"But... b-but how? You're kidding me. They wouldn't just... they wouldn't just die like that... that's not how it works. They haven't been introduced to the story yet... there was no foreshadowing. How? Why? What... is even going on?" I stood there terrified of what I learned
"You're lying... it's a joke right?" Along with Shin's voice came the shattering of a glass of water.
I don't get it... I don't understand... they were just here yesterday...
Everyone... they were just here joking around. Making fun of my crappy ability... how could they just be gone all of a sudden? It's not that easy... right?
Try as I might the tears from my eyes started to blur my very vision as I feel a cold hand on my shoulder, "I-It's not your fault or anything," even Amber struggled to not stutter.
"We were just tasked with getting stronger so most of us took any leads we could on demons in the countryside so we could level up faster. It's just that... people kept disappearing and eventually we realized. We're the only ones left," Damon said nonchalantly, with a blank expression. Not even a trace of a smile.
"That doesn't explain how you know!" Shin said with tears all over his face, rage directing at Damon's indifference.
Damon's an empathetic dude, I know that more than anything, but I also know he's not the type to show. Always a smile on that face, but when he doesn't have it... you know he's serious.
"Cause I fell for it first," Amber's irritated voice and dead eyes silenced the entire room. "Because I fricking fell for it," No one else noticed, but she hid her shaking fist behind her back, her nails piercing into her skin till a little bit of blood started leaking out.
No way...
There's just no way Amber out of all the people fell for it. She's impulsive yes, but she's not the type to fall for a trap, she's too logical for that.
"What do you mean?" The question slipped out of my mouth.
Amber looked away from me, "W-Well... I-"
"You think she'd take you falling into a dangerous cave well and just shrug it off?" Misa leaned against the wall with her arms crossed.
"Shut up, Misa. I was only just too focused on levelling up. The old dude just offered a place to grind by killing some low-level vampires and I fell for it." Amber stared at the floor and whispered, "I-I fell for it,"
I don't see this often. Hell, I don't see this at all. Amber's voice trembling is something no one would ever hear in our old world. Her sounding scared doesn't even register with me. It's not a thing. It's not an option. It's not...
"It's my fault. I convinced our party to go and it probably started the domino effect," Damon raised his hand.
"How'd you beat them when no one else did?" All I could do was change the subject from who to blame.
With my question the 3 that witnessed the first capture became quiet. Well, Fay was awfully quiet the entire time. Poor girl doesn't look like she handled it well.
Then I hear Damon's inhale, about to say something, "We-"
"I didn't." Amber's voice became more stable, "I lost and I saw them all... I s-saw all of them di-"
I didn't know it at first, but my hand started rubbing her back as if I was trying to calming down a child as she abruptly stopped her sentence.
"We ran and hid. Town to town. Mostly hiding in the forest and living off hunting. It took about 2 months till we made it back here," Damon knocked on the brick wall.
Most of us are gone in just 6 months huh? What else did I miss? Did some cruel god decide raining blood would be fun too?
"How about you guys?" Shin who stayed silent from Amber's explanation finally spoke up again.
"Old man's got eyes everywhere. Did you notice a pattern of the people that are left? We were the weakest in that aptitude test. That's why they went for Amber first and the next target would probably be me," Misa sighed heavily.
"They? There's more than one?"
"I don't give a crap how many of them there are. I'll kill all of them," Kyle's voice lowered into a serious monotone. He really meant it when he said 'kill'. Kill... what a small word for action so large. "They'll pay for what they did to Ein,"
Right... Ein isn't here. They were always together huh?
Glancing at Shin, I see a guilty look on his face.
What should I do? What can I do? I never felt this feeling before... not even in the caves. I think the correct word for this feeling would be helpless? People don't die that easily right? Right?
Can I really just die tomorrow? No warning, no foreshadowing.
The worst thing about this is that I barely feel a thing. I mean I am sad that our classmates are just gone like that, but I'm worried about my own life. I thought I was a pretty empathetic person, but it turns out I'm pretty selfish. I don't have a mirror, but I just know that I don't have this sad and guilty look Shin has.
Hell, a little part of me is even happy that all this didn't happen to me.
"What should we do then? We can't just let them take Misa too," Shin's shaken voice snapped me back to the situation at hand.
"They're not. Not over my dead body at least," For a second, only a second, I felt like I saw the silhouette of black wings attached to Amber's back as her piercing stare paralysed everyone, "If they wanna trap us, we can trap them too,".
A twisted mischievous smile slowly appeared on her face.
"That's more like it," I smiled along.
We gotta get payback. A little revenge for our precious old friends. We're the saddest excuse for heroes I've ever seen, but who gives a damn. More than being heroes, more than being anything, we're all just... petty as hell.