Chapter 4: Reincarnation

Vlad and Candy walked for a while before they finally reached a huge building. It looked older than the other buildings Vlad had seen but it was well maintained.

"Where is this?" Vlad asked. "This is the library and the answer to all your questions." Candy eyes lit up. He was more excited than Vlad was.

"What do you-" Candy cut Vlad off by pulling him inside like an excited little child.

They entered the library. Candy, still pulling Vlad by the wrist, walks through different corners, leading to a dead end. "It's a dead end Candy." Vlad said, tired of being pulled around.

"Not quite." Candy smirks. He placed his palm on the wall and chanted some words. Vlad took a step back as Candy's hand began to glow. Some inscriptions appear on the wall forming a circle, and the wall split open like an elevator.

Candy turned back and gave a big smile and said. "See. You just have to do a little magic."

Leaving Vlad speechless but he gave him a thumbs up in agreement.

"Magic huh." Vlad thought.

The wall which was opened led to another room which looked like a study with tons of books on the several book shelves there.

Immediately they entered, the walls shut. Candy switched on the lights which looked like it could use a change as it had been there for quite some time.

Vlad looked around, Candy went straight to a particular shelf and brought out a book.

He brought it to the table in the study where the lights were directly above and signaled Vlad to come over.

"What's this?" Vlad asked curiously.

"I found it recently and found something interesting." Candy said, flipping through the pages. "You mentioned that you died, right?"

"Yes." Vlad replied. Candy finally stopped flipping.

"Here." He pointed to a word in the book.

"Reincarnation? Reincarnation?!" Vlad yelled. "How? I thought reincarnation was only possible by reincarnating as a newborn or something." Vlad said, confused.

"Well that's true but look here." Candy pointed to another part of the book. "It says here that reincarnation is possible in an already living soul if there is a Catalyst and if the two souls are of the same origin." Candy read.

"What does that mean?" Vlad asked.

"It means something brought you here, and you and Vlad are one." Candy explained, but Vlad still looked as confused as ever. "Putting it simply, it means you're Vlad but from another dimension. Something like that." Candy further explained.

"That doesn't make any sense." Vlad was still in disbelief. "What did you mean by Catalyst?" Vlad asked.

"If my guess is correct, your death and the incident with Vlad. I heard there was a magic item with him or something. It could have been anything." Candy shrugged.

Vlad was still trying to process everything he just heard. "Does that mean I won't be able to go back?" Vlad trembled.

"We won't know unless we try." Candy assured, trying to cheer Vlad up.

"This is crazy." Vlad blurted out.

"The entire construction of the universe is crazy." Candy said with a big smile stretching out his hands to gesture how big the universe is.

"You're weird." Vlad laughed. "Well, there's no use crying over spilt milk. I'll see what I can do. Thank you for your help." Vlad declared.

"Wait, why are you talking like I'm out of the team?" Candy asked, confused. Vlad tilted his head sideways.

"It has nothing to do with you. I wouldn't want to be a bother." Vlad said.

"No no no. I would love to help you!" Candy exclaimed.

"Why?" Vlad asked

"I'm interested in you, and I think with you, I'll discover a whole new world, plus you don't know anything about this world, you need me." Candy said, his eyes burning with passion.

"I guess you're right." Vlad gave in.

Candy jumped in excitement. "Let's get you back home." Candy said.

They left the library, Candy kept on talking while Vlad listened.

"Maybe our first meeting was weird, but I think Candy's a really nice fairy and he's funny! And his sense of humor is so weird." Vlad laughed as he thought to himself.

Vlad gasped. "What's wrong?" Candy asked.

"I just remembered, Zelda mentioned something like 'you're Vlad and Vlad is you.' I thought she was just talking nonsense, but now that I know what she meant, do you think she knows something?" Vlad poundered.

"Why don't you just ask her?" Candy suggested.

"Yeah.." Vlad didn't seem too excited about the idea, seeing how she reacted when he asked her about the incident but he was going to give it a shot.

"Oh that also reminds me! There is someone else you should also talk to." Candy said. "Who?" Vlad asked.

….

"Kevin." Candy said, pointing to one of the basketball players.

Candy had brought Vlad to the basketball court to see who he was talking about.

Vlad's eyes followed Candys finger. "Oh that's him." Vlad blurted. "Do you know him?" Candy asked.

"No, not really. I bumped into him this morning and he gave me a death stare. Even thinking about it sends shivers down my spine." Vlad recalled. Shrugging the disturbing feeling off.

"You have to talk to him if you want to know anything. I heard he was with you during the incident." Candy pestered, finally giving him a light push towards the court.

They had already finished playing. Vlad sighted Kevin from a distance. He was just in the middle of the court. Beads of sweat drizzled down his face. He was talking to some of his teammates, laughing.

As his eyes fell on Vlad it turned into a frown almost immediately. Vlad noticed this.

"I knew it, he hates me." Vlad would have ran away if he could but at the end of the day, it would be his loss.

He gathered courage as he was finally in front of Kevin.

"It's that sweet smell again. Is it coming from him?" Vlad said as he was now standing in front of Kevin.

"Hi, my name is Vlad." Vlad said with a nervous smile.

"I know that." He said, uninterested. "What do you want?" He asked.

"Well… I was wondering if we could talk about the incident." Vlad finally said. Kevin brows knitted.

"Fuck off." He said before walking away, leaving Vlad dumbfounded.