Fortunately, Clara and Arthur were not the only ones affected by what was happening. Jacob, who was leaving behind his parents' room, found himself shaking and feeling alone, which was funny.

I’m used to being alone.

Jacob thought to himself, it wasn’t like his parents had an abundance of time to pay attention to him. But this was a different kind of loneliness; as soon as his education in Anima, Amrita, and conduits had begun, he had always felt that there was something, even if it was invisible, there with him, going with him everywhere. But now, that something is gone. Jacob was feeling completely alone.

“Don’t worry, child.” A voice echoed through the corridor. “You have done nothing wrong; just go to your room and nothing will happen.”

Jacob continued walking towards his room. He was like a zombie, and the only reason he was doing it was that his gut was telling him to listen to that strange voice.

My instinct has never failed me

As he walked, he focused on keeping his eyes up front, but, during a lapse of his attention, he turned his head to look through the windows to where the garden was. Instead of the garden, what he saw confirmed his suspicion that he was supposed to continue looking upfront and walking without diversions toward his room. Instead of the usual fauna, what he saw was a heavy fog covering everything; within that fog, Jacob could see several eyes looking back at him. The eyes felt… old.

It’s like I’m looking at my grandfather….

No…

They made me feel like I was looking at something much older; Grandpa seemed kind of young when compared.

Jacob wanted to continue looking, and he did, until he saw something at the center of the garden. A distinct set of eyes. It was hard to explain to Jacob; they looked like they were empty, but at the same time they were full, but not in a traditional way full, no, that was not it. They were like looking at the sky at night when the sky is clear and you are far away enough from everything so that there are not enough lights reflecting in the sky. The usual night when, in the movies, people would lie down on the floor to look at the sky. And what would you see?

Stars, those eyes are made from stars.

Jacob could see a swirling of constellations in those eyes; vibrant shades of green shimmer danced between the different stars and constellations. Jacob was mesmerized by those eyes; he started to divert his steps almost as if he wanted to go to the garden, to go to those eyes.

“Don’t child.” The same voice that had spoken to him not too long ago echoed one more time through the hallway. “Go to your room.”

Jacob was taken out of his stupor by that voice. He started to walk again towards his room, doing his best to avoid looking at the windows, even if it was one of the things he wanted to do the most; his instincts were screaming to listen to the voice and to get as far away as possible from those eyes, and he finally managed to reach his room; he rushed in and closed the door behind him, and he fell to his bed, drained of energy; he fell asleep as soon as he touched the bed.

“Rest, little one; tomorrow everything will go back to normal.” A voice coming from the center of the garden said.

Gerald, who had been in his office, was on his way to check on his grandchildren; he was sure that Abigail was about to do the same, and he trusted his children to be safe. The sound of his cane with each step he took reverberated through the house until he finally managed to catch a glimpse of the garden. There he saw something staring back at him. It took him a little while to recognize what it was that he was seeing; at first, he thought that maybe it was a malfunction of the illumination, but it wasn’t; it was just that what he was seeing was an eye.

The eye that was staring back at Gerald was all yellow, a strong yellow that had little dark patches, but that was not all that Gerald could see; he saw knowledge from the eye. It looked like the eyes of that person. We all know a person like that, a person who has gone through a lot, who has seen a lot, who has experienced a lot.

And that eye was entirely focused on Gerald. Gerald knew better than most that one could find strange things in liminalities, beings that had no business existing, things that looked to be so out of place. But that eye. It reminded Gerald of something, something that even he wanted to forget.

The Void

Those were the only words that Gerald could think of. And those were words that Gerald didn’t want in his mind.

Then, the air itself split apart, and then, a loud boom was heard in the Alaric house. What looked to be a hand appeared out of nowhere on the window leading to the garden. The only problem was that a mere finger of that hand seemed to be just as big as Gerald's whole body.

“You smell just like her.” A crude, ancient voice that made Gerald’s bones vibrate. “Som…”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

When the voice tried to utter that last word, cracks began to appear. The issue was that the cracks didn’t appear on the glass, which would have been another issue altogether since the glass was designed to withstand blasts from explosions and high-caliber weapons. No, the cracks were appearing in the world; the fabric of existence seemed to be falling apart.

A pair of empty eyes that seemed to be full at the same time opened in the center of the garden, and a green-black mist appeared to be leaking into reality from the cracks; the mist looked almost like a liquid being poured in a delicate manner onto something. The poured mist started to move and shaped into what looked like wolves.

“That word is forbidden.” One of the mist wolves exclaimed.

The eye squinted, but Gerald couldn’t be sure the reason why it was reacting that way. He had seen similar reactions from people, but those were people who were about to die and were preparing for that and had accepted the inescapable fate; they didn’t want to face the horror of their demise. And what could scare the owner of that eye enough to react in that way?

The mist wolves walked through the wall like it wasn’t even there, and along with the wolves, fear seemed to have gone through that wall too.

No, that eye doesn’t seem to be afraid of the wolves; it’s more like… dread…. It feels pure dread of those wolves.

Gerald, who was still completely paralyzed, thought seeing the eye's reaction. One by one, the wolves started to howl, and with each howl, reality started to tear away faster; more and more green-black mist started to leak into the world. It was to the point where Gerald couldn’t see anything past it, and something was telling him it was for the best. While Gerald was still frozen in the spot, a tiny part of the mist separated itself from the rest and started to morph into a somewhat human form.

“You do smell like her.” The figure spoke, and if the last voice sounded ancient, this new one was… unfathomable.

“Stay there.” The voice told Gerald, and then it snapped its fingers, and just like that, Gerald felt like he was being stripped from Amrita itself.

Abigail had found herself in front of that very mist, but to her it was different; she hadn’t had the chance to look into the garden; she had been abruptly stopped. Whatever it was that was in front of her, she felt that it defied comprehension. At times it seemed humanoid, and at times it seemed like a writhing amalgamation of different forms that shifted constantly. It had only uttered the word “Stop” to Abigail. Yet, that word had been enough to make her stop dead in her tracks. She had been in war; she had seen and done a lot of horrible things. She had heard millions screaming in pain and agony, but that voice had sent chills through her whole body. The voice of that thing was like a scream and a whisper at the same time, the most chilling, horrible screams you could imagine, and yet, it was also the most loving, calming, and even sensual whisper you could ever imagine.

The void

Abigail thought of something she hadn’t wanted to remember ever again.

That thing wants to kill me, but at the same time it doesn’t

Back when she first encountered the Void, she had only grasped the entrance, nothing else; this is what she believed the Void felt like; she felt like the Void itself had decided to walk into the world. Beneath the being and inside the green-black mist, Abigail could swear she was seeing multiple eyes, some lost, some angry, some crying, it was…. unnerving.

Abigail wanted to fight that thing, but she couldn’t, from the moment she crossed eyes with that thing, she felt her connection to Amrita and her conduit disappearing, she felt she was losing her mind just by staring at that thing.

“Then stop” The entity spoke.

Abigail felt like her ears began bleeding.

“Turn around and leave woman,” The entity told Abigail.

Abigail found herself turning around and walking away from that thing, she was not only scared, but she was internally panicking, it had been years since she had felt this powerless in front of anything, and she didn’t like that feeling.

“Mom” A voice called out to Abigail. When she turned what she saw was Celine walking with a pale expression on her face.

“Celine!” Abigail called out to her daughter.

“Please abstain from screaming” The entity spoke. Celine recoiled when hearing the voice of that thing she was confused, she felt fear, but at the same time, she felt reassured that she was safe, and, although she wouldn’t admit this to anyone, she felt aroused.

“Are you ok, Celine?” Abigail asked her daughter.

“I’m not sure,” Celine said honestly. “I don’t feel Amrita, my conduit is…”

“I know sweetie,” Abigail said trying to reassure her daughter. “Everything will be ok”

“That’s true” The entity intervened. “Go back to that room the both of you, and nothing will happen to either.”

Abigail and Celine started to walk to Abigail's room. The both of them walk with care and in a slow manner, trying to avoid angering that thing.

“Worry not” The entity spoke. “Just as I allowed that woman to reach this place, I’m allowing the both of you to leave, as long as you compel and stay there tonight, nothing will happen, I keep my word, always”

Those words steer a conflicted cocktail of emotion in both of them; on one part, they were still scared beyond comprehension of that thing. but at the same time, they were inclined to trust that thing; they felt tiny in its presence, and, strangely, that was the same reason why they felt inclined to trust it. For that thing, they were insignificant; why would such a being feel the need to lie to them? There was no real reason for it to try and deceive them.

“Let’s just hope that everyone else is ok” Celine spoke to Abigail.

“The other members of the Alaric family have also received similar offers, it depends entirely on them if they will be ok or not” The entity answers Celine’s concern.

Celine turned to look and that strange being was walking back into the mist, the several hundreds of eyes that appeared to be looking at them started closing, one by one.

“Stop looking young one” The entity spoke. “There are things that are not for everyone's eyes to see”

Abigail yanked her daughter away from looking, she had stared at the entity for a while and had started to feel the effects it could have even on someone like her, she would rather keep her daughter from that feeling.