When Vincent disappeared down the stairs into the cellar, Leigh felt a strange surge of anxiety rush through her. Her oldest friend was acting strange the past few days, and it was worrying her. Then this evening when she arrived home, Vincent was there waiting for her with a serious look on his face. The way he kept talking made it sound like someone had died. Whatever it was couldn’t be that serious, could it?
The sound of wooden stairs creaking under his weight as Vincent climbed back to the surface shook Leigh back to her senses. Vincent clambered to the top of the stairs, throwing open both doors to the cellar and stepping into the evening light. Leigh relaxed for a moment and let out a deep exhale. Her ease vanished in an instant when she spotted the creature crouching in her friend's shadow.
Lithe, low to the ground, dark and ominous. It crept forward on all fours, the shadows of the basement clinging to the gaunt lines of its body.
It was looking to the side, following Vincent with its eyes, and then it turned towards Leigh. The darkness rippled and Leigh was met with two shining purple pin pricks in the void. At the moment that the two gazes met, the world dropped away, and all that Leigh could see were those two shining sparks of violet in the endless nothing. Those shining embers held a chill beyond words, a primal apathy. It was clearly not human, but it was beyond even a beast or monster. There was something deeply wrong with it and the way it seemed to look through the world rather than at it.
A scream choked in her throat and Leigh stumbled back as the creature prowled forward. Bare bones and twisted shadows crept into the sunlight. It's movements were unnatural, shaking with a false mockery of the living. Leigh tried to scramble backward, tripping on a stone before she could stand.
Vincent visibly panicked and whistled a silent signal to the beast, ushering him back into the darkness of the cellar. It pounced down the stairs with practiced ease. Leigh's eyes jumped to her friend, and the obvious connection turned her fear of the beast into fear of her neighbor. The horror must have been visible on her face, as Vincent recoiled as well. How could he create something like that?
“I’m sorry, I didn’t, I wasn’t trying to” Vincent stammered, pain in his eyes as he stepped between Leigh and the beast. Leigh glanced between them, and couldn’t find her words. Struggling for breath, she ran from the garden back into the village. She was rushing to her forge, to the sanctity and privacy of her workshop.
She slammed the door as she crossed the threshold, clumsily turning the lock as she stumbled into her safe haven. In the solitude of her workshop, Leigh let out a deep and shaking sigh. She couldn’t hold herself back any longer and simply collapsed to her knees, a shaking wave of sobbing crashing over her like a tsunami. Leigh knelt there on the ground, shaking and crying for several minutes until she regained her composure. Yet even still, her mind bristled with fear of that thing hiding in her village under her nose all this time.
Leigh felt overwhelmed by her emotions as she struggled to her feet. That creature hadn’t even done anything, yet she could feel how wrong it was. It was an assault to the senses, and battered her mind with fear and mistrust. How could he keep something like that hidden from her?
‘Did he know I would react like that? Or was he hoping I wouldn’t’ Leigh began to overanalyze the situation, tormented by her muddied feelings. ‘Where did that creature even come from? Did he make it?’ Leigh began to slowly panic. Eventually she realized overthinking would get her nowhere, and decided to unfurl a cot in the corner of the forge. It was too early to sleep, so she lit her forge and grabbed a bar of steel from the supply. Getting some forge work done might help her relax and hopefully get some sleep tonight.
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By the time Leigh finally collapsed into the make-shift bed the sun was already rising outside.
-------------------------------------------------
When Leigh ran off after meeting Cain for the first time I felt crushed. I don’t know what I had actually been expecting, but it hadn’t been that. Perhaps Daniel’s reaction to Cain the first few times had spoiled my sense of just how disturbing the undead can be for the average person. Looking over Cain now though, I still can’t see it, to me he just has the vacant look of a particularly slow puppy.
Maybe that's a lingering influence from my last life? A result of spending more time with the dead than the living? I don’t know, for now I just need to rest.
I made my way into the house for a moment, only stopping to grab a small loaf of bread and some dried meat. A meager dinner I plan to eat alone with Cain in the cellar. I climbed down the familiar steps, closing the cellar behind me, and once again found myself in the solitude of the subterranean workspace.
In all these years it has remained a food storage for the family but here recently, after Leigh’s party, dad cleared out the back corner for Cain and I to use as a make-shift study. I had hoped it wouldn’t be permanent, but now I had doubts otherwise. Taking a seat on a small stool tucked in the corner, I began idly chewing my way through the dry jerky. Mindlessly eating, my thoughts found little comfort in the isolation and began to wander.
‘Why do I even care what Leigh thinks about Cain? Should I really even care what she thinks about me?’ My thoughts began to spiral in self doubt.
‘She probably would react the same way if she found out about my past life. I can’t expect everyone to be as accepting as mom and dad’, as I continued a dull buzzing sensation built behind my eyes. It brought along a gentle headache, and I chose to sleep it off, curling up in the corner of the basement with Cain to let my frustrations resolve themselves in the night.
I’m not sure exactly when I woke up the following morning, but it was after sunrise and the dull rays had already begun seeping in the cracks of the cellar door. Much to my disappointment, I didn’t feel any better having slept on my conundrum. In fact, as I awoke I was met with an ever-present feeling of anger and frustration, one that I had to purposefully try and squash down.
‘Who cares what Leigh thinks, she’s a rural farm girl who wouldn’t know a thing about mana without my help. Following me around like a lost puppy begging for scraps-’ I had to crush that train of thought before it got too out of hand. It wasn’t Leigh’s fault she was afraid, it was an instinctual reaction.
It was strange to think about though. I’d never considered Leigh like that before, so I wasn’t sure where the sudden surge of vitriol came from. It felt familiar enough that I wasn’t worried about some mental influencing spell, but it was hard to place. The more I thought about the more the buzzing behind my eyes seemed to swell. I am fond of Leigh and she can make her own decisions. If she wants to run and hide from me forever, that’s fine. It would be a shame, I am fond of her, but this whole issue raises a question. Is she a true friend and a young woman I am genuinely infatuated with, or is it more like feeding a stray dog?
It’s not important.
It’s not important right now, I have other things to worry about. The next several days passed remarkably slowly. Leigh was clearly avoiding me, and I couldn’t force her to spend time with me if she didn’t want to. Honestly, the privacy to do my own practices has been refreshing. Cain and I walked out into the forest outside of the village several times a day to practice ideas that come to me.
The system access still remains blocked, but my connection with Cain has increased. Now, rather than just issuing orders, I can feel his relative position and distance. Even with my eyes closed I can tell where he is. When I finally get access to the full system, I believe I should be able to cast spells through him, using his connection as a form of proxy.