In the end, he too was used as a Goblin Bomb.
'I wish I could see them one last time…', Rei thought just as his body vanished to nothingness.
.
.
.
.
.
Darkness…
It was endless darkness.
Rei couldn't feel his arms and legs.
He couldn't speak or hear anything.
He didn't even know what he was.
An hour seemed like an eternity.
Only after an hour did his eyes start to form, which were completed in a matter of few seconds.
His eyes opened…
And he regained consciousness.
His mouth, ears and body formed, but not completely, in a few seconds.
His tangled memories soon became clear as he recalled everything.
With the opened eyes, he perceived an orb – a blue-flamed orb – levitating.
He had been constantly watching it but not reacting all this time.
Only after his memories became clear, he recognized it as an orb.
"Tha-"
He could barely speak.
It felt as if he didn't even have an ounce of strength left in his body, yet he was able to pull himself up and stand straight.
-"Ugh! Can you hear me!? Bro!"-
Lucas had been trying his best to make Rei notice him, but his efforts were rendered useless. Now, finally, Rei could hear his voice – but this time, coming out from the orb.
"You…", he moved his hand forward, trying to touch the orb.
-"Yes! It's me!"- Lucas replied in joy as he found Rei responding to his voice.
-"Finally!"-
-"Ha!"-
-"You gave me a scare! Damn!"- Lucas said, sighing again and again.
Rei, on the other hand, remained quiet. He scratched his head a bit as he stared at the orb.
He didn't say anything because he was still recalling the death of other goblins, and the last lines that he thought about.
'I wish I could see them one last time…' – this is what he had thought following which, Lucas had also said –"Me too."-
As he recalled that, he sat down again.
"Me too…? What did you mean by that?", Rei asked.
-"Uh? What?"- Lucas was confused by what Rei meant because he said this out of nowhere, completely out of context.
For Lucas, an entire hour had passed! He was completely conscious all this time, but for Rei, it was only a moment.
He was unconscious after all, so the feeling of eternity was engraved only on his body, and not his mind – of course, the fuzziness of memories was a part of it.
"When I wished for meeting my brothers and sisters for one last time, why did you say 'Me too'? Do you want to meet someone too?"
"I mean… tell me honestly, you were scared too, right?", Rei asked.
"…"
-"…"-
-"Who wouldn't be scared of losing their life?"-
-"Me too. I was a living being like you… but…"-
-"Now look at me. I'm just a soul trapped in the headset."- Lucas said.
"…"
"Your name?", Rei asked, wanting to finally ask about his name after all this time.
-"My name?"-
-"Haha!"-
-"Did you finally decide to give me a promotion from being a ghost? Haha!"-
"Shut up.", Rei fumed a bit as he heard Lucas' senseless joke again.
-"Haha, alright alright. So, my name is Lucas and I was a…"-
-'Would it be alright to tell him that I was a human being?'- Lucas thought for a second.
"You were…?"
-"Yeah… I was alive, but now I have turned into a soul and have been trapped inside this headset…"- Lucas said, not revealing about himself being a human.
Rei merely nodded his head as he proceeded to ask, "So, you also failed to see your family before death?"
-"Uh, my family were long dead. Even if I wanted, I couldn't see them…"- Lucas meant what he said.
His family had died in an accident when a bridge collapsed on their way back home from a trip. As Lucas hadn't gone, he survived. He became an orphan at the age of fifteen and had to live alone since then.
But he didn't want to mention any of these to Rei and didn't want to recall those old memories.
Regardless, with how foolish Rei was right now, he misunderstood Lucas when he said the previous sentence.
'Wait, did he want to see siblings?', Rei questioned himself.
Lucas could hear Rei's inner voice, but right now, he was somewhat lost in his own world.
"So, tell me the truth, why did you want to see them?", Rei asked, trying to be direct with Lucas.
-"Sigh, you won't shut your mouth unless I say…"-
"Yes."
-"Well, it's simply because I wanted to feel like a family again."- Lucas said, unable to describe his words exactly as the feelings deep within tried to explode.
"I-"
"I see…", Rei scratched his head thinking that there was nothing to worry about, however, he exploded the moment when he heard Lucas' next words.
-'The times we spent…'- Lucas tried his best not to remember any of those old memories, unfortunately, he couldn't prevent that from happening.
His parents were quite busy – both of them being scientists.
They would often be out.
Out of fifteen of his birthdays, they were present on only 2 of them – one, when he was a year old and the second – when he was fifteen.
Yes, just as he had turned fifteen, he got to know about the death of his parents.
He got to see their faces for one last time on his fifteen birthday.
Imagine celebrating your parents' funeral on your birthday, what could be more devastating?
Regardless, he never hated them. In fact, they took care of him in many ways.
However, none of them flashed in front of his eyes.
The only thing he could remember was the time when he ate dinner with them.
Just once…
"Lucas, finally we can spend time with you!"
"Our project has almost ended."
"We have to make just one small trip."
"From the day after tomorrow, you will no longer feel lonely.", these were his dad's words.
It was two days before his birthday and before the news of their death arrived. It was this day that he, for once, was happy as he for the first time, ate food with someone – the feeling of a family engulfed him.
He never wanted to let the feeling go away.
"…"
-"I wanted to eat (with) them..."-
-"…"-
"Huh?"
"…"