Chapter 6: Person To Blame

"It's unfortunate you can't stop all this. You're like a prisoner! You will die like this, Weber."

A faint feminine voice told Weber and he quickly sat up from sleeping on the chair, his face dripping with sweat and his breath in large gasps.

Josh woke up from Weber's sudden awakening and Josh eyes widened, his body fidgeting, his mouth caught between a suppressed sob and a gasp.

Cause Josh noticed Weber's eyes shaking left to right in quick motion.

And every time this happened, there was danger nearby.

Then Josh cleared his throat when Weber's eyes were normal "a-are we in danger?" Josh said, his voice low and cracky.

Weber didn't respond or turn to him. Josh's heart sank, his jaws tightening, "if there's something, I need to know!" Josh said, his voice louder.

Weber sighed and brushed his hair with his hand.

"Someone... someone spoke to me," Weber said slowly.

Josh ashened.

"But no one is here!" Josh said, then paused and considered the times he saw Weber fight. Weber's power did not work like how mana works.

He shouldn't be able to make the sky turn black when powered up. He shouldn't be able to make himself intangible. And he definitely shouldn't be able to have whispers messing with people's minds.

"W-what if you attracted an apparition after becoming one y-yourself?" Josh said stammering.

Weber shot Josh a glare.

"You already think I'm no longer human? What's that supposed to mean?"

Josh got to his feet his brows were knitted "don't change the subject!"

Weber sighed.

"For starters," Weber began "it was no spirit. More like one of my lost memories."

Josh tilted his head and knitted his brows as he pondered Weber's words.

"Lost memories? As in childhood?" Josh asked.

Weber nodded negatively "when I was in the market the other day before The Ones of Rite struck, my bracelet was burning my hand. I threw it away and it clogged my head with memories of myself that I can't pinpoint or see clearly."

Josh was turning the matter over and over in his head, and he paced around the inside of the abandoned train.

"How did you get item? Won't such be costly for a non-mana user? I mean, that's only useful for a prisoner of some sort."

Weber's eyes gleamed wide and he whipped his head to Josh, "that's it! That bracelet, I can't remember why or where I got it, but the voice in my dream—or memory—something about me being..." Weber's expression turned dull "Being a prisoner."

Weber leaned back in his chair and exhaled.

Josh sighed. Weber slowly turned his head to Josh's direction "now I think about it, what do you know about me before the war that broke out a year ago? Considering we've been in the same university for two years."

Josh sat down and closed his eyes, then opened them and held his chin.

"Well, it's only towards the end of the previous semester we clicked. Then we became roommates at our second year..." Josh's expression hardened, making Weber lean in closer "I noticed that you weren't stable with classes. In the beginning, you were. Then you vanished. Then started missing classes."

Weber leaned back and scratched his head "that's odd, but now you mention it, I just can't remember what happened much in the first Year. I remember those first classes. I remember those last classes. But I can't remember why I missed them or what was going on."

Josh leaned back and looked up to the rusty and dusty ceiling of inside of the train.

Josh sat up and looked towards Weber "about that voice from earlier, what made it startling?"

Weber thought in silence for some moments and smacked his lips "for some reason, it was painful and saddening to hear it from that voice in particular." Weber replied.

"I have the feeling that whatever life I had, I had probably been told that multiple times. But that voice hit harder."

Josh gnashed his teeth "unfortunately, I can't help with flash backs cause we weren't even acquaintances at the time this was happening."

Weber put his hand into his pocket, but felt nothing, "i just remembered that I lost my phone in my first flight with the Ones of Rite," he said, clenching his fists.

"Grown men don't cry!" Josh remarked. As Weber was about turning to him, a brand new phone was being stretched out to him from Josh.

Weber's eyes widened, then they dulled.

"Is that really for me? Why didn't you sell this new phone?"

Josh shrugged, "when you first moved in, you said I should keep this for you."

Weber looked at Josh, turned his head away and smiled "I don't know why past me made that decision, but, thanks Josh for respecting it."

Weber said, taking the phone and visually scanning it and turning it around and his brows knitted.

"Wait... This phone is expensive! What was I thinking! How could I afford such a phone!" Weber said, cursing under his breath. Then noticing that Josh hadn't looked his way and his eyes glued unto his own phone screen, he noticed that the phone was that Josh's phone was the same with his.

"Unless you bought this for me back then?" Weber asked.

Josh finally looked up into Weber's eyes "I don't actually have that type of money, even for myself," Weber knitted his brows as Josh continued "you're the one that bought this phone for me. Now I think about it, it's quite odd that you can't remember these."

Weber smacked his lips and stared at his phone. No contacts. No pictures or any thing that pointed to his past. Only a video.

"Why would I make things much harder for myself? If I planned for an extra device like this, couldn't I have been helpful enough to leave behind clues?" Weber said with a grimace.

Josh ashened and his heart started beating quickly.

Weber glared at him "and why were you so normal that I acted so different? As if some things never happened?"

Now this time, Josh didn't reply.

Weber was about speaking, till Josh cut him off "that's cause only one thing could have happened to my memories..."

Weber squinted eyes, "don't tell me you're a phantom like me..." He said.

Josh nodded negatively, "definitely not. The problem is, even I can't answer why these memories are only resurfacing now."

Weber stood up and clenched his fists "we don't have all the answers now, but being immobile won't help."

Josh sighed "before we go, wasn't there a video on your phone?"

"I forgot about it," Weber said, scrolling to the video and hitting the play button, Josh watching over his shoulder.

In the video, Weber was folding his hands, legs crossed and was staring daggers at the camera.

"By the time you're watching this video, it means our country is losing the war, badly. And that means circumstances would have awakened the power I would be sealing from myself. That power is not mana. That's a good and bad thing. Good cause you can bypass certain mana limitations. Bad cause even I'm not sure of the safety of it's origin. So keep an open mind."

The video ended.

Weber sighed and walked out of the abandoned train without a word.

Josh walked behind him "does that help with anything?" Josh asked.

Weber gritted his teeth "if I knew that video would only make me feel worse, I wouldn't have watched it. Let's just get out of here."

Josh frowned and walked next to him.

"Now, we need to know how to deal with the next area that separates us from the border. We're literally heading towards the region that had it's farms captured," Josh said.

Weber nodded, "that's right," he said, raising up his hand and concentrating "if we had my phantom abilities like phasing, it would have been helpful." No matter how much Weber concentrated, his hands were solid.

Weber sighed, then smirked "that's unfortunate, but I had a feeling it be this way. So, we're gonna look for a tunnel."

Josh tilted his head "have you been there before?"

"I'm not sure, but I have memories of the place that were sealed off, but for some reason, have returned." Weber replied.

"That's good timing. But it's not like they'll let us just sneak under there." Josh thought aloud.

Weber's irises subtly glowed white in the darkness.

"Oh, that, I prepared for."