Michael Blackwood

“Wait, what do you mean that was her voice? Who’s?”

“That was Izzy’s voice! She’s still alive in the zone! She has to be!”

She noticed that I was staring at the zone again, and turned to see what I was looking at. A long thin arm had exited the zone’s wall beside us, and was pulling the body attached to it out as well. When it fully emerged, I realized that it was different from the faceless aberration from before.

It too had a thin body, but it wasn’t as tall, and was crawling around on all fours. Its eyes were pure black, and its mouth was full of razor sharp teeth. It looked directly at us, and then, much to my surprise, its face started to change and look more human.

“Iz… Izzy?” Mia called out hesitantly, then looked back at me desperately. “That’s Izzy’s face!”

Mia stood up slowly, and walked to the creature, who was looking at Mia in confusion.

“Mia?” The creature called back.

“Izzy! It is you!” Mia yelled, and ran up to the creature and wrapped her arms around it in an embrace.

Surprisingly, the creature slowly wrapped its arms around Mia as well, hugging her back, and resting its head on her shoulder.

Do aberrations retain some sense of self after forming?

“Get her away from that thing!” I heard the princess scream somewhere from behind me, and I turned to look at her. She was running as fast as she could, but would still take about ten seconds to get to us. “That’s a flesh-eater! They trick their victims into coming closer by using the face of a loved one!”

I heard a wet crunch, and a scream. When I turned to look back at Mia, the aberration had bitten into her shoulder. Mia was screaming desperately, trying to get out of the aberration's grasp.

I ran to Mia’s side, and swung my sword down on the creature, slicing into its body. It stopped biting Mia, and roared at me. I could feel bits of saliva hit my face, and I pulled my sword out of its body to swing a second time. One of its arms stopped holding onto Mia, and swung towards me, but I was able to use the flat of my blade to parry its attack. I slid back a few feet, but by the time it tried to bite into Mia again, a long shaft of lava impaled it through the face, killing it instantly. The princess and Dylan arrived next to us the following second, and the princess knelt down to inspect Mia’s wound.

“She’s bleeding pretty badly, but it’s not lethal. Michael, take her some distance away. Since this is a much more dangerous situation than earlier, I need you to protect Mia as best as you can. Everyone else, stay with me.”

“Yes princess,” I replied, and knelt down to pick Mia up. She wrapped her right arm around my neck, but wasn’t able to move her left due to the large bite wound the aberration had left on her. I stood slowly, making sure to not make any movements that might cause Mia even more pain than she was currently in. As I started moving back towards the caravan, I heard the princess speak again.

“There should be people on their way here. Every time an aberration zone appears, multiple sensor arrays go off in multiple soldier garrisons, and adventurer guilds. Aberrations don’t typically leave the zone unless the zone is closing. The fact that we’ve seen two separate aberrations in the last hour must mean this zone has a short life span. We need to prevent any and all aberrations from escaping the zone. Once others show up, we will all enter the zone to try and finish off the aberrations inside. Don’t get stuck in the zone when it closes though. You’ll die if you do.”

As I was carrying Mia, she was looking at me with this sorrowful expression.

“I’m sorry Michael,” she struggled to get out. “If I had only listened to you, I wouldn’t have ended up hurt, and you’d be able to stand by your friends.”

I stopped walking, and eased her onto the ground. We were twenty-five feet away from the aberration zone, so I figured this would be a safe distance.

“You don’t have to apologize to me Mia. Honestly, I’d probably only get in their way. I don’t have a thread. No affinity. I’m just a regular guy.”

“But you’re brave, and that’s what matters. Even without a thread, you still attacked the aberration. If it wasn’t for you, I’d probably be dead right now. Just like the rest of my family. Because of you, I’m still alive,” she said, and gave me a pained smile.

I returned the smile and said, “I knew that I needed to help you. I promise that you’ll get out of this ok.”

After a few minutes, no other aberrations had tried to exit the zone. The princess and my friends were all in strategic positions, with Skylar somewhat behind them, as she had no real combat ability like the rest. I heard noise in the distance, and it sounded like a group of people arriving. I saw ten people exit the tree line, and recognized Rohan among them.

He ran up to me, and without saying a word, started healing Mia. I also recognized several of the other trainers, including Atticus, who once again gave me a distrusting look, before they all ran off to the aberration zone. After a minute, Mia’s wounds were completely healed. She looked at Rohan in shock, which made him laugh. 

“I am a tempered class thread-weaver, you know. Stuff like this is easy,” he said, then he too ran to join the others.

Once they were all standing with the princess, she started speaking in a loud voice to make sure everyone could hear her.

“We are all going to enter this zone, and exterminate as many of the aberrations inside as possible before the zone closes. We will all be splitting up into teams of two, so make sure to watch your partner's backs. Also, if you or your partner is severely wounded, try to leave the zone as fast as you can. If you’re in the zone when it closes, you’ll die. No man left behind!”

Everyone cheered in response to her words, and immediately started pairing up. I saw Skylar with Rebecca, and knew Rebecca would do anything possible to keep Skylar safe. The princess made her way over to me, and knelt down beside us.

“Michael,” she started to say. “You’re going to stay out here. For someone with no thread, it’d be too dangerous for you to enter the zone.”

I gave her a determined look.

“Don’t worry princess, I’ll do my best out here.”

She smiled, and nodded. Then she directed her attention towards Mia.

“Keep him in line for me, yeah?”

Mia blushed slightly, and dipped her head in a bow.

“Yes, your majesty,” she replied.

The princess stood up, and made her way back towards the aberration zone. When she got there, she gave everyone the signal, they all walked in, and their figures became slightly distorted due to the zone's wall.

I turned my head to look back at Mia. She was also staring at the aberration zone, and had tears in her eyes again.

“I can’t believe they're gone,” she said, her voice quivering. “I was only gone for a couple weeks. They didn’t want me to leave at first, scared that something bad might happen to me. But I convinced them that I’d come back home to them.”

She started crying again, so I put my arm around her, and pulled her into an embrace.

“It’s ok Mia,” I told her. “It’s hard now, but keep your chin up. The pain will never leave, but it’ll be less pronounced with time. I promise.”

A few minutes passed, and I was starting to wonder how long my friends would be in the aberration zone. I heard what sounded like footsteps, but when I looked, there was nothing there. Curious, I stood up, and put my hand on the hilt of my sword. All of a sudden, I noticed a slight difference in the area I was looking at. There was a small shimmering in the shape of a creature. It started moving towards me, and before I could react, an aberration appeared.

Invisibility?

This one was quite different from the other two I had encountered so far. What unsettled me was how eerily human it looked. It ran towards me and Mia, and before I could swing with my sword, it bolted past me. When I turned to look, it was standing over Mia, and she had a frightened expression on her face. She looked at me, her lips quivering.

“Michael!” She screamed, and the creature cut itself, drawing out its own blood and forming a blade. It thrust the sword towards Mia, impaling her through her chest. She opened her mouth in a silent scream.

I moved towards the creature, and swung down at its neck. It turned to look at me, and as it did, I saw what looked like fear in its eyes. My sword parted flesh, and got stuck in its neck. It swung at me, which I barely dodged. I managed to pull my sword out, and swung as fast as I could. The creature grabbed my blade mid swing, and slashed with its blood sword. I screamed in pain as my left arm let go of the sword and proceeded to dangle at my side. 

With the remaining strength I had left, I pulled my sword from the creature’s grip, and thrust forward, piercing the aberrations chest. It fell to the ground with a cry, and I ripped my sword free of its flesh. I then reversed my grip on the sword so the blade was pointing downwards. Before the aberration could move, I stabbed down, over and over. I repeatedly stabbed it for twenty seconds before I felt confident it was dead.

I immediately felt the exhaustion wash over me as the adrenaline left my body. I stumbled over to Mia, who was barely breathing. I fell to my knees in front of her, and slowly put pressure on her wound with my remaining good hand. Blood was gushing out in between my fingers, and she was looking at me with sadness in her eyes.

“Michael,” she managed to say, and ended up coughing up blood.

“No. Don’t speak. You’re gonna be ok,” I replied, but I was lying to her. Her wound was very deep and she was losing a lot of blood. Unfortunately there wasn’t another healer around to help her.

She wrapped her fingers around my hand, and lifted it from her torso. She gave me a weak smile and said, “Maybe I’ll get to see my family again.”

I managed to pick the upper half of her body up and held her in my right arm. I felt her body go limp, and I saw the light fade out in her eyes. She was gone.