The Holographic Trickster

Chapter 7 - The truth

After looking around, I think I've found a clue. A sheet with a pen beside it was left on the kitchen table, by him. I pick it up. It's a message, and it's written on one of my old blueprint... unbelievable. The message starts with "Since I just left my home without anything yesterday, I don't have my phone, but don't worry! I found this old piece of useless paper to write on..."

"He is indeed creative," I say to myself with an ironic tone.

I keep reading, already missing him.

"... and by the way, I know you're gonna miss me, because, I mean, you have seen my good looking face."

I move my gaze up from the blueprint. He left to see his mother, huh? A pinch of sadness hits my heart. At first he's lying right beside me on the mattress, and after that he's gone. He left, without even saying goodbye. I lower the blueprint and curl it together. Sadness turns into anger. How could he just leave me like that? No, I need to stay calm. He will come back, he must! We are going to participate in Apex together. He can't just abandon me now. He's not that kind of person.

I put away the blueprint and walk further into the so called kitchen. I open the fridge and take out some of the leftovers from yesterday. Oh, Elliott. The pizza makes me think about him. How nice we had it last night, and fun. I wish he stayed after... It was a great night.

I finish eating and decide to go for a walk. I'll probably give Moonshine bar a visit. Haven't been there since Elliott and I met. I wonder who is taking care of that place while he's gone. I close the door behind me and then lock it. I walking out into the sunlight, feeling the warmth touching my skin. Elliott will be here again, soon.

Someone catches my attention as I'm walking past a familiar place. An old man, breathing heavily, is running towards me.

"Please, you must help us!" He shouts, almost stumbling in his own legs.

"Woah, easy now, what happened?"

The man stands before me, crouching with his hands resting on his knees.

"T-they came-, and," he struggles.

I help the man stand up.

"I'll follow you back to the village and you can tell me everything there."

With one of his arms around my neck, we start moving slowly. We reach the village and a woman helps me lay down the man on a bed inside a straw house. The woman and I are standing on each our side of him.

"What happend here?" I ask, remembering a strange view on our way into the house. I'm pretty sure I noticed a few bodies lying around.

"A group of people came to our village asking for the svikari. They said that if we don't give them what they came for, they will take five of our lifes." The woman looks down on the man, closing her eyes, "So they did," she says, almost whispering.

"Wait, why didn't you do as they said? What is a svikari?" I ask confused. I'm trying to understand the situation.

"We couldn't give them the svikari, because he's dead," the woman is in tears.

"I still don't understand, what is a svikari?"

I meet the old man's gaze.

"Svikari means traitor. They came for your father."

I feel the atmosphere around us getting dark and gloomy. My father, a traitor?

"W-what do you mean?"

The look on the old man's face is telling me that he knows something I clearly don't.

"Your father was an intelligent man, I have known him since before you were born. We were young at that time, when he first came to this forest village."