They Called Me FIVE

LANCE

I wake up to two crimson eyes, translucent skin, small nose and pinkish chapped lips. I gasped. In a second I'm up on feet. Scampering away. Trying to get as much distance as I could get.

"What – you – how?" Seven is leaning closer to my face. Her eyes were inches away from mine. I gulped. I'm suddenly reminded of my dream of her. She really looks like that girl, Efta was it? I don't understand.

The more I ran my eyes on her, the less I'm convinced they are the same person. Efta could passed as her ancestor. And because they looked very much alike, I'm smacked into the body of that dead guy. My soul, rejoining his body. I cringed.

That experience wasn't pleasant. I could go to any girl. Just not Seven. She's more of a little sister material. Who creeps to your bedroom at night, spying the dirty little things you do, waiting for the right time to threaten you and tell Dad.

Speaking of girls, I forgot to ask.

"Is Meira our enemy? Is she a Faery slave too?" Dark cloud passed over Seven's face. She refused to look at me. I can't understand why she's thinking hard. As if there are still information she can't reveal to me.

"If I say she was, what would you do?" She asked in my head. I scratch my chin. 

"I will save her. Just like what I will do to Dad and Lista." She shakes her head. 

"You're impossible. Magnus was right. Hints weren't enough for you to get the whole picture. You needed an actual real life situation where it could throw away your ideals for you to get it."  She sighed, exasperated.

"Hey, are you implying I'm stupid?" I said. She looked at me sideways.

"So you already knew. Congrats." Her voice sounds flat.

I believe she's mocking me. 

"What's so bad about wanting to save everyone? They're not exactly dead are they? My Dad, Lista, those police officer guys, they're not dead yet. Even if they're soul was taken, they're very much alive. They have their lives. We have our own. Nothing differentiate us except we have powers. And they don't. So it's up to us to save them. What's the use of this blessings if we won't use it to protect others?" 

I challenged her. We meet eye to eye. The more I push this idea to her, the more I held her gaze, I know she's pretty convinced on it too. I know she asked questions like 'What is this power for?' to herself a bunch of times, like me.

We're on the same boat. We're just kids. Who wake up one day and discovered we have powers flowing in our veins. Smacked in an unknown world, forcedly bear the responsibility of saving it.     

We are harmless. In the midst of trying to make sense out of this situation, it takes an ugly turn and everything went downhill. I clenched my fist. 

Yeah, I should stop dwelling on this shizt. Nothing will come out of it. 

"Instead of trying to save everyone, why don't you try to see the whole picture? If we try to save the fallen, risking our blessings in the hands of Faeries, taking bait into their trap, what do you think will happen?" she stretched her hand in the air.

"Chaos happens. And lots of death. This world will be destroyed. Realms will cease to exist. Faeries will strengthen their mana by making slaves of thousands innocent people. I know you want to save those who are dear to you, but at what cost? To the expense of this world? As much as I want to help you, I just can't let you destroy yourself by making meaningless actions of 'saving everyone' believe me, you can't save a single soul at that." 

Her eyes lit up. The crimson has become lighter and darker at the same time. Especially under the midnight sky. 

"So what are you proposing we should do?" She averted her eyes. 

"Same as what Magnus wanted to do when he found you Five. Let's leave this place. Find the others. Find strength in numbers. The Faeries are more than we could handle. The basic we could do is kill the Aufs. And they're powerless. Those Class 9 and above…are far stronger and too much for us to handle." Seven stretched her hand to me.

"Let's leave this place together Five. While we still have time to escape." 

My heart skipped a beat. The clouds above started to thicken. The crowds below are thinning out. Except for the police officers who draw white chalk to the dead body's position, taking pictures for evidence, staking the small area for more objects subjected as evidence, the alleyway is almost empty and quiet now. 

I tried to imagine a life without Dad. What I'm doing today will cost me three hours straight of nagging. If Dad was around town. He and Lista were out to another state to prepare some stuff for my training. 

Getting just the right technology to keep me in shape. And Beasts growth manipulation. Lista has tinkered to a bunch of them. Letting them breed and produce more offspring for experiment..for my training…

They're efforts aren't wasted. I became stronger by the day. But when I imagined a life where I won't see any one of them. Trying to live a life with people I just met for only a few days… 

I take a deep breath. I really can't do it. It's impossible for me. I tentatively take a step back.

"I'm sorry I can't. Like you said, its stupid for wanting to save everyone. Even heroes in movies die because of their impeccable drive to try saving others. Because they deem each person, whether a sickly child, or a weak elderly important. And I am like that too. It's alright for me if I won't survive in the end. As long as my I get to do what really matters…that's enough."

I turned my heel on her and left. Not looking back. Not even once. 

Who could have thought that would be the last time I'll see her?