The burden that Dead carry

"Not gonna talk?" he asked when Ray stayed silent. "That's fine, let's just get this over with."

A barrage of attacks followed Ray for thirty seconds straight. By following I mean they were always one step behind. Ray kept dodging and did his best not to go in the direction of cabin eight.

After minutes of just running around, Ray still couldn't figure out the style of fighting the other guy was using, but it was getting bothersome. Ray cast two circles, water and wind and used it as a jet toward his pursuer. This move was countered pretty easily and ended with increased humidity in their vicinity.

"Tired already?" the man asked mockingly.

"yeah." Ray cast two sets of circles, five at his fingertips and other on his heels. "gotta go, sorry."

electricity escaped from his fingertips and attacked everything around the area. the circles at the heels launched ray backwards at extreme speed.

After confirming that he wasn't being followed, Ray spied on other cabins. There weren't many on patrol in other cabins, but there were other problems. Some had exceptional detection abilities, while some had their entire team keeping an eye around their cabin. Ray just checked the cabins assigned to him. It was hard enough to throw off the people pursuing him, and the task of recon made it harder. After one complete hour of being on the run, Ray made it back to his cabin, meeting Jin near the end. The second they stepped inside Tom's range, five members came out of the shadows to block them.

"check for shadows." Terrence commanded and three people left to follow the trails of ray and jin. The other two scanned for ang bugs and possible trackers. Only after confirming that both were clean, they were allowed to enter the cabin.

"Report." Eve was sitting with a notepad while others listened. "Jin, you go first."

"Cabin 5 and 3 are in a union, so are cabins 1 and 11." Jin explained, "Two is keeping things low, with three people on constant patrol just outside the forest clearing."

"Four people on patrol." Ray corrected him, "Could be more, but I encountered only one more."

"Noted." Eve was focussed on writing. "any specifications of each cabin."

"Cabin 4 and 1 have assigned radars with great detection range; cabin 7 and 10 have great trackers." Ray answered.

"6 and 13 have been celebrating with a feast." Jin added. "As for cabin 12, they refused to enter the cabin and are camping outside it."

"Alright." Eve got up and started forming a plan in her head.

"Good work guys." Lucian handed them both a glass of dragonberry juice. "You seem exhausted Ray, did you use too much mana?"

"Had to escape from a patroller from Cabin 2." Ray took a sip and picked up a fruit to eat. "He was as sneaky as Sylph, and probably has detection as good as mine."

"I see." Lucian thought deeply, "There could be more people like that in that team. they'll be a threat."

"Cabin 12 as well." Sarah added. "we have concluded that they're up to something as well. it is best to stay clear from them."

"Okay. thanks a lot." Lucian clapped loudly to get everyone's attention. "Everyone, listen carefully. wait- Tom, can you hear me properly?"

"Yeah."

"Alright." Lucian went back to the discussion, "This will be our final meeting before we enter the forest. No talk about the Strategy or the Team should take place after this. Don't practice moves or prepare the weapons, you will get thirty minutes after this meeting concludes to do that."

A thirty minute window was just enough for us to prepare bare-minimum. Everyone stayed quiet and nodded in response.

"As far as i am aware." Lucian talked slowly, "We will be dropped deep inside the forest at the sunrise. The rest of the match will be an elimination round, with the last remaining team's leader getting crowned the prince."

"Get to the point already." finley grunted.

"We have decided on a hit-and-run strategy. keep distance from everyone else and fight only when needed. try to keep your tracks as hidden as possible. be on guard around members of cabin 2 and 12. Be fast enough to escape the trackers."

"What about our weapons?" Terrence asked. "Do we take them out, or do we wait for the allotted ones?"

"I will inform you tomorrow morning. Be here before the birds wake up. get to sleep on time. That's all for the instructions. Let's have dinner now."

Everyone had dinner and started checking their equipment immediately.

"Shoes, check. Belt, check. Gloves, check." Ray muttered as he concluded his inspection.

"can you be a bit quieter?" Finley said. "I messed up my checks because of you.

"My bad. Let me help you." Ray packed his clothes and started helping Finley out. afterwards, he jumped on the bed and fell asleep immediately.

Next thing I knew, I was back in the subconscious and that Scribe was nowhere to be found. there was nothing visible there, but voices could be heard. deep, cold voices that were devoid of life. there seemed to be laughing, but it sounded so monotone that no one could perceive it that way. the words they spoke were impossible to understand.

When I focussed on the source of the voice, a door came into view. it was just enough open for the voices to come through, but not enough to look behind it.

I reached for the door, but something tugged back at my shoulder.

"It's not your time to go there yet." Scribe pushed me back into the chair and the door disappeared.

"What was that?" I asked.

"I think you already know that." Scribe dropped a file on his study table and dragged another chair out of darkness. "Why are you here, Ray Lightfoot?"

The scribe felt distant, like he wasn't present in front of me. He called me by my full name, and didn't look at me at all.

"so, that is the record room, i suppose." I leaned back and observed him, trying to read his emotions. but for the first time, I was able to actually see his eyes. they were empty, with no emotion, not even sadness was visible in them. it was as if they had only one purpose, and that purpose was to observe things as they happen. As if reading through a newspaper, his eyes fixed only on the present and the past.

Then I understood what it was, the eyes held no hope for tomorrow, no expectations from the future, and nothing to prove to himself.

"You're getting better at narration." scribe said.

"What?"

"Don't mind that." I took back the narration from Ray in that slight bit of confusion. "I am going to ask again. why are you here?"

"I don't know. I just slipped in." Ray answered honestly, "It was like I blacked out and I was here. There was no lag or anything like usual, I was just here. then i started hearing sounds, like whispers of dead people coming from that door."

"You're getting rude. they were just having a conversation about the Dragon Baby learning how to finally chew."

"What?"

"Nevermind. so you were saying that you just slipped in?" I asked again. Ray nodded in response, so I continued, "Slipping into the subconscious so fast, doesn't sound good."

"Why?" Ray straightened up suddenly.

"You're a conscious person. there is no reason for you to be aware of your subconscious under any circumstance, other than death."

"So, I am… dying?" he swallowed hard. "how?"

"I don't know. it could be because of my interference, or it could be that your conscious and subconscious are fusing together."

"That doesn't sound so bad." Ray commented.

"Are you stupid? there is a reason they are separated." I snapped at him. "Your body will stop working if this continues. Do you have any idea how many of your body functions depend on your subconscious?"

Ray thought for a few seconds, then the panic started to settle in and his face started losing color. "what should i do? I will die if I stop thinking about breathing, and the limit on the production of hormones and digestive fluids… oh my god."

"First of all, calm down. secondly, there is no such thing as god." I offered him a cup of coffee, which he took instantly.

"What do you mean there is no god? who do you work for then?" ray asked after taking two sips.

"I work for no one. I just go to the library to keep my mind off things. otherwise i will go mad, or worse, you will." he said with a grim voice.

"What do you mean?"

"You know how careful we all have to be? the dead who are still attached to their souls?" I started losing control a bit. "we're required to maintain a constant null state of emotion, just so your sorry ass doesn't get affected. Do you know how hard it is to stay in an empty space with nothing but thoughts of failure, death and injury echoing from all sides? And when I tell you to be a little more confident and not think negatively, you think I am joking."

Ray was shaken up, but started recovering his wits. He put the cup back down and hugged me suddenly. "I thought I had it rough." he chuckled, but I could feel the sadness in his voice. "Thanks scribe, for keeping things low so I don't feel bad. I understand how you feel now. it is okay to feel things that you do, stop suppressing them. Just inform me next time you feel anything that might affect me, I will take care of it all. you don't have to carry the load all on your own. I can help you with this one, and I will." Ray backed away, slowly taking the role of narration back.

As I pulled back, I saw the scribe in a different appearance. He wasn't some young man in formals anymore. He was just a boy in late teens, with clothes as flimsy as his confidence. His eyes weren't golden and lifeless, they were black, but shone brighter than anything I had ever seen. He smiled with tears flowing down his face.

This was the first time I had seen a look other than disgust in those eyes. they felt sad, but relieved, as if i had taken a very precious yet heavy load off his shoulders. "Don't call me Scribe anymore." he said, "My name is Nate Harmonia."

"So you do remember your name." I said out loud. "Why didn't you tell me before?"

"The precautions." Nate replied, "it was to prevent us from connecting. The more we connect, more emotions will be shared between us, and thus possibly ruin your emotion cycle."

It was out of genuine concern that this boy kept me at a distance, but all I ever did was create problems for him. Now that's just unfair to him, and I have to make up for it. "Sorry about that. I will be more sincere from now on, so you can share emotions with me. I will let you do that, so just answer my queries every now and then, will you?"

it only took a light shimmer and Nate was back in his formal wears, and he was taller now as well. His eyes were golden, but this time they were shining. He had all the confidence this universe had to offer without making him arrogant. He smiled and held out his hand, "I will do my best to honor this agreement, Ray. I hope to see you again, but please take your time. And I will be doing narration from now on."

The moment we shook hands, I took over the role of narration from Ray and sent him back to waking up.