Ezra Phantoms: The Cursed Sword

19

"Y-Y-You're lying..." I cried. "You guys are lying."

"It's the truth, Ezra," Bowie responded. "He's gone-"

"How?! How did this happen-"

"You Ezra!" Hailee bellowed. "You happened! He died because of you!"

"Hailee, you know that's not true," Phoebe said.

"Why not? If Ezra had just sent us back to our dimension before all of this, Alex would most likely still be alive right now."

"B-But you guys declined when I said-"

"We were just trying to be supportive. Obviously, we couldn't help you. You should've recognized that, and sent us home regardless of what we said."

"T-That's not fair. You can't blam-"

"Yes I can!" Hailee screamed, as tears streamed down her face rapidly. She started to angrily step closer to Ezra. "Alex died because your dumb ass didn't send us away from this stupid dimension-"

"Hailee," Phoebe said, extending her arm before she could get closer. "Stop. Fighting amongst ourselves isn't going to solve anything." Hailee, in response, furiously shoved her arm away, and ran off, heading for the woods that was behind her. Phoebe tried to call for her as she ran, but immediately recognized after her first attempt that she wasn't going to stop running anytime soon.

"Are you okay," Phoebe asked me, as she saw me sitting on the sand in despair. I knew everything Hailee said wasn't completely true, but I also knew that she was right in some respects. What happened to Alex was exactly what I feared would happen after they refused to let me send them back home. Everything she said to me were things I was already saying to myself. Her blaming me as well just added to it. It felt like I was falling down a deep, dark hole with no end, where everywhere I turned my head was another reason why Alex's death was my fault.

My thoughts were so loud, I didn't even hear Phoebe ask me if I was okay. I just continued to stare into the sand. I was in an internal cycle of self-blame, and overthinking. All of my thoughts were swirling through my head like a violent hurricane.

"I think we should leave him alone for a bit," Bowie said to Phoebe. She nodded, and the two of them walked away.

About thirty minutes that were just filled with me staring at the waves slowly crashing into each other as I sat in the cool sand passed, and Phoebe returned along with Bowie. Before either of them could say anything, I quickly interjected with a question.

"What happened while I was unconscious?"

"I...that's what I've been meaning to tell you," Phoebe said, as she took a seat next to me. "One of Zero's goons shot some weird square-shaped bullet at you that sealed your entire body into a small box, and knocked you out. It only sealed your body though. The Cursed Sword that you were holding was still there up for grabs. At this point, we all knew we had to act fast before Zero could get his hands on it. We jumped on their ship, and started doing everything we could to keep him away from the sword, but he was way too strong. Shooting at him was pointless, and none of us could go toe to toe with him in hand-to-hand combat. Plus, he had support from his lackeys."

"Luckily for us, we didn't get knocked into oblivion by Zero as we fought him since he was so focused on getting the sword, and barely saw us as a threat. Him at one percent was still way too much for us though. Things were looking grim, and he was about to grab the sword. That's when Alex made the quick decision to do the unthinkable. He grabbed the sword himself before Zero could. Power started to surge into his body immediately, and a large circular aura enveloped him. It was similar to when you first grabbed the sword. Except this time, it was obvious that if he held the sword any longer, he would die. Somehow, through extreme amounts of willpower, Alex fought through the pain, knocked Zero and his goons away with a large wave of energy, and broke the seal they put you in, freeing your unconscious body."