[234 hours, 48 minutes]
[Blake]
In a particularly more lifted mood, I managed to wake up like normal and actually go outside instead of hiding in my workshop. I guess I just needed to talk to someone about what I was feeling in order to feel better about... well, life in general.
Malachi was the first to greet me as I left my house that morning. Or maybe it was the opposite, where I greeted him. It was more of a collision than anything, as I hadn't quite been looking where I was going and he was a whopping foot and three inches shorter than I was.
"Ah- sorry, Malachi! Didn't see you there," I apologized with a sheepish chuckle.
Malachi shook his head a little to regain his bearings, sighing with a trace of a smile on his face. "I need you to remember to look down as well as forward in case someone without six feet to their name crosses your path, okay, Blake?"
I laughed. "Hey, I said I was sorry."
"Whatever." He was still smiling. "I see you've finally made it out of your hidey hole."
"Yeah."
"You alright, though?" His smile twisted to slight concern, a smile of sympathy more than amusement. "I know it's especially hard for you, with Tyson... gone."
I hesitated before shaking my head to myself. "I'm alright. I just needed... to be alone for a while. I should be good now."
"Hey, Blake!"
Alexis was walking towards us, having seen us from where she had been walking. I gave a smile and waved at her as she strode over to us, adding one more person taller than Malachi to the gathering group (which Malachi pretended to ignore).
"Hey, Alexis," I greeted back. I noticed creases of worry on her face, her smile a painted facade over her very visible concern. "Are you alright?"
Alexis let her smile fall, exhaling. "Have either of you seen Dilla? I thought she was in her studio, but I don't think she came back at all last night, because she's not there or asleep. I've looked all over the place."
Well, last time someone went missing, they really didn't return in one piece, so that's probably not a good sign. "No, I haven't seen her. Sorry."
"I saw her yesterday, if it's of any use," Malachi chimed in. "She was walking around and I asked her about the kids. The rascals took my textbook while I was asleep and I couldn't find it for three hours."
I chuckled a bit at that. He elbowed my side, irritated at my amusement.
Alexis just sighed. "I'll keep looking then. If you see her, tell her to text me or something and tell me if she's alright. With how Tyson died and all, I just... don't want anything bad happening, you know?"
"I get it, yeah. I'll tell her to message you when we see her."
Purposefully I said "when" instead of "if," not wanting to think about the possibility of another death.
"Alright. Thanks."
"See ya," I said, waving as she walked away.
"Gosh, I hope Dilla's alright," Malachi remarked.
"Hey, she can take care of herself," I assured him, sweeping my own doubts under the rug of my memory. "I'm sure she's just hiding in a corner and drawing somewhere."
Malachi thought about that, then nodded. "Yeah. You're probably right."
Still, though, I couldn't help but think about Tyson and how Dilla could very well meet the same fate if she wasn't careful. I didn't doubt her in the slightest - even Lionel, who didn't quite openly fear anything, was afraid of her at times under the right circumstances - but I never doubted Tyson, either. Well, maybe at times I did, but generally he was quite capable.
At one point I managed to separate myself from everyone else and found myself at the edge of the woods again. My thoughts went to Akik now. Assuming he was still being the creepy stalker that he was and has been watching us from afar, he probably would've seen Dilla walk off somewhere or nowhere, even if he didn't quite know who she was.
Should I go out and see him again? Am I worrying too much about this? Most of me truly cared that Dilla might be in danger - she was my friend, after all - but another part of me almost felt like I was just making an excuse to see Akik again. Why? I had no clue.
So I texted Malachi to make sure he knew I was going out to walk in the woods again so he wouldn't panic about my disappearance and decided to stick with the first option as full blame.
Luckily for me, I remembered how to get to Akik's crashed ship, and wasn't idiotic enough to get lost again. A good few minutes of walking later I found myself in the clearing where Akik's crashed spaceship was lying half-destroyed in the dirt. The nephalem himself wasn't visible immediately.
"Akik?" I called out into the forest air, my eyes flickering about and searching for him in the clearing created by the ship's crash.
Maybe he's out... doing something? Like, getting water from the river? I recalled the river I almost fell into in our second meeting. I'm sure he has to do that, since he probably doesn't have much supplies left from coming here.
Finally, however, I heard another voice call my name from above my head.
"Blake?"
I looked up, confused for a moment until I spotted, in one of the higher branches of a particularly tall tree, yellow and red eyes staring down at me from between wings tucked close around him for balance in the tree.
I smiled, internally thrilled to see him. I waved at him. "Hey!"
Akik spread his wings and with a mighty stroke of them he was in the air, the wind catching them as he glided down. He flapped twice more as he landed, once to right himself to a standing position and twice to fully slow his descent before his black combat boots hit the ground below him. His wings drew back to their usual place folded behind his back as he stood up straight, looking down at me with a smile and a brightness in his eyes.
"I see you didn't get lost this time."
For that I was quite grateful. "Yeah. This time I did know where I was going, though, in my defense."
"And good thing for that." Akik flicked his tail. "You need something? Or did you walk all the way out here just to pop in and say hi?"
I exhaled. I wished it were the latter. "Dilla's missing."
"Dilla..." Akik seemed to ponder that for a moment, "That's the green haired girl, right?"
"That's the one."
"I'll take it she didn't just wander off absently?"
"If she's doing something, there's usually a reason," I informed him. "So if she was wandering, she was either clearing her head, doing something for someone, or looking for something. I wanted to see if you'd seen her."
Akik paused for a moment, fingers playing with stray strands of hair by his face before answering. "No. No I haven't. Sorry."
"Have you seen her at all in the past twenty four hours?"
"What makes you think I would've?"
I chuckled. "You may stay out of sight, but it's no secret to me that you're keeping an eye on us."
Akik laughed sheepishly. "Hah... guess you're right. I don't think I saw her anywhere. Might have seen her leave her house or something yesterday, but that doesn't say anything considering I have no idea where she ran off to after that."
"Dammit," I sighed. "Sorry for bothering you, then."
"Oh, it's nothing!" Akik smiled warmly. "No bother at all. I like to hear from you."
That made me quite happy, for whatever reason. "Good. Well, bye then."
"I- wait-!"
Akik stopped me before I could fully turn and leave, gently putting a hand on my arm. I turned back towards him, looking up at him with perplexion.
"Yeah?"
"I..." Akik paused, as if contemplating what he was about to say. "I've... been wanting to show you something. Remember when I said I couldn't bring Tyson back?"
I nodded slowly. "Yeah..." A thought struck me. "Can you?"
Akik frowned. "No."
"Oh."
"But... I can temporarily bring back his spirit."
"...you're kidding, right?" Guess I'm learning about a lot of things I didn't even believe existed three days ago. Spirits? That's inanity. Or, it was, at least.
Akik shook his head. "Nope. Not at all."
"I thought spirits and stuff were just kids' stories?"
"Some of them probably are," Akik said with a shrug. "But a good few aren't. Their existence is included in the stories that aren't just folklore."
Excuse my language, but holy shit. "I- how?"
"Here. I'll show you," Akik told me. "I just need to bring his spirit here."
He held out his hand. I stared blankly at him for a moment, nonverbally requesting an explanation as to what he was doing. Remembering I had no idea what was happening, he brought his hand back, running his fingers through his hair again.
"Right, sorry. Getting ahead of myself. I need to hold your hand for this."
More out of confusion than anything, I queried, "...why?"
"It's a lot harder to call a spirit that's probably passed on when you don't know them," Akik explained. "If you bring to mind memories of him, and I do the summoning part, he'll be guided here with less difficulty."
"Oh. Okay, then." That made sense, so I hesitantly took his hand. It was awkward for me at first, I don't often hold hands with anyone, but I relaxed after a moment.
Akik smiled at me. "Just think of a memory of him, and I'll do the rest. Okay?"
His hand was... oddly comforting to hold. I liked it.
...Blake, what the hell are you thinking? Focus on what you're doing!
I nodded at him, pushing the thoughts away. I thought for a brief moment before a memory broke the surface of the calm black waters of my head.
It was when Tyson and I first met. I'd met him when I was sixteen, still in high school, and I was on the bus to go to my classes over at the nearby tech school. I think I was scrolling through something on YouTube, maybe - not sure what I was watching, exactly, or if I was watching anything at all. I was listening to music, though - "Nothing Else Matters" by Metallica, to be precise.
A kid was walking down the bus aisle - he was one of the last to load. He'd claimed to have only been doing homework and just didn't notice the time, but we both knew he just got lost finding the bus. No other seats were available, leaving me the only seat with one person. He asked to sit next to me, and, obviously, I let him. An introvert as I was, I wasn't actually planning on talking to the kid, but he initiated the conversation eventually.
"So, what class are you in?" He asked me unprompted as the bus drove.
It took me a minute to realize he was talking to me, and I glanced over at him. "Hm?"
"What class are you taking?"
"...automotive engineering."
"Hey, same!" He'd said with a grin. "Maybe we're in the same class."
I shot a small smile back at him. "Yeah. Maybe we are."
"What's your name?"
"Blake Loris. You?"
"Tyson Hayes. Sorry, I just want to get to know people in my class. First day here."
"Ah. Explains why I've never seen you before," I said.
"Yup," Tyson shrugged. "...in case I am in your class, what's the teacher like? I wanna be prepared for this."
We'd talked the rest of the bus ride, ended up actually being in the same class, and we'd just been friends ever since.
That was five years ago.
Five years... and now he's gone.
Akik's other hand was palm-up, glowing a warm orange light, with ghostly tendrils of brightness emitting from it and fading into the air. His eyes were trained on it, his mouth moving slightly as he muttered an inaudible incantation under his breath. His hand remained in mine, holding with a soft pressure against my palm.
Suddenly I was distracted by a translucent figure now forming in front of us. It was at first impossible to see, a deformed red blob not making out to be a specific shape of any kind. Then it actually did take form - the red blob of nothing formed a now humanoid figure, shifting colors until I could make out each detail of the person's face. Bright green eyes made their way into focus, glancing around before finally landing on me.
As Akik let his hand drop and stopped muttering, the newly formed figure spoke.
"Blake?"
It was him. Just three days ago I had seen his dead body severed in half in a tree and now he was standing in front of me with confusion on his face.
"...Tyson?"
Tyson blinked, then grinned.
"And you thought ghosts weren't real. Hah."
My heart almost exploded with joy at that comment.
"Tyson, it's you, holy shit-!"
I was about to run over and hug him, but Akik's hand tightened in mine before I could. I looked up at him in confusion. He was smiling, though there was a melancholy pull to it, barely noticeable but there nonetheless.
"You can't touch him at all. You'll just fall through him," Akik explained.
"Oh..." Well, physical or not, my dead best friend was, nonetheless, standing right in front of me.
"...Blake, who's that?" Tyson asked. He walked over hesitantly, and I now noticed the face that his entire upper torso was floating over his legs. Between them was empty air, and I thought I could see two halves of his spine severed inside of him through the matterless space splitting him in two.
"Oh, right, you never met him, I guess," I said with realization. "Tyson, this is Akik. He brought you here."
Akik waved with his free hand. Tyson stared up at him for a moment, meeting his eyes for a moment before stepping backwards, his demeanor suddenly changing to a fearful defense.
I frowned. "What's wrong?"
"Blake... is... I'm not sure if you should be here."
"What?" I was quite confused for a moment. Akik was equally perplexed, glancing between Tyson and I with confusion.
"Don't panic, but... Blake, I think that guy might've been the guy that killed me."
Akik's eyes widened and his wings flared slightly, alarmed at the accusation. He let go of my hand, which I hadn't realized he was still holding until his palm separated from mine. I, however, didn't believe this. Completely, that is.
"Tyson, what do you mean?" I asked.
Tyson's eyes flickered between Akik and I.
"I... didn't quite get a good look at the guy who killed me, but he definitely had eyes like that. Or, eyes like his left one, at least. The black one. Both of them were like that."
Akik and I exchanged glances, mine confused and his slightly less panicked, as Tyson's description seemed to at least half clear his name. I hadn't quite thought about the possibility of murder contributing to Tyson's death, to be honest. I was just distraught that he was dead in the first place.
"Well, I can assure you it was not me," Akik informed him. His fingers played with his hair again. "I do not want to kill anyone."
"Yeah, I don't see why Akik would want to kill you," I agreed. There's no way on Earth or otherwise that Akik killed Tyson. He was the only reason I really got over it at all.
Tyson glanced at me. "You trust this guy, Blake?"
I nodded.
The spirit hesitated again before slowly nodding back to me. "Then I guess I'll trust him, too. A friend of yours is a friend of mine."
I sighed in relief. Akik also visibly relaxed, though his fingers still toyed with a lock of pale blue hair that had fallen in his face and his tail occasionally flicked anxiously.
However, I was now curious about Tyson's claims about his killer. "What do you mean your murderer had black eyes like Akik's?"
"It was the last thing I remember," Tyson said. "Very clearly, may I add. Black eyes. Red pupil. No iris. Just a red slit. Imagine a cat, but it's much scarier."
That's not a fun thought. And although I didn't wanna force him to relive his own death, which was most likely quite a scarring experience, I wanted to know more now. "What else do you remember?"
"I think I saw the guy, just for a minute," Tyson said. "Definitely wasn't human. I mostly just listened to what they were saying, though. Big guy, grey... maybe reminiscent of a demon, now that I think about it more."
"They?"
"There was another," Tyson confirmed. "Shorter, orange. Seemed a lot friendlier, but still probably dangerous. I... I think they were talking about you."
"Me?" I raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah," he said. "They were saying something about how you might know something, but had to be careful because they couldn't just go on a 'reckless killing spree' without true probable cause. Or something. I was mostly just scared for my life and yours."
This was all new information to me. I turned to Akik as a thought crossed my mind.
"Hey. You know how you said you were the only one here? Of your kind, I mean."
Akik paused, then nodded.
"Is there any possible way that could be wrong without you knowing? Like, any way at all someone from your planet could've gotten here before or even after you?"
Akik paused again, playing with his hair as he exhaled in pensiveness.
Finally he replied,
"Not that I know of, no."
"You're sure?"
He hesitated again, but claimed to be very sure of his statement.
"I mean, it's always possible, of course," Akik added. "Had my mission not been sabotaged, we could've come here and back home thrice, with a wormhole in the way and all. There's no doubt a ship could make it here without damage, it's just a question of who would come out this far from Xero and why."
"It seems that 'why' may have something to do with murder, by the looks of it," Tyson remarked, the crossing of his arms over his chest sort of proving his point, as it clearly revealed the empty air that separated his body in half all the way around his midsection.
"I wouldn't argue with that, either," I said with a shrug. "Whoever this is, they're not here for a friendly tea party."
"Do you know at least what the guy could be?" Tyson asked, turning to Akik. He had seemed to catch on that Akik knew a bit about certain elements about this situation.
Akik began to mess with his hair again as he thought. "You said he looked like a demon, and he could very well be a demon by that description alone. But there's a good few species on Xero that you could be describing. If you're classifying by just, say, horns, wings, and a tail, that could be half the population as far as I know."
"Does grey and red classify anything further?"
Akik thought again. "Probably. Demons tend to have darker skin and hair, as well as other red-colored features at times, so that makes it slightly more clear. But again, there's still a broad spectrum of species that could fit into. So unless you have any specifics, I can't help much here."
Tyson frowned. "Damn."
"So... this... demon, I guess," I looked up at Akik. "Is it possible that maybe he took Dilla?"
"Took," because I didn't want to think about another person dead.
"Entirely," Akik confirmed. "Not sure why he would, though."
"Maybe... she knew something that we didn't, and he didn't want it getting out," I thought out loud. I then chuckled to myself. "Hah. Five minutes ago I was just excited to possibly see Tyson again, and now we're investigating a murder case. What a rollercoaster today's been already."
Tyson laughed. "You could say that again. Man, I'm literally dead, I did not expect to get roped into an active murder investigation with... whatever the hell he is. Angel or whatever."
He pointed at Akik.
"Nephalem," Akik corrected him.
"I don't know what that is, so po-tay-toh, po-tah-toh."
Akik just chuckled. As did I.
"Fair point."
"That's not why you called me here though, is it?" Tyson queried. He floated in the air with his legs crossed like a kindergartener during story time as he stared at me with inquisitive eyes.
I shook my head. "No. I just... Akik offered to temporarily bring you back, and I just had to see you at least one more time. I... never really got to say goodbye, y'know?"
Tyson nodded, smiling. "Yeah. I get it. I can't really hug you, since I'll just kinda go through you, but I can pretend to."
He floated towards me and gave me a hug. It was really weird, considering all I felt was a slight draft of air that partially drifted through me as his body accidentally dipped slightly into mine. I did my best to hug him back, but again, I was essentially hugging the air in front of me.
"I'm gonna miss you, Tyson."
"You too, dumbass."
He jokingly insulted me as he floated up and pretended to ruffle my hair like he sometimes does. I laughed, and instinctively went to fix my hair. However, considering it didn't actually get messed up, I just ended up messing with it by accident.
Tyson just laughed. "Good job. You did it for me."
"That I did," I huffed, amused.
Tyson just grinned before awkwardly glancing around. "I... guess I have to go back now, then. To, uh... Heaven? I'm not too sure. Somewhere in that vicinity."
I smiled. "Goodbye, Tyson."
"Bye, Blake."
And with a mock salute, Tyson was gone.
I would've burst into tears like a baby like I did when Tyson died, but I kept my emotion down this time. This time his farewell left a slight smile on my face. Maybe it was because it was expected now. I didn't just stumble upon his severed corpse cradled in the limbs of a forest oak. He'd... actually said goodbye.
I was sad he wouldn't be coming back. I'll miss him terribly.
The encounter now had me thinking about what I'd seen yesterday. The orange figure I'd seen in my workshop. Curious, I turned to Akik.
"Completely random question, but... can you, like, see spirits without... whatever you just did?"
"An incantation?" Akik said questioningly. "Well, yeah. Depending on who it is, though. Some souls don't pass on, and therefore become what we know as 'ghosts.' They're different from passed spirits, and you can see them if either it's their will to be seen or if there's a deep connection between the two souls. Then you could see it a bit more, even if they didn't actually want to be seen."
Huh.
"Why do you ask?"
"I... no reason," I assured him, deciding it wasn't the time to talk about the weird blob I'd seen. "What matters now is that we now know that Dilla might've been taken by this demon guy, and could be in a lot of danger."
Akik nodded. "Demons are no one to mess around with. I'll help you. I'm sure I can help you figure it out."
Good to know I had an ally on my side.
"So, where would we start with this?" I asked. "Alexis is the expert on this stuff, but I've got nothing."
Akik thought for a moment.
"Dilla might've known something, and that's why he came after her. Maybe she had a lead, so we should go where she would've been keeping her operations secret from you guys."
Breaking and entering, what a brilliant start to this ramshackle plan that neither of us had any knowledge of (at least, that I didn't have knowledge of, of course).
Of course, is it really breaking and entering if it's to save a life?
Eh. I'm sure it'll be fine.
-
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Addie swears in a book real