The Omega Existence

Chapter 43

“Raphael!” Andrew turned to see his mother looking through a wall as she shouted his name. He searched the wall face, almost expecting to see his father painted or scratched into the wall somehow, but he was nowhere to be seen.

“What is it Mum?” He asked as he closed the distance to her.

“I don’t know, I just felt as if he were right here,” she replied.

It had been months since his father had left. Somehow they had all survived by eating small flakes of bread that had begun to appear crusted over all the walls each morning, and every night they had fresh water flow from above them, pooling in rocks and crevices along the cavern. At least they had begun to think of bread as the morning and water as night time, it had been so long since they had seen the sky that time had become hard to measure.

 Sarah had given birth, a miraculously easy childbirth to a beautiful young girl, strangely enough, with bright green eyes almost identical to his own. Too much had happened for Andrew to sit and contemplate on now. He hadn’t truly understood what his Father had wanted him to do until he was desperately trying to pull Ben’s soul back from the brink of death. Ben hadn’t noticed the growing abyss that had begun to eat away at his soul behind him, and Andrew was glad of it. The image of that terrible moment will forever be burnt into his memory, and he suspected Ben had enough images like that already.

He looked over to where his old friend lay snoring. Despite the atmosphere, he couldn’t help but chuckle to himself as he noticed Marcus, his blood pressure rising as he attempted to block his ears from the constant droning. 

“I’m sure he’ll come back Mum,” Andrew reassured. He didn’t believe his own words, but he prayed he was right. He couldn’t describe the pure evil he had felt even being close to wherever he had travelled to save his friend. It felt as if he had entered the hunger of death itself.

“No!” Le’theril screamed as she dropped to the ground, bursting into tears. Shocked he rushed over to embrace his Mother before the same feeling hit him too. It was as if a piece of himself and been suddenly torn from his being. Ripped apart brutally, leaving him naked, alone, and terribly vulnerable.

Andrew heard others around the room cry out as one as they too felt the shattering of self. Andrew suddenly realised he could no longer feel his Father. That slim connection that he had subconsciously knew was always there was what had been torn from him violently. So much so that it tore at his very existence. As his Mother’s teary eyes looked up at him, he knew he couldn’t stand by and do nothing.

Andrew shimmered, he didn’t know how, or where, but he let his soul leave his body, faintly hearing his mother cry out once again. Don’t worry Mother, you won’t lose us both. He sped after that strange feeling of connection as it raced away from him. He knew exactly where it was going as he began to head back to those terrifying gates he had passed through but moments before. What was his Father doing?

He prayed for strength as he tried to push himself further, faster, he had to catch up, he had to do something. Whatever Raphael was about to do, it meant severing whatever parts of himself he had left with them all, and Andrew didn’t like the idea of that. Not after all this time, after all these years, thinking he was truly alone. To finally learn he had parents, and then watch as his Father tear away from him; it was too much to bear.