"She is here! She is here! We must eat her!" I heard a voice behind me and I almost face palmed.
This was the true embodiment of the saying 'from the frying pan, into the fire.' What are the odds that the place I decide to hide in actually had ghosts in it?!
"I hope I am safe from whatever is outside there." I said, not minding their presence. After all, that is the only way to survive anything to do with ghosts.
"Send her out! Send her out! He will catch us! Send her out!" the ghosts say before I feel something pushing my behind.
Huh?
*
Once, I was covered by small covering sheltering me away from the weird circumstances and monsters, now, it's no more.
The ghosts struggled a lot until finally, they managed to push me back outside. When I tried to get back inside, I found that the hole was gone.
'Seriously?!' I screamed inside my mind.
The stomps were getting louder and I didn't know where to go after being pushed out of my hiding spot.
Clutching the journal, I ran across the open fields and decided to hide behind a pillar before trying to choose my battles wisely. The stomping neared as I closed my eyes and clutched the journal even closer to my heart as I wondered,
"Am I really nine years old? What am I doing here?"
Stomp!
Stomp!
Stomp!
Each stomp was like the final nail in my coffin as I heard them near me until all of a sudden they went quiet. Too quiet.
"Psst!"
"Psst!"
"Psst! Oh, where could this idiot be?"
I hear a voice right above me and the sight shocks me so much that my jaw went slack. It was the stranger from earlier and he was riding a strange animal. It looked like a giraffe with the arms of a gorilla!
'Just what is this place?' I thought as I left my hiding place. The laws of physics, gravity and even nature didn't work in this domain and my mind was just trying to fill in the missing gaps.
"There you are." Said the stranger as his voice deepened before he morphed into a monster of sorts.
A ghost!
"Dammit!" I thought as I run. I had fallen for the musings of a ghost!
Dodging to the left and right, I was constantly avoiding the hits that were being thrown my way by the ghost and its partner as I tried to run for my life. I couldn't understand. I thought that I could tell the difference between the two yet I was horribly mistaken.
"Maybe the journal can help!" I thought belatedly as I perused the book for an answer.
"Uh-huh! Here is something useful! To outrun the keeper of the pagoda, say the chant and jump into the pool."
Pool!?
Pool?!
He doesn't mean the pool of blood at the fountain does he? I am screwed!
*
'I don't know how long it has been but I have been here crouching like a lost child, hoping that someone would come to my rescue. I am starting to think that this impossible as this is the unbeatable Soul collecting pagoda!' I read as I hid from the weird monster outside.
I had been reading the journal for a while now but all I have learnt is how to control the ghosts and mask my scent from the life reaper. Yes, the weird creature from is called a life reaper, a specie only known to this plain of havoc and madness.
It seems that the previous owner of this journal was just like me. He wandered in and never found a way out. The difference between us both is that I have resources and a little bit of hope.
In such situations, the worst any of us can do is lose hope and that is something that I won't do.
"The chant…" I mumble as I remember the words I read earlier form the fountain. It was funny how the answer was out at a place that most people would avoid because of the blood.
I had read a clue for escaping from here but I wasn't sure if it would work because my predecessor had died before he could try it.
'Blood sacrifice.'
That was what I need for the chant to work so that I could escape. I can see why my predecessor didn't try this way.
"How much blood should be used? Is it a whole sacrifice or just the blood? Can drops work?"
I was frustrated as I didn't have answers and time but the one thing that warmed my heart was that I had people who would actually miss me.
"Emma, Alva, the twins Reify and Rife, Elena and Lux. Yeah I definitely have to live for them at least." I said to myself as I got up.
"Where are you going? Don't go! Flick will eat you." I hear the ghosts mumble as I peer out of the whole, looking for the life reaper. As the creature in charge of capturing souls and locking
them here, it had a sharp nose and I wasn't willing to wait around and let it find me so I had to make a move right now.
I was going to try dropping some blood into the fountain and see what happens from there.
'Maybe I will be able to go home.' I thought as I secure the journal in a makeshift bag that I had created and leapt out of the small cramped space.
Rushing, I made my way to the heart of the pagoda while avoiding the life reaper. I had countless close calls as I felt the control on my aether wavering. Yes, aether.
My predecessor was an aether user. That is why he managed to survive here long enough to record anything. The only way you can activate the chant for leaving here and mask your scent is by using aether so I can understand why the rest all died as most people use mana.
Also, they easily died for the same reason as the life reaper can detect mana fluctuations.
"I hope this works." I said as I start the chant and drop in my blood.
As the structure is made from bone, it was easy to break off some piece in the shape of a dagger and this is what I used to make a slit on my palms.
After a few drops were in and the chant was done I watched as the pool lit and the blood inside it moved like a wave out in the ocean.
'It's working!' I thought with excitement only for everything to be thrown to the dogs as nothing happened.
"Why? Why didn't you work? You were supposed to work!" I said out loud in fury and later on realized the mistake that I had made.
"Found you!" I hear a shriek behind me as I try to wrap aether around me. Due to my emotional distress, I couldn't do so all I could was run.
"You are tasty! Tasty! Tasty!" cried Flick, the monster. The ghosts had told me that it was called Flick and had lived for thousands of years and yet it only recently gained a consciousness hence it reasoned like a five-year-old.
I tried to use this knowledge to my advantage but I couldn't find any way possible as my mind was a mess. I was scared. I was alone. I didn't know what to do.
In that one moment when I was wallowing in self-pity, the gorilla like animal almost hit me and I lost my balance, sending me tumbling to the ground.
"Tasty! Tasty! Mine! All mine!" Flick cried and I knew that it was my end until, until I saw a black dot falling from the sky. As it got bigger, I realized that it was stranger from earlier.
"He has come to rescue me?"
This was the first thing on my mind but I later on dismissed it as I hadn't known the guy for so long for him to do anything to help me.
When I saw a gigantic sword falling from the sky aimed at Flick, I knew that this guy was just as crazy as me and so I ran.
The sword came down with a fury that was unmatched and almost sliced Flick into two if only it hadn't gone after me. in my momentary shock, Flick got a hold of me and once again tried to eat me.
The stranger landed on the back of Flick's ride and started to battle the creature, making it let go of me and I fell.
"Ravenna!!" I heard someone scream and I couldn't help but open my eyes.
The handsome stranger had jumped after me as I plunged towards the fountain. Deciding to use this chance wisely, I started the chant once more and the blood surged forth, covering me up
whole.
I couldn't taste it nor smell it. I could feel it crawling on my skin like it was alive and I felt it enter my body.
Last thing I knew was a hand grasping mine and then…
Darkness!
…