I can’t remember last time I ate something, my stomach was grumbling, i looked over at Celia, she was wet through all her cloths, so was I, and the rain was not letting up.

“I take the cars on the left side”

“I got the right side then”

We were walking down an old highway, torn apart from vegetation and bombs, but on the bright side there was still some cars left, but we didn’t find much.

The last car I searched had canned ham in the glove compartment.

“Celia, come here!”

We regrouped in the middle of the road.

“Here take this” I gave her the can.

She opened it with her knife, and took out a piece of meat.

“Don’t, I be fine”

“You sure?”

“Don’t think about me”

Something made a racket behind us.

We both turned around with our guns raised.

“Who’s there?”

A stray dog slowly approached us from underneath a car.

*Whimpers*

“Here doggy doggy”

“Careful, he might be sick”

“His fine, just a little hungry”

She tore of some ham with her hand and laid it in front of him.

“Woof woof! “

The dog ate it.

“Let’s go before the dog follows us”

“Ok”

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I woke up in a bed, Elisa was sitting in a chair next to me, leaning over the bed sleeping.

My Heartbeat was heavy, I could feel every beat, as I got out of bed I took the sheet over Elisa to warm her.

There was a mirror in front of me, I was only in my shorts, and then I noticed a big black scar where I got stabbed. My veins was also turning black. My body felt weak, probably from staying in bed, how long was I out?

Cortez and Odin was sleeping on some couches with a unfinished game of chess on the table, 

Cortez was sleeping in a really weird position with his mouth open and tongue out.

This place is so dark, where am I, Some kind of hospital?

No, that’s not it, I am in someone’s house.

I walked up to a door.

Someone opened it!

“Sky!”

“Celia, you are here?”

She hugged me, she started sobbing.

“We didn’t know if you were going to wake up, stupid!”

“I am so glad to see you, finally”

“You are too reckless, why would you go to such lengths for me! You could have died, if it wasn’t for….”

“For what?”

“You don’t remember?”

“Remember wha---  Ugh, Argh”

“Onii chan, you alright?”

The darkness in my veins was spreading onto my left arm, then it stopped suddenly and the pain faded.

“Yeah, I’m alright” I opened my inventory and equipped my gear to hide the wound.

I got more used to the heavy heartbeat.

“H-hey, what is going on? Sky you are up, I am so glad!” Elisa woke up, probably from the noise we made.

“Huh, Skys awake?” Cortez woke up.

“Odin get up!” Cortez punched Odin in his stomach.

“Ugh, im up” Everyone seemed really happy to see me.

“How long was I out?”

“Its been two days”

“What do you mean, two da—Ugh!”

“Sky!” Elisa ran over to me as I was on my knees, I could feel all these memories flowing into my head.

“We should get him back to bed!”

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I was in a big dark room.

“Where am i?” 

Someone was there.

“You are exactly where you need to be”

“Zane is that you?” His body was like mine, black scared.

“Look at you, you should be dead, like me”

“Im sorry,  I was to slow I”

“Enough with your excuses, what about everyone else? You left them to die to.”

Several of my previous friends flashed before me, tormented.

“Why didn’t you help us?”

“Where did you go?”

“We needed you and you abandoned us!”

“Argh! Get out of my head!”

Everyone disappeared, but Zane was still there with his back turned to me.

“You are not Zane!”

“I am the face of your regrets and the apparition of your greatest fear”

I could not believe how real everything seemed.

“You didn’t save your sister, it was me who killed everyone and stopped the fighting, you were too busy being dead, but now thanks to me you are alive, there will come a day when you need my help again, maybe then I will let you stay dead or take your body for myself? Hahaha”

“No, no, no!”

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I woke up in the bed again, it was morning.

“Sky, I am worried about you” Elisa was with me, everyone else were not to be seen.

“I am scared, I don’t know what is happening to me”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“I`m here for you”

There was a short silence.

“We are all here for you”

“Thank you, means a lot”

*Knock knock*

Cortez entered the room.

“Sky, could I talk to you for a moment?”

“Yeah, let me just get up”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, I need a walk”

Cortez and I headed outside for a walk around the main city in the thunder plains, Zebos.

“The food here is amazing, damn” Cortez and I were eating and strolling at the same time.

“Tell me, back then you died right in front of my eyes, how did you survive”

“Yeah, sorry about that, I knew there wasn’t enough space in the pod and the ship would have blown up so , I knew I could at least save you and the others.”

“I got lucky, once I got inside and pulled the lever I thought I was a goner, but I did my best to get out of there, I really didn’t have a plan so I jumped right off.”

“What? You jumped right off?”

“Yeah, the whole place was on fire and there was smoke everywhere, I had to get out fast, as I jumped off I didn’t know what to do, I managed to scout out a big puddle, I would die of course if I landed from this distance, that’s when the explosion kicked in. There was a big piece of the zeppelin cloth flying over me, I shot through it and dragged it towards me, time was really ticking at that moment, I managed to pull the rope arrow through two points of the cloth to make a half assed parachute, it did slow me down, but the impact hurt like hell.”

“I really thought you died back there”

“Yeah, I am sorry, but when I came back to the city I heard you guys were already attacking so I headed over, when I got there you weren’t yourself, it was like you were possessed.”

“Cortez, keep this between you and me, it all started back at the prison, there was some kind of experiments going on, I was strapped to this machine that was killing people in intervals, draining the corpses blood, I woke up earlier than the others, probably because my body is more immune to poison then theirs, because back in the real world we injected small amounts of poison into our blood, it was something we had to do in my previous gang. I manage to get out, but I fell into this weird pool of blood mixed with some kind of chemicals and rituals, for some reason my body absorbed it all and it made me to the monster you saw back at the camp.”

“You did look scary and you did saved many lives, even your sister, to be honest you looked kind of badass”

“I didn’t have much control over it”

“Well, who or whatever was controlling you did a great job.”

“You might be right”

We walked around zebos and I was too busy thinking of our chat to notice the city’s environment. The place was covered with houses and streets, brick by brick. Over our heads was an insanely huge roof that was covering us from the rain and thunder.

“There you guys are, I need you help again” Emily met us on our walk, Bruce was behind her as always.

“What type of help are you looking for out of these two great men?” Cortez was suddenly next to her, almost smelling her hair.

Bruce was grunting and looking at Cortez.

“Okay okay I get it”

“I need you to help us completing a dungeon or actually only the last boss, we have already cleared all the trash mobs”

“Sky is your body up for this?” I swung my arm a bit back and forth.

“This walk did wonders, I was tired from not doing anything so this will be good, shall we inform the others as well?”

“Yes, that would be wonderful, meet us at the gate in half an hour”

As we got back to the house I could see Elisa and Celia talking

“Tell me, have you gotten to know each other while I was asleep?”

“Yeah, Celia is a really nice girl as you said, I know now what you ment. You wouldn’t mind if i---?”

“Cortez, don’t even think about it”

“Hai hai, just kidding haha”

“I still want that revenge for beating my ass at the arena….And chess, juggling and rock, paper scissors!”

Cortez was crying a bit, determent to pay her back.

“Everyone, Emily have asked us to join her for a last boss fight in a dungeon who wants to come?”

“Only the last boss, sure why not”

“Sure, im inn!”

“Celia, what about you?”

“Let’s fight alongside each other once again!”

“Then its settled, we are meeting them at the gate in about 20 minutes” 

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I went to the bathroom mirror, something weird was happening to me again, I could feel my whole body dripping sweat, I took of a piece of my hoodie to watch the scar, it was spreading to my left arm.

A sudden flash of Zanes face shocked me.

“What is happening to me?”