Chereads / Eternity Split / Chapter 26 - Reflection

Chapter 26 - Reflection

Chapter 26: Reflection

The shirtless Gray sat on the edge of his bed, clutching his head.

'What did I just see? Was it the past? Did it ever happen? I-I don't understand…'

He took a deep breath, closed his eyes and started to search for answers.

He slowed his thoughts down, burying his consciousness deep within the confines of his mind.

He kept his breathing steady and relaxed, in a way that was efficient in calming his nerves down, as Casanova taught him during the past two weeks.

Every day, after school, the first task Casanova—now his teacher—gave him, was to come to the warehouse to train.

He gave him various exercises and small tasks to improve his endurance, his physical conditions, and his mental one.

Some of the more general exercises were: Running, skipping the rope, push-ups, planks and lunges.

Gray kept his training regime constantly, even bringing the exercises in his home.

And more recently, after Casanova had noticed the improvements of his body, he decided to make him wear weighted clothes to make his exercises even more challenging.

For now he only wore them during training, but Gray expected to wear them forever once he had improved once more.

The man also brought some other equipment to make his training more difficult.

The equipment was rather rudimentary, but helped the young man regardless.

The man didn't show up to the warehouse every day, instead, he left Gray to train alone.

He didn't mind, obviously.

Casanova had a job and many subordinates to manage, after all.

Gray was slightly confused and worried when he found out that he wasn't going to do any work with Casanova's colleagues for the time being; but since he trusted the man, he decided to not press on the issue, thinking that the work would come when the time was right.

He was even more dumbfounded when the man choose to pay him for the time he spent on training.

He was extremely grateful, of course, but still felt as if he hadn't done anything to deserve the money.

Casanova warned him about not telling Kathy about their deal, insisting that Gray would tell her of being in a period of formation where he had to learn his line of work with a theoretical approach, not physical.

Since he knew that Kathy would get worried about him gaining money for something so simple, and possibly mistake Casanova's kindness for something malicious, he agreed, deciding to stay quiet.

For now, his pay was twenty Euros per hour.

He only exercised for two hours every day of the week, minus the rest on Sundays.

Thus, his monthly payment ranged from 960 to 1.000 Euros.

The money was in no way able to make both he and Kathy survive if she were to lose her job, but was a great help regardless.

A great help that, in due time, would allow her to enroll in school once more.

He was going to get his first paycheck in two weeks, but since he had to hide the money from his sister, he decided to set them aside for the future.

In the realm of Gray's memories, where time stood still, he searched and searched within the shards of his past.

The more he traveled backwards in time, the more his memories were locked away by dark shrouds of hidden shadows.

Sighing, he quickened his pace, returning to his childhood days.

Shuffling amidst memoirs of events he was unwilling to remember, he quickly noticed that what he had seen inside his most recent dream didn't exist, or was locked away.

Even though he theorized about his dream not belonging to his past, he was slightly annoyed by the sight.

Now, Gray thought that the vision was formed by a mix between some of his subconscious thoughts, some of his past experiences, and some belonging to the power of Genesis.

He wanted it to be just a normal dream, but deep down, he knew it was deeper than that.

At least, he was proud to see that his habit of checking if he were dreaming was working, unlike the past two weeks where he hadn't seen any progress.

Thanks to Casanova and his lesson about the special breathing technique used to reach the first stage of Intra, he was recently able to escape from that issue.

Intra was a special state of mind that most Nephilim and a minuscule amount of humans were able to attain.

This technique allowed its users to reach an heightened state of focus and concentration, allowing them to reflect on their own thoughts, feelings and even access past, important memories with great clarity and ease.

To activate it, one needed to rid their brain from all kind of external stimuli, reaching a meditative-like state.

The first step was the easiest and could be accessed even by normal humans—be it through sheer focus, through special breathing techniques like Casanova's, or even through the aid of substances.

Then, they needed to get rid of all the feelings of the self, forgetting every sensation they had ever felt, all their memories, and all their past experiences, becoming an empty vessel of their own minds—like a rock swimming in a river full of subconscious and erratic thoughts even the user himself was unaware of.

To reach the second step faster, Gray had formulated a mantra to aid him in his progress. The chant was as it follows:

"Exhale the contents of yourself. Rid yourself of all your memories. Cancel every single thought. Erase everything that bothers or ever bothered you. Delete what you feel deep within. Reject everything, and ultimately, reject even yourself."

Then, for the final step, the user was meant to bring all of the contents of the self they expelled into that abstract river towards their figure to absorb them once more, regaining their own ego.

If the 'ritual' was done in the correct manner, the user would be able to access the mind enhancing abilities of the first stage of Intra.

Thanks to the mantra Gray created and the special breathing technique, he was able to learn the technique rather quickly, to the point where he gained the approval of Casanova.

He took a deep breath, deactivated the first stage of Intra, and quickly felt his consciousness be expelled from the realm of his memories, returning to reality.

Gray rose from his bed, tied his hair, and started to do some push-ups, all with paying attention to how much noise he made, since it was morning.

'What could be the meaning behind what I've seen? In the first Apocalyptic dream, I'd figured that, since it showed me Casanova's abilities, the purpose was for me to come to learn about his identity, to maybe come under his own wing?'

'There I seen many horrid creatures—and he was the only one who was able to protect me… So it makes sense for me to think that, if I want to survive, I'll have to rely on him.'

'Then, for the dream depicting the Boundless Void and the Statue: I hate to say it, but I'm still can't understand its meaning. It's still too abstract for me to grasp it. But while I do not understand it…I can't help but feel something sinister about it.'

'And that face I'd seen—my face—still haunts me sometimes. I'm afraid, I'm really afraid to know the reason behind such expression.'

'I have an hunch—I have an hunch of just what could cause me be like what I've seen inside the statue, and the complications terrify me.'

'If the dream depicting The Boundless Void is truly the successor of The Revelation of The Apocalypse I'd seen before it, then, I'm sure that the expression I saw was because of what had happened to Kathy, whose corpse laid next to The Monolith.'

'Are both of those dreams trying to warn me about the dangers she will face? Was my first dream suggesting me to lean on Casanova so I would have the ability to protect her? Was the second one warning me of what would've happened had I failed to save her?'

'This is the most information I've been able to get so far, because, even in these past weeks, I didn't spent too much time on them.'

'Was I afraid? Was I subconsciously afraid to face them? Or did I avoid them, because deep down, I already knew what was the answer?'

Gray sighed, wiped his sweaty face, and went to the bathroom, deciding to take a shower to relax his nerves.

As soon as he was done, he wiped his body with a towel, and then, once he was dry, he tied it on his waist.

He wiped his foggy mirror with his fingers and stared at his bare body for some moments. He was still skinny, of course, but was more toned compared to the past weeks.

'I need to get more calories in.'

Gray then went out of the bathroom and walked towards his room.

He took some shorts, a loosely fitting t-shirt and a pair of boxers. He locked his room with his spare key and got dressed.

He then found a random shirt he never used from his wardrobe and tied it around his hair, just like Kathy had taught him when he started to grow his hair out.

He could have used his blow dryer, but it meant waking his sister up. He didn't want to make it happen, especially because it was a Sunday—one of the only days where she was able to rest in peace.

Gray took his phone, checking the time—5:16 a.m.

Seeing that it was to soon to even think of making breakfast for his sister, he decided to get ahead with some of his latin and greek homework.

Since his knowledge of both languages had mostly been wiped out, with one of the exceptions being the greek alphabet, he searched both translations given by the professors on the internet and copied them on his notebook.

He was extremely grateful for all the older students who put their translations of the ancient greek and latin texts on the web, so that the newer generations wouldn't have to deal with the annoyance of actually doing them properly.

If found, he would surely face an earful from both teachers, but since he had no choices, he had to go with it.

After thirty minutes, he was done with both translations.

The greek one talked about Tithonus—a man who asked for immortality, but forgot to pair it with eternal youth, cursed to age endlessly; while the latin one spoke about the abduction of the Sabine women.

Gray checked his phone once again, and after seeing it was still early, he grabbed heavier clothes, deciding to go outside to jog in his neighborhood, paying attention not to get too far from home.

While is primary goal was clearing his mind, he couldn't help but think of various matters, like the movie Rowan had shown him, for example.

It wasn't as bad as his friend had made it out to be, but was a good experience nonetheless.

The injuries the cast had suffered, for example, were tremendously realistic.

So realistic that, if Gray hadn't known it were a movie, he would have made them up to be real.

The film's concept reminded him of Blair Witch, but felt as if it wasn't a cheap copy.

He wanted to find the director who made it, to see his or her other works, but was displeased to see the movie lacking any kind the ending credits.

He was quite weirded out by such fact, but since it was a found-footage movie, he figured they wanted to keep the façade to add more realism.

And just as Gray thought about that for a second, he suddenly remembered a strange fact.

The movie he'd watched with Rowan, lacked a title. That is unless his friend had forgotten to tell him about it, of course.

'I should ask him about it.'

He controlled his pace, so he wouldn't get tired quickly, while in the meantime, he looked around of his neighborhood, basking in its details.

The sun had just started to rise, giving the trees, the houses, and the stores an reddish tint.

The birds had just started to sing too; they chirped joyfully, perking their voice so they would be able to attract mates, so they could spend their short lives with them.

Gray remembered how he had run for his life in the same neighborhood, all while thinking the world was about to end.

He was glad the Apocalyptic Dream hadn't happened, but was glad that the dreadful experience had caused him to focus on the small details more without taking them for granted as he used to do.

One of them was especially Kathy, his dear sister.

As he ran, he brought his hand towards his face and stared at it for some moments, his expression almost dead-pan.

'Even Casanova doesn't know the future.'

'I can use his guidance, that's true. But in a world filled with blind people, incomprehensible monsters, murderous and blood-hungry Nephilims, I am the only one who can protect her.'

'Because of this…Because of this evil hiding in every corner of our 'Earth,' I'll have to learn on how to rely on the only power I have been granted.'

'I don't care how much it'll take. I 'will' succeed.'

Just as he was about to head back home, he felt his right pocket vibrate. Thinking it was his phone, Gray immediately brought his hand to his pocket, but, with his sense of touch, felt that the texture and shape weren't quite right.

He grabbed the object, noticing it was the same communication device Casanova had given him.

'At this hour? It must be something important…'

The past weeks, he had always brought it with him, but due to his lack of attention caused by his horrid sleep, Gray forgot he had brought it with him.

He quickly responded to the call, and was greeted by the man.

"Awake at this hour?"