Gifted | Sleepy Bois Inc

Chapter Eighteen

I was standing in a train station.

It was an odd-looking place, with black walls and a pitch black mist surrounding the entire place. I could barely see at all, much less make out the ends of the station. A train just a shade lighter than the station sat on the rails, outlined in red. It was the only spot of color in the entire place, seeming so vibrant that it hurt my eyes.

A white, semi-transparent figure floated past me. I yelped and moved away. My body was so light that it felt like I was floating as well, as if I was completely made of air.

He's here.

I didn't know where the voice came from, but I could hear it clear as day. "Hello?" I called, looking around me. "Where am I?"

Hah... he doesn't know. Of course he doesn't.

Shh. Let him be.

There were more white figures coming towards me now. They crowded around, looking like reverse silhouettes on the black background. The bodiless voices pushed in, getting louder and louder, swirling around me. I pressed my hands to my ears in an attempt to block them out, but it was no use. They were inside my head.

Then, suddenly, they died away, leaving just one.

Blood for the blood god.

Warmth spread from my chest. The white figures dispersed, disappearing from around me. The darkness faded away.

I sat up with a gasp, then immediately doubled over in pain. Hands shifted from my chest to my sides, slowly easing me back down into a lying position. "Easy now," a voice said soothingly. "You're still healing."

"Ow," I mumbled, letting them push me down. "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow."

My eyes focused, turning my vision from bleary to actually usable. My brain registered a person sitting next to me, their hands back on my chest again, their head bowed down over me. A white-and-green striped bucket hat was balanced on their head, threatening to tip over and fall off.

"Phil," I croaked.

Philza breathed a sigh of relief, smiling down at me. "Techno. I was so worried. You wouldn't wake up. I could literally feel you leaving this world."

"W-what?"

"You were in limbo," Phil said with another sigh, moving his hands over to my forehead. He brushed away a strand of pink hair, his lips pursed in concern. "It's one of the perks of my power. 'Healer' is just one aspect of it. In reality, my gift is life. I can give it, but I can also tell when it is seeping away."

The darkness I had seen, the train station, all the glowing figures. Was that limbo? I remembered tales that Phil had once told me of the afterlife. The only way you could get to its fields was by the train, but there was never enough room for everyone. All the figures I had seen... they must've been the people that had been refused.

Trapped in limbo. Suddenly, those words had meaning on a whole different level.

"Limbo is bad," I groaned. "I don't really feel like going back."

Phil chuckled, cracking a smile. "Good. I don't feel like ever letting you go back either."

His smile faded. I turned my gaze away from him, instead staring up at the light hanging above my head. I knew what would come next.

"What happened?"

I closed my eyes. Images flashed in the darkness behind my eyelids. The mad look in Smiley's eyes as we fought; the sparkles of the potion effect swirling around me; the feeling of a hand on my ankle, pulling me down. I wasn't smart enough. I hadn't recognized the feint.