7 CHAPTER II: IT WAS THE FIRST, BUT NOT THE LAST - Part 2

Panic takes hold of Virla for every second they spend falling. She tries to count the seconds, but every time she reaches ten she feels she loses count and starts again.

She closes her eyes so tightly that they start to hurt. She can still feel Telos hooked on her, grabbing her harder than before. Somehow her feet still touch the ground and somehow, she feels a little reassured by it, as if somehow that will help cushion the fall.

And when she is sure that they will continue to fall forever, they stop. The sudden stop feels almost like a hit in the belly, but the feeling disappears almost immediately, leaving a feeling of nausea in its place. It takes a moment for Virla to realize that she is no longer touching the ground, and after a moment of hesitation she dares to open her eyes finally.

They're floating. The two of them are in the middle of the air and the more aware Virla is of this, the greater the nausea and dizziness she feels. So she tries to avoid worsening her condition and focuses on something else.

The first thing she manages to see from around her is that several of the formations surround them. Virla looks to the side and finds the debris on which they were before, it seems that it was still falling, except that it does it sideways.

The boy is still clinging to her, and she can feel his head buried in her backpack. She feels the need to tell him something, but is torn between the lie that everything will be fine or an invitation to see the spectacle that surrounds them.

It really is amazing, everything has changed so drastically in a matter of what was probably a few minutes, it's like they are in space, only it seems to be in the sky and not in the middle of the stars. The spheres that form from different things are getting bigger and bigger, some seem to have a single type of object or substance that conforms them, while others are made of several things. They look like small planets, being so far the largest of all the one they saw take shape at first on them, and Virla could swear that something pulls her slightly towards that giant formation.

A debris of something flies past them, and torn from her thoughts, Virla is again aware of how dangerous the situation they are in is.

She looks around for something they can use as a refuge, her heart beating frantically. Then she finds a nearby formation that looks like a small planet of stone and rocks, and begins to kick as if she were swimming in the middle of the air, hoping somehow to gain momentum. But more and more debris of different things passes near them and it is still not possible to move even a bit. She stops when she realizes how futile what she is doing is, so she decides that she has to propel themselves with one of the debris if she wants to move.

She looks to her sides, waiting, but when a shadow covers her from her back, a part of her fears. She turns her head to look behind her, Telos is doing the same as well. It isn't rubble, or a car, or any of the hundreds of metals she's seen so far, but a huge rock heading straight to them.

Panic takes hold of Virla and her mind seems to shut down for a moment, impossible to form any thoughts. Before she can come back to herself, the rock finally catches up with them. The blow crushes her, and for a moment the girl is sure that she has broken all her bones, the impact hardly cushioned by the little gravity.

The two are propelled to the side and begin to move uncontrollably, no way to brake. Virla is slow to realize that they are heading to the rocks she had wanted to approach before, only now they seem more dangerous than she initially thought. Making the situation worse, another rock turns to them and threatens to crush them against the stone floor that awaits them.

This time the girl manages to raise her arms, her body still sore from the previous blow, protecting her head from impact. But when the rock arrives, she does not feel the impact and part of her realizes that something detaches from. her Someone is detached from her.

The rock doesn't really hit her, but rubs her. It was as if the moment Telos let go, a force had pulled her off the impact. But her mind can think of nothing but the lack of the small weight on her back as she falls into the rock formation and the inevitable impact that lies ahead.

Virla tries to turn, but before she can do anything, she falls heavily on the ground. She could swear that something broke, or that she will find her end sooner than she wanted.

But she waits for a while until her mind clears and she realizes that no massive pain becomes present in her body, just a few burnings in different parts of her skin. Even so, she fears what she will find when she lowers her gaze to determine the state of her body, but all she notices are several scrapes, almost as if she had simply had a bad fall.

She would leave that for later, now there are more important things. Telos.

Virla rises heavily, sore from the blows. The boy must have fallen there too, the rock was heading to this place and it probably hit him. She begins to move, holding her arm tightly so as not to think about the burning of scrapes, among which she is sure there is one in her head.

The place is nothing but stones and rocks everywhere. The horizon feels closer to where it normally is and that disorients her. But, other than that, she doesn't see anything worth noting, the small planet is a stone desert and nothing else.

She has to find Telos fast. she wants to scream, but when tears start to come up from the pain She feels, part of her doesn't think she can formulate a single word no matter how hard she tries.

She becomes increasingly desperate as she finds no hint of the boy. There are many rocks, many obstacles, and for every second she spends without seeing Telos, the possibilities become clearer in her mind. She tries not to think about them, but feels that she only makes it worse by trying to suppress those ideas. He has to be close; he has to be. And the moment she sees a hand peeking out of some heavy rocks, she doesn't know whether to sob in relief or fear, until the latter becomes stronger.

She runs-walks as fast her injured legs allow. It can't be him, a few moments ago he was clinging tightly to her backpack. She reaches the pile of rocks that cover the anonymous body, and seeing Telos' reddish hair all sound seems to disappear around her.

The girl kneels down and pushes away some of the small stones to see him better because she does not know what else to do, even if it is obvious that it is him. She doesn't know it only from the physical parts she recognizes, but the body emitted, althought weaker than before, the same feeling of thrust she had felt with Telos. She manages to make the supply case visible, and among her thoughts she regrets losing all the things she had stored inside. She gets a tremendous twinge in her heart for simply having considered that thought, that didn't matter now.

The girl gets up quickly, returning to what is happening in front of her. She has to get him out somehow.

Desperately she tries to push the larger rock that crushes the small body. A small growl sounds, hardly audible with all the noise around them. But that meant one thing, she could still save him, or so she said herself.

She looks around, looks for something she can use to move the rock. She can see nothing but rocks and stones, her heart seems to shrink more and more. So, she tries again to push the rock, her legs slipping on the ground and lifting debris, but it hardly moves an inch.

"Telos!" she tries to call him as she pushes, her voice drowning in the girl's despair "I'm going to get you out! Please, I'm going to get you out!"

When she finishes saying these promises that she probably will not be able to fulfill, out of the corner of her eye she manages to see other rocks approaching them. Instinct begs her to run, but she manages to keep her head on what she is doing. She couldn't leave and leave Telos there, the boy was just a child, he didn't deserve this.

The girl could swear that the rock is starting to move, because it is rolling, her hopes increasing drastically with the small possibility of being able to save him. But no matter if she was making it or not, she was taken away.

No, she didn't do it herself, something else did it for her. It was like the pull of before, something that took her away from danger against her will.

Unable to react to whatever is pulling her, she can see how the rocks that had threatened to fall on her now do so in front of her, on Telos. Crushing any hope that remained of saving him.

When the pull ceases, the girl is dropped. She runs back to Telos, but stops suddenly when a thought comes to mind, rather an image. It was as if someone had put it in front of her eyes against her will, it was what she would probably find if she tried to look for Telos among the stones, and she didn't like that image.

She focuses her gaze again on where she was going, and seeing the stones better she does not doubt what she will find under them. A broken little body of what to used to be a living boy.

Her mind is silenced unable to process what is happening, and in that silence something seems to scream inside her. More than an instinct it is like an order, an order to seek refuge, to protect herself, to take care of herself. And the girl, unable to think of anything else, obeys.

After a few short steps she finds what looks like a hole and seeks refuge in the small cave. When she is inside she realizes that the hole continues further, so she starts looking for her flashlight with trembling hands, trying to concentrate on nothing but the flashlight at the bottom of her briefcase.

But her concentration is interrupted when the light behind her disappears and a loud bang echoes through the tunnel.

The girl turns to find that her only way out has disappeared, but does not attempt to push or move the rock. No, her body is tired and now that she was still, she felt every part of her hurt even more than before, and that pain didn't just reach her joints.

Defeated, she drops on her knees. Tears begin to flow from her eyes and she begins to feel smaller and smaller.

Virla knew from her memoirs that she had lived in a bubble, had never had to go through the pain of a death, and even if she hadn't known Telos for much, the weight of what happened was overwhelming. :–

She shouldn't have left him, she should have come back as soon as she could regardless of what she imagined she would find, how did they even separate in the beginning? The boy didn't deserve to receive that blow more than she did, and yet she felt grateful, she didn't want to feel grateful, she hated that feeling with all her heart at the time.

The girl begins to sip, it becomes difficult for her to breathe and her head begins to spin while her eyes start to burn. And in that desperate moment Virla couldn't help but break down in her pain.

…....................................................................................................

S

The man falls without being able to know what was happening. The visions had disoriented him and had not allowed him to react to the blow that ended his life.

It was a very dirty job, really very unpleasant. His clothes had been stained and They probably rejoice at seeing him kill "one of his own."

That must have been the last if he did not count that child in the cemetery who he had been forbidden to touch. He honestly didn't understand why they put a job like that on him if they were going to reproach him for doing it.

He felt a little irritated. He lost his connection to the Cheater, and now he doesn't know where she is.

He wanted to spend some more time with the twins, but he has to prioritize his time. He will have to send them to watch her sooner since they will have to find her first, that little girl is really a headache in all aspects.

He wishes he didn't have to worry so much. He would like Them to leave him alone and not have to do what he had to do. He would like all this to end, unfortunately it was just beginning.