The Life in Our Heads | COMPLETED

Part 5

*STORY CLOSE TO ENDING* Hey everyone! I just wanted to let all my readers know that this short story is close to ending. There are only three parts left, and I would like to thank everyone who checked it out and enjoyed it. I am working on another story that PROBABLY will not be as short. Don't forget to share this story! Enjoy!

The shop served as nothing more than a reminder for Avail; why she never wanted to return the world she was born. The toys did not move. To her, they might as well have been dead. The world was too realistic and mundane. It was torture living in a world that just refused move or change.

"Now that you've got some shoes on your feet, let's talk about why you've come back." The woman was leaning over a counter, while Avail sat across from her.

What the woman called a shop, Avail called a graveyard. Two columns of wooden shelves held stuffed animals, whose only function were to burrow their soulless eyes into another. The dolls that held a permanent grin seemed to have been subliminally begging for freedom. Before being in that world for four years, Avail never noticed how empty and limited imagination truly was, until now.

"I don't even know your name." Avail was obviously still weary of this woman's intentions. On top of that, not knowing her name was the least of her concerns.

"Yes, you do. But your focus shouldn't be my name, it should be the world of the Manifestors. You were sent here to save it and them." The old woman straightened up, bracing herself for a deeper explanation. "As of right now, if I timed it correctly, that world is in the midst of being corrupted by the Taken. Am I right?"

Avail's wasn't sure if she should feel relieved or cautious because the woman knew about the current happenings to her world. "How did you know?"

The woman exhaled, never breaking eye contact. She then dipped beneath the counter, causing miniscule quakes as she scavenged below. The woman reappeared with a medium-sized orb, as its inside swirled with ominous purple and dark gray smoke.

"The clouds!" Avail mindlessly blurted out. The substance residing within the orb had instantly reminded her of the threatening clouds in the world of the Manifestors; from their color, all the way to how they slithered and coagulated. And the sight was just as foul.

"Avail, this is the world of the Manifestors; what I hold in my hands is the world we so dearly love. What you are witnessing, is the corruption of that world. And when those clouds turn black, this world will never return to its former state again."

"But...how?"

"The sky looked sick, didn't it?" The woman guessed. "Those Takens, they work like viruses. Multiplying themselves, and contaminating the healthy parts of that world; like the Divine Forest, the Still Waters, and even the manifestations. So, as a response, that world is self-destructing. As if trying to rid itself of the virus."

Fear rammed into Avail's stomach. "How do we stop it? I can't just watch it die in front me!" The woman shut her eyes, as shame made her lips quiver in hesitation.

"There is a way. But I promise, you will not wish to do it." The anxiousness between either of them was festering.

Avail considered all her options, even being a sacrifice. "What do I have to do?" She wanted to so badly sound fearless, but the possibility of losing her life blocked off her courage.

"Fido is right, you know? You aren't a Manifestor." The woman allowed regret to slip off her tongue. "I guess you just didn't ask the right question. What you should've asked if you were a Watcher?"