Chapter 18: In the Shadow of Midnight

".."

It was quiet.

The crackling of dry twigs and leaves as they were reduced to fodder and ash in the fire dominated the somber interior entrance of the cave. With the sun down wholly, the fierce yellow glow of the dancing fire cast deep shadows of our figures across the ground.

I stared down at the shadow that was mine. My fingers clenched tightly, my nails threatening to bite into my palm and draw blood.

I wonder, what kind of expression would one make in a situation like this?

That was a dumb question with an obvious answer. The expression I was sure I had at the moment, that was it.

Lia sobbed and cried from across. Most of the sound was swallowed up by the crepitating fire. The sobs only dragged on longer into a wail.

Lia continued to shed tears uncontrollably.

I didn't have to look up at her to tell.

Perhaps...I was supposed to cry, too?

If Lia took on such an expression in the same situation, was it right that it should be the same as I do?

'...hmph,' I sneered at myself inwardly, 'A passing interlude, indeed.'

I had been filled in on what happened after the others, and I split up in the forest by Lia.

"So Don and the others were captured. Just before that, they managed to buy some time for you to get away." My voice sounded flat and hoarse with each word. The inside of my throat seemed to burn as if it had lit on fire, cremating me from the inside out.

I raised my head and watched Lia nod with a sob and a sniffle. Her pretty face was contorted, and her eyes puffily swollen from the unrelenting tears.

I never wanted to see Lia like this. I never wanted to see her cry. I tried to tell Lia something...I wanted to comfort and reassure her that everything would be fine. I wanted to say it with a smile—an honest one. But I couldn't. I couldn't even reassure myself that everything would end up okay.

It...it wasn't supposed to be like this, was it? It wasn't supposed to end up this way. It was just a kid's game! Nothing so serious. So how?! How in the fucking hell did all this happen?!

I couldn't answer that. None of us could.

My lips parted and closed. I couldn't procure a sound, much less a word to say to Lia.

What was I supposed to do? What was I supposed to tell her? 'Stop crying, it'll be alright'? Bullshit! I needed someone to tell me that!

I thought I could handle this. I thought I could manage. I thought if our circumstances worsened, I could somehow at least manage to get the kids back to the village alive. I didn't have the situation under control, but I was sure I could use the tides as it went. I was sure I could do it...

“…We should go back to the village and report this…” I finally found my voice, shakily turning to Lia, trying to hold myself together for her sake and my mental state.

A sharp reply quickly came from Lia.

“No! We can’t!” she shot up and said. She wiped the flowing tears and rolling snot of her face with her hands. “We can’t do that!” she mumbled as she did. Her eyes beamed with sorrow and agony, shooting me in my chest, strangling my breath, and bringing me closer and closer to losing my sanity. If she keeps looking at me like this, I might lose it. I might go insane. No, I have already gone insane, haven’t I?

I stared at her as a silent question burned on my tongue for a few seconds.

“Why not?”

At my question, Lia brought her hands down and reached for the tattered hem of her one piece and squeezed them tightly. Her shoulders trembled as she tried to verbalize the following words forcefully. Her face still contorted with relentless tears and snot, Lia bit down on her lower lip.

“W-we can’t! If we do… th-they’ll die.”

My eyes widened as my heart sank deeper into my chest. I couldn't stop my lips from shivering as my jaws threatened to drop. A strange chilly sensation encroached closely around my sunken heart.

“...what?" I barely managed to utter a single word. This is insanity. If we don’t get out, we will die.

"What...what does that mean?" I shot up from where I sat, "Lia, tell me. What do you mean by that?!" I demanded, growing more anxiously aroused. The cold sensation encroaching me sunk into my back. My premonition only got darker.

Lia's grip on her gown's helm tightened. Her shoulders shook at my outburst as she lowered her face to the ground. The tears rolled and flowed into puddles at her feet.

"...A ritual," she sniffled, "I overheard them say something about a ritual..."

Lia jerked her head up and took a comprehensive step toward me. She grabbed me by my collar and forcefully pulled me in. I didn't fight back or struggle and simply remained passive about what she would do.

"Reo! We have to save them! Don, Trise, Leon, and Kyle...If we don't, we'll lose them by midnight!" She screamed as she dug her face into my chest, punching my shoulders. Her whole body trembled in my embrace. Her tears and snot, along with her racing breath, felt warm against my skin.

'Lia...' I had to calm down. I had to calm her down. Breathe, Reo, breathe. You have to breathe, I have to breathe. Inhale, exhale. I can do this.

If Lia was in this state, I had to be the one to maintain a level head. Don and the others were in trouble, and there was also the thing about a ritual that Lia was crying about. What good would it be if we both, Lia and I, got worked up?

I tried to slow my racing heart and retain composure. I suppressed the quivering in my hands and the hesitation in my subsequent actions as I placed a hand on Lia's head and tightened my embrace around her with my other hand.

I forced a bitter smile.

And gently, I stroked her head and whispered into her ear,

"Lia, it's okay. Everything will be alright."

But that was purely a lie.

I didn't know anymore. I had no reassurance that everything would be fine. And in all honesty, some of those words were directed at me as well.

For a few minutes, we remained like that. We stood there in the light, Lia's face buried into my chest as I gently stroked her head, engulfing my fingers in her damp hair.

A minute later, Lia's tears seemed to have dried out. Her trembling body settled and remained still in my embrace. From the close contact between our bodies, I could feel Lia's heartbeat slowly resonate with mine.

Lia was slowly calming down.

Like this, I decided to wait for a few more seconds, giving Lia some more time to relax, even if just a little.

Strangely enough, even I began to feel just a little better.

"Lia," I stroked her head one more time and called out to her softly.

I felt her petite frame shift slightly in my arms. I took that single and insignificant action as leeway to continue.

"... what do you mean by ritual? Tell me in detail exactly what happened." I made sure to sound soft and reassuring. I wouldn't want her to go into another tantrum.

I felt the collar of my shirt getting squeezed a little. A few seconds later, Lia gently pulled out of my arms with her face still lowered.

"...When the bald men caught up to us," Lia hesitantly uttered, " we tried to split up again. I rushed to one of the trees close by and hid behind it. Unfortunately, Don and the others weren't as lucky. They were caught almost immediately," She paused.

Lia slowly recounted what had happened then and the words she had also unmistakably heard.

—"Huh? Weren't they six of them? How come I only see four?"

—" Well, that's because one of the god-damned brats ran away back at the cave entrance. The one who nearly bit my thumb off!"

—Ooh! You mean the one who knocked Droolly out and nearly dislocated his jaw with a single punch! Frankly, I was shocked. His appearance was kind of different, too. It's not every day you see someone with black hair and eyes. A foreigner, maybe?"

—"Well, that doesn't matter. Once I catch him, I'll make sure to rip his throat out!"

—"Woah, bro, you can't do that, remember? The boss needs the kids alive and well as sacrifices for the ritual by the full moon during midnight. But these kids don't look like the ones who managed to escape a few weeks back, though."

—"Of course, they aren't! We found the corpses of those in the Southern region of the forest, remember? But of course, we can't tell it to the boss. He still thinks those kids are still in the forest, making it hard to navigate and get out. So he probably mistook these wandering brats as them.

—"Hmmm. Yeah, I guess you're right. But there's still one more of them missing, other than the foreigner kid. Wouldn't it be bad if she somehow managed to get out of the forest and get in contact with a village or something?"

—"Tsk. You go after them. They couldn't have gone too far. Take Grindy along with you."

From there, Lia was found and chased through the forest by Shorty when she ran into me.

"This is bad." I groaned as I held my head and fell on my seat.

'This is really bad!' I thought urgently as I pulled out my hair.

A ritual. Of all the things the universe could choose to go wrong — a bloody ritual!

'Don and the others are going to be used as sacrifices. They're going to die?' I squeezed tightly at my head with both my hands.

Fuck, I wanted to scream! I wanted to scream my lungs out.

But I couldn't.

I had to retain composure and think this through. What were our options?

'Do we even have options?'

Our next course of action should have been obvious.

I remained curled on the floor for a few minutes with Lia standing right over me.

I slowly raised my head and stared up at the little girl. The area around her eyes was swollen and red from tears. Her face was pale and exhausted, and her expression was almost despaired. It was blank! Devoid of nearly all emotions!

The light in her eyes was slowly diminishing.

Lia was barely holding it together. She could break down like a poorly made clay pot at any moment. She had hit her mental threshold for a kid like her in one day.

'I can't let anything happen to her!' I grit my teeth while suppressing the urge to curse aloud.

"Fuuu...." I took in a deep breath and weighed our options.

No, there was no need to.

I focused my gaze entirely on Lia's blank expression for any reaction I might trigger.

"I suggest we return to the village..." I paused.

Her expression faltered and shook. Her empty eyes widened slightly, and her shoulders trembled once more.

Lia's clenched fist shook, and her lips quivered. His pale face wrung out a contorted expression as her already swollen, dry eyes squeezed out the last visages of tears. Lia took a few unsteady steps back.

I sighed inwardly. I really hated seeing Lia like this. And I hated I couldn't do much about it as well.

Suppressing the desire to curse at myself, I moved my lips and added:

"...show of hands...!" I said in a slightly exaggerated voice and dramatic manner.

Lia took one more step back and froze as she heard the latter half of my sentence. Her watery and swollen eyes widened slightly as she did.

"Hmm. No one?" I looked around the empty cave, shrugged my shoulders, and sighed before getting up to my feet.

I took three steps forward and covered the little distance between Lia and me.

Arriving right before her, I smiled widely and reached a hand to pat her head.

"Hehe," I forced a dry chuckle.

I must really be out of my mind.

"Hey, Lia," I paused and waited for a moment.

"..."

"Let's go save our friends."

***

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