Chapter 12 : Truth

Haaaaa... I'm so tired, why can't I... Just let this damned world die.

"Ernest... Is not a... Human, no... He is not a mortal." he says while avoiding eye contact, "then... What is he?" I asked,

"a god." looking up towards the starry sky, enveloped in an infinite darkness, his face shed a look of remorse and tears started Dripping down his cheeks.

"Are... You okay?" I asked, "Mary... Pumpkin, my dear child." grimacing as he said those words, "I... Want to tell you the truth, I really do... But I can't,"

Raising an eyebrow I said "why?"

"My heart will stop, and... I... Still have to do one thing."

"Dad... You're joking... Right?" I still try to grasp my situation, with a frown on his face he says "I wish..."

"Will you really die?"

"yes,"

"Then... What CAN you tell me."

His grip on his platter tightening, he was silent for a moment, looking towards me, he says "Your mother... Is still alive."

My whole body felt frozen as he said those words, I... Had lost hope, but I... Saw her, she was shot in the head, was that just a hallucination?! What is wrong with this world.

I stayed silent and just tried to eat my meal, after finishing our dinner, we put out the fire and go into the car, balling together a dress, I use that as a pillow and doze off.

Vroom vroom

Gaagh... I sit upright and rub my eyes. The car was already moving, I look out the window and see a large field of Hyacinths... Where... Are we?

Sliding the window open, I see that the field was filled with graves, "Dad, Where... Are we?" I ask but he does not answer.

After driving for what seemed like forever, our car stopped.

"Damn, out of gas. We'll have to go on foot."

We grab our bags and start trekking for another kilometer or two. The day was a bit cloudy and the sun could barely pierce through the sky, but nonetheless, we kept on walking.

"Why... Are we here dad?" I said while we kept walking, "We are here to end it all."

End?! My mind starts to panic, are we going to commit suicide? I run up to his back and grab his shoulder, "What do you mean... end?"

His gaze turns towards me and his eyes looked on with an enchanted glare. "You look just like your mother, haha," Cracking a smile, he points towards a hill. On top of it was a bench under the shade of a tree.

The clouds start to dissipate and sunshine penetrates the ground, the clear blue sky accompanied by the cool breeze makes for a perfect vacation, but... We were standing in the middle of a graveyard.

Countless graves scattered throughout the hyacinth field, graves with no names nor any signs of degradation. These graves are well maintained...

"Let's go," my father says as we kept on walking.

"Mary..."

"What?"

"I just want to give you this."

he hands me a brooch with a flower inside. "Wear it always, okay?"

"Okay..." Confused as to why he gave me jewelry as we're going to end ourselves, we kept walking. We eventually reached the bench and he turned around, dropped his bags and said "Welp, till now and forever, may Eth R Nal guide you!" With a smile on his face, he sat down on the bench.

Swchiiiiiing

A large glimmer of light appeared in his chest, the light was blinding. Closing my eyes, I could still see the light penetrating my eyelids... I drop my bag and cover them with my hands. A few seconds pass by and I take a peek. The light has disappeared and my father is now sitting on the bench... he... he has turned into a statue?!

Shocked by what had happened, I take a closer look, he looked like he was made of brass and even his clothes were turned into brass.

Why... When Mother and Cora left, I was so sad... Why... After all this time, you would abandon me too. The statue's left hand was posed down, pointing to the ground. I notice a note on the ground was left, possibly by him. It read:

Dear Mary,

I would like to first say, I'm sorry I can't fulfill my responsibility to you as a parent, I would have liked to see you grow into a fine woman and marry a strong man and have kids, and your sons or daughter would also grow old and start a family, then I would have grandkids! Oh I would love such a reality where that would be true. Life would be blissful with more and more family around me, but unfortunately, This would be my last letter to you, The flower in the brooch I gave you is an Azalea, look into the gem and always remember, I will always be with you. Take care of yourself for me!

Okay, I gave you my thoughts, now you need to keep reading to find the truth, Ernest and Cassius are not normal, nor is their whole family. Although they are not normal, they are nice people. Ernest and Cassius are gods. They are the only fragments of the gods left. I don't know why, but they made everyone you know, everyone you interact with. Even me, They made the stars that spewed out the particles to make our world, they made our reality and they can bend it at their will. From what information I had gathered, I went around the world and saw relics of the past, it depicted one of the gods splitting itself and making two entities out of itself. Those entities had a mission, and I do not know what, but after completing their mission, they split again, and so did these new entities as well. The Ernest and Cassius you know, are the latest iteration of this so called god, and I don't know how many more are out there. Please keep yourself safe as I know I am only a figment of their imagination, both the gods took an interest in you. Please, do whatever you can to try and live a normal life.

Your loving father,

Lucius

Breathing heavily, my eyes widened to read the letter, panic starts to settle in, and I could hear voices in my head.

Riiiiinnnggggg

My head rings "Can you... Just go away?" Someone said in front of me,

"Please... Leave us alone..." I look in front of me and see a boy holding a straw doll, crying. Gripping the doll tighter he shouts "Go away!" and a force pushes me back. He has erected a barrier around him? I reached out with my arm and it is stopped halfway, I kept pushing, harder and harder.

"Please..." I said timidly, "At least let me see my father one last time."

"..." The boy was silent, I lower my head and beg again, "PLEASE! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, AT LEAST LET ME HAVE SOMETHING TO HOLD ON TO!" I screamed.

"..." The boy turned around and hid behind the tree, lifting his index finger, I was finally able to get close to the bench.

"haaaa, haaaaa," I fell to the ground and cry uncontrollably. "I lost another person who is dear to me. I just cannot win, all of this time wasted." The boy scoots overt to my side, gives me a hug and strokes my hair, "T-there there, Cry it all out," I feel miserable as a boy who is not even half my height is consoling me.

Heughk "All of the people precious to me are gone."

"They're not really gone..." He says while letting out a smile, "grab my hand," Stretching out a hand, I was hesitant at first, but what else am I able to do? I reach out to his outstretched arm and grab tight, he stands me up and we walk slowly together.

"W-where are we going?" I ask while still wiping tears from my eyes.

"A special place!"

And as we walk at a gingerly pace, orbs of light start to scatter around our path, tiny and frail balls of light. Just one collision with another orb would cause it to shatter into tinier fragments. We kept walking and walking, until we reached a beautiful tree, a large blossoming tree. With all kinds of golden fruit hanging off of it's branches.

He grabbed a fruit and offers it to me "Here!" while still smiling, I grab it and look into it, my face was reflected unto it.

"Take a bite,"

Hesitantly, I took a bite out of the golden apple. And all of a sudden, my worries started to fade away, my sorrows are gone to the past, and tears of joy comes out of my eyes.

"A fantastic feeling no doubt." Someone said behind me, I turn my gaze towards him and see Ernest standing behind me.

"Ernest?"

"Yes?"

"Why... Are you here?"

"For you," As he grabs my left hand and pulls me closer to him and leans in for a kiss.

Slap

I push him away and go to the back of the room. My eyes were glazed over with fury as he tried another scant trick on me.

"I... I'm sorry," he swings his head down and and sits down on a chair.

"You need to know... The truth, lest you fall into darkness again." He stands up and a crest appears on his chest, "I am a god."

"A god you say?"

"Yes, one fragment of the now shattered champion."

"Is that why you can't die? Or is it just me imagining it?"

"I cannot die yes... But I still retain my memories."

I take a bite out of the golden apple again but my uneasiness was not carried away, there is still a faint feeling in my chest that something bad is going to happen.

"Why did my father shoot you?"

"Same reason as I showed you the spirit world."

"..."

He grabs an apple from the tree and crushes it in his hand, the juices were oozing out of his hand as he smiles, "Rebellion."

"Rebellion? To what? You're a god! What else is there to fight?"

His smirk slowly fades as he sat down again, "I fight... myself."

"Yourself?! Are you absolutely mad?" My brows were curled and I was seething with rage, and I don't know why. Maybe it stems from the fact that I am hearing this ludicrous story and is somehow a part of it.

"Can... Can we just... Go back to normal?" I asked him, "I'm afraid I can't, Mary." He shows a perplexed look, "Your father... Is dead, your mother is missing, and your maid Cora and friend Ruth disappeared. That is your truth, one bestowed upon you by the world."

I look at him with pained eyes, his demeanor changed. From always laughing and happy to this depressed lunatic babbling on about his fantasies.

"I can hear you, you know?"

"You can read my thoughts?"

"I'm a god remember? The half of one at least."

"So... is the old lady Lilith also a god?"

He sighs and says "Silly Mary," Ernest stands up and walks towards me, his face was bubbling and deforming.

"I am Lilith," I grimace as his face and body changes form. Holding myself back from hurling he grabs both my shoulders and shakes me,

"Look at me..." I close my eyes and turn my head to the right.

"Mary, I promised to tell the truth, Please... Look at me."

My heart was pounding and I was feeling dizzy, nevertheless, I slowly look at him, opening one eye at a time. His face... It looked like Cora?

"C-cora?!"

"..." He changed again, he now looked like... my mother?!

"ERNEST!" I shout, he let go of me as soon as I said his name, "Ernest is my name, yes... Ernest..." He was sweating and breathing heavily.

"I'm sorry, Mary...In the end, I still can't say the truth to you, your soul. That kind and pure soul."

"Soul? What are you talking about?"

He sighs, and grabs the back of my head and touches our foreheads together. My vision fades as I am losing my sense of touch.

I woke up in a lush, green field. I sat upright and the sky was a beautiful sunny day, clouds were the perfect amount and the breeze felt nice.

"These... Are my memories." Ernest was standing beside me, he looks towards me and grins, "Which one do you want to see first?"

Stretching out his arm, a string of light extends from his palm and goes out into space, it branches out and forms a tree-like pattern. The branches each had a differing amount of orbs on it, and as such, he reaches out another hand and helps me up.

"Where... Did it all begin?"

"If you want to see... We'll have to look at the the first memory, So... Shall we?" He stretches out an elbow and I grab on to it.

"T-this isn't a date is it?!" I said while flustered

"Haha, let's wait for the first one later okay?"

"Fine," Did I just accept his invitation? Argh I don't care anymore.

We walk a bit and then we started running, we ran to a cliff, I look at Ernest and he looks back and smirks, "Jump!" he says, "What?" As we reached the edge, he jumped first. Even though I was grabbing on to his elbow, I weakly jumped. Even so, Ernest's elbow felt like I was grabbing on to a sturdy plane, he was not stopping and now we are flying. It felt like we were walking on air, he stretches out a leg and steps on air! Oh my goodness we ARE walking on air.

My brief amazement was soon stopped as the next step we took, we fell down.

"WAHHHHHH!" I screamed as he just laughed as we fell, "Haha, This is my first memory Mary!"

"W-what?" The wind was hitting my cheeks and my hair was tossing and trashing around.

"The void." Ernest says "The void?! What the hell are you doing in there?"

"Speak of the devil haha! That's my next memory."

"What?!" Surprised by what he said, Ernest followed it up with "Close your eyes and brace yourself!" As he kept smiling, it looked like he was having so much fun.

My vision closes and I could not see Ernest, but I was greeted by the loving smile of a beautiful woman, she was carrying me in her arms and she doted on me.

"Come here you!" He pulls me out and now we were both see-through?

"Are we ghosts?"

"No, we're just spectators and we mustn't interfere."

"Okay then... Is she... Your mother?" I asked "Yes... The beginning of it all,"

"Oh, then is that you?" Pointing to the baby in her arms, he nods and says "Keep watching."

They were dancing around the room, she was humming a lullaby while caressing the baby and the he was cheerful and smiling, they were happy.

All of a sudden, the sound of a vase alerted us. She gently placed him down in the crib and goes out of the room. I walk towards the crib and look down at the smiling baby, his arms were extending as if reaching out to me, but that would be silly, there's no way for him to see me right?

"R-right Ernest?"

"Tsk," he turns his gaze away and sits down.

The baby was still trying to reach out to me, I... try and touch his hand, but it passed through. Phew, so there is no way... I guess.

"Ah... A fine specimen!" A voice said behind me, I looked around and saw no one else but Ernest, he was looking away.

"Nyahahahaha!" A red demon was crawling on the roof.

Thud

"Daemon! Leave us alone!"

The mother hit the daemon with a plank.

"Hahaha, not today missy, you see... The lord is a bit cross today, so... A sacrifice it is. Ngyaaaahhh!" It lunges forward baring forth its sharp jagged teeth and slashing with its sharp claws.

"Haaaa!" The mother screamed while holding the baby tight, he was crying. And all of a sudden... It went quiet. No one was screaming and the baby's cries were silenced.

Thump thump

I could hear my own heartbeat.

Drip... Drip

The sounds of a liquid dropping, Time had once again moved, and now... Ernest blocked the Daemon's attack. He was wounded and dripping blood.

"I still can't... Even after all this time."

And the room changed back to when I first saw it, the mother was humming joyously, and the baby was cheerful.

"W-what was that?!" I shouted.

"I am half of a god," he said.

"Then how could you interact with your memory?! I thought you said we mustn't?!"

"For you, but for me... It's a challenge, what kind of son would I be to see my mother die and not do anything? This trial was put to effect by my other half, to test my temperance whenever I look at my memories."

"Then..."

"It will reset whenever I change a memory."

"That... Is so sad, then... You would never get closure..."

"Power comes at a price... My folly was that I was complacent with myself... I still... Can't"

"Hey!" I grab his face and lift it up, "you must accept your loss, it has already happened... No matter how much power you have, you keep moving forward!"

"That's exactly why..." he responded, "That's exactly why I still can't move on..." showing a pained expression, "I have the power to change it... But if I do, I lose myself as well..."

I let go of his face and stroke his hair, "Then what's the point of changing it then? If you don't want to lose yourself... Then face it head on! Tough it out! You are you."

His tears started to come out and he embraces me, "I know it's hard... But still, the world still moves... You are still fine, keep moving forward."

"You're right..." he sniffled at least this time around, you're here.