helping hand

The building across the street was broken down. Each floor had at least one broken window; Elijah brought the old man inside, helped the man up to his feet, and asked, "Which floor do you live on?" Elijah asked softly; the man answered slowly under his breath, "I…live …on .....the ....third .....Floor...." Elijah helped the man to the third floor; he was about to ask which room was his when the man pointed to the room at the end of the hallway.

Once they got to the end of the hallway, the man took out a bronze key with nine inscribed on it; Elijah took the key from the old man. After Elijah opened the door, he saw a large apartment.

It had a big living room but was a bit dirty; the man walked over to his desk, which was covered in papers. Some were on the floor, and the paper was covered in an unknown language. "I…must ....give ...…this…to…" The man barely finished his sentence when he fell to the floor; Elijah was foundling with the amulet when he heard the older man fall to his knees. Elijah bolted to the man with fear in his eyes (am I about to see an old man die today?) he thought to himself.

 Elijah observed the old man. He looked worse than he had before; his face was filled with puss and maggots. It was like he was seeing a rotting corpse. "What happened to you?" Elijah asked in a shaky tone. The man wanted to speak, but nothing came out of his mouth (maybe I should get a pen and paper), he thought to himself, then he noticed that the old man could barely move his hands; they wouldn't respond to anything the man wanted to do.

The man used all of his strength to point to a room in the left side corner. Elijah went to that room and looked around the room; garbage was all over the floor. The room smelled like a million rats had died inside; he covered his nose as he searched around the room (what exactly does he want me to find?). Elijah continued to cover his nose as he noticed an envelope that wasn't covered in trash.

It was a black envelope inscribed in golden letters, in the same language as the old man's papers. Elijah left the room and then passed the envelope to the old man; he grabbed it with such strength it was as If his life depended on If he got the envelope or not. The old man opened it with position. After he opened it, he sniffed it, took in a deep breath, then realized it. "If I didn't get that In time, I would have died; thanks, young man."

Elijah looked at the man with a shocked expression. (A second ago, he looked as If he were about to die; is this the power you got from an oath?) Elijah inquired, "What made you that way?" the man grasped his chin and then rubbed it counterclockwise as if he were in deep thought. "I got this way because I broke a contract created from the pale knight oath; the oath deals with spirit manipulation, undead manipulation, and contract manipulation; breaking a contract from the pale knight does this to you," the old man answered.

(Pale Knight oath seems like one I could go down; it's very versatile, and I can make contracts with people; if they break the contract, then that will happen to them … but how strong is it combat?) Elijah thought; the man asked Elijah with a confused tone, "Why did you help me off the streets?" the old man inquired.

Elijah responded honestly, "To be honest, I don't know why I helped you…I think it was that I just felt sorry for you. You're in pain and dying, but no one even cares. They don't try even to help you, so I think the real reason why I saved you was that I felt frustrated that no one else would."

The old man chuckled, then added, "In the grand scheme of things, we're like tiny specks of dust, and sometimes it feels like what we do doesn't matter. What really counts, though, is how our journey unfolds. We're all on this mysterious path of fate and destiny. Some of us face the harsh reality of mortality, while others escape its grasp—a reminder of how unforgiving the world can be. It's a tough pill to swallow, but it's better to realize it now than to blame fate for all the challenges in our lives. Often, those challenges are a result of our own choices."

Elijah didn't speak for a few seconds, then added, "Is that how you broke that contract?" The man nodded and added, "Yes, the contract was very limiting to me. That's when I realized that we truly are nothing, so I broke that contract so that I could become something in the eyes of the great, but as you can see, that didn't turn out so well," the old man chuckled, he face went back to being pale," looks like its starting to lose its effects…. I'm part of a cult called the School of decay. We hold meetings every Friday. I'm not a high member, but before I die, I want you to tell the higher-ups that you are one of my students-" Elijah cut him off before he could continue. "What are you trying to do?".

The man answered seriously, "I'm doing this to save you; I want to repay you for helping me. When I die, you will take my place, then you can gain an oath," Elijah inquired. "Why do you think I want an oath?" the man answered with pain in his eyes. "I could see the need for power in your eyes; I had the same eyes as you when I was your age. I'm simply allowing you to fulfill your dream; don't you have any?"

(This man must take me for a fool; even if I don't have any memories of my past, I'm not that dumb to notice that you're doing this because you are dying. When I searched his room earlier, he had no pictures of a family, and with how messy the place is, he doesn't sleep here that much, and he is old age, which means he needs someone to succeed him. He doesn't want to involve me in a cult, nor do I intend to succeed him.)

Elijah was about to speak when the light in the man's eyes faded. "....thank …..you.." The man died with his eyes open. Elijah was dumbfounded but also afraid. This was his first time seeing a dead body; he slowly backed away from the dirty couch. Elijah bumped into the door, and a slight chill descended. It felt as though someone was watching him. At this point, Elijah felt like prey about to be eaten by the hunter (where…is the hunter).

He was scared, but he used all his thinking power to escape this place without being killed by the hunter; his back was against the door, fear filled his eyes, and tear droplets came streaming down when he felt the door slowly being turned by the time the door was opened he realized what was happing to late.

A grown bronze-skinned man opened the door. He had brown eyes, straight black hair, and a scar under his eye. The man towered over Elijah; the man stared at the old man's body, his eyes lit up in a fury. "I didn't kill him! he said that he broke a contract from the pale night oath, which is the cause of his death; please believe me." The man looked at Elijah with a dull expression, and in a few seconds, he burst into laughter.

"You're funny, kid; I just wished I got to kill him…..what did he tell you?" Elijah recounted the conversation that the two had. "The old sly fox….he was trying to trick you into becoming his sacrifice to advance into the next level, that dam bastard… come with me. We need to cleanse you," the man said; his demeanor was kind, but he also had a dangerous attitude to him simply being next to him. Elijah felt pressured