Mountains [Vikklan]

Chapter 19- NPC [Vikk]

Lizzie has been crying. You can see it in her eyes, her posture. Her bright pink hair is bedraggled. Her expression is tired.

It's perfectly understandable, when one of your best friends has killed the other.

But I have to admire her, really. She stands in front of us, the only one who is in a fit state to explain what happened.

"I'm here to talk to you about something important. It's about Me and Kara.. and Bee. And that gem. And your past lives."

The whole village is here, minus Kara and Pete. She's still traumatised.

"I'm not going to disguise this. You know you've had a life with each other before. And you've woken up here. But hey, this time, we're here. Kara, me... and Bee. We have no memories of before. Not like, they've been taken, or anything. We literally haven't lived before this season."

What?

"Kara only worked this out yesterday. We weren't sure, and we didn't like it... but now, after all this..."

She pauses, looks down.

"We're not real. We're just... objects. We're vessels, to hold those... gems. Giving Kara hers, in that crown... it locked her self out. She's made for combat. She's a NPC. I'm an NPC. It may look like we're human, but if we re-unite with those gems. We're gone."

We stand there, in stunned silence.

Lachlan pipes up, from beside me.

"Then, how did the guy from season 3 kill me, then? If he's not a vessel?"

Lizzie pauses, looks at him.

"Those gems, they do horrible things to people. Even if you're not a vessel. You've had NPCs before, you just never recognised them. That person, that guy, he took a gem, and it drove him insane. He wasn't mentally ready for it. He was only human."

Around us, the villagers are silent. We're all still in shock from the incident with Kara, and now with this new news... it's a lot to take in. most of the people here don't know the full story. They know they lived before this, in season 3, but they don't know about Reds and Blues. Choco said that, if we get their memories back, it would be best for them to discover that for themselves. I hope he's right.

"While they may not be all powerful, Kara has a theory, that these gems are the key to getting your memories back."

She holds up the crown, the red gem shining in the sunshine.

"We need to destroy them. This one, we've got now, and we've also got mine."

At this, she holds up a sword, keeping cloth carefully wrapped around the handle, so as to avoid touching it. Embedded in the hilt is a sparkling blue sapphire.

"But one is missing. Bee's. Bee never showed us her gem, never seemed to ever have one. Now, with this new information, we think... that he has it. The killer. He's here, in this world. We know that."

I feel a shiver pass up my spine.

"We need to get it, and destroy it. Somehow. And that should... that should return us to how it was before."

"But how do we find it?"

Somebody says, across the square. I crane my neck and look over the small crowd, identifying Kenny as the speaker. He's holding hands with Choco.

Lizzie pauses at the question.

"We find him. The killer. He has it."

Another person pipes up. Mitch.

"So where is he?"

Lizzie looks at him, a slight smirk on her face.

And then she brushes a strand of loose hair back from her face, and stands taller.

"The mountains. He's in the mountains."