Chapter 18: The Weakest (Part 1)

Ro: "The Eyes of Truth, huh? So, is us coming here part of your plan too?"

Ro asks while looking at Ethan furiously. Ethan sighs in response.

Ethan: "Isn't it strange how you all have started to treat me like some kind of mastermind? It's almost as if anything that happens to you that you don't like happens because I planned it."

Ethan says so with a completely, uncharacteristically, serious look on his face. His response doesn't sound like a joke, which means it could either be truth or … a deception.

Barry: "Are you saying you are uninvolved?"

Barry asks with a serious expression while trying to figure out his next move.

Ethan: "No, I'm not. I never said that."

He doesn't say anything further than that. Seeing so, Sneha sighs.

The exchange between them has been bizarre to say the least. Two of them, the more powerful ones, are on guard against the other who is speaking without any regard for his safety.

Barry: "You sure are an interesting person, Ethan. Can I ask you a question?"

Barry says so while straightening his back which has been on guard until now. He looks Ethan in the eye as he says so.

Ethan: "Wasn't that a question?"

Sneha: "Stop screwing around, will you?"

Sneha sighs in irritation on Ethan trying to act like a comedian. At the end of the day, it's not like she wants to answer any of Barry's questions, though she definitely wants to know what questions he wants to ask.

Barry: "I'll take that as a 'yes'."

Ethan: "How was that a 'yes'?"

Ethan still tries to distract Barry from the topic but he would not be distracted so easily, and so Ethan sighs and gives up.

Barry: "What are you trying to gain from all this?"

Ethan: "All this?"

Barry: "Getting involved with people who can kill you in an instant."

As Barry elaborates what he meant, he gives Sneha a glance. Ethan sighs and says.

Ethan: "You want to know what I am trying to gain from 'all this', do you?"

Barry asks a question that both Ro and Sneha want to ask as well.

Ro: "Yeah, I want to know as well."

Sneha: "Yes, you should answer."

This isn't a question anyone except Ethan could answer. This man has never told anyone what his goal is in all this, so only he knows what he wants. The choice to answer and to not answer falls upon Ethan.

He sighs. Seeing that, Sneha looks at him sharply as if to say he won't be spared from this situation. But he already knows well what he has to do. This choice will affect the actions of at least these three people in the future. Seeing that they are all more powerful than him, he wouldn't want to stay on their bad side. And hence, Ethan Kales decided he would answer with the truth.

Ethan: "Nothing."

But what if the truth is something very hard to swallow?

Barry: "Don't mess around."

Not doing that. Ethan says to Barry but only in his mind.

Ro: "Tell us already.

Already did so. Ethan says to Ro but only in his mind.

Sneha: "Come clean."

I have nothing more to say. Ethan says to Sneha but only in his mind.

Barry: "Tch!"

Irritation is clear on his Barry's face. Ethan right now is standing among monsters, all capable of tearing him apart. Even Ro who was not so powerful when he was a living has become capable of a lot of things as a ghost. There is no one here who he can defeat if it ever comes to that.

Ethan: "I have already answered your question – I plan to gain nothing here."

He doesn't plan to gain anything. It's the truth. It's the truth because he doesn't believe he'll gain anything by doing what he is trying to do.

Any one of them can tear him apart at any moment. He is completely defenseless. And even now, more monstrous entities would be coming his way. He is the weakest person on this island and there is no one coming to save him from here – but, he himself decided to come to this place, and he already knew this is how it would be. There's no room for excuses, no room for mistakes, and no room for shaking in fear.

Ethan: "I know why it is hard to believe. It is human psychology to think one would want something in return for doing anything dangerous, and I guess this psychology works for ghosts as well."

He pauses, tries to calm his own nerves, and then looks straight at Barry.

Ethan: "But I don't gain anything here. That's the truth. Whether you believe me or not, that fact that it is the truth does not change."

Hearing him say that with a serious face, the three monsters there would really believe him, that is, if he wasn't Ethan Kales, they would have probably believed him.

Barry: "We all know how good you are at deceiving people. This is the first time we have met but I already know I should never trust you. You will have no luck with such a petty excuse, come up with a better one."

Ethan expected this reaction, so seeing it happen doesn't faze him. But the fact that someone capable of turning the whole island upside-down would say this to him in almost a threatening tone – there's no human being who would not be terrified by that.

Ethan: "Tch!"

He hides his fear, he hides his anxiety. There's a mask on his face – the mask of the devil – so he needs to keep playing the part.

Ethan: "I guess it is fair for you all to think I am lying, but as far as I remember, we didn't come here to chat, did we?"

He has to say these lines to someone more powerful than him. He has to say this to someone who can crush him in an instant.

Sneha: "I'm sorry but you just have to answer that question properly."

Ethan looks at Sneha with a fake grin on his face.

Ethan: "And who the hell said that you can force me to do anything?"

He's terrified alright. But he knows how to deal with it. He won't just break down in front of them; he'll keep up the act. He'll put this precious life he has on the line and gamble. If even a single time his gamble fails to pay off, it's over for him.

Sneha: "Are you saying you have something to use against me?"

She looks at Ethan with scorn and suspicion. She thinks he's a mastermind who can come up with something to defeat a monster like her.

Ethan: "Of course I do. Do you think I'll come here that unprepared even after knowing I'll be among you monsters?"

Ethan says so with confidence; fake confidence.

Barry: "So you are implying you have something that can help you keep someone like me and her at bay?"

Barry asks while reading to attack him. Ethan doesn't want to answer. He wants to drop to his knees and beg for mercy, but …

Ethan: "Keep you at bay? Don't take me so lightly, I can wipe your existence of the face of the planet. Sure I may suffer somewhat in exchange, but I'll stay alive while you'll be gone forever."

The last statement he made is to keep them from thinking he's bluffing. By adding a condition at the end, he made it sound like he had some sort of contract that will help him defeat Barry in exchange for going through some suffering. Now Barry just has to consider the possibility of him telling the truth so there's no way he would do something that may only end up in him being defeated.

Ro: "I see. You have become quite a force to deal with, haven't you?"

Ethan smiles and looks at Ro with eyes filled with malice.

Ethan: "Tell me something, you do know you only became a ghost instead of having your existence erased because I wanted you to? Or do you think that this situation is out of my control?"

Ethan keeps the bluff going. Sure he knew that Ro would turn into a ghost and sure he knew he'd come here. But he also knew that he can't just beat him. He knows there's no way to actually defeat him or anyone else here for that matter. He hasn't taken this course or made anyone else take it. It's a fact that this was just an inevitable thing to happen.

Why? Because the real mastermind had to make it happen anyhow.

Ethan: "What's wrong? Why are you all silent all of sudden?"

He asks with a smug face, needless to say – a mask showing a smug face.

He knew full-well Ro would have died that day because someone else was out to kill him. After that, he was bound to meet Barry, realize that they need to get to Kais before their opponents do and henceforth, come to the island. Furthermore, there was no way to protect himself against Sneha if she decided to attack him.

So, he got to Ro before the other person could. He killed him and put a sense of wariness inside both Sneha and Ro. Looking at the fact that he is Ro's killer and his actions led Ro to team up with Barry against him, Barry would be bound to be wary of him as well. With just that much, this ordinary human being would become an object of concern and wariness for three monstrously powerful beings.

He would become the scapegoat of the real mastermind, just like that mastermind wanted.

Ethan: "That's right, that's exactly right."

He starts laughing as if he has lost his mind.

Barry: "You …"

His laughs grow louder.

Ro: "What the hell are you doing?"

They grow louder and louder filling every creature on the island with a sense of wariness against this maniac.

Sneha: "Stop laughing already!"

He doesn't stop but does calm down a little as he looks at the three monsters surrounding him. But he also sees their eyes. The expression in their eyes – is one that he loves to see. If his reason for doing this, the reason for knowingly putting himself in the line of fire to let the actual culprit get away, is to be asked, this answer is closest to the truth – seeing those expressions on the faces of monsters.

Ethan: "HA! HA! Ha! Ha! Ha! God … damn right! You should be scared of me."

That is to say, the monsters priding themselves as being capable of killing hundreds of humans with a flick – should be scared of this human. This notion is the only source of true happiness for Ethan.

*******************************