False Aisle - 5 CHAPTER IV

When I was a kid, I thought I was really a blessing in the family. Being the unique one in the family, the only one who had different class, I was Happy. I was six when I heard that my family disowned me, I was lying down on a greenfield of grass looking at the bright blue sky the wind was refreshingly cold. Suddenly, I heard the voice of my grandfather and my father shouting, they were arguing about someone that needed to be killed or thrown away. I saw them outside the house and my father looked at me with disgust on his face. My grandfather looked at me with a worried face and he gestured me to run, I was about to do that but my father grabbed my hair. He was about to slam me on the ground but the world suddenly shifted.

I found myself standing near the River of Fovos. A breezy and sparkling water of the river, I could even see my reflection… And I saw my twelve-year-old me. Empty and sad, I guess this was the day when Roi and Gwen became my friends. I was envious about them being special and powerful, they even got recognized just by being born and then there was me. Because, I clearly remembered this was the day when I realized that Roi and Gwen didn’t need me anymore, but I was just being ignorant. I let out a sigh.

I remembered there was a story that when you died, the world would show you the moment that you loved the most. I guessed that I did not have one that was why the world was showing this to me! The scene shifted again. I was standing in a dark place. I saw a torch lit and I could hear a rattling sound… I’d never been in here before, but it gave me this feeling that this place was a torture room. I immediately looked around and found two children chained on the wall.

‘God be damned…’ I cursed. Both of them were wounded and bleeding and I could hear their moan in pain. I wanted to help them but for some reasons I couldn’t move my feet. It felt like my head was the only thing I could move around. As I looked at them my heart started aching, and it felt like it was shattering. I wanted to replace them because I really hated it when I saw someone torturing little kids. It always reminded me of abandonment and hopelessness because I grew up feeling those things and I really hated it. Maybe this place was the afterlife where people got tortured and punished because of their sins and maybe these children committed something that the gods didn’t like.

Even so if the gods did punish us like this, maybe praising them was not a good idea after all. Since they were also the reason why the kingdom of Aresian was always at war because they thought that some ‘god’ blessed the country and designated to conquer the world. Maybe I don’t have faith in god, they were supposed to be helping people, but most people ended up suffering but as a healer our faith in god must be strong because they said our healing skill was a blessing from the heavens. I looked away from the children, but the pain stayed in my heart I tried to look at the torch, then suddenly a two shadowy figure with a silhouette of a person appeared. They were approaching in here, but they stopped, I could hear their voices and one of them sounded familiar.

”Are these her children?” The other man with a deep voice asked.

”Yes, Milord. In three days, they are ready for the annual sacrifice.”

”I see. Keep them in that state and I will comeback in three days to collect these children.”

”As you wish, Milord.”

”The dark horse will bless us.”

My vision started to blur, I panicked and I looked at the children… The boy was looking at me I could see his head looking at my direction. I tried to speak but there was no voice, I just kept shouting ‘HELP’ but it was useless it felt like I became mute. As my vision started to disappear and my body started falling on the ground I couldn’t feel anything.

Holy shi… ‘ARGGGG’ I shouted but there was still no sound coming out from my mouth. Something pierced in my right leg I didn’t know what it was, but it felt like a giant needle. I wanted to use my hand, but I couldn’t raise it. Then I felt something like a sharp knife pointing exactly at my heart. My heart started beating faster because I had a fear of getting stabbed and killed and I still remembered clearly what happened to me. I was supposed to be in the afterlife!! Because that girl killed me and I was going to haunt her for killing me without any reason… The knife was still pointing at my heart and suddenly it slowly pierced in my body.

‘argh… STOP!!!’ I tried to shout.

”You deserve this Marvis. You deserve to die because you’re a mistake in this world.”

That voice… Father??

Do I really deserve this? Was I really a mistake? Does dying fixed everything??

”Ah, A grand death. Imagine because of this your family will be happy because of your death.” My vision came back, and I saw my father standing while using his feet to push the knife unto my heart. I could feel that my blood was boiling… my jaw was tightening and felt the wanting to cry.

”Goodbye, Marvis–.” When the knife penetrated in my heart, I closed my eyes. I could only feel the pain and anger in my body if I could just move. I’m going to kill him and beheaded him in front of my family. If the gods didn’t listen on my cry, then I’d forcefully make them listen to me. It was true after all that dying make you crazy…

”MARVIS!!”

I suddenly opened my eyes and squinted it. I saw Keida and the girl who stabbed me. I looked around and I saw an old man his hands where glowing in green and I saw my body was also glowing in green.

”What the…” I held my head. I was confused, I was dead because those vision and memories that I saw… were those not real?? Am I really alive?

”Hey… Don’t worry you’re okay…” Keida hug me. She was trying to make me calm but when I looked at that girl. Her jet-blacked long hair and crimson eyes, I could feel the rage in my body I looked at my right arm and its shaking…

”I’m sorry…” When I heard her, I pushed Keida away from me and I lunged myself towards the girl and punched her in the face with my right hand. She fell on the ground because of my unexpected punch on her face.

This feeling…

”Marvis stop!!” Keida shouted at me but I didn’t listen to her. I slowly went up on the girl then looked at her face… She was shocked and afraid at the same time but that didn’t stop me. I started punching her face from left to right. Every punched that I gave to her the more excitement I got because of this feeling: beating an enemy by yourself.

”MARVIS!!” Keida tried to stop me by pulling me away from her but I kept restraining and still punching that girl face.

The old man hand suddenly touched my head. His calming gray eyes looked at me ‘Nature’s touch’ he whispered. His hand glowed in green and I can feel a warm and relaxing feeling entering in my head making me calm. I could feel all of my anger starting to disappear and I can think straight.

”Thank you, Abe. Can you please heal her?” Keida said. I looked at the girl her face was swollen and some parts of it were bleeding. Now I felt guilty…

”I-I’m sorry…” I mumbled. I heard keida let out a small sigh.

”It’s not your fault.” She told me. She helped me stand up and I let out a small smile when I looked at keida. I looked at my right leg and shoulder both are perfectly healed but when I touched them, I could still feel the pain. Some parts of my robe are worn out I looked like a beggar when the old man started healing the other girl some part of my mind saying that she didn’t deserve it and the other one was thinking she deserved it because it was my fault.

I knew that she almost killed me, but I thought punching her multiple times in the face was not a good thing. A minor headache hit me for thinking too hard, I knew that I was mad and because of that my body moved on its own. I wanted to apologize but was it too ironic when I apologized to a person that I hurt when that person tried to kill me??

Maybe, I could hurt her and heal her at the same time? The more that I thought about it my head hurt even more. When Keida looked at me I calmly smiled I realized that the old man was done healing the other girl. If this guy were a part of the guild, they would already have two healers. I guessed this guy knew some offensive magic because my first impression on him is he looked like a wizard.

”Are you feeling good?” Keida asked the girl. The girl replied but I couldn’t hear it she helped the girl sit down. When the girl’s eyes and mine met I quickly avoided it and pretended that I didn’t care about her situation. Which half true because I still wanted to punch her for mistakenly thinking of me joining Keida’s guild.

”Abe, you can go home now thank you for helping.” Keida said to the old man, his name was ‘Abe’. Abe nodded and started walking towards my direction, when our eyes met, he gave me a smile.

”Do not worry. Your wounds are perfectly healed but you might feel some pain when you touch it.”

”Why?” I asked.

”Because it’s your first time getting stabbed and you will constantly remember the pain when you touch it.” He answered. He was expressionless but I could tell that he was worried about my

situation. After that he left, and I assumed that he was going back to the Guild house. The moon was bright as I looked at the sky, the stars shone, and it felt like they were looking back at me. I heard that stars were the eyes of gods, they were the watcher of this world.

”My staff…” I looked around and I saw my broken staff. It was a good and a high-quality staff sadly the sword penetrated it and cut it in half. I also saw the short sword I grabbed and held it and for some reason it felt good.

”What are you doing?” I looked at keida she was supporting the girl to walk.

I looked at the sword that I was holding and for some reason, I wanted to throw this to them. I shook my head and threw it to the ground. ”N-nothing…” I answered.

”Follow me. Where going to my house” she commanded and started walking. It took us a minute and a half before reaching her house. Why did she keep helping this girl? Are they somewhat related?

I entered her house and it was dusty and old… It felt like this house was abandoned for a long time. She gestured me to sit so I sat on the nearest chair.

”Marvis, this girl who attacked you is Auryn.” She said while she grabbed some chair for Auryn.

She created a distance between me and Auryn, cautious that we might attack each other or she was just protecting her since Auryn looked like a person who had been crying and beaten up and couldn’t do anything and now I didn’t regret doing that at all.

”She is the reason why the guild was having a problem of recruiting new members. She keeps threatening the other people who joined our guild and because of that our guild are now getting disbanded by tomorrow.” Keida explained.

”Threatening?? Guess what? She stabbed instead of threatening me!” I yelled.

”Because you tried to attack me with your staff!” Auryn said. ”I was just trying to say something on you when I paralyzed you!” She continued. My eyes were twitching when I heard her answer. She was blaming me wasn’t it? so it was my fault that I get stabbed and almost died!

‘arghh…’ All of sudden I felt dizzy and my vision started to blur. I saw Keida tried to approach me but I gestured her to stop.

”Are you okay…?” Keida looked worried about me. But the pain still aching in my head and my vision started to look different because when I looked at them a pinkish with a mixture of violet suddenly appear in their bodies. It was like an aura, but I couldn’t tell.

”Is this the guy Imrael want to recruit?! He’s just an E-rank Healer you have Abe and Imrael!” Auryn said.

”Shut your mouth, Auryn.” Keida shouted at her. ”You’re the reason why Marvis is experiencing this!!” she yelled.

”I never thought that the Blue brigades were desperate enough to recruit an E-rank!” Auryn bickered. I don’t know what’s happening, but I suddenly heard a slap then I looked at them. The Aura on their body was overflowing with madness and pained and for some reason I wanted to heal them. I raised my right hand the two of them suddenly looked at me. I would make sure that my healing would remove their pain.

”Healing wave.” I cast, a ray of light blasted through my hand and hit Keida, then bounced to Auryn.

”ARRGHHH!!!!” they both screamed in pain.