Lukas's POV
"I gotta say, Lukas," Petra began as we dug out the blocks of gravel, "even though this digging is tedious and boring, this has been quite the adventure so far." She smiled.
"Well, I'm glad you think so, but remember we still have to look for Aiden," I told her.
"Right," she said.
We continued breaking the blocks and ended up with more than enough gravel, flint, feathers, and rotten flesh. Not the most useful things ever, but I guess it's better than nothing.
"Alright," Petra said as she dusted her hands together, "I think that's it. Good work."
"Thanks," I replied, "You too."
She then did a double-take at something behind me.
"I didn't notice that there before."
I turned and saw a wooden door on the wall. Just an normal, everyday door. I looked and saw one across from it too.
"The zombies must have been blocking them," I said, "You wanna check them out?"
"I've been waiting for you to say that," she said with a smile as she walked past me and toward the door, "Come on."
She opened it, and the smell hit us way too quickly. It was like a zombie crawled up my nose and died... again.
"Aw, gross! What is that smell?!" she exclaimed between coughs.
"Ugh, I think I'm going blind!" I exclaimed.
She suddenly became quiet and looked at the room with wide eyes.
"L-Lukas? I think I just found Aiden."
I stopped and checked. People were laying all around the floor with arrows sticking out of them. I gasped.
"Holy crap," I said under my breath while forcing back more coughing.
"That must be what happened," Petra said as she pointed at something on the wall. I saw dispensers that had presumably shot them out.
"Aiden," I said when I noticed his body lying among them. A lump filled my throat. I looked into the face of my murdered friend. My palms were sweating. I had known him forever, but now he was just... gone.
I felt a hand wrap around my back. I looked over and saw Petra looking at me with sympathetic eyes.
"I'm sorry," she said, "If you want to stop here, it's okay."
I thought for a moment, then said,
"I can't let this stop us. We have to find out who did this."
"Alright. Will you be okay?"
I nodded.
"Yeah. Let's go check that other room now."
We sullenly exited the room and closed the door. Funny how you can enter a room feeling fine, then exit with a hole in your soul. Contrary, it felt like if I just looked far enough, I could find him alive somewhere else.
Aiden's not dead, I thought, He can't be.
My hands were still a little shaky as we went into the next room.
"Huh," Petra said when the only thing she saw was a stone wall at the back, "It's empty."
"Empty?" someone said. I looked back, but there was no one there.
"Just because a room has no people in it doesn't make it empty. I prefer the term 'absence of mass.' There's no need to discriminate against things that aren't you! Selfish..."
"What's that?" I asked nervously.
"What? Don't you mean WHO, Lukas?"
"Y-You know my name?"
"Of course I do. And Petra as well. I am your FRIEND, right?"
Goosebumps crawled up my arms making me shiver as a breeze passed me by.
"No, you are not my friend!" said Petra pulling out her sword.
"Oh, please, who the heck do you think you are? You, people, are so arrogant, thinking your swords can penetrate through to the phantom realm? HA, don't make me laugh!"
"Who are you?" she asked.
"I am the spirit of Luktra!" he announced.
"Hmm... What's tha- Hey, Lukas!" she said turning to me, "Doesn't that sound a lot like our names combined?"
"Yeah!" I said, "-wait a minute."
"Yes, idiots, it is your names combined. Lukas, Petra. Luktra. There are a few things I'd like to explain."
"You think?! We just found a bunch of dead corpses in the room across from this one! Explain! Now." Petra exclaimed.
"Hey, let's not get ahead of ourselves here. I'll start at the beginning. Er, at a place your simple minds can comprehend. First of all, this room that you're in- it's not real. I made it just for you. I've been watching you for a while to make sure you'd end up here at this very moment. Influencing your environment and stuff."
"So... so YOU killed Aiden?! You're the one?!" I yelled.
"Whoa, whoa, easy now, kid. Interrupting is rude. Ahem, now, are you aware that you have a fandom?"
"Well, judging by the number of people screaming in excitement when we come back home from an adventure, I think it's safe to say, yeah, we do have a fandom," Petra said as she crossed her arms.
"Yes, well, numerous people in your little fandom think that you two would make a good couple. Call it a ship. Like a relationship."
"How is this relating to anything?! Did you kill Aiden or not?!" I yelled.
"Settle down! Jeez! Back to what I was saying. There are numerous other people that ship both of you with Jesse. Their ships are called 'Lukesse' and 'Jetra.' There are other popular ships too, like Axlivia and Aidya. There are also the lame ones that nobody actually likes, like Aidtra. Seriously, only a complete LOSER would ship that!"
"Just get to the point!" said Petra.
"I've been trying all these years, all this time, to get Luktra to become canon."
"Canon?" I asked.
"Sorry, forgot that human minds are too simple to understand. I meant real. I want Luktra to become real."
"So, what do you want us to do? Kiss or something?" Petra asked with a nervous chuckle.
"That is exactly what I want you to do. It'll destroy the rivalry between the other ship spirits once my ship is canon."
"What?! Kiss? With him?! Blech!" Petra exclaimed. I glared at her.
"Er, no offense," she added.
"Look, I knew you wouldn't just kiss because I told you to. That's why I have prepared a deal."
The goosebumps crawled up my arms again as if he were moving past me, but there was still no one in the room. I shivered.
"If I have you two kiss ON THE LIPS, then I promise to bring back all the people I had to murder to get you here. That includes Aiden and some guy I killed upstairs in the shower that Jesse and Maya are currently freaking out about now."
"What?!" Petra and I exclaimed together.
"Aw, look! You even speak at the same time! I will blast those other ships out of the water! So, do we have a deal, or not?"
"Deal!" I yelled without consulting Petra first. Look, if this guy says he's gonna bring back Aiden, I'll go along with his plan.
"Excellent! Now SMOOCH!"
Petra and I turned toward each other and smiled nervously. It was weird; we had been friends for so long, kissing and love and stuff was just... unnatural. But if I was going to save Aiden, I had to do it.
It felt like I couldn't bring myself to actually kiss her for some reason, and it didn't look like she was too eager either. I awkwardly held her hand and pressed my lips against the top of it.
"What. The heck. Was that," Luktra spirit scoffed, "You call THAT a kiss? Come ON! We had a deal, remember?"
"Yes, yes, the... The deal," I said with a nervous chuckle.
I caressed her face, looked her in the eyes, leaned in and kissed her...
...on the cheek.
Darn it, Lukas! Come on!
"Ah! The suspense is murdering me! Just like I did to all those other people! Just KISS already!"
"You say murder like it's such a nonchalant thing," Petra said crossly.
"People die. Happens all the time. But right now, we're not bickering over who killed who, you two are going to kiss!"
We looked at each other again and leaned in closer. She put her hands around my shoulders. I put mine around her waist. I could feel her warmth against my body. It was at this moment that I realized... we had a height difference. And she was the slightly taller one.
I looked into her face.
"Lukas," she said, "If we do this, let's not let it make our friendship super weird, okay?"
I nodded.
We leaned in closer. I could feel her breath on my face as I closed my eyes.
He soft lips gently touched mine. I pressed mine to hers. We stayed like that for a second.
We slowly backed away from each other, dumbfounded at what had just happened.
"I've never kissed a girl before," was what came out of my stupid mouth when it was over.
"And I've never kissed a boy before," she responded back. It was such a relief to find out that she was just as uncomfortable as me when it came to this.
"Yes! It's happening! The ship is sailing! Wonderful!"
Petra turned away and said,
"Now, bring our friend back! We kissed like you asked, technically three times, so now you do your side of the deal!"
"Ah, there's something I forgot to mention," the voice began, "I'm not actually the spirit of Luktra. There's no such thing."
"Wait, what?!" I said.
"So, all that stuff about 'ships' and 'canon...' is false?" Petra asked.
"Well, no. People do actually ship you two. People ship Jesse and Lukas and they ship Jesse and Petra. But there are no spirits of the ships, ships are just people's opinions."
"So what are you, then?" Petra asked.
"You can call me The Phantom. I am supreme ruler of the Phantom Realm and also the father of three little girls."
"I-I still don't understand," I said, "You're not bringing Aiden back?"
"I haven't really made up my mind yet," he said casually.
I was fuming. Too angry to speak. I couldn't believe him! We made a deal!
"Look, I'm not saying that I'll NEVER respawn them. I just want to have a little fun first."
"And how exactly do you plan to do that, huh?" Petra asked angrily.
"Well, getting you guys to kiss was part of it. I just wanted to see if you'd actually do it. I can control the environment somewhat, which caused you to—"
"SOMEWHAT?!" Petra yelled, "You brutally murdered a bunch of people just to get us down here and you call that somewhat?!"
"Well, some of it might have been a little uncalled for."
"You revive all of those people you killed. Right. Now," I said. I was so mad my voice shook as I spoke.
"You don't scare me, boy. Now that you have done what I have asked of you, that is to say... kissing...," he couldn't even finish his sentence he was laughing so hard by now, "Oh, I can't... I can't! This is just too good! Haha!"
Petra and I looked at each other, confused.
"What's so funny?" I asked, turning back to the room.
"Ha! Okay, I could have asked you to do some simple task like telling you to jump or touch your noses, but I wanted to see... if this would actually work! Ha! And it did! You actually... I can't believe you're THAT easy to manipulate!"
"You said that if we kissed you would give us back all the people you killed. That was the deal!" I yelled.
"I know! It was great, right? Okay, okay. Now, the reason I had you kiss, in order for me to take control of your bodies, you have to have some willingness to let me in."
"What?" I exclaimed.
"Ugh. Here, I'll simplify for you. I ask you to do something, you do it, I take control of your bodies. See? Simple."
"Oh no! No way am I letting some freaky, disembodied voice control me!" Petra yelled.
"Oh, really?" The Phantom questioned playfully.
"Bring it," she said.
She suddenly started screaming and moaning as she dropped to the ground.
"Petra!" I exclaimed as I crouched down.
She looked back at me and quickly slapped me across the face.
"Wha- Oww!" I said as I rubbed my cheek, "What was that?!"
Petra gasped and exclaimed,
"I did not just do that!"
"No," The Phantom said, "I did."