A New World
"WE CAN'T WAIT ANY LONGER!, IF WE DO, IT WILL DESTROY US ALL!"
"PLEASE! I'M ONLY ASKING FOR FIFTY-FIVE YEARS!"
"YOU WANT ME TO RISK EVERYONE'S SAFETY ON YOUR BASELESS CLAIMS!"
"THEY'RE NOT BASELESS! WE HAVE PROOF. PROOF THAT MULTIPLE CIVILIZATIONS BEFORE US HAVE EXPERIENCED THESE EVENTS!
"YOU MAY CALL IT PROOF, BUT IN MY OPINION, A COUPLE OF PEARLS AND EMPTY DIMENSIONS DON'T QUALIFY"
"WHO ARE YOU TO MAKE THAT DECISION!? WHAT MAKES YOU MORE KNOWLEDGEABLE THAN THE REST OF US? YOU'RE BLINDED BY THE GREAT LIGHT CALLED FEAR AND REFUSING TO CLOSE YOUR EYES; TAKING A LEAP OF FAITH!"
"... THAT'S RIGHT, I AM AFRAID. AFRAID OF MAKING THE WRONG DECISION AND FAILING ALL OF YOU. AFRAID TO TAKE A CHANCE WHICH MAY OR MAY NOT SOLVE OUR PROBLEMS. AFRAID THAT WE WILL BE LOST IN THE DESTRUCTION WHICH APPROACHES. BUT THERE IS ONE THING THAT I DO NOT FEAR, AND THAT IS MY DUTY AS YOUR LEADER"
TIME: 5:24
DATE: UNKNOWN
LOCATION: UNKNOWN
NAME: TENDRA
AGE: 16 - 18
GENDER: FEMALE
DECEASED: PERIWINKLE
"H-hey!, are you still here, Tirips?"
"OH... SORRY ABOUT THAT. GOT LOST IN MY THOUGHTS... BUT YEAH, I'M STILL WITH YOU."
"That's good to hear... So, can you explain where we are?"
It felt like we were standing on the ocean. Some kind of dark blue liquid made up the ground. The sky was completely black. No, there were some shades of red sprinkled across it.
I shouldn't have been able to see in this world, since it seemed without light, but I could. I saw that all five of us were here. The four of them were apparently all able to see as well, since they were all looking straight at me. I saw the expectations for an answer in their eyes, saying: "What did you just do?"
I shrugged my shoulders: "I have no idea"
"What're we supposed to do now? Just wait and hope for the best!? We don't even now where the hell we are!?", Mercury had started to panic. His eyes were filled with doubt and fear. Two emotions that makes for a horrible combination.
"First Periwinkle gets killed and we're forced to run! Then!, after all that, we get teleported to the demon realm or something!", nobody tried to calm him down. I'm ashamed to admit it, but hearing him ramble about all the horrible shit that had happened felt kind of cathartic. Mercury was just saying what everyone had been thinking and it felt good to hear it...
Suddenly, the eyes of the scared teenager locked onto the girl who hadn't given him an answer. As soon as his eyes met mine, I immediately regretted not calming him down. All my senses told me that his next words would devastate me, "This wasn't your intention, right? Come to think of it, why did you stop us all in that corridor? Were you... Buying time for the enemy?... Did you want us to get caught?"
"Hey, that's not funny...", Emeralda acted confused, but I could tell that she wasn't shocked by the harsh statement, neither was I. Nonetheless, it still hurt, like a dagger slowly approaching my chest. Even though I knew it was coming, the pain didn't soften.
"Do you really think that I wanted this to happen? That I knew where we would end up? Of course not!", I had hoped to contain my anger, but the wild accusation which had been thrown at me proved too much to handle.
"Then why did it look like you touched the floor in the room expecting something to happen?! Was that just a coincidence?!", he had seen that, even through the strong light?
"Wait, is that true?", Aka quickly joined the conversation.
The truth, I just needed to tell the truth. "A voice in my head named Tirips told me to do it...", the looks on their faces told me all I needed to know, but right now my top priority was convincing them. If I wasn't able to do that, well... Things wouldn't be looking good for me.
I knew that I needed to use the situation that we were all in to my advantage. No one else had heard Tirip's voice, this meant that I wouldn't be able to rely on (it?) simply telling everyone about itself. Now was the time to convince everyone about the credibility of my truth.
"I get it, you've gone completely mad because of Periwinkle. That has to be it!", I didn't enjoy this side of Mercury, not at all...
"I believe you...", it was Aka.
"Huh?", I was so surprised by her sudden answer that my thoughts escaped my brain and came straight out of my mouth before I had any time to think.
"I said 'I believe you' and don't act so surprised, It's irritating!"
"I'm sorry... I just didn't imagine that you would, you know... Support me...", I couldn't see it, but I knew that I was blushing.
"Don't you remember what you said?, 'none of us knows what's actually going on here'. It's true, none of us do, but if we're not even able to trust in each other... Then we're just ignorant fools", her eyes turned to Mercury. "isn't that right?"
When we first appeared here, it had been instantaneous. Before we knew it, we were no longer in the room, but instead sitting in roughly the same positions as before, only in a new (dimension?). Even the bed which Mercury, Aka and Orwende had been sitting on had followed.
Mercury was currently sitting in that same bed, looking down at his feet. After Aka's injunction he hadn't said anything.
"YOU HUMANS SURE LIKE TO ARGUE", it was Tirips who commented.
"I suppose we do... Although, sometimes it's necessary, don't you think? I mean, arguing is a way of proving that you care, isn't it?", once again a telepathic conversation had begun.
I guess you wouldn't really call it telepathy, since we appeared to be inhabiting the same mind.
"YEAH, IT HAS IT'S BENEFITS. SHOWING THAT YOU CARE AND ALL..."
"Can you, like... Ask the voice in your head for advice or something?", Orwende had somehow managed to say that without questioning himself and I was kind of touched.
"I'll try it"
"Did you hear that?", I asked Tirips.
"YEAH, I COULD HEAR HIM"
"So?"
"..."
"You can't help me?"
"I KNOW THAT THIS IS GOING TO SOUND CLICHE AND STUPID, BUT YOU NEED TO SOLVE THIS PROBLEM YOURSELF..."
"..."
"I'M REALLY SORRY, THERE'S A REASON FOR THIS. SO YOU NEED TO TRUST ME AND THAT STUFF..."
"..."
"ARE YOU GIVING ME THE SILENT TREATMENT?!"
"..."
"THIS ISN'T GOING TO SOLVE ANYTHING!"
"..."
"Were you able to get some answers?", Emeralda, you sweat summer child!
"... Not really..."
"I knew that this was stupid!", Mercury was back at it again...
"Wait!! I think that I can hear it!"
"Really!, what is it saying!", Emeralda, you really are too good for this world!
"It's telling me that in order to open a portal which leads back to our world, we need to assemble a great amount of negative energy!"
"Okay... How do we 'assemble' it then?", Aka has joined the chat.
"We need to find a great source of negative energy and... Punch it out of the source!", my eyes met Mercury's.
"You're kidding, right?"
"Hahaha! NO!"
"Get over here right now, Mercury! Take one for the team!", as I said that, I threw myself towards him. Unfortunately he just barely managed to dodge.
"Ahh!! This woman's crazy! Help she's seriously going to punch me!"
"Tsk, I missed..."
"See!?"
"I don't know Mercury, it sounds pretty legit to me", as Aka said that she smiled. That was the first time I had seen her smiling. I was surprised by how well it fit her. She probably wanted me to think that...
"Get over here right this instant young man!"
"I'm sorry! I shouldn't have accused you, so please! Don't punch me!"
"ONE PUNCH!!"
"That's not even a good reference!"
I started chasing Mercury, unfortunately, I never actually managed to catch him. We ran until both of us finished our stamina (It wasn't for a long time since both of us really sucked at running)
"Are... You... Done?", he had to pause between words in order to breath.
"Shut... Up! I... Haven'tevenstarted...", not that I was any better.
"ARE YOU DONE NOW!?", Tirips had been yelling at me during the entire chase.
"Yeah, I'm done, so are you feeling ready to help us now?"
"I TOLD YOU I CA-"
"Don't bother me then!", I said that out loud...
"Are you okay, Tendra?", it was Aka.
She had started to act more friendly with me. Smiling at my actions and saying that she trusted me. I really hated it... Her intentions had seemed pure at first, "maybe she just wants to cooperate, maybe she really trusts me...". Those had been my thoughts. It was just a play. The exact moment at which she had started acting more friendly was when we had appeared here...
She probably just wanted me on her side, it was the same with Menteur. At first she had objected nearly all his words, but when he had proven his status, she had started following him.
When I asked everyone to stop before, she had objected immediately. But now, right after she found out that I had taken us to this other world, guess what happened...
"Hey, Tendra?"
No!! You're just doubting her because of your own insecurities! I don't know what, but there must be something in your past which has made you this way...
It felt like there were two personalities inside of me, and I wasn't talking about Tirips.
My chest started to hurt, as if the two were fighting inside of it. It felt like a dark void. Like a fog covering the insides, a heavy and dark fog. It sank into my core, unmoving. No matter how hard I breathed, it wouldn't circulate through my body and exit with the oxygen. It had become a part of me before I realized it. I had probably been carrying this long before today.
For the first time I appreciated the fact that I had amnesia...
"She has to lie, why else would anyone ever smile at you? Everyone's probably in on it!", yeah, probably...
"No! Trust in her, just like she does in you!", can I really?...
I realized something ironic... This new world, it's color was the perfect backdrop for my fog...
Everything started to become darker. The sky and the liquid which we stood on, it all gained a pure black color.
The light which shouldn't have been here in the first place started fading.
It was perfect now... The perfect world to become a part of. The perfect place to sink into, and the perfect place to fade awa-
A hard slap to my face woke me up
"Stop this right now, Tendra!!", Emeralda stood their, her only arm, the right one, ready to slap me again.
I stared straight into her eyes. They were serious, for the first time the happy-go-lucky attitude which usually filled them was nowhere to be found.
"That... Hurt..."
Suddenly I could feel tears aggressively force their way down my chins. It felt good and terrible at the same time. The fog inside of me started washing away with the rivers which flowed down my face.
Emeralda embraced me with her arm, like she had done when we first met.
"Just because a part of you is missing or overwhelming doesn't mean an embrace will feel worse! It's actually the opposite! When something isn't their or if it's too much, having someone who can replace your lost limb or help you carry the weights... Even if it's just for a short while, it will make you realize that there's no need for a restart nor another world... Sometimes you only need to rest in someone's embrace for a moment..."
TIME: 5:24
DATE: UNKNOWN
LOCATION: UNKNOWN
NAME: TENDRA
AGE: 16 - 18
GENDER: FEMALE
DECEASED: PERIWINKLE