Chapter 34: Where Are We?

He woke up staring at a tall grey ceiling. He blinked a few times, trying to recollect his memories. The last thing he could remember was the arrival three phantom members, everything else was in a blur.

An irritated sigh escaped his lips, realising that recalling what had happened was futile. He then pushed himself to sit up, so that he could better scrutinise his surroundings. The moment he did that, sharp pain stabbed his ribs, causing him to flinched momentarily.

"Oh yeah, broken ribs."

He clenched onto his side instinctively, as a rattle sound echoed throughout the enclosed space. He stared down to find that his arms were being bounded by shackles.

"I should probably do something about this."

Looking back up, he took a quick glance at his unfamiliar surroundings, "Now, where am I?"

The place was guarded by four brick walls. There wer no doors nor windows to be seen anywhere, so breaking out from here was nearly impossible...

For a human that is.

"I should just melt this chains and get the hell out."

He focused his energy on his palms, so that he could manifest his flames. But, the only flame he got was a tiny flame that lit up on one of his fingers, but it quickly extinguished itself. Though it unexpected, it did not cause him any dismay. Instead, he quickly found the reason why.

"...This chain seems to be restricting my energy. Well, looks like I won't be getting out of here."

Okay, maybe in this situation, breaking out was nearly impossible for the 'specials' as well.

He cursed under his breath, throwing a sullen look to no one in particular.

He then turned to see a familiar looking girl... Emily.

"I guess I couldn't get her out of that situation, huh." He huffed as he shook his head disappointingly. He leaned slightly towards her, to take a closer look, checking if she was hurt.

Just as he was done checking, she woke up.

She had a shock of her life when she saw his face right in front of hers. Unwillingly, she let out a sudden yelp, scaring Beck in the process. Agitated, she dragged her feet and bottom backwards to get back away from him.

Her vision got clearer as her eyes began to adjust to the dimness of the room. Noticing that it was just Beck, she heaved a sigh of relief, "Thank goodness. I thought you were someone else."

Still flustered, she decided to take a couple of deep breaths to steady herself. Feeling much calmer now, she finally noticed her hands were chained up as well. She took a look around, discovering that the two of them were in a room enclosed by four tall walls and no doors...

"Okay, how the heck did both of us end up in a room like this?" She wondered as she scrunched her nose.

He looked at her with concern and questioned, "Are you okay? You're not hurt anywhere, right?"

"I don't think so. How about you?" She asked with equal concern as he stood up and dusted his clothes.

"I'm fine--" Just as he said that, a wave of dizziness hit him, making him stumbled forward. Emily quickly stood up and attempted to support him, but she could not, since her hands were bounded together.

"Oh, shit."

The both of them ended up falling onto the hard ground.

Beck planted his forearms onto the floor to support himself, so that he could avoid falling directly on the girl. "Sorry, Emily are yo--"

His words died on his lips, when he noticed that both of their faces were only a couple centimetres apart, which was way too close for either of their comfort zones.

Fazed, he unwillingly let out a puff of air that brushed against Emily's forehead, making her blushed. There was a good few seconds of direct eye contact between the both of them, before they recognised how awkward of a situation they were in. Beck quickly pushed himself away from her, "Sorry, Emily. I really have no intention of doing anything whatsoever, I swear it's an accident."

She tried staying composed, but her stammering between her words suggested otherwise, "Y-Yeah, I know. Erm... A-Are you okay now?"

He turned away and avoided making eye contact with her, "Yeah. I'm okay, just a little tired."

"That's good-- Wait, I don't mean that it's good that you're tired, I mean, it's good that you're fine, you know?" Her arms were moving all over the place as she justified herself. Knowing that she was making things worse, she then quickly changed the subject, "Do you know where are we?"

"Uh... Maybe in one of Phantom's hideouts. I can't be sure which one though." He explained as he pushed his body up, before continuing, "You can rest here, I'll see if we can escape this place."

She did not like how he is always way too nice to her, like seriously, he should be the one resting.

Suddenly, his chilling words hit her and memories of what happened started to settle in, "What courage you got there, Miss Princess. Making me go with them as well, huh. That's not very nice, you know?"

At that moment, a sudden sense of guilt swept through her.

"...Beck." She called out.

He turned back and shifted his attention on her, "Yeah?"

She remained silent for a while before she cleared her throat and apologised, "I'm sorry for dragging you into this. I just didn't now want to see Zack and Kate being killed. So, I accepted their deal, which brings the both of us here." She looked down, too afraid to see his reaction.

"It's just that?" He asked, expecting for something more as he returned his attention to the walls.

"Yeah..." She replied, hanging her head lowly.

"Well, I rather be stuck here with you than to have you stuck here yourself. It's not safe here. So, there's no need to apologise, I think you made the right choice. Besides, I don't remember much, so you need to fill me up."

She was surprised, he was not mad. She looked up to see him giving her a smile.

"You're not mad?" She raised an eyebrow with a hint of disbelief.

"No, I'm not." He laughed, "It takes much more to make me angry. Much much more. Come on, you should tell me what happened."

"Alright." She told him everything that happened, from how he turned into a completely different person to what was the deal she was referring. As she was talking about how he was a completely different person, he stopped and questioned, "Did I hurt you in anyway? ...When I wasn't myself."

"Hm... Not at all." She continued hesitantly, "...But, I'm still puzzled. Who is that guy? I mean, I know he takes the same form as you, but is that guy really you?"

He thought about it for a while before responding, "Yes... And no. Externally, he is me. But internally, he is not me."

That made Emily more confused, "What? ...I don't understand. What do you mean by internally, he is not you?"

"Well..." He tried to think of an example to better explain this to her. The one that he thought about sounded odd, but it was close to his situation. "It is like when someone is possessed. They might look like themselves, but they're not."

She raised one of her eyebrows and tried to understand what he was trying to say, "So, in dangerous situations, you get possessed?"

"Something like that." He shrugged as he chuckled. He then began to wonder around, trying to feel for any loosed bricks. Suddenly, he blurted out, "...Everything started many years ago when there was an attack in Fiore. A fire demon appeared in main town, looking for souls to consume--"

Noticing that he was beginning to say some unnecessary things, he came to a halt. He thought that Emily would not be interested anyway. It was already bad enough to be stuck in an isolated room, there was no need for him to give her a history lesson on himself.

However, to his surprise, she called out for him.

"Err... Aren't you going to continue?" She questioned while tilting her head slightly to the side.

"You're interested? It's really boring though."

Squinted her eyes towards him, even though he did not turn to see them, "How boring can it gets? Besides, it's your story, right? So, how can I not be interested?"

He chuckled and smiled silently to himself as he continued, "Well, it slaughtered hundreds of humans, but it wasn't enough--"

"Wait." Emily cut in, "There are humans here? I thought non-humane beings lived here."

"There are humans here in this world, but just a small percentage of it. Probably around ten percent."

He cleared his throat and carried on, "It then attempted to hunt for mages, espers and other special beings for their souls. Unfortunately, for this case, it aimed for the Fiore's castle. The queen ruling the Fiore at that time, managed to keep that monster entertained, but she couldn't defeat it, even with the help of the Oliver's family. Slowly, she got tired, her soldiers got tired and her other allies got tired. After a few days, One by one, they started to fall. That thing was just way too strong for them to handle, so the only way to minimise their damage was to seal it. However, sealing it in an object would not work, it will be too weak of a seal. They needed to seal it in something that's alive, something that has blood running through its veins. Not a human, but a suitable someone, who possessed an ability. It's like a scarification or some sort. At that point in time, Ben and I were born and we are suitable enough as the demon's vessel. The queen was reluctant to seal it in one of us, but she had to do it for the people. The Oliver family agreed to it, even though it was one of the worse ideas ever to be accepted by a parent. But, they didn't have time to spare. Ben was a much more suitable vessel, as compared to me, since he's like a prodigy. He would have perfect control over that demon, so they decided to seal it in him."

He then broke into a sad laughed, "Sadly, they mistaken me for him, so they sealed it in the wrong person."

It took a few seconds to her to process everything he just said, "Whaaaaat? So, he is in this state now because of that careless mistake..."

He noticed her silence and began to explain, "So, the weird personality changes are from that demon sealed inside of me. For some unknown reason, the demon merges with me, creating a single being. When that happens, I will not be able to control him. However, it's probably better than to have it killing me slowly, physically and mentally as an unsuitable vessel would have been, so I guess that is something I should be thankful of."

"Damn... Someone call this guy an exorcist! We need to get the demon out of him! Cleanse this man!"

She then shook her unnecessary thoughts away and came back to reality, "So, you have this demon sealed in you?"

"Yeah, pretty much." He answered as he ran his fingers across the wall to check for any seeping air.

"Wow, his life is probably crazier than mine. He seem to be really open about it too." She felt a sudden sense of admiration towards Beck for being able to cope with these things. She thanked him for sharing this with her, which he just replied with a smile.

After all that, she went and helped Beck with the search for a way to escape from this confined room, even though he insisted not to.