Michael Blackwood

Skylar wrapped me in her arms which made me wince due to my injured arm.

“Sit down real quick. I’m going to try and heal you. Tell me what happened.”

I sat down and rehashed the last twenty minutes. How I felt the aberration's presence before it actually appeared. How it attacked her before it attacked me.

“When it stabbed her through the chest, it was like time stopped. All I felt was fear and anger. I knew I needed to kill it. I wanted to kill it. And even though I was able to, I wasn’t able to save her. She died in my arms.”

Rebecca and the other two just looked at me in disbelief.

“You managed to kill one all by yourself?” One of them asked.

“Yeah. I don’t know how though. It just seemed weaker than the others we’d encountered so far.”

Skylar kept pouring energy into my arm, trying to heal it. But for some reason, it wasn’t working. She looked so exhausted, it was though she was about to pass out. Her fingers trembled, and her hands dropped slightly. When she went to raise them again, I stopped her.

“For some reason, you aren’t able to heal my arm. Focus on keeping your energy for now. Others may need to be healed.”

“But… I can’t let you stay like this…” she protested.

“It’s fine. We need to search for the others.”

Since Skylar needed to preserve the energy she had left, Rebecca walked over and helped me stand up. I gripped the hilt of my sword, and the five of us started walking. We ended up coming across Rohan and Atticus next. They were standing over the dead body of an aberration, and I realized that they must’ve killed it right before we arrived. Rohan saw us first, and rushed over.

“Hey kid. What the hell are you doing in here? Never mind that, I need to heal you.”

“Don’t bother,” I said. “Skylar already used up a lot of her energy trying to. She wasn’t successful.”

He looked at me warily, then looked at the rest of us. When I looked at Atticus, I realized that he had been giving me that distrustful stare again. Without thinking, I pointed the tip of my blade at him.

“Why the fuck do you keep staring at me like that for, huh? What the fuck did I do to you?”

“Hey kid, calm down,” Rohan said before Atticus could reply.

“No, I won’t calm down. Ever since the first day I met all of you guys, Atticus has been giving some sort of distrustful stare. It’s honestly starting to piss me off,” I said, then glared back at Atticus. “So tell me, what the fuck is your problem?”

Atticus walked over to me slowly, and stopped just an inch away from my sword.

“It’s because I don’t trust you. Somehow, you were summoned along with the five chosen heroes, and you somehow don’t have a thread? How are we supposed to know that? How do we know you aren’t hiding your thread from us?”

My sword wavered slightly.

“You think I’m hiding my thread? Seriously? I was brought here by accident, and then I find out I can’t even help my friends the way I want to, and you have the audacity to accuse me of hiding some secret ability? Are you fucking stupid?”

“Like I said, how are we supposed to know? Somehow, you’re an excellent fighter. You learn quickly. You even managed to pick up on Rohan’s default fighting stance, and you’re questioning why I don’t trust you? Of course I don’t trust you. You are an unknown variable.”

Before I could say anything more, Rohan stepped between us.

“Atticus, give the kid a break. You know he’s not dangerous.”

“I don’t though! And you shouldn’t trust him either!”

“That’s enough! We’re done talking about this! We are going to keep killing any and all aberrations we find. Keep this shit to yourself.”

Atticus said nothing more, and turned his gaze away from me. I heard a shout from behind us, and saw the princess running up to us.

“Michael, didn’t I tell you to stay outside the zone?”

Skylar spoke in my place.

“It’s a long story, but he and Mia were attacked by an aberration after we entered the zone. Michael killed it, but Mia didn’t survive.”

The princess looked shocked upon hearing Skylar’s words.

“Michael, I expect a full explanation after we get out of here. We need to find everyone else.”

After that, it didn’t take long to find the others. All seventeen of us came across several more aberrations, but because of the big group of people, they were all killed pretty quickly.

“Ok, that seems to be the last of them. This zone could collapse any second. We need to leave.”

Rebecca had my right arm wrapped over her shoulder and was helping me walk. Skylar and some of the others were in front of us, and the rest were behind us. Almost everyone in the group was exhausted. I learned from several people that overall, over thirty more aberrations had been killed. I saw Atticus keep glancing at me from over his shoulder.

He’s really starting to piss me off.

Every time he did, I made sure to glare back at him. Rohan noticed, and proceeded to block Atticus’s view of me. Rebecca was asking me questions, but I kept zoning out. I didn’t know how to put it, but for some reason, it still felt like the zone was calling out to me. Like it wanted me to stay.

“Rebecca,” I said, catching her off guard. “Have you felt a strange feeling from this place?”

“Now that you mention it, yes I have,” she replied. “Skylar and I were talking about that a little bit before we came across you. She said that she felt as though we were being watched.”

“What other strange feelings have you felt?”

“Not really. Other than the fact that reality doesn’t feel real here and the feeling of being watched, nothing at all.”

“What about the zone calling out to you?”

I noticed the princess tense up in front of us, and realized she must have heard what I had just said. She turned around and walked straight over to me and Rebecca.

“What do you mean by that?”

I looked at her nervously.

“Right before I entered the zone, I felt a strange sensation of the zone calling out to me. Like it was beckoning me inside. Even now, it feels as though the zone wants me to stay…” I said hesitantly.

I noticed Atticus staring at me again, then leaned over to whisper something to Rohan. Rohan shot me a quick glance after that, but turned around and kept walking. I looked around, and saw several others also giving me strange looks, as though they’d never heard of an experience close to mine. They all started whispering to each other, and by the looks on their faces, it wasn’t anything nice. Skylar however, looked worried.

The princess turned back around, and before walking ahead of us again, she said, “Enough everyone. Although this may be the first time any of you are hearing this type of experience, that doesn’t give you the right to whisper amongst yourselves. Just because Michael was dragged along with the chosen heroes, doesn’t mean he doesn’t deserve your respect. He even killed an aberration single-handedly outside the zone after we all entered. Now let’s keep moving. We’re almost out of here.”

When we got to the edge of the zone, we each walked through one by one. When I finally walked through, I realized nobody else was moving. They were all staring in shock at the caravan, and when I saw what they were looking at, I gasped.

The caravan was on fire, and most of the people in the caravan were lying dead on the ground. About five aberrations were slaughtering them. Five that must’ve escaped my notice before I entered the zone.

Fuck. 

The princess ordered everyone to fan out, while making sure me and couple others stayed closer to the zone to not get hurt. They all went off to fight the aberrations, charging head first towards them. A sixth appeared next to one of the people standing with me, and bit the man’s head off in one bite. I stumbled to the ground.

It walked over to me, but stopped before it did anything. It turned to attack the other man standing there with me, but Levi appeared and punched the aberration so hard, it flew into the zone. 

What the hell was that? That was the third time one of these things hesitated to attack me.

Levi helped me to my feet, and the three of us took off running towards the caravan. He and the other started gaining distance. I called out to him to slow down, but when he turned around, he looked at me with fear and anger in his eyes. Before I knew what was happening, he was in front of me. I felt a sharp pain in my chest, and before I realized it, I was flying backwards towards the zone.

Did… Levi just punch me?

I landed right in front of the zone. I saw Levi standing there where he had punched me, and he had a frightened expression on his face. Whatever had happened, he must’ve snapped out of it because he started running towards me. 

The clawed hand of the aberration that Levi had punched into the zone appeared once again from the edge of the zone, and I felt it tear through my flesh.

As it lifted me into the air, I saw Levi stop in his tracks. The expression on his face was one of remorse. He turned around and ran, then I was pulled back into the zone. The creature flung me backwards and I crashed into the ruined wall of a building. I could taste iron as blood shot out from my mount and I looked up. I saw the walls of the zone begin to quiver.

I guess… this is it. Skylar… I’m sorry. Please forgive me.

Then the zone collapsed. Darkness came next.