The Wraith

A dark figure was lurking in the shadowed fringes, holding a black bow and arrow with a silver tip glistening under the sun.

Fear gripped Archie as Sid muttered, "Phantom," into the nook of his ear. The phantom was a ghastly amalgamation of oblivion and a person's worst nightmare.

The form was elusive, like the black fox covered in dense bog, constantly shifting grotesquely from one form to another. It morphed into a variety of terrifying forms, each tailored to its victims.

The essence of the phantom was shrouded in the abyss, and Archie could sense his fear of not going back home, losing his grandfather and failing his examination as a medical student.

As the image of his unconscious grandfather lingered in his thoughts, he felt tears welling up in his eyes and threatened to trickle down his cheeks.

The air surrounding him became void, yet filled with icy chills that sucked out all warmth and hope of him surviving Elysium.

Then a swift movement, silent but deadly like a spectre that glided with its feet, never touched the ground. The palpable aura of dread and despair grew as Archie was back in a trance, but this time filled with fears and scary scenes of his father and mother dead in a freak accident.

The situation was so intense that, as the phantom fed upon Archie's fears and nightmares, the black bog became denser that light from its surroundings extinguished, casting a twilight of desolation.

The thick bog engulfed Archie as his mind continued to wonder deeper into his hidden memories.

At this moment, if Archie does not snap out of it, he will lose his soul to the phantom.

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There Archie stood, as memories of his past flashed before his eyes. There he was, at the age of ten, drawing skeletons and labelling their parts. His mother was busy preparing breakfast for the day, whereas his father just came out of the shower, getting ready for work.

Both of them were surgeons and were required to work under high stress in the hospital. Archie suddenly had a vivid recollection of that day. There was a huge snowstorm that morning, and their house was covered with heavy layers of snow, making it difficult for the couple to prepare.

His mother had just finished packing everyone's breakfast before heading back into the room to tend to his baby sister, who was just a toddler.

Archie's father, all dressed for work, took the breakfast that was prepared on the counter and ushered me quickly to leave the house.

"Quickly, Archie, we are going to be late. Get your bags and wait in the car for me.'

Archie heard his father's instructions in a perfunctory manner while he was playing with his Nintendo Switch. He was the first to dress and pack his bags ready for school while waiting for his parents to depart.

He thought having his sister was a drag, as his mother needed to wake up earlier to prepare the baby and then prepare his breakfast.

He wasn't used to the additional member of the family entering their lives. Since he was an only child for almost a decade, he liked it.

Archie waited half an hour in the car for his parents and sister to come out of the house. At this moment, he felt something wasn't right. It was taking too long for all three of them to leave the house.

Out of curiosity, Archie came out of the car and returned to the house to check and see what was taking them so long.

The house was completely obscured, as it was shrouded in darkness. He could not recognise the place where he once lived and tried to navigate his way into the master bedroom, where his parents and sister were supposed to be last.

A dark human figure brandishing a bow and arrow materialised as the thick fog abruptly receded.

The black bog retreated to reveal his parents lying on the floor, unconscious with their eyes opened wide and the toddler lying on the floor, blood streaming out from his sister's head.

Archie let out a scream at the sight of his family lying lifeless on the floor. The emotions overwhelmed the young Archie, so much so that his eyes glowed to a bright blue and his powers, newly awakened and raw, spiralled widely out of control as he continued to cry at the sight of his deceased parents as the essence of his mana erupted from him in a torrent that transformed the air around him into a living cyclone.

The energy was pure and unbridled, just like his screams of devastation. Archie crouched at the epicentre of a maelstrom of his own making, hugging the corpses of his parents with both arms close to his chest. He sobbed uncontrollably.

The wild hurricane carried away his little sister's body, which he had failed to retrieve in time to hold while his abilities developed into a full-blown cyclone of desolation. The wind twisted and contorted the toddler's body until it was a mush of bloodied meat that splattered all over the room.

As Archie's instability worsened, he unleashed a torrent of mayhem that eventually levelled the house, causing him to scream in terror.

Crouching at the heart of this chaos with his arms around his parents, the power that flowed through him stopped after the destruction of the housing estate, for which he had claimed the lives of countless residents in the area that day.

The authorities appeared and labelled the cause of the major snowstorm that caused this accident, but no one could explain how the little boy survived the catastrophe, given that his house was fully demolished.

His grandfather appeared and carried the exhausted boy away from the scene, and he had been living with him ever since.

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A slap in the face broke Archie's reverie as he opened his eyes to see the real Aurelia in front of him.

"Stop this!" she yelled.

Archie blinked a few times and he saw that he, Aurelia and the black fox were in the heart of this chaos, swirling and twisting, destroying everything around his path.

Bits of rock and sand were being eroded and crumbling away from the cliff behind him by the torrent that his mana manifested.

"You are destroying the entrance to the oasis," Aurelia yelled at him desperately, persuading him to stop the destruction of the oasis.

"I don't know how to stop." Tears started to trickle down Archie's cheek as his worst memory resurfaced and lingered in his mind like it only happened yesterday.

Aurelia embraced Archie and reassuringly said, "Trust me, now let it go."

Archie returned her embrace, which was warm and light, a feeling he had not experienced for a very long time. Golden light illuminated as Archie felt the warmth sensation channelling into his body.

Archie collapsed onto the foxtailed cushion. As the cyclone of mana essence passed, so did the internal anguish and despair that were hidden within Archie. On top of the fox, Archie slept quietly, his breath even.