The silence was deafening. I felt the room drowning in the fire's aura.
And then, a second loud BANG! was heard on the door. The knocking interrupted my thought, as if I had woken up from a nightmare. The flame extinguished suddenly, as if the darkness of the room had absorbed it.
My body trembled uncontrollably. It was as if my bones didn't recognize their weight. My eyes blurred for a moment, and the wooden effigy glowed dimly. My body felt heavy. It was just a piece of wood. And yet, I looked at it as if it had become something else. Something I had to destroy. I lowered my hand and put down the effigy.
It took me several minutes to recover, to return to reality.
A third loud BANG! was heard on the door.
I jumped backward, my heart still pounding hard. It was as if someone had abruptly pulled a string that held me in the chaos.
"Aether!" Hitomi's voice was clear, but my mind was slow to connect it to reality.
A second voice followed immediately. "What did you call him? Do you remember his name is Prometheus now?"
There was an awkward silence.
I started to figure out who they were by looking through the glass panel in the door. The inner, dark voice didn't sound like mine, but it was dissolving every other thought. "Do it. Eliminate them." I didn't know who the "them" was, and I didn't know why I had to do it.
Before opening, I heard the hesitation again: "Uh... err, yeah, right! Prometheus!" And then— "But... if I call him Promi? Do you think he'll mind?"
The darkness within me receded abruptly. The space around me returned to reality, as if I had stepped out of a dream.
The door opened, and their voices brought me back completely, smiling and innocent.
...And yet, Galaxia hesitated. "Are you okay, Prometheus?" she asked with a strange expression. "You have... a weird aura today."
Hitomi tilted her head and smiled. "What are you talking about, Galaxia? He's the same idiot we know!"
I laughed. It was the perfect opportunity to distract them.
"Exactly! And with this idiot, you have a date for a walk!" I clenched my fists for a moment, holding back the intensity. Control yourself, Prometheus. They mustn't find out anything. Not yet.
I told them: "Good morning, ladies!"
They replied: "Good morning, Prometheus!"
And I heard the nice part from Hitomi: "Hey Promi, do you want the three of us to go for a walk a little further out to see what you learned from the initiation?"
Mmm, can you refuse when a beautiful girl asks you?
So I responded positively: "Mmm, give me a minute to go change, because I'm in my pajamas!"
I changed and put on a white shirt, brown pants, and brown boots. I went downstairs quickly and we set off!