Jikad's jaw nearly dropped to the ground. He stared at Garam with his eyebrows raised in shock.
"Are you kidding me right now?"He searched Garam's face for any sign of laughter assuming he was joking. There was none.
His face looked neutral and if anything a little serious. And like him, the atmosphere in that place didn't seem all that jolly and merry either. He could tell from the melancholic expressions of the people in the line that it was more possible for a breakdancing dolphin to appear than it was for them to crack a joke.
' What the hell' Jikad thought to himself, feeling that the atmosphere got even heavier. Not to mention how Garam had uttered the name 'atheists' like they were some sort of evil villain organisation.
Now,the term atheists as Jikad knew it refered to people who did not follow any religion. In the modern world, there were a lot of such people. There were also a lot of religious people but they all co existed without much trouble- most of the time that is.
There were a few 'incidents' from time to time but it wasn't as often in the new generation due to the growing influence of technology and science.
" Is this the middle ages or something?" Jikad asked incredulously. Garam didn't seem to understand his question so he only stared back at him.
"Haaa!" Jikad sighed loudly his eyes darting around .Every single thing in this place was unbelievable.
The unexplainable fog that didn't carry any chilliness within it, the huge walls that extended for miles,the dark imposing gates that seemed to pierce the heavens,the depressed line of people marching forward, the so called knights patrolling and most of all..the dark tent that everyone seemed to pass through.
Just what the hell was happening in that tent? Jikad couldn't shake off the anxiety that slowly swirled at the pit of his stomach. He was atheist,but that wasn't much of a problem in his previous life.
He had heard of people getting burnt to the stake or openly executed for not following the religion of a certain place. But that stopped an entire century a go- in the mordern world that is. What kind of primitive stone-age story had he been thrown into..
His throat felt dry so he swallowed saliva but that only seemed to make if even drier.
"....so w- what do they do if they find an atheist?" Jikad asked trying his best to hide his growing dread.
Garam's lips thinned to a straight line and indescribable emotion flashing in his eyes. His expression alone was enough to send a shiver down Jikad's spine. The air was static with tension making it almost hard to breathe.
Jikad almost didn't want to hear his answer. Deep down he could already tell he would regret even asking.
With a single movement,Garam raised his hand to point towards the gates. Jikad's eyes followed to the top of the walls but he couldn't make out anything doe to the fog. He squinted his eyes and tried to focus but still couldn't see what Garam had been pointing to.
As if on que, the line moved forward and Jikad's steps though few felt heavier than before. His eyes still strained on the walls. He was drawing closer to the dark tent and his heart was beating almost painfully in his chest.
That's when he saw it.
At first, it looked as if there were some basketballs mounted on poles on top of the walls...then the fog cleared a bit.
His breath caught in his throat. His heart was thrumming so hard threatening to leap out of his chest. A bitter taste settled in his mouth as he felt his bile rising.Burning his gut as the nasty feeling of nausea made his eyes water.
He brought a trembling hand to cover his mouth suppressing a hurl.
' Heads!! Heads of Dead people!!!'
He stood rooted as if his feet were buried in the ground. A disgusting and horrific sight yet he could not tear his eyes from it. Human heads mounted on poles where they were pierced from the base to the top and stacked on each other. There were about three heads on each pole and the poles were about ten of them. Jikad had felt that something was eerie and sinister in this place ever since he woke up. He had a few suspicions but nothing could have prepared him for this terrifying spectacle. Just what kind of fucked up story had he been thrown into?!
A steely emotion seemed to grip at every nerve in his entire body. Fear. His brain was screaming at him to run but every limb in his body felt heavy as if he was under water.
The heads were branded on top of the walls as if to advertise it to the entire world. They sent a stronger message than any warning Jikad had ever seen. They had all met their demise because they were atheist, like him.
The same thing would possibly happen to him as well..., a fact that seemed to drain all the energy from his body. And yet he stood there stunned and baffled and immobile like a tree.
"Hey!!"
A loud familiar voice barked out breaking Jikad out of his trance." Get a move on! Stop holding up the line!!" The angry bald man roughly shoved him forward.
Loosing his balance,Jikad stumbled awkwardly before landing face first on the ground.
Jikad remained face planted on the floor for a while wishing that the ground would just swallow him up. Grudgingly, he started to slowly raise himself up with his hands. He suddenly winced as he felt the sharp pain in his palms.
He had probably scraped them as he fell to the ground . He paused momentarily to check them as he stood. His feet moved involuntarily forward .The line had progressed further so there was a significant gap between Jikad and the person in front of him. after closing the distance,Jikad stood close behind the other person still staring at his scraped palms.
They felt hot and stung as if prickled by thorns. He stared as his blood slowly stained them and how it slowly trickled between his fingers. He wasn't bleeding profusely, it was a light bleeding that would probably stop in a few minutes . The pain was also bearable but for some reason, he felt overwhelmed by this tiny injury.
His hands blurred in front of him as his eyes teared up making it hard to see properly.
' It wasn't just a nightmare...this is really happening.' his thoughts echoed in his head.
Jikad rarely cried infact, he could only remember a handful of times that he had cried before. The last time he did was at his mother's funeral. He was about ten years old. For a boy that young to lose his mother it was understandable for him to breakdown in tears. But instead his father; Mr Nivada had harshly reprimanded him for that.
"How are you going to inherit my business if you plan to throw a tantrum at every minor inconvenience? get yourself together boy unless you want to end up like your mother" His father harshly spoke standing in the middle of the trashed room that had previously been Jikad's bedroom. With those words he stormed out of the room and ordered the maids to lock Jikad in his room until he had learnt his lesson. Unable to attend his mother's funeral,the young boy huddled in a corner of the room until he cried himself to sleep.
Not the most comforting attitude one might expect from their father while grieving their mother.... regardless,Jikad had to bear through it all.
Being that he was always the centre of attention,he had learnt from a young age that letting other people see your weakness mostly worked to your disadvantage. So with that knowledge, he would usually put on a happy facade even if he was feeling depressed. He had learnt to bottle most of his emotions and hide his sadness from the world.
Staring at his scraped palms, Jikad felt as if he had almost reached his breaking point. There was a hurricane of emotions swirling inside him so violently that he didn't know exactly how to feel.
' is it even possible to be this unlucky?'
he thought bitterly. His series of unlucky events was so outrageous it was almost funny.
The lump in his throat was becoming painful to swallow.Still, he felt a gentle tap on his shoulder. He did not turn but he knew that it was Garam.
" Are you okay?" His soft voice asked tinged with a hint of concern.Garam had seen the blood trickle down his fingers and was worried. He wanted to help but first aid wasn't really his strong suit.
He had tried calling Jikad a few times before the templar knight got there, but for some reason Jikad couldn't hear him. He had noticed that Jikad had a habit of getting lost in his thoughts,like he was doing at the moment.
Garam felt relived when Jikad's shoulders relaxed a bit after his question.
Jikad fisted his palms and tilted his head up to the sky and took in a deep shaky breath.He didn't answer the question but instead took another step forward and Garam followed suit.
On a closer look one could tell that the tent wasn't actually black but a dark navy blue. A blue flag was mounted on one of it's corners. It bore a sun crest that had a symbol that looked similar to a sword. Two templar knights stood on each side of the entrance leading to the tent. It seemed that their uniforms also had this crest on the left side of their chests.
There only about ten people Infront of Jikad. He had given up on the idea of making a run for it. That was not only because his body felt unnaturally heavy but also due to the fact that the templar knights were too many.They also seemed to be closely watching people on the line. Jikad could particularly feel the angry bald man's glare boring through the back of his head.
Jikad had decided he would just have to face this head on.All he had to do was make sure that he wasn't discovered as an atheist. He knew a few words in 'our lord's prayer' since his mother was a christian. He also knew a little common knowledge regarding various religions. Turns out the theology course he took in his first year of campus was finally coming in handy.
His other plan was to improvise if the asked anything else.
He had managed to calm down a bit thanks to Garam,but he was still terrified.
In the heat of his nerves he was quickly offering a prayer to any god who existed
'Buddha,Hades,Thor,Jesus,Alla...whoever is up there please help me just this once and I promise I will worship you for the rest of my life.' Jikad shut his eyes tightly before giving the heavens one last glance.
He tried to remain as optimistic as possible.
' What's the worst that they could ask right?'
There was also a 0.0000000000000000001% chance that he might manifest superpowers since he wasn't exactly sure which genre of story he was in...,so held on to that as well.
At first the line had seemed to moved slow,but now that he knew of his impending doom it seemed to moved fast.His heart was beating loudly that he was almost sure Garam could hear it.
Finally, it was his turn to enter the tent.It was far from what he'd imagined the inside to look like. He'd half-expected to find a bloodied executioner about eight feet tall with a long thick beard and a leatherly face covered in scars. He would be built like a mountain with his bulging muscles rippling with every movement. In his big hand he would be holding a six foot saber sword covered in blood of it's victims. And next to him would be a pile of headless bodies who had failed to pass his test. but that was not the case.
The tent was neat, 'no sign of rotting headless corpses so I guess this is a good sign.'
At the center was a wooden office table with a few documents piled on top of it. Behind the desk was a short fat man who seemed to be reviewing a file hastily.o