by Amanda Churi
I think all of us realized what she was trying to say at the same time. We paused as one, all eyes studying Sybil in dumbfoundment as she shifted about uncomfortably, wondering why all focus had been placed on her.
“Do you really not know what that is?” Mabel questioned, finally loosening up.
Lost, Sybil slowly shook her head. She raised her arm up towards the sky, our heads following where she pointed. “The sky looks like that every day,” she responded guardedly. “I’ve never seen anything in it besides aircraft or snow in the winter.”
“So, there’s no sun here…?” Griffin whispered, shocked. He looked back at Sybil, who shrugged in response to his statement. “What about the moon?” he pushed. “Have you heard of that? It only comes out a night?”
“Night is nothing but darkness,” Sybil answered stiffly.
No moon either? I thought. I could see some odd cases like this, such as in my future, where some people lived in such populated cities that a blade of grass could hardly find the room to grow, but being in the middle of nowhere and never seeing something that was unreachable and unavoidable to everyone in the world? How could she have never heard of it?
“That doesn’t make sense…” I mumbled in distress. “How can something—anything, that large, just vanish?”
“What are you talking about?” Sybil implored, looking at each of us as though we were the stupidest things to ever be born. “It’s always been like this! It’s nothing new?”
Our small ragtag team shared a sympathizing moment; our shoulders sagged as one in defeat, our vulnerable eyes shifting to and fro for reassurance. How could this have happened…? How was any of it possible?
“This is crazy…” Mabel sniffled, her worried eyes turning to the sky as she desperately tried to find a source of light hidden to the eye.
Sybil studied us suspiciously. “Something is wrong with you guys,” she stated cautiously. “I’ve never seen Glitches like you. You… You’re crazy but collected—nothing like others when their programming becomes flawed. How?”
I refrained from answering. Telling Sybil exactly who and what we were was a terrible idea; who knew if she could really be trusted?
“I don’t know,” I answered before the others could burst the bubble that we weren’t from here. “Maybe something happened to us that made us different from other… Uh, Glitches.”
“Yeah,” Griffin agreed cautiously, shooting me a side glance that made me realize he caught onto my reasoning.
“Hm…” Sybil wondered, pressing a hand to her chin as her black claws caressed her skin. “Well, it definitely is weird but…” She paused, smiling innocently. “I kinda like this. It’s cool to see something different for a change!” She started to laugh—a heinous, excited cackle that made my heart shudder. “I’m on an adventure with Glitches! Sweet!”
The four of us chuckled, smiling yet glancing at one another tensely. Well, that was a large bullet dodged; her liking us would make this temporary alliance that much more beneficial.
“Sybil?” Laelia spoke up, glancing at her young companion and interrupting her fit of laughter. “You said you were made to destroy Glitches? How do we know you won’t just hurt us? After all, according to you, we’re the biggest malfunctions you’ve met.”
Sybil’s giggles slowly died away, her face petrified by fear. Laelia had a valid point. “Uhm… Yes… I’m made to destroy those like you,” she admitted warily. “B-but I won’t! You’re a different kind of Glitch—and you spared my life, so I will do the same!”
Laelia stared at her a moment before giving her a stiff nod. “Alright, then. But hey, if we’re your prey, you know about others who have malfunctioned, correct?”
“…Yes?”
Griffin, Mabel, and I stood still, puzzled at what she was trying to get at.
“And I’m sure there have been flaws who try to go against your—our creator, yes?”
Sybil nodded.
Laelia grinned, trying to act innocent, though I could see the manipulation behind her eyes. “Do you know where any Glitches might be? Then maybe we can figure out why exactly we are different.”
I felt my back slightly recoil in shock. That… Was smart. If we found others like us, maybe we could get help and find out just what was going on!
Sybil’s lips grew a cheeky grin, her thin arms flapping in excitement. “Yeah!” she chirped. “I know where they are! An old place called Pikë!”
“Really?” Mabel gasped in surprise.
“Yup!” Sybil confirmed. “It should be just down the river! Come on!”
Sybil stood up on Laelia’s shoulder, shaking her hindquarters before leaping into the air with a muffled grunt, rapidly flapping her arms to keep herself airborne. Her eyes protruded farther from her skull, her tail lashing against her legs as she took flight and soared off into the distance.
“Let’s go!” Griffin cried with delight, grabbing Laelia’s hand and whisking her in the direction of Sybil. “It’s time to get out of here!”
“Thank Neptune!” Laelia screamed, following him without question.
Mabel was ready to follow them as well but not before she looked back at me, a relieved smile on her face; all hostility between us from earlier was gone, our old relationship quickly solidifying.
“See?” I taunted her lightly. “It was smart to bring her along, right?”
Mabel sighed heavily, though her smile remained. “Congrats, you pulled one over on me,” she chuckled dryly. She whisked her head to the distance, wiggling her shoulders as she prepared to follow our allies. “Let’s go!”
She swiftly turned her back on me and began to race across the ruined landscape after the others. I ran after her without hesitating, pushing my body hard to overcome the exhaustion that had been weighing me down for days. I hardly cared what we found; as long as we met someone who wasn’t going to kill us, I couldn’t be more satisfied. Heck, this was even in the direction The Seeker told me to head; this unknown sanctity was so close that I could almost taste it!
After running for what seemed like an eternity, my eyes caught sight of the destination. The faint outline of sky-high buildings slowly merged their way into my range of vision, along with my friends who stood as still as poles; even Mabel, who was not too far in front of me, suddenly slowed down.
I could feel the tension rising the closer I got; my legs had a mind of their own, slowing me down as I continued forward. I stared up at the sky, unable to dismiss the sick, evil gray aura that swirled around the rooftops of the civilization—the rooftops that looked as though a terrible plague had taken hold of the entire vicinity long ago.
My overshadowed legs brought me to a stop just behind my allies. I looked like I had seen a ghost, my heart barely beating as I processed just one more thing that had lost the war against evil.
Our group stood on the boundary where nothingness met complete and utter ruin. Skyscrapers reached for the blank sky. They looked powerful and significant from afar, but up close, they were nothing but skeletons. Their concrete frames were cracked across the entire surface; it was amazing that some were still standing considering their current condition. Many of them weren’t even a building anymore—large chunks of matter were torn completely from the structures, lying on the ground next to its original location as a pile of rubble.
The roadway in front of us was blue tiles—tiles shattered beyond recognition so that the path ahead was nothing more than fancy gravel. The houses were made of concrete, and much like everything else, almost every single one had been brought down to the level of remains.
Metal poles lined the street, rusted and twisted into knots so that they were far beyond the capability of functioning. Cold mist seeped across the ground, winding through the ghost town to emphasize the emptiness. Bodies swallowed the city; some were crushed beneath large slabs of concrete, others frozen solid. Most, however, were nothing more than blackened skeletons held in the clutches of time and ice. The atmosphere was thick and potent, dr
enched with blood and rotten flesh—nothing in the world could ever mask the atrocity which stared me in the face at this very moment.
Sybil giggled, oblivious to the horror before her as she circled in the air like a hawk. Gently, she lowered herself, standing on the body of a frozen human, jumping up and down in glee. “Here we are! Pikë!” She looked down at the body she stood on, lightly poking their frozen face with a claw. “These are your friends!”
I was speechless. This world was so corrupt that my mind couldn’t even begin to make sense of it. I don’t think that I ever truly missed my screwed up, Noble dominated future once in my life… But at that instant, I would have given almost anything to return to a place that seemed normal to me.
Griffin exhaled heftily as he crouched down, white, chilled mist circling his legs as he grabbed a handful of crystallized rubble, watching it fall through his fingers. “Everything is dead here too…” he said helplessly.
“Of course!” Sybil told him, leaping into the air and flying over to Griffin so that she hovered a foot from his face. “Pikë was a city built long ago by corruptions—Glitches. They were dealt with pretty quickly as soon as they became a real threat.”
“You’re telling me that they just blow up those who are different?” Laelia exclaimed.
“Well, what else are you supposed to do with errors?” Sybil rounded bluntly. “If they won’t do what they’re told, then the Lord has no use for them. You guys are lucky you’re out here; if he knew of your scattered mind, you would be in the same position.”
I looked at Sybil from the corner of my eye, intrigued by the way her mind worked. She saw us as corruptions for being different, but I could already conclude that she was the corruption. No, it may not have been her fault, but this world had distorted her view of everything. Besides, she had been manipulated in some way; we were the only ones untouched.
“How long has it been like this…?” Mabel wondered, her voice distant.
“Since the fall of Pikë?” Sybil asked.
Mabel shook her head, taking a silent step forward into the decimated village. Her body was stiff, almost refusing to bring her closer to the crime scene. “No,” she restated, losing her voice the longer she looked ahead. “The world.”
Surprisingly, I could see true pain cross Sybil’s face when she noticed just how broken Mabel was. “Centuries.”
Mabel sighed, hanging her head and letting the lost lives engulf her heart. “I figured such…”
“Sybil,” Griffin cut in quickly, the lerial looking in his direction upon being called. “You said this has been going on hundreds of years? Do you know what year it is by any chance?”
Sybil looked both baffled and amused. “You don’t know that either?” she nagged in a humorous tone. “2147.”
Everything stopped right then and there, my body paralyzed by the words dancing around my ears.
A cold, numbing sensation immediately began to creep across my body, putting my chest in a chokehold that was so tight it hurt for me to breathe. That… But that’s the time I came from?
Hardly able to comprehend Sybil’s words, my wide eyes turned to my feet, staring at the cracked soil below me filled with frozen blood.
This wasn’t some time period far beyond my original home… This was my home. This world of death, despair, misery, torture… It was the same world I had been born into before everything took a turn for the worst.
I looked ahead, disoriented as visions ran rampant through my mind. When I stepped through the dimensional rift, leaving Phantome for good, I witnessed a scene I could not forget—buildings falling and darkness swarming the Earth while the blood consumed the living—a perfect depiction of where I stood now. It allowed me to catch a glimpse of what I didn’t know then was my future; it was nothing short of a nightmare about what happened to the old timeline as it was molded into a whole new figure.
Then there was Raddison… My father vanishing into thin air while the world collapsed beneath him. That was no dream—just time catching up with my old home, destroying the original future in one blow.
That was my future… A future that didn’t exist anymore.
I could feel myself losing it as reality descended. I grabbed my hair tightly, twisting and pulling as I desperately tried to control myself. My insides were shutting down, waves of grief, anger, sorrow, and just pure helplessness taking hold. I trembled uncontrollably, the world around me beginning to blur as the light within the legendary weapon hooked at my belt went out at once.
With the coming dusk, the others instinctively turned towards me, perplexed as to why darkness had encroached. I could only begin to imagine just how crazy and unstable I looked when I saw the horror on their faces and the fear in their eyes. My mind screamed with each new piece of information that suddenly attached itself to the mental quilt I had built long ago, the needle and thread struggling to keep up as I was bombarded by reality.
“Eero?” Mabel spoke up, her voice tight with worry. She took a concerned step forward. “Are you okay?”
“N-n-no…” I stammered frantically, pulling my hair harder and bringing my head in close to my chest, forcing myself not to cry as images of my father overtook me. I thought I saved the future by winning the war, but somehow, it had still been destroyed, and more than likely, it was because of my pitiful heart. There was just too much evidence to prove my theory wrong; if I had never tried to help Tah, maybe when I stepped through that rift, we would have gone where we belonged.
But that wasn’t the case. I had personally brought my father his death sentence on a silver platter—him and the rest of the world.
Gasps arose in the cold air, the frantic shuffle of feet against frozen earth hitting my ears. I opened my eyes with effort, my vision blurred as a bright, golden light radiated around me, illuminating the environment. Laelia, Mabel, and Griffin backed away, horror flocking their faces. Sybil retreated to Laelia’s shoulder as well, frozen as she stared at me with enlarged eyes—two broad purple eyes that showed me just what I was.
I could see my body in her slick eyes, my hands squeezing the roots of my hair tighter. My scalp slowly began to burn, a pulse of intense heat pounding against my fingers to the point where the skin began to sting. I pulled on my hair and looked up, my arm freezing in place when I saw a current of magical, golden light flowing in the strands of my hair which had changed long ago from my Essence.
“E-Eero?!” Laelia shrieked, Griffin wrapping his arm across her chest and pulling her close so that she was far out of my reach.
I looked towards her slowly, my strained brain throbbing against my skull. A harsh pressure began to build behind my eyes, my pupils shaking as the energy within rapidly spiked. The aura of light around me began to increase in potency, the air growing thick with magic as my Essence awoke. Strands of golden mist began to flow from my eyes, swirling around me as the scars on my chest began to beam through my shirt.
My ears imploded with pain, and immediately, I bent forward, cupping them with my hands. I didn’t understand; most of my Essence had been drained by Elip—enough so that Kevin and I both thought that the only thing left to show for my old identity was the physical markings. I didn’t think I would ever see it again, but there it was.
My body became more of a wreck the longer I stared down at my chest. I wanted nothing more than to end it right there. All of this was my fault—all of it! This vile magic within had started this whole thing!
I screamed with frustration, bunching my hands into tight fists and squeezing my ears with such force that my knuckles popped. My skin flared up with golden light in response to my anger, my vision obscured by my inner demons as a swathe of voices arose from the depths within and began to assault my crumbling mind.
It’s all your fault, little spawn!
Look at your poor father! Look what you did to him!
You ruined this world!
You should be dead!
“SHUT UP!” I roared, bashing my fists against my sk
ull.
“Eero, please!” Mabel cried desperately as the demons continued to attack me. Strands of golden light flew across my eyes, evil, ravenous faces of hatred possessing each and every one. My head screamed with pain, so many cries attacking me that I felt like I was about to pass out. I wanted nothing more than to grab Calla from Hell, wring her around the neck and kill her again for the curse she had activated inside of me.
Eero…
Through the shrieks reverberating in my head, a soft, chilled voice cut above the others, reducing them to whispers. This voice, however, did not seem to come from inside of me.
My vision slowly returned, the demons taking their leave and allowing me to slightly restore my grip on reality. Cautiously, I looked at Mabel, who stood there like a statue, unsure as to if she should approach me or not. She seemed confused, and for a minute, I stared in her direction, waiting to hear the voice again, when suddenly, a figure came into view in the ruins of the city behind her.
The white, chilled mist that dominated the destroyed civilization took on an ominous form. They were an entity of fog that stood in the ruins of the city, a mystical robe pulled over their head and body, rippling in a non-existent wind. I was amazed how detailed the fog made them. While I couldn’t tell what every particle was, one feature stuck out to me—two specks of purple embedded in the mist right where the eyes of a human would be.
My arms cringed, a growl of resentment escaping my lips when I recognized the presence who twirled a large, misty staff in their hands, a sleazy smile creeping across their frosty lips as they stared in my direction.
My, my, look at this, Calla taunted. Still nothing more than a mistake.
“You bitch!” I yelled fervently. “This is your fault!”
“Excuse me?!” Mabel demanded crossly, mistaking who my curse was directed at.
No, boy, Calla answered calmly. It’s yours.
That was it. Hearing it from Satan’s minions was one thing but watching the words roll off of the tongue of the woman who had dragged me into this? That was too far.
I screamed furiously, racing forward with such acceleration that my friends hardly even had time to side-step me before I bolted right through the air as a streak of golden light, my hands screaming to kill the heathen.