Chapter 66 - Theatre of the Mind

Yuzu paused in shock as she heard Char Char call out to her. She hadn’t expected her friend to hear her words that she had carelessly blurted out. She held her tongue to avoid being further discovered.

I just saved her less than twenty four hours ago, and here she is getting herself into a mess again! Yuzu lamented as she quickly traced Char Char’s future through the blocked off city blocks. There were at least two hundred people trapped in a group of buildings that consisted of a theatre, an indoor market and a number of offices. Many of the roads had been blocked off by huge growths of vines.

The Devileyes had gone into an accelerated growth cycle due to the pulses of demonic energy that rippled across the city. The pulses would occur every two to three minutes and would invigorate every Devileye they passed through. The parasite grew out of the corpses of their victims and spread across the ground and walls at a rapid rate. With each pulse, the fern-like leaves would raise up and the spores on their undersides would open and spray out a green mist that infected everyone who came into contact with it.

Only the Exalted with their unique abilities seemed to be able to resist being infected by the spores. Everyone else began growing vines and disembodied eyes with each pulse of energy, succumbing to the parasite within two or three pulses at most.

Yuzu grabbed onto Char Char’s thread and tried pulling it out of the block, but met a surprisingly intense spiritual resistance from Char Char herself.

In the physical world, Char Char was kneeling down next to an injured woman when she suddenly felt an intense feeling telling her that she should leave. She looked up across the cobblestone street lit by lanterns. The gas-lit street lights were out, only a number of hand-lit lanterns were still shining in the night casting long looming shadows across the street.

A voice echoed in her mind, “You must leave, before it’s too late.”

It was quiet and fleeting, like a whisper floating on the wind. The first time she heard the voice call her name, she wasn’t sure if she heard something. But this time she knew it was definitely not her imagination! The voice was gentle and feminine, and there was a familiarity to it that she couldn’t quite place.

“I...” Char Char looked out across the street towards the theatre, “I can’t leave yet.”

There was no response. As Char Char returned her attention to the woman on the ground a small group of people ran out from a side street looking slightly bewildered. They spotted Char Char kneeling next to the woman and ran over.

“Are you okay?” One of the men asked.

“Yes, her leg’s hurt. I’m not strong enough to carry her.” Char Char said.

“Let me take her.”

“Where are you going?” Char Char asked, “The street that way is blocked by vines.”

The man lifted the woman up on his back and turned to Char Char, “Those things are coming.. Even if there are vines, it’s better than getting caught by them.”

He paused, about to say something else but decided not to mention it. In fact, he had suddenly received a strong feeling that they could escape through the vines on the street, though he couldn’t explain where the feeling had come from. Still, it was strong enough that he convinced the half dozen group of people with him to run with him.

“You go ahead.” Char Char said, “I have to help someone.”

“You can’t!” The man grabbed onto Char Char’s hand suddenly, an action that seemed to surprise even him, “It’s.. it’s far too dangerous. If you don’t leave now, you might not be able to leave.”

As he said those words, warning bells lit up in Char Char’s mind. His words carried the same feeling that the strange voice had expressed. She pulled away, backing off.

“I’ll manage, somehow.” She said, “Don’t worry about me.”

With those words she turned and ran down the street towards the theatre.

~

In the white world after making sure she had released Char Char’s thread, Yuzu yelled in frustration as she floated above the street by the theatre. She rubbed her eyes and the bridge of her nose as she groaned.

“Char Char, you idiot!”

After the failed attempts to force Char Char to leave Yuzu decided that the best way was to get someone else to help. Pulling that man over and forcing a way through the vines took almost all the energy she had left. She really thought it would work - after pulling the man over, all the strings left the area safely, even Char Char’s.

However at the key moment, something shifted. The link that Yuzu had tied between the man and Char Char had been forcefully severed by Char Char herself. The man continued on his way, saving himself and the people he was with, while Char Char’s thread shifted and returned to its original course further into the block.

Yuzu felt a wave of exhaustion sink into her body as she watched Char Char run down the street. So, this is what happens when I try to push someone too hard to do something they don’t want to do... They end up rebelling and forging their own path.

These powers of fate aren’t all powerful after all. Yuzu thought with a frown. She didn’t have any more power left. She was even starting to feel that maintaining her presence in the white world was beginning to strain her body. But she couldn’t leave Char Char to her fate.

“If forcing it won’t work, I have to reason with her.” Yuzu said to herself, reaching out to Char Char’s thread to speak to her friend. Just as she was about to touch it she hesitated. Even in a dire situation such as this Yuzu felt embarrassed, reluctant to just appear before Char Char and tell her to leave.

That would be too weird!

Then again, I don’t need to appear as Yuzu... she thought quietly.

After a moment’s consideration she finally reached out to the thread.

~

Char Char was running down the street and nearly at the theatre doors when she felt the presence of someone around her. She slowed down, looking around with a worried expression, though she couldn’t see anyone in sight.

“You must leave,” A soft voice said in her ears, “Only death awaits you here.”

Char Char’s head whipped around as she raised the rod in her hand out of fright, “Wh-who are you?!”

She was certain that this was the same being that had spoke to her from before. Its sporadic, fleeting warnings formed an image of an otherworldly mysterious entity in Char Char’s mind. Hearing no reply, Char Char spoke out into the darkness, “I can’t leave yet, I made a promise.”

In the white world, Yuzu held her hands out in consternation. She released the string so that Char Char wouldn’t hear the frustration in her next words, “What promise?! Promise to give me a heart attack!”

Yuzu groaned as she hastily read the past in Char Char’s thread of fate. It would be much quicker to just ask Char Char directly, but Yuzu had decided to put on the persona of some sort of saintly all-knowing spirit, thinking that the imagination-prone girl would bite onto it and listen.

To ask such an inane question to Char Char would be to lower her authority, and Yuzu felt like she needed to maintain that illusion to try to get Char Char to listen.

Yuzu quickly found a connection of threads from just before Char Char had entered the block of vines. Char Char was bending down to calm a young girl that was crying.

“My sister Ellie is trapped in the theatre!” The girl sobbed.

Yuzu facepalmed as she didn’t even bother hearing the whole explanation. She knew how Char Char would react. When it came to stories, Char Char always rooted for the heroes. Even the most simple, cliche stories of knights saving innocents appealed to her. Yuzu didn’t need to hear Char Char promise to find the missing sister and bring her back safely.

Yuzu always criticized Char Char’s idolization towards heroes in stories, saying it was unrealistic. And now this “fantasy” of heroism was going to get her killed.

At this moment, “I told you so” left a bitter taste on her tongue.

In the physical world, having received no immediate response from the mysterious entity, Char Char made her way to the front steps leading up to the theatre. On the ground in front of the steps were two bodies with eyeballs rising out of them. The bodies were desiccated, sucked dry by the vines. These were infected people who, after attacking with so much fervour and bloodlust, would collapse in this way if they were unable to feast on another person. The vines and leaves lived on, growing out of the people like ferns growing on mounds of soil.

Char Char had seen a lot of death this evening. It was harrowing and terrifying, and Char Char had only managed to stay composed by focusing on helping those around her. She had helped a lot of people escape the market. She had tried to save many people only to have them bleed out in front of her or start sprouting leaves and eyeballs. She had taken a few of them down herself with the heavy iron pole in her hand.

Blunt weapons seemed to work best. Striking at the legs was the most effective way to deal with them, breaking the joints to stop them from moving around. Once they were grounded it was fairly easy to avoid them while their bodies were sucked dry by the parasite. It was brutal, but Char Char got through it by focusing on helping the people that she could.

Char Char ran up the steps and found that the door was barricaded. She banged on it several times, unable to open it. The light above the door illuminated the steps in a warm orange glow. Across the street large vines grew out of broken windows, snaking across the ground.

“Hey! I’m here to find Ellie!” She called in a hushed voice, but she received no response. “Please open the door!”

Char Char’s heart skipped a beat as a scattering of debris sounded out from the darkness. She left the doors, heading away from the sound as she went in search of another entrance into the building.

~

In the white world, Yuzu skipped forward into the future, following the threads to see how Char Char would meet her end. After ten minutes she’d find an open window that she could reach by moving a few boxes to stand on. She’d go inside and find the girl called Ellie hiding in the mezzanine with a large group of just under a hundred people. They had been watching a show in the theatre and had barricaded themselves into the building out of desperation.

In fifteen minutes the vines from the adjacent building would start overtaking the theatre. They would break into the glass and unfurl fern-like leaves covered in spores. The people in the theatre would try multiple things to fight off the overgrowth, only to eventually succumb.

Yuzu did not read far enough to find out how Char Char would die.

Making contact with Char Char’s thread, Yuzu spent a moment wondering how to convey the location of the open window, when she felt the image in her mind spontaneously transmit into Char Char’s thread.

At that moment, the blurry image of an open second floor window on the side of a brick building spontaneously popped up in Char Char’s mind. It was not a scene that Char Char had ever seen before. Not sure what to make of it, Char Char continued making her way around the building, finding herself at the back of the theatre.

There, above her was the exact same window that she had just seen.

Shivers ran down her spine as she quickly decided to take the sign as a good omen and find a way to climb up to the window.

Yuzu watched the scene with great interest as she saw Char Char’s thread change its course. Yuzu didn’t have the energy to move or tie threads. Even staying in the world was beginning to wear on her and took more and more effort.

But despite not moving the threads directly, the telepathic message Yuzu had sent to Char Char had been enough to change her future!

The gears in Yuzu’s mind began whirring as she started coming up with a plan to save her friend.