I looked around after being carried halfway on Leah's back. "Where are we, to be exact?"
Leah was silent. As I had asked, she stopped immediately. I heard a loud noise in the background.
"Celine, let's save questions for later. We aren't yet in the green," she replied to my question, increasing her speed just a tad so we wouldn't be caught by whatever had been chasing them.
I complied; however, questions ran through my mind. How was she so calm about wrapping her dad up like that and burying him? I hadn't known how long we'd been running, but it was at least two hours away from the house.
It was nearly sundown, and the encroaching footsteps got louder. She took a little detour toward the water.
"When I say hold your breath, do so immediately. This water is not safe to even breathe."
My eyes jolted. I began to question her tactics when, behind me, I saw three men—or what looked like men—but without faces. After that point, I didn't question it.
We were about to jump when the ground beneath us shook violently, like a bomb had gone off.
"Shit… I didn't expect them to use it already."
I began to panic. What had she meant? What had they used that would shake the ground so violently?
"Celine, don't worry about the water right now—that isn't our concern. What is, is what was just dropped… that was no regular earthquake. That was caused by a high-caliber bomb. If the radiation reaches here, we won't make it far."
She began to run faster toward the water. As we dropped in, it began to toss and throw us like a raging tide, pushing us down toward the bottom of the stream.
"Celine, there's something I need to tell you before we go any further. Up ahead, the rifts aren't strong enough to carry us where we need to go. It's about an hour's swim from the bay, so stay close. I know the water wears you down." She pointed out the rift at the corner of the water. Even if we reached it, we'd have to increase our speed. The way she spoke about it made it seem more likely to pull us in than push us forward, although she never said that directly.
"I really wish I didn't tag along…" I mumbled.
She smiled and increased her pace. I matched it.
"You didn't exactly have a choice in the matter, Celine. You would have been convicted. Even if you didn't help me kill them, you handled the tarp. Your fingerprints are all over it," she said briefly, swimming faster.
"Today has been quite a massacre. Even the tome couldn't predict such events unfolding in this sequence." I remarked with a sigh. "Such is the world. Nothing occurs in segments that are set. Fate is determined by choice and outcome. Once the outcome is locked in place, it will set a destination. Without fate, destiny wouldn't be as fun as it is. Any outcome may alter the future we know. Nothing is set in stone."I tilted my head slightly and increased my pace to match hers. We swam toward the whirlpool she had called a rift. By the time I reached it, my body felt as if it were being ripped apart, the current dragging me inward. Before I could sink to the bottom, Leah sighed, remarking that she had warned me this would happen.
–
I awoke, and within seconds I grasped that I had nearly sunk but had been rescued by Leah. Perhaps we were currently at the bay. I looked around, but I couldn't see much. My eyes were tinted, as if I had an extra film over them, causing everything to blur. I vaguely heard footsteps, but I couldn't tell whose they were. I almost jumped to my feet—at least I would have if my legs weren't so stiff that I couldn't move them.
"Aren't you a bit rambunctious today?" she asked with a smile, looking down at me.
The person in question was none other than Leah.
"Not quite. However, seeing you without a dress is quite a sight indeed," I teased.
She looked away shyly, stepping past me before kneeling down to grab something that appeared to be valuable.
"Where are we, if I may ask? And by the way you look confident, I'm guessing you already know your way around here," I remarked, watching her survey her surroundings.
"No, actually, I have no idea where we are…" She
scratched the back of her hair, smiling.
I sighed; my head pounded. It was most likely the effect of being under such compression inside the whirlpool.
"Leah, I do wonder something, if I may ask your opinion," I quietly said.
"Yes, you may ask anything—unless it's stupid." She laughed.
My brows raised, but I stayed calm. "There were three men behind us… they were faceless. Is there an explanation for that?" I asked, tilting my head slightly as I began to regain strength and slowly lifted myself up.
"They aren't men… you remember the guards at the talisman stand?" She asked. I nodded.
"They are the underdogs of the security team. They wear masks so their faces may not be seen. But the moment you rip a mask off, the men under it usually bite their tongue—almost as if their identity is so important that revealing it is a crime." I had faintly recalled the recruits had tried to pick me up the day of departure since leaving the premises, however even they hadn't looked so grotesque.
"If you can move, I suggest we move—unless you want them to further tail us. Water doesn't stop those beasts of people," she remarked.
"And who started this all, exactly?" I asked, genuinely.
"I did start it somewhat, if that's where this is going. However, you did handle the tarp, so I can't deny you were in this too," she said, giving a light tap to my forehead.
"What kind of sick joke is this? You specifically told me to grab the tarp, and then we didn't even dispose of the body…" I replied angrily.
She shrugged and waved her hands. "What do you expect when you're involved with a psychopath?"
I sighed. "You have a point."I began to stand on my feet and walk toward Leah.
"I suspect we're being tailed," She said, looking around.
"Seriously? Already," I sighed, clutching my head in frustration.
"I'm serious. Two are approaching at a rate of 350 kilometers to a mile from afar. At this rate, they are expected to arrive soon—it's only been thirty minutes. We'd better catch the train if we're going to outrun them." She grabbed my hand, and we began to walk along the sandy beach, hoping to find a local house, though the chances of anything being there in such a desolate place were low.
—
We had been walking for hours, yet nothing piqued my interest, and neither did her eyes light up. The scenery was quite bland at that—there was nothing special about nature out here. After leaving the beach area, I realized that we had indeed been isolated from society. We were on our way down the path when suddenly Leah collapsed, breathing hard.
—
"Where had it begun? Where had I become so manipulative?" she asked herself. Memories flashed in her head like a flash drive; so much traveled through her.
"There should be enough for two," he said in a rather calm voice, but I knew what he meant.
"Yes, Father," I replied.
"Irish whiskey and Canada Dry, right?" I asked before heading out, although I already knew his regular demands.
"Yes, you know me well, my daughter. Now, if you wouldn't mind, could you also stop by the pharmacy and get my medicine for me? Oh, and by the way, would you mind picking up a few packs of condoms? I'm going to need them later. If they ask you the name, tell them David Could. My birthdate is 02/27/1985. And if they ask for my Medicare or Social Security card, just give them these two cards," he said, patting me on the head and grabbing my thighs. "You remember what to do after returning?" he asked, like he always reminded me.
"Yes, Father," I said, grabbed my coat, and rushed out the door.
I had walked at least three hours, finally arriving at the pharmacy. It was not unusual for me to walk this long. I grabbed the door, but as I went to twist it, the door burst open and I fell to the ground. A man held a gun as he rushed out with a bag of cash.
"Get him!" I heard the register lady shout.
My head was pounding as I lay on the ground, consciousness flickering in and out. What had I walked into? I had just arrived, and yet something had already happened.
It had probably been thirty minutes since I was back on my feet. I walked toward the door and twisted it once more. The door was unlocked. However, the lady was still panicking. I began to empty my pockets, knowing this was stress-induced. I decided to give her all the money I had. She gave me a slight smile and reassured me everything was all right, but behind that smile, I could tell she was stressed more than one would normally expect. I helped her clean the store before leaving, medicine and condoms in tow.
It was nighttime by the time I arrived back home. As soon as I entered the house, I slipped off my shoes and called for Dad.
"Dad, I brought back what you wanted. I'm going to the bathroom for now. If you need me, I'm in the bathroom."
I began to walk toward the bathroom, but as the scent hit my nose, I began to panic. I smelled the unmistakable scent of death. As I was about to enter, the smell grew stronger. When I opened the door, there he lay — body in disarray, his eyes plucked from his head, lower limbs nearly severed, his stomach cut open, and his guts hung grotesquely. I could tell the wounds were fresh.
I held his body, but it was unnaturally light. My vision faded momentarily. Darkness enveloped me. Suddenly, I found myself within a wall-built corridor. In front of my eyes was a pathway leading to a two-way road. The roads were endless. Why did it continue? I fell to my knees when I realized I couldn't escape the cycle.
I looked down at my hands; they were stained in my own blood. I got back up, but my body felt impossibly heavy, almost as if I were too weak to stand against the force pressing me down. I fell through the cracks, blood covering my body. I now stood two inches from the edge of a cliff. Beside me stood a girl, her body caked in scars. I took a small step and fell endlessly.
A hand reached for me, pulling me from the void. I watched as the girl took her own life, jumping off the cliff without hesitation. I wanted to shout, wanted to stop her, but I could not move — physically or mentally. I was frozen.
I sat in a chair, bound by the ropes of darkness, feeling I did not want to live. Laughter echoed from somewhere. I did not want to hear it anymore. I knew how pathetic I was. It grew louder and louder. I saw a face beneath the laughter, but could not make sense of it. I sat there, laughing, commenting on my own pathetic state.
I found myself in an endless corridor. It was unfamiliar, yet I walked the path as if I knew it, like the scars on my back. I stopped at a large door and, with all my strength, tried to kick it open. But it was sealed shut. I heard footsteps encroaching from behind. Desperate, I kicked harder.
Ever closer. I turned and faced a shadowy man.
"Why do you run from me?" he asked, moving closer and closer. Then, all at once, he pushed me.
"It's almost time for us to reunite. I know your denial; it's part of me. You can't run. I am you, and we are the same," he said.
I felt a hand on my cheeks. I flinched. I continued to kick the door. It finally budged. I ran inside, locked it, and tried again. My body felt impossibly heavy as I lifted myself off the ground where I had fallen. I realized this was a dream, not reality. Shadows ran through the hallway — then nothing.
My eyes flashed open to a scene covered in blood. Dead bodies were everywhere. Corpses were strewn so densely that there was no space for houses. I sighed and began to walk the pathway leading outside the city. Most routes had been blocked, but one path remained. I walked endlessly, all night and all day, until I finally reached the outskirts. No longer did the plague affect me.
I wandered the garden before me. Though I knew it was a dream, I explored anyway. Eventually, I came to a stop. Where a river had once flowed, there was now nothing more than a pit of debris.A man had come up behind me. I turned around quickly; he had been standing there for a minute. I asked him if there was anything I could do, but he just shrugged his head. I sighed and turned back around.
"Are you not afraid? When you look in the mirror, you claim everything is okay, even though I will always be yours. Why are you unable to realize that I am real?"
Confusion tinted my eyes as I began to question who this was. Even my nightmares wanted me. I decided to turn my head, but the next moment I was in his grasp once more.
"Such attempts will not be made." My eyes lit up. What did he mean by "attempts"?
"Even so, I must escort you wherever you may go."
Are you obnoxious? I started to say, but I kept my mouth shut.
There was a scent of blood in the air. Crimson roses, where grass had once been planted, now stood tall. I felt as if my eyes had been plucked from me; my vision was no longer my own.
"The name… yes, the name is Death. I am Death. You have wandered past your limits; therefore, I take you to the underworld. What doesn't move no longer has a place in life. What lies still is not alive. Such is the way of the world."Death looked straight through me, like I was plastic.
"Where must I take you to show you the truth? Not only have I found you, but you have found me. What a coincidence. Such a coincidence has not happened before. Your hands must be so dirty… don't worry. Once we're down there, you won't have to worry about cleaning your hands at all."
A coincidence, he called it. I did not see it that way. What coincidence had he envisioned? I presumed he had set this up. This was just a dream world, but even so, it felt like he was in my soul, like my body wasn't my own. My eyes grew heavy as I fell to the ground.
"Leah, are you all right? You just passed out on me."
She looked around, confused. What had happened? Where was she? She couldn't remember anything, but then, as her eyes closed, she could vaguely recall what had occurred. I carried her all the way out. Hoping she would wake up, I sat her down.
Now, with her eyes open, she looked shocked. No longer did she hold the expression of someone without emotions; she looked like a child begging for help. She no longer replied to me—just an empty stare. I sighed, but left her be. I could feel a presence around us, more like multiple presences. I readied myself.
Still, Leah sat. No movements, no talking. She just sat there—her eyes void, her hands shaking. But as time went by, I noticed something: her eyes were not just void. It was almost as if she were scared… almost as if something had frightened her so badly that she could not return. I had figured nothing could scare her, but I might have been wrong. From the look of her expression, something had. Either that, or she was still… somewhere else. Her movements were slow but shaky; her eyes held no light, her body tense, almost as if she had been scared so badly that she did not want to move.
I called out to her, receiving no response. My mind raced. He was the strategist behind all of this. Yet at the moment, she was not conscious at all—or at least not conscious enough to speak. What could I do? What could I do to make her snap out of it? What could I do if she didn't snap out of it? So many questions crowded my head at once. I needed to figure something out. I needed to figure it out, because if I didn't, we'd be dead. We'd be dead by the next minute.
As my thoughts raced, my heart pounded and my head started to hurt. I took a deep breath and exhaled, yet even that did not slow my breathing or heart rate. I began to move and pace back and forth. What had we done up to this point to get this far? This was practically the middle of nowhere, and I had no physical map of where to go. She was the only person able to physically locate any place around here. Where was she when I needed her? I couldn't tell anymore. It was like she was there and then just disappeared.
I decided to go on a stroll for a second, to get my mind off things. When I came back, she was gone—she had disappeared. I searched and searched, but couldn't find her. How fast had she moved to get that far? I had questions, but I didn't even want to know the answer. Maybe she had been taken; maybe she hadn't. I didn't pursue finding her, because somehow she had found me. As soon as I took that stroll, I bumped into her again. It was unclear how she had moved, but she had.
Hours had passed. What had seemed like psychosis had started wearing off. She was now more able to talk, and she explained the situation—how it had begun and what had happened. As I listened to her part of the story, I looked around the forest to see if anyone was coming our way. She pointed out that there might be someone approaching from the east, roughly three miles away. I began to face that direction.
As she continued her story, I grew more intrigued. What exactly had happened during her dream? I would ask, but even then, I knew I might not get a response. She was so secretive, despite us being partners.
I had started a fire for both of us to sit around. It was rather chilly outside tonight, and without a fire, there would be no heat.
She smiled, grabbing my hand. "Must you be so reliant on me today?" she asked.
I began to snarl but stopped and replied calmly,
"Relying on you? It's more like I carried you the whole way while you were out."
Her grin faded. "What blasphemy is this?" she began to ask.
I spoke up. "While you were out, I carried you the whole way into this forest. I built this fire for us to lay around. You haven't done much, and I'm reliant on you—is that right?"
Her expression turned to anger. "What do you mean I haven't done anything? If it wasn't for me, we would have both been dead," she replied haughtily.
"Says the one carried on my back," I teased.
"That's not funny. Something actually happened! Why are you teasing me?" Her expression softened.
"I just felt like it. You always tease me, so why must I not?" I replied, a grin on my face.
"Stars are always beautiful, you know. They start off dark, then grow, then disappear. That is the life of a star; perhaps we should learn from that. Life is not always guaranteed—such is the way of the world. Take, perhaps, a caterpillar: caterpillars grow into butterflies, but they are not always butterflies. If a human were to sharpen their blade, they could easily take out their enemy, but most don't. Most lay down their blades and take the easier route. Life is determined by strength and will. With enough strength, even the weakest person could take on an army the size of the world on their own. That one person isn't enough to face God. So they train and train and train until, one day, their bodies are strong enough. They feel they might win—but in the end, no one fully wins the war, not even the brave. The fact is, you might win a fight, but a war is never-ending. It might end for a few days, for a year, but in reality, war always happens." She replied, her hand laid bare on her chest. Her smile, almost as beautiful as a star, caught my gaze, and I slowly drifted off until I was out.
It was almost time for the day to start. I had just risen from the grass I had lain in last night. I began to look around, and what I saw was unexpected: there were two men on each side.
Confusing as it was, it looked like they had found us. Unfortunately, Leah would not wake.
More than creepy, it was almost as if they had watched us in our sleep. What had they seen during my sleep? What had they seen during hers? I sighed. Why was it that she was always asleep when things happened? I had started to wonder… until one man charged at me.
I got up; however, I didn't dodge quickly enough. The man put me in a threshold. As I struggled and struggled to get out, nothing happened. She was still asleep, passed out, almost as if she wouldn't wake. What had happened to her?
As I struggled, I began to put force into my legs and kicked the man. He didn't flinch much, almost as if he had none. Where I had kicked him, most men would have dropped to the floor—but him? He didn't drop. He stood there calmly, with me, his hands still on the threshold.It looked like this man physically couldn't feel pain—from what I understood, either that, or he had no balls. I began to get louder as I struggled, my breathing more and more rapid, my eyes blurring. I could not see much. I could not hear much. But my sense of taste was still there. Just by taste, I could sense it in the back of my mouth—the taste of iron. Perhaps I had bitten my tongue.
I began to curse my luck when an intervening force struck behind me. A dagger pierced his head. The skill behind it was unknown to me. Perfectly aiming a dagger at someone's head wasn't impossible, but the chances of hitting it directly were very low. My guess was Leah had woken—which indeed had happened.
She was wide awake, standing behind me. She pulled the dagger out and wiped the blood from the blade. At that moment, the other man charged. This man was faster. She lowered her blade a little, but didn't take her eyes off him. He jumped from side to side on the trees. I could only imagine how she would deal with this.
Her face turned dark. Her aura was no longer what it had been. I could now see that her eyes were blackish, no longer the bluish color they had given off a while ago. Her hands began to turn black. She became somewhat of a shadow.
The man took a step back, but didn't run. He analyzed her first. From what I could tell, something was not right—something had happened during her sleep. I began to feel scared. Her body was no longer human, but a void, more like a black hole. One punch could suck you in. Her eyes now glowed red. Her skin was completely black, swirling with energy—it was almost as if she had become a mini black hole herself.
I could hear tiny crackles of laughter, pitch rising and rising. Everything began to shift. The world as we knew it was no longer the same. What had occurred so fast? The man still pursued her but was sent flying the other way instead of being sucked in. The world around me became darker, yet I could see things clearly.
An hour had passed, and an hour wasn't even long enough. The world had started shifting, but Leah had snapped out of it long before. As the world shifted, she was at the pinnacle, despite not even informing me of her absence for so long—creating a second persona.
Well, it started from the murder of her dad. We came upon something much, much larger than oneself. The whole world was at stake, and I had nowhere to stop it. I was unaware of the situation, yet as she stood there, she stared blankly into the void, as if she knew who it was—as if the void were a person in itself. But she never spoke.
In the next moment, it was like it had never happened. Everything disappeared. What was there momentarily was no longer there, like it never existed. All of it felt like a dream—no void, nothing. We were back where we had originally been. She was still asleep, and I was halfway asleep. When I looked around, what I saw made me realize that this place was most likely an illusion.
I sighed. What lay ahead, no one knew. But what I had seen was terrifying. One witness, and she'd be a military threat—not that they could contain her, but they'd try. What was strange was that she had no recollection. I figured it must have just been imaginary at that point.