He felt himself running. He felt himself getting caught. He felt the cold embrace of an inevitable future strangle him. He felt hopeless. And yet, he could not see anything except the darkness in front of him.

Vincent wandered through the empty expanse before him, aimlessly. Every once and while, a new sensation would blow through him. They were always foreign, but somehow familiar. It was as if their origin was not from within himself, and yet, he could empathize and feel them nonetheless.

“Aghhhh! Fuck!” Vincent shouted. He felt something tighten around his wrists and he felt his arms forced behind him. However, when he looked down at them, they seemed completely normal and he had complete control of them.

What in the hell is going on? he thought. The moment that thought left his mind, it echoed out loud, bouncing off of the invisible nothingness that surrounded him.

As his shouted thought disappeared, he heard a new sound. It was too far away to make out, but somehow, he knew the direction of where it was coming from. A headache formed in the front of his mind, guiding him like a compass.

He ran in that direction, desperate, although he did not know why. That being said, reasons were never what he acted on—just emotions and interests.

The sound became clearer the farther he ran. Eventually, he realized that what he was hearing was a voice...a female voice. She was crying.

“Anyone…” the voice quivered.

A pain coursed through Vincent’s head, like someone punched it as hard as they could. He nearly fell to his knees. Staggering himself up, he called out, “Who are you? What’s going on?”

There was no answer.

Another pain seared itself into his body. This time, he felt a flash of pain whipped across his torso. He took a step back and lifted up his shirt, only to find absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.

He then felt something vibrate inside of his head. He tried reaching up to grab it, but that vibration continued to resonate within him.

“Help me!” the female voice cried out. “I’m sorry!”

Panic filled every cell of his body. He frantically searched around for the source of the sound. He needed to find her, he needed to save her, and he needed to free her. But no matter how hard he looked, he only saw black.

“Where are you!?” Vincent yelled. “I’m going to save you!”

Suddenly, a strange calmness washed over him. It was not his own mind that carried that feeling, but rather he knew that the feeling came from the woman. Within his still-vibrating skull, he felt the true emotions of the woman transform into words.

Vincent? the woman’s thoughts said.

“Yeah, it’s me!” Vincent replied. “Where are you? I can’t let it end like this.”

It’s alright, it's my fault, the woman’s thoughts replied. I just wanted to hear your voice again. I just didn’t want to be alone for this.

“What are you—”

But before Vincent could say anymore, he felt the woman melancholically smile, in turn, causing him to smile.

It’s too late for me, but not for you.

Tears began to flow down Vincent’s cheeks. “But how can we go on without you? I don’t believe we can.”

“I still believe,” the woman said.

Just then, a deathly pain shot its way through Vincent’s heart. He only felt it for a second, because the sheer volume of that pain caused him to jolt up out of bed.

He was breathing hard, his hands were shaking, and he continued to cry. He hugged himself, thankful that he was alive, but scared of the thought of death.

As he wiped his tears, he felt that they were heavier than normal. They felt more real than ever before...but he didn’t know why. In fact, he couldn’t even recall why he suddenly woke up.

Did I have a nightmare or something? he thought to himself. I can’t even remember.

After taking a minute to calm down, he let himself drift back to sleep. For the rest of the night, he slept in a dreamless sleep.

***

Already done with their tasks for the day, Eliot and Fang wandered around Diamond Pillar. They visited the shopping district, the main card game room, and spent a lot of time in the gardens. Eliot, in particular, found the natural and sincere beauty of nature comforting.

“Hey, Fang,” Eliot began to ask, “what do you want to do?”

Fang looked back at him and replied, “I’m not sure, although I’m never sure on what I want to do.” They then continued to stare at Eliot for a few moments. “You seem happier than usual today.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, maybe happy isn’t the right word,” Fang backtracked. “You seem more…” they said, looking around the garden, seemingly trying to find the right words, “content than before.”

Eliot smiled a bit and asked, “I guess so,” he admitted. “You’re really good at reading people.”

“Well, uh, I mean,” Fang stammered, “it was just a lucky guess,” they laughed.

Those two sat in silence for a moment before Eliot spoke up again. “I know Zander said to meet him at four o’clock, but I want to see him.”

“I don’t see why we can’t,” Fang answered. “Besides, he’d probably be glad that we’re done early.”

“I don’t know about that. He equally hates getting things done late and getting things done early. He very much likes sticking to his strict schedules.”

“Well, if you want to see him so much, I say we should still go. Who cares if we mess up his little schedule? Worse comes to worse, we just leave and come back when he wants us to.”

A smile appeared on Eliot’s face. He couldn’t help it, but he didn’t fight it, either. “Alright,” he said, “let’s go see him.”

And so, Fang and Eliot made their way to Zander’s office. It did take the better part of an hour to make their way through the entirety of Diamond hall, seeing as they were on the exact opposite side. But even still, they arrived at his office door at around 2 o’clock.

Eliot knocked, but there was no response. He knocked again, and again, there was no response. He looked at Fang, confused, and Fang just shrugged their shoulders.

After waiting in front of the office door for a minute or two, Eliot eventually decided just to open the door. When he did, he was surprised to find it unlocked. He and Fang entered and looked around his office.

They found no sign of Zander, but they did see that the office was as organized as ever. There didn't seem to be anything out of place, besides Zander not being present, obviously.

“Maybe he’s not here,” Eliot concluded.

“I guess he isn’t,” Fang agreed. “I was sure that he was in—”

“Oh!” Eliot interrupted. His eyes happened to see that the door leading to where Zander keeps his merchandise was slightly ajar. “He’s probably down here.”

Eliot and Fang then made their way down the cold, grey steps beyond the door. Eliot expected there to be an echo with every step he took, but to his surprise, it was eerily silent. Still, that didn’t really bother him at the moment.

When he reached the bottom, he saw that there were dim lights that lit up the narrow hallway in front of him. Towards the end of it, he saw the back of a silhouette. Without even needing to think about who it was, Eliot called out, “Zander!”

The figure snapped around and a look of bewilderment filled their face. Their mouth hung open like they just saw a ghost. The clipboard that they were holding was pulled even closer to their chest.

Eliot took a few steps forward. “So, this is where you keep everything, huh?”

Zander fast-walked up to Eliot and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Uh, uh, yeah this is where I keep everything,” he replied, his hands shaking a bit. “So, um, why are you here so early?”

“Well, we got done earlier than expected, so we figured that we would stop by early.”

Zander began to gently push Eliotback towards the stairs. “Why don’t we talk about this back at my office.”

“Why?” Eliot asked. “You still haven't shown me what you’re going to sell.”

“Well that’s—”

“Zander,” Fang’s voice echoed. They somehow managed to get behind Zander, unnoticed, and stop halfway through the corridor. They were just staring into one of the openings in a door. “So this is what you’re selling?”

Eliot then started to make his way towards Fang, but his arm was forcefully grabbed by Zander. “What’s your deal, Zander?” Eliot asked. “Please let go.”

“I…” was all Zander could say.

Eliot forced his arm free and walked to see what Fang was looking at. When he got there, he looked through the small iron-barred opening towards the top of the door. What he saw sent a shiver down his spine.

“Wha...What is this?” Eliot asked.

On the other side of the door, slumped up against the stone wall, was a person. They were a man, no older than 25, and they wore ragged clothes. He was either asleep or dead, and had a thin metal band around his neck.

“Now hold on, Eliot,” Zander nervously said. “Don’t jump to any irrational conclusions. Let me explain myself.”

“What is a person doing in a place where you’re keeping merchandise to sell?” Eliot asked, still staring in the cell. “Are they a thief? Are they someone who’s helping you move stuff?” He then looked at Zander with hollow eyes. “Is that the case?”

Zander visibly swallowed and didn’t answer right away. With his eyes not meeting Eliot’s gaze, he finally replied, “No.”

“What do you mean?”

“He...is the merchandise.”

Eliot laughed a bit. “What are you talking about? That’s only something the horrible people of these upper pillars do.”

Zander clenched his fist. “Well, you see, this is the only market that isn’t monopolized, and so I have—”

“You can’t do this!” Eliot yelled. “This is wrong!”

Zander’s eyes finally looked directly into Eliot’s. “I know,” he firmly replied. ”But I don’t have a choice. We’re already too committed to the plan.”

“What do you mean? Of course you have a choice. Just let these people go,” Elito smiled. His smile then turned into a frown. “I thought you were a good person.”

“I am,” Zander reassured him. “But like I told you yesterday, sometimes good people have to do bad things. Sometimes, there just isn’t another choice that leads to a better end.”

“I mean…” Eliot tried to retaliate, but something about denying those words contradicted a part of himself.

“It’s not like I’m doing this to get rich,” Zander continued to argue. “Once the deal is made, you two are going to free all of them. I have to sell them and act the part in order for this plan to go through. Think, Eliot.”

“I don’t know if I want to do that right now.”

“Think of the bigger picture. Sure, it’s horrible that I have to sell people, but that’s only a temporary thing. It’s a small part of our larger plan to finally take this place down. If we can get through doing this one, tiny, bad act, then we can save more than just these people.”

“But this is too much, Zander,” Eliot said. “This isn’t who you are.”

A vein popped up on Zander’s forehead. “You said that yesterday! Make up your mind. Who am I then?” He gritted his teeth. “Maybe we don’t know each other as well as we thought. Hell, you aren’t someone I could’ve ever pictured hurting someone else, nevertheless killing another person. But guess what? You did that twice.”

Eliot’s eyes widened. He froze in place and began to slightly shake.

“I-I’m sorry, Eliot, I didn’t mean that,” Zander apologized, although there was still some residual intensity behind his words. “I was just trying to say that this place is so evil that it forces us to do things that we would never do. We’re still us. Do you understand?”

“I know,” Eliot responded, grabbing at his head, “but I still can’t accept it.”

And without another word, Eliot dashed for the stairs, pushing past Zander. He rapidly climbed them and burst through the office door. He continued to run and run and run. He did not know where he was running to, but he felt like he had to run away from it all—from reality.