Almost in Paradise

13. Dark dreams

Me and Gyorg sit and talk for a while longer, but then I realise I should get back to the others so they don't get worried. Who am I kidding, why would Jericho be worried about me? I mean more like suspicious in her case.

I say goodbye to him and walk out the door. The air is still warm from the afternoon sun, and for the first time, I see a child playing in a corner. He sits and talks quietly to himself, but when he notices me he stands up and runs away. That's strange... I wonder what he ran for.

"Hey I'm back" I say as I walk into the house.

"Took you long enough" Jericho says with a suspicious look, as suspected. "What did you do anyways?"

"I talked to Gyorg - the old man - and, well, we talked?" I'm not sure what to answer since Jericho can't know about me. I give Ban a telling look and he seems to understand what the conversation was about.

"You took off randomly and were away for about an hour, and that's the excuse you come up with? You really gotta work on your lies, child." Jericho rolls her eyes and looks at Ban for an agreement, but he simply returns it with a yawn.

"Whatever she did it's her own business, the important part is if she got any good information about the compass" he says.

I walk across the floor, to the table. "Yeah I did. At least a little. Apparently Gyorg was well taught by someone and created this only for the sake of helping you, Jecho."

"What kind of a nickname is tha-!?" Jericho's useless comment is cut off by Ban.

"So you're saying he's no bad guy then? Not a spy or anything?"

"No, not from what I can see. But if that was the case..." The thought just hit my head. This might be a good chance to finding out what time I'm in! "Then who would the spy have been working for do you think?"

He shrugs and makes a dumb face and I can see Jericho's intense look in the corner of my eye. "I don't know" he says. "Some stupid filler antagonist that pops up for an episode or two only to show how powerful and faithful one main character is."

Wait, what did he just say? That sounded just like someone who watches animes all the time. What.. why... I don't understa... n..... d.........

The room starts to spin around and my eyes gets blurry. A sharp screaming sound goes through my ears and shuts all the other sounds out. I feel my legs falling apart and I drop down on the floor. My brain feels like it's gonna pop and I can't think straight. Everything that happens around me is turned off.

It's dark. Very dark. Whether I have my eyes opened or closed, it looks the same. I try hard to move my body and the best I can do is to angle my head a little. There's a small golden dot far ahead, but in this condition, I can't get to it. It's simply too far away.

Then I hear something. It sounds like... music? The shrieking whistle has stopped and now I can hear a few familiar chords. What is it?

Before I get to find out, I hear a voice. It quickly brings me back to the real world.

"Kouki! Kouki, can you hear me?"

I try to open my eyes but since I got used to the total darkness, it's obnoxiously lit up in here. After keeping my eyelids close to closed a while, I finally give into opening them again. It's easier now, and the first things I see is that silver hair and the big scar. Phew, I'm still here. Almost got a little scared there...

"Are you okay, Kouki?" Ban asks.

"Hmnhfnemv" I answer, unaware of how unclear I talk. My muscles aches and I feel as if I've had a stroke or something... not like I know how that feels though.

"Come again?" Jericho says, annoyed of me getting helped by Ban.

"I'm fine" I manage to say, but then I realise I'm not fine at all. I look into the eyes of the man holding me in his hands until I pass out for real this time, except now without weird dreams and fearful darkness.