Phobetor's Walk

Yumi closed her eyes tightly. Wrinkles buried themselves into her forehead. She struggled to keep her concentration with the pain surging through her skull. It felt as though his fingers squeezed and scratched her brain. She bit her teeth straining her jaw. ‘What’s he…doing…to me?’ Her mind felt ready to collapse.

A small piece of her power still felt within reach of her fingers. Yumi focused the last threads of her sanity together to bring her hand up to the boy. Through her screaming and pain, it left him distracted enough that he didn’t notice her movements until it was too late. Light glowed from her palm immediately blasting out.

The energy didn’t have a chance to form before it splashed across the teenager’s stomach ripping through his uniform. A second later, the force lifted him off the ground and cast him aside in debris. It left him unconscious.

Released from the invasion, Yumi collapsed to the ground panting heavily to recover. While she regained her composure, her eyes darted over to the boy to check. She felt certain he caused the problems to her powers and feared he might still have something planned. However, he made no move.

Yumi was safe.

A few minutes in silence passed. The enemy seemed to give her the time she needed to recover before reacting. She found a couple of soldiers entering her path by mistake. They tried to attack her, but came up short. Yumi noted to herself the renewed strength of her powers. ‘Where are you, brother?’ The immediate matter concluded allowing her to continue her search.

Nothing revealed itself to her for nearly thirty minutes. All she found was empty tents, likely abandoned with the fighting taking everyone’s attention. Occasional soldiers or MP users crossed her path, but she struck them down before they mounted any offense. Her brother waited for her.

After all of the searching of the camp, she finally found him tucked away. She already dealt with the guards for the tent. It was only the two of them. “Brother!” Yumi rushed around behind him to remove his bindings.

Yori slowly lifted his head, a dark shadow cast over his eyes. He groaned a bit while still coming around. A tilt of his head leaned him towards Yumi. “…Yumi?”

She frantically scrambled over the last couple of bindings. “It’s alright! You’re safe now!” Her hands slipped away from her control, scraping her skin. The slight pain went completely ignored by her as she immediately forced her hands back. “You’re free now!”

Yumi hurried around in front of Yori to help him stand. She lifted him to his feet giving him support to his weakened body. They staggered a bit while Yumi got used to his weight. “It’ll be okay. I’ll get you out of here.”

They slowly made it to the tent flaps before Yori began to mutter. Yumi paused trying to understand him. She leaned over her head to get a better listen. “Huh?” It didn’t help her. His voice was too quiet for her to hear. “What are you saying?”

A cough broke up his pacing. His weakened state dropped him off his feet for a moment. It brought him to cling on to Yumi. He pulled himself up holding on to her shoulders with her aid. Yori hung his head over her shoulder panting. His mouth sat next to her ear. “Yumi…”

“…brother?” She didn’t have a moment to react as she felt a sharp pain in her stomach. It made her cough suddenly as blood came out of her mouth. The shock left her eyes wide and shaking in confusion. She looked down to see Yori’s hand pierced through her stomach soaked in her blood. Another cough weakened her legs. “Why?” she pleaded, looking up into his eyes.

He caught her before she fell. Soulless eyes stared down at her. “The nightmare begins…”

Chapter 155 – Phobetor’s Walk

Blackness filled around Yumi. Time lost itself between the pain and the calm that followed. She didn’t know what happened to her. Her mind went blank immediately after Yori stabbed her. None of it made any sense to her. She didn't even know how much time passed since she realized something had changed.

A cough broke Yumi out of her haze. She jerked forward. Her breathing ran shallow as her mind made her body feel the last moments again. However, she quickly realized that no pain permeated her body. She touched her stomach trying to figure out what happened.

Nothing.

“What’s going on?” Yumi struggled to get herself back on her feet. Her hand rubbed her stomach, still not convinced. It felt so real to her, but Yori did it. “Must be a dream, but why? What’s wrong with me?”

She finally took in her surroundings. The tent she found Yori in was empty. It held no signs that he had even been in the tent. Only a simple chair remained as a note of his captivity. Yumi thought he might be in the camp and walked towards the tent flap. She still had to save him. The thing she saw before was not real.

Something splashed loosely at her feet when she neared the tent flap. The noise was enough to pull her eyes down in curiosity. A dark liquid ran around her feet thickly clinging to everything. It seemed too dark for water. “What is this?” The closer she got to the expanding pool the more uneasy her heart became. It started to take on a reddish hue and then her mind took over. Her body froze. The pounding of her heart echoed into her head, heating up her body. She didn’t need to test it any more.

“Blood?!” It stretched from beyond the tent. The source fell out of sight, hidden and ominous. Yumi staggered back uncertain if she wanted to move forward. Curiosity dragged her forward against her will. She pressed her hand to her chest hoping to calm her breathing and beating heart. Yumi didn’t even know the cause and her body already went into full panic. She never saw so much blood before or even thought it possible. Her eyes didn’t want to see the sight beyond.

Reality had a different plan in mind for Yumi. It refused to allow her to hesitate. A wind ripped open the tent flaps and somehow tore down the tent in the process. It forced Yumi to take in the whole scene all at once as though forced to chug a liter of water in only a second.

The first seconds Yumi couldn’t react. Her eyes widened and pupils shook. It passed through into her shoulders and body, but something kept her standing. A frigid touch ran down her back drenching her body in sweat before overheating. Her lungs refused to hold air, keeping her panting heavily. She wanted to throw up, but could only gag. Yumi was granted no release. It forced her to endure it all at a constant acceleration that she couldn’t take, but still had no choice.

A scream finally escaped her lips, yet it was no more relieving than stepping in the shade on a humid day where shelter meant nothing. Yumi screamed until her voice disappeared and she wanted to collapse, but her body still turned her away. The scene burned into her eyes that even closing them made it all replay clear as though open. She knew no escape. Yumi thought her mind would break before her body let her have a moment of pause.

Horror magnified for Yumi when a bloodied figure rose from a mound of corpses. The only one in the entire camp besides Yumi that hadn’t been mangled beyond recognition. However, the longer her eyes stared the more she realized the reason. They hadn’t escaped. They were the reason.

Blood seemed to become their skin, no longer sprayed or a coat. They become one with it. Only the whites of their eyes broke the even deeper crimson color over them. Then they turned their head in the direction of Yumi, detecting her presence.

For the first time, Yumi’s body allowed her to react. She stepped back several times wanting to run. Yet even with control back, it refused her. Escape seemed impossible.

“…Yumi…” said the entity.

She shook her head not wanting to believe the sight. The voice was too familiar to her to ignore. They marched down towards her, treating the carnage the same as a child that discarded an unwanted broken toy. Yumi’s feet held her from trying to flee away. She could not believe it was him. Something was wrong. “No! No! This isn’t real! It’s all a dream! NO!”

Yumi passed out.

Blackness returned once more. It was just as endless and deep as she remembered it. Yumi didn’t know how long it had been since the world disappeared. She just wanted to stay in the void. In the void, nothing bad happened. All of the horrors she saw etched themselves into her eyes. The only peace she knew was it only existed in her mind as images.

She couldn’t calm herself down. Her body felt numb and fatigued like she had never known. The fight she experienced before didn’t compare to what she felt. She wanted it to all be a bad dream. Something was horribly, terribly wrong. Nothing made sense anymore.

Yumi didn’t know how long her mind could last. It already felt like she was slipping away. The images overwhelmed her. They became the only ones she saw. They became her reality.

She wanted to sleep.

No rest was to be for Yumi. She woke once more. Her mind was already apprehensive about what she would find. Twice before, terrible things burned her mind. She didn’t want to open her eyes anymore. She could live with the horrors already seen if it meant seeing something worse.

‘This can’t be real… can’t be real… just a dream… nothing’s real…’ She prayed for nothing to happen. It all felt too real and impossible. Yumi wished for it all to end.

“…Yumi…Yumi… …Yumi…”

The voice made her body shake. Not seeing only made things worse. Her mind constructed unsettling images. She didn’t know which was worse for her. The unseen ran purely on sounds that wormed their way through her ears and creepily caressed her mind. It gave her no chance to flee. ‘…please…no more…’

A crunch followed the sound of something breaking. Moans and screams came after painting new images inside Yumi’s mind. Less imagination was required, but it was no less horrifying to see. She considered opening her eyes.

“…Yumi…”

‘…why…it can’t be Yori! …can’t be…’ Pleads for mercy went unanswered. It followed more screaming. Yumi cried uncontrollably. She couldn’t deal with it any longer. She didn’t know what was going on with her. Nothing went the way it should.

Her eyes slid open unwillingly. She found her brother standing over some Atlantean soldier. Blood covered most of him from the gruesome work he carried out. In his hand a section of the soldier’s arm dripped blood from its roughly severed stump. The sight made her gasp loudly. “Why?!” she yelped, as the only words she could muster.

Yori slid his head over to her with an emotionless face. The sight of her awakened a light in him. “Yumi!” He spun around to face her. Blood from the arm sprayed through the air dotting Yumi’s face.

The blood made Yumi jump and crawl away from Yori. Even with his face looking more pleasant, it only seemed to make his presence unsettling. She ran into something that stopped her. Yori approached her slowly, making her want to run away. “Please…no…NO!”

“What’s wrong, Yumi? I protected you.” He swung the arm again, painting Yumi’s clothes in splotches of blood. “Just like you wanted. They won’t hurt you anymore.”

Yumi shook her head slowly, having trouble looking at her brother. “I never wanted this!” The sight of the blood from the pleading soldier on the floor made her body run cold.

He pressed his free hand down against the surface that supported Yumi. His arm ran next to her face. Yori lowered his head down to her. “You have nothing to fear anymore. It’s all been taken care of.”

She never thought that her brother could scare her so much. He never carried such a dark presence before. It didn’t seem like him. It had to be a dream. Yumi pressed her back further wanting to hide from him. “…no…please, no more…”

“Not convinced?” Yori stood up and turned away for a moment. He tossed the limb in his hand to the side without a second thought. “See for yourself.” His hand stretched out above Yumi pulling something open.

Dozens of dismembered and disfigured corpses fell on top of Yumi. The weight of the bodies held her down, unable to move. Their blood soaked into her clothes weighing her down and sticking to her. She felt the cold thick liquid pouring over her body. Yumi screamed again, feeling at the breaking point. She could not take any more of it.

Every one of them stared at her. She could not ignore their eyes that blamed her. “NO! Stop it!”

Blood swam through her. It went everywhere. It took on a life of its own. Behind it all Yori looked down not even cracking from the light glow in his features as though looking fondly at something. He had the same expression he always went looking at his sister, caring and looking out for her as family. However, it no longer suited him. It was wrong.

Her screaming continued as the blood crawled up her neck. It surrounded her. Death chained her to the floor, keeping her still. No one would save her. Blood filled her hair and surrounded her face. It poured in covering her eyes, which she could not close. The metallic smell filled her nose before she could not take air in anymore. It spilled into her mouth, choking her and drowning her.

Everything went blank.

Through crimson sight, her brother suddenly fell into pieces, sliced too many times to count. His blood sprayed everywhere. Though he did something so terrible her heart still skipped at the sight. Behind him another figure appeared. It reached out a hand to her. They pulled her free of everything. All of the weights disappeared.

She was clean.

Her body ran, following them. Her hand held tightly onto them. It all faded away. She didn’t know who saved her. “…thank you…”

They turned their head back towards Yumi. “I’ll always protect you, Yumi,” replied Yuki. “You have nothing to fear anymore.”