Zekes worriedly watched Rafik finish his inspection on the girl passed out on the bed in front of him.
Rafik let out a sigh as he put the medical instrument back into his bag.
"Will she be alright?" Zekes asked.
"Honestly, I am not sure. I checked all her vitals and did a simple cardiac examination with my stethoscope and all seemed in check. My hope is that she will wake up on her own. Yet I can't pinpoint what caused her to have a seizure in the first place. I might have to have a specialist check her out later on. As for now, we shall keep an eye on her until she wakes up back up." He told Zekes as he started walking towards the door.
"Wait, you are leaving?" Zekes asked surprised.
"I am sorry, Zekes. I didn't want to leave it up to you alone to look after her. However, I have a very urgent business I have to attend to in the chapel of virtue. So keep her safe until I come back."
"But I don't want to be-" Zekes shouted out in protest. But he stopped when he saw Rafik's serious expression and realized it was not up for debate.
The door creaked behind Rafik as he headed out. Zekes begrudgingly threw himself onto the bed on the opposite side of the room.
"Why do I have to bother staying in this cheap inn to look after a beggar like you?" He asked the sleeping girl in a bothered tone. "I really want to go and watch some street performaces or try some more of their sweet food."
As he laid down on his side, he began to feel tired as his muscles ached from all the walking he had done.
His eyes started to shut slowly. He fought against the sleepiness at first, so that he could watch over the girl. But his consciousness was failing him.
"What a hassle." He yawned. "I guess I do deserve some rest. After all, I was the one who pulled the cart all the way to the inn."
So at last, he gave in to the sweet succumb of sleep.
The next thing he knew, he found himself standing in front of his uncle's laboratory. He looked at his surroundings to make sure he wasn't just hallucinating. Everything was the same as he remembered, if not clearer. But he felt something eerie. It was too quiet.
He then started walking toward the lab's door. But before he could touch the handle, he felt a shiver go down his spine. Zekes hesitated at first, but he knew that he couldn't stop there. The wooden door creaked loudly as he slowly opened it.
He could see a lonely figure standing still without twitching a muscle in the darkroom ahead.
"Uncle?" Zekes called out frightened.
He soon realized that not only was the room dark, but the whole surrounding was charred as if it had been through an inferno.
Panic ensued in Zekes' mind as soon as he recognized the man to be none other than his uncle, Maquil. He rushed forward into the room, but when he got close enough to touch him, his body froze. He could feel something wet touch his foot. It was a puddle that seemed to have formed from a liquid dripping from his uncle's body. His body began to shake as he kneeled down to inspect the strange liquid. He dipped his finger into the puddle and as he raised it close to his face, the smell hit him. It was the smell of blood.
He felt a stone drop down his throat. As he raised his gaze from the ground, his sight met his uncle's body, mutilated with clothes torn and whip marks all over his chest and arms.
Zeke's mind froze in disbelief. It felt like he was going crazy just from the smell alone. His words failed to come out as only a sickly continuous gasp could escape his throat. He couldn't feel his body anymore, as a matter of fact, he felt like nothing was real. His leg failed him as he fell back into the pool of blood accumulating on the marble floor. As tears flowed down his eyes, he began to let out a hoarse laugh. He didn't want to laugh but he just couldn't deal with it anymore.
Then suddenly, the body in front of him began to speak.
"I am sorry, Zekes. Even though I tried my best to raise you, It wasn't enough. I failed you as a guardian and as a teacher. I know Rafik will take care of you better than I did. He is more empathetic than me. I pray that you choose to walk down a righteous path, Zekes. For you to follow in the stead of your desires and to never sway your gaze from your mistakes."
Zekes sat there, shocked. Then he realized that he was sitting in a pool of blood. He lifted his right hand off the ground and noticed that it was all red now. But when he looked back at his uncle again his eyes were wide open, staring into the nothingness below him. The eyes of a dead man.
Zekes let out a horrid scream. But the next thing he knew he was back inside the inn again. His eyes began to scan the room in panic as he breathed heavily. When he lifted his hand, he noticed there was no blood, no foul smell, and no dead body.
Zekes closed his eyes as he calmed his breath.
"It's ok. It was just a nightmare." He quietly reassured himself.
As he came back to his senses, he noticed that the girl was now awake. Not only that but she seemed to be searching through the drawers.
Before Zekes could utter a single word she jumped onto her bed and swiftly darted out of the window onto the inn's rooftop.
Zekes sat dumbfounded before he realized that he should chase after her or else Rafik would be furious at him if anything happened to her. He scrambled to his feet and jumped right out of the window. He quickly scanned the rooftop for the girl, but she was nowhere in sight. Suddenly, he heard a loud thud followed by shouting from across the inn. He noticed the girl running through the busy street away from the inn.
"Shit." Zekes said.
He realized that if he were to jump down now, he would lose the girl in the crowd.
So Zekes closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and started chanting a single word in his mind.
"Rift … Rift … Rift." He kept on echoing to himself.
Then he set his sight on top of the building next block and as soon as he was ready, he started running across the rooftop, building momentum, until he had reached the edge.
Then suddenly a dark portal appeared in front of him just as he was about to take his next step off the roof. His body smoothly passed through the portal and came out of another one on top of the other building. But he didn't stop there, he kept on running after the girl from one rooftop to the next, while at the same time making sure that he could spot her from the rooftops. Not soon after he had caught up with her, but now it was a matter of how he could get down safely. Then he saw an opportunity. A merchant who had set up his stall close enough to the building for Zekes to jump on. He would be able to catch the girl right where she was if he was able to make it onto the stall.
He quickly jumped off the building onto the stall. As he braced himself, he prayed that the wood wouldn't break from the impact, But when he landed his prayers seemed to have been ignored. The moment his feet had touched the top of the stall, he crashed right through the wooden roof and dropped down. As the dust began to settle around him, he could hear the angry shouting of a man, who was most probably the merchant whose's stall he had just destroyed. As he started to get back up again, he felt his body ache from pain. But thankfully he had not been awfully injured, he had only gotten a few scratches and splinters.
"Sorry." He shouted to the man as he started running after the girl again.
But the girl was now aware that he was chasing her from all the commotion he had caused.
As they were beginning to get out of the bazaar, the streets had become less crowded. When the girl looked back, she could see Zekes opening portals in front of himself to quickly close the distance between them. But she was perceptive. She had noticed a stack of crates full of tiny spikey fruit stacked on the way she was heading. She quickly toppled over the crates behind her and the spikey fruit was now scattered all over the floor.
Zekes shrieked, remembering that he was barefoot the whole time. But if he stopped now, he would lose track of her. So he decided to take a gamble. He hastily opened two small portals horizontally in front of him and passed each foot through them. Each of the portals appeared 3 meters behind him with his feet sticking out of them. He knew 3 meters would have to due since it was his limit.
When he moved his leg, the portals moved with them. However, it wasn't an easy task, It required great precision. As he passed over the spikey fruit, his feet followed him 3 meters behind. To anyone else, he would have seemed to be floating on top of thin air, but the truth in the matter is, that he had only repositioned his weight.
Right before his feet could touch the fruit, he jumped up into the air and opened a portal in front of him to travel the remaining distance. As he landed on solid ground once again, he took a few seconds to catch his breath. But now the chase continued.
The girl looked behind her in disbelief at how he was still on her tail. She had to find another way out. She noticed a house that had its front door left open. She quickly changed her course to the house and slammed the door behind her as she entered.
"No, you don't!" Zekes shouted as he opened a portal right behind her. But when he passed through, his head was met with a solid wooden door. There was a loud knock as he fell on his back. Zekes put his hand over his forehead, feeling like he had just suffered a concussion. He got up to his feet and opened back the door as he cursed at himself in pain. When he entered the house he saw that the girl had gone through the backdoor into an alleyway. This time he was close enough to catch up to her by only jumping through a few more portals. But he was close to his limit. He had become exhausted from this whole goose chase, so he had to make sure that he could catch her here and now.
He swiftly sprinted behind her and made a dive for it. As he was flying through the air, he passed one portal, then the second, then the last. He tackled the girl to the dirty ground and held her tight between his arms.
She screamed in some foreign language as she fought back against Zekes' grasp.
"Nywx pix ks sj qi csy ykpc tmk!"
"I don't understand what you are saying. But calm the hell down." Zekes said as he struggled to keep her still.
She then started biting Zekes' arm. Zekes screamed in pain as he clenched his teeth.
But then suddenly, she stopped moving. Zekes panically loosened up his grip, thinking he had crushed her. He got up to make sure that she was alright. After inspecting her, she seemed to have passed out from exhaustion. Zekes let out a sigh of relief and drop down onto his back. He tilted his head towards the sky and caught his breath.
Once, he had taken his rest, he looked at the girl who was passed out on the ground. He sighed as he put his palm over his face, knowing that he was going to have to carry her all the way back to the inn alone.