Opposing

[ Bare with me this chapter, as I am experimenting a little bit. Had a lot of difficulties writing it so I inquired help. ]

He had finally deciphered the messages of his dreams. Why had they been so intricate this time? He couldn't say.

But he wouldn't say that his conclusions were correct, without first verifying them. How?

What he did know, however, was that everything outside was unfolding exactly as his dream foretold, yet his hands would not and could not alter it. Why?

Trapped in this suffocating void, he questioned himself endlessly, but no answers came.

What if they actually died?

Was it actually the Mimicry? Or was there something else at work? He couldn't know.

"Jean, why are you so panicked?"

The voice came suddenly, startling him. He turned, and there she was—a face he knew too well.

"Erika?"

"In the flesh."

"How are you here…?"

Suspicion flickered alongside surprise. Was this really Erika? Why was she here?

"Wake up, Jean."

As quickly as she had appeared, she vanished, leaving him alone once more in the endless darkness.

'Did I imagine her? A hallucination?'

Though his body was not visible in the void, he could still feel it. Unsure of what else to do, he moved toward the glimmer of light he thought he had seen before.

He walked without stop. Days seemed to pass, yet the void was still dark, devoid of any light. Was this truly his dream, or had he been ensnared by some Zirtue's trap?

He began to think that the light was also a hallucination, just like Erika.

Disembodied voices whispered around him—cries for help, angry reprimands, strange murmurs. He ignored them all, focusing on walking.

He began to run, desperate to close the distance, but the void remained unchanging, infinite.

There were no wind, no air, the void was truly empty. He stopped walking and stood still, staring into the endless abyss.

***

The shelter was deathly silent, the air thick with the stench of blood. Crimson trails crisscrossed the floor, converging into a macabre pattern: a serpent devouring its own tail—the ouroboros.

The people were gone. Only four things remained:

A writhing maggot, its stench was mixed along with the blood in the shelter.

A stone book.

A man, slumped and asleep.

And a glass capsule, its ends covered with strange, lifeless meat.

The meat, once red, had faded to a sickly gray. Suddenly, a crack split the glass cleanly in two.

Pale fingers emerged, clawing through the crack. They gripped the capsule's edges, tearing it apart until the glass disintegrated into dust.

One half of the capsule hurtled across the room, striking the wall with a deafening crash before shattering into fragments.

From where the capsule had been, a girl rose. Her skin was pale, her head bare, and her ragged white dress clung to her frail form. Her eyes, wide with terror, scanned the room.

She staggered, collapsing to the ground. Crawling forward, her hands dug into the stone floor, warping it with her grip. Her legs dragged lifelessly behind her.

Reaching the white-haired figure slumped against the wall, she pulled herself upright. Her trembling hand seized his hair, lifting his head.

With a single motion, she tore apart the wall beside him, shaping the debris into a crude dagger. She pressed it against his forehead.

Blood trickled down as the blade pierced skin, then bone. A sickening crack echoed as the dagger drove deeper, until it reached its mark.

When she withdrew the blade, a gelatinous, jellyfish-like mass clung to its tip.

Dropping the dagger, she crushed it underfoot. The jellyfish, inexplicably intact, wriggled in her grasp.

She turned and made her way toward the staircase, the jellyfish still in hand. Her pale form disappeared into the shadows, leaving the shelter silent once more.

***

A suddenly tearing suddenly caught his attention. Turning his head, he found the literal darkness surrounding him was being torn apart by some unknown force.

Without wasting a second, he dashed through the tear...

***

His eyes opened, to his relief, darting around the shelter, it was just as his dreams foretold, albiet a little different.

The stains on the ground were a lot more prominent, there were dents on the ground and damage on the wall he was next to and most importantly, a massive hole on his forehead.

Closing his eyes, he sensed nothing in the shelter and opened them again.

Quickly dismissing the discrepancies and getting up, he immediately got to the center of the shelter, took the book and looked up, the hole was not there. He did not need to pick up the maggot but he did so anyways.

This time, it also pointed him to something but different from the dreams, it was the stairs out that it pointed to. He doubted if he should follow its indication but still followed suit.

Crawling up the stairs, he observed the individual steps, there was blood and another strange liquid.

A bad feeling crept up in his heart as he got out of the shelter. Immediately, he looked up and,

"..."

"That's no moon."

In the sky, was a bright circle, but when he looked closer, it was actually of hundreds of jellyfish squirming around.

And opposite that abomination and also in the sky, was a symbol.

"The witch's knot?"

He had not seen this sight in his dreams.

His face suddenly felt wet—he was sweating, and profusely.

'What?'

His pupils dilated as it tried to make out the composition of the knot but it was different from the 'moon'.

It was far, very very far away. And considering that it was larger than the 'moon' in the sky.

Suddenly, the four ends of the knot brightened up, making the 'moon' seem dark in comparison.

Then, from those four ends, shot out a beam of pure energy, merging in the middle to become one and after a few seconds, obliterated the moon in the sky.

The jellyfish fell, and the sight reminded Jean of a meteor shower.