Sarah, Melissa, and Neil sat with Vanessa at a crudely crafted wooden table and waited for her to gather her thoughts to tell them about what had happened. Melissa had already healed the most severe wounds on her soul, and she just needed some time to process everything.
Sarah sat there silently, trying to suppress her curiosity and respect the difficulties Vanessa went through. But she never let their prisoners out of sight.
All the people in the camp, other than Vanessa, had been apprehended by Neil and tied up. They lay on the ground, still unconscious from Sarah’s magic. A few of them had tried to riot and fight back, so she had knocked them all out with a quick burst of mental magic.
“I’m ready,” Vanessa told them with a firm voice and Sarah’s head snapped towards her.
Melissa held her hand in encouragement, and Neil smiled gently at her and nodded. Sarah didn’t know what to do, so she just patted Vanessa’s shoulder. She put a little too much force in it though, so Vanessa nearly fell off the bench.
Melissa already looked at her with squinted eyes, when Vanessa interjected with a smile on her face. “It’s alright. I’m not made out of dry wood. I am thankful for your understanding and support.”
Melissa nodded but gave Sarah a last, sharp glance which told her, that this wasn’t over. Sarah sighed in defeat and smiled a little. “So, do we start then?”
Vanessa nodded firmly and started telling her story. “My memories are all a little foggy, so forgive me if I can’t answer all your questions.” She licked her dry lips and took in a deep breath.
“After you three were gone, everything became… worse. Andrew was punished, I don’t know why anymore, but he was stripped of his role as our leader. He was sent to look after Derek and Till.”
“How are they?” Melissa asked anxiously, but she already knew the answer. Vanessa just shook her head and lowered her gaze. “There are graves with their names on them. But I don’t know when and why they died.”
Vanessa lifted her head again and continued. “Denise became crueler by the day. And I started to notice, that something was off. But I couldn’t do anything against it. It felt like… someone else had control over my body. And that I was buried in a dark corner of my soul.” Vanessa shuddered and rubbed her arms. “It was horrible.”
She needed a few moments to calm herself down again until she could speak again. “I don’t have any memories of the time after that. Just a few impressions and feelings, but nothing concrete. Until… until Andrew attacked Denise. I suddenly felt like I woke up after a long and horrible dream. I was just sitting inside one of the caves, helping out the clothesmakers. I didn’t have time to process what was going on when I already started to hear…. to hear…” Vanessa’s voice started to tremble and break and her whole body started trembling again. Melissa sent a little bit of soothing energy inside of her and Vanessa gave her a thankful smile.
“That’s when I started to hear the screams. I cannot explain it but… they didn’t sound human. I heard the bottomless fear and agony in their screams. I began to panic and ran further into the caves. The others ran outside for some reason, but I think I managed to break free of Denise for a moment. But that sadly didn’t last long. A lot of the people somehow managed to run away. Maybe I stayed too close. Maybe I should have run further, rather than cowering in fear.” Vanessa bit her lip in regret.
Melissa leaned closer and asked in a serious tone. “I’m sorry for interrupting you but… what about Andrew?”
Vanessa thought hard and then replied. “I think he wasn’t one of the dead. He probably also ran away.”
Sarah felt Melissa tense up next to her, but she still smiled at Vanessa. “Thank you. Is it okay for you to continue?”
Vanessa nodded and resumed speaking, this time with a harsher tone though.
“The control quickly came back. But it was different this time. I could feel and think freely again. But I couldn’t control my body. In the beginning, I thought I was going crazy. She made us bury all the dead, but Andrew wasn’t among them. She made us care for her. And then she tried to flood me with happiness, but I rejected it. I knew, that if I gave in at this point, my freedom would be gone. And I managed to get control back, little by little. When you came, I was able to resist orders that went too heavily against my own beliefs. And... well that’s when you came.” She ended and gave them a crooked smile.
Sarah’s stomach burned from the reawakened hatred she felt towards Denise. But sadly, she was already dead.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Melissa leaned forward and hugged Vanessa. “Thank you for sharing this with us. I know it wasn’t easy. You are a strong person. You were able to resist her. You were able to confront your fears. You have nothing to be ashamed of.”
Vanessa nodded stiffly in her arms, and silent tears started streaming down her face. Neil tugged on Sarah’s clothes. They nodded at her thankfully and stood up to give Vanessa some more space.
Walking over to the tied-up people, Neil started talking in a hushed voice. “I think the people who stumbled out of the cave after Denise died, might also have resisted her influence.”Sarah nodded and looked at them with hard eyes. “I think so too. But the others… I remember from Andrew, what an overload of happiness can do to the mind. They are probably very far gone.”
Neil looked at her with a conflicted face. “What do we do with them, if that’s the case?”
“We kill them. This soul stuff is too dangerous. If we want to be safe from it, we need to root everything out.” Sarah simply said with an emotionless voice, and Neil went pale.
“And the others? What if they have negative opinions about us?”
“Then we send them away. This place belongs to us now. And everyone who has a problem with that, well… they can talk about it with me.” Sarah answered, and a slight smile tugged at her lips.
Neil's color came back and he started rubbing his face. “This situation is so fucked up. Even more so, because I agree with you about killing them. What has happened to us?”
Sarah smiled a sad smile and laid her arm around his shoulders. “I think we lost our naivety. And a small part of our sanity as well. Not that I had much of that to begin with.”
Neil chuckled a little, but his eyes stayed sad. “You’re probably right. I still feel like I’ve lost something.”
Sarah nodded in understanding and took in a deep breath. “First comes survival my friend. We can go look for what we lost when we have created a place of safety for us.”
Neil nodded and silently walked out of the cave. Sarah let him go without saying anything further, to let him process his new reality.
She turned around to the tied-up people again, only to notice a familiar face.
“Xavier?” she said in amazement. A wide smile blossomed on her face and she crouched down next to him. And started shaking. “Wake up! Come on, wake up!”
After some more shaking, he woke up with a startled expression and looked at her with wide eyes. “Sarah?” he asked, obviously confused.
“Yeah, it’s me! Did you miss me?”
“…Yes?”
“That’s the right answer!”
“So, as we’re good friends and all… would you mind untying me?” he asked with a forced smile and Sarah narrowed her eyes.
“Not so fast my fiery friend. First, answer a question. Did you accept the happiness Denise tried to infuse you with?”
Xavier vigorously shook his head and his whole body started trembling. “I’ve counted every second. I thought I’d lose my mind. But I never gave in. It felt like… I would die if I gave in.” Xavier shook his head wildly as if he wanted to shake off something. Then he looked up to her and forcefully smiled again. “So how about releasing me now?”
Sarah chuckled and started untying him. She had always thought that he had been a lazy coward. But, if it came down to it, he could be pretty tough. Before he could stand up, she lay a hand on his shoulders and her smile faded away. “I give you a choice. You can stay here, but you’ll have to be loyal to the tribe. If you betray us, I’ll rip you apart. If you are loyal to us, you’ll have a true friend in me. The other option is to leave.”
Xavier looked at her for a moment with a blank expression and she could see, that the lazy coward from before all that happened, was long gone. “I want to stay with you. You have saved me from hell. And even if you have been annoying, you have always accepted me. That’s all I need.” Xavier even smiled a little and Sarah started laughing.
“You have finally developed some guts! I like it!” she said and patted his shoulder. He had half gotten to his feat, but immediately crumpled under the force of her affection.
Sarah looked down at the coughing man and lifted an eyebrow. “You need to toughen up though.”
“Toughen up? Damnit Sarah, the raging river didn’t hit me as hard as you.” He still coughed a little and stood up. “I feel like shit.”
“Let Melissa take a look at you. Your soul is probably pretty damaged. Get ready for a nice round of crying.” Sarah answered him.
“Can’t wait.” He said drily and looked over to Melissa with a complicated expression on his face. “So… where exactly have you been all this…” he started speaking, but that’s when Sarah received a system notification.
Class upgrade selection pending. Warning: The waiting period was too long. Possibility of oversaturation of Magic Power level inside the body.> “Shit!” Sarah said and Xavier looked at her with disgust and confusion. “Did you just say that you stayed inside literal shit all this time?” “Ahh shut it,” Sarah said in annoyance and sped out of the cave. “Neil!” She shouted towards the slumped-down figure in the entrance. He immediately shot up, his weapon at the ready. “My class upgrade is due, I’ll be out for a while. Stay inside and keep an eye on the unconscious ones.” “Why do you…” Neil started speaking, but Sarah interrupted him. “The system warned me of having it postponed too long. It needs to be done now. I’ll be in my cave.” “Wait!” Neil shouted, but she was already running away at full speed. She knew, that she could trust him with this. She could fully concentrate on her next decision now. Quicker than ever before, she reached her cave and started climbing the wall. To her joyful surprise, she found her furs were still inside. It seemed like nobody had dared to climb up here. Sarah sat down on the furs and noticed, that she was smiling. She confusedly touched her curved lips and chuckled slightly. “Seems like I’ve been looking forward to this.” She mumbled and felt the exciting feeling of getting stronger bubbling up inside of her. “System. Show me my options.”