…
"Don't feel any danger? Are you for real right now, buddy?" Gill hissed at El's face, still rather scared at the current situation.
…
"Don't worry, I'll be fine," El said with a reassuring smile.
Of course, he was rather skeptical too.
But the problem was what had actually happened inside him. He could feel a kind of tugging at his heart, urging him to go where that little girl currently was.
His senses this very day had been dulled and muted, preventing him from feeling anything or any other emotion from others. This state usually persisted for the whole day.
But suddenly, the moment he encountered that little girl, his senses ignited all of a sudden, like a blaring alarm, and like a burst of water exploding outward from a broken dam, he found himself drawn to that little girl present.
Another thing to note was that he could hear what she was saying. It was audible to him every time the little girl opened her mouth, like a voice from a distance, arriving at his ear like a whisper from the wind itself.
She wanted him to help. Even her eyes, El could feel, were directed at him.
He sensed a kind of resonance inside his soul as if it were ringing, trying to awaken from its deep slumber.
And it was not the essence inside his chest.
He was sure of it.
It was something else inside him. To be exact, it was located right on his forehead, now pulsing gently, trying to move toward that ghost, the cursed, with the tangible body of a little girl.
As he looked at her, an overwhelming wave of emotions surged through him, each feeling more intense than the last. It was as if something deep within him was reaching out, clawing to connect with her, awakening a long-dormant part of his soul.
This was something he had never felt before. He was curious.
Despite the girl's terrifying and horror-inducing appearance, El felt an undeniable warmth emanating from her. It was a stark contrast to the cursed beings he had encountered before at the building with Ran.
Deep within her, he sensed a presence that was gentle and nurturing, a soul that, despite its agonizing and unfair death, radiated pure kindness and innocence. It was as if her essence was a precious gem, glowing with a warm light that enveloped him in a comforting embrace, even when she was just near to him.
El could feel it, a pure and untainted spirit that beckoned to him, stirring feelings he never knew existed within him.
And that was when he stepped up.
"Don't worry, I'll be fine," El said with a reassuring smile.
"Ran, say something," Gill urgently looked to his side and found Ran nodding her head instead.
"Ok, but we go with you…" Ran said to El, then let go of his hand from her grasp.
"What the heck," Gill agape in disbelief.
"No need—no need. I'll go on my own," El interjected.
"No, we're coming with you. Don't worry, if you're fine, then we should be fine too," Ran voiced out her opinion. She was reminded of the thing Luna had told her yesterday, and that was the reason for her letting him go, even wanting to go with him too.
"I see. I think, if you two trust me, then it'll be fine. She just wanted a little bit of help, you see…" El explained further.
"You two are crazy, aren't you? And what do you mean by 'we'? Nah, no way in hell I'm going!!!" Gill hissed again―his words slipped through his clenched teeth.
A few minutes later…
"Life is such a sucker…" Gill complained in a low voice as he followed the two of them through the narrow path of the alleyway, where the light from the sun above barely reached them.
It was a path he and Ran had never gone through before, nor had they ever learned about it because, well, it wasn't even drawn on the map at their base.
Meanwhile, while Gill was at the very back, El was the closest to the little girl. He was trying to talk to her a few times, but all she could do was blink her eyes, then mouthed the word, 'Help,' to El.
A few moments later, the little girl finally halted her steps right in front of a huge steel manhole, with its surface rusted and pitted with age. The manhole loomed ominously, a dark portal leading down, not to an underground city, but to the depths of the sewer. Turning her head toward El, he interpreted her gaze as a pleading one. The little girl's body flickered momentarily before being swallowed by the ground, as if the pavement beneath them were water, drawing her in like the ghost she truly was.
"I think she wanted us to go down there," El said.
"Yeah..." Ran added with a nod of her head.
The two of them then concurrently turned to look back at Gill, who wore a complicated expression on his face.
"What are you two looking at me for? We've already come this far; let's just finish this to the end," he protested, his lips twisting in reluctance. With a sigh, he moved to the front to help.
Together, El and Gill lifted the manhole cover, their combined strength straining against the heavy metal as it creaked and groaned, finally giving way to the darkness below. As they moved it aside, a rush of air escaped from the opening, carrying with it a thick, unpleasant odor—a nauseating blend of decay and stagnant water.
"Let me go first," Ran stated confidently. She grasped her necklace, and a glowing orb of magic materialized above her palm. With a determined look, she began to descend the stairs, followed closely by Gill, who watched her with a hint of envy.
"Hey, does your necklace do that too?" Gill leaned over to El and asked.
"No. It can't…" El replied, shaking his head.
As El and his party followed Ran into the darkness, they were guided by the soft, glowing orb of light she had conjured. The light flickered gently, illuminating the damp, grimy walls of the sewer, which were lined with cracked concrete and patches of mold.
The ground beneath their feet was slick with murky water, reflecting the orb's glow in distorted ripples. The sound of dripping water echoed through the narrow passage, mingling with the distant, unsettling gurgle of the sewage flowing beneath them.
When their feet finally touched the ground, they saw the little girl standing at the side of the stairs, waiting like a statue. It was only after they arrived at her side that she moved again, setting out toward the unknown destination of hers.
After walking for what felt like an eternity, they finally reached a small, grimy alcove where the light revealed a haunting sight. There, lying against the cold, wet concrete of the sewer, was the little girl's corpse. Her body was partially submerged in the filthy water, surrounded by debris from the buildings above that had been blown apart in some unknown event. Fragments of brick and twisted metal littered the ground of this sewer.
Looking at each other, the three hurriedly approached close.
There, right in the middle of this spectacle, the girl's lifeless form was a tragic sight. A steel pole had pierced the side of her cheek, the wound gruesome and raw, leaving a jagged tear in her flesh. Despite the horror of her condition, her face retained an eerie semblance of peace, as if she were merely sleeping. She lay cradling her dirty pink bag, which was dusty and tattered, with several parts of the fabric torn apart, revealing the remnants of what perhaps had once been a cherished possession of hers.
Gill, his voice barely above a whisper, broke the heavy silence.
"There is a rumor I overheard. In a part of the underside, an explosion happened. It was an accident from a month ago," he said.
The three of them exchanged silent glances once more. As if their minds were connected, they thought the same thing: about how her corpse remained intact after this long.
Her condition was exactly the same as her ghost, spirit, or cursed form, who was currently watching her own body with a sense of sadness and desolation radiating from her.
The little girl's spirit, who had first walked by their side, suddenly floated up, hovering in the air. Her body turned into a translucent form, mirroring the stillness of her physical self. Her clothes appeared normal, free of grime and waste; her hair too, also softened. Her face returned to normal, as if the original wound had vanished, just like the normal little girl she was supposed to be when she was alive, if not for her ethereal form, of course.
She then pointed her index finger at the bag while looking at El.
Understanding her silent gesture, El moved and took the bag from her stiff corpse. Opening it, El found a rusty metal box that remained intact. She showed it to the little girl, who nodded her head while mouthing something that only El could manage to hear.
She said, "Open it, please…"
Choosing to do so, El opened the box that was tightly clasped shut. Ran and Gill leaned over to watch, with the orb of light illuminating the inside of it.
Inside, there were many photos of the little girl with a young woman. From their clothes, it was clear to the three of them that she was a girl from the upper side. Understanding what it meant to find her here at the deepest part of the 'underside,' Ran clenched her fist.
…