“Hmm?”
Hummed a mouthless person in the cold and silent space, he leisurely and calmly closed the book in his hands with a quiet thud that almost echoed in the large round hall. He stood up very calmly and casually rested his cheek on one hand, lazily resting his weight on one leg while standing. He then observed the bookshelves all around him with a contemplating look on his emotionless face.
“This sure is sudden…” he looked around one last time, seeming quite amused.
“Well, a little bit of activity is healthier than nothing at all.” he clasped his hands behind his back very slowly before standing straight.
“Time to work for the first time.”
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The Red Flower
Chapter. 26
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“Hmm? Ah, you’re awake.”
Elois stood frozen in place, blinking dumbly at the person before him, who had a bright smile on his face. He wanted to take a good look around him, but he knew pretty well where he was. The place, no, the room was too familiar for him and too grilled into his memory for many years and every day to not know where it was. His room, his only room shared with Davante. His roommate was standing in front of him and smiling warmly at him while fixing his uniform suit, looking oddly refreshed. “I made your breakfast already. I’m going to class now.”
His roommate grabbed his bag and walked calmly to the door before stopping midway, “Don’t worry about the incident yesterday. Just stay here and relax. I’ll take care of everything for you.”
‘Huh…?’ Elois continued to stare at the other with a clueless look.
“Javi isn’t dead. Rest assured.” Davante looked back at him with a reassuring smile, “I’ll deal with Alvis and the others, so please just stay here for now. I’m sure everything will be solved, it’ll get better. Trust me.”
‘Huh?’
“Enjoy your meal.”
The sound of the door closing and the click that followed was too loud in the silent room. Elois was dumbfounded. He could only stand in the middle of the room while staring blankly at the door. He looked down at his clothes and noticed something. “I’m in my… pajama?” he looked back up at the door, “But I… was walking in the forest? With Javi?”
He then frowned, “‘Javi isn’t dead’? What did he mean? Javi was walking with me just fine and healthy… ‘everything will be solved’? About what?” he silently thought about everything that had happened and said moments ago. His eyes turned sharp after a while. “No, who was that just now? That…” he recalled how Davante looked just seconds ago, “That wasn’t like Davante at all… even I can tell…”
He walked to the tiny kitchen in the room and found the breakfast waiting for him on the table. He looked at it for a minute or so before going back to the room, smirking while taking off his shirt, “‘Please stay here and relax’? That sounds wrong, no, suspicious.” he changed his attire and walked to the door, “You think I’ll obediently wait here, huh?”
.
.
“You heard what happened yesterday?”
“You mean Elois? That crazy bastard… I always felt something was odd with that dude.”
“They say the injuries weren’t from a normal human being.”
“Shit— so is it real that Javi is dead?!”
“They say he’s barely breathing, but still, he may die any time soon…”
“And where is Elois? Are they going to leave him to walk around just like that?”
“They say he’s in the hide. The vice-principal is searching with the guards and that weird guy- what was his name again…? Ah! Neron.”
The students all around the academy kept talking of the same incident, unaware of the one person roaming around very stealthily and listening to their murmurs and gossip in every place and hallway, ‘Good thing I moved in secret just in case… so I’m a wanted murderer now?’ Elois hid in the shadow in a corner and started connecting everything so far. ‘Alright, so I tried to kill Javi…’ his face was blank, ‘Which is… true… yes, I am stupid.’ he nodded to himself as if to confirm and accept his own stupid past mistake. ‘And he is seriously injured and in critical condition right now, which is not correct, at least not in reality… my… reality?’ he frowned, ‘And I’m supposed to be hiding in fear or something, which is not what I’m doing at the moment…’
He looked at his hands, silently questioning the situation, ‘So where am I now? This feels too real to be a dream… or is it a dream after all? Then… what? Did I fall asleep in the middle of the forest? On the ground? Is Javi relaxing beside me, then? Oh, I hope no one step on us… ugh, forget being stepped on, the bugs and ants must be freeloading on me now!’
He suppressed his chuckle and ended up with a smirk, “Wasn’t Davante in a similar situation on his first day in the Academy? What a start. No, that’s not important now…” he rubbed his closed eyes and suppressed a sigh, ‘Okay, what now? Let’s start with the Davante in this… dream? Whatever this is I’m in now.’ he narrowed his eyes and crouched down on the ground and whispered, “…is he trying to protect me? He looks exactly like the Davante I know, however… he seemed more relaxed and outgoing. His different choice of fashion, and his aura…” he added on with a frown, “What is the Elois in this place like…? Considering how Davante was talking to me earlier, I guess I was busy being scared and cowering in our room…?”
He paused and furrowed his brows even more. “Wait, I was walking with Javi and ended up in this dream or whatever, so what happened to him? Could it be that he also ended up here…?”
He pushed himself back up and stood straight, determined, “Alright, that’s the first step then, find Javi.”
.
.
A cautious step entered the quiet room with only the machines humming beside a white bed. Elois huffed lowly once he closed the window. ‘Thanks to everyone’s gossip, I managed to detect his whereabouts, but…’ he turned around and took a quick look over the place, ‘The door is heavily guarded by the guards. They seem to be protecting him from me.’ he suppressed a sigh and walked to the bed covered by a curtain; he could see the shadow of someone lying on the bed behind the light curtains. He moved the curtains to the side without much thought; he wanted to quickly talk to his friend, who was possibly the only one he knew in this dream or world or whatever again.
He couldn’t even hold the loud gasp back at what he saw. He looked at a person who hardly looked like Javi from the horrific injuries on his body and face. Javi was on the bed, all bloodied and dead; there was no hint of life in him.
‘This… is Javi…?’
He stopped himself from stepping back out of shock; instead, he forced himself to step closer to the corpse lying still on the bed and took a better look at the other, ‘This is… how could he be alive in this state…? No, I hope the real Javi… my friend… I hope he isn’t in that… body right now…’
He tried to regain his composure despite the disturbing corpse in front of him. And just when he started sorting things out in his mind—
“Elois? What are you doing here…?”
He turned around so quickly, which made him almost stumble in the process. There, he saw the first person he met in this ‘dream’. Davante looked at him with slightly wide eyes but soon gave a small smile as if pitying him. “I told you to stay in the room. Were you scared? It’s okay. I’ll make sure he won’t die, don’t be scared…” he walked calmly to the other, “I know you weren’t in your right state of mind. I told you I’ll always be by your side, right? You’re not alone, don’t worry.”
Elois froze in his place, suddenly lost of what to do, ‘Sh-should I act scared right now? No, I’m actually scared a bit, but—’ he looked down at his hands to find them trembling, ‘If the Elois in this dream is supposed to be so scared… then let’s play his role for now.’
He brought his trembling hands to his head and started mumbling with a shaky voice, “I don’t- I don’t remember anything— what- what happened… I- I did this t-to Javi…? M-Me?! I—!”
“Oh, Elois…” he was brought into a light hug; he heard the whisper of the other while having his hair brushed lightly like a kid being shushed gently, “It wasn’t you. It isn’t your fault what the monster in you does out of your control… even if everyone turns against you, I’m still here by your side.”
Elois had a sharp look in his eyes while being hugged by the other. ‘This is it, I can gain more information this way, but—' he looked from the corner of his eyes, ‘This Davante… why can’t I bring myself to trust him…?’
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“I’m sorry… if only I were faster to stop you…” Davante mumbled with a pained expression on his face. Elois quickly went back to his acting.
“N-No— Dante… w-what do I do? I…”
He was slowly pushed away by the other, almost gently pushed back, “Hmm?”
He brought his wide-acting eyes up to look at the other to understand what that sound was for. He suddenly got the chills when he found a cold smile painted on the other’s lips with inspecting eyes.
“You are not Elois.”
Elois almost felt his heart stop at that chilly whisper; he quickly pulled himself away from the cold hands with shaking pupils, “W-What—”
“You shouldn’t be like this. You should be crying like a baby in my arms. You would even beg me to hide you immediately away from everyone and push everything on me to handle while you hide behind me. Also, ‘Dante’? Cute nickname, I suppose.” the other chuckled slightly with cold eyes; he brought a casual finger under his chin, “Perhaps… hmm… could it be… another Elois? Or are you possessed by some meddling spirit? Well, anything is possible in this fabricated world…”
Elois staggered further back and away from the Davante in front of him, asking with a shaking smile, “Possessed? Fabricated? What…?”
“What could it be? Hmm…” he hummed as he thought silently to himself, then shook his head calmly and smirked at Elois, resting his cheek on his palm, “Either way, this is not good,” his eyes saddened in blatant mockery, “You aren’t as broken as the Elois I know, this is quite troublesome, you know.”
‘No, I don’t f**king know?’ Elois frowned at the other with slightly wide eyes, taking careful steps back. ‘This bastard… was he using the weak me in this situation?’ he slowly retracted his hand behind his back to pull out his dagger, “Perhaps… I realized how wicked you are?” he asked back with a smirk that showed he was barely holding back his anger.
The other’s smirk dropped for a moment before smiling coldly again with his eyes closed, “Ah, so that’s it? But that isn’t good either,” he stepped closer to the other, who stiffened immediately, he whispered despite having no one beside them in the silent room, “Too bad, you could have at least killed some more for me.”
Elois gritted his teeth and glared hard at the other, “You used me to kill Javi?”
The teen’s face looked quite amused, almost fond even. He walked calmly to the one on the bed, looking almost sorry at the dead Javi. The fake Davante brought his cold fingers to lightly brush along the corpse’s cheek, almost as if mocking the dead. “Can you really blame me? I’m targeted everywhere. I can’t let assassins and murderers circle around me as they please. You must have thought of me as an easy target, yeah? Well, I am weak, can’t lie about that.” he raised his head slowly to Elois with a ridiculing smirk, “How does it feel to be used like an idiot?”
‘I hate this… at least change your face to someone else, dammit…’ Elois stared furiously at the other, unable to retort.
“The Davante you know must be stupidly kind, huh?”
“Shut your mouth—!”
Just as he charged for killing the bastard who audaciously wore his friend’s face, something else got in his way so fast, and blood scattered around the room with a flying head that fell to the ground with a loud thud.
It was Javi’s head. He cut Javi’s neck. The corpse now was missing its head by a simple swing. Elois was so stunned he couldn’t get to react while staring wide-eyed at the smiling Davante.
“Perhaps I should keep this corpse with me? Quite convenient, don’t you think so?” playful hands swayed Javi’s corpse playfully left and right like they hadn’t used the corpse as a mere shield seconds ago.
Elois could not move, completely shocked, ‘This is… a dream… right? Right? It… It has to be…’
He heard an amused chuckle followed by a whisper, “You can at least blink.”
And he dumbly did.
Blink—
“…when did you get here?”
He was once again shocked. He found himself in a completely different place, with other surroundings and scenes. What was displayed in front of him rendered him speechless. He took two steps back, unable to say anything.
In front of him, a very dead-looking Davante stood there, drenched in blood. He soon noticed the two rabbits and a cat by the other’s feet. They looked like they were tortured to death with their guts jutted out and limbs cut.
He couldn’t have the time to look closely at the scene before him; he was soon pulled to look at the Davante standing silently in front of him with dead eyes.
“You were following me…” Davante looked at the dead animals with a lifeless face before looking back at Elois, pointing a weak finger at them, “I did not do it…” he said so plainly, with no hint of emotion in his voice, “That’s a joke…” the hand fell back to his side, still looking deadly at the other “…or, is it?”
Silence fell between them. The frozen lips forcibly and slowly started moving, “That’s… a very funny joke… indeed…” Elois said despite showing no hint of laughter or smile, ‘…what now? What is this? Where am I?’ he took quick glances around them, ‘This is the forest… is this another dream?’
“Funny?”
He snapped back to the person standing still in front of him, whose face was empty of emotions but still managed to show a hint of disbelief.
“…is it funny?” the fake Davante tilted his head slightly to the side, looking as if trying to figure Elois out some more. “…or is it funny because you were not in their place?” he pointed to the dead animals, “Will it be fun to have this done to you?”
Elois was speechless, no, beyond speechless. However, he forced himself to answer, “N…no…?”
The other stared wide-eyed, “So you’re lying? Is it not funny at all?”
“….” Elois chose silence; he decided to shut his mouth from here on.
“Are you a good person, sir?”
Elois blinked, flabbergasted. “…….”
“Good people should not lie. Good people should not follow and spy on others,” the other continued with a robotic tone, regardless of receiving no answers. Elois stared blankly at the other; he then noticed something that caught his attention, ‘Sir? Does this fake Davante not know my name…?’
“Don’t you feel pain, sir?”
Elois frowned at that. Why would he feel pain?
“Why are you still standing?”
Elois slowly moved his head to the direction the other was pointing and looked down; he widened his eyes as he registered the situation. There, he could see his guts clearly spilling out from his stomach. He could feel his whole body turning cold as he finally took in his current horrible state. He suddenly felt numb and nauseous; cold sweat broke out all over his body despite not feeling pain. He tried to move his arms to take a look. However, there were no hands to begin with, ‘Wha… what… when did— but I’m not in pain—’
“So, is it fun now?”
Elois flinched at the sudden proximity of the other, shaken eyes looking down at cold-dead eyes, “…sir, why do you always follow me?” the creep, however, didn’t wait for the answer as he took a cut arm in his own hand, looking at it as if admiring it, “Your hands seem pretty healthy…” he looked up at the frozen Elois, “Would you like to taste it?”
Elois looked at the hand, or he could presume… ‘That… is that my hand…?’
“Humans’ meat is not that bad, to be honest.”
“…then you eat it…”
Even Elois widened his eyes at what he blurted out to the other whose face finally moved a little bit for the first time, ‘Ah, I blurted out without thinking—’ However, Elois didn’t wait for the other, “You lunatic bastard!” he took a short step back and swiftly twirled around to kick the other successfully, the other was sent flying across the forest and to the ground. Elois glared at the fallen body from a distance, “The fact that you have my friend’s face pisses me off to an incredible degree—”
He suddenly took hurried steps back by the very close wide eyes in front of him, ‘When did he—!’
“Your friend’s face? There is another one?” the fake Davante looked quite shocked yet a bit…hopeful? “Where is he? I have to meet him!” he moved even closer, cornering Elois in quick steps, “I must help him out of this place! Where is he?!”
“What the— Get away from—!” Elois stumbled back and fell to the ground with gritted teeth and scrunched his eyes close from the impact without his hands to support him. He opened his eyes quickly to prepare for any attack. However, he was once again shocked and lost in the different surroundings. He looked up with wide eyes; the very familiar person in front of him glared back with wide eyes from anger, blatantly accusing him as if he had committed a crime so openly and carelessly. He felt his skin crawl from the betrayed look his father was giving him, looking down at him as if looking at disgusting dirt.
“Why, Elois? Just— WHY?!”
He flinched at the fuming tone of his father, “D-Dad…?”
“I can’t believe myself— just because you’re my son… I trusted you and let you near him just because of that, and yet— You—!” Alvis scoffed at himself and looked at his son with cold-angry eyes, “Clearly, I’m still stupid and naïve…” a moment of silence allowed Elois to notice the surroundings; guards circled around them and were all glaring at him, ready for the signal to charge at him at any moment, he then noticed the bleeding person in Alvis’ hands, “…Davante…?”
Davante was a bloody mess, fallen limp on Alvis with his eyes closed. The blood didn’t stop flowing from his mouth and wounds. He looked so pale, as if being seconds away from death.
“…capture him.”
He suddenly snapped at his father’s order to the guards and quickly moved away to jump from the nearby window.
“Elois— Follow him!! Make sure to capture him alive!!”
‘Shit! I hate this! I really f**king hate this!! This is horrible! I did NOT want to see my biggest fear to actually happen in the most real dream!’ he kept on running, taking many turns to deceive the guards and lose them, he was almost too experienced as if his body was used to it, “What is this?! Really, what the heck is this now?! Is this a dream?! If it is, then OH how much I’d like for someone to STEP on my sleeping body in the real-world RIGHT. NOW!!!” he kept on ranting to himself while running and stopped to catch his breath once he made sure he was safe, “I really don’t wanna lose my mind in this situation, not the time for me to lose my shit— not like there is any good timing to lose it anyway… ugh wait, hold up, my head…” he crouched down in frustration while clutching his head with both hands as if to hold it still from the chaos erupting inside along with his unstable emotions, “So this time I attacked Davante? Typical of me, huh? Hey Elois, how about you kill yourself next time you feel like doing anything?” he scoffed at himself and sighed in frustration, he tiredly stared down, “…I’m dumb, I don’t know what to do in these psychological tricks or dreams or whatsoever… I’m just dumb in everything now…” he blankly stared at the wall in front of him, “I can’t depend on others forever to keep me sane and calm, so… let’s relax.” he stood up and closed his eyes to take a slow breath and let it out just as calm.
He opened his eyes back again, ‘…never mind, I’ll just go crazy.’
He stared silently once his surroundings changed again. Sitting in front of him was Davante, all bloodied and ready to die. Beside Elois were all people he knew already. The weird thing was…they were circling Davante. None of them moved to help him despite being tied to a chair and close to death from apparently countless torture and beatings. Elois looked around at them, hoping to see someone act just like his friends and family he knows, ‘…what is it this time? Are we torturing Davante…?’ he looked back at the limp body before him; he could hear some faint huffs from Davante, but barely noticeable, ‘Should I go along with it? Actually, no… just… no. This is already too disturbing to look at. And everyone looks so satisfied with his state like this…’ he slightly frowned at the ‘friends’ around him, creeped out by their laughter and mocking comments toward the teen, ‘Just what happened in this dream…?’ he closed his eyes for a moment to collect his thoughts and opened them yet again, ‘I’m leaving. It’s just a dream, anyway… yes, nothing but a dream.’
He silently turned around with a click of his tongue; he angrily grabbed the door handle and opened it with much force, only… “I’m going nuts…”
He was faced with a laughing Davante in a deserted area. The sky and everything looked red; the place had nothing but debris and sand. He turned to find nothing behind him, the door he had opened a second ago was nowhere to be found. He took in his surroundings for the tenth time, and he could see dead bodies and corpses all around him, meshing well with the red sky and the empty land reflecting the bloody sky. Davante was still laughing hysterically, with his back facing Elois.
He walked carefully to the other, who stopped abruptly and turned around to be met with Elois. There were tears in his eyes, falling nonstop down his face; the crazy smile was no longer there. Davante looked at Elois in utter shock, with lips trembling. After seconds of silence, Davante mumbled while shaking, “Wha… what…” he took a hesitant step toward the poker-faced Elois, “Y-You… but you just— you were d-dead over t-there…” trembling fingers pointed weakly to one spot. Elois followed the direction to find a spot with a puddle of blood. He then looked down at himself and found himself drenched in his own blood, ‘I’m a moving corpse this time?’
“Elo-h-hey…”
He then looked back to the other. Davante smiled weakly with wide eyes; if he looked closely, he’d be able to tell that the expression was one of fear and dreadfully hopeful, “A-Are you real…? Am I not alone…?”
“…Davante…” Elois felt like running so fast to hug the other and be by his side just by looking at that face with that weak voice, ‘…even if this isn’t real, it’s still painful to see Davante like this…’ he stood still even when the approaching feeble steps became closer and closer toward him, ‘…what happened here?’
Trembling hands weakly gripped his shirt, “D-Don’t go… stay here… please…”
Elois looked down at the other with a pained face, “…I…”
He blinked and fell face-first to the ground, “Ugh—!”
“I’ve got a mission to accomplish, Elois. I can’t let you hinder me now, can I?”
He tried to look up at the owner of the very chilling voice, ‘Another dream? This body is too beaten up… shit I can’t move. Good thing I can’t feel pain…’ he soon found two boots walking calmly to stand next to his head. He felt cold, stiff fingers brushing his fallen hair away from his weary eyes.
When he tried to look again, he widened his eyes in fear at what he saw. A face creepily mixed between Davante and a deer stared at him in the dark night. The person whispered with a smile, like the whisper of a devil, “Sleep well, my dearest friend~”
His eyes closed despite his weak protests, and everything went dark.
“Elois!! What are you waiting for?! Just kill the target already, dammit!!”
He snapped his eyes open to find himself atop Davante, looking calmly back at him and patiently waiting for Elois to do his job, as if curious and amused by the whole situation, even when a weapon was pointed at him. He felt the dagger in his raised hand; he could also listen to the chaos behind his back.
“ELOIS!!”
He turned his head to look back; he found Javi with short hair preventing the guards from coming any closer to their location and shooting them with his gun while cursing in frustration, “Alright, what the f**k now?”
“Ah, Elois Iriart detected, finally.”
He turned back to look at Davante, who spoke too calmly in this chaotic situation. However, Davante suddenly turned into a puddle of… mud.
“HUH?”
Before he knew it, the mud shot out to wrap him securely and started dragging him down to the black puddle. He felt a hand gently pulling him to another place and slowly out of the mud-like pool. He opened his eyes to find himself standing in front of a fancy-looking Davante with missing lips from his face. The fancy and elegant Davante spoke gently despite having no lips on his face.
“Step 1. Successfully accomplished.”
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The End of CH. 26