Alive

Ch. 10 Odd

The field of wheat felt somewhat peaceful as I began walking closer to the tree again, but as I remembered the last time I was in the field, I said out loud "Hey! Uh... unknown entity... thing? Before you decide to send me away again, what's going on?" I felt the familiar breeze of wind from the first time and I heard it whisper "Fine." Suddenly, I felt like my whole body was grabbed by a pair of invisible hands and I was brought to the tree faster by the unknown phenomenon; my feet were dragged on the dirt and it felt somewhat unpleasant. When I was at the tree, it looked bigger than I thought. I looked around the other side of the tree and saw a woman with blonde hair, wearing a white dress, has a tall, skinny body, and she looked somewhat similar to Uma Thurman. "You get two questions, but then I'll have to send you back. I can only keep you here for a certain amount of time." I had to think, but only one question came to mind, I asked "What's the deal with sending me early? That was literally 5 seconds, but I'm still here!" At the time, the woman was gently fiddling with a white daisy and she said "I was unprepared, it was your first time dying and I didn't have all of the answers yet. You have one last question." I felt my face get hot in anticipation and then I said "Who are you?" The woman let out a sigh and said "I figured you were going to say that. Ok, I am Mariah Young. You could say I'm some sort of... gentle deity." The woman turned the white daisy she was holding into a butterfly as she spoke. "You don't know me, but I know your parents. We met when you were still just a baby, your parents needed me to protect you. I know you can't ask why, but I'll tell you. Your parents made many dark enemies before you were born, so much that one found you in your previous household and forced you to move." The dots began to connect in my head and my jaw was wide open in surprise. Mariah continued "I help by resurrecting you, Brian. I can only do it 5 times per year, every year until you finally want to die. The environment helps you remember how many lives you have left." It made sense because the tree lost 2/5 of its leaves, I originally thought it was 1/4 because of the angle I was at, and my armor was missing both of my guards for my arms. "That was your parents deal with me, as long as they had to complete a task for me. They have to... find and kill 'The Devil Child' permanently. It's even the whole reason they moved to Hometown; the Devil Child is there." My mind was blown! The reasons for leaving seemed legitimate, but I found it hard to believe it, despite what I'm going through right now. Then Mariah stood up and faced me, she said "I'm afraid it's time for you to go now, Brian. I'm glad to have met you again." Before I could say anything, I began to fall into a hole again and return to life.

I opened my eyes and saw that my head was on Susie's lap, she would've saw me wake up if she wasn't asleep. I looked at myself and saw that my body has been completely healed, but my armor is still broken. I looked to the left of me and saw Lancer taking a selfie with my, now revived, body, Kris digging a grave with Lancer's bucket from earlier, and Ralsei looks like he's researching a possible resurrection spell. I was baffled at the fact that Susie would have my corpse lay on her lap, it made me think she still secretly cared, I was her first friend after all. I sat up, crossed my legs like Susie, and I tapped her shoulder, I was ready to talk. Susie wasn't wanting to wake up and said "Go away, Kris." I chuckled and I shook her shoulder this time, Susie said "Kris, I swear, if you don't-" Susie looked and saw me sitting next to her. Susie began to freak out at the sight of me alive and I just chuckled. Susie calmed down and got excited to see me; she hugged me and exclaimed "Brian! Oh my god, you're ok! You're alive! You're..." Susie thought for a moment and then looked me dead in my eyes as she said "Wait, how though? This better not be some joke, ok? We were all sure that you were dead! I fucking bawled my eyes out!" Susie shook me as she spoke and I said "I. Ate. Food. At. The. Last. Second!" Susie stopped shaking me and said "Why did it take almost 10 minutes for you to come back like this?!" I took Susie's hands off my shoulder's and stood up, soon Susie did the same and the rest of my friends began to walk over to me. I said "It must have finally digested! Look, the point is, I'm ok!" Even to this day, I still found it bizarre that monster food heals me and others. Ralsei spoke to me next and said "You were lucky, Brian! This resurrection spell I found would've made you a talking head!" Then Lancer spoke out loud "Aw man, so I was actually taking selfies of my enemy's 'living' body, oh well. It's still really cool that I saw Susie beat you, orange boy!!" Kris was next to approach me and they had a smirk on their face, I said "Were you scared to have thought I was dead, Kris?" They nodded, then I said "Don't worry. I'll try not to do something similar to this situation again." Kris hugged me and I was surprised by it; soon after, everyone else hugged me and made me claustrophobic. I said "Guys, please, you can stop hugging. You're making me claustrophobic." Lancer was confused and said "What does that mean?" Susie decided to be funny and said "It means he's afraid of Santa Claus!" I exclaimed "No it doesn't!" Then Lancer yelled "Ho ho ho!" I was unamused and said "It's not working." Lancer then got disappointed and everyone disbanded the hug. Ralsei said "Susie... are you still wanting to be a bad guy?" Ralsei looked uncertain while speaking to Susie. Susie thought for a moment and slowly had a smirk appear on her face, she said "oh ok, sure. I'll be a good guy again." Then Lancer blurted out "Me too!" Ralsei was surprised to hear Lancer day that and said "What?! Why?! You said you were the bad guy! Why change sides now?" Lancer stood in a proud pose and said "I like Susie! She's so cool! I know that whichever side she joins, it's the winning side!" Ralsei looked at me and Kris for approval, I gave a nod and Kris gave a thumbs up. Ralsei looked back at Lancer and said "Ok, you can join us!" Lancer was happy to hear what Ralsei said and replied "Yay! Lancer joins the 'Fun Gang'! Will we get jackets?" Susie was the one to answer the question and she said "Of course!" Lancer was even more excited now.

My friends and I moved forward on the path with Kris leading, it made me think that Lancer was right, Kris is kind of like our leader. While walking, Susie was behind me and tapped me on my shoulder, she whispered "Hey, Brian. Do you..." Susie blushed "remember what I said back there? When you were about to die." I had no idea what Susie was trying to say, did she apologize to me earlier or did she have some sort of secret? I would've known if I just lasted a few more seconds. I decided to act dumb and said "Yeah, I heard you." Susie blushed an even darker color of purple and said "You did?! Oh... ok... uh..." she mumbled "God, I hate the these feelings." Then said out loud "What do you think?" I still had no idea what she was talking about, but it sounded like she had a crush on me. I thought "Does Susie like me?! As in, like like me?! Holy fuck! Why?! Sure, I'm her only friend that she likes and the only one who showed a lot of affection the first time we decided to become friends... and..." I remembered how bad I made her blush when I first put my hands on her, I continued to think "She got really flustered when I touched her, I told her that I cared and was concerned for her, I was the only one she wanted to go to dinner with, and... why dinner? We go to the same school, why not lunch...? Unless she... planned to be romantic...! Oh wow, Susie has a crush on me! I'm surprised that she still does, even after what I did to her back at the alley when she asked for money. Oh man, but here comes the real question. Do I like Susie? Well, she does have beautiful eyes. She looks attractive, even for a monster. I do have a soft spot for tough girls. The teeth bother me, but I could live with that. Her hair is messy and unkempt, but it could be improved. It seems like being Susie's lover could be what Susie really needs right now, just someone to be there for her and care a lot. It is decided, I'll accept Susie's love." As I was about to admit my feelings to Susie, we were nearly at the castle and Lancer said "Hey guys, before we continue, are you sure you guys want to go to the fountain? It's being guarded right now. You might... get hurt... and..." Susie heard what Lancer was saying and said "No we won't, Lancer. As long as the five of us are together, there's no way they can stop us!" Lancer looked scared and began distancing himself from us, he said "B-but what if you had to f-fight and..." Susie interrupted and said "Everyone bleeds, right? Don't worry about it! If anyone gets in our way, we'll crush them." I coughed and then Susie said "Or just... put them to sleep." Lancer continued to distance himself "I... I have to... go..." Susie began to worry and said "When will you be back?" Lancer distances himself one last time and said "Never." Then ran away. My friends and I were surprised by this and we tried to run after Lancer. There were guards trying to shoot at us at every angle; they were hard to dodge and I ended up getting hit a few times. One in my back, one in my forearm, and one in my waist.

When we thought we finally reached Lancer, he closed a gate and left us surrounded by guards. Then I woke up in a prison cell after being knocked out. I looked around and saw that Kris and Ralsei were in the same cell as me. Ralsei was in a corner, trying to relax. Kris was in another corner eating... moss?! I kept looking around the cell, but Susie wasn't in here with us. Then I heard Susie, on the other side of the wall, she said "Hey guys! I'm out of my cell! It was so easy, too!" I guess she didn't expect me to talk, she thought I would be in a different cell, I said "That's great, Susie! Are you ok though?" I could hear the surprise in her voice "Oh! Brian! Uh..." she tried to sound calm and attractive sounding when she said "Hey, I'm good. How are you?~" I chuckled at the sound of her sentence and Ralsei said "How did you escape?" Susie chuckled and said "I convinced this stupid guard to let me out and I shoved him down a trash can!" "Can you let us out?" Ralsei said, Susie paused for a moment, presumably to try and open the other door that was blocking her, she said "I can't! Not without completing this puzzle that locks the door!" Ralsei and I elected Kris to help Susie solve the puzzle. After the puzzle was completed, Susie was on her way to save us, but it was she took longer than we thought. After 10 minutes, Susie opened our door and Ralsei exclaimed "Susie! You came to save us! I knew you had a hero's heart!" Susie didn't seem happy, I asked "Susie, you don't look happy. Are you ok?" I went over and planted my hand on her shoulder for her and Susie said "I... fought Lancer. I thought he was betraying us and wasn't our friend anymore, so I thought I'd beat him and try to scare him, but I couldn't kill him. So I told him we would 'talk' to his dad." Susie smiled and said "Lancer is going to help us now though, for real this time." I formed a smile on my face and I said "I'm proud to hear that, Susie." Then Ralsei said "Me too, Susie! I'm so glad that you want to talk it out rather than fight!" Susie felt proud and smiled, she placed her hand on mine, which was still on her shoulder and said "Thanks. That means a lot." We went on our way, as we were close to the end of our journey through the Darkener world. I am glad to be on this adventure and be alive.