The Last Guardian || KTH

06: He, who is back

C H A P T E R 0 6

Zeila wished not to believe. 

The uncanny situation was enough to push her into the threshold of insanity. 

First she questioned if she had survived the catastrophe that stringed into existence not a few moments ago. Seeing that she was breathing just as fine, and had her heart beat against her chest with the same fervor as it used to, Zeila settled on an answer. 

The next question that plagued her mind was of his existence. The memory of him whispering the last words of life was still fresh in her mind, like a melody that she could never forget. 

"How are you even alive!" 

She takes his image all at once in her head, picturing every detail so as to not forget. Parched of his presence for long, the memories she wished to remember had long slipped into the shadows of a tragedy that wreathed her mind. 

Perhaps this would not be any different.

He had calluses bruising his hand, a tensed yet rigid posture he stood with. She noticed the tiredness his face carried masked under the liveliness of his eyes. 

Only his eyes were the same as the Taehyung she knew. Yet even they faded to a foreign thought when she observed the violet that gleamed in his eyes. 

The man who stood in front of her was different. 

"You aren't Taehyung are you?" 

Taehyung walked from the flickering darkness and stood in front of her. He seemed to have hesitated choosing to kneel in front of her. 

"I am Taehyung, but as you said, not the Taehyung you know." The scant moonlight falling on her reflected the confusion contorting her face. "What I'm about to say would be absurd to you, but you need to realize this is not to be taken lightly." 

Zeila stood baffled.  Trying to see the silver lining in his words; trying to figure out if the dots would connect. 

"I am not from this world and the world you are in isn't yours—" 

She scoffs, muscles sighing at what he had just told her. 

"I'm sure this is a sick dream and you're the grim reaper playing with me because I'm dead," Zeila stated, not knowing why she had still stood there listening. 

Was she in such pain that she envisaged this? She did dream of meeting him again, but she knew better to not delude them with what was real. Was this all just a ruse stagnated in her mind? 

"Zeila you aren't dead. Neither is this your imagination. This is real. This world is in danger and you are needed somewhere else, so you can save both your home," Taehyung rushed his words. The sternness and caution he maintained in his tone without faltering gripped Zeila. 

She wasn't sure if she was supposed to chuckle at the unlikeliness of the situation or tune both her heart and her mind to listen. 

When she glanced at him again, taking in his presence yet another time, she remembered vividly of the warmth that had slipped through the creaks of her hand. The paleness of the moon dyeing his complexion was stuck in her head like a picture. 

That was enough for her to dispel the veracity of his message. 

"You can't expect me to believe this are you?" She asked, oddly calm.

But this wasn't Zeila being calm, this was Zeila being flushed of everything and anything that she was supposed to feel. She was tired, exhausted after everything that had happened.