Yuna spoke in a breakdown and escalating cries, a sense of madness creeping into her trembling voice. Our voices rose as we tried to comfort her:
"It's okay, it's okay, Yuna!" Liam shouted with intense worry, trying to inject reassurance without being able to hide his fear.
"Calm down! Calm down! We don't need the details! Just calm down!" Meliss said, her voice a mix of tiredness and an attempt to control the situation.
"Yes, yes, no need to cry," Alain said with extreme worry, trying hard to calm them down. "I know it was difficult, but calm down!"
"Yuna, Evan, take a breath in... out... Calm down! And... and repeat after me: Take a breath in and out!" I told them, hoping they could hear me amidst the chaos. I heard the sound of faint and disturbed breaths coming from the ring.
"Yes, yes, like that! In and out! No need to worry," Meliss said in a voice drowned in anxiety, trying her best to calm them. But what we heard next was like a slap that brought us back to reality:
"Sis / Bro, the situation is scary and crazy here..." they both said, between their broken sobs and clear panting from exhaustion and terror.
I heard their trembling voices weeping, a painful echo tearing through the silence.
"That's right... we... we don't know! What's happening? Why are we here? And where exactly is this place?" The words broke on their lips like fragile glass.
"Yuna... it's okay, it's okay..." Liam intervened, trying to inject reassurance. His voice carried the weight of a strenuous effort to control his inner tremor. "I know the situation is terrifying for both of you, but pull yourselves together, and we'll find a way... to get there."
Meliss was about to speak, to inject what little composure she had left, when Luca, whose silence had been a prelude to something, interrupted her.
"Don't you think the description of the places is familiar?" Luca said. His tone oscillated between terrifying certainty and growing anxiety.
I froze in place. "What do you mean, Luca?" I asked, my question filled with fear and mystery.
"I mean... don't you remember this place?" Luca's anxiety increased as he tried to connect the dots. "Please, review the day's events with me!"
"We went to the arcade and the café and returned home..." Alain began tracking the events, then stopped for a moment, continuing in a voice that began to be infiltrated by threads of worry and realization together: "...Then we finished reading the novel. I don't think here..." He cut himself off again, but this time, his tone had completely trembled, carrying a bitter discovery, "And before we got here, we finished reading it, we did the happiness experiment, and we threw the book away!"
Silence fell for a moment, before it was sharply broken by Luca's voice, like a whip: "And....." He urged us to speak.
"Then a portal swallowed us... and we arrived here," Meliss said, her voice filled with shocking realization, as if she had finally placed the last piece of the puzzle.
"Are you saying we're inside the novel? But... that's impossible," Yuna questioned in a tone that still didn't believe, although she had calmed down a little.
"Right. I watched many transfer movies, but it's all fiction! How did it turn into reality? I want to go home and hug my money," Alain complained in a tone of disbelief mixed with practical despair.
I looked at my surroundings; what encouraged Yuna's statement was the familiar scene: a lake of ice surrounded by volcanoes, exactly as described in the novel.
"I wish I couldn't believe it, but everything around me enforces it. Especially since our location was mentioned in the novel," Liam said, in a tone of exhausted sarcasm.
"Oh my God... but how? We didn't do anything..." Meliss calmed down a little, then suddenly called out in a loud voice. "EVAN!"
"What is it, sis?" Evan replied in a surprised and weary voice.
"The experiment... The experiment we did! Are you sure it was really to bring good luck? Didn't you make a mistake in translating the words?" Meliss asked, as if she had caught the end of the thread of truth.
"Yes, I'm sure of that... I think... I mean, the words were strange and difficult to understand, but I was sure it was safe," Evan's tone admitted confusion and anxiety.
"In any case, if it's the reason, it's in the book, and anyone can try it," I said exhaustedly, trying to take the blame off Evan.
"Do you think the novel took revenge on us because we threw it in the trash?" Alain said with biting sarcasm.
"Alain, now is not the time for sarcasm... Let's focus on our location and time," Liam said calmly and steadily.
"The novel's world is divided into four sides. Since the island I am on is ice surrounded by volcanoes, I am in the North. And since it's still volcanoes and ice and nothing has happened to it yet, we are before the mid-events of the novel," I explained to them with clear certainty in my tone.
"Good. Then Alain and I are in the East, since this island was mentioned to be in the East," Luca said, whose tone seemed weighed down by tiredness.
"Oh... we're in the South, huh? This is going to be exhausting," Liam grumbled with quick realization.
"And we are in the West... So how will we meet? There is a barrier dividing one side from another," Yuna asked with worry, and I heard the sound of a bag zipper or something similar coming from her side.
"That's right, that's the problem. How can we meet? I read that it is impossible to cross from one side to the other," I told them with worry, while the events of the novel were running through my mind.
"Guys... search your bags," Yuna's confused voice interrupted our thoughts.
I turned my eyes to my bag and started searching it.
"What, what is it... Oh!" Meliss said with a sharp tone of surprise.
"Is this some new kind of nonsense, for God's sake?" Alain said in a completely disbelieving tone.
I continued searching until I noticed a blue and white book, and I took it out. I was surprised that it was the part of the novel that talked about the events of the North (Part Four). I trembled as I realized that this part hadn't been released yet! How did it get into the bag?
"We have the part that talks about the West (Part Two)... but how? There is no book in my bag, only in Yuna's bag," Evan said in a tone of disbelief.
"The same applies to me. The book is in Alain's bag, and it's Part One which talks about the East," Luca said with contained calmness.
"And we have Part third which talks about the South. I didn't find a book in my bag, but I found one in Meliss's bag," Liam said.
I wondered how those books got to us. Despite the difference in parts, they all talk about events happening at one time: East, then West , then South , then North... and the last one about...
"What about Part Five? Did anyone find it?" I asked them with delayed realization.
"No," Alain's reply came.
"Nope, it's not there," Evan said.
"We searched both bags, it's not there," Liam confirmed.
"So Part Five, the part that connects the four parts, is missing! Why?... Ahh! We threw it away!" I said with a clear tone of regret and self-reproach.
"I told you the novel cursed us," Alain said.
"Alain, for God's sake... but how will we meet now? Even the heroes and villains couldn't break this barrier unless..." I said with a worried tone before Luca interrupted me.
"Louyan! It's true that no one could cross the barrier, but they can communicate or even spread news of the other side, even if no one cares, and now we need to rest, I feel exhausted," Luca said in a strong, weary tone of realization.
"That's right, I feel my energy is completely drained," Liam said in a low voice.
"Yes, I also feel like my brain is being squeezed," Evan agreed with him.
"The sun is about to set now. Find safe places to sleep and don't trust anything, Evan, Louyan, Yuna... Then after you wake up we'll continue," Luca said in a worried and practical tone.
"But where will we sleep among all those giant insects and monsters?" Yuna asked in a weak, worried tone, as if the last thread of her energy had snapped.
"Yuna, Evan, it's night now, and since you mentioned you're in a desert, sleep in the Night Worm's tunnel. Its activity is at night and it only enters its tunnel in the morning, that's what was mentioned about it. But make sure to wear warm clothes because their tunnel is cold..." I started explaining in a quick flow, while I felt my head heating up under the strain of recalling all that information. "As for Meliss and Liam, the situation is completely the opposite. Sleep up in the trees; the trees there are large, and they are safe from the monsters that also rest at night. And Liam will have to carry you, Meliss, because of your foot." I sighed, realizing how wonderful it was to have this strong memory now.
"The situation is getting worse for me then!" Liam said in a tone burdened with exhaustion and bitter acceptance.
"Hey! What do you mean? I can climb up with one foot even if my other foot is injured!" Meliss protested with slight sharpness, but her tone was not without tiredness.
I laughed with light exhaustion at their quick quarrel, then continued: "As for Luca and Alain..."
Luca interrupted me, his voice unusually calm and contained: "It's fine, I know a safe place to sleep."
"Really? Are you sure?" Alain said in a tone of suspicion mixed with the relief he was searching for.
"Certainly," Luca confirmed calmly and confidently.
"What about you, Louyan?" Yuna said in a slightly worried tone, as if she had suddenly remembered me.
"That's right, what about you? Do you have a place to sleep?" Evan insisted, his voice carrying clear concern.
"No need to worry, the place here is deserted, so I can sleep," I told them, trying to ease their anxiety by hiding the fact that I couldn't stand up any longer.
"Well. Now, goodbye. Don't forget to call when you wake up," Luca said, his voice faint and exhausted, to the point of a whisper.
"Haaaii..." I uttered it in a pained and incomplete sound, for the intense pain was still tearing my body apart, and my mind was about to explode from all these developments. Suddenly, the connection was cut. I stretched out on the ground and sleep overcame me where I was, knowing that the only good thing about this place was that it was deserted by people and monsters.