What We Left Behind

Chapter Eight: In Which He Makes A Deal With The Devil

"You are living two lives, Erix," the woman whispered, looming over his face. 

She reached out and gently touched his forehead. 

Her touch was cold and unexpected and thus, hella soothing on his sweaty face, but he jerked away from it like a plague. It also felt foreign. 

He pressed back on the ground, breathing heavily and loudly both at this strange incident taking place, and the pain in his knee growing steadily. 

All around them the guards and the castle walls had vanished, in its place being just an open field with long trimmed grass. He was lying on the mud. The clear blue sky overhead felt like an illusion at that time. 

"Who are you?" He asked in a croaky voice, staring at the woman with a frown on his face. 

"My name is Ludivine," she smiled warmly. Her white hair glinted in the sunlight, the glitter reflecting its glow on her face. "And I'm willing to tell you what is happening with you." 

Erix was susceptible. Obviously, he wanted to ask this woman and get the answer she was giving him, but he wouldn't so easily. He wouldn't put in the blind faith. Everyone knew how well that worked out. 

"What is happening with me?" He asked, carefully not to let any kind of desperation trickle into his vocie which could warn her of how scared he felt. 

"I just told you, you're living two different lives. In two different realms, at the very same time." 

His forehead scrunched up, and he tried to sit up on the ground with difficulty, every figment of his body burning. He noticed that his bandaged knee was still bloody. Of course, who would clean it? He himself had done this stupid work. 

Once he had sat up completely, though, he jut stared at the woman and asked in a wobbly voice, "Am I dead?" 

The woman chuckled. She had a sweet laugh, he noticed.

"You're not dead," she said "But you're dying. When you're in this world, your dying in the other. And when you're living and breathing in that world, your body is rotting away here." 

It seemed like she was just ranting, because he couldn't comprehend anything. He just shook his head slowly and slightly. "Dying?" 

She nodded. "Twelve days ago, Erix. Twelve days ago you tried to kill yourself." 

His breath hitched. 

His eyes widened. 

She just offered him a smile and a shrug. 

"How do you know this?" Eric hissed, his defence mechanisms kicking up. "And—what—why're you calling me Erix?" 

"I'm sorry," she said. "Do you want me to call you Eric, which is your real name in the real world?" She paused. "Not to say that this world here is imaginary or anything. This is very much real too. Only, the connection you have to this world, is your mind and your soul. You body is still there, on earth, palpable and with your mother and your brother. And your psychiatrist." 

Obviously, having a stranger speak so clearly about you, knowing so much about your life when you hadn't even told those things to your own friends, that scared Eric. It terrified him beyond terror. He breathed out of his mouth and swallowed, then decided to wait for the woman to speak. 

It looked like she wanted to speak. 

"I know you have a hundred questions, Erix, and I am willing to answer all of them if you are willing to listen." 

She took his silence as approval. 

"Right now, in your own world from where your body is, your mother and your psychiatrist are hopeful that you will wake up. In fact, you just opened your eyes in front of them. Everything looks positive. On the other hand, in the land of Orabelle, the citizens need a ruler. This world needs you, Erix. This kingdom needs a ruler. A king. The son needs a father. The wife needs a husband."