Chapter 7: Cause of the Overflow

"Wake up." said Randi and pulled the blanket which was on Erland.

"Huh? What time is it?" Erland rubbed his eye and got up from the ground. Perhaps, he fell on the ground, being wrapped in the blanket.

"It's dawn right now. Come with me."

"Don't I have to wash my face?"

"You have to wash your cloths first. Look at yourself."

Erland stared at himself. His body was covered in black substances. His shirt was drenched in it. The substance was coming out of his mouth as well like black magma

"W-What is this?!?" Erland became startled.

"Don't scream. Come with me to the bathroom." said Randi. She took him to the bathroom and gave him some cloths to change to.

"What was that?" said Erland.

"*sigh* Don't let your mommy know about this now. She'll get worried. Your power is overflowing."

"Overflowing?"

"Your power is somehow going straight on your vessel, your body and causing a huge amount of blood to drain out. Do you feel weak?"

"Yeah...I don't feel like doing anything."

"Damn it...We are visiting uncle Svend today. Come with me in these cloths. We'll have breakfast over there."

"Aren't we gonna tell mommy?"

"I'm leaving a letter for her. She'll only know that you have a fever." Randi kept the letter on her desk and put on a scarf. She took Erland and went outside as fast as she could.

On the way, they met Ceol, who was playing a flute to wake his neighbors up from their sweet slumber to a busy day.

"Oh, hey! Randi, Erland, how are you guys doing?" said Ceol and stopped playing his flute.

"Ceol! I just woke up and I got a fever. I'm going to a doc now. Bye bye!" Erland waved. Randi on the other hand, stayed silent the whole time and pulled Erland to come with her as if Erland is some sort of a heavy bag getting pulled.

Ceol waved at him as well and tried to process the overall situation but he did not think too much.

At last they reached a light brown building. Randi opened the black gates and knocked on the opened door. A woman came wearing a white dress with gloves and black shoes. Her dress didn't exceed her knees.

"Hello, how may I help? Are you looking for Dr. Svend? He is in his chamber." said the woman.

"Yes we are looking for him. Is he busy? It's urgent." said Randi.

"I'm afraid he is checking a patient right now. I will ask him if you are allowed to enter. Please wait inside."

"Thank you." said Randi and went inside with Erland. The inside of it was filled with people. Some of them had cough and some of them had wounded arms or legs. There was a man who was calling out names of the patients.

"Ran Ran, is this a hospital?" said Erland.

"Yeah." said Randi.

The woman who greeted them came and told them that they are allowed to meet the doctor.

They both got in the chamber and closed the door. Seeing Erland, Svend put on a faint smile and asked,

"What is it? What did you do this time?"

"I did nothing." Said Erland shaking his head. "By the way, why are there so many people already?" said Erland.

"Everyone wants to be the first. Now, tell me what happened." said Svend and crossed his arms as he looked at Erland.

Randi filled Svend in about all that has happened since yesterday- from Erland burning down her knife into crisp from him waking up covered in the black substance.

"Since when did this start happening?" said Svend with a worried frown.

"From yesterday. We don't know why." said Randi.

"Did you somehow get affected by something scary, Erland. Or did you see something scary?"

"I remember seeing a creepy thing outside the house." said Erland.

"Did you only see it or did you get hurt by it?"

"I only saw it."

"Hmm... there isn't much to worry about then. Or maybe there is...eat these herbs for now. Raw, without even washing it. It's already washed, washing it too much will affect its effects. Make him eat these whenever he feels weak or uncomfortable. If the situation is out of hands, call me, I'll be there."

"But these are so costly." said Randi.

"These are free. I wish you two a wonderful day. Next please." Svend got on his work again.

Randi and Erland left the place. On the way, they saw an interesting view. Hilda and Ceol were chatting with each other. But their tone of talking were way different, as if they are two lovebirds. Randi seemed to look at the view with a stern face and suddenly looked at Erland wide eyed.

"Erland, tell me the truth, who is this boy?" said Randi with a wide smile, as creepy as a ghost's.

"He is a friend of Hilda." Erland was not even faintly hesitant about his words. But inside, poor boy was on the verge of sweating.

"Is there anything off between them?"

"Off?"

"Ugh...Never mind. Let's go and say hi to them."

Randi emerged from the back of Hilda like a shadow. Ceol looked at Randi as if she is a monster as Ceol slightly backed away.

Hilda got startled and slowly looked behind as well. "C-Ceol?...Is everything-"

"O-Oh, it's you. Good morning." said Hilda.

"Good morning." said Randi and put on a bright smile. It was obvious for Erland to realize one thing. When Randi smiles it's either of two things. One is that she is pleased and two is she is not pleased but distressed or resentful about something.

"Good morning Randi and Erland. I couldn't say anything properly to you guys last time. How are you two doing? Oh, and how is your fever?" said Ceol with a calm voice.

"I'm doing great! Svend told me to chew on some crap." said Erland.

"Huh?" Ceol looks slightly surprised and then giggles hearing such an unusual and adorable reply.

"What? Mommy didn't tell me about this..." said Hilda and placed her hand on Erland's forehead.

"You seem fine to me." said Hilda.

"The fever is inside of him. I'm not talking about his soul or something. It's just that his body isn't acting up much but yet he has a fever." said Randi.

"Well then, I'll go somewhere else now. I don't think I'll get much money if I play here any longer. Goodbye." said Ceol.

"Hold on. Mind having a cup of tea in our house?" said Randi with a questionable smile, a serial killer would give to their victim.

"I would love to have a nice cup of tea right now but I'm afraid if I don't earn some more money playing somewhere else, I might starve the next day. Winter is coming, not many people will come and hear me play." said Ceol and walked away.

("She and Svend are just the same. What's up with the act anyway?") Erland's face looked creeped out.

"Hilda, I won't make this complicated. Are you two dating?" said Randi.

"HUH??? No! We are not- dating of course! Ha ha...he heh..." Hilda's face was beet red.

"I don't care if you two are dating or something as long as you are not getting tricked. Don't be another girl darling."

"No, Randi. We are not dating or anything. He and I are really good friends. That's all."

"We will see. By the way, Erland needs his own brush and ink. And a notebook. We'll go to the shop for it, wanna join us or are you gonna go home?"

"Of course, I'll join."

They both headed to the market. It was Erland's first time visiting a market. The market was filled with people. Mostly young women. They got in front of a stall with stationaries.

"Ahoy, Missies. It's unusual to see women around this shop." said the shopkeeper.

"These women go to these shops often. You should feel proud that our land has this much progress...not many nations allow women to even go out." said Hilda.

"Ha hah...Er..."

"Yes?" said Erland.

"What?"

"Don't mind him." said Randi, feeling embarrassed. "(Did he really think that the shopkeeper called him 'Er'?...Dumbass)"

("I actually thought that he knows me...People knows me a little bit too less than I expected.)" Erland became disappointed.

"Which one you want?" said Hilda.

"The blue one." said Erland and took the blue brush.

"Okay...thin enough. Give us a bottle of water based ink. The small one. Make sure it's newly made." said Randi.

After they finished shopping, they were off to their house as the sun was still shinning.

"You picked the blue notebook EVEN WHEN I told you that the brown one would last longer. You are a kid, you won't write that much." said Hilda.

Erland was just humming happily. He looked behind and walked backwards to talk with Hilda and Randi face to face.

"Erland, you are gonna fall." said Hilda.

"You two will catch me." Erland's cheerful voice suddenly became faint. He saw the same woman he saw earlier. The woman didn't have any blood on her this time. She was smiling and chatting with some ladies.

"What is it?" said Hilda and looked behind. She couldn't see anything except a crowd.

"Nothing, I just saw a little dog." Erland frowned.

"You are lying, what did you see?"

"It was a scary dog. I liked it but it was scary..."

"A...scary small dog?"

"Yeah. Let's go home. I wanna eat."

"Oh...okay..."

They both headed home. Erik has already left for his work. Erland went to his workplace to see Erik and went straight to his mother to have his breakfast. The face was still in his mind. Something about it didn't seem alright to him.

He planned on checking out in Svend's house as soon as possible. Perhaps, the woman would be there.

After he finished his lunch the day went by normally yet with a new addition in his daily tasks and that is studying. In order to keep a healthy relation with the social life he chose to acquire basic knowledge at least. When Erik came home after evening, Erland told everyone that he wishes to do something.

"I have something to say." said Erland.

"Yeah, sure. Go ahead." Erik took a sip of his tea.

"I wanna visit Fwode. I heard he is really sick and that he's really nice. I wanna go play with him."

"He barely plays though. He mostly sleeps and says some mysterious things in his sleep."

"I still wanna meet him. Maybe we can study."

"Aww...come here, momma will kiss you." Gunhild went towards Erland and kissed him on his forehead.

Being blushed, Erland coughed a little and requested someone to take him to Frida's house. "So...who's gonna take me there?"

"Grandma Ase will come tomorrow. I'll send you there with her." said Gunhild.

"If you are gonna go visit someone tomorrow that means that you have to study a little bit extra tonight. I want you to write all the twenty four runes neatly and then tomorrow night I will hand you something. If you can't write them neatly with your new brush, I will not let you go." said Randi.

"(Heh...Little do you know. I used to be a Viking fan when I was five in my past life. I know head to the toe of every single Viking things. I've just been acting that I'm newly learning runes.) HAHAHAHA" Erland's laugh made the whole room silent.

Everyone stared at Erland quietly.

"Shut up. You are gonna make me choke on my soup." said Randi.

"Okay..."

"Come on Randi, you are too harsh on her." said Gunhild as she sat on a chair.

"He said it himself. He wants scars and grieves so I'm giving him some." said Randi sarcastically.

"I don't mind." said Erland.

"You will mind when you'll get beaten by her." said Hilda.

"HUH?" Erland got terrified.

Everyone in the room laughed at his reaction. He felt embarrassed and didn't say another word while eating.

In the middle of the night, Erland woke up. He felt as if he heard a voice. He didn't answer it. He slowly got off the bed and followed the voice. It led him outside. Out of curiosity, he thought of going outside.

He hesitated. He wanted to wake someone up but the voice told him not to. It creeped him out that the voice knew what he was thinking. He slowly went towards the window. He looked here and there but there was no one outside. He checked outside from every single window but there was still no one. He got startled and bumped with someone.

In the dead of the night, there stood a hollowing woman holding a hurricane which had no light. The woman was bleeding from every part of body. He couldn't even scream. The last thing Erland could see before closing his eyes out of fear was the lady's smile.