Chapter 4 – Information is Key

Aki's eyebrows twitched at the sight of his ominous face, she thought that it was quite an exaggerated expression to make. Plus, he seemed more against the idea of looking for other people.

"I don't know why you'd want to look for other people but, I've been here for a long time, and I've yet to encounter any other living person aside from you" Aki furrowed her brows showing her confusion.

Neo also quietly fiddled with his chin as if he was a great philosopher uncovering a great mystery. Aki had been living in the area but had yet to meet any other human beings. Was it that they never bothered to come here or that there weren't other humans at all? The latter was quite dreadful for the two of them, while the former would be best if they wanted to deal with Neo's current situation. A bigger problem however was the lack of information, Neo needed to know where he truly was, the culture and norms of this place, and other important things. Of course he had already tried asking Aki, but not much came out of that.

"I wasn't from here either you know, I've lived here for 5 years but I wasn't born here. That's why I don't know much about this place, only that it's a bunch of ruins from an era long past us" Aki spoke nonchalantly but Neo could tell that she was also homesick, even more so than he was.

"So we don't know where we are, and what this place is. That's why we have to find people, or at least find out if there are people, other than the two of us" Neo said, his fingers gently stroking his chin.

"Why do you keep repeating that it's just the two of us, it's like you want that to be the case. Do you even want to find other people?" Aki raised a brow as she asked Neo, hands on her hips. Neo's face automatically scrunched up when she hit the mark straight on. Neo was an antisocial child. He didn't want to interact with strangers if he didn't need to. Even interacting with Aki was already stretching his limited social interaction skills that weren't sharpened at all due to his self-isolation. The only reason he still conversed with her was the fact that he felt at ease around her despite her contradicting cold and fiery personality.

"I don't really want to interact with other people, but we don't have a choice. I want-No…I need to go home to my family" Neo said, the light in his eyes blazing with his firm will.

Seeing the firm expression on his face, Aki suddenly felt her heart skip a beat. Feeling her own blood come to life, her longing to return home also reignited, like embers from a dying fire suddenly touching gasoline and blazing into a roaring flame. She looked at the pale faced boy with an odd expression on her face.

"I have a map. It details the areas I usually visit, but outside of that it won't be able to help us much" She turned around and went downstairs to retrieve the map. After returning she gently placed it on the bed and unrolled it slowly. The paper was old, and so were the lines and diagrams drawn on the paper. The area was mostly composed of wide open plains, with hills scattered here and there. To the north of the map, a gray rectangular shape was drawn, and beside it the words 'Old Ruins' were written in black. Neo stared at the map for a second before smiling.

"Why are you smiling like an idiot?" Aki asked as she looked at his face.

"Don't call me an idiot…I was smiling because I remembered how I used to draw maps like this all the time" Neo caressed the paper gently, remembering his home and his family. He then tapped the map and faced Aki.

"How did you make this? Where did you get the materials for the ink?" Neo looked around the old bedroom wondering where she could have possibly obtained the ink necessary to write down and draw the map. The girl gestured for him to follow her downstairs as she grabbed the map and went to the living-room where she placed the map on the small desk in the middle of the room. She then briefly entered the kitchen and came back holding a small brown jar that was covered with some leather. She placed it on the table with a light thud.

"The ash from the firewood is a perfect substitute, but I don't know how to explain the process" She stared at the jar and opened it to reveal a sticky black fluid. Neo stared at the ink briefly zoning out. But then his consciousness continued to fade and his head began to throb, voices and laughter echoed in his ears. A scene slowly began to flash before his eyes.

"Listen now, this is how you make ink from ash…first you crush the ash into powder like this" A woman with blurred features began to crush the ash into powder in a jar with a pestle. 

What is…where am I? What am I seeing?

Neo watched as the woman continued to crush the ash before it was turned into fine powder. She then picked up a jar and showed it to Neo. Inside the jar was a thick yellow fluid that smelled really good. The woman gently poured the oil in another bowl.

"This is a special type of oil, if you mix it with the ash, it turns black and when you dip a pen in it and use it to draw it works like normal ink" The woman patiently explained as she poured the powdered ash into the bowl of oil whilst' stirring the oil gently with a stick. The oil slowly turned black and slightly sticky. After that, the woman gently set aside the stick and took out a brush that was made from what looked to be human hair, and gently dipped the thin brush into the ink. She then began to draw on a piece of thick paper. She drew large blots on the piece of paper and other irregular shapes. Neo watched in fascination as the drawing slowly became more detailed, with notes and legends that signified landmarks that represented places in the area that the map depicted.

Neo's thoughts began to churn, what was he watching? Was it a memory? A figment of his imagination? If it was indeed a memory then who's memory was it? There were so many questions flying around in his head that he thought his vision was spinning. Then he realized that the surroundings had suddenly become dark. His chest was suddenly so heavy, and he was covered in sweat. His hand was being pulled by the beautiful woman from before. The two of them were running in a dark and gloomy forest.

"Move faster and be quiet. Don't make any loud noises. We can't let it catch us you understand?" She looked over her shoulder as she continued to run. If it were anyone else, they wouldn't have noticed the subtle tremble in her voice as she told him to move faster. Neo however picked up the slightest change in her voice, and automatically knew that she was frantic and on the verge of panicking. It was as if they were being chased. Whatever it was that was chasing the two of them, it definitely wasn't something normal.

Neo felt a chill run down his spine, making the hair on the back of his neck stand. The surroundings suddenly felt much darker and gloomier, while the temperature also fell. Neo didn't understand what was happening at all but he felt fear grip his heart. It was a slow and dreadful feeling that made one feel as if they were in an endless maze with no exit in sight. As the surroundings grew dim, Neo slowly lost awareness of his surroundings and found that he had been running in an unknown direction for quite some time now.

Now that alone wasn't anything to be worried about, but there was one thing that made Neo's blood run colder than ice.

That was the lack of his previous companion…He was alone.

"Hey? Idiot, Hello~? Brainless? Are you there??" Aki called out to Neo who stood there in a daze, repeatedly as she waved her hands in front of his face. But to her surprise this didn't seem to catch his attention at all. He didn't seem to even be moving at all. Aki furrowed her brows and was about to touch his shoulder when Neo suddenly folded and collapsed into a heap on the floor. Like a marionette who's strings have been cut. He lay on the floor still as a corpse, his eyes dull and blank. Aki blinked her eyes for a second, before she realized what had happened. She then scrambled down to tap Neo's face. Flustered and panicked, Aki began to shake Neo, trying to awaken him from his stupor.

"Neo?! Neo wake up! What is going on with you! Come on snap out of it!" Aki called his name again and again, but it did nothing to wake the unresponsive young lad.

Aki then quickly knelt down on one knee and easily heft the young boy in her arms before carrying him back upstairs to bed. He was thin, very thin so she had no trouble carrying him over her shoulder despite her small stature. While carrying the frail boy, she looked like an ant carrying a piece of grain. She gently placed the dazed Neo on the mattress and huffed as she stared at his face.

"What is it with fainting that's so fun that he keeps doing it?" Aki mumbled and pinched the bridge of her cute little nose.

Neo continued to run in silence, but in his chest a loud thumping sound continued to reverberate throughout his mind. The sound of his anxious heartbeats echoing over and over in his ears. The steadily rising heartrate began to fill his blood and body with adrenaline, but it did nothing to quell the cold fear that had settled deep in his heart.

Neo frantically looked around, searching and scanning with his eyes. What was he searching for? Neo himself forgot, but he felt that if he didn't find what he was looking for, that he'd regret it. He held back his breathes, making sure that even those did not make too much sound. Neo was truly confused, but even in his confusion he continued to search.

This feeling of anxiety continued for what seemed like hours, until he finally found something. Neo stopped still in his tracks. His heart, now booming loudly in his ears like a slow drum roll. The lady who accompanied him from before stood before his eyes in the middle of a clearing. The ground she stood on was bare and was muddy.

Despite having made no sound the lady glanced at him briefly, and in that brief moment Neo saw acceptance and resignation in her eyes, accompanied with grief. Neo felt bone chilling fear, but still did not understand why he was feeling so. That mystery soon solved itself for him though. In the dark gloomy forest, loud clicking sounds echoed. Like snapping bones, they rang in the darkness. Neo's heart clenched tight as he realized what was going to occur. The lady slowly took out from a pouch wrapped around her waist, a bottle containing glowing green liquid. She opened the bottles cork and the frightening sound of sizzling acid came with the pop of the cork. She glanced slightly to the side and Neo once again saw her expression. Her shoulders rose slight and her chest heaved as she took a deep breathe before she opened her mouth and gave a loud shout: "RUN!!!!"

Neo's mind froze but his body moved. In that moment, a large shadow lunged at the woman out of nowhere, it was tall and had tentacles sticking out of its back. Its herculean size was truly nightmarish with its body that did not resemble any creature known to man, limbs haphazardly attached on random places on its worm like torso. The gigantic mouth it had on what could only be called its front end had rows and rows of large yellowish fangs. As the creature pounced it became a blur of movement as if something large and heavy was being swung. Then the sound that followed sent inconceivable chills down Neo's spine. The lady who had been standing was now impaled with one of its bony limbs. With an inhuman cry she endured the pain of her stomach getting punctured and she threw the green bottle into the maw of the nightmare creature. The liquid upon spilling into the creature's mouth, exploded and splashed into the surroundings melting everything and anything it touched.

The sound of flesh turning into paste and splattering echoed in Neo's ears but he could do nothing to stop the terrible nightmare he was going through. After the gruesome display, Neo's vision swirled and as if emerging from being submerged in icy cold water, He gasped then screamed while opening his eyes. Aki who was once again in the kitchen heard the loud scream, dropped the bottle in her hand which shattered. She frantically ran upstairs, heart beating loudly in her ears. She came into the room, the first thing she saw was Neo leaning half his body out the window and puking his guts out, while blood was streaming down his nose and tears down his cheeks. Aki froze at the doorway. This image of utter despair in Neo reminded her of herself in the past which made her feel dread.

"Neo! What happened to you?!" She said out loud as she came up to him and rubbed his back.

Neo continued to puke his insides, out the window until he was dry heaving. The traumatizing vision he had just experienced had almost broken him. He felt as if he wanted to scream until his throat exploded, but his physiological reaction of puking dwarfed the urge to scream. He did not wish to go through such an experience once again. Aki continued to rub his back while he continued to gag. It was only until half an hour later did he collapse into Aki's arms and quietly sobbed. Neo felt absolutely lost and terrified. Even though he knew it was not real and was just a vision, it still felt as if he had experienced it himself. He had gone through something no other child should have gone through.