The Misadventures of Ike and Luca

Stuck in the Dark

"Who would there be to help us?" Luca asked.

"It's complicated," Ike responded. "There are some good guys, and some bad ones."

There were a lot of bad ones, Luca thought. Navigating the afterlife as a mafia boss, there are bound to be some enemies lurking in the eternal after life with you, and it's not like they would want to help you either.

"And you're okay with working with me to get the hell out of this place even though I betrayed you?" Luca asked. 

"I don't want to leave without you, but yeah," Ike said calmly. 

Luca nodded his head. He didn't exactly trust Ike, but it's not like they had very many options. They were walking around, when Luca's skepticism got the best of him. "Why aren't you mad at me?"

"Why should I be?" Ike asked. "I got caught up in a situation where I had no choice. If I didn't betray you then I wouldn't have gotten into all this trouble."

Luca was confused. Was Ike already anticipating what was going to happen? But how could that be if Ike was supposed to live. "What does that mean?" Luca asked trying to piece together the puzzle. Except the puzzle was missing pieces and the ends didn't connect to one another leaving a giant mess, and it's not like Ike was being much help either.

"Don't worry about it, you just have to trust me," Ike said, continuing to walk in whichever direction they were going. It was too dark to really see their surroundings.

Luca sighed, "I guess it's not like I have much of a choice."

"Exactly," Ike said.

 They were turning around in all sorts of directions, almost like they were going in circles in this dark, almost cold space. You would think in the afterlife the elements wouldn't be a bother to you, yet Luca felt somewhat chilly as a dead person. But that was not the important thing to think of right now. For now he and Ike had to look for someone to bring them out of this place and back to the living world.

"So, who do we find first to help us?" Luca asked. 

"I dunno, but let's just start by finding out who else is alive," Ike answered.

"How? you keep leading us in damn circles?" Luca's sense of direction may be faulty at times, but he could tell that they were just pacing in one big circle. It was making him dizzy.

Ike stopped suddenly in his tracks, causing Luca to stop next to him. He didn't know why he was following him, if anything, he could have kept walking, but he didn't. 

Ike put a hand to his chin to think and said, "Well, I'd say the first person we should contact is Rachael."

"Who is Rachael?" Luca asked. He had never heard of any of those names before.

"She was the one who brought me here in the first place," Ike said plainly.

This place, Luca thought. So he has been here before, right? But how would that be possible if this is a place for the dead. Are we really dead? Thinking about the specifics really messed with his brain because the possibilities were just too impossible to explain.

"Is she an angel of some sort?" Luca asked, because that sounded like the only reasonable explanation.

"No, she's a witch," Ike corrected.

"If she brought you here...Then how did I get here?" Luca asked, confusion increasing by the minute.

"You were kidnapped by her, and now we are in her basement. Apparently, she wanted to keep you around as leverage against me," Ike explained.

"But...that doesn't make sense!" Luca shouted. "We are supposed to be dead right? How did we get into a basement when I don't remember leaving that room we were in not too long ago? Why can't I remember any of these things you talked about from the deaths to the location change and everything else?"

 Luca was stressed because ever since being with Ike, things stopped making sense, and his memory worsened.His legs failed him again and sunk to the floor looking up at Ike. He can't remember what's real and what's fake, it all just seemed like he was going crazy and it was all Ike's fault. He awaited for Ike's response. Even though it felt like it was Ike's fault to make him lose his marbles, maybe he could say something to regain them. 

Except he didn't. Instead, Ike just smiled and looked down at the mafia boss below him, laughing at how weak he was being. "Oh Luca, that's because you've been brainwashed by the AI."