Max and the adventure

Chapter 18 .grief

Some people would ask how it feels to be in a colorless world, it honestly doesn't make a difference. Death is permanent here, or is it. „do you remember this place too, Frank?" i ask thinking about the time we died here.„I remember this place a little, like i remember Moonchester and some of the fairies, but i don't remember much." Frank answers. After that we just sit there in silence. „i still can't believe Lilath died, do you?" I ask Frank, close to crying „it sounds like an outlandish idea, killing off the one female in the story, but here we are." Frank answers staring off into the distance through one of the holes in the dark castle. The silence of the wind is louder than use as we stare  off into the distance. I go outside to Her grave. „what doyou think we should do?..." i cry. I wish there would be a whisper of her spirit here, but thats not the case, she's dead. I should have taken the shot, Ray shouldn't have missed, I should be dead, its all my fault. My tears slowly form a puddle on the ground. „Why was luck not on your side, why did you have to die?" I ask crying. I  go through my backpack and find my map of this place. Looking at it and comparing it to how it was back when i was a kid, there are many different  differences, like there is way more empty space nowadays  where there ones where towns and places were. I notice that the snow town is still on the map, so this world is probably more empty than this map is telling me.

„I have saved this world more than a Thousand times in the past, I have seen all my allies, all my friends, everyone I ever cared about die here over and over, and yet, there's her, a stranger compared to them hurts the most! Heck, I've seen Frank die here before, many many times, but this? This hurts the most." I say not understanding my tears. Not understanding the permanence of real death. I don't know anything anymore about me. Frank seems to listen to me and walks up to me.„what do you mean?" He asks not remembering any of that.„of course you don't remember that. I wish i wouldn't know how death feels like, but i do!" I get a little out of control.„Max" frank hugs me and i hug him. At first it took a little to let him in, but now we hug, crying into eachothers arms in the noon silence. It was silent except for the occasional dropping of tears that hits the ground. Many moments pass, but time doesn't, we are just hugging each other because we need that comfort. Despite the comfort we are giving each other, the world stays grey. I didn't think that would work and i guess i was right. We go back inside After the hug. We still have all of Lilath's stuff.„ Why does this hurt so much?" i ask crying. I miss her so much, but that feeling doesn't make sense. I Barely knew her, but it hurts so much.

Why is any of this happening? Why am i in this place i thought was fictional, which then gets me a stupid reason not to leave immediantly, then gets me a good reason to stay and then kills the reason a week later by the stupid reason. Sounds like a reasonable life. Why did Ray even kill her, i know he wasn't himself in that moment, he wouldn'jt have just run away. "Max?", it is frank. He goes up to me and sits down, while looking down at the ground.„Hey Frank..." i say becoming silent after i say it. He looks me in the eye, not intimidating or anything, just looking. Its hard to tell his expression for some reason. „Luck has never been or our side, right?" Frank chuckles after saying that, probably trying to lighten the mood, which is working a little. „Im sorry! Im sorry for everything, for us getting stuck, to flirting with your boyfriend to-" „how do you know?"Frank asks me ankwardly. "That Ray is your boyfriend? Please, i can tell when two are dating, that is also the reason any of this happened." I say coming back to myself. "Isnt that why any of this nonsesnse is happening? You and Ray wanted to come out as gay to me, perfect plan: you sneak into my house like you've always done, put a convinient map to Ray's house and make me go there like a sims character!" "But i thought you didn't know, thats what you said in your diary-" "You read my diary!?" Im furious, i trusted him, i never read his little diary he did for a year back in the day. "Have you been Snooping into my ither stuff too?!" I feel betrayed, i know he keeps breaking into my house to give me stuff, that has been something he does a lot, so i don't question that. But reading my diary?! Frank looks at me in a way i can tell he's regretting it. "It was Lilath's idea-" "how do you think i'll believe you, if you keep lying to me?! Why do you think your lies will work?!" Im sick of his damn lies. "But thats not a lie. Im sorry..." i look at frank with a confused look: "you are apoligizing?" I can tell his apoligy is genuine. Frank hugs me. I was up to fight him, but not hug him. "You arent tricking me, are you?" All my senses are telling me to run, but i have no idea if i should trust him now, after everything. "Im not." Frank says in a weirdly genuine tone. "Youre the reason she's dead!" I say as i feel my senses making me question things. "Are you there Max ?" Frank asks seemingly worried. "What are you talking about? Youre the one that lost it!" I don't feel like myself. "I... need some space!" I run into the forest nearby as Frank follows me yelling: "max! Are you crazy?! The forest is dangerous!" I don't listen and run deeper into the woods. Frank hesitantly follows me to try and get me out of there. The colors get darker and darker until im unable to see anything. The woods is dark. It is unlike anything in the color bombing that surrounds it. All sound gets sucked and every attempt to speak end up getting swallowed."max" franks voice sounds like a whisper, i try to get out of the woods but im unable to. The darkness is swallowing the woods with no mercy. Every living being that inhabitated this woods is dead now. Except me and Frank. It feels as if time is distorting around everything. It feels like the world tries to save me, but the darkness is strong. Now im back in the purple forest i was days ago. "Wha- wait im here again?!" I get up from the ground and rub the blue dirt of my clothes. My hoodie has a lot of dirt and is quite dirty, my pants arent much better, but i digress. I hear a noise, a whoosh, something is here i can't help but try find it. Then all of the sudden i hear Lilath calling from me, her voice is behind this plane of existance, but i can hear it faintly. I try to get to her, but im unable to. Its unfair! She shouldn't have died! I should have been the one dropping dead! Im crying this is torture. I just want her to live. Frank finds me and hugs me:"please Max! I love you! I always have!" i blush. We hug for a while. After a while of going through the forest We somehow get back to the broken dark castle. It is more vibrant than the void we had to experience. Moonchester is waiting for us, he looks worried:"Where have you been?! I thought you might have got kidnapped, is everything alright!?" We explain to him that now things are better. I don't know why we stay here at this point. Ray got brainwashed by the bad guy, we lost, lilath is dead. But there has to be something, right? Surely we can't just leave this broken world. The fairies are dead, thats something i've not wanted to confront, but the fairy garden is burned down, thats probably what led to the downfall of this entire world. I didn't even want to write it in, which led to me nearly ripping the page off, but i digress. Maybe there is hope, but probably not. So anyway, "Frank, lets get into bed" i say as i give Frank a big hug. "But its not dark yet, max" he says calmly. "How about i show you something sad here?" I say. I mean the burned down fairy garden, i want to at least show someone it, cause its not a great place to be now. But i digress. It takes us a while to get to the burned down garden, its very depressing, the burnt down trees, the lack of greenary, it isn't the first thing when you think of a garden. "I don't even want to know what happened here..." frank does not seem to like it here, which is understandable. "I know, its not pleasant, to say the least..." when i first arrived here it was flashing with colors, but the more im here the less colorful the places that we find get. Frank looks at the statues of fairies: "are those real fairies turned to stone, or just rotting decoration?" "Im not quite sure, frank, could be either way." Frank's question makes me think, it could be petrified fairies, that would explain their scared expressions and lack of dead bodies here, but i remember some of these statues from back when. I find a small hut, it seems to be the only one that survived the fire. I open the crooked wooden door, its quite moist. Inside is an abondamned looking home, with just a bed frame and an empty shelf, it looks raided. There are dirty footprints everywhere, the wallpaper is barely holding onto the wall and it doesn't smell great. Frank follows me in: "well well well, this looks familier..." he is referring to an old hut we found in the woods near his house when we were kids. "It really is familier..." we just stand there in silence, looking at things in the room, which, there aren't lot of things to look at, its a pretty small room in comparison to the treasure room of the other dark castle, The one i have not been going into, despite the fact im supposed to and destroy the red crystal. There has been just a lot that got me distracted from that. "I have an idea" i say to Frank who looks at me: "and what idea is that? Somehow freing the fairies if they are petrified? Bringing Lilath back? Somehow bringing this place to an end?" "Yes. If what i know of this world tells me is true, then all of those things can be achieved by my idea." "What is the idea?" "We're going back to the other dark castle and we are without a doubt going to destroy the red crystal, with that we should be able to reverse a lot of damage" "thats why you've been quiet, you've thought about this journey, haven't you?" He says with a light chuckle as he looks at me. Im still able to tell he doesn't like this burnt down garden, but he is still himself. "I have. There are a lot of things that didn't make sense when they first happened, but now, most make more sense. "You know, max, i've thought about what this world truly is, and now i've figured it out. Its your imagination. This world will cease to exist when you die." "I know..." i truly knew that, it was just something it was just something i don't want to confront. Its time to get to the crystal.

TO BE CONTINUED