The Journey

by Arnav Koppala

  The emptiness was like nothing. There was nothing but fear. I felt incapacitated. I did not know what to think. I did not know what to do. It did not seem safe at all.

  We cross through and into the cube seconds before Sakuta tries to enter inside. I turn around to see his face. That is why I was so paranoid. It was at that point that I truly saw what a monster he was.

  His grin was half the circumference of his face. He might as well, had not had a face at all. He just looked devious. His eyes were the size of three golf balls. His pupils, ugh, do not even get me started on them.

  I do not want to start something that I would never finish. He just looked as hideous as I am describing him to you, but you get the overall picture. Yes. His eyes were as tiny as a bread crumbs. His skin was all wrinkled up so bad that all the beauty products known in the universe could not even fix one patch of skin. You know that you have bad skin if not one skincare regime can do any bit of good.

  His body was covered in black swirls of darkness like Voldemort, except that the rest of his body was the embodiment of darkness, so he kept constantly producing this huge cloud of black vapor. The vapor consumed everything every single time it was produced.

  This could not be seen as a good thing for anyone’s health. I took all of this in 10 seconds and did not even notice the other demon in this transporting black hole until the last 2 seconds of hideous viewing. That is what happens when you focus on all your attention on Sakuta.

  I could catch her features as well and I knew that she was the demon we would throw rocks at. Rocks might be too small. It would take boulders. Could this be the alliance that they were talking about? Of course, it had to be. This was the light and dark alliance that Cameron told us about.

  The portal closed cutting us from the view of them and us. At least, if we could view them, we would have some sort of an idea what their next move was going to be. The emptiness of the place was astonishing. It reminded me of the one thing I would hate to be. I could almost envision Kalamine X as a place stinky and horrible. In an instant everything seemed to stop.

  I could feel as if time stopped to tell us something. Have you ever found yourself just frozen in place? That is what it felt like. There was no movement at all. Everything was stoic.

  And what do you know when you hear this person’s voice, who I swore felt as if I knew but remembered who he was. The voice that spoke repeated as if to stutter. He said:

  Guardians of Cypress Dementia (X2)

  When the alliance of the opposing forces has been sealed (X2)

  The quest for cypress dementia will be conquested (X2)

  Finish what we could not complete(X2)

  Force the alliance’s retreat(X2)

  Align their defeat(X2)

  Unite the

  Relics

  As

  ONE.

  Before I had a chance to digest what the voice said. It came for a second time but more rapidly this time as if to speed up but there was no stuttering. The second time, he said it going backwards.

  There is always a reason for why everything happens the way that it does. I noticed that I paid more attention the second time because four things had to happen and that is why he made mention of it backwards the second time around. I heard it more profoundly the second time. It could get no clearer than that. I was distracted the first time by all the repeating, but it sunk in eventually. Then there came solitude.

  The voice echoes in my head as we all sat in momentary silence. The voice itself sounded like he was speaking over a loud megaphone and then stopped. I switch over to my dark vision. It is hard to see anything in here. In fact, it was so black that I was not able to make out any images or objects.

  I ran in one direction and kept running. I stumbled upon Cameron who responded with an Ow! I nearly knocked him over I was running so hard. I moved to my right, so I would not trip on him or anyone else. I kept running for what was about 4-5 minutes when I felt that there was something wrong.

  As I ran, it started as a jog. Then I kept running and it turned into a sprint. It got even creepier. There were times when it was like I was just running in place.

  Every 10 seconds, while I was running, I would momentarily feel cold, but it was so quick it was hard to notice. That made no sense. When you run, you do not get cold; do you? Running only made you hot and sweaty.

  At any rate, I take more of this darkness and try to make myself some dark film to see through. Since no one had glasses, I had to do it the hard way. They always say, there is a method to the madness. This was surely one of those times.

  I had to dip my eyes in the darkness, which I could pull up in my hand and dump my eyes in them. The best way I can describe it is like if you are going mudding and you are covered in mud with all the guck from the mud. The hard part was trying to keep my eyes open while I did this. It was a natural reaction for my eyes to want to close. It was cold but surprisingly refreshing. I looked up, trying to keep my eyes open and I found the problem.

  The walls teleported me to the exact opposite wall. I tried to walk into the opposite direction; walking backwards, but it gave back the same results. I even turned around and tried to go forward. All that did was bring about the same result as walking backward did.

  My vision started to return to normal. I needed some person to hold the black liquid but not succumb to its power. Who had it in them to be able to do such a thing?

  I remember the horrifying vision of me looking at Uncle Peter. I think he can handle both lightness and darkness at the same time. The only way to know was to try and see. I gave him my dark liquid which seemed to not do well in his hands, but it was better than nothing.

  I had to make the room think that there were more than one of me. I tried to do exactly that. Then I masked their scent by using the black liquid and turning it into mist, which then swirled in the air and got caught up in everyone’s clothing but did not touch the skin.

  The darkness on them looked as if they had ash and soot covering them like they went up and down the chimney 10 times. Even though it never really touched them because it was the particles from the spray that caused it to happen that way. Looking at them, you could only see their eyes staring back at you. They were covered in nothing but black. It was terrifying, if I may say so myself. It looked like there had been a house fire and all that remained was covered in a charcoal blast.

  They walked around just like I told them to. There was the occasional bumping here and there. I also walked around as well, but there was something else that I was missing. We started to bump into each other more often. It slowly started to become consistent.

  As it became more consistent, I realized that it started to seem like we were bumping through each other as opposed into each other. The gears in my brain were not spinning like they were supposed to. Until the epiphany reached to my brain like a tap from a fairy wand.

  The walls were closing in on each other and the tingling sensation grew worse by every second. There was not much time before we would all get crushed finer than confectioner’s sugar. If only the time would stop like it had earlier, so we could all just be frozen and motionless right now.

  I would think that we would have a better decision here to fix this, but tests like this are always complicated. Trying to pass a test is what makes it even more demanding. Tests are difficult. They are harder at first until you get to the end. The torture that comes with trying to figure out if you will pass or fail them is what always gets to me.

  I resorted to doing the only thing left to do. The darkness that I had in me was very controlled. The darkness I currently used was concentrated to make sure it does not harm anyone. It was horrible.

  Now, I needed to break that concentration. I tried to relax the concentration of the spell. I kept on myself and it worked. The blackness of the vapor that was released was as pure as the one Sakuta had unless he increased his concentration of power.

  It made me feel even worse than usual. I could harness th
e powers of a demon, but I listened to my optimistic side telling me that I could use that power to help those around me. I was aware of the power that I had myself but to have a demon’s power was not something common.

  I felt the vapor fill the room and instantaneously the room stopped. I had predicted it earlier from my thoughts. Neat. The time stopped. Everyone stopped moving. I looked around me and everything in time was frozen.

  The room disappeared and then I wondered what was next. There was nothing there. It all had dissipated it seemed into thin air. What used to be was gone. That was not the only thing that was going to give way either.

  The floor holding us from our doom seemed to lose its power and gave way. Everyone started to panic and started to yell because of what just happened. We all felt the floor faze away. It was like having a rug pulled from underneath you just that fast.

  The top, bottom, and even the sides were all so dark even I could not do anything about it. We would not have known what to do, even if there was something we could have all done. It was very difficult to grasp a sense of reality.

  We were falling for so long that I thought we were falling in the bottomless pit that was one of the big myths back on Earth. Then the strangest thing happened.

  We fell for such a long time that we suddenly went weightless. I did not know that it was possible, but it did not work. I do not know about anybody else, but it was not a comfortable or soothing feeling not to be able to feel gravity. This was like a physical and emotional roller-coaster ride.

  The strange part did not even happen yet. White lines hidden by the darkness appeared. The lines started to move in a gyroscopic way. Each line started to move faster on its own and that is when I realized I could not see my friends because I was tumbling in the air. I tried to close my eyes to the optical distortions but there was something trying to pry my eyes open. I needed a blindfold. Which way I would rotate next no one knew.

  Then I released some of my controlled magic to shield my eyes from the illusion. My body kept tumbling for quite some time. I felt as if I was on a modified version of the tilt-a-whirl. I thought the tilt-a-whirl made me sick. I wondered how the others felt. All my internal organs were either squashed or turning over in my stomach.

  The shade the darkness gave me lifted and soon I was stuck in a room of darkness. My head was nauseous from the incessant tumbling in the air. The darkness soon became uncomfortable, but I used it to my advantage. I know you are thinking how can darkness be comfortable in the first place unless you are just used to it. I just became accustomed to it after a while.

  I created a filter to push my estranged discomfort into power for me to use. The others came tumbling through the sky with screams and shouts. They all landed scattered across the room. They were a disheveled mess. The only sound was the constant thud as they hit the wall and fell to the floor. The cube we were in was warped in space time.

  At this point, I pulled out my mini laptop and tried to input my energy into the laptop. I carried the laptop as a backup reserve just in case I would lose my power one day. I knew this would come in handy.

  My laptop was at 50% charge. That meant 50 percent of the entire magic needed to hold off Sakuta was in that laptop. Amelia could feel my distress just by looking at me. I could look through her eyes and feel something. Yet, she said nothing at all. She was overcoming the same challenge as me. She also held a mini laptop as well. It read on it 50% charge. Between the both of us we had a 100% charge left. Her laptop kept flashing the battery button. I glanced over at mine, but it looked like it was stuck on 50%.

  My friends started to moan, groan, and wobble over to me. They had the wind knocked completely out of them and had to crawl to get to me. I walk over to them and my instincts heightened because something happened.

  My friends looked at me and I saw what happened. I kept moving around to various places almost trying to get away from them. I spun around in a circle and I saw them trying to grab for me. Their faces were blank. There was no pupils and everyone’s skin became paler than usual.

  This was strange in relation to the Kalamanians of Y. All I saw was no skin pigmentation and they looked lifeless. They all started to try and clean the floor. It was an insane scene. Mathew used his head as a mop. I know his head had to be hurting. He kept moving across the floor and his hair became even more messed up. Cameron swam across the floor. Uncle Peter stood there saying nothing at all like a soldier in an army.

  I tried to stop them by pulling them all together. That was the biggest mistake I ever made. Uncle Peter in his silence could have least stopped me at once. He just watched on. I was finally able to walk in between them because they were busy with the floor. I guess, they had forgotten all about me.

  They all looked past me as if they were having staring contest with my soul. Could they see right through me? My soul lost 30 seconds ago. I ran towards the relic and it followed me. I could not contain myself. What do I do?

  What do I do? What do I—ah-ha! First, I turned around and set a small barrier around me to make sure I was calmly concentrating on my surroundings. This barrier had a time constraint on it. Then I assessed the situation. I quickly notice that their Y- levels (Kalamanian of Y blood) had been increased.

  All I had to do was obliterate the excess amount. The problem was that it was growing exponentially. I could not at all control the growth. It would not be long before the Y levels would increase causing catastrophic and irreversible damage to them.

  I break down the forcefield and blast my power that I had left in me. Like always, it was not enough. Where was that Amelia at a time like this? She was the only one that came to mind. She could help me with my thoughts.

  The forcefield around the relic was created by Atukas; the light demon. I heard that she was the vilest creature in the world of Z. I could resort to no other choice. I had to unleash my spiritual essence. I called upon him and he came out of the deepest hole in my brain. He came so rapidly that he knew to just come.

  I let him take over me, but I left a fail-safe just in case he would go rogue on me. My pores open and the air fumigated with dark mist. I let him use a fraction of his power. I was glad I did, or he would be able to rip through the whole room and cause the entire place to collapse in on itself.

  That would not have been good because they were all on the floor still. If a collapse happened, brain damage would occur. There is no recovering from that. They would not even know the first thing that hit them.

  The blackness seeped into their veins and engulfed my friends. Naturally, I tried to revolt, but it was only for her wellbeing, I guess. The power stopped but kept dripping. One down with one more to go.

  I stare down the forcefield and walk over to it. I feel no emotions as I place my hands on it. I blast it using my spiritual friend and my vision changes. As soon as I did that, I startled myself. Light is surrounding me and clung to my body like an aura.

  The light felt too good to be true. It almost felt…demonic. I feel a tiny sensation of horror as I feel the body of Atukas. I try to move but my vision does not change. I wait to see what my vision says next, but I could not wait.

  This was my chance to get the relic and a phrase popped in my head. Kill two birds with one stone. How was the forcefield allowing me to gain access to Atukas’s vision? There was only one way this could be true. It was by her life force. I was able to hack into her.

  If I destroy this, she would no longer exist. I started to hear this beeping sound. Where was that coming from? I shove all my energy into the forcefield and try to break it. Out of nowhere, cracks appear everywhere.

  I felt satisfied until I heard Atukas talk. “Has the girl broken your forcefield?”

  Sakuta replies, “Yes. She has and in doing so she broke my shackles binding me to the original seal.”

  “What about the boy has he broken it yet?” Atukas retorts.

  “He will break it very soon?”

  I felt the dread engulf my body and morph the butterfl
ies in my stomach to dragons. There was nothing more I could do. I try to stop the power, but it was too late. The cracks gave in and the forcefield shattered. Atukas’s vision blackened just before her connection cut.

  I could hear her tell me something. “Well done, boy.” She said. I dropped to the ground in terror. I could not even believe what I was hearing. I helped her and so did Amelia. What did Amelia do exactly? Was what Amelia did beneficial or would it somehow later work against us?

  I had to keep this a secret. No one will know what I saw. No one will know what I had done. No one will know what I know.

  Everyone gets up from their almost eternal slumber and sees the ship ahead of me. The ship glimmers and the air felt better. I gesture everyone towards the ship. Cameron asks me what happened? I froze in my stride over to the ship.

  The next thing I knew, Mathew was asking me all kinds of questions. My lips were sealed. Everyone was surrounding me as I tried to get closer to the ship. Amelia had to have known something to help. I wanted to ask her. If I did then the secret would have gotten out.

  It was like I was having a press conference. Then Uncle Peter after being silent the entire time decides that he wants to chime in. At this very moment, he started asking me questions. Amelia looked on from a distance in suspense.

  I needed to speak with her. I know she needed to speak with me. The time was drawing near. I doubted that we would ever be able to have any lengthy conversation. I just wanted to know if she at least saw what I saw. Somethings will always be a mystery.

  It is one thing to go through a test that tries everything in its power to defeat you. It is a completely different story to feel all alone in situations where you just want someone to be able to relate.

  The fear suspended in the air. My spiritual essence was about to speak. I shut it up in the nick of time, and sent it back where it belonged. I just said that nothing happened just the same ole’ having to go through tests to get the relic.

  I held the relic in my hand and something tells me that there was more to the relic than I could see with my own eye. The room shuddered with energy and the ship started to glimmer less. I shout over to my friends, “See you on the ship.” I walk on to the pathway and onto the ship. Everyone climbed aboard the ship. It darts out into space, leading us to our final and last destination.