Elias turned around but he did not see anyone! He even walked back looking, but seeing no one, Elias turned around and walked away.
"If you are a human, speak!"
Elias stopped for the second time and looked back. He saw a silhouette hiding behind what seemed to be a trash can.
"I'm! Are you?"
The black silhouette came out and stood. But she stared just above him before she looked at his eyes directly. They look devoid of anything.
She felt a little scared, to her, his anomaly seemed very different.
Elias stared at the girl that seemed to be 12 years old but observing her eyes, his guts tell him she experienced more than that. In that case, an old woman in a young girl's body.
Inhabitant of this dark world? It doesn't matter.
Losing interest in her, he turned around and walked away. But the girl followed him. Composing herself she said.
"Creatures are fighting over you. Two of them!"
"You too! Three of them!"
She was taken aback but didn't seem surprised. Elias raised his head thinking he would see them but it was just pitch black darkness that could have everyone's consciousness erased if gazed for a prolonged period of time.
To Elias, it was ineffective.
The girl was stunned. She doesn't even want to think of the sky or else she will freeze for an unknown period of time. And by experience, she knows most of those dried humans have dried without knowing when they mistakenly or consciously stared at the dark abyss above them.
"What is your name?" She asked.
That triggers his flame to have more fuel and burn furiously.
"I don't remember!" He said.
The young girl was silent as she followed him, moving aimlessly through different streets, meeting along the way half-dried people, shapeless creatures, and glowing objects.
None garnered his attention, but the humans that sought his help broke the moment Elias touched them.
"Are you an Islander?" She asked again.
"I don't remember!"
After a long time of moving around Elias stopped and raised his head thinking.
"My name is Elias! And you?"
"Ladi!"
"Elias, help me here!"
"Here Elias, I'm here, save me!"
Echoes from everywhere.
As if the whole street had come alive, voices of people began to call him. The girl moved back in panic, but Elias just looked around trying to identify the sources of sound.
"Don't listen to them!" Ladi mumbled. "That's not the way out, you just need to remember everything and you will wake up!" She shouted but her voice was drowned in the cacophony of other sounds.
"Don't listen to them, help me here!" A voice said using the girl's voice.
Ladi shut her mouth as she noticed her voice was copied.
But for an unknown reason that Ladi can't put her hand on, Elias ignored all the voices that mimicked her and went to another strange voice.
A dried old man with barely remaining vitality stared at him with a doll's eyes. They are devoid of life whatsoever but Elias bent and said.
"How can I help you!"
"Take me somewhere, I know the place!" The dried voice of the old man was grinding to the ears.
Without further ado, Elias picked the old man's body which was just a sack of bones without issue. Along the way, a leg broke off. Both the old man and Elias ignore that!
After moving toward the light the old man asked to be put on the ground. It wasn't even far from where he was.
Ladi found the whole thing strange. She wanted to speak but she was scared that her voice would be mimicked again.
In the end, she watched the bizarre event.
The moment Elias dropped the old man, more voices were heard in different corners and Elias went to the calls, devoid of emotions or reasoning.
'Being an islander is not always blooming' Ladi thoughts, 'terror and uncertainties were weaved in-between!'
In just a short duration, Elias was able to change the location of 12 dried humans, most of them middle-aged but there were three that were very young.
"Did you kill my baby?" A woman that wasn't as dried as the rest stared at Elias and asked.
She was the 13th and she seemed more alive than all of those that he changed positions. Elias stared at her before he asked, "Where do you want to go?"
"I know who you are! I pitied you and loved you! I believe my kindness will move your heart and change your mind to be good! I show you how to live a real life with love and care… Where do I want to go? Did I deserve that harsh dried question? If you want an answer? Then take me with you!"
"Alright!" Unperturbed by the answer, he piggybacked her.
"Elias Gobarau. Do you remember who I am?"
"Sara Gabriel!" He answered.
"Did you kill my baby the way you killed us?" she asked.
"I didn't know what happened to him!"
"Did you regret pulling the trigger over my head? "
Elias was silent after that.
After a long amount of time moving around the dark city, a voice was heard! And that was new.
"Elias, come save me!"
Whenever Elias carried someone all calls would stop. But now as he moved aimlessly carrying Sarah Gabriel on his back there was a voice calling him.
He turned and came to the voice. A very old woman with grey hair stared at him. She was the most alive person among all the ones he carried.
"Elias Gabriel! I resent that face of yours since it was the last thing I saw when you strangled me to my demise!" The old Ladi said with an eerie smile.
"Miss Olivia Oliver, nice to meet you too! Where would you like to go?" His voice is devoid of any emotions.
"Among all the families you have ruined, mine was the worst. I should be on your back, not her!" Olivia Oliver glared at Sarah that was behind him.
"Is that so?" He asked in confusion!
"Yes, it is so. I held an empire of wealthy families for 60 years. You, impersonating my grandchild and framing him for killing me, brought that empire to its knees! Blood was shed, innocent were killed and countless others fell from grace, never to rise again; All that happens because you broke my neck!"
"I see!" Elias said. Then he turned to Sarah on his back and said, "Where would you like me to take you?"
"To that light!"
He complied and took her there. Then he came back to the old Ladi and put her on his back.
"Do you have regrets?"
He did not answer. But then Olivia began to speak of all the horrible things that had happened after her death. Right from the collapse of the families to the fate of the workers in their companies and that of the servants in their household, and in the end, she asked, "Do you regret it!"
All that was happening, Ladi was following and had heard some of the conversations. She understands one thing, her ordeal and his were different.
She just needs to remember her life but Elias needs to do something. But, is he doing the right thing?
She noticed that the number of strange creatures was increasing due to Elias' excessive activity. She raised her hand and grabbed the rope ready to pull herself up. Beyond the rope was a light she only could see.
Ladi did want to stop Elias because whenever he picked someone something dried from his body. And by the time he took Sarah, half of his body was already brown and cracking as if made of clay.
Now that he was carrying Olivia, the old Ladi had bitten him in the neck taking his blood and in each passing moment Elias' body was drying up, joining the fate of countless others in the Dark City Under The Abyss.
But he seems oblivious to that.
Ladi followed them when everything was silent and no one spoke. As Olivia was done speaking and busy taking Elias's juicy blood, all those he carried were following them wherever they went and Elias had known about them from the beginning.
'The creatures of this place are using his memories to feed on him. But is he oblivious or is he resigning to his fate?'
That is why Ladi considered Elias an anomaly in this bizarre place!
"Miss Olivia Oliver!" When it was only his head that had not dried out, Elias spoke with a dried cracked voice.
"Yes! Elias Gobarau are you finally regretting?"
"Life is strange! Your family indeed faced a disaster!" He said when he stopped and raised his head in thought. "But… why are you in the same afterlife as me?"
If he was in hell, then why are they here? These 14 people are few compared to the countless homes he wrecked.
"We have our issues in life! And...to haunt you! But tell me the truth boy!" Her voice was sizzling, making the body of creatures around writhed with a chill.
Ladi almost fainted but tried to continue listening.
"Do you ever regret what you have done?" This time there wasn't room for silence..or refusal to answer.
"Does it matter?" He asked with confusion.
All the 14 creatures stared at Elias's gradually breaking body, confused by his answers...until his body collapsed like the most fragile clay statue there was.
And then the eerie silence pervaded the entire city.
Ladi sighed and felt sad as she grabbed the rope pulling her up.