Confrontation

Johan followed Neil out into the hall and closed the door behind him.

The halls were empty with not a person in sight. Their steps echoed throughout the worn down steel corridor. The dim yellow lights that lit the hall flickered off and on, doing a poor job of lighting their way.

Neil glanced at Johan and saw Johan glaring at the floor in front of him, with furrowed brows and his lips pressed tight. It was clear that Johan's mind was preoccupied. Neil cleared his throat trying to disperse the gloomy air Johan was emitting.

"So," said Neil. "Where are you from?"

Johan didn't hear Neil and continued to glare at the floor.

"Johan?," said Neil.

Johan broke his fixated glare at the floor and looked up snapping out of his thoughts.

"T-toronto, Canada," said Johan. "How about you?"

"England ... Greensford more specifically. You probably never heard of it."

"You must be psychic," said Johan smiling weakly, "All I know about England is that the Queen lives there".

Johan went back to staring at the floor again.

"What is on your mind?," said Neil. "I can see something is clearly bothering you."

Johan remained silent, staring at Neil thoughtfully.

"You don't have to tell me," said Neil, "I get it, we just met, but we are family now since we are part of the same team. I got you, regardless and it would be easier for me to help you if you tell me what is up."

Johan let out a sigh, and look a leap of faith. Nothing Neil had done previously indicated that he was a person that he should be weary of.

"This woman said she was going to kill my family because of anomalies on earth," said Johan. "An hour ago. Right before I met you."

Neil looked at Johan in disbelief.

"What!?," said Neil. "Kill!?"

"Yes," asked Johan.

"Then why are you so calm about this?," said Neil, "was it the realm overseer?"

"No," said Johan.

"Then she doesn't have authority to make that decision," said Neil. "If we escalate, the higher ups will definitely interfere. This place has rules."

"But there might not be enough time," said Johan.

"You should have said something earlier!," exclaimed Neil.

"I didn't mention it earlier, because I thought you wouldn't take me if I told you what was happening. But you seem like a good person, so I figured I could trust you," said Johan.

"I see," said Neil nodding in thought. "You are right, you have to be weary of people around here. We will go and see the realm overseer to see what we can do. You are one crazy kid. You should have said something earlier. Let's hurry."

Neil broke into a jog and Johan followed.

--Ø--

Armyka glared at Chronos angrily.

"If you want something done you have to do it yourself," hissed Armyka. "You clearly are incapable of completing simple tasks on your own. I can't believe I had to get my hands dirty."

"But madam," said Chronos, "They were the parents of that child you sent away."

"He was dead meat," said Armyka, "A nobody. Rankless. They all were, yet you defy me for a nobody?"

Chronos looked at the floor helplessly.

"Madam," said Chronos, "I wasn't defying you, I was thinking."

At that moment, Neil and Johan ran into the room, through a wall vortex.

"Wait!," said Johan gasping. "Don't kill my parents, we can find another way!"

Neil let out a gasp upon seeing Armyka.

"You boy," said Armyka snarling glaring at Johan. "Why are you here when I sent you away? You bothering me at the wrong time."

"Madam," said Chronos desperately. "Don't hurt them! They are children!"

"Shut up," hissed Armyka shifting her gaze to Chronos angrily. "Or do you want to loose your job or get a pay cut? I'll make sure you never get another job if you keep this nonsense up."

Chronos stiffened up and looked at the ground fearfully.

"I am sorry for angering you madam," said Chronos.

Armyka turned her attention to Neil. "What the hell are you doing here, boy? I never saw you before."

"I didn't realize you were a executive manager madam," said Neil. "But, everything that is happening is wrong. Johan said you were going to kill his parents."

"They are dead," said Armyka, "What is done is done and it isn't reversible. But reflecting, I could have simply pulled them out of the realm like Chronos did with the boy."

Neil and Johan looked at Armyka in disbelief, speechless. She glared back at them coldly and then turned her gaze fully to Johan. Their eyes locked and Armyka's lip slowly curled into a smirk.

[She enjoyed killing my parents,] thought Johan, [she did this intentionally ...]

Coming to this realization, Johan's disbelief began turning into anger.

Memories of his parents encouragement and love while he was growing up flooded his mind. He recalled the shock of finding his parents murdered the first time he'd walked into his house and everything he had done to get them back.

Now, on a whim, this woman had taken everything away from him. Furthermore, she seemed to enjoy it.

Johan's anger grew and he felt his head heat up. This Armyka, who had called him trash killed his parents on a whim. She had taken away what was most precious to him, after he had done so much to get it back.

"Y- yo- you killed my parents!!," growled Johan.

A wild look overtook his eyes as Johan slowly felt himself loosing his senses.

"Shut up you trash," growled Armyka, "I didn't give you permission to speak. Fix your rebellious tone and glare, or I will fix it for you ... just like I fixed your parents."

Behind Armyka, a floating screen caught Johan's eye. On it, were his parents lying lifeless in a pool of blood.

"I'LL KILL YOU!," howled Johan.

Johan clenched his fist and veins popped out of his head as be began to charge towards Armyka throwing his fist at her face.

"No Johan!," yelled Neil.

"Idiot," muttered Armyka as she waved her hand and a light shot out of it towards Johan.

A moment later, an invisible force lifted Johan into the air and was choking him. Johan held his throat desperately trying to relieve the pressure.

"Don't kill him!," exclaimed Neil, "He didn't know!"

"I am not going to kill him," said Armyka, "I am going to toss him in the deepest of the pits for ten years."

"This is wrong!," said Neil. "you killed his parents and now are punishing him for being upset!? He'll die in there alone! He hasn't been trained to survive!"

Johan passed out from the lack of blood flow to his brain.

"If you care so much about the boy go with him," said Armyka. "This boy you just met ... who you don't even know ... hero."

"I'll go with him." said Neil after a moment. "Just don't kill him. He didn't know."

Armyka let out a narcissistic laugh and Johan dropped to the floor.

"Good," said Armyka. "Two idiots with one stone."

Armyka snapped her fingers and two streams of light shot out from her, hitting Johan and Neil and tossing them into a vortex.

"Remember this," echoed Armyka's voice, "you are nobodies ... in 10 years not only will you have fallen behind, no one will remember you. If you cross me again, I'll end you both."

--Ø--

"Johan!," yelled Neil.

Johan woke up to the sound of Neil's screams.

"What is going on?," groaned Johan. "I feel like I was hit by a truck."

Looking up he saw Neil holding onto a rock ledge with one hand, and the other hand was holding onto the back of Johan's shirt. They were inside what looked like a rock well with no visible bottom or top. The walls emitted a grey light.

"Wake up and grab the damn wall Johan!," screamed Neil. "You're heavy!"

Johan looked down to realize that Neil was the only thing preventing him from falling into what looked like an endless abyss. Snapping out of his exhaustion, Johan saw a rock jutting out of the wall and grabbed it with both his hands and placed his feet on other rock protrusions.

"Are you alright Johan?," gasped Neil relieved from the lessened weight. "I am going to let go of you and climb up now. Make sure you have a good grip."

"Yeah," said Johan wearily. "I am fine, thanks. You can let go of me."

"Okay," said Neil, "We can rest on this ledge, it is big enough for us to camp out on for now. Follow me up."

Neil let go of the back of Johan's shirt and they climbed onto the ledge.

"That was close," said Neil letting out a breath relieved.

"What happened?," said Johan. "The last thing I remember ...My parents ... Armyka ..."

We were thrown into the pits," said Neil, "... Armyka ... I realized it after seeing her. She has achieved a particular level of mana control, thus her cat ears. Automatic executive manager because of her strength. Clearly, they didn't screen her personality or sanity."

"So that sick woman did all this to me and won," said Johan placing his forehead against the rock wall and hitting it with his fist. "After all I've been through. After all I did ... I still lost my parents. Bad people win ... karma doesn't exist! What is the point of being a good person and following the rules if you only loose because of them!?"

"Don't give up," said Neil. "Everything will be alright."

"Don't give up!?," laughed Johan looking at Neil in disbelief as tears began to stream down his face, "Gadra told me that I'd amount to nothing because that was my destiny. My parents just were taken away from me for the second time. The only people that had faith in me when the world constantly put me down and discouraged me! The darn universe is against me! Who are you!? What do you know!?"

Neil let out a sigh and sat down on the ledge.

"I am going to take a nap," said Neil. "It has been a long day. I suggest you do too. If you give up here, Armyka and the naysayers won. Just remember that. If you don't, there is a chance you can make things right ... and one day, if you continue to fight and push on, something so good will happen, that it will make up for all those good things. I don't want to argue with you, I am just giving you my opinion."

Neil closed his eyes as Johan continued to sob silently.