Valentine and Graham left the hall where the fight was happening. They already knew the outcome of that, and relieving it again wouldn't bring anything of value. For now, they would rather explore the dream world and try to find things that they might have missed in the past.
Dead bodies littered the hall of the school building where skirmish happened.
"This war... molded us into the killer that we are today..."
Graham was looking straight ahead with an expression of gloom. There were deaths all around him, and screaming, and gunshots, and more deaths. Those lifeless eyes had no more chance to taste what the world had to offer, but they looked like they were full of longing and expectation.
"We killed those rebels to protect the civilians. But who is to say that our killing is justified?" Graham pondered, "But if it was necessary to kill one to protect five, I'd do that any time."
"I'll never say that we can justify taking people's life away-- it's always wrong. But it is sometimes necessary, and I won't paint myself as a saint. I'm a sinner, G. And I can live with that if it guarantees our survival," Valentine added in agreement. His tone was grim.
Graham looked at his other half with an expression of relief mixed with guilt and regret.
"We, Val, WE are sinners. And I'll stick with you no matter what. We're inseparable, after all..." Graham paused and took a deep breath.
The lifeless eyes around him were as if they were envious of the two of them who still walked the path of life.
"Maybe being dragged into this chaotic supernatural world is our punishment for all the lives we've taken. Every second is a constant struggle for survival to us..." he added heavily.
"And survive is what we will do. We just do what we must..." Valentine nodded slowly.
Those no longer of this world could only stare lifelessly at the two identical men who kept on walking down the bloody corridor.
"At least these people should be in heaven right now, Val. They are only fighting for what they believe in, so we can't really call them evil. It's those people who make the innocent fight among themselves who are evil,"
"And what's waiting for us in death is eternal torment, isn't it? Then we'd better prolong our lives for as long as we can,"
They finally arrived in front of another large hall on the other end of the U-shaped building on the second floor. There seemed to be no fight going on inside, but there were whimpering sounds and the crying of children. Behind the closed door, the victims of the war were hiding in fear, scared that with each passing second, their death was inching closer.
"Do you remember this part of the building, Val?" Graham stood in front of the door while trying to push it open. It seemed to have been barricaded from inside as it wouldn't budge, "Why can we go through people but not objects..."
Valentine stayed quiet for a while.
"Of course I do..." he said finally, "But the last time we reached this room, everyone inside was already dead,"
"I wonder why there wasn't a single Contractbound in that war? It would have ended much sooner without as much casualty,"
His other half shook his head.
"Or maybe there were, Val, but they just wiped our memories of those people. That sounds more plausible than there being none at all,"
"Arghh!!!"
Sounds of screaming then came from inside, following by rushing footsteps and something heavy being pushed over behind the door.
Baam!
Something heavy fell over, and the door was opened hastily. From it, came people running away with terror in their faces. They ran right through the two identical men standing in the corridor without even looking back. To them, helping others would mean suicide at that moment.
Graham and Valentine rushed inside to see what was happening. The last time they arrived at the hall, dead bodies were lying on the floor without them being able to do anything-- not even determine the cause of death. This time, they had the chance to witness what had massacred those poor souls.
In the big hall that was probably four times the size of the classroom, screaming and crying were in the air. Those not fast enough to escape now had nowhere else to go, and could only beg for mercy in a language that neither Graham nor Valentine understood. The adults, who were mostly women, were shielding the children with their bodies, while a lot of the men had run away earlier. No one could blame them since, in the face of death, their own lives were what mattered.
Buzz...
There was a man standing solemnly in the middle of the room with his arms stretched to the sides. Around him, multitudinous black flies were flying, slowly forming the bottom half of his body. The buzzing swarm of flies also made sure that those who hadn't managed to escape wouldn't be able to do so as they formed a blockade on the only door.
The man was speaking lengthy in Valencian, a language that the two of them didn't speak. They would be able to understand simple, short sentences, but the man was giving a full, cold speech. They could only see the serious expression on the man's face, and the anger reflected in his eyes as he was looking at the terrorized victims.
"Por favor!!"
Cries for mercy came from the mouth of the civilians, but the man didn't falter. He waved his both arms in unison and at once, the cloud of flies flapped their wings harder, filling the room with their loud buzz. They then swarmed around the helpless victims, slowly suffocating them. The man was killing indiscriminately; men, women, children were all the same in his eyes. Everyone must be eradicated.
Graham and Valentine could only watch as the people were slowly dying. Their lives were snuffed out of them one by one painfully while their cries for mercy were drowned by the loud buzzing.
Suddenly, the temperature in the room raised and the fly man's expression became disturbed.
Whoosh!
The cloud of flies buzzing around suddenly caught fire, turning them into ashes that disappeared instantly. The fire quickly spread from flies to flies, strangely leaving the dead people's bodies untouched, and reached the man in the middle not long after.
Caught on fire, the man hastily waved his arms and turned into countless tiny flies that flew in every direction, entering the minute orifices in the room. The man then disappeared completely, along with the flames that had consumed all of the flying abominations in the large hall.
With the mysterious man gone, there were only the lifeless bodies of his victims left, whose terror was immortalized in their faces.
"That explains how these people had died back then. And if that fire hadn't forced that man to escape, he would have waited here for us and killed us as easily as these poor souls, Val,"
"That's true. Does fire remind you of anyone?" Valentine crossed his arms.
Graham nodded.
"Actually, yes. The Deity of Fire Divination, is that what you mean? So far, we've only seen Him granting fire abilities, and no other Contractbounds have them. Now that we've seen His sigil with a different title-- Pyromancy, that is-- I'm assured that whoever used that fire just now was His Contractbound.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
Numerous sounds of footsteps approached the hall at a high speed. It was the young Valentine and his squad, who rushed to the hall as quickly as they could after encountering the fleeing men from before.
The squad was escorting civilians to protect them, and the moment they entered the hall where a lot of people had been butchered, their expressions sunk. The men, who ran away earlier, was filled with regret and sorrow the moment they saw the dead bodies of those dear to them.
Among the civilians that the squad was protecting, there was yet another face that Graham and Valentine couldn't believe they were seeing.
It was Paim!
At a glance, she was just like an old lady who was unfortunately caught up in the whole conflict. However, if they observed her carefully, there was no mistaking it. Her facial features, her height, and even her clothes matched those of the mysterious woman they knew. What left them perplexed was how she hadn't seemed to have changed at all; her age was exactly the same as when Graham met her before, and the other time at the university dream world.
At that moment, Paim suddenly turned around and looked at them, an existence that was supposed to be invisible in that world. She was looking straight at their eyes, and a smile surfaced on her face.
"!!"
Pant... Pant...
Graham stood up on the bed with cold sweat running down his cheeks. His heart was beating very fast and his breathing heavy. He had been abruptly kicked out of the dream world yet again, in the exact same manner. The only difference was this time they didn't make a stop at the dead tree but got dragged directly into the real world.
"Val, are you awake? Our dreams always end with us seeing Paim being strangely close to us and us being kicked out for noticing that,"
Graham got up and went to the bathroom to wash his sweaty face. The morning water felt cold and refreshing when it touched his face.
"Just who, or what, is she? At least for now we can conclude that she is not malicious to us. For now..."
Grabbing his toothbrush, he brushed his teeth while still in the bathroom and quickly returned to the bedroom.
"Anyway, we need to leave this city now. Tomorrow will be our doom if we stay here. Even last night's event already told us just how dangerous this city can be, Val,"
Although the sun was shining brightly outside, he couldn't shake the uneasiness he had felt from last night's darkness.
Graham's stuff was all inside his large suitcase, including his dirty clothes, so it was easy for him to do the packing. Graham got changed into a black shirt and a pair of striped cotton pants. After stuffing Valentine's leather jacket inside the suitcase, he zipped it and put on his trench coat and trilby. He was now ready to leave.
Not forgetting the cane, Graham went outside and locked the hotel room. He then noticed that the scratching marks on the wall were gone as if they had never been there in the first place. He then walked downstairs and the bloodstains, as well as the deep clawing mark on Florian's door, were also gone.
The fact that the signs of what had happened the previous night had disappeared made the whole situation even stranger. He didn't have any explanation for that at the moment, and he had a feeling that divination would only result in harm for him, so he didn't bother trying.
Graham continued making his way down to the lobby where Stefan was standing behind the reception desk. Seeing his guest all packed up like that, he couldn't help but be curious.
"Mr. Hymes, are you also leaving today?"
"Also? Did someone else leave as well?" asked Graham back in curiosity.
"Yes. Mr. Baciu left earlier although he said he would stay for two weeks. And now you. My father also called me this morning and told me to take care of another branch, so I'll have to leave later as well. Why is everyone leaving today?" the young man kept on talking.
"It certainly is weird..." responded Graham, "So, can I take back my deposit?"
Stefan opened the register book and then quickly nodded, "Yes, yes, Mr, Hymes. So you ended up only staying for four nights, so you can take back the remaining three nights. That will be nine stuivers,"
Upon unlocking the drawer where money was being kept, Stefan opened it and took out nine one-stuiver bills, and handed them all to his guest. Graham happily received the money and put it inside his wallet.
"Thank you. Anyway, was the electricity out last night?" asked Graham carefully. He had a theory that he wanted to confirm.
Looking confused, Stefan shook his head.
"No, Mr. Hymes. Although I might be asleep and not notice, if the electricity was out, our generator would automatically turn on, Mr. Hymes," he explained.
Graham looked over his shoulder and muttered quietly, "As I thought, Val. It seems that the event last night only affected Contractbounds for some reason,"
Stefan was watching his guest patiently.
Turning his attention back to the young receptionist and manager, Graham bid his goodbye, "Then I'll take my leave. You take care, Stefan!"
"You too, Mr. Hymes. Thanks for staying with us,"
Stefan waved his hand at his guest who was quickly walking out of the building.
To leave the city, Graham had to take a public motor carriage to the bus stop across from where the coach had dropped him off the first time he arrived. With a wave of his hand, one public motor carriage pulled over and took him.
"Was there a blackout last night?" he asked the driver curiously after telling him his destination.
The driver also shook his head in confusion, "No, sir. There have never been blackouts here in Hoorn for at least ten years. Our city is highly dependant on power, after all, so the government always makes sure that we have running power 24/7."
Graham's theory was confirmed once again, which meant that whatever was going to happen the next day might have something to do with what had happened the night before. Luckily, his divination had told him to escape, so he could avoid that.
The motor carriage arrived at the destination not long after, and after paying, Graham got out and waited for the coach that would take him back to his home in Sloten.
"I will miss how loudly people here talk, that's for sure. Although by this point I'm already used to it and it's barely noticeable. Too bad we can't buy snake liquor first, Val. But maybe next time, if the city is safe for us to visit,"
Graham got on to the coach that arrived more than five minutes later, sitting at the back row near the window so he would be able to enjoy the view outside. His heart was filled with slight regret for having to leave such a beautiful city, but also relief since that meant he would be home soon. His souvenir, the cane, was resting next to him.