Infinite Finity - Volume 1 Chapter 13 Visiting Her

The two walked side by side. Chao was seemingly absent-minded as she hadn’t said a word since they left 10 minutes ago.

Finally Marianna had lost her patience after Lawrence pestered her about Chao. “You said you would give us answers. Let’s hear it.”

Chao ignored the impatience in her voice and made a circle with her right hand in front of a tree. “Step through it. There’s a lake in front so don’t walk too far.”

Doubtful and curious, Lawrence walked through the portal. ‘I don’t remember ever visiting a lake.’ Through the portal, they saw a black lake. The plants and trees were all sorts of unbelievable colors.

Scrunching her nose, she turned to Chao only to see her stripping. Startled, Marianna turned around and continued questioning. “I don’t remember this place. What does this have to do with us? We’ve only led this life and the last. What is this place?”

A subtle splash of the water garnered Lawrence’s attention as he turned and saw Chao walking straight into the abyss. Her proud back looked desolate and broken, but she continued on. “We get visions from here. From time to time it calls for us. I once saw a pair of children and watched them grow up. I saw their blossoming feelings and the scars from hardsh.i.p.s. I saw that a trap had been laid and there was a terrible possibility.”

They felt overwhelming confusion. “Who else are you referring to? Why did you watch? Are you unable to control what the lake projects? What do you mean by possibility?”

“We’ve existed for a torturous amount of times. This granted us insight into the Possibility. Every person has more than one possibility and we are able to see every single one of them. The possibility I saw was one where these two little babies I watched grow, were going to be devoured losing their sense of self completely. That’s how she felt anyway. He didn’t care at all about those two, but he did care about us. I didn’t like the possibility of those Things getting an advantage. We were losing at that point. So I decided to save the two children. I saved them for us because she got attached and they were winning.”

They were irritated when she ignored most of their questions and we’re about to interrogate her when her head disappeared beneath the lake. Moments later she reemerged with silver-tinged hair. “The two of you are the pieces that are going to be used in this war. You will work without question and you will succeed. Otherwise, you will die by my hands or theirs.”

As she ended, she stalked towards them while standing above the lake’s surface. Chao wore an outfit of purple flames. There wasn’t any fabric of any kind, but the flames silently roamed about her body. When she touched the grass, her dangerous tone changed back into a mischievous fox along with her outfit and hair. “Today I’m going to visit someone. Would you like to come with?”

Marianna’s eyes twitched before nodding yes. Once again, Chao made an arc in the air. This time, she sprinted through first leaving her behind. Speechless, Marianna switched with Lawrence before going to mull over the oracle.

. . .

“Quite the pretty place,” Chao mumbled to herself.

“Who does this place belong to?”

“A beauty.” Chao walked up to the Romanesque architecture in anticipation, but instead of using the bell, knocker, or even knocking she shouted up to the windows.

“Darling! Come out and let me take a bite! I promise it won’t hurt!”

At this rate, Lawrence would forget how to speak as he was speechless. ‘Isn’t that obnoxious or shameless?’ Chao, however didn’t care and licked her lips in anticipation before dropping her head when she heard someone reply.

“The Harlot’s here! Do something about it!” A childish boy’s voice shouted from a window as the doors opened granting the two access to the grand home.

“Geez. I come to see my soulmate and I can’t even hug her yet. Stupid butthole getting in my way. I’ll show that stupid harlot.” Grumbling under her breath, she maintained her composure and waited for the boy to arrive.

Just as she finished complaining and cursing, a young boy appeared. His hair and eyes were striking as both were yellow. At the moment, he was wearing a rabbit onesie and tsk’d when he saw Chao.

“Second floor, west wing, last master room in the bathroom.”

A blur of purple passed before the boy turned to Lawrence. “You look unwell. Would you like some medicine?”

He wanted to decline, but thought of how Marianna would still be using the body as well, he agreed. “I don’t want any side effects. If I feel any, I don’t care if you know her or whoever ‘they’ are or if she even kills me, I will personally accompany you to oblivion.”

“Calm down man! Geez. You should be a crash dummy with how testy you are!” Unamused, Lawrence signalled the boy to lead and disappointed, the boy marched.

. . .

“Dumb witch. Which witch would eat a sandwich? I like to eat pears while I’m walking up the stairs admiring the bears and hares doing dares in bare despair. It’s a bit difficult to speak, but I should be able to master it.” The woman who Chao called Darling was currently in her bathtub.

Her eyes didn’t match the benevolence of the voice however and neither did the voice sound the same. The woman had dark curly hair like Chao, and down turned dark eyes. The only difference in their faces were the lips and eyes. While Chao had full lips, the woman’s were more medium. These subtle differences however reflected her personality quite accurately.

At the moment though, those lips were smirking quite harshly.

“You stupid thing. Get out of my almairusk. Do you think you even have the privilege to look? Leave before I make you!” Chao burst into the bathtub and stared at the woman in disdain.

“Oh mighty goddess! How would I have offended you? We’ve been together forever! I-”

Chao tapped her foot, crossed her arms and counted “1, 2, 3” up to ten before sighing. “I didn’t want to have to do this! Remember that this is your fault! I have nothing to do with it!”

She breathed in and out repeatedly with her eyes closed. Then, all of a sudden she opened them and punched outward. Concentrating her power into one of her seven attributes, galactic, she travelled to the woman’s mind where the true Darling was trapped.

Immediately, Chao was thrust into a world of cruelty. Superiority and progression through cannibalism. After a political party advocated for an equal playing ground for everyone, some radicals and media outlets showed too much enthusiasm. Long story short, the world became a literal dog eat dog world with its only philosophy being survival of the fittest.

Chao spent a month in that world in dream time before it switched to yet another world.

A young boy had forgotten his memories and woke up on an uninhabited island with 2 voices in his head. Chao was watching the boy tumble into an endless spiral of mystery as he journeyed to uncover the truth.

3 worlds and 15 years in dream time later, Chao finds herself in a nightmare. The woman and Chao are nowhere to be found, but a young girl kills a little boy with one strike to the neck. Chao is the young girl and whispers “I’m sorry” over and over again as the boy bleeds. The boy’s eyes widen and tears of blood and saltwater flow after. While Chao’s heart already lurched at the first attack, the memory seemed insistent on killing her as it would play over and over again.

Finally, 100 years later, Chao walks away from the boy to find a greenhouse. When she arrives, the gentle beauty who looks so much like her emerges from a plot of golden kiwis and tulips.

“Sweetheart, tell that memory to go away. It’s painful.”