As the man is opening the gates, he collides with someone and gets pushed back, falling to the floor.
"What the heck?!" he exclaims, looking up.
A woman is towering over him. The man has never met a woman in this life, yet he knows what she is. And even though, he has never interacted with any human other than the eyepatch man, he is able to understand her state of mind from her face expression; shock, serious, and mildly disoriented.
The woman's eyes snap to the pilot, and she rushes towards him.
"Thank goodness! A pilot!" she says, grabbing his hand.
"I want to get out of here now! Can you please take me to salvation?" she questions hopefully.
Before the pilot can react, footsteps sound, resonating off the Castle walls.
"Welcome to the Castle, the place of never-ending fun!" the man sees another person stalking towards them, he is wearing a suit and is handsome. But what grabs his entire attention is the mesmerizing background behind the man in the suit.
"I apologize for my lover's mannerisms, she seems to be in a bad mood. So, if you don't mind giving us some private ti−"
"No! Please, don't leave!" pleads the woman, hiding behind the pilot now.
The man in the suit slowly advances towards them, footsteps sounding.
"Come on, honey. You have been acting strange lately, we can talk about this," he coaxes.
"Stay away from me!" hysterical, the woman screams.
Noticing the woman's reluctance, the pilot raises his hand towards the man.
Immediately, the man in the suit feels restrained to the ground, unable to move from his position. All he can move is his mouth and tongue.
"You already know that we can never win against pilots. So, stop attempting to talk to me and just leave," says the woman as there is a faint echo of someone's footsteps.
The restrained man stops struggling and sighs, "We have lived here all our life! Why would you ever want to leave the Castle? There is nothing but the void out the−"
"No, you are wrong. There is salvation, there is the Rope!"
"What? Why would you ever think of going there? Everything you will need is here! Why would you follow the pilots?"
Footsteps echo again.
"Because I believe in their warnings, and I'm done with delusions!"
"Alright, you know what? Do as you like, I will not be wasting my time and efforts on you any longer."
"Sir, you can let me go now, I will walk away peacefully," says the man in the suit to the pilot.
The pilot slowly lowers his hand, and the handsome man feels the strong grip on his body fade away. He turns and walks towards the gates calmly.
"I bid all of you a good farewell," he says, closing the gates behind him.
The woman finally relaxes, collapsing to the ground. "I finally won, I won against the urge," she mumbles to herself.
It is weird though. I have known him my entire life and can tell that he gave up a bit too easily. Lucky me!
Coming out of her thoughts, she looks up to the pilot, "Well, I would like to get going as fast as possible."
However, she notices that the pilot's eyes are keenly focused somewhere. Tracing his gaze, she looks in the same direction, only to find nothing over there.
What is he looking at?
"Wait. Where is the guy I bumped into?" she questions, noticing his absence.