"What monsters do you see...?"
Aoife's voice dropped to a near whisper, brittle with unease. Her tone got darker, wide and searching, reflected more than worry they shimmered with a quiet dread. She became more skeptical to know more about what Avery had seen.
"I- I can't explain... I don't know how to describe them..."
Avery's face was filled with thousands of expressions with fear and panic. His fingers jittering and wobbling trying to caress his face, as if he was still feeling the chills when he saw those. Aoife understood what Avery meant.
She approached him slowly, the gentle and peaceful steps gives grace to her movement. Aoife kindly sat infront of him and looked into his eyes. She carefully strokes his hair to relieve the fear and stress that he had endured.
"I know what you're feeling... I used to feel that way..."
She cooed softly trying to soothe Avery's tensed emotions swirling in his mind. Aoife gently took his hands smoothly, his hands still jittered with fear and strains. She massaged them with tender care. Avery began to feel more nurtured and lighter from her actions.
He slowly raised his head up, and still felt the lingering small strains and terror. Avery gazed at Aoife as if it's searching for something beyond it. He saw her kind eyes, felt the warmth of her touch, the calm expression, it reminds him of a mother.
Avery finally felt a moment of genuine affectionate feeling. He was free from fear and pressure from the start. He smiled softly with delight and gave out a welcoming warm hug to her. Aoife's eyes widened, her heart skipped a beat the moment Avery hugged her.
There was a mix of emotions she had felt, it was unsure on what she was truly experiencing. Aoife just tugged into the sensation they were both sharing right now. She still questioned herself was it enough?
"Did you see all of those before...?"
"I did... I was surprised you could see them without those goggles."
Aoife replied back to him with genuine satisfaction. She stood up gracefully with strength, she laid out her arm to help Avery get up.
"What do you mean by I can see them...?"
His expression grew with uncertainty, his tone became high and boastful. He wanted to search for more.
"Let's just say you just have the ability to see them or powers perhaps..."
She replied with delight, hoping he would take the message to heart. Aoife considered telling Avery the harsh truth, but kept her face lit with a cheerful mask.
"Why shouldn't we tell this to the people...?"
A flicker of doubt lit Avery's face, despite the smile tugging at his lips. His eyes twitched slightly, but he fought to maintain a bold front. Aoife suddenly stopped her movement her legs were stiff from the words that he just said to her.
"Do you really wanna know that badly...?"
Her voice cracked beneath the weight of the words. Her eyes grew vivid, glassy with unease, flickering across his face like they were searching for an escape. A pale tension overtook her features cheeks drained, lips slightly parted, as if the truth sat heavy on her tongue but refused to fall. It was the look of someone standing on the edge of saying too much.
Her eyes locked onto his, as if searching for his soul. When she spoke to him, her voice trembled with a mix of terror and truth she could no longer hold back. Aoife truly wanted to let him know the burden of a Spectre like her.
"You're saying this as if it's a big deal."
Avery kept his cool, his posture sharpening with quiet confidence as if trying to seize control of the moment. He lifted both arms and clasped them behind his head, a smirk just beginning to form at the corner of his mouth.
A storm of emotion churned in him fear tangled with intensity. His fingers trembled from the chilling weight of her words, each syllable sinking deeper than he wanted to admit. Panic crept through his chest, confusion clouding his thoughts. He couldn't shake the unease her strange tone had left behind.
"You just don't know that much yet. I just wished and hoped you know what reality is with these powers or whatever you call it to yourself."
Aoife clutched her face to not breakdown her feelings of sorrow and pain infront of him. Her face remained with a storm of confidence and an unsettling doubt. The eyes didn't fidget it was stagnant, the face grew a darker tone with a faded attitude both energy and expression. She walked briskly trying to avoid Avery entirely, her jaw clenched tightly trying to hide her genuine feelings right now.
"Wait, I didn't meant that way..."
Avery spoke, his words meant to reach her but they hung in the air, unanswered. Her silence struck him like a blow. The confidence in his eyes faltered, giving way to a flicker of confusion, then the slow collapse into something like despair.
Aoife's footsteps echoed with quiet desperation, each one quicker than the last. Her eyes blinked erratically, unable to focus, while her fingers fidgeted in frantic motions. She fought to hold herself together, straining against the emotional pressure building inside her. Still, her pace quickened, as if she could outrun the weight pressing down on her.
Avery tried to match her pace, jogging a few steps behind, burdened by thoughts that dragged at his every movement. Each stride felt more futile than the last she was already ahead of him, not just on the path, but in everything that mattered. This wasn't how he meant for things to end.
After chasing Aoife for a minute, Avery rounded the corner of the hallway, his eyes clouded with anguish and regret. The intensity in his gaze faltered, replaced by a dull, sinking tension he knew, deep down, it was already too late.
Aoife vanished without a trace of smell and sound and left him with utter dejection into his mind. Avery tried to shout her name but it couldn't reach anything but reached the desolated hallways with the buzzing lights above him.
He sighed with an unhappy tone, as he truly believed that she left him without a trail. His chest was stabbed by guilt and distress he has now placed upon himself. He looked down to his hands with waver perceiving the stored iniquity into his squirming fingers that was descended into frozen doubt of water.
What did I do...? Where did I go wrong...?
His voice reflected into his mind with a million doubts from the action he had done to her. His mind raged with shame and battled against his pride. The damage had been done, it couldn't be recovered anymore.
Suddenly, Avery felt disturbance behind him. It was the unsettling whispers that resounded around the hallways into his ear. The ear was overwhelmed by the vague murmurs.
Huh...?
He body made a tiny response towards it. He felt the eeriness crept up at his spine, it snarled at his nerves. Avery tried to approach the loud whispers that was muddled his body in fright. He followed it with each movement on his foot catching his breathe.
"I smell you..."
The unfamiliar voice whispered with malice and wiggled into Avery's ear. He gasped loudly and turned around in an instant to see the mysterious entity. His shoulders became stiff from dread, his breaths became heavier each heartbeat. He saw nothing behind him, he was relieved for a few seconds.
Avery blinked cautiously, his eyes saw bizarre stuff. He completely transported himself into a different dimension. He saw all of those beautiful structures around him, the building gleam with 40 shades of blue, there were magnificent creatures mixed with humans and creatures to who he described earlier as "monsters".
The sky was night it was filled with thousands of stars, and yet the sun is there shining into the world but not as bright in the real world. The technology here were mixed with magic and crystals that surrounds the buildings.
He heard all of the loud chatter around him, there were merchants dressed as commoners, there were wizards, people in a formal business suits. Avery finally realized it he was in a different reality compared to his world.
Suddenly, a commotion happened in the center of the market. Avery saw the little girl fell down to the street. Danger was coming, he saw the jaggy beasts in carriages. The two beasts were the horses on this world, they still had four legs but the skin was flesh and rough, they were covered by hi-tech united with magic.
Their mouths were beaks, it had the sharper teeth than sharks. On the road they prepared to run over the girl unaware of their actions. Avery quickly pounced into the ground and rushed towards her.
At the last second, he grabbed the little girl with all his might and escaped with no injuries. He saved someone, someone he didn't know...