Illusion

 "What are you spacing out for!? Move!" 

Eirin could not believe the young man after he threw her back to the ground, leaving her groaning and cussing. 

"Do you really have to throw me!? My arm is—" Eirin stopped as she blinked thousands of times. Her injuries were long gone before she could even notice. 

The forest spoke once again. 

"Lonely demon child, you shall stay here with us."  

Shade clicked his tongue as he pulled Eirin up. The teenage girl only stared at the young man and said nothing. It was like walking on eggshells after what the forest had said to the man. She didn't want to piss him off even more. 

"Let's go." 

The flames vanished, and Shade grabbed Eirin by the end of her torn shirt, looking ahead of them. It was still the same dark and ghastly forest, and the voices were still trying to converse with them. Those same vines that kept attacking Eirin were still trying to get a hold of them, but unlike before, Eirin was calm. 

Eirin never knew that the despicable Shade Cromwell's presence could calm her down. "What about Coleen and Link?" 

"They left." 

The teenage girl's forehead creased and said, "Will they make it? I thought the only people allowed here are people like you?" 

"People like me?" 

Eirin gulped after hearing Shade's rigid tone. "I— didn't mean anything bad about—" 

"Link will make it." 

After Shade cut her off, Eirin kept her mouth shut and followed the young man while holding onto his shirt instead of him holding onto her. 

 "Ei, don't leave me here." 

Ava's voice echoed through Eirin's ears, but she didn't look back— no, she couldn't look back. Forcing herself to ignore the voice of the person she yearned to see again was so hard that she pretended she couldn't hear anything. The longer they walk, the denser the mist becomes. 

Eirin's head bumped into Shade's back after the man abruptly stopped. "We have fallen into an illusion," Shade said, clicking his tongue. "This is because you looked at that, didn't you?" He pointed to Ava's presence behind them. 

"You're also looking at it!" 

Shade slapped his forehead. "We will be camping here because of your stupidity." 

"What did I do? I was literally dragged by those vines! What do you want me to do?" 

The howling sound echoed along with their loud bickering through the hollow forest. Eirin stood there staring at the man, waiting for his response. He did not say anything else, but his face showed displeasure. As the two continued walking deeper into the forest, Eirin felt something grazing her arm, as if something tugged it, causing her to look behind, but nothing was there. 

"Pay attention." 

Eirin blinked three times, and her forehead soon creased. She stared at the young man's back after noticing the slight change in his tone and diction, and seeing how they were walking side by side, the young man's been matching her pace for a while now. The surroundings were still misty; the only thing that changed was Shade's actions towards Eirin. 

"We should camp here." 

The teenage girl's mouth went agape due to the sudden changes in Shade's actions. His voice sounded so soft compared to his usual arrogant tone that pisses Eirin all the time. 

"Here, use this." 

Eirin stared at the man, blinking lots of times, after seeing Shade prepare the folding bed on the floor and offered her to sleep on it instead of using it for himself. 

"I-I think we should just lean on each other's back while sitting on the sleeping bag," Eirin suggested, thinking about how it would be dangerous to let their guard down in the deadly forest. She had learned her lesson. 

"Okay, we will only rest for a little while." 

Eirin froze with her eyebrows furrowed as she thought how peculiar it was for her conversation with Shade Cromwell to be that... easy. It would have been nonstop bickering between them if it were the usual Shade. 

'This is weird.'  

The teenage girl backed away; her eyes continued observing the young man. There was no way the 'normal' Shade Cromwell would treat her gently like that. Eirin started doubting herself; maybe she was overthinking things, which was what she thought as her eyes grew tired. Despite all the suspicions, the exhaustion took over, and the teenage girl could not control it. When her back touched Shade's, she at once felt a sense of comfort despite the wariness mixing in her mind. 

'I shouldn't,' Eirin told herself as she kept her eyes wide open, stopping herself from completely falling asleep. 'I'll just close my eyes for 5 minutes,' she thought. 

 "You shouldn't be sleeping." 

Upon hearing an unfamiliar voice, Eirin slowly opened her eyes, and the first thing she saw were flames surrounding her, causing her to scream. 

"You're finally awake." 

Eirin blinked many times as she tilted her head, causing her eyes to meet Shade's. She shrieked, realising she had been leaning on Shade's shoulder the whole time. 

"First, you're dead quiet. Then, you're loud," Shade said as he rolled his eyes. "Make up your mind." 

Eirin sat on the floor, staring at the young man. His actions were the same as usual, but Eirin could feel something tugging on her chest as if telling her something was unusual with the man beside her. She remembered how Link told them the forest could imitate a person's voice and create illusions. 

'Wait a minute... He sounded mean, but he wasn't rude like the usual Shade Cromwell,' Eirin thought and gulped. She contemplated how the young man appeared out of nowhere and told her that Link and the others were already gone. 

However, would it be wise to leave your companions in the forest alone? The teenage girl started doubting that thought. Knowing how intelligent Link is, he wouldn't suggest something so risky. 

Eirin's breathing grew heavily. The man before her might be an illusion; it's plausible. Even Ava's appearance looked real and was based only on her memories, Eirin thought. However, if this man is indeed an illusion, how is it that Eirin could touch him? 

At that moment, Eirin didn't know what to believe in. In a world where everything seems to be possible, magic and otherworldly creatures, how far-fetched could it be for an illusion to be able to touch her? 

Eirin flinched after Shade's gaze landed on her. "What?" 

"What?" 

Shade raised an eyebrow and scoffed, which baffled the teenage girl. What could be the reason for the young man to laugh like that? All sorts of ideas swirled inside the teenage girl's mind, and she was starting to panic. 

"Say... could you tell me your full name?" 

Shade raised an eyebrow again but didn't look bothered or annoyed. He looked confused. "Why do I need to tell you that?" 

'Wow, if this is indeed an illusion, they did a great job mimicking that guy,' Eirin thought while she was astounded. 'How do I even prove that he's an illusion? Is he, though? Because if he wasn't, how could he let me fall asleep on his shoulder without reprimanding me about it!?' 

Eirin flinched as she watched Shade grab something out of his bag. The young man noticed how jumpy the teenage girl had become, making him look at her grimly. 

"What is wrong with you?" he asked, bringing some bread from his bag. "Eat this," he added, but Eirin only stared at the food in Shade's hand. 

"Did you put poison in it?" 

Shade scoffed and shook his head as he bit the bread. Exactly at that moment, Eirin's stomach grumbled. It sounded as if there was a thunderstrike nearby, thus making Shade cackle and leaving Eirin confused. 

Due to the embarrassment, Eirin ate the bread Shade offered and left nothing, not even crumbs. 

"For someone wary of food poisoning, you sure did eat everything." 

"W-Well, sorry for being hungry!" 

The two continued their journey. With every footstep they took, Eirin still could not get rid of her suspicions of the young man. She continued watching him from behind, assessing every single movement he made. Ava's illusion had now vanished, which made it even more suspicious. Eirin's feet were starting to ache due to how much they had walked, yet they could not reach the end of the forest. 

Eirin stared at the murky ground and noticed that the vines attacking them had oddly vanished from their sight. She looked around and listened carefully, trying to find any sound like the howling before, but there was nothing. Even the voices of the forest that kept echoing before were gone. 

It was more than weird. Just like the calm before a storm, everything had gone awfully quiet. It was so quiet that Eirin had to look closely at the man walking in front of her. The moment Shade looked back at her, she froze. 

"What is your problem? You've been staring at me." 

Eirin could feel Shade's gaze on her. However, she knew that she must set things straight. 

"Are you really Shade Cromwell?" She walked towards Shade, causing him to back away, which made Eirin's eyebrows furrowed. 

The awful silence surrounding them supported Eirin's claims. Her heart thumped loudly, which was the only sound she could hear. She walked closer to Shade, and seeing how confused the man had become made Eirin's gut feeling get stronger. 

Eirin grabbed Shade's cheeks without warning and pulled him closer to her face. Her bare hands were cold as ice as she took the high risk, assuming that the man in front of her was a mere illusion. There was no way for an illusion to go berserk after all. Eirin gulped while looking into Shade's eyes, waiting for them to change. 

"What the fuck!?" 

Shade pushed Eirin away, causing her to almost stumble to the ground. 

"Why did you do that?" 

His face was beet red, but his eyes remained black in colour, making Eirin scream in panic. "You're an illusion!" she screamed and ran as fast as she could.