Lorhk, an underground town, not too far from Retsluv, has existed for fifty years. The town was fortified enough to resist the attacks of these strange creatures. The town's people barely go outside due to it being far from other dwelling places, making them prone to attacks if they journeyed.
One of the oldest-looking buildings in the town is shown. It looked like three generations had lived in it. currently, the building inhabits two people, a grandma, and a teenager. The teenager was disabled apparently, she couldn't see. Since she started living with her grandma, she had been said to be mischievous and creepy.
People avoided her for some unknown reason.
She is most times alone speaking to herself, but to her, she was talking to something, a being named zero. Zero was something that existed in her imagination due to prolonged loneliness. It was something that she could only communicate with whenever she was alone, to communicate with zero, she'd have to concentrate very hard to hear his response.
That certain day of the cataclysm, everyone collapsed but there wasn't any earthquake. During the short period they collapsed, they all had a vision. They saw a dreadful skull figure with a scythe. To them that was the ideal terminology for Death.
Everyone woke up and attested to the dream of seeing death. Everyone but one girl, Ryouko. She was woken up by a familiar voice,
"Grandma?" She asked.
"
"Zero"
she felt a tug on her sleeve.
"I can feel you, you aren't sounding in my head, I can clearly hear you outside"
"
All the people in the town were scared, they were very religious. They knew what a skull with a scythe meant. They saw it as a prophecy coming down upon them. While some started looking for means to leave, others accepted it. It was suicidal to leave Lorhk.
"There are monsters outside, ready to gobble up anybody that comes out of this fortress," one of the town folks said.
"Let's hope this fortress holds out," another one said holding a pendant.
Ryouko could hear Zero clearly and feel him, he was her eyes, although the colors were inverted. he was basically her second body. While days passed by, she kept on communicating with zero and trying new things. She saw she could make him manifest and vanish, he could only manifest for a short period. He could slip through walls. He had some sort of vacuum in him to store objects. It was through zero she learned what was going on around her. Unfortunately, the happy moments didn't last long. The town was attacked by the beasts. They would come periodically to stomp and try to trample their way through. Many of the town folks knelt and prayed. They prayed for the safety of the fortress, some prayed for forgiveness. Some prayed for miracles. They always did this whenever the creatures attacked, but recently it'd been more intense.
Ryouko's secret was out, apparently someone spotted a hooded figure floating and interacting with a red girl who had bandages around her eyes. He kept on rubbing his eyes while he stared into his binoculars. He was a watchman, he couldn't believe what he saw, a skeleton in black. He called his teammate and handed him the binoculars pointing in the direction he saw the figure. within a short period, a cry echoed through the town with bells ringing. Immediately it happened, she hurried home to meet her grandma, on the way home, she would switch between manifesting and hiding zero to hasten her movement and also avoid attention of people were nearby. On getting home, she played the role of an innocent blind girl. Her grandma was already heading out preparing to look for her but felt relieved seeing her come into the house.
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[The Town Square]
Everyone gathered at the centre of the town. The town officials hushed their murmurs while preparing a stage for the governor to address them.
"Gathering you all under this circumstance seems pretty dire, I thank you all who could come out here despite the current condition we all are facing" The Town head pointed up as he gave his speech. The stomping noise continued.
"This matter isn't entirely different from what we are facing"
The people were puzzled.
"a few days back, we all had a premonition.. or should I say a vision... a black robed skeleton!" he paused staring at each member of the town, quietly scanning to identify who fitted the description he was given earlier.
The murmurs got louder, people were looking at each other, wondering what the governor was driving at.
"well we received a report not quite long ago.. someone, no some people claimed to have seen what we dreaded along the eastern district of our town today"
gasp noises echoed, the people came closer, looking at all sides of the town as if believing the skeleton would appear any moment.
The governor finally spotted her, he beckoned on a few officials and whispered some commands. They moved into the crowd in response to his commands.
"We have found the cause of the commotion"
"Leave her alone! what do you think you're doing?!" an angry grandma's voice sounded over the murmurs.
"Grandma!... what's happening.. who are these people?!"
Ryouko trembled as she was grabbed by the arm.
she was brought to the front of the governor.
"She matches the description alright.. this young lady here was seen a few moments ago conversing with the apparition.. we are going to have her trialed right here, right now!" He angrily raised his voice.
"There's no way Ryouko can do that! yes I know she doesn't associate with people that much, isn't that because of her disability? what if they were seeing things? what if this is just a sham to make me lose my grand daughter?" The old woman kept on voicing out to defend her only relative. She kept on trying to push her way through the officers.
"Kill her!" someone from the crowd shouted.
"yes that's right, if she dies then maybe we won't be haunted by that figure again!" another person followed up.
not long after that, the crowd kept on yelling,
"kill her! kill her! kill her!"
" my poor baby, first I lost your father, now they want to take you from me.." the granny sobbed.
The governor silenced the crowd then he came up with a different idea.
"How about we use her to lure away the monsters?" he said landing the base of his fist on his palm.
"You don't mean?! you plan on using that?! an officer said surprisingly.
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The engineers operated on the town's defense mechanism and then the opaque metal covering the town got removed revealing a transparent view. Between the view and the monsters standing ontop was a barrier, a special substance which was said to be indestructible.The glass like barrier had a hole in the center, wide enough for two people to slip through into the outside world. it was their sure exit out of the underground town Ryouko was tied to a crane, she was being lifted towards the glass. The town's leader commanded them to stop when she was not far from the barrier. Everybody had their eyes fixed on what was happening. The monsters had their eyes fixed on her. they kept on stomping their feet on the barrier, they were likened to wolves waiting for their prey. The town shook due to the excessive pounding from these creatures.
Ryouko struggled, shouting for help as the sound got closer and louder. She could make out their snarls.
while suspended in the air like a scarecrow, she trembled.
"they are trying to kill me to save themselves..I don't want to die.. where am I?"she said biting her lips.
"it doesn't matter if I'm going to die.. come out.. let me see what's going on" she said calling the phantom out.
All of a sudden, not too far from her, a black hooded figure materialised. it stretched out it's arms, bones could be seen.
Everybody froze in horror.
one swallowed hard and shouted
"There it is!"
"I always knew she was different!"
"She was the messenger of death all along!"
"Governor, what should we do?"
"She is a witch"
The whole town was in commotion seeing the floating skeleton.
Ryouko looked up and screamed! seeing how close she was to the monsters which were already scratching the glass trying to get to her.
After regaining her composure,
"Here goes nothing," Ryouko says..
Zero moved up through the glass.
The people had their mouths opened
"It went through!" They screamed.
They saw death enter and come out from one of the monsters. Immediately it went out, the monster collapsed with blood spurting from it's mouth.
They were petrified, the people who were praying stopped with their mouths open.
Zero did similar to what he did earlier and they all dropped dead. He then returned through the glass back to Ryouko, it brought out it's scythe and cut the ropes holding her to the crane, then she fell, so she thought. He held on to her and descended towards the ground. As she came down, the crowd dispersed giving her a huge space to land. The moment she got to the ground, there was pindrop silence. It lasted for about ten seconds till a kid broke it
"mum, mum, did you see that? That skeleton saved us!" A little girl screamed while pointing toward the Ryouko.
Another boy yelled "witches are supposed to be bad, are there good witches?!"
The adults were terrified but at the same time glad. One of their problems got solved by another problem.
"Sir, can we let her live amongst us? She bears death" a worried citizen whispered into the governor's ear.
"Death you say? If she wanted us dead, it would have been over for us, didn't you see the monsters it took down?!" The governor angrily retorted, while beaming smiles at the kids who talked earlier.
"See to it that she's well taken care of.. you're her grandma right? I want you to move into my quarters. Starting tomorrow, you'll be living with me." he turns to face the crowd.
"We can't treat someone who just saved us badly now can we?".
He steps onto the podium and takes a deep breath.
"Yes we did have the dream of death, no a skeleton with a scythe, we have no right to call it death, that was our savior, We were given hope, not despair! This girl brought us hope against these mabeasts that have challenged us for decades. She will protect us, she is the messenger of God!, She has our savior with her! As an order from the governor, I declare that anyone who shows Ill will towards this girl shall be hanged! You can't be refuting a messenger of God!"
"Please see to it that she's attended to immediately!"
"That's it folks, the meeting is over!"