During the carriage ride, I kept my eyes on the treeline, trying to spot that same creepy figure from yesterday. However, the weirdest thing I saw was only a girl in bright colours kicking and yelling at a broken down carriage. I tapped on the window of my carriage, indicating towards her. She turned around and saw my carriage, huffing and growling, or so she looked.
Tapping on the window again, I tried to indicate to leave, but the damn wooden box stopped before her. Her beautiful purple hair shone as she stood in front, waiting one second, then two, before opening the door herself and climbing in. Her expression fell when she noticed it was me.
"Oh. Hello, Atlas," she said, pulling her bag in and sitting down across from me. It took her a second of staring at my face to look out the window, keeping her neck turned as the carriage started rolling again.
"Morning, Eliza," I said, shifting in my seat. No more words were exchanged for a dozen minutes, at least. She had a strong face, yet it softened every once in a while, hardening again straight away. Her body wouldn't get any more mature, which dissuaded my attention being on certain parts of her, although I wasn't used to such a plain style from her. No alterations to her uniform, no scratches, no burn marks, nothing that would be indicative of her promising future.
Purple eyes fell on me, and I realised how hard I'd been staring at her. Those eyes were the same, here or the future. "Keep your lecherous eyes off me," she said. My mouth opened to shoot something back at her, but when I stared at her face, I remembered her reaching a hand out of a monster hoard, her screams muffled by the roaring around her.
It clamped shut, and I looked away. A moment later, I said, "Sorry."
Her glare lasted another second before she pulled out her bag, looking through her notes. "Don't worry about a monster attack. It wasn't a monster that destroyed my carriage," she admitted.
"Oh. Okay."
That must've been the wrong thing to say, because she looked up at my face again, though I kept my eyes off her. Once, she had a claw at my throat, literally. Now, all she had was... nothing. I could kill her now. Before she does it first.
"Somebody hexed my ride." She narrowed her eyes, and I took a breath, feeling a chill around me. "I have an idea of who it was."
"It wasn't me," I said, relaxing my white-knuckled grip on the cushions to my sides. "I have far more pressing concerns than hexing some girl's ride." My chin tilted up when I turned to look at her, trying to muster up whatever apathy I could find regarding her. If only the little I could worked on her.
"Wow, Atlas, I'm surprised. Have you finally moved on?" She covered her mouth with a hand, as though taken aback, yet I knew she was mocking me. It fell down as soon as her expression went ice cold. "Come on. There's no way you, of all people, can move on so quickly after I dumped you the other day."
Oh. Shit. So that's when I was brought back, huh? Well, that makes things plenty more compli-
Oh. Shit. She wasn't supposed to make it to school so easily. I really messed up. Eliza was supposed to miss her first few classes, then appear with a contracted monster, the first one she made. Then, she snowballed pretty quickly, growing by leaps and bounds.
I pressed my face against the window, trying to see how far we were from Olympus. Damn. Those were the gates, huh?
Well, now I wish she'd kill me.
"Are you okay?" she asked, as I felt the carriage come to a stop. "Finally." She got out before I could answer. I sighed, shutting my eyes. A moment later, I opened them, thinking maybe I could salvage her growth.
Leaving the carriage, my eyes scanned over the crowd, and stopped on her, at the edge of a clearing of students. She'd stopped, staring dead towards the centre of the circle, watching as Matthew D'Ewes was confessing to Claire. He was bowing ninety-degrees, holding out a mana stone. It was a clear portrayal of love, and the whispers of the students reached me from a distance, confirming my thoughts.
I dropped from my carriage, walking over to Eliza, feeling mostly awkward as I stopped next to her. "Well, that's..." I started before I looked at her face. Even at a glance, I could tell she was heartbroken, to put it mildly. Right. This was the same time those two got together. I really am an idiot. "Pathetic, isn't it? A Noble, declaring love for a commoner, right in front of-"
She turned and slapped me across the cheek. I blinked, feeling the sting take hold, as she turned and started running towards the forest. Kids are really immature. As I shook my head, my eyes followed her. Who could I dump this childish garbage on to get rid of this bad feeling? No, everyone else is too untrustworthy. And I could only imagine her being eaten alive in that forest.
By the time I realised it, I was already running through the thicket, tripping on roots and keeping an eye out for her tracks.
It was just a few minutes before my breathe failed me, burning my throat with every intake and exhale of air. "Eliza!" I called out, shouting as loudly as I could. It wasn't very loud. The sound of a celebration coming from the main gate could still be heard over my voice. Yet I picked up on a quiet gasp. Looking in that direction, I saw a small cave that I'm pretty sure was not there beforehand.
I frowned, and walked towards it, trying to control my breathing. "Eliza, are you in there?"
"Eliiiiiiizzzaaaaa," responded a raspy voice, and I stiffened instantly. That... that was not human. It groaned and creaked unlike any voice I'd ever heard.
"What are you?" I balled my fists up, as little good as that would do. "Where is she?"
"Shhhhe innn."
I felt my breakfast rise from my stomach as a face appeared from the darkness. It was the same creature I'd seen yesterday, albeit smaller, yet it was right there. Red coated its teeth, taunting me. The rest of its body was hidden. It did not move, even to breathe. Its eyes were soulless. Instinctively, I knew what it was.
"You can't be here," I said, my hands shaking terribly. Too early. Several years too early.
"Shhhe innnnnn here." It opened its maw, and I turned, screaming and running for my life.
Something hit the ground behind me. Like a fool, I turned, finding the cave had disappeared and a hand remaining where it was. My feet failed me, and I ended up in the air, falling and rolling for only a short moment before I hit rock, the light snuffed.
The energy covered me instantly, devouring every feeling of hope and goodness I held inside me. I breathed out, connecting to the last shred of warmth I could feel, and closed my eyes.
The fire was dampened, yet it still blazed, forming a definitive silhouette in the surrounding darkness. It examined the space we were in, then looked at me. "Burn," it said. For a moment, I thought there was an inquisitive tone in the fire, then I realised that was stupid.
For the first time, I nodded. "Please, burn this place down," I whispered, curling up into a ball as tears ran down my face.
"Help!" a voice echoed through the halls. Eliza. I'm pathetic. I'm already dead, aren't I? What can I even do?
I can't do anything, nothing at all. Nothing ever changes. It's all worthless. No matter how hard I try...
"Burn it all!" the fire crackled, coming closer, kicking me in the chest. I wasn't pushed back, yet I felt every ounce of force from the kick. I sputtered.
Why was I shivering? It wasn't that cold. I wasn't going to let some bastard who shouldn't even be here eat me for lunch.
"I'm going to kill you!" I yelled, launching myself to my feet. The cavern entrance was dark, desolate, yet somehow not even half as dark as the rest of the cave.
"Hotter! Brighter!" the fire crackled, gaining heat and intensity as I ran towards that darkness, screaming in rage.
I won't let myself be so pathetic I can't even save a young girl. I'm better than that.
Am I better than that? I was going to lie down and die, wasn't I? I'm so pathetic.
"Burn!"
I don't want to be so damn pathetic!
"Killlll youuuuu," said the raspy voice from deeper within, just as the light lit up the depths of the cave. There it was, in all its hideous, impossible ugliness. A Demon, so horrifying in its visage that it shouldn't ever be in my sight.
I yelled, running straight at it. The bastard flinched, backing away from a body, breathing and crying and sobbing, quieter than the fire burning in my ears.
"You're dead, you goddamned Demon!" The fire roared, engulfing the entire cave. I could barely register its horrific screaming, its True Voice, which grated on my ears. Just listening to it made me angrier. The fire grew hotter and hotter and hotter and... hotter... and... at some point, the sound stopped, but I didn't notice, still burning. The pain wasn't the same as before, yet... I couldn't breathe, passing out in the cave.