Blinded By The Darkness

Chapter 50 - Oneirodynia

"Where am I?" Lucas asked me with dread imprinted on this face.

By this time, we had gathered the attention of everyone in our cabin because of the way Lucas was shouting and how he got up.

"Calm down" I tried soothing him while rubbing his back "It's all going to be okay" I whispered to him. It was then he became conscious that we were on a train and he was safe.

Lucas sat down and cleaned the trickle of sweat away from his face. His body looked pale like he had just seen a ghost.

"Lucas"

"Yes Alina" He answered in a low voice.

"Are you alright?" I knew he wasn't alright considering he just had a bad dream but it was courtesy to ask anyways.

He sighed and looked hard at me "No" He averted his eyes away from mine to look outside the window.

His answer was so blunt and vague.

Out of curiosity, I wanted to ask him what he meant by 'I will save you from Harlem, Mom'- His Mom? The witches had clearly said his mom was dead, so who was he referring to? And Harlem?

But I understood better than to ask him those pending questions in my head.

"Lucas" I began saying as he turned to stare at me with his intense eyes "I don't know what's wrong but a problem shared is a problem half solved and I would always be here to lend an ear if you need someone to talk too" I ended it by flashing a wide smile his way.

"Everything is going to be alright" I assured him and faced my front immediately. I wasn't going to persuade him to talk.

If he wanted to talk, he would talk on his own terms and because he wanted to do talk, not because I forced him too.

"You were told they were two territories in Philia, right?" Lucas suddenly asked me.

"Yeah" The two territories were Black Phoenix and E-Phoenix.

He chuckled "They are actually three; the Black Phoenix, E-Phoenix and the Outcasts "

"Outcasts?" I asked evidently confused. No one had told me about the Outcasts "Who are the Outcasts"

"When the first inhabitants arrived at Philia, the only living creatures that existed on the land were two birds known to be Phoenixes" He paused for a moment "Now, a Phoenix is a type of bird that that obtains new life by arising from the ashes of its predecessor" Lucas adjusted his seating position and faced me.

"But the two Phoenixes weren't the same- One had black feathers while the other had red feathers. The inhabitants named the bird with the black feathers - Black Phoenix and the other with the red feathers E-Phoenix" Lucas explained.

"The most striking factor was the Black Phoenix busted into black flames while the E-Phoenix busted in red flames"

"The inhabitants soon realized they had some type of marking on each of their bodies. On some bodies; the image of the Black Phoenix was permanently imprinted while on some the image of the E-Phoenix bird permanently imprinted"

"Did the people imprint the images on their bodies themselves?" I went on to ask because it was totally ludicrous to assume the island itself imprinted those prints on them.

"That's the magical part. It was like the island had imprinted those signs on them when the black hole engulfed them" Lucas told me.

"Woah" I exclaimed because I was really astonished.

"Yeah" He told me "Despite the different imprints, the inhabitants co-existed peacefully in Philia without any form of conflict"

"The number of people in Philia began to increase and anyone that came in always had either an imprint of the Black Phoenix or E-Phoenix on some part of their body"