Sabine led Patrick through the winding corridors, knowing the layout like the back of the director’s hand. As she led him out, she dropped the Ben forms into his backpack, and popped him off at the entrance.
To his surprise, John was there, waiting. He popped his head up from his phone to wave.
"Meeting over?”
Sabine cut in before Pat could. "Yep! Everything is okay now!"
As he walked over to him somewhat disoriented, Sabine waved us goodbye from the doorway. "You two have a good morning!"
John waves back. “You too!”
Pat could see her ears flap with innocent happiness, before skipping back inside and letting the automatic doors close behind.
“Alright, Pat. Since cheese isn’t vegan, I wanna teach you vegan pizza. It’s currently 9:32, and it will be 10:03 by the time we get back. Our next lecture is at 11, so we can make the dough beforehand and let it rise for lunch.”
Something felt a little incongruous.
"John…"
"Yeah?"
"D-did you see anything on her head? Anything floppy?"
“Hmm? Who? Who's floppy head?”
Pat looked behind him to point to Sabine, but she wasn’t there anymore.
“T-the lady that led me out of the building.”
“Ah, she may have left you before the final corner, cus I didn’t see her. Was she nice?”
“D-didn’t you just… you don’t remember…”
Patrick could feel his perception crystal swing around his neck, brushing his nape with its tiny metal links.
“Hmm? What?”
“Do you know why we are over here?”
“I felt like you asked me to come here. We were skipping the first lecture, so I assumed it was important.”
Patrick’s confused face pressured him to backpedal a bit. “I was just tagging along with you… are you alright?”
Pat’s head felt like it was floating off. John didn’t have a perception crystal, so of course he couldn’t perceive her. From how hectic everything had been, he didn’t process what it meant for perceptions to differ.
He felt sorry for Sabine, only able to interact with people directly around her.
A faint mass of melancholic dread thickened throughout his chest.
He could feel the slightly larger crystal rub against his sternum. Aware of what perception could mean, and unaware of what [Erase] would do, it felt like a loaded gun dangling around his neck.
Sensing Pat’s pained expression, John put his hand on his shoulder. “Pat… are you alright?”
“I… you can’t… I just have a lot going on.”
“Are you… comfortable with talking about it?”
“I can’t.”
John took a seat beside him, and waited as the occasional late morning car drove past.
“Let’s just go home, and cook for a bit. Alright? I’ll show you how to make pizza.”
He crouched in front of him and lifted Pat’s chin with his finger till their eyes met, and smiled. “A bit of kneading will get your mind off whatever it is. Sounds good?”
"... Yeah."
“Good lad.” John gave Pat a hearty pat on the shoulder. “Glad to have you back. It’s pizza time baby!”
“Heh… What’s pizza by the way?”
“What?”
“What?”
“Have you never seen pizza?”
“I know it’s a food… but,”
“Pat, I’m about to show you what religion feels like.”
The two of them laughed as he went through an outline of the recipe they were going to try.
They eventually made it to the road crossing from the first day. Where Pat first met Ben.
“It would be nice to make the pizza for him.” Pat said to himself.
“What did you say?”
“Nothing!” Pat turned his flushed face away.
“Hey, come on! I know an embarrassed Pat when I see one!”
“I’m not! I’m just…” Standing opposite the crossing, was a shadow. “what’s that?”
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Hmm? What?” John saw Pat’s eyes suddenly focus across the street, and turned to see nothing there. “What do you see?”
Was that the same shadow from before? Was it thicker? The one he saw before outside the lecture hall was transparent as wispy smoke, but this one was black fabric.
Ignore them.
The director’s words resurfaced in his mind, as the hair on his neck stood up. Ignore them? They looked dangerous, so why would he?
The shadow grew eyes and stared right back.
Patrick slammed his eyes to the ground, feeling an overwhelming sense of doom grab his heart.
Ignore them. Ignore them. Ignore them.
“Pat, the light’s green. You alright?”
“Cross. Just cross. We need to cross.”
“O… okay…”
John watched the roads for him. Patrick’s face remained parallel to the floor. Once crossed, Pat grabbed the necklace and pushed it into his pocket.
“What’s happening? Are you dizzy? Do you need any water?”
“No! Everything is okay! Just ignore it and it will be okay!”
“Here, just take my water bottle.”
Pat refused the drink and continued walking.
“I'd say be careful of heat stroke, but it isn’t that hot today. Actually come to think of it… it's really cold now. Did you feel that sudden chill as well, Pat?”
The scenery felt a bit dimmer, as if a thick cloud passed overhead. Patrick followed the sun’s rays back to the caster, which was on top of the arts building.
On top was another shadow figure.
It was smiling.
“How… I can still see…the crystal isn’t being used…”
“What’s going on?” John presses his cheek into Pat’s and tries to see what he’s seeing.
“Pat, is there someone on top of the arts building?”
The moment John noticed it, the shadow figure exploded in depth.
A dark cloud erupted from the roof of the building, casting unphysical shadows in all directions.
Pat grabbed John’s hand and ran, but no matter how fast they went, the shadow was omnipresent. The figure was always watching.
“We have to get home. We need Ben’s help for this!”
“Ben?”
“Yes, Ben! I can’t explain exactly why, but he might just know what is going on!”
“No… that’s not what I mean.” Just as they reached the hall, he asked. “Which Ben?”
Patrick was catching his breath. “W-what?”
“I know a couple Bens. Which one of them came over, or is this a Ben I don’t know?”
Patrick felt his eyes implode.
Ben was erased.
The ground went from shaded to black. As black as paint. Looking directly down, he saw two eyes and a grin staring right back.
It began to laugh, and black tendrils started to rise.
“Wait, what’s going on? Pat what’s happening?”
John was caught up in this whole mess. The solution would hurt, but there was no options left.
“I’m sorry John.”
“W-what?”
“I’m going to go for a bit.”
Patrick pulled the crystal out of his pocket, and held it at arm's length.
[Erase]
John blinked…
And blinked again…
What was he doing here?
He looked around himself standing at the hall entrance. Was he leaving, or just returning?
“Hey John… what are you doing outside?”
Anthony had just returned to the hall. “Oh, Anthony! You just back from lectures?”
“Yes sirree. I’m free for the afternoon until 4pm for a philosophy module. It seems like advanced thought is only possible after lunch.”
“Oh, speaking of lunch, do you know what I want to try today? Guess, guess!”
“What is it?”
“Vegan pizza.”
The two of them discussed his sudden interest in vegan food and left the building. Patrick released his held breath.
John didn’t notice him.
Anthony didn’t notice him.
Crucially, the shadows are no longer noticed by him either.
The overcast that was blotting the entire hall had now faded, and the shadow that stood at the top was as thin as a wisp of smoke once again. It seemed like whatever attention John was giving it was not the dominant factor in its power.
It wasn’t smooth sailing yet though. The twitch second save only gave him a moment of peace. The instant he used the spell, the crystal shrunk in his hand.
He opened his palm to look closer. The originally pink-purple crystal was now glowing deep red, the light intensity rising and falling like a sleeping breath. If his eyes didn’t deceive, with every pulse of red, the crystal was shrinking.
From weighing it in his palm, he realised his crystal had only a few minutes to last.
He remembered the director’s advice to return to them in an emergency. Her office was half an hour away, and 15 to run. There was no time.
There was only one person in his mind who could do anything about this, let alone know about his circumstances.
The only alternative was to find Ben… somehow…
He has to still be around right? He was still able to picture Ben in his head. Whatever erasure happened, he was somehow exempt, fueling what little optimism was left of the situation.
Hanging the crystal around his neck once again, he shuddered a breath into his lungs as he raced through his options.
The door inside the hall was locked.
He lived on the ground floor.
Circling around to his window, his optimism drained.
“Where… did he go?”
There was not a single trace of life in this room.
No luggage, no clothes, no bed sheets. There was even a layer of stagnant dust which was there when he first moved into his own room.
This didn’t make any sense.
How was he able to imagine and remember Ben so vividly, and yet not be able to notice his physical existence?
The crystal around his neck pulsed, and was now light enough to slide the chain around his neck with the wind. The ground began to darken once again. He could feel his heart begin to race.
His mind was drawing and firing blanks, ringing his ears as his eyes defocused from the overwhelming adrenaline.
Filled with a cacophony of thoughts, a sentence bubbled up to the top. A gut reaction from within had spoken. He had to get into Ben’s room.
As his rational mind caught up to question the idea, his crystal cracked, dropping half of it down his shirt.
In that instant, the shadow returned, and tendrils began to form once again.
There was no time.
Looking around him, there was the shopping trolley from yesterday. He grabbed it and threw it towards the window. The wheels kicked on a rock, sending it up at just the right time to smash the tempered glass inwards into his room.
Just as a tendril fully formed and reached for him, he jumped through the shattered glass, cutting his ankle on a jagged edge, dodging it at the last second.
Just as his gut told him, what floor awaited him upon jumping through wasn’t the litter of glass.
He felt his head and shoulder fall into the carpet floor.
In the sudden vertigo, he blinked.
Suddenly, everything was black, just like before.