The Curtains Close

He grips Mara closer to himself and continues to stare into space. Is he, ok? Nah he's perfectly fine after being told he didn't know his girlfriend was dead.

I spot a couple more goblins out of the corner of my eye, the stragglers of the horde. God, fucking kill me already.

I send a dagger straight into one of the goblins' chests and send the other through into their head.

Then for the last one, I form a small magic circle, and a bead of fire shoots into their chest. I'm pretty proud of that magic spell, I had to practice magic circles somehow.

I retrieve the daggers and return to Akari. He's still in this weird state, so I try and push him to walk forward a bit. And he walks, great so I don't have to carry him!

But of course, he's still holding Mara's dead body. It's a bit unnerving, so I try and pull her from his grasp but he holds her tighter and I can hear the squish of the muscles.

Oh god, I might throw up. I take a break from him and look in the distance, the guards are still on the way. I start to stare just a bit.

Marissa, S-Sara and Mara. I have to say it I miss Marissa more than I'd realize. Her and her stupid knowledge and test n' shit. Then Sara has gone off the deep end she turned into some crazy psycho bitch!

I didn't know Mara well but it seems like her death has just broken Akari. I hate him but he's my brother and helped me complete something I'm super proud of.

Wha? Why the hell is it talking about authority? And why..? Do I feel so drained…

Oh no my pass out…

No. No, come on you gotta keep going. You don't want to end up like Akari over there.

I look over to Akari and see he hasn't moved an inch. I can't let myself revert into a freakish state like him.

I need to build myself back up. I need to be strong. Heh, that sounds super cringe, more like something Akari would say.

I suck in a deep breath and let myself focus on the problem at hand. The guards are coming, and a lot of them. It would probably be to our best advantage to leave.

But Akari is still holding that dead body, so that needs to go. I already tried to make him drop the body but that didn't work.

I walk over to him and don't look Mara in the face, no thanks, I'd rather not. I close my eyes and try and get Mara out of Akari's arms. She's super heavy so I have to sling her over my shoulder and refrain from shivering.

I've hurt others before it's just the feeling of holding a dead body… Eww, awful.

I set her down on the ground, poor Mara, sorry we couldn't give you a proper burial. It's kind of hard to do that since I see the horde of guards enter the village. So we got to go.

I push Akari a bit faster and we head out on the path we took when we got here. We get to the edge of the town which Marissa explained was the forcefield. We could sorta see a glare before but it's just gone. Explains how those goblins got in.

I keep pushing him along and up the dirt path that turns to grass. No, the further we get from the town the darker it gets.

I'm very careful making sure not to bump into anything so when my bad foot catches onto a stump, I stop and sit down.

I look up at the endless sky and make a wish, I know it sounds fucking stupid but I don't know what to do next.

God, I can't believe I'm gonna do this. I put my hands together and instead of clasping them I leave them palm to palm.

"Oh our great lord, please wish us with luck and kindness. Oh great Benevolence, keep us safe. Your ungrateful subjects."

Instead of making a comment I just sit there and continue to look at the stars. We waited quite a while, for what, I don't know.

Do you think I would really listen to Marissa spout about normal lectures all day? Ya, what do you think the chances were I was paying attention when she started talking about gods and stuff?

I hear the crunching of the grass. Two people. I whip my head up to see a big guard and some guy that looks like he's going to go to a meeting.

"Shadow twins, by the law in section 23, I, Daou, compel you to come with us." The suited guy says.

I stand up and I have to look up to see his eyes. My hood slipped off in the process.

"Yeah! Like hell, stay the fuck away from us!" I punch the suited prick straight in the gut- OW, SHIIITTT. I wave my hand a bit to stop the stinging.

What the hell was that? I was fighting goblins just fine a second ago. I swear if this has to do with some dumb stat stuff I'm gonna!

"Come with us now or I will use force!" The large guard says as he steps forward.

I look over to Akari and sigh. What can we do, I feel more drained than when we first got here. I look back up at the guard.

"Fine, we'll come but only because I wouldn't want to hurt unworthy opponents." That will make him scared, I mean everyone here is scared by any threat.

I follow them and they lead us to what looks to be a horse-drawn wagon, just with a roof.

Me and Akari get in the wagon. The inside is quite empty seeing as it will be holding the 'shadow twins' I thought it would be a bit more secure.

Well, they're probably just using some crazy magic stuff anyway…

It probably wouldn't matter.

Inside the wagon, I get to have a good look at the town that we had been staying in for most of our time here. You know now that I look at it, it's snowing. It's kind of beautiful in a weird way.

Maybe if I was kinder to Marissa she might not have left. Maybe if I tried to understand what Sara was going through maybe she wouldn't have gone psycho. Maybe…

Maybe, it wouldn't have mattered.

If only I worked harder on my studies I might have known more about this world. If only I had asked for more help from Akari, I might have had a better idea. If only I had worked just a little bit faster.

Then again. It doesn't really matter.

It sounds like we are going to leave soon… All my research is in that town…

…

…

It would have been a hell of a lot easier if I didn't realize this right now…

Well, I guess it doesn't really-

I look over to Akari and there's a blue slime on his lap.

"What the fuck???"