Apple's Story

"Who are you?" I asked the little child whose voice was the only one that remained.

The other ghosts had disappeared when I answered the riddle, almost as if they were an illusion that the child had cast onto me.

The pill I had consumed was a way for me to temporarily connect myself to the plane that existed only for those that were dead.

If I didn't answer the riddle in time, the pill would've consumed my soul and I would've became another voice in the afterlife but because I did give the correct answer, the child had removed that timer from my body.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Apple," said the child.

"Nice to meet you Apple. I'm Bell Agnus," I responded.

Looking around the room, I was wondering where the child was at. In the novel, when the main character had fallen here, after answering a different riddle than the one that I had answered, he was able to see the ghostly body of Apple.

'Why can't I see him?' I thought. 'Is it because I'm not the main character? Is his plot armor that much more powerful than mine?'

Shaking my head, refusing to believe that was the case, I looked around a little longer and wondered if it was because my glasses were interfering with my vision of the dead.

Taking it off, I was pleased to see that my theory was correct.

Apple was a little boy with fitting red hair that transitioned to a bright green near the top of his head.

He had a missing front tooth and was dressed like someone who was born in the worst places in this world, the sewers.

The sewers were as if you took the trenches or the slums and amplified the horrors by a thousandfold.

Why was he dressed like that? Because that is indeed where he came from.

I got down on my knees so that he wouldn't have to look up so high just to see my face.

"What are you doing here?" I asked Apple.

"I was running away from someone," he responded.

"Running away? From who?" I asked.

He opened his mouth as if to answer before closing it and shaking his head.

"What's wrong?"

With a worried voice, he told me, "I can't tell you."

"Why?"

"Because you'll be in danger if you know," he explained.

Even as a son of the sewer, someone who must've known danger since the day he was born, the fact he was so kind-hearted demonstrated just how pure of a child Apple was.

"Why would I be in danger?" I asked him. "It's just a name."

"Because he's really really really scary," said Apple. "Really scary," he said again, emphasizing how scary the person was as best as he could.

"He? So it's a guy. Who's he?"

"He is... wait, I almost told you. Hahaha. Mister, you almost tricked me," he said with a smile so big that all his teeth showed; well, the few that remained.

"I wasn't trying to trick you."

"Oh, you weren't. Sorry about accusing you then," said Apple, bowing his head to show his sincerity.

"It's okay. If you're really sorry, can you do me a favor and please tell me the name of this guy?"

"I... I can't mister. I'm telling you. He's really... freaking scary."

"Apple... I know you're scared of whoever this person is but, it's alright. I'll be alright. I'm a hero," I told him.

"You're a hero? What's a hero?" asked the child, tilting his head, never heard that term before. To him, there were no heroes, no one there to save you when you're in danger.

He's never known a hero before because just like every child that lives in the sewers, all his life, he's been surrounded by villains and bystanders.

"A hero is someone who saves the weak from danger. They protect others even when they themselves have to put their life at risk. Heroes are those that do what is right, even when doing wrong is the easy way out," I explained to him.

"And... you're a hero?" asked Apple whose eyes of admiration gazed at me strongly.

Nodding my head, I said, "That's right. I will one day defeat the demon king and save the entire world from evil. Including this person whom you're so afraid to speak of."

"You will?" asked Apple, his eyes widening. He's heard of the demon king before

"I will. I will save everyone, including you. So please, can you tell me who it is that you're running away from? I promise to save you from him."

Apple looked a little hesitant. He didn't want to involve me in the danger but as he looked at my face brimming with confidence and prepared to handle said danger, he finally caved in.

"His name is Gerald Giggador," said Apple, who began to shiver slightly just by mentioning his name.

Reading the novel, all the information I was gathering was one that I already knew but it was necessary to play out the scenes.

"I first met him when I was five years old. Mother and I..."

He began to tell his life story.

Apple and his mother encountered Gerald when they were together at the dumps, trying to find any clothes they could use or sell to other sewer dwellers.

Gerald was a weak old man who had collapsed at the dumps and out of the kindness of her heart, she took him home and nursed him back to health to the best of her ability.

It was clear that Apple's kindness came from his mother.

Wanting to pay them back, Gerald offered to help them out. He spent the next two months cleaning their home, helping them make money for food and water and basically became a third member of their family.

However, just when everything looked to be perfectly normal, Apple came home one day to find his mother drinking something weird.

He questioned what it was but after Gerald assured him that it was nothing strange, he didn't question it due to the trust that he had built.

Over the next few weeks, Apple began noticing his mother acting a little different, sort of disconnected from the real world.

Occasionally, he would catch her drinking the unusual concoction with Gerald in her presence.

This all accumulated on the fateful day when Apple walked in on his mother having her heart removed from her chest while a bloody Gerald was drinking a glass of what seemed to be her blood.

Terrified, Apple ran as fast as he could, hoping to get away.

But no matter where he went, Gerald always found a way to reach him until eventually, he was caught and just like his mother, he was tormented to the fate of drinking the strange liquid every day for weeks while tied up to this chair.

Apple recalled those moments, saying that it felt like he was disconnected from the real world and was living while at the same time not living.

Then as Gerald walked into the room with a butcher knife in his hands, Apple knew that death awaited him.

The knife struck him right in the chest and despite the wound he just had inflicted on his body, he didn't feel any pain.

He watched as Gerald filled his cup up with his blood and repeatedly drank it before refilling it.

Once satisfied, Gerald dug his hand into the hole in Apple's chest and tore out the heart, consuming it.

But for some strange phenomenon, Apple died but not all the way. His soul had escaped his body and Gerald who had finished consuming the flesh looked perplexed for a few seconds before looking around.

"What are you doing out there?" asked Gerald as he reached forward, trying to grab the escaped soul of Apple, aka the ghost.

Feeling danger approaching him once again, in a panic, Apple ran or flew as fast as he could.

He continued moving forward, refusing to look back because if he did, he felt like Gerald would be right there.

At a certain point, he dozed off despite being a ghost and when he snapped back to reality, he was in this dungeon, trapped in this pit with other ghosts.

He tried to speak to the other ghosts but no matter what he said, none of them would respond.

After a while, he began asking riddles, hoping that they were interesting enough for someone to respond to him.

"How long have you been asking these riddles?" I asked Apple.

Putting his finger on his chin, he thought about it for a little bit before answering, "I'm not exactly sure how long but it must've been a hundred years at least."

"A hundred years? Shouldn't Gerald be dead then?" I asked him.

Apple shook his head, explaining, "I don't know why but I can sense that he's still alive. It's like I'm a part of him."

In the novel, it was explained that when Gerald consumed the heart, he was consuming the vitality of the victims and their lifeforce became one with him.

Which explains why Apple feels that connection.

"Apple, I promise that I will kill this man. I will save you and any other future victims," I told him, getting down on one knee, and bowing down in a specific way.

It was a knight's promise and was something that if you broke, you'd lose your knighthood.

I wasn't a knight but I wanted to show him my sincerity, even if Apple didn't understand the significance of my action.

Apple looked like he wanted to say something, to tell me that I didn't have to do it.

Then he uttered quietly to himself, "Hero," as if reminding himself of what it meant.

Finally, he looked at me with this worried but confident in me look and said, "Please mister, be very careful. Don't die or else you'll be here with me listening to these people speak utter nonsense nonstop."

"I will," I told him, smiling.

Apple waved his hand to say goodbye and slowly disappeared from my view.

Once he was completely gone, the ground I was on began to elevate until I reached the fifth floor of the dungeon.

Getting off, I watched as the dungeon returned to normal.

There were a lot of strange plot holes and randomness to this quest I just acquired as well as how I got it but remembering who it was that wrote the original story, I just brushed it off to the side.

The main character of a fantasy story always has quests they must complete.

That's exactly what I was planning on doing.