Time Shift

Chapter 8

Faerite woke up, but what she saw was not normal. Everywhere, she saw purple. In the place she was in, the walls looked purple and the floor looked purple. There were no colours present to distinguish from purple here. Though, there were different tones of purple she could tell. The limp bodies below here were a darker purple. She didn't take the trouble to even look at the bodies. Even her hands were purple. She got up and walked around. At the end of the room, she saw a purple body with its head hanging low from its neck, apparently held by what they looked like were purple ice traps. She pulled her right hand back and the traps came off, causing the body to fall to the ground. Faerite made the traps disappear into the air and walked toward the body.

"Looks like time froze," She said as she examined the body's face.

It was Emilia.

"Oh, shit! What do I do?" Faerite said to herself as she checked her pulse without looking at her chest rise and fall.

She was still alive and she was grateful for it. She then left Emilia there and moved towards the mess of bodies. She identified each one. Only Ermine was bleeding from his face. It was just a minor injury, though. She couldn't do anything for now. But she wanted to know what happened.

She also realised that her time shifter was gone. She started to panic, squatting down and breathing hard and fast while screeching in between each breath. She would blame herself forever if she found out that Joy was dead, not to mention, murdered. By a protector.

She gathered her thoughts and stood up, then went over to Emilia and tried to shake her awake. Even with a vigorous attempt, she failed. She tried it on Conor, but he couldn't wake up as well. Then she went onto Cert, but she failed too. She didn't bother trying Ermine because she was already disappointed from the previous results. Joy was her priority now. She went to the entrance, not knowing what would happen. When she stepped onto the platform, she started to float in air, then she was launched up. She looked up and saw the platform and screeched while closing her eyes, but she didn't crash into it. The platform simply opened up and let her slip by and land on a step of the staircase.

"Alright," Faerite mumbled to herself.

She walked up the stairs and the duration took at least an eternity, like before, even though it didn't make much sense, and she finally emerged from the basement. Suddenly, she saw a world of purple fire, engulfing the world around her except the metal base behind her. In her opinion, it looked like a bomb shelter to her. The purple fire seemed far away, like it was on the horizon. There were no buildings at all. The land she was on was a bleak and grassless moor. Even if the fire was far, she started to panic again.

"Okay, calm down. It's just an illusion," Faerite said. "Calm! The! Fuck! Down!"

She saw a figure in the far distance, walking around without a sense of direction. It looked humanoid, but it definitely wasn't human. She probably saw this from a movie, or a game. Yes, it was definitely a game. They just lashed out at you with all kinds of melee attacks, and when Faerite was a child, she loved playing those kinds of games, where she shot with the character's assault rifle and using psychic powers to kill them off. They were like husks of flesh that had no humanity and rationality inside. Abominations that were annoying when they surrounded her character, really. She guessed that they too could slip through the time barrier.

She stepped forward to see what it was, only to find out that the husk was actually a human. A man, in fact, still walking without any sense of direction. Now, he started flailing his arms in a wild manner. Faerite frowned, then turned her head and saw more figures that had their arms flailing around in a feral fashion. And soon, the men surrounded her, just like the abominations in the sci-fi game she had played.