The Horror Saga - I̵̦̓S̸̙͊ ̷̟̇T̵̰́H̵̅͜Í̶̖S̷̢͛ ̶̩̃T̷͔̽H̴̙͗É̸͖ ̴̰̕E̵̹͐Ṋ̶̒D̸̺̀?̴̨͑

Chapter 5

Cutlery scrapes against glass plates and voices ring through the closed-in restaurant. Elan, Lucas and Ryan all sit together, staring at the menus provided.

"Ooh, I could go for some steak right now," Ryan states, eyeing the meal.

"I'm feeling for some chicken, myself," Lucas adds, before turning to Elan. "What about you, Elan?"

"I'm not hungry," Elan mumbles, dropping the menu from his hands. His face is slightly paler than usual, and both his friends give him concerned looks.

"Elan, you haven't eaten all day,"

"Yeah, and I'm not hungry." A waiter walks up to their table and asks for their order, to which Ryan takes the lead.

"I'll have the steak, cooked medium rare, he'll have the chicken and he'll have a steak too, cooked... he likes it rare."

"Alright... any drinks?" The waiter asks.

"Just water, thanks,"

"I said I'm not hungry," Elan snaps, after the waiter had walked out of earshot.

"And you're as pale as a ghost, Elan, you need some food, some meat in you," Ryan argues.

"I think I've eaten enough meat recently."

"Elan, you have to forgive yourself for that, you weren't yourself!"

"What if I can't? What if, no matter how hard I try, I can't get their faces out of my mind? You weren't there, Ryan. You don't know how much fear I caused."

The waiter returns with the men's drinks, causing Elan to fall silent. Ryan and Lucas both thank him for the water, before the waiter retreats once more. No one tries to pick up the conversation again, and Elan resorts to burying his face in his arms on the tabletop.

About half an hour passes, before three plates of food are placed on the table.

"Elan, please," Lucas reaches across the table, gently grabbing his friend's arm. "Just try to eat. If you can't finish the meal, that's fine. But just try."

Elan lifts his head, however doesn't do more than that. As Lucas and Ryan slowly begin to eat their meals, Elan merely stares at his. Three minutes pass before he picks up his cutlery, forcing himself to cut open his piece of steak. As he does, the blood from the meat oozes onto the plate.

"Oh God..." he mumbles, and as Lucas glances up, Elan covers his mouth and stands quickly from the seat, before running toward the bathroom. Lucas and Ryan instantly follow, Ryan backtracking a bit to collect their phones from the table.

The two find Elan in a stall, on the ground next to a toilet already with vomit inside and tears falling down his face. Neither say anything to him, but Lucas moves into the stall and sits opposite, grabbing one of Elan's hands in his own.

"I told you... I can't do it..." Elan mumbles, shutting his eyes tightly. "I can't un-see it."

"Elan, look at me," Lucas says firmly, as Elan obeys. "Just look at me. Tell your mind to name everything about my face, and nothing more." Elan's eyes flick around, doing as Lucas told him to and observing every single part of his face. At one point, he laughs gently. "What?"

"Nothing," Elan says, shaking his head and smiling.

"No, you're laughing at my face," Lucas states, also laughing. "What's so funny, Elan?"

"Uh, your- your chin?"

"My chin?!" Lucas exclaims, making Elan laugh harder, before looking up at Ryan. "What's wrong with my chin?!"

"Ehhh... nothin'?" Ryan responds, to which Lucas gives a shocked look.

"I can't believe you two, my chin is awesome."

As the three share the moment, Elan's phone buzzes in Ryan's hand. He sneaks a look, seeing an email. He looks away, before double-checking; the email was addressed to 'Sabre' instead of Elan.

"Dude, I think you got an email from a fan," Ryan states, gaining Elan's attention. "Can I read it?"

"Yeah sure, if you know my password," Elan responds, and Ryan instantly types in Elan's birthday.

"Got it," he navigates the phone, before opening the email and reading it through.

"Feeling better, Elan?" Lucas questions. Elan nods, wiping his eyes. The two look up though, when they hear Ryan mumble to himself. "Ryan? Something wrong?"

"Sabre, we need your help," he responds, reading the email aloud. "We must have wrongly calculated the power of the Void. Alex is still alive."

"What?" Elan and Lucas ask in unison, confused as to both the sentence and the nature of the email itself.

"We know it's risky to bring you back into our world, but there's not much we can do; us Steves aren't powerful enough to face her. We're currently hiding within the Nightmare Dimension as it's the only place we believe that Alex cannot get to. We need you, and your friends if you can bring them, please. If you get this, Nightmare Steve can ensure that you are teleported to the right place, please hurry!"

"I'm sorry, the Steves sent an email?" Elan questions.

"More importantly, they need your help," Lucas adds, facing Elan who gives him a look. "Elan, they could have easily addressed that to me, but no. They said they need your help."

"I can't go back there, Lucas. I don't want to risk hurting them more."

Elan falls silent as another walks into the bathroom, however stays away from the stalls.

"Would you rather stay here and force them to hide for the rest of their lives, or go back there and help them?" Ryan questions quietly.

"You began making friends with them to protect them, Elan!" Lucas adds. "You'd be going against everything you've worked for if you don't help them."

"I think you should go," the guy who walked in states, as he turns to wash his hands. "If you dedicated your life to doing this, it'd be wrong to back down now."

"You don't even know what we're talking about." The guy shrugs, before walking back out. Ryan and Lucas both shake their heads, before turning back to Elan.

"Fine," he says strongly. "But if something goes wrong, I'm putting you both on blame."

"We can get over that." Lucas replies, before the three get off the floor and walk themselves out of the restaurant.