VOXISTALE: Novel Edition

Chapter 95

"It's dark," Gregory's sentence hung in the air for several moments before he let out an apologetic cough. ". . . Sorry."

Terrence shrugged in response as he leaned against the wall. "Doesn't this place have like . . . a vending machine or something? I could really go with a root beer right now."

"I can look around. Don't go anywhere," the sound of Greg's shoes scuffing against the ground could be heard.

"I'll be halfway to China when you get back," Terrence replied. With that, Gregory wandered off.

The two of them were currently holed up in a bowling alley, the trek proving dangerous when the rev of motorcycles forced them to take cover and cease their journey to Gerson's. Greg hadn't seen the name when shoving Terrence in here, so when asked, his response was 'dunno'. It felt like that was almost always the response to most questions these days.

If he had to guess, they were in Owen's Alley, which was the only bowling alley on this side of town. As far as he knew, anyway. It obviously wasn't the hiding place of anyone else, considering Greg's earlier comment on lighting, and the fact that they hadn't run into anyone. With his only companion out searching for vending machines, or anything else hopefully, Terrence was left to his thoughts. Without visual distractions, he figured he'd be spending more time with his thoughts than ever.

In truth, he was worried out of his mind. He could be optimistic and hold out hope all the livelong day, but deep down, he felt incredibly hopeless. It had only been them in Grillby's. Nobody knew where anyone was. For all he knew, they were the only survivors. That . . . wasn't all too likely, but it wasn't impossible. Then Fuku and Sadie went off and never came back. Then he and Greg had to ditch Grillby as he fought Krashna . . . he began to grow a bit fearful that Greg wouldn't come back, that is until he heard a pathetic-sounding bang followed by a shameful 'ow' from the other room. Seemed he'd found a vending machine, probably tried to kick it open. It was just the two of them right now. Could anybody else even be alive?

He decided to shove his fears and doubts for now. It might take a bit for Greg to get whatever snacks or drinks were in the vending machine, so he opted to do a little meditation. Gerson had once told him to meditate as frequently as possible. It helped with healing of all types, alongside strengthening the connection to the SOUL. He had yet to see these results, but he trusted his mentor. Hadn't failed him yet.

Letting his body go lax, Terrence immediately found his comfort zone, a feeling of weightlessness drifting over him, the world seeming to fade into the background, before out of existence. All he could feel was his heart beating softly against his chest. Then he saw something.

It wasn't a vision like last time. It wasn't Krashna. Instead, he could see some . . . weird . . . shape? He couldn't quite make it out. It appeared, then disappeared as quickly as it came, washing through his field of view like a shockwave. It appeared again, this time more clearly, and it seemed to almost . . . outline his surroundings?

The shockwave appeared once again, this time accompanied by the crash of breaking glass, yanking him from his meditative state. He could feel his eyes were wide as his heart hammered against his chest now. "Holy shit!" he exclaimed.

"Relax, it was just the vending machine," Greg called back.

"No, I know! I saw it!" Terrence shouted, a smile stretching over his face as he started to climb to his feet, wincing, as his leg didn't really like this.

"Saw?" Greg's voice replied.

"Yeah! Dude, I'm Daredevil!"

"Well, like, what did you see?" Greg asked.

"Hang on. Let me try again." Terrence needlessly closed his eyes and tried to focus again . . . but he got nothing. "Maybe I can only . . . do it when I'm meditating?"