Flicker: The Game Of Chance

Chapter 17 | Another Hellish Nightmare, Towards The Princess Laurier

"Veronica..."

...

I could hear my name being called out, somewhere within the distance. The voice was a muffled one, yet it was a familiar one. I tried to recollect everything that had just happened, but no matter how hard I'd tried, I could not piece together a single thing. All I could see ahead of me was the bright white lights of death and doom awaiting me.

"Hey, Veronica..."

Each time the voice called out my name, it was more louder and less muffled. My vision gradually became less blurry, yet the only thing ahead of me was a bright white light.

"Ve... ro... ni... ca..."

The voice got louder and louder and simultaneously, my vision slowly got clearer and clearer.

A bright white light blinded me completely as I shimmer my eyelids and wake up to the harmonious voice calling me; the person who'd stood infront of me to greet me was... Delta.

"Delta...?"

The person I'd known for a very short time, yet had a notable influence in my life, held out his hand awaiting me to grab it and use it as strength to get up.

'Delta's vision? No... this is something more than that. I can feel the power of his soul, his essense and presence is here. This is...'

"Delta... is this... your ghost?". In response, I'd grabbed his arm and stood up straight in the bright white void I was trapped in.

"Yes, that's right. This is my ghost."

I thought for a moment before replying back to him again. "I see... that must mean that I'm dead?"

Delta shook his head and giggled silently, as if he was denying my testimony; he reacted as if what I'd said was so far from the truth that it was funny to him, in a sense. "You're not dead... at least, not yet", he took a pause before speaking, "but the way you're losing blood... it's inevitable. You'll die eventually."

"S-So what can I do?" Plus my recovering vision, I looked around the white void to find that everyone who had died so far had their ghosts gathered there. I could immediately tell, just then, that they were all planning to do something -- something that would help me to recover from the fatal injury that I'd recieved thanks to Austin. Delta smiled a little without replying to my question, and at that moment, Elaina walked over to us and started to answer my question instead.

"Well, you see, Veronica... there isn't much you can do by yourself anymore." Elaina frowned and looked down before continuing; her voice had a sad and distressing ring to it this time. "That's why... we've decided to help you out."

"Help me out? How?" My curiosity only rapidly grew when I saw their faces turn to one of despair, they looked like the decision they were about to make would affect them severely and yet they were willing to go through with it. "Well, you see...", it was Albert this time who was walking towards me and explaining the next part. "Since you're a savior and you deal with souls and all... we pretty much decided that we could transfer the power in all of our souls to yours."

At that point, everyone gathered around the white void was already surrounding the four of us, waiting for Albert to finish explaining their plan. "If we do that... then you can get some more regeneration powers, right? And with that, you will no longer die."

I was about to reply, I was about to deny their offer, but suddenly Carlos started to speak. "It's quite a disadvantage that transferring the power doesn't actually make your raw strength or stamina any more powerful than it already is... but we believe that, as long as you're alive, you'll be able to figure out something, right?"