Distorted

Chapter seventeen, the forced sacrifice

And alone she was again, tearing her insides with regret and self-resentment, the streets were closing on her, shutting her out of reality, the one she despised so much to the point of violent anger.

She was heading to Steamhall looking for an illegal guidance to Corelight, unaware of her motives to follow such a ridiculous and dangerous plan. But there was one thing that kept her distressed and unsettled.

She was approaching Ross' hideout.

She knew that by then, Ross would be informed of them murdering Elijah, but was even more painful to her was the old man's unjustified and atrocious betrayel that hit the young girl harder than anything in this world.

"Almost non-human beings, identical with black hats..Some guy who only exists in my mind, people that can shatter time and space and manipulate it easily..What have I gotten myself into" Grieved Merit as she walked slowly out of the slums with icy tears blocking her vision.

She was confused.

It was her time of realization of how reality was tangible, how fragile it was. Those events could mean nothing but one thing she was sure of.

This world was indeed ill with uncertainty and illusions.

And as Merit walked and each thought fueled her steps with profound anger like an enraged machine wrecking the ground with its heavy metal, she was stopped by some old woman that didn't seem like a good omen to her.

"You look troubled, maybe I could help?" Said the old woman who was in fact a fortuneteller, sitting on the pavement with nothing but a mirror in her hand and few shells. She wore a weird gown that seemed decaying with time, and her hair was tangled with different stripes of different colors, and overall, she looked like something out of a horror show with her yellow broken teeth and overly dirty white hair and a weed cigarette in her hand.

"You look wasted old hag, I definitely don't need your help" Merit nervously replied to the old lady who did nothing but laugh at her words.

"I might look wasted, but I'm definitely better than you right now. I can smell you from where I am" Laughed the fortune teller who was just mocking Merit.

"Look who's talking!!" Merit's anger grew stronger and louder, she walked closer to the old woman, sat down and crossed her legs. "Tell me about it, I'm not paying you anything anyway."

"Well, I figured out someone with that smell is broke, so I wasn't expecting much."

"Ugh, just get over with it?"

The fortuneteller sighed and held the hand mirror with her right hand and a handful of colorful shells within her left hand grip and slowly turned the mirror to face Merit.

"Are you trying to show me my ugly ass face? Because I've already seen it." 

"Could you just shut up for a moment? Just take a look, ten seconds of silence is all I need."

The ten seconds went on slowly once Merit's eyes focused on her reflection in the mirror, strange enough, the noise of the streets went lower and lower with each second, Merit started to feel unsettled, as the noise died, the racing of her heart beats grew louder, and in the mirror, suddenly, a necklace appeared on her neck that resembles identically the one she lost. But the ten seconds were over and the fortuneteller took down the mirror only to see Merit's dazzled look.

"I-I've seen s-something" Merit stuttered, starring at the mirror in confusion, the fortuneteller smirked and shook her her left hand for seconds and then loosened her grip, reaching her hand for Merit as few shells were opened, Merit couldn't break out of the curse she was under, but the woman snapped her out of it, "Come on, pick them before they close again!" She shouted at her, Merit picked the opened shells quickly, "What are those?" She asked her, "Open them and see for yourself" She said, "You can open them somewhere else, my job is done, go!"

Merit got up with three shells in her hand, she felt that the unease inside of her was now greater than ever. She stood in an alley and opened the first shell, a blue one.

The blue shell had nothing but a piece of paper with a word that said 'Fooled'

"Alright, now, all I fucking needed was a shell to make fun of me" Merit threw the blue shell away and put the paper in her pocket.

The second shell was red, inside of it was another small piece of paper with the words, "He's luring you"

"That doesn't sound right.." Merit sighed, starring at this particular shell that made no sense, who's luring her?

The last one was green, Merit hastily took the paper out, "Friends are trapped".

Merit didn't comment on this one, instead, she put it in her pocket, picked up the shells and put them in her bag and went out of the alley on her way out.

"It's a scam, none of it makes sense" She muttered as she kept walking violently with each step her legs hit the ground hard like a mad child who didn't get his ice cream. The little bit of childishness in Merit unraveled itself once she finally figured out how to handle herself, or to be more precise, try to understand herself.

But soon enough, the unease she felt was consuming her senses. She felt the danger surronding her, the profound feeling of fear knocked her brain out if its serenity, locking her in the middle of the merciless crowds like a statue waiting to be robbed, she couldn't resist the feeling to take out the shells and papers and connect the dots, and so, her well snapped her out of her paranoid state and she finally took a move.

Green, red and blue.

But no, her memory was..tricking her?

Blue, white and violet.

Can it be?

Can our memories be so fragile?

Can they be a variable?

But its true, we believe they're constants. They cannot be changed.

Memories are sacred.

But no, its an enigma, one cannot betray his senses of certainty of what their eyes saw, because if so, they'll doubt their sanity, the only assured thing in reality is reality itself, how can we doubt it?

"Oh..Hell no, not again.." Merit horrifyingly said as her grip on the shell shook hard, "Its repeating, the papers must've changed too" She said, taking the papers out of her pocket and opening them one by one.

But they were the same.

Except..The Violet one, it has quite a different writing than before.

instead of saying "Friends are trapped", it said, "Friends are dead"

While Merit stood still unable to process that sentence, the evil dressed in black watched her from the corner of an alley, his grin grew wider and wider and his pale face was nourished with sweat, he didn't have his broche, but, beneath him was the unexpected.

His gloves were bloody.

His suit as well.

And on the ground was a familiar face, a wide opened eyes and bloody face, lifeless she was, it was poor Lydia.

"We play dirty Merit, show me where are your cards now" Viktor said, looking back at the tragically stabbed Lydia lying in a pool of blood. Thinking that the only way for Merit to reach Corelight was through Lydia, he was right, and Lydia paid the price of Merit's misadventures.

Deep in Ilusia's special mental asylum for the light men, in an isolated room in this dreary institution guarded by robotic beings, another familiar face lied dead on the ground, his mouth foaming and his white hair slowly turning gray, this light man was strapped and couldn't move before this incident occurred, what's left is the questioning.. That pale wrinkled face and that mighty body, who could it be?