Chapter 2: The road of no return

"Are you him"

A chill ran down my spine as a female voice echoed in the back of my mind. I looked around to see who the voice had belonged to but it looked like I was the only one who had heard it. Lisa and Max was talking to some of the other workers of the dig site and hadn't noticed my strange reaction.

I tried to refocus on what they were saying but the fear of what had just happened was to much. The fear of the voices coming back. But this was a new voice.

Usually the voice I used to hear was the voice of my dead father telling me stuff that wasn't true and trying to convince me that everyone around me was out to get me or similar things. But this, this was someone new I had never heard before.

"Are you him?"

The voice asked again this time this time like a soft whisper in my ear. I gave out a yelp and collapsed on the ground, which made everyone turn and look at me.

"Linus!?" I could hear Lisa call out to me.

She ran up to me and gave me a worried look. "Linus can you hear me? What's wrong?" Her voice was shaky and filled with worry.

I met her gaze and gave a wry smile. "I am fine. I was just a little shocked." I gave a lie that no one would belive. I didn't want to make her more worried then she already seemed to be.

She looked at me sceptically and then turned to Max to ask him to bring a chair from the research tent they had risen down her in this Ice cavern.

After I had caught my breath, regained my focus and convinced the others that I was okay we started to discuss the Sami girl.

Lisa began explaining her findings. "So as you might have suspected this is the first time there is evidence of anyone other then Europeans being on Svalbard. According to my early estimations this woman has been burried in this ice for at least 800 years. Maybe even longer."

"800 years!" I thought to myself. "But the body looks almost undamaged."

Max spoke up next "As you might have noticed Linus. The body doesn't look that damaged from the ice. Almost untouched, as if she has just passed away. Some would say..." He looked around as if trying to see if there was unwanted listeners nearby. "It seems supernatural."

Lisa smacked the back of his head and sighed "Max there's nothing supernatural. There's always a logical explanation!"

He scratched the back of his head and said. "You never know! Maybe she is still alive if we defrost her."

She gave him a stern look "This is not one of your Japanese cartoons or something. This is real life."

Max looked over to me like he couldn't believe what he was hearing and then back at her. "It is called Anime! And a man can always dream. Just wish it was a beautiful man frozen in the ice instead. Maybe then I could find my prince charming."

Lisa just rolled her eyes and returned to study some documents she brought with her from Lund.

I was deep in my thoughts trying to make sense of what was happening. I was on my medicine and I was sure that I hadn't shown any signs of falling ill again. But what was bothering me the most was the voice. It didn't feel like the normal hallucinations, it felt clear and more. I couldn't really put my finger on it but I was certain that voice was real. And if so...

"Was it you? Was it you who spoke to me?" I said to the girl in the ice. But...no answer. Of course she wouldn't answer.

"Okay listen up everyone." Lisa clapped her hands to get everyone's attention "For the next three days our goal is to extract the body and the surrounding tools trapped in the ice. Then transport it to the airport where we will travel by a cargo plane to Kiruna where Linus Max and I will transport the body and tools by truck down to Lund."

The next couple of days they focused on the excavation and documentation of everything they found. I was mostly helping with whatever task I could during that time.

The voice never returned during the process but I couldn't shake the feeling that something felt off.

After we had successfully extracted the girl and surrounding things we drove back with everything on sleds hooked on the back of the snowmobiles.

At the airport we loaded everything in a smaler cargo plane and road it back to Kiruna to get in my truck.

"So Linus ready for a road trip like the old times?" Max asked me with a wide grin.

"Max this isn't a road trip!" Lisas voice echoed from the inside the trailer. She was making sure everything was secured.

"You don't have worry Lisa!" I told her "I will make sure everything is fasten and ready before we leave."

She gave a faint awkward smile and stepped out of the trailer. "I will leave it to you then. And Max please take this seriously."

Max just laughed and said that he was here to lighten up the mood so it won't be so stale and awkward.

The both of them stepped in the truck while waiting for me to secure everything.

I checked the boxes but when I grazed the box with the frozen girl in it something happened. A wave of cold hit me and something deep inside me told me to run but I couldn't. Something was pulling me towards her. And when I touched the box again with my hand it happened again.

"Are you him. Your presence feels like him. Oh my old love how I have missed you."

A faint blue light cover the back of the trailer before everything returned to normal.

I didn't know what had happened but when I looked down on my right hand it looked like had gotten small burn marks in the form of snowflakes.

I quickly put on my gloves to cover it up and made my way back to the truck.

"Ready?" Lisa asked me when I sat down in the driver seat. I just gave her a nod and started the truck and began our journey down south.

I couldn't take my mind of what had happened back in the trailer. But after we had been driving for a few hours Max asked me something and when he noticed that I didn't respond he yelled out.

"Hey! Linus are you listening?" I snapped out of my thoughts and gave him a quick glance. "I was talking about the latest season of animes and you were just nodding along."

Lisa who was reading some research papers just sighed. To Max enthusiastic one sided conversation about Anime. "So Linus you have seen some series right? So if you had to go through an Isekai. You know another world story what would you choose?"

I gave it a real thought before giving my answer "I don't really know but I don't think I would like to be reincarnated. Would like it more if I was just transferred to another world. Then maybe if I want to I could find a way back."

He nodded along with my answer. Before saying. "I would like to be reincarnated. Would love to become some other race like a handsome Elf or a beast kin or something."

Lisa joined in the conversation too to give her opinion on the matter. "I would have to agree with Linus. I would like to be transferred, I don't want to lose everything I have in this life."

The conversations went like that from time to time. Talking about what if or talking about life in general.

After awhile both Lisa and Max had gone to sleep in the bed behind the seats. And I was alone awake driving along the dark winter road. I was planning to drive until we reached Gällivare where we would stop for the night. But the thing about driving and planning. Sometimes things doesn't go as planned.

"You are not him. But I can feel him inside your soul. We are now one."

The voice whispered in the back of my head and when I looked in the side mirror I saw a ghastly figure sitting behind me. I screamed and lost control of the truck. It swirled and slammed straight into a tree. I felt as I flew through the window and hit a tree.

Blood was dripping from the top of my head. I couldn't move my legs, and the last thing I saw was Lisa crying face as she was crawling towards me.