"The universe gives what we ask of it, I know."
This sentence was beginning to make its way into my mind.
"Where did the Zoe devoid of all spirituality go?"
"We have to believe that she left this world. I feel like I have lived several lives in less than a year."
She looked at me with an amused grin. I soaked up that little smile on her lips, her facial features, the color of her skin, and her warm glance. Deep inside, I knew it was the last time I would see her. Victoria walked to the entrance of the greenhouse. The sunlight was starting to dim; she was taking it with her. Before she crossed the exit, something came to my mind.
"Thank you for saving me when I was in danger in the fiery desert with Kushisake. I felt your arms come up to take me back to life. Without you, I would have drowned."
Faïz's sister bowed her head and frowned. She seemed, at first, surprised by my words, then very quickly, a feeling of anxiety settled on her face.
"It wasn't me in the desert. Someone else saved you. There are still a lot of things you don't know, Zoe."
Victoria disappeared without saying anything else, leaving me with all my questions and a huge void.
Karl Barthey was standing in front of me when I emerged from my sleep. His hands in his pockets and a serious look on his face, he seemed anxious about Faïz's state of health. Faïz was still lying down, eyes closed. The daylight had lost all its brightness. Indeed, outside, the gloomy and gray weather had resumed its place.
"The doctors were forced to put him into artificial sleep," the inspector told me before I asked about him.
"When will he wake up?"
"Within twenty-four hours, maybe a little less. We have taken this step to complete the mission tonight. He would never have agreed to stay here, at the inn, with the rest of the team. Last night he almost died."
Barthey was right. Suddenly, the image of Faïz's inert body on the bed came back to me, as well as the frightening memory of the medical team trying to revive him while my friends forced me to leave the healing room.
"I don't want to leave him," I declared with a sigh while staring at Faïz's face.
"Yes, I know it well. However, you're going to have to follow me, because I have to give you a report on our meeting last night. After that, we will meet with the others behind the inn to make a plan for the infiltration that you will have to accomplish this evening."
"All right, I'm coming right away. Just give me two minutes."
Our first objective was to be able to move around, wearing a heavy tunic, without using our gravity bracelet. At the sight of the persistent grunts of my two friends, positioned next to me, I suspected that they weren't far from a nervous breakdown. Suddenly, Asarys collapsed on the ground. I immediately lifted my hood and rushed over to her. She was stretched out full length, her head facing the ground.
"Are you okay?" I cried, getting tangled up in my tunic.
"Asarys, shit, answer us!" Lexy said impatiently.
I looked up to find Barthey, Min, and the others standing in the distance, watching us. The distance between us didn't allow me to see the expressions on their faces, but I could easily imagine that they were worried. The wooded area where we were was filled with sakura trees, covered with their first flowers.
"Asarys!" Lexy called again.
She finally moved her arm, lifting it gently in the air, fist clenched. Lexy and I followed her movement carefully, ready to help her, but Asarys then unfolded her middle finger as the only answer.
"All right! Get on with it and put away that finger," Lexy said, getting angry. "The three of us are in the same boat. It's not just you who's suffering, I'm telling you."
Still lying there, Asarys raised her second fist in the air to repeat the same gesture.
"Go to hell!" roared Lexy, straightening up.
My friend walked away from us with a nonchalant gait and ended up getting rid of her bulky, very annoying tunic.
"Lexy is right. We mustn't crack now. If you want, can I suggest you take a break?"
Asarys gently raised her head from the floor. Eyes on the verge of tears, she nodded. I then pressed the little earpiece in the hollow of my ear.
"Karl? We're taking a break."
"Okay, Zoe, five minutes!"
I cringed and tried not to show Asarys anything about my exasperation at Barthey's response.
"You hate me, huh?" sobbed my friend, now seated with her head between her knees.
"Yes!" yelled Lexy angrily a few yards from us. "We hate you! We're all going to die because of you, because you fucking fall every—"
"Lexy! Lexy, shut up!"
Lexy raised her arms to the sky and turned to avoid having to look at us. I spoke to Asarys again.
"We'll start over as many times as we need, and we'll get there. We'll get there together," I reassured her.
She shook her head, determined. It was the first time I'd seen my friend in this fragile state. Her self-confidence was completely gone.
"Zoe?"
Ray's voice in my ear surprised me. "Let me speak to her."
I easily took off my headset and handed it to my friend. She took it without asking any questions. Relief could be seen on her face as she heard the voice of the man she loved. While Asarys listened to Ray's words carefully, I decided to go and join Lexy, who was silently looking at the trees in the garden.
"Can you explain?" I asked her, acid in my voice.
She lifted her shoulders without bothering to look at me.
"How many times has Asarys asked me to stop dancing? Jumping? Moving without my bracelet? If only she had been a little less of a buzzkill and let go a little more, we wouldn't be here today! Look at her, not even able to take two steps!"
"She's terrified, Lexy. And you are, too. That's why you’re reacting like this. This mission is not a healthy walk. The three of us are risking our lives tonight."
My friend turned to me and stared at me for a long time without showing any emotion in her eyes.
"No, you're wrong, Zoe. Me, unlike you, I have nothing to lose. Now let's resume training!"
Without giving me time to add a word to her scathing remark, Lexy walked away from me, leaving me nailed in place.
Asarys handed me the headset and we stood in line again. When my two friends were focused again, I gave the instructions.
"We will start with small steps, then we will accelerate gradually. Okay for you?"
Lexy nodded, followed by Asarys. Then we put our hoods back on our heads.
I had no idea how many hours we had been there, training. My strength was running out. Tired, my vision blurred with all that mist, which didn't help at all.
"Don't give up!" Malika said, replacing the wooden marks she had set up on the ground.
A little further, Asarys trained with Dewei, while Lexy teamed up with William. Running in this heavy outfit was impossible. Out of breath, I spat out my lungs, my hands on my knees.
"We'll never get there," I said to my nerves. "It would take several days, even weeks, to learn to move properly without the help of the gravitational bracelet."
"Too bad, because we don't have that much time!" cried Malika in an awkward voice. "Go to your place and do me the honor of completing this course, first running, then a second time chassé. Remember to position your feet properly."
"And after that? What is the rest of the program?"
"Sprint! In case you should run away if you are exposed."
I didn't ask more questions of the commando chief. The barbarism of the two men in the cave had been enough for me.
I looked one last time at the field of cherry blossoms before leaving. William and Malika were busy packing our outfits into bags while Dewei and Barthey were putting away the training equipment, which was all over the lawn.
"You must be in a hurry to find Faïz," declared Lexy, who took advantage of the calm to make up her hair next to me.
"And take a good shower. Lexy, it's time you go apologize."
&n
bsp; My friend's eyes widened as if she didn't understand what I was telling her.
"I'll do it if we come back alive from our mission," she protested. "Otherwise—"
"Otherwise, it will be too late to do it!"
Lexy sighed then said,
"I hate when you're right."
"I hate to see you two like that," I retorted in a low voice, placing a hand on my friend's shoulder.
I was happy and relieved to see Lexy walking away from me to join Asarys, who was sitting under a sakura. When she saw Lexy approaching, she greeted her with a touch of mistrust in her eyes, but her face changed expressions very quickly at the moment when Lexy started to initiate the conversion. My two friends were sitting next to each other and now laughing together. This spectacle moved me, because they were both important to me.
"Night will fall soon. We'll have to go back to get ready."
Barthey's voice startled me. Busy watching Lexy and Asarys, I hadn't heard him coming up behind me.
"Inspector? If the mission goes wrong, could you spare my father and grandmother the details of my…sudden disappearance, please?"
Karl, lost, seemed to be looking for his words. He cleared his throat before responding with some caution.
"The authorities will tell them about an unfortunate car accident," he said, carefully avoiding my gaze.
The tone of his voice betrayed the emotion he was hiding inside him.
"Good. Thanks. Why did you never want to join the FBI or the armed forces? Is managing the affairs of second-time offenders enough for you?"
"This job prevents me from announcing the mysterious death of our heroes to their loved ones. I can't sleep soundly, but at least this job allows me to find a semblance of sleep."
I watched Barthey join the group a little further away. His words, tinged with sadness, echoed in my head. I rolled my eyes before closing them to try to clear my mind. Issei was right, the energy was all around us, and at that moment, I felt like I was feeding on it.
As Lexy finished her dinner, Asarys and I were in the hands of FBI. agents Malika, and Min, who helped us prepare.
"I couldn't swallow anything. How does she manage to have so much appetite?"
Asarys avoided moving her head as much as possible while an officer checked the sound state of our earbuds. Meanwhile, a woman covered my face with white cream, similar to paint, carefully following the tutorial sent by Kayla earlier today. The conference hall, where we were all gathered, had turned into a veritable war headquarters. Cards hung on the walls of the room. David, by videoconference, spoke directly with the FBI. My friend looked through a multitude of notes in his hands, which he quickly communicated to them.
"I feel like we're going to be sent into space," I managed to articulate while the woman in front of me was busy applying makeup to my eyes and eyebrows.
"In a way, this is not entirely false," replied Lexy, who had just joined us to put on her long and heavy tunic.
The same outfit that we'd had to deal with throughout the day.
"Did you have time to see him?" suddenly asked Asarys, who was now doing her makeup, too.
"No, not yet!"
No sooner had we arrived at the inn than all of us had to meet directly in this room. William and Dewei had briefed us on the posture to adopt and to hold throughout the ceremony which the Twilight Brotherhood would give in honor of Kushisake that night.
"Ask to see him before you leave the inn," Lexy insisted.
"What? Just like that?" I retorted, indicating the state of my face. "Imagine he wakes up when I'm leaning over him. It's an insured heart attack."
"Lexy is right. This may be the last time you will have the opportunity…to… You see?"
My thoughts were lost returning to that magic moment shared together the day before, before he passed out. The memory of the kiss exchanged during the magnificent song of Kimberose came back to me. I absolutely had to come back safe and sound, for my father… For Faïz. So that they could continue to live normally.
"I'll see him when we get back. We will come back. We have no choice!"
The girls smiled. They wanted to believe me despite the concern that crossed their faces at that moment.
"Do you hear me?" asked David.
It felt like my best friend was right there, very close to me.
"I can hear you," I said with a smile that cracked my face.
A feeling of well-being overcame me.
"Perfect, I'm happy to spend some time with you, Zoe, even if I would have preferred it in other circumstances."
"Don't worry. Your voice gives me a courage that you can't even imagine."
"I'm delighted to learn that. So, all three of you can listen to me. I should point out that we aren't in a conference. I'm the only one who can hear you, and you can't communicate with each other using the headset. I will be your interpreter this evening at this gathering organized by the Twilight Brotherhood."
"Okay, David," replied Asarys. "We will stay in touch!"
The three of us were with Barthey, Malika, Min, and William, positioned in a circle outside the inn and lit by a full moon that promised to guide us through that night. My friends and I were unrecognizable. Our pale complexions and our eyes made up with heavy white and black layers made us think that we were going on a pilgrimage to celebrate the Day of the Dead. We also wore contact lenses, dark in color. Although our hoods covered a good part of our faces, we didn't neglect any detail in case of problems that arose during our mission. The end of our mouths were split on each side by a long black and red line, which recalled the heavy scars imposed on Kushisake by her own partner. I hadn't had the opportunity to see them when she appeared to me during my drowning in the cave. Her mask, which covered her mouth and nose, hadn't allowed me to see, if only to glimpse, the extent of her injuries.
"Each of you has your own plan?" asked William, who was trying to hide his fear in his voice.
We nodded without saying anything.
"Ray and Min will accompany you as close as possible to the entrance to the cemetery. Afterwards, you will be alone with David as your only contact, who will be able to communicate the progress of the mission to us. Are you ready?"
"We are," said Lexy, shrugging. "It can't be worse than what we went through with Issei."
A vehicle approached us, then descended to the ground. William's hand suddenly grabbed my wrist before I followed my friends inside. He dragged me away so that he could speak to me for a few moments. Nervous, William seemed to be looking for his words. His coarse blond hair fell lightly on his face.
"I just need to hear it, Zoe. I need you to tell me that everything will be fine, without feeling the slightest hesitation in your words."
He was staring at me in desperation. Under his impeccable presence, which had destabilized me many times, his armor was now split into a thousand pieces.
"I'm here to achieve what I'm destined to accomplish. So I will come back."
My hands clung firmly to William's face. "I'm not afraid!"
Relieved, he sighed deeply, freed from the anxieties that had tortured him every minute that day. For my part, I held the growing ball at the back of my throat. It was the first time that I had managed to lie to someone so well while looking him straight in the eye.
FAÏZ
William went to Faïz's room to make sure that Faïz's condition remained stable. To his surprise, he noticed that the door to the room was slightly open. On guard, he looked around to make sure no one had followed him. Worried, he then opened the door wide and noticed with amazement that the young man's bed was empty. William rushed inside the room after turning on all the lights, realizing immediately that Faïz had disappeared. Panic-stricken, he strode up and down the corridors, hoping that he was still inside the inn. If Faïz tried to reach the girls, he would undoubtedly mess up the entire mission.
"Karl?" cried William, rushing into the conference room. "Faïz is—"
His gaze swirled across the room and lande
d on the one he had been looking for. The young man, seated in an armchair, looked at the various screens in front of him without paying attention to William.
"Mr. Mattew woke up a short time ago, just after the group left," explained Dewei, who came to meet William to invite him to sit around the table with them.
"I was scared you went to join the girls," said William in a low voice, taking his place next to Faïz.
"I know where my place is!"
William clenched his jaw to avoid making a scandal and leaned towards him.
"Given the choice, I'd prefer you dying in your bed."
Faïz turned to him, his facial features distorted by anger. But before he could answer anything, Barthey spoke to interrupt their heated exchange.
"The world has been getting worse for several weeks."
The inspector immediately distributed images that were inundating the web, television, news, and social media around the world. The stupor gave way to silence in the face of the videos, which showed major fires in the mouths of the London underground, a large explosion at the Eiffel Tower in Paris which caused its fall, historic monuments like museums invaded by terrorist groups in Egypt, or the hostage taking in the parliament of South Africa by a revolutionary militia. The tragic events also extended to the United States, China, and eastern countries. Chaos, as violent as hell, fell on the whole world, evil in all its forms. Faïz, helpless, held his head in his hands.
"The Leviathans?" he asked.
"Not enough!" replied Barthey. "The red stone is our only solution now."
Faïz jumped up, his fists clenched.
"Turn it off!" he ordered, disgusted by all these images of desolation. "I have to get out of here, get some fresh air."
He rushed to the exit. At that moment, Barthey signaled to the team members to let him go without holding him back. The inspector knew that Faïz would stay at the inn. The stakes were far too high. Zoe was the only person the young man would never take any risks for.
DARK FAÏZ Book 2: Nothing will ever be the same again Page 12