Eternity

Time went...slowly, to say the least. I had been trapped in this futuristic world for a few days now, in a body that was not my own.

I couldn’t do much but simply watch. I saw a lot of things in my time here. The majority of it was rather unpleasant.

From what I, Komoria Vato, could gather from my time here was not much, but it wasn’t little either.

I resided in the body of a teenage girl named Rachel Kramer.

She was timid but feisty. Gloomy, but full of fighting spirit. She endured a lot in her day to life. It was something that I was powerless to change.

She started off making breakfast for herself and her father around 5 AM. She then headed out to buy groceries that were spent entirely with her own money before heading to a liquor store to buy alcohol.

Raze told me that the drinking age was a lot higher in his world, so I wasn’t sure how she could get away with it by just showing a card that had her face and name on it...but it worked.

She would then bring it all back before heading off to school—which was half an hour away. She spent the entire walk in silence, eyes on the ground in front of her. Somehow she always avoided bumping into other people in the packed streets.

She would arrive at school at 6:30 AM, an hour and a half before school started, spending her time in the girls' locker room on her phone (a device that had way too many ways to entertain oneself and connect with others). I was very surprised that no magic was used to operate such a creation—at least not a magic I could comprehend. 

She would use her phone even after school started, deciding to arrive at least five minutes late. Every time she would walk to class through the long halls, she would hide behind pillars and walls as if to be hidden from the gazes of others.

Once she entered class, she was met with disdainful gazes from the other girls, while the teacher ignored her presence entirely, more or less.

I could feel every gaze and whisper as I watched her attempt to do her work, or at least pretend she was.

“That girl is always creeping around before class, what gives?”

“I know, right? She’s the one who's, like, in debt, right? Or something to do with her no-good father and his gambling.”

“I heard from my friend that her brother went to school with her brother. Did you know he quit school to start a band? Does he even care about his future?”

These kinds of whispers happened daily. I guess it was common knowledge about the difficulties she experienced and yet no one reached out a helping hand.

I’m sure there was someone, but Rachel’s cold and distant personality as well as her interest in electronics was a big put-off to even the kindest of girls at this school. I’m sure some of them had reached out at first but were immediately pushed away by Rachel’s brash and annoyed attitude to people she didn’t know.

I experienced it multiple times at her job with the other coworkers. She could barely converse with any of them, even though she had been with them at this job for over two years.

She just couldn't trust anyone...and yet she put up with him.

I don’t like to speak ill of others, but her father was a real piece of work.

His name was John Kramer and he was not on Rachel’s side. He might say he is, but actions always speak louder than words.

Just the other day, when I came back from an 8-hour work shift and made him dinner, he was enraged. He found out how well Richard was doing with his band and was furious that he was seeing none of his son's income.

I told him that he already had the money I gave him every week and that this was Richard’s dream and he should be proud of him for it.

Do you know what he did when I—or Rachel—said that?

He slapped us, enraged that we would ever talk back to him. There was a phrase he said that stood out to me as if I heard it before.

“Ah, yes. Women and money go hand and hand.”

“...”

But who had said it? Well, I had a sneaking suspicion.

He continued to shoot us down for even trying to stick up for Richard.

“I don't even get what you are trying to get from picking a fight with me. Just act like a daughter and know your place,” he said before burping.

His breath smelled worse than any alcohol back in my own world.

Rachel never even responded to him after her first sentence. Her father noticed that she lost the will to fight, the moment he opened his disgusting maw and yet he continued to torment her.

At least he didn’t throw any punches...this time. The day before was another story.

After taking care of the housework and cleaning her father's room, Rachel would retreat into her own dwelling, attempt to lock the door that had no lock (she did this daily) and stay up till very late. She spent all her time on her computer (as I learned it was called), playing video games for hours on end in complete silence.

Every now and then, I could see her reflection on the screen. The first time, it freaked me out, but after a few days, I got used to it.

She had a sinister smile across her pale face while the smoldering embers in her eyes got bigger and bigger.

"Someday I'm gonna do it. Then hell be all alone and wish he treated me better," she muttered. "But that day is not today."

This was one of the few times I could consistently say that Rachel was happy. This was a way to pent up all her frustration—the annoyance of long work shifts and unbearable customers, the pain of being ridiculed by everyone around you, while you can’t do a damn thing about it, but most importantly, it was a way to get out her unbridled rage against her deadbeat father. I’m sure every time she torched an enemy with a flamethrower or impaled someone with a hatchet, she imagined her father as the one she quelled.

I couldn’t ask her to know for sure, but I just felt it.

Everyone needed a way to vent their stress and this was hers.

The bags under her eyes ran deep as she munched away on chips in one hand while clicking away with vigor in the other.

It wasn’t exactly a healthy lifestyle, but if it gave her even the slightest reason to go on, then it was worth it.

I recalled a time when she looked in the mirror with a very gloomy expression with the most dreadful aura I ever sensed.

I thought she was going to take her own life right then and there, but something stopped her, and I was sure I knew what it was.

Richard. Her brother. She was holding out for him, on the premise that he would whisk her away from her monotonous and painful daily life. He was the only person she could truly trust.

All she had to do was hold out until he could come to save her. Like a knight saving a princess.

It made my own heart flutter, so I’m sure it did with Rachel as well.

I’m sure she wanted nothing more than to live her life to the fullest, with her brother and the friends she would soon meet.

It truly looked like it would be that way. She would finally have a win in her meaningless existence...

Then, everything changed.

———————————————————————————————————————————

The long horizon was a mix of purple and blue shades of pure wonderment. These bizarre sky colors were very foreign to the people who tread below them.

For miles on end, they traveled. Spanning on for what seemed like forever, there only lay sand and dunes.

The party of three trudged along the dunes at a sluggish pace.

“Fucking hell! I wish I could use the boar right now. Walking in this shit is terrible!”

Raze was the first to speak in nearly an hour since they made their way through the Shamak Desert in the Beast-kin Warped Lands. The other two were silent, pained smiles spread across their faces.

“So...hot… Father never prepared me for this!” Fione complained as she slowly followed Raze, her eyes on his back the entire time.

“This climate isn't the worst for an Azurespine, but I will say that I am not a fan of sand.”

Lyra brought up the rear while reaffirming the superiority of her race. She was only going slow to keep an eye on their surroundings. This desert was known for its harmful wildlife and blazing sun.

“A five-hour trip on foot through the sand is worse than death... Ahhhhhh!” Raze bellowed to the heavens after lamenting about their unfortunate situation. They had to take this way after all, or else they would never reach Amon and meet with the Sage of the East to save Raze.

“I have not traveled that much into beast-kin territory and so I apologize for not being more helpful.” Fione let out a large sigh as she kept a hand to her horn, making sure it was still there. She and Raze were both sweating heavily. Their skinny and slender bodies were not built to survive in such a climate. They couldn’t be like Lyra who honed her form with intense training as well as lived underground her whole life.

“You are doing fine,” Lyra assured her from behind. “Being able to avoid monster attacks with your eyes is quite helpful in its own right.”

“...”

Raze raised his voice before stopping, making sure he had grasped both of their attention. “Listen here, you two, we will go until it's dark, and then Princess over here will take us back to Cave World so we won’t have to sleep in this shitty place. “You manage that, right?”

Raze was invective with his tone, revealing the underlying anger that was welling up inside him. It was her fault that they were in this situation after all.

“Of course! I can take us anywhere I have been before.” She puffed out her chest with pride.

Raze took a gander at her assets before scoffing and said, ”Then that’s all you will need to do, so let’s get a move on.”

Raze continued to walk, using his tan arm to shield his eyes from the scathing sun. The others followed suit.

An hour or so later...

“Hey…,” Raze pointed at the sky. “Wasn’t it not supposed to get dark for at least another hour and a half? What gives?”

The pair behind him gazed upwards at the sky that was becoming pitch black in mere moments. It was happening way too fast to be normal.

Fione closed one of her eyes. Panicked washed over her face as she opened her mouth. “We gotta get out of here. Something is comi—”

Her voice as well as her entire body had been consumed by a dark void.

“What the f—”

Raze disappeared as well and Lyra followed soon after.

They were all consumed by the embrace of darkness.

“Where the hell are we?” Raze rubbed his head.

It was too dark to see anything, let alone himself. The endless void he was in was cold and lifeless. Mounting dread and fear were constantly being siphoned out of him that would soon return with an infinite feedback loop.

“I’m here too and Lyra is touching me—I think.”

“Well you're the one was said you were scared…”

The other two were not too far, judging by their voices which allowed Raze to let out a small sigh of relief.

Raze rubbed his temples in the darkness. He was glad they were alright, but he had no idea what was happening.

“Do you two feel like something is being drained from your body? This does not feel right…”

“You have fire magic, right? Put it to good use,” Fione called out.

Raze clicked his tongue. How did she know Komoria could use fire magic?

Either way, he used [[Blazing Spirit]] to set his whole body aflame and finally become a light in the abyss of darkness.

“There that should do i— What the hell is that?!”

“Greetings Savior, would you be so kind as to put that flame of yours away? It makes this game a little more difficult to begin.”

Above the three of them were two large yellow eyes, floating around in the darkness. A disembodied voice gave him instructions from all around.

“Don’t tell me what to do, you shadow! Who the hell are you anyway?!”

“Uh...Raze…”

“This does not look good.”

Both Fione and Lyra had sweat across their brows, while their arms were linked together. One of them was shivering, but it wouldn't take a genius to guess who.

“I am the Candlemaker and this is my domain. If you wish to live through this ordeal, put out that tiny light.”

Fione started to squirm uncontrollably while Lyra tried to calm her down by holding her tight.

“I-its him! The one from Father's story. The embodiment of fear. Death's shadow! The Candlemaker!” Fione shouted, her voice hoarse and full of fear.

“...” Raze was silent.

“I am glad to have been recognized. It has been eons since I have been able to take a physical form. Now, the time for talking is over. Find my candles or perish!”

A large hand with claws at the end descended from the dark void, attempting to slice Raze into ribbons. He managed to dodge it, but the force from it was enough to extinguish his flames, sending them all back into perpetual darkness.

“Good. Now we can begin. I have six candles. Find one and you will be free of my grasp. However, being at one for too long will make it extinguish. A candle with no flame summons me. You will be destroyed if you stay.”

What happens after all six go out? This seems shady as hell! Raze thought.

“I have told you the rules, now go. You will have a minute to flee before I pursue. It has been far too long since I have been able to feed on so much fear in one place.”

Raze couldn't see the other two anymore, but he was sure they heard everything.

“Well, let’s fucking run!”