Till Death Do A Spark

[Ch-4] Spectres

".TꙄAꟻ .OꙄ .TOͶ

Ñ̸̼͕̞͖͙̂͘O̴̧̡̖͇͕̮͋͆̇̂͂̐̀̇̋͝Ţ̶̼͖͍̣̲̺̐̄̐̚͝.̷̥̱̥̝̟̩͍̼̫̓̍̌ ̴̧̣͖̻͙͕̞̼́͋̉̓͌̈́̀̀͜S̴̳̱̪̗̣̰͕̑͐̋͑͋͜ͅO̷̫̩̙̦̲̭̽̉͝.̸͔̩̙̙̹̬̜̭̈́̾̈́͜ ̵̨̨̺̞͕̞̎̀̈́͂͛̇̄F̵̧̢͛̅̒Ã̸͍̤͆̔̿͆̈́͝͝Ş̷̡̱̦̰̬̠́̈́̇̎͐͘T̶̘̼̥͚̉̈́.̶͉͓̜̼͇͂

🅽🅾🆃. 🆂🅾. 🅵🅰🆂🆃.
𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝖛𝖔𝖎𝖈𝖊𝖘--"

The voices inside his head again. He'd started hearing them since they first came into this dimension, but tried to ignore it. Though, on the inside, he was scared all along, wondering if the Kicker they'd met earlier had something to do with this.

It was something far worse, something he had no idea about.

He came back to his senses soon after but almost fell and was unable to stand in a stable way. It seemed as if he's lost almost all his energy.

Staring from behind many people was a shadowy figure. What or who was that ? Everything was so confusing. Just few seconds ago, everything was fine, and--

"No, the whispers.."

"地獄"
"尖叫"
"哭"
"幫助"
[ＳＣＲΣΛＭI N G ]

Wang Lei straightened abruptly, feeling as if he regained all his energy and was ready.... to run. The voices, they were not safe-- He knew something really bad was going on. He probably knew something. Or he thought he knew. Something important definitely happened when he'd been too busy thinking of "unimportant stuff", according to him. But he couldn't recall. In the middle of thinking of all this, he noticed a sillhoutte of 'something' rushing behind Yuxuan and Xiao within a millisecond. All he said after that, was... "RUN!" 
Without warning, he grabbed both the guys' arms, ran faster than he ever did before, and stopped running only when he started feeling a little safer. 

"Uhm.. Can I get an explanation as to what's going on?" asked Xiao. Yuxuan only looked at Lei as if he had the same question.
"There was.. something. I felt  something there. It seemed.... unsafe, so I.."
"Calm down. Take some time to compose yourself and then you can explain." Yuxuan patted Lei's back. He could see the fear in his eyes. Somehow, it started scaring him too. He just tried to compose him.
So then, taking a deep breath and gathering himself, he finally started speaking. "I think I saw an unfriendly creature. Or two. These few days, I've been hearing voices inside my head. Screaming, crying, and.. words like 'Hell', 'scream', 'cry', 'help'....Sometimes, I can hear screams.. It's all so bizzare, and.. I don't know how to explain it, but, something like.. As I hear those words, I keep feeling powerless. It's like I'm slowly losing my energy and sanity."

Someone came up from behind, and started speaking.
"Oh, poor you.... I think it's the Dreamsiphons. They're slightly or much worse than Kickers, depending on how you see it. Not too many people know about them yet. " It was a woman who seemed like she was in her 20s, around the age of Lei and the other guys. She seemed mysterious. Bangs covering half her face-- Her eyes would've almost not been visible if they weren't emerald green. She had this.. kind of "aura" which made her seem very powerful, but not intimidating at all. Rather, she seemed trustworthy.

Yuxuan seemed dumbfounded, staring at her for two minutes straight but then finally coming back to his senses. 
"How do you know about Kickers? Are there Kickers in this dimension, or..?"
"No, there aren't. But I've been to your dimension. It's kind of one of the most unique ones I've been to. It's a nice dimension, I buy my potions from there sometimes." The woman answered, almost instantly. Then, she extended her hand, looking at all of them.
"Hello! I'm Sai, a witch. I'm from a different dimension too, but recently, I've been exploring all these other cool ones. My most favourite is definitely this, because of the surroundings." she paused and spoke again, "I loved how the fishes looked so cheerful before, but sadly, nowadays they're just dying. I can't bear to see it, but I'm staying in this dimension for some hope that it'll be okay soon."

All of the guys shook her hand except Yuxuan. And she waited and waited. Didn't move her hand one bit. Finally, getting annoyed at her patience, Yuxuan shook her hand.

"So, what's the deal with.. those things.. whatever they're called ?" he asked.
"Dreamsiphons?" Sai asked back.
"Yeah, them."
"They have the power to stick onto someone weak. They make the person experience things they fear, and drain their energy."
"So basically, they're feeding off of Lei?"
"Uh.. right. The guy with brown hair, right ?"
"Yeah, him." he replied, slightly annoyed again.

Sai paused for a while, and finally, spoke again, this time turning to Lei.
"You have to NOT PANIC at times like these. Trust me, even if you do keep panicking, keep telling yourself things like: 'Everything's fine!' or 'Everything's great!'. Hold on to those thoughts."

"Thank you." 

Though Lei seemed to trust her, Yuxuan was clearly suspicious. He kept questioning her or getting annoyed at her.

"What's in your dimension ?"
"Just a 'seemingly normal' world. There's magic, but it's being hidden by the people who know about magic. Something like.. Yeah, Harry Potter. If you even know that. I once went to a dimension and gained some friends who loved watching that show and I watched along with them. Honestly, it's alot like our world."
"You talk alot. Can't you answer within a sentence or something?"
"Sorry, can't do!" she started to seem slightly mad, not having taken that kindly, but then started smiling in a silly way.

Feeling frustrated just speaking to her, Yuxuan stopped, and there was a silence for two minutes straight, which was broken by Xiao. He inquired, glancing at each of them, "What now?"
"You guys do have a shelter, right ?" asked Sai.

"Yes," he answered.

Simultaneously, Lei and Yuxuan said, "We don't."

"Come with me." was her only reply.

"How can we trust you ?" Yuxuan asked, becoming irritated once more.

"Shut up and come along or die here in this water."

"Yeah, whateve.. DIE ?"

"It's almost midnight and it's not safe out here at that time." she says, casually.

"Why ?" he asks, seeming even more agitated now.

"I'll explain later. Now come on you bozo."

Sighing, he turned to face Lei, and nodded, signaling that they can leave with her. They all began to walk together after that, but all of a sudden, Sai turned around to face them, stopping. "Stand. still."

Following her instructions, they stood still. She pulled out a wand from somewhere within the midnight blue cloak she was wearing, and waved it at them. Instantly, they were now wearing gowns and female wigs. How shocked, mad and embarrassed Yuxuan looked. And Lei was the complete opposite. He said, "This is fun." and started spinning around in a sarcastic graceful manner while Yuxuan looked down, boiling in rage and embarrassment. Sai finally started explaining, not being able to control her laughter when looking at Yuxuan but slightly feeling bad too. "I'm sorry for this. Dreamsiphons usually feed on men for some unknown reason, so I made you guys look like females."

Hearing that didn't change a thing for Yuxuan. "You could've told us this before doing that."

"Well, that wouldn't be such a smart choice, considering there are.. around atleast hundred Dreamsiphons here."

Both of the guys were in shock. A hundred  Dreamsiphons ? They had no idea, and they didn't even feel any sort of negative energy. But Sai did. After all, she was a witch. And Yuxuan was so unnerved that he didn't even argue. Instead, he asked, "Are you sure we're utterly, definitely, completely safe for now?"

"Yep, as of now. As long as you guys don't ask me to change you back out of those gowns due to drowning in your own embarrassment."

"As embarrassing as this is, the situation is too complicated. Better be safe than sorry." was Yuxuan's reply, and Lei didn't even bother to say anything. He was still occassionally spinning around in his gown, enjoying himself.

"I'm actually surprised that the devil's child—" Sai couldn't even finish as Yuxuan covered her mouth and interrupted her.
"It's nothing. She didn't say anything important." he said in a serious voice, looking at Lei, who seemed confused. He hadn't heard anything.

Relieved, he sighed. Then, the both of them suddenly realized they were inside someone's house. They looked around, and as they did, Sai spoke in a low voice. "This is my house. I teleported you guys. Feel free to explore, but do not touch my potions." After that, she vanished into thin air.