I stood in front of the door where Cerguz is.
And he's waiting impatiently, I can feel it.
Right now this game he loves is the only thing we can use to win.
Quite frankly, I'm not really good at lying.
And I don't think being good at it will help me enough if he suddenly decides to end the game and control us all with his paralysis, taking us all out one by one the easiest yet most painful way he could think of.
But I know he won't do that when he hears me out.
Because I have one thing that he hasn't encountered from anybody else before....
I have a unique secret—
I nodded at the arguement inside my head and took a deep breath and turned the door knob.
The door creaks open.
I stepped inside and closed the door behind me.
"Give me a good reason why I shouldn't just paralyze you now and your friends just to get it over with?"
Oh. So he won't even play dumb and ask why I'm here? He's really desperate than impatient.
Cerguz sat on his chair with both his hands crossed diligently. Watching me with his usual leering eyes as if he can see through my clothing.
"Because that will be boring?" I retorted. "Won't you want to know why I'm here?"
He stared at me for a moment. "To stall, I assume. However petty talks are never interesting."
"I don't like talking long very much. Good thing I'm not here for that. I'm here to play a game."
"A game?" He seemed amuse. "And if I decline?"
"You won't. Because I'm good. You'll see."
He smirks. "It's nice to hear how confident your barking is despite how wild your heartbeat is drumming right now."
I took a deep breath.
So he can sense heartbeats now?
That means— he's already focusing on me.
"How about a test run? I'll give one lie now while you try to catch if it's really my truth."
One eyebrow raised at one end as his lips parted.
Slowly it curves into a wicked smile; his eyes scanning me as if he can touch all the skin his eyes run pass.
He nods.
His eyes stared at mine intently.
"Ready when you are."
I closed my eyes.
And tried to remember my previous life.
Right now, I'm not Aerrandria Leingod of Greenrun.
Right now—
I'm that eighteen years old from the life I once had.
I opened my eyes and stared back at him.
"I don't have a twin brother. In fact, I'm an only child."
There was silence.
I can see his eyes gazing through me as if he's trying to read something.
"Interesting." he murmured. "Go ahead, my little doll. Sit down and entertain me."
He gestures at the seat in front of his desk, just across from where he sat.
"When I catch you. It will be game over." he says this in a matter-of-fact tone.
I know, I thought. As I dragged my feet across the room as if I'm crossing shallow waters.
I may have no idea if he already paralyzed the others but looking at him now, how we watches me like a hungry predator, I'm sure he's more interested in playing the game than ending it too soon.
Stray is right. His over confidence is his weakness. I doubt he wants it to end right now while everything is just getting started.
He would want to see how this end, how we will all play this out while we all tiptoe-dance in his area of domain. An area where he can control us all in one simple decision.
I have to stir him out.
I sat down before him. As I eyed him back.
"Five sentences to go" he says, without blinking.
If I let him play this out like a countdown, he can simply turn it around easily.
I need to take control.
"How about I'll just go ahead and say all five statements all together. The catch is, you can just stop me the moment you sense me lying."
Show confidence.
It will catch his interest more
"It's similar to the usual game you play but this time, I'm calling this game: Catch me if you can."
Taunt him for a challenge.
And his weakness will usually kick in. 'Underestimating all his opponents.'
Because he knows he can still win.
He laughs all of a sudden, my shoulders rose momentarily in surprise. "Go ahead!!! Let's see how good you really are! Sadly, I already met children like you. They are good at lying! However, no one can beat me when my game begins. So let's see how hard it is to catch you, my beautiful doll."
He leans forward as he lays both his elbows down his desk. He crossed both his hands together and lays his face over, covering his mouth.
I can see his eyes narrowing. Staring directly at my eyes.
I raised my hand and opened them.
Five fingers stands for five questions, I thought.
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.
Recall everything from before.
The previous life I once had.
My family, our house, the path I usually take to school. Nicole and Risa.
Everything.
I opened my eyes and gaze back at him.
And so, I begun.
"I'm not a pathological liar. In fact, I'm not good at lying."
That's why I never look at my friends when I turn them down for something. They know well how I suck at lying. I'm bad at it that I ended up being permissive to others when they ask me for something. They say my face says it all and I never learned how to change it.
More like— I didn't had the chance at all.
I flexed my thumb to my palm. One down.
"I'm born with brown hair and hazel eyes that is a bit curly and always frizzy despite all my efforts to make it straight, it always returns back to its unruly self."
I wonder how many rebonds have I paid for?
How many hair brush I already broke just from brushing my hair in place.
As for the word 'bed hair', I feel like I was born to represent it.
I curled my next finger down.
Three to go.
"I go in a community school with two of my best friends but we never go home together because they usually take a ride home while I walk back to our house which is really not that far away and when I get home, the house is almost always empty."
I stared back straight at Cerguz but I don't see him, I see that quiet neighbourhood where I once lived. Green lawns and clean streets. Tall trees carefully lined in a row by the side of the road. There are also some cars parked by the driveway of some houses. All the neighbours around us has that neatly presented flowerbeds while ours just rolls bare unkept grasses. And when I open the door, the lights are off and a note is left by the fridge. I guess I'm eating dinner alone again.
I curled my middle finger down.
Two left.
"My dad worked in the military before and loved all his gun collections but sadly not as much as he did for us so he left us; so since then my mom raised me alone I couldn't even remember his face anymore."
—BAAAMMM!!!
I focused my attention to Cerguz as he stood there with both his hands flat against his desk. "H-HOW—?!?" he grunted, his jaws tightening. "How is this possible?! I've watched... YOU the entire year! I know your father never left your mother...a-and you live a sheltered life! Always and always together with your twin brother and that white hair of yours is genuine!!! SO HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE!? HOW CAN YOU SAY ALL OF THESE AS IF THEY ARE YOUR TRUTHS?!?"
I stared blankly at him.
He's impatient now.
Only time can tell when he can spin this game around or decide to end it.
I need to make this count.
Make sure he will listen...
"Last one— won't you listen?"
Last one.
My last memory.
I closed my final finger and made a fist.
I pulled my hand down and brought it to my lap as I grope the darts slowly out from my pocket with my other hand.
I looked directly at Cerguz once more.
"It was raining hard that day that I can't even make out where I was going—"
He eyed me, his brows twitched curiously.
"I just kept running and hoping that I can get back home and get umbrellas for my two bestfriends who I left stranded in school,"
My eyes began to sightlessly stare back at Cerguz
I can see that scene clearly.
The curtains of rain that poured relentlessly as I ran and ran with my schoolbag on my back and wind on my ears.
"I didn't even notice it was there but when I turned, I just knew I was staring at two bright headlight raging towards me—"
I focused my eyes at Cerguz now.
His brows eases but his eyes widens as if he sees what I saw, feel what I had felt.
"There was no remorse, no flashbacks, no nothing..."
I watch as his face slowly drained out of blood, lips apart while a sweat rolls down from the corner of his face.
"...that is
—the day I died."
••▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅••
He just stood there unmoving...
As if trying to process what I just said.
His eyes stared blankly pass me in a trance like state.
I quickly removed the covers of the darts and threw one directly at him even before he could react.
But his hand formed a fist before his face abruptly.
He caught the dart.
Darn it!!!
His eyes focused back at me. "What's this? A gift?" He chuckled, holding the dart with his thumb and a finger.
"I'm at lost for words!" He says in a contemptuous smile, walking around his desk and towards where I sat. "I can't fathom how you did it but it sure heck creeped me out."
Suddenly he closes in and grabbed my neck.
I tightened my grip to the other dart and went forth stabbing the hand that holds me
but he slaps my hand with his other even before it reached him.
The other dart rolled just by the foot on his desk.
"I already caught you now, so I guess I won?" he laughs.
—BOOOOMMMM!!!
The entire room shakes as the ground quakes violently. A crack emits in the ceiling.
Nora has began.
I need to stall for time
As long as I can.
Cerguz eyes me. "I see your friends are up and playing their own games. Should I just take them all down now?" he asks, his voice starting to sound thick against my ears as the grip he had on my neck tightened.
"But you're right. This is interesting. I've never had this much fun in years! So maybe I'll start with you! How should I reward you?"
I tried my best to claw at his hands but I felt how far our strength are.
Slowly he pulls me up from my seat as my feet dangles in midair.
"Shall I do the same to you and your brother like what I did to those two red haired siblings before?"
My focus narrowed to Cerguz.
Red haired siblings?
Nora and her sister Pola?
"I also gave them the chance to negotiate before but unlike YOU, the younger one was wise to accept my offer. However I didn't want it as a secret from her sister, of course not! That's unfair!!!" He laughs hoarsely. "So I told it to her older sister. Oh how UPSET she was so I had to make her sleep. She wasn't thankful for my honesty at all! Ungrateful brat!"
"You— bbbastard!!!" My voice only sounded like a squeak against the pressure in my throat as he held me higher.
Suddenly he shifts his hands and held me up by grabbing my entire face. He rubs his chin as he went on talking. "But can you imagine the look on her face when she woke up and saw how neatly we had packaged all her sister's disassembled body parts in a container? Hah!!! You should have seen the horror she had in her eyes. Poor thing! Poor thing in deed!!!" His voice trembles in excitement as if he was reliving that moment. "She was so shock than when she tried to REEEACH out to her sister, her own arm exploded! So I guess she had awaken her powers because of me, yes? Of course. Of course. It was like that." He says in a nervous laugh, his eyes in a daze.
"BUT!!! If I did that to you and your brother now, it feels like there's no originality to it, isn't it?" He taps his temples now. I can feel his hands tremble. His eyes are shrouded in manic enthusiasm. "Or or or! We can do it like how I did it to that rebellious purple eyes brat!"
Stray???
"I made him watch how I severed all the hands and feet of all his tiny friends! Of course it wasn't my fault! Nope! It wasn't! He tried to escape! He's the heartless one! He wanted to leave and abandon all his friends here? Serves him right!!!" He sways a finger in midair as if lecturing something. "So~ I simply disabled his movements and all his friends and made sure he watched with unblinking eyes how I SLOOOOOWLY sliced and hacked through all their limbs off before him, sawing through their tiny little flesh and bones; all wide awake of course! I can't attack unconscious children! That would be an inhumane thing to do! Huh? What was that? why I did that you ask?" He pulls me closer to his. "He didn't care for them anyway so I disposed ALL of them for him! It's rather a gift if you ask me! I cleared aaaaall my collections out for him. But haha! —it's not really a lost. I can just get a new batch whenever I want. But of course I acted out hurt." He nods as his eyes rolls up, seeming to recall that memory. "And I suppose he learned well because he never tried escaping after that!.... He was just around your age when that happened... how nostalgic actually. Yes. I can still remember it all clearly like it was yesterday."
I shut my eyes close
As my mind began to try imagining all those horrible things done to my friends.
This twisted evil man—
"Oh I know! I know! Hahah! HOW ABOOUUUT— I do both! Like join them together! I could just get your brother now and make you watch how I prepare him for packaging for my client?"
My eyes spring open.
"....you... him..."
"What? I can't hear you?" He asks in a laugh. "Oh! Sorry! Of course!" He brings me down to my feet and smiled at me warmly. "There you go!"
"Don't you dare touch him..."
"OHH!!! That was what you're saying? Hah... hahahah!.... hah... HAHAHAHA!!!!!" He cackled, covering his face with both hands as he went on laughing like a lunatic. "Haaaaa~! I won't DARE, of course!!! I'm not playing with you anymore!" he wipes a tear from the corner of his eyes. "I would really do it, my dear! No dares only swears!"
I can feel my heartbeat echoing to my head.
I stared at him and clenched my hands tight in a fist, my nails digging to my skin.
'If he even tries.....' I thought
The corners of my vision began to dim
'...what he did to Nora... or Stray....'
Slowly, my head began to feel light.
My entire vision closing in even though I knew well that both my eyes are open.
"C... tr... Me... fs...t..wor... tal."
"Speak up!!! I can't hear you, you know?"
I could feel my body growing feverishly hot, as if all the veins in my body are widely dilated.
...my blood surging thoroughly inside me in a rush, coursing through every blood vessels I have.
But my heart— it's slowing down.
Making me well aware of how each pounding of it is like a drum inside my head.
Drumming in slow motion,
As the sound goes louder
but lower
and lower.
Until it stopped.
I couldn't feel anything anymore.
I feel numb
I don't even have control of my own body
But I know I'm standing before him,
Wide eyed, staring directly at him
How odd.
What's happening to me?
But you know the oddest part is—?
"I said..."
My lips kept moving but the voice coming out sounded different.
"Come try me first, you worthless mortal"
Everything went black after that.
Did I...
...really said that?
••▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅••
The door slams open behind me.
"Aerra!"
I blinked my eyes twice and realize I was standing in the middle of the room, in front of Cerguz' desk.
His seat empty.
"Wow, you really did it!" Stray gasped as he rest a hand on my shoulder.
I looked at him and he was staring at the floor in the right corner of the room. I followed his eyes and saw Cerguz laid unresponsive with two darts pierced on his chest.
—stabbed is more like it.
Stray walks pass me and took his hand, feeling a pulse on Cerguz's wrist. "Damn, this weed is still alive. I'll just go end him right now" his arm morphs into a blade.
—BOOOOMMMMM!!!
Suddenly, another explosion went off. The entire room shakes violently that I stumbled down and fell to the floor.
The ceiling on one corner of the room collapses while the floor where I stood started to crack...
I eyed Stray, I can feel the ground below me shuddering. The cracks worsening.
Stray looked back at me, in horror.
"Aerra!!!"
Suddenly, the cracks caves in and the floor beneath me bursts asunder.
Stray literally sprinted towards me as we both hurled pass the collapsed floor and into a much stable floor.
We stood up immediately and saw the ruins below the opened floor with waves of sand rushing in like water.
Tremors persevered.
Bits of dust and sand sprinkled from the cracks that formed in the ceiling.
The entire place was sinking down the ground.
"Looks like everything is going as expected. But we need to leave now before we get buried down as well." Murmured Stray as he took me up and carried me over his shoulder in a hurry even before I could even say anything.
He went out of the room immediately and raced out in full speed. Passing through all corners and passages and went on dashing to the walls from the areas where the floor already failed and through all the collapsing ceilings, carefully dodging debris as if he was only playing hopscotch. And finally seeing the light at the end of our path, the exit.
Nora stood there waiting.
"Where are the others?" Stray asks, putting me down.
I can feel the ground descending as it quakes, while the sands around me are flowing towards where we came from.
"Aeron and the kids are already out. I'm sure they're on safe grounds as planned. How about Cerguz?"
Stray shook his head, "Still alive but we need to go—!"
Nora looked at me. "I'll make sure to close the only exit as planned."
"No need for that! The entire place is sinking anyway!" I retorted as she just took my hand and placed something in it.
I opened my hand and saw two brooches with a family crest engraved on it.
I shot her a glance.
"I need to make sure Cerguz is dead, Aerra."
"NO! The entire place is sinking. He will die naturally!" My voice shattering.
She shook her head and beamed at me. "If he lives. He will only hunt us all back again. The elites however are only paid service, they don't have any reason to avenge him. So, you see, without Cerguz, Ouboros is destroyed."
I shook my head vigorously. Grabbing her hand in a tight grip. "Nora— you can't do this!"
"Aerra, Ouboros' reign needs to end right here and now. This might only be our chance... my only chance to avenge my sister."
"Stray!" I yelled out as I turned to look at him.
He just stood there, "She's... right... We need to make sure he's dead otherwise...."
"NO!" I shrieked, almost sitting down my heels as Stray took me up his shoulder. I held on to her hand tightly.
"I won't let go!!! I'm never letting go—!!! This is stuuuupppiid!!!!"
"Aerra, can you return those brooches to my parents?" She says with her usual cheery tone.
How can she ask me such heartless thing?
"Do it yourself!!!"
The ground shook more persistently. The sands below us moved inwards faster as if being sucked in.
"Go now. Stray, I leave her to you."
They exchanged glances and nodded at each other.
"NO—!!!" I struggled. All my tears went on and on. "Nora!!!"
Stray began to run ahead.
I watch how my fingers parted from hers as she stood there with her usual smile as if it was the most natural thing to do.
I kept my eyes open and yelled her name again and again as she shoots fire to the ceiling of the exit and rocks collapsed from it, slowly covering my view of her.
She looked at me one last time and bowed her head down as if in reverence before she turned around and walked back inside further and further until she disappeared from curtain of darkness
All while the entire egress finally closes from all the stack rocks and boulders.
The entire perimeter has began to sink and pushed waves and waves of sand back against us and towards in an epicenter like quicksand.
The sands went higher, reaching Stray's torso as he ran further away.
The raging sands pushes more.
"Daaaarn!" He cursed as he began to build wind but with all the shaking and tedious waves of sand flowing, his focus was off.
After a series of tries—
Finally he was able to leap up and jumped to one point to another.
I stared blankly as the sand finally enveloped half of the Ouboros, cliff edges of the sandstone mountains around it came crumbling down as well towards the vortex of sands.
Everything was collapsing before us.
Stray finally builds enough wind and took us flying high in the air.
Suddenly a beam of light emitted from where the Ouboros was. At the exact same time, Stray lands on a safe ground.
The beam went bigger and shoots up to the sky.
He notices the beam and cursed under his breath,
quickly pulling me from his shoulders and into his arms in a tight embrace and knelt low on the ground as his wind forms a ball around with us inside it.
—BOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMRRRMMM
A colossal explosion went off.
Everything went silent
And only a long beeping sound left ringing inside my ears.
I blinked my eyes wide open to the chaos that surrounded me. I watch how fire, black smoke and grains of sand dances outside the wind barrier around us while the ground shakes violently like never before.
Stray lost his balance, stumbled down and rolled off away from me but quickly crawled back and took me in a much tighter embrace as everything around us only drew devastation and destruction.
Did I...
—do all of these?
Slowly, the wind around us dissipates.
Only dust screen surrounded us.
And then...
The tremors slowly eases down into calm
as if nothing happened.
With my back laid flat against the sandy ground, I felt droplets of water on my face. I looked up at Stray who straddles on top of me. His eyes shut close, teeth tightly gritted, and tears went on rolling out uncontrollably.
My ringing ears clears back to normal.
And his quiet sobs slowly reaches my senses.
I reach a hand to touch his face.
Stray opens his tear soaked eyes and smiled at me with the most painful expression I have ever seen. "Ouboros is now officially gone... We won, Aerra."
.
..
...
My eyes widened.
Vision slowly blurring with tears...
It was the most horrible words I have ever heard.
"N....
Nn—
...no...
I clawed at my face.
"—NORRAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"
••▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅••
Stray soon took me way pass the pits to where the others were.
Aeron stared at me in surprise as he eyed me tentatively. "What happened? What's wrong?!"
He ran to me and began to survey me.
"Does it hurt anywhere?"
I looked at him. "Nora" I murmured as I threw myself to his arms and buried my face to the burrows of his shoulder. Crying my eyes out as my breath snagged, "Nora ended Ourboros. It's... over now."
For a moment, he stood there stupor.
And then—
I felt his arms slowly wrapping around me.
He didn't speak anything out. He just hugged me
My chest feels tight and congested.
I wanted to claw it out to remove the pain.
I want to feel nothing anymore...
"Kua'ptah... t'suno wo... vranai..."
A familiar tune—
a tiny voice—
"...t'sriit shi..— pfura le... kai..."
I looked down and saw one of the children began to sing the familiar lyrics. Her entire body was trembling as she was sobbing. She sniffs her nose and rubs at her eyes. And then she continued, "Kuom... dup fai... uh do vtsu wrond'wail..."
"Tor'jtei..." supplied the other child "seih li agho..."
And slowly one by one...
all the children sung in one voice...
—the lullaby Nora sings every night for us.
I wiped my eyes and joined their lullaby,
Stray and Aeron slowly sings it out too...
All our voices were shaky and some children were all out crying while reciting along
But we were all singing it out on the top of our lungs.
Perhaps foolishly hoping it will reach her to where she is now.
The hazy desert... where silence brewed sorrow, echoed a silent requiem with children's voices...
—Singing the song of the Ancients.
With words I never comprehended at all
nor did I had the chance to learn it from her.
But it's a song to remember as Nora once said...
Now... it's a song for her.
Nora, can you hear us?
You will always be remembered.
___________________________________________________________
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((A/N: Link to the melody reference:
https://youtu.be/rzifQScHp9w ))
---------------------------------------------------------
___________________________________________________________
••▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅••
I don't know how many hours has passed ever since we began walking aimlessly towards the open sea of sands.
Only piles and piles of sand dunes stretched out everywhere while the heat of the sun beats us down mercilessly.
Everything is so bright in my eyes.
My feet burrows shallowly into the hot sands with every step, leaving trails of footsteps behind.
I had no longer enough energy to keep going, let alone carry another child on my back as Aeron and Stray also took turns to carry one child each.
We have no water prepared nor any shade to keep us all protected from the stingy rays of daylight.
Such a stupid way to escape!
I fear at this rate, death just took one form into another.
"Look—!" One child pointed out ahead.
We all looked at where he meant and in a faint and hazy image, beyond the mirages, I see black dots carefully hovering the horizons in a straight horizontal line.
It ran from both sides of the plane like a looming threat.
But as we got closer, the dots slowly formed into airships. Sailing in a fleet in a formation that covered the entire horizon as if they were searching for something.
I peered through, squinting and hoping its not the airships where the elite mercenaries used.
To my surprise the airships rather look like a warships instead.
Black iron body with red sail flags where a familiar symbol is seen.
"Aerra— isn't that!?" Aeron tagged at me as I stared at the familiar flag that the airships had.
"Osteell." I gasped.
We all stopped in our tracks.
I looked up and saw several silhouettes that stood on its decks, watching us.
Suddenly they all stopped.
The bright sky behind them disabled me to see all their faces clearly as I just squinted at them.
But out from the rest of the silhouettes, one stood out the most.
He stood there tall and calm wearing a black coat on. His black hair shined against the bright sunlight but I fail to see his face.
"Lady Aerra?!" his familiar voice hollered as the largest airship moved a bit closer then stopped before us.
He almost jumped off deck, hitting the hot sands as he sprinted towards me.
"Lady Aerra! —Lord Aeron as well!!!"
Suddenly he stopped dead in his tracks, breathlessly.
Brushing his hair aback as he tried to stand tall to face us while he panted.
He was smiling but he looks as if he was about to cry. So much mix emotions painted in his expression.
He didn't wore the expressionless face I was rather expecting,
He stared back at me in disbelief with his familiar amber eyes I have seen so many times and his thick eyelashes that shamed mine.
"I finally found you..." He says, chuckling in honest relief. "...both of you!"
Aeron and I exchanged glances and began to ran as if racing towards him.
And almost at the same time,
we yelled out his name.
"Levi!!!!"
"Levi—!"
———end of Chapter 7———
Vid link>> https://youtu.be/rzifQScHp9w
PS. The lyrics are purely based on the video I posted along. I do not own the video nor the music.