The Weight of Exhaustion

Chapter Twenty: The Research

Apprentice knew the moment he walked into his house to see Red Leader pacing back and forth in the living room, he was in for it.

Well, that realization was behind several other more panicked thoughts, but he still did now that he was in major trouble with how Red was acting.

The door shut behind him with a click. Apprentice ignored how his legs felt shaky as he now stood in one spot.

Red jumped at the sound, head quickly snapping in his direction. Apprentice knew he wouldn't be able to lie about where he had been, for his cloak, who's hood was a puddle of fabric around his neck at the moment, would instantly give him away. That and he didn't have it in him to try and lie at the moment. He had bigger fish to fry.

"Appren-" Red got a few strides closer to him before his eyes narrowed. "Again!" Red snapped. His hair and robes were a disheveled mess, making it look like he hasn't slept in several days. "Apprentice how many...times..." His words lost their heat as the sentence went on, and Red's eyes filled with worry as he took his appearance in. "Apprentice, what happened?"

Red closed the gap between them, taking his hand and dragging him to his couch. Apprentice hated how his hand clearly shook in Red's.

Apprentice knew Red was already drawing up worst case scenarios in his head, yet Red was willing to push that aside to make sure he was okay. Yet Apprentice knew that anything Red was coming up with couldn't amount to what he learned.

"I was not seen by any Steve." He began. Technically not a lie.

"The human!?" Red started his pacing once more. "Out of everyone-"

Apprentice opened his mouth to correct the first statement, before deciding it wasn't important at the moment. "Wha- no!" Apprentice shook his head as Red turned to look at him. "Red," He took a deep breath. There was no easy way to drop this information. "Soulless has escaped."

Red's eyes went wide. "...what?" His voice was a mere whisper.

"There was lightning, and I went to make sure nobody was injured. Soulless was there. He has escaped."

The sentence seemed to jolt Red back into movement as he took a few large strides to place his hands on his shoulders as he knelt down in front of him. Apprentice realized his entire body was shaking. "Apprentice, are you positive that what you saw was Soulless."

"As positive as I am red."

Red went pale. "Were you touched? Please tell me-"

"I wasn't. I'm okay." Apprentice thought back to the scene he witnessed. Something twisted in his gut as he had an idea on who Soulless was attached to.

Maybe he could sneak a book to-

Red stood up. slipping his hands off his shoulders to continue pacing in a circle, effectively knocking his out of that train of thought. Apprentice will have to revisit that one.

"This is not good. I know you've been out more than once recently —which we will be talking about— so how have you not heard anything about this?!"

"I don't know! It's almost like they don't know what Soulless can do!"

Silence took over the room. Apprentice felt something shift in his gut. "You don't think..."

"I don't know, Apprentice." Red's shoulders dropped as he let out a sigh. "I don't know. Maybe they've forgotten after the Lost Knowledge incident. Maybe they haven't, but we need to prepare."

Apprentice nodded. "Should we tell the citizens?"

Red's head glanced at the clock on the wall. It was more morning than night. "We'll figure things out tomorrow." Red casted a glance at him. "First, both of us need rest. Unnecessary mistakes will be made if we are too tired to do our job." Apprentice nodded. "Just..." Red placed another hand on his shoulder and gave a small squeeze. "Get some rest, Explorer."