"W-what are you sa-"
"Kid! Sorry, Lifes. Please just listen to me.
'Ts been a long journey for me. I'm tired kid... Never thought this chase after knowledge would end. But now you're here."
I put a hand forward, signaling him to stop.
"Wait Jake, I don't understand what you're saying. Not in the weird quotes way either. What are you talking about?!"
"Kid, there's something you'll learn about me once you meet that girl again" does he mean master Kiyoko? "I'm too much of a coward to tell you that right now. All I ask is you trust me, could you do that for me, Lifes?" I was about to protest again, but something about this man just throws me off. I can't quite understand why but I can't help but feel a strong desire to help him.
"Jake, I'll take the notebook and the sword.
There's something my master used to tell me before, I don't understand why, it just feels correct when I think about you.
It feels like I need to tell you this. 'When a ghost of the past comes to haunt you, don't run away, confront it with all your might, only then will you find tranquility."
There was just silence in the room, even with all the noise Viktor and George made as they packed up our things, there was pure silence.
I couldn't figure out Jake's expression. Even an expert like me couldn't. I just know that something overwhelming is trying to burst out of me now that I've said it.
"Sh-She re..reme-mbered...! Yoko, this poor tortured soul." Jake's eyes started welling up and he collapsed to his knees.
"Jakeoo! What's going on Boyo, why's Jakeoo crying?!"
"Aggh I- I-" Shit, why am I so overwhelmed?! If I try to speak I'll just end up crying as well.
My chest felt tight, my eyes felt watery and the air was thicker, thoughts of my dead mother flashed in my head, all the times I wondered and asked Kiyoko about my parents.
Kiyoko's training about constant mantra recitings also came flooding in.
"J-j-j ak-e" I can't do it, I can't speak.
Jake suddenly pushed Viktor's hand to the side and rose to his feet.
He grabbed my shoulders and pulled me in for a deep hug. I wanted to protest and move away, but instead all I did was just... cry.
I couldn't hold it in anymore, the tightness in my chest relented all of a sudden, giving way to a stream of warm, liquid butterflies that ran through my body and made me feel weak.
"K-kid! If you ever confront Yoko 'bout your issues with her" Issues? I'm feeling lightheaded. I can't even understand what he's talking about.
"Just know, for what it's worth, your father is eternally grateful to his childhood friend!"
Father? What?! What's going on?
"Jakeoo, is it rea-"
"SHUT UP VIK! Stay out of it! I can't hold it in anymore! Yoko, she used her Seal to make Lifes recite my own quote back to me.
Yoko is trying to teach me what I taught her all these years ago!"
"Wait, Jake, what do you mean by father? Why am I feeling so overwhelmed right now? what's going on?!" I asked in-between sobs.
"Lifes, that's the name of the child my wife gave birth to 20 years ago. A child with violet eyes, just like hers, or so I heard. You are that child." Jake is my father? Is that why I've been feeling this strange attraction to him?
YOU ARE READING
A Lifes Journey
FantasyThe power of a word could make the impossible, possible. In a world filled with the sealed meaning of language, words hold greater power. Lifes, the young assassin deals with the darkness of his past and the ghosts of regret that follow him as he le...
