Chapter 4- Encounter
All the power of the monster's grip suddenly disappeared as he felt the hand drop to the ground, and along with it, the monster slumped forward, completely motionless. At the same time, a huge amount of blood gushed out of nowhere, covering Elio's body from head to toe.
"Blurgh!!!" Quickly, he pushed the monster away and turned around as he started coughing and spitting. Some blood has gotten into his mouth. The smell was horrendous, and the taste was even worse. He felt like vomiting as he coughed violently.
"Hah… Hah… Hah…" Breathing heavily, Elio stared to the side, still in shock. He didn't understand what happened at all. All he saw was a flash of light before… Before…
Right beside him lay the monster's head, completely severed, staring at him with its dead eyes. The boy's eyes widened before he screeched and fell back.
"AAAAAAGH!" He crawled back in fear until he slammed against the wall. Still covered in blood, scared, cold, and confused, he started hyperventilating. His mind was in shambles, and he couldn't think whatsoever.
"What the hell… What the hell… What the hell…" He whispered as he clasped his hands together. 'W-Why is his head severed? Who killed him?'
His eyes looked up left, then right. He had seen a glimpse of a silhouette before the monster was killed. Eventually, a few feet away from him, standing silently, he saw a silhouette clad in darkness. In their hand was a long stick that they rested against their side.
'Stick… No… Is that?'
The sharp shape of the stick made Elio realize what it was.
'A sword? W-What?'
"You."
At that moment, a feminine voice broke the silence and spoke to him. He flinched as he saw the silhouette step out of the darkness. 'W-What? What is she going to do? Is she going to kill me-'
Before his thought could even finish, he saw something that completely wiped his thoughts clean from his mind. He saw a face he would've never thought in a million years he would see there. He even blinked a few times to make sure he wasn't hallucinating because of the shock.
But, no matter how many times he stared at her face, it was that person. Fiona… It was Fiona Vaylor!
"W-What? Huh?"
That striking beauty, the sharp eyes, her violet hair, it was no mistake, that was Fiona. Staring at Elio, she seemed equally confused for a second, as if she recognized him.
The two stared at each other for a few moments in awkward silence. Neither seemed able to find the words to say to the other. Eventually, Fiona exhaled and then approached Elio before she crouched down.
"You were lucky enough that I reached you in time. You're not injured anywhere?" She asked coldly, her tone soothing like a beautiful song.
"... N-No. I'm fine… I think…" Touching his neck, Elio weirdly didn't find the two holes where the monster bit him. There was only the sticky blood from its death.
"Good. I will wipe your memory now. You won't need to remember what happened tonight, and you will go home normally. Understood?" She said.
"Wha- How are you going to wipe my mem-"
Suddenly, Fiona put her hand on his head out of nowhere. Then, she lifted her other hand and snapped her fingers.
A weird cold sensation took over Elio's body for a second, like an electric shock that hit his brain. For a moment, everything became white before his vision was restored rapidly after. By then, Fiona had disappeared without a trace, leaving him alone in the alley.
"..." He blinked, looked down at his hands, clenched them, and then unclenched them. Then, he slowly stood up. Staring around, there was no trace of the corpse of the man, or the head, or the blood. The entire alley looked like it had been a few minutes ago.
"... So…" He muttered. "I don't think… I forgot anything…"
***
After that, Elio quickly gathered his stuff and rushed back home as quickly as possible. He kept looking around him all the way back home. He was terrified one of those creatures would attack him out of nowhere. However, luckily for him, nothing crossed his path, and soon, he was inside his apartment, closing the door shut and locking it.
When that happened, all the tension released from his body as he fell to the ground, breathing heavily. His hand gripped his chest. He sat there for a good 10 minutes, trying to calm down.
"Was that some kind of ridiculous dream? How can any of this be true?"
The paranoia he had had his entire life, the one he thought was a mental illness. It turned out to be true. He thought he was merely afraid of people… He even accepted that he would never be able to prove it.
Yet, all of that… Turned out to be true.
"Haha… Hahahaha…. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" Slowly, Elio started laughing. For some reason, he felt a strong urge to just laugh, louder and louder. He kept laughing as he held his face.
"What a sick joke… What a truly sick joke… All this time, these things existed… And they were closer to me than I could've ever expected."
It was something that would make anyone cry. But, Elio felt that laughter fit it way more. He had been living in constant fear of something he thought didn't exist, only to end up almost being killed by that same thing.
"And that girl… Why was she even there? She was holding a sword! Is she some sort of secret agent who kills those creatures?"
Elio couldn't differentiate between reality and fantasy anymore. Everything just felt so ridiculous.
Fiona Vaylor… That girl had a secret far bigger than he could ever imagine.
"And she said she would wipe my memory. I did feel a weird electric shock run through my body, but I didn't forget anything. Did she make a mistake? Umm… Should I ask her tomorrow?"
However, Elio immediately shook his head and erased that idea from his mind. 'And risk getting involved in whatever chaos this is? Hell no. I would rather die. I will just pretend like whatever she did worked and go about my business.'
Elio knew very well that this was something far above his pay grade, and getting involved with it would be a very dumb choice. Besides, who was he to ask Fiona anything? He is just a pathetic and useless person, and she's basically a celebrity. He would get publicly executed for passing by her, let alone talking to her.
"Just pretend like you don't know anything and live your life, Elio. Don't be a complete idiot." He nodded his head, took a deep breath before he stood up and walked toward the shower to wash the blood off his body.
After a long, thorough shower, he sat down on his bed, drying his hair. His eyes stared into the wall, unfocused. He was still feeling the lingering shock from what he saw. So much so that he felt like he was disassociating for a second.
Then, he silently put the towel away, turned the lights off before he laid down, staring at the ceiling without blinking.
He sat there, not thinking, not moving, just breathing and staring. Eventually, he started closing his eyes, and exhaustion took over him.
That night… Elio didn't have the same nightmare.
***
*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*
The next moment, he opened his eyes, and it was morning. Then, Elio went about his day normally, preparing himself for school, wearing his clothes, and not finding food in the fridge again. Everything felt normal.
He was oddly calm and serene about everything. He didn't get annoyed or perturbed by anything, and what happened yesterday felt like a distant dream rather than reality. He then left for school.
Everything seemed normal, students and people going about their day. A beautiful sunny day in the sky, warm weather. The day could not have been better.
When he made it to the class, he found everything as it was. Nobody seemed to be behaving differently. He also didn't see any news about the disappearance of any person in the news that morning, so things were very much as they usually are.
Sitting down in his chair, Elio tried to occupy himself with studying as he waited for class to start. That was when he heard the gasps of mesmerisation, announcing the arrival of Fiona Vaylor.
Looking up subtly from his textbook, he saw the mesmerising beauty passing beside him. She didn't even give him a glance, let alone acknowledge his presence. Sitting down in her usual seat, the students gathered around her.
Elio's look lingered for a while before he shook his head. What happened yesterday was nothing short of a nightmare, but one that Elio woke up from, and he is now back to his normal life.
He was able to go back to being the normal person he is. He didn't need to be bothered anymore.
Life… was still the same.