Amentia

Chapter 48 - Lifeless

Zoe hadn't had much luck that cloudy morning in her attempts at finding the exact direction of the entity that moved in the earth. There were a lot of dead ends, and the closest conglomerate of it in town was most distracting, like a taunting light in the middle of the dark. The vibration of the thunder took her by surprise and made her open her eyes. To her left, a few trees away, she saw some troupe members rehearsing a play. She thought it was dumb to be doing that when clearly there was a storm coming and the stage wouldn't be in good conditions to perform. They just kept wasting everyone's time.

As the first few drops of rain started to fall, that's when she felt it. It wasn't like the previous vibration but it shook the ground beneath her just the same. It was like a tug, like when a fish takes the bait, except in this particular case Zoe was the fish, not the fisherman. As if pulled by the rod, Zoe stood up and turned around facing the direction of the Plaza. She wasn't sure what this tug meant, but a bad feeling traveled up her feet towards her chest. Without a second's hesitation, she ran.

The troupers were gathering their things to go back into the caravan due to the upcoming rain when they saw Zoe rush by with desperation on her face. She was running towards the town. They didn't think twice about it before dropping everything and going after her. She could be on her way to hurting someone or hurting herself.

Anna dismissed both ideas once they reached the park and Zoe just kept going, ignoring everyone. The town was in chaos: people were screaming and running away from the bridge, telling everyone to get inside their homes and lock the doors; others fell unconscious mid-run and were stumbled upon by those running behind them. This resulted in a domino effect that ended up causing multiple fights and violent outbursts directed towards both the other runners or the poor unconscious creatures on the ground. There were other bodies lying on the ground, but these had blood coming out of them and they were most likely not breathing.

Zoe kept running in a very specific direction without stopping, and the troupe didn't have time to process what they were seeing around them as they pushed forward trying their best to keep up with her. The stone bridge shook under their weight as they passed, something that had never happened since its construction; no matter how much movement the bridge had every day, it was always solid as a mountain. The strength it would've taken to weaken the structure was unimaginable.

Zoe kept running, going past the shattered statue without looking twice at it and going around a few dying fires, her feet following the pull of the ground. The troupe watched her stop abruptly in front of the butcher's shop.

As Zoe looked down, time stopped. The world around her, all the violence and screams, disappeared. She could hear her own breath and the rapid beat of her heart loud in her ears. Her knees trembled and she fell to the ground in what felt like slow motion. Arms were put around her shoulders, but she couldn't feel them. Other silhouettes fell to the ground next to her, but she couldn't see them. There was nothing, except that which lay in front of her.

The first thing she noticed were the eyes: there were traces of tears coming out of them that hadn't even dried yet. Even in the daze she was in, it surprised her that that's what she saw first, and not the knife protruding from her ribs or the blood coming out of her mouth. It was the lifeless eyes.

Meiko dropped to her knees gasping for breath and forced her healing powers to flow out of her hands despite the shock and confusion, despite the chaos that was still going on behind her, despite knowing that it would be useless.

As the drizzle turned into a pouring rain, Nati felt her shoulder being shaken and her cheek being slapped; she heard sobbing and sniffling before she found the strength to open her eyes, gradually regaining consciousness and feeling a burn on the back of her head. She blinked repeatedly to focus her sight as the memories of the day slowly came back to her and then hit her with sudden violence. That's when she looked down to the ground in front of her. She felt the world spin again and tried to slide away, forgetting she was already leaning against a wall, her feet slipping desperately.

"Meiko... stop..." said Almar, his weak voice muffled by the sound of the heavy rain. "She's gone..."

Meiko shook her head vehemently and readjusted her hands over the knife wound. The injury had been healed: lung tissue restored, rib bound back into place, external stab closed. But of course it was too late, because no matter how much energy Meiko gathered and passed onto the body, she could not restore blood that had been lost, and she could not restart a heart that had long stopped beating.

Anna had to pull her away from Maylin's body, as she kept holding on to her expecting some kind of miracle. When she finally did, Meiko sunk her head into Anna's chest, grabbed at her clothes as tightly as she could, and let out a cry. Anna held her as closely as her arms allowed her and cried with her, asking the wind to be kind and make the rain lighter.

Adam was on his knees desperately clutching at the muddy earth, emitting a sound that was neither a sob nor a scream, a sound that came from deep within... the sound of a child who'd had half his soul ripped from him in an instant. He hit the ground with his fists several times and let his head fall all the way down, half his face sinking in the mud. Nina was kneeling beside him, grabbing him by his shoulders, clasping at his clothes, and sobbing just as loudly as him, her short hair sticking to her face as the rain kept falling.

Meira and Almar were holding onto each other, clear pain across their faces, but they didn't seem to be crying. Maybe they were holding it in, saving it for when they were alone. Or maybe they were so shocked that their bodies couldn't do anything other than look at her.

Ruvyn had been the one to wake up Nati and was sitting with her by the wall as she kept trying and failing to move away from Maylin's body. She put her motherly arm around Nati's shoulders and her free hand on her cheek, pressing Nati against herself until she stopped struggling. She watched as Azariah sat on the ground with his legs crossed, gently grabbed Maylin by her torso and held her as one would a newborn baby. He closed her open eyes, moved some strands of hair away from her face, and caressed her cheek. He moved slowly and carefully, the soft and delicate touch of a loving father. For a moment it seemed like he would say something to her, but he only showed her a tired smile; there would be time for words later and for tears too.

As the nine members of the Theater of the Sacred Lotus that remained conscious sat on the muddy ground around the lifeless body that used to be their dear Maylin, the chaos around them quieted down and the heavy rain dialed back into a drizzle.