"What is wrong with me, Isabella?" Andrew asked as they walked side by side. It had been several minutes since they left where the car was parked in this dark, ghastly woods, and there had only been silence between them. No one seemed to want to be the one to break it until Andrew eventually did.
"What do you mean?" Isabella stopped in her tracks, turning to face Andrew, who had also stopped.
The rays of the moonlight cut through the canopy of the trees, as they weren't that densely packed. The sounds of crickets and owls lingered in the air as if it was the language of the night.
"I don't know, Isabella. You tell me. What's wrong with me?" he asked again as he continued strolling on. Isabella quickly matched his pace as they walked by each other's side.
"You don't need to hold back. Hasn't all I've done filled an entire list already? I know I have faults… Nah, faults isn't the right word. I've committed crimes many would already be executed for, but here I am, moving so freely as if it wasn't a bother. Something is obviously wrong with me, but you… you just simply let all of this unfold. You can stop it. You can stop it at this very moment I speak… yet you don't. You just simply watch me, knowing fully well that I'll still do everything I did before once again. After much deliberation, I came to the conclusion that I might be the one seeing what's wrong; maybe you don't see it. So, Isabella, what's wrong with Andrew? What's wrong with me, Isabella?"
Isabella seemed to be struggling to speak. Her face strained a bit, her lips trembled slightly before they finally opened up. "You are insane, Andrew."
"I'm aware, and it seems like you are aware too. So, why?" Andrew's voice was still filled with leisurely calmness, as if none of this was even about him.
"I don't know. I don't know why I can't bring myself to end this. Something is obviously wrong with me too."
Andrew chuckled out loud into the night before he turned his gaze to Isabella. "Do you want to hear a story?"
"What's it about?" Isabella asked curiously. You could sense that she was relieved Andrew had dropped the initial matter.
"It's about a young boy that keeps hearing these strange whispers. Ever since he could remember, he had always heard them. Silent coercion at the back of his mind, temptations churning within those sinister voices." The voices of the night quieted down.
"Every single night, in the absence of other people, those strange voices would speak and speak until the boy lost his own voice. As they stole his voice, theirs became his. There was no longer him; he became 'them'. They had merged seamlessly with him. Every night they had come, every instance they had spoken, every single moment was a slow encroachment." The air grew colder, a herald of the winter that approached, but even then, it was unnatural.
"The boy aged like any normal boy. Years passed, and the bizarreness of the boy became more and more apparent until it became evidently clear that the boy had a 'fault'. He was taken to countless psychiatrists, to several asylums throughout his growth. Eventually, he went to his last, and finally, he was proclaimed to be sane. But they were wrong. They couldn't be further from the truth." This time, Andrew stepped closer to Isabella, their noses nearly touching.
"The truth was…the madness had begun to imitate normalcy to such an extent that there existed no difference between it and the mundane person. The boy hadn't changed; he had instead learned to hide his madness even more effectively with each treatment. He had learned that he was unnatural in a world full of people who thought themselves to be the norm. He had also learned to talk, to eat, to sing, to dance, to feel like all of them. His madness was the kind that imitates." Andrew pulled away from Isabella as a sigh left his lips.
"But he never wanted to be different. He had always wanted to be normal; that's why the madness had actually learned all it did. But he just couldn't be. There was an intrinsic chaos within his nature that utterly repulsed sticking to the social norm. There was simply something wrong with him." Andrew bent down and picked up a twig. He began analyzing it from all directions as if anything about an ordinary twig was interesting. Then, he threw it away when he finally lost interest.
"But like chaos, he could be anything, even 'order.' Order was simply the stagnant form of chaos. The chaos within him grew stagnant with time until eventually, only the faint whispering of those 'things' was all that was left. He had managed to create a normal life with this dysfunctionality of his. He had finally become normal. The end." Andrew stood up and turned to face Isabella.
"What are you getting at, Andrew?" Isabella's voice was laced with skepticism as her beautiful eyes narrowed.
"Haven't I already made it easy to fathom, Isabella? I'm that boy, and that boy is me. This entire thing, everything that goes on in my mind, is an act. Every single action and word of mine is nothing but a means. I lack true sincerity. What I do have is mechanized functionality."
"In simple words, Isabella…" Andrew drew closer until Isabella could feel his warm breath. His body was so close that she could literally feel his pressing against her. And just when she thought it couldn't get any closer, Isabella felt a hand grab hold of her waist and pull her even nearer to Andrew.
"You can't harm me even if you wanted to. There's something about me that stops you. It's not purely fear; there's something else hidden within it. What is it, my dear Isabella?" Andrew gently whispered.
Isabella felt her body shutting down from pure trepidation. Her mind had gone blank, registering only the firm hand on her waist and the taller figure whose body she was pressed against.
Andrew brought his lips closer to her ear and murmured, "I'm also aware of your influence on my mental state. I can feel the effect of your enhancement on me constantly. Your enhancement isn't like that of those I've ended. Yours touches upon the ethereal world, giving you the ability to affect concepts. This is too much power if wielded to its potential. Although you were audacious enough to influence me, fret not, my sweet lady, I shan't harm you."
He pulled his head away from her ear and stared straight into her pair of gorgeous pearls that the moonlight was so kind to reveal.
They stared into each other's eyes; one into a world of deep greenery, and the other into a reflective world churning with tamed insanity.
Isabella suddenly had an urge, an unbearable one. Unable to stop herself, she pushed her head forward, expecting her lips to meet his, but before she could even do that…
In that moment of a delayed instant, Isabella faintly remembered seeing a field of stars within those eyes.
*****
"I've never been to Reton, nor have I heard of it before, and you claim that it's just as great as Fragr?" I heard a youthful voice that pulled me back into reality.
I actually blanked out? My God, we could have died, you idiot! I screamed in my mind when I realized what had happened. It was probably because I was too tired. I didn't get enough sleep last night because I was constantly alert, and now I'm dead tired.
"No. Don't twist my words. Everyone knows that Fragr is one of a kind. I'm just saying that Reton should be just as popular since it was the site where Morgur, The Sovereign, was buried. That's a whole-ass historical figure, I don't know what else—" I could hear Talen's voice until it suddenly came to a stop.
"Guys! Our fuckin' powers are back!" Talen's unexpected scream stunned me for a moment… No, it wasn't him. It was the feeling of power rushing through my entire body and flowing straight to my brain like some sort of pleasurable shock. This feeling… I've missed it. My mind hasn't known peace for even a single moment ever since my powers vanished.
It was a weird feeling, to not constantly feel this unnatural force coursing through my body. I don't understand why it was so intoxicating, but it was.
I stepped on the brake and brought the car to a halt.
"Finally." I heard that youthful voice, which I now knew belonged to Warwick, again.
I turned to my right, and there he was. Andrew, in all his mysteries and allurement. He wasn't asleep or anything. He merely remained silent, a silence he hadn't broken throughout the entire ride, and no one else seemed to want to disturb that silence of his.
I took my gaze off him and turned back to face those two who were about to engage in another round of needless noise.
"We have no reason to use the car anymore. Reton is still like three hours away, and I don't have any more time to waste. So, we'll immediately rift there," I announced, making sure my words sounded irrefutable. Talen did look like he wanted to say something, but he eventually gave up–of course, not without me enhancing his desire to give up and amplifying his desire to follow my command.
"But I don't have a vivid impression of Reton. I can't open a rift that leads there. So… what now?" Talen asked. Warwick merely watched on.
"I never said anything about you being the one to rift us to Reton, my dear Talen." I sighed as I stretched out my hand toward them. "Grab it."
They shared a confused look but still took my hand. Of course, this wasn't without me enhancing their desire to follow my command… just like I always do with everything else.
I stared at Andrew for a bit and eventually placed my hand on his arm.
"Alright then…"
With those words, the car became empty. It was merely a car in the middle of a desolate highway.
*****
Day Eight…
"Welcome to Reton, Mr. Talen and Mr. Warwick. I'm Jane. Pleased to make your acquaintance." A pretty lady with big, beautiful blue eyes stared at all of them as they appeared within the confines of a hall-like space.