The Army of Minds

Chapter 5

Skich was frozen.

It was dead silent, not the slightest sound. Not the bristle of the trees, the lapping of water, the hubbub of the city or even that sharp sound you hear in your ear every now and then.

What... Who was that?

He thought.

I'm in the vessel you ran away from.

It replied. Skich's heart was basically trying to rip out of his chest. He was shaking so much, his legs started to burn. The colour in his face left a long time ago and he now looked like a ghost. Lips dry and eyes wide. The dread he was feeling was extraordinary. Reading about it or seeing someone feel dread in movies was one thing, but feeling it himself was another. He didn't like this. No. Not at all, everything about this moment feels off. None of this should be happening.

Skich stood frozen there for some time. His eyes fixated on the thing at the table. His partner was still there, clearly too fearful to move an inch. Jacob would occasionally switch his gaze between the two, still with a frown and unblinking. Since his eyes turned, he hadn't opened his mouth once.

Until now.

"The one you call Jacob isn't here anymore." It said. That voice. Was it the voice of a thousand men or the voice of one, was it screaming or whispering... That voice, so soft yet so full of wrath. Indeed it was terrifying to man. How could they comprehend such. The voice of another realm is not something you hear everyday.

Skich dared not to say a word. In fact he felt as if it would be rude if he did. The sheer magnitude of the base and authority of 'Jacob's' voice was something that couldn't be created anywhere. This was simply terrifying.

"You fear me?" a rhetorical question with the same incomprehensible voice. This time the frown deepened and it shook its head. Skich could then see Brigh's arms fall limp to his sides and his head fell back. He'd passed out. How convenient. Now he was left with this... this thing. As if it couldn't get any worse, it fixed it's eyes on Skich alone now. It just stared, for what felt like forever.

"Come and sit down... it's you who I need to talk to." it boomed. Meanwhile every fibre in Skich's being was wishing he was dead. Anything was better than this. He couldn't stop thinking about how much he just wanted to pass away at this moment.

"Unfortunately I can't do that." it responded.

Skich remained planted. His breathing was quick inhales of air and his chest was pounding. Nothing would make him get any closer to 'Jacob'. There was an eery pressure that he felt emanating from him anyway.

What is this? This surely cannot be real.

Skich thought.

"I'll have you know you're not alive, but you're not dead either. " It said. " quite frankly, right now you don't exist."

The words pierced through Skich like a poisoned arrow. He couldn't comprehend it, but it wasn't that that made him fear even more. It was the fact that Skich believed it. The way everything was playing out as of right now proved it. He couldn't feel the sun and he could literally hear his heart pumping blood, a padded wet squishy sound.

"You're between the ripple. Everything that will happen has happened and is still yet to happen. We're out of the loop you call time... A place no one's been before. I asked Him to use here because it was urgent." It said, the voice reaching Skich's core. "I needed to speak to you Skich. We would've met soon anyway but this only works if you're alive. "

Again, the words ate at Skich's insides.

Alive?

He thought.

Jacob gave Skich a questionable look.

"You still haven't figured it out yet?" it said. For the first time in this situation Skich moved. He shook his head ever so slightly from side to side. Jacob removed the frown from his face and showed a face of genuine pity.

"Since we're out of the loop, I can say this clearly. " it said, eyes fixed on Skich's. " Skich Abringer, you are soon to be dead. But since we're between the ripple of reality and outside time, we can say that you are going to die, you have died and are dying. I can't change that, man has authority in this place and I also don't have the authority to change that, only He does. "

At this point Skich feels nothing. Nothing makes sense and he believes he surely won't understand it. But one thing does linger in his mind, a question. Something he needs to ask. So he asked it.

"What... are... you?" his voice was so low, a normal person would not have heard it at all, but this wasn't a normal person... Was it even a person?

"I'm the one you've been researching about for all these years, the one you couldn't understand and the one you couldn't find, " as it carried on, Skich's eyes widened as he came to the agonisingly obvious realisation. " I'm the gift from above. The ones long before you gave me a name. The one I've gone by ever since I was first used. I am Dorath."

Dorath. The name rang in Skich's head.

No... no... no no no no. It's happening again then, the an-

"No!" it boomed. Louder than it was before. "I am not here to do unto you what I did on that day. There's a reason I did what I did that day. Believe me, it was the best course of action. There's a lot you do not understand, but I'll bestow onto you the understanding you so desperately desire. "

Weirdly enough upon hearing that, Skich began to loosen up just a little bit. His shoulders fell down and that weird sound in his chest eased up after some time. Although he wasn't as tense, he didn't step closer to the table.

Jacob just sat there. Ironically he acted as if he had all the time in the world. His face expressionless, even after shouting in a million voices... or was it one? Nonetheless he glared at Skich, almost as if he could see the engines running in his head making the decision to come to him.

"Why me?" Skich finally asked. The question came from a place of fear mixed with wonder. For the first time Jacob smiled. Fortunately the smile made him look less of a creepy being.

"Why?" Jacob pondered. " a word human beings just love to use. A word that brings forth questions with the intention of understanding. You've questioned everything and have reaped great rewards in your understanding, until now you've questioned the very being that made reality. With this reality He added a speck of dust, I'm sure you can guess what that speck is... The mistake comes when you ask the question, 'Why?' to something that cannot be understood. Something beyond even the spectrum of possibility. "

Skich remained still and silent. So Jacob continued.

"There is no answer to your question. There is no understanding in what you're about to do. In fact I urge you to drop that human concept of 'why?' because He is not a human concept." Jacob said. His arms were spread out in the air and his smile wide as ever.

"I don't understand..." Skich said, still in a low tone.

"Good, then you'll make it easier."

Something red ran down from Jacob's nostrils. Blood. It came out slow, Jacob brought his hand to his face to touch it and examined what was on his finger with those pearls in his head. He sighed in brief annoyance.

"Human beings are significantly weak. This vessel cannot hold me for much longer, so I plead with you, come and let me tell what you need to know."

Jacob did seem a bit on edge now. Now in a place where time didn't exist, Jacob was fighting the clock. It all depended on what Skich would do.

So ever so slowly Skich took the first step towards Jacob. A path he chose that would change his consciousness forever.