Chapter 159 - Trapped

In the physical world, beneath the decrepit house on Eckert Way, Finn was crouched in front of the decomposing corpse of Locke, his now-former supervisor. With the help of the illusory voice that had claimed to be the White Maiden, he had located a candle in the dirt next to the body. The soft orange glow provided just enough light to give Finn a sense of his surroundings, without clearly illuminating the grisly details in front of him.

Finn held his breath and took shallow breaths to avoid inhaling the noxious stench coming off of the corpse. Any doubt in his mind that Locke was truly dead vanished from this unpleasant experience.

Doing his best to avoid contact with the corpse, he used a handkerchief to carefully gather the softly glowing blue gems that the illusory voice had called sarira.

Just over a dozen berry-sized crystals were carefully dropped into Finn’s leather coin pouch as he took extra care not to contact them with his bare skin. Even through the cloth he could feel the gems vibrating faintly, like the energy within was being sucked into his fingers.

“As soon as possible, put the sarira into a glass or silver vessel.” The illusory voice instructed, “That will help to seal their power.”

Finn followed the directions silently, not questioning the voice, but his senses were on alert. The voice claimed that she was the White Maiden, but he knew with certainty that this was a lie. Finn had only interacted briefly with the real White Maiden, but there was a distinct difference in this presence that was here with him now.

In comparison to the real maiden, who was subtle, gentle and gave off a sense of mystery, this entity speaking to him now was far too straightforward and brash.

She was also far too chatty.

The only thing that connected the two was that their method of communication was similar. The entity had a soft, illusory voice that was hard to identify, and when she spoke the impression of a vague figure in a white world played at the corner of his subconscious.

Finn frowned, tucking the leather pouch in his uniform’s inner pocket. He stood up from the corpse with an extended exhale as he glanced over to the other side of the pit, where Zwei lay motionless.

“I’ve gathered all of them.” He said, “How is Zwei?”

Black splotches emerged across Zwei’s body, staining his skin and clothes like thick, seeping ink. He lay motionless on the floor as the darkness slowly consumed him.

“He’s in danger. The Exalted that infected him is trying to take over his mind from within. If you didn’t stop him from absorbing the sarira, Zwei would have probably already lost the fight.” The voice replied, sounding confident, “Don’t worry, I’ll help him through this. When he wakes up, I’ll guide the two of you to safety.”

Finn stepped away from the corpse, walking across the pit toward the caved in section of stairs from where he had entered.

“Wait- where are you going?” The voice hesitated before asking.

“To get help.” Finn said as he began to climb. Rocky soil clattered down the unstable slope as he carefully pulled himself up.

“You can’t- you need to stay here until Zwei wakes up.”

“He’s got you, right?” Finn said nonchalantly, “Don’t worry. I’ll be back.”

After a bit of work Finn managed to climb back to the unbroken portion of the staircase. He dusted himself off, taking a glance down into the dark pit before starting up the stairs.

“You can’t go out there. You’ll put both your lives in danger.” The mysterious entity protested as he made his way up to the top of the steps, “You need to trust me, Finn!”

“If you really were the White Maiden, I probably would trust you.” Finn replied smugly, “But if you really were the White Maiden, you’d also be able to stop me.”

There was no response as Finn doubled his speed up the steps. The silence only confirmed Finn’s suspicions. Now he was certain that the entity that was talking to him was a fake, and that ‘she’ also had no power over his actions.

Finn had no doubt Zwei was in danger, but rather than trust this mysterious entity, he needed to get back to Quill and get her to help. They had arranged a meeting spot not too far away, for Finn and Zwei to return to once they’d rendezvoused with Locke.

“You’re making a mistake.” The voice said softly as Finn exited the top of the staircase and made his way toward the front door of the house.

“Try me.” Finn replied.

He felt the distinct sensation of the entity departing from his presence as he left the house. The light of the morning sun shone onto his face, blinding him briefly as he stepped out into the open air.

“Officer McKenzie.” A voice greeted him, “What a surprise to see you here.”

Finn blinked, hiding his surprise as he realized that the house was surrounded by a group of police officers.

Standing directly in front of him was a thin, wiry man with spectacles and sunken cheeks. He was dressed in full uniform, with the badge of a police chief embroidered on his shoulders. He had a wry smile on his face as he faced Finn directly.

“Chief Vox-“ Finn showed only a moment’s hesitation before saluting. “What’s going on?”

“We have reports of suspicious individuals in this neighborhood.” Chief Vox said, looking Finn directly in the eyes.

“You wouldn’t happen to know anything about this, would you?”

~

A wind was picking up on the island in Zwei’s mind. It was cold and bitter, and carried with it a salty, heavy smell of the sea. The overcast sky had darkened quickly, and the rumble of thunder sounded dully in the distance. The lamps in the house were lit early as the daylight was quickly blotted out by storm clouds.

Dinner concluded without event. Zwei went through the motions, eating the food that was served to him, speaking to his parents. The beginning of the meal was completely normal, just like every other meal that they’d had prior to that. Zwei found himself welling up with emotions as he found himself cherishing the moment.

“Stay focused.” The soft illusory voice of a woman reminded him, “Somewhere in this memory the corruption is looking for an opportunity to attack.”

A hard lump caught in Zwei’s throat as the voice took him out of his reverie. Zwei nodded subtly, a tense smile flickering on his lips.

That’s right. Zwei centered himself, exhaling slowly. This isn’t reality. I can’t afford to get caught up in this…

If Locke wanted to distract Zwei to get his guard down, then he’d picked the perfect memory to do so. However, the mysterious entity whispering to him from afar snapped him back to the moment.

Zwei’s eyes grew serious as he re-evaluated the situation.

He was no longer suffering from the hallucinations that had been plaguing him for the past three days, but it wasn’t that they’d gone away. Rather than visions and whispers, they’d taken a new form in the creeping darkness approaching from the edge of the horizon.

Now that he was inside his own psyche, the psychic infection took on an external form. The looming shadows were slowly eroding his mind, and he only had one clue as to how to stop it.

Somewhere in this memory, Locke was preparing to finish him off.

Somehow he had to find Locke and then… defeat him?

Zwei looked down at his scrawny arms. His body from six years past was even thinner than his current self. Forget fighting an Exalted, he wouldn’t even put up a fight against a regular adult.

There was a clatter of cutlery and the heavy screech of a chair as Zwei’s father stood up from the table with a satisfied sigh, “That was great, Sansen. Thanks for dinner.”

“Any time.” Sansen smiled warmly, “I take it you’ll be going on your walk right away?”

“Yes, we’d better go before it starts storming too heavily.” Zwei’s mother said, gracefully rising from her seat.

“What about Xiang?” Eleven year old Yuzu asked, “Is he going to get trapped in the storm?”

“He’s a big boy. I’m sure he’ll be fine.” Their father smiled, “But if we find him we’ll bring him back with us!”

Both Xiang and Chloe had yet to return, but the adults at the table didn’t look very concerned. They had placated young Zwei and Yuzu’s worries by saying that Xiang was capable of taking care of himself, but now Zwei knew that the situation was more complicated and dire than they’d let on.

Zwei didn’t say anything as everyone stood up from the table. He excused himself and left the dining room ahead of his parents. This was congruent with his actions in the past, but rather than head to his room he made sure no one was watching and snuck out the side door.

His parents would perish somewhere out on the sea. Knowing that they were Exalted, it was almost certain that they’d been attacked.

Quill had mentioned that Locke was part of the group that was present on the island, defending his parents from Markus Gantt. If so, then the most likely place to find Locke would be with his parents during the time of the attack.

Zwei still didn’t have a plan to confront Locke, but couldn’t wait around doing nothing.

The sky was dark and filled with heavy storm clouds as Zwei slipped out of the mansion. A harsh wind had picked up, cutting through Zwei’s thin clothes and stinging his skin.

Zwei made his way around to the front of the house and hid around the corner as his parents left through the main doors.

They looked at each other with serious expressions before purposefully taking off down the trail.

Zwei was just about to follow behind them when their forms began to fade. They didn’t even get to the fork in the path before they disappeared completely.

Zwei didn’t get the impression that they’d used some power to vanish. Instead, it was like they simply faded as part of the memory.

A concerned look grew on Zwei’s face as he ran down the path to where they disappeared. Even as he approached the fork at the end of the road he could tell that his intuition was right.

Not too far beyond the manor, the surroundings faded into grey, giving the impression that the manor was surrounded by a deep fog.

“Because I didn’t come outside during the storm… This isn’t part of my memory?” Zwei frowned. “But maybe I can still follow my parents…”

On the horizon where the fog met the stormy sky the line of churning darkness was slowly closing in. Though he didn’t have any landmarks to judge how far away it was, he felt that the shadows were much closer than before.

Zwei clenched his hands into fists as he stared out to the fog for a few seconds. After a brief hesitation he steeled his will and ran forward into the fog.

The dark grey fog filled his vision as he ran blindly forward. He couldn’t even see the ground at his feet, but he kept running.

After a few seconds the fog began to thin as he saw several shapes form in the distance. Spurred on by the sight he picked up his speed and ran until he was completely out of the fog.

His brows furrowed in confusion as he looked around at his surroundings.

Directly in front of him was the manor.

Even though he was sure he had run straight through the fog somehow he had turned around completely and ended up exactly where he started.

Zwei turned around and ran back into the fog.

Several moments later he emerged in the same place, looking at the front of the manor.

“I’m trapped…”

Zwei looked at the manor in bewilderment as he was at a loss of what to do.