Escape (L)

"My god, that's horrible! I-I can't imagine how much all of that weighs down on you now." Niko stuttered as they continued to listen to Lukas. "You'd be surprised about how little I think about it but when it comes back into my mind, it makes me so damn furious! I just wish that I could've done something, why couldn't I have had these powers before that moment? Why did all of this have to happen to me?" Lukas asked as he began to fall down his rabbit hole of emotions once again. "Lukas, don't do this here! Don't you remember what happened the last time that you did this?" Bethany inquired rhetorically as the Eye began glowing once again. "I can't help it. Why does it feel like I'm about to fall apart?" Lukas replied with another question as he held his head as multiple throbs of agonising pain continuously pulsed through his brain. "Lukas, is everything alright?" Niko simply questioned which caused Lukas to look up at the face of his new friend... and everything just seemed to calm down, those bright yellow eyes just made everything better.

"No, nothing's wrong. I... I just thought about it a bit too much." Lukas explained as the Eye stopped glowing and his emotions just ceased their seemingly endless struggle inside of his mind. "I can't exactly say much, I certainly can't say that I relate at all to what happened to you but surely there must be some way that I can help." Niko stated as they seemed incredibly eager to help Lukas recover from the trauma. "You already have helped, you've helped me more than you could ever know." Lukas simply replied as he couldn't help but have a smile form on his face. "Really? How did I help? I didn't even do anything yet." Niko spoke as they were confused by what Lukas had just said. Lukas just remained silent for a moment as he looked at Niko before he started speaking again. "Shouldn't we get going? We should be getting you home, not consoling me." Lukas suggested with a laugh as Niko stood up with the lightbulb in their grasp.

After a few seconds of looking around the room, Lukas barely noticed a door thanks to the dim light that was emerging from the nearby window. The door seemed to be slightly blocked by an old-looking dusty wardrobe, it seemed out of place with its surroundings; the door appeared to be made of steel or some other form of metal whilst the rest of the house and all of the furniture was wooden. The door also appeared to have a large hole in it that wasn't big enough to crawl through but it did seem like some kind of giant key could fit inside of it. "Hey, Lukas, I'm sensing some weird magic around here, I'm going to have to hide myself for a while." Bethany stated as she broke Lukas' train of thought. "Huh? What are you talking about?" Lukas asked as he turned to face Bethany. "Okay, I'll just give you a very brief explanation; certain forms of magic allow the user of said magic to see me even if they don't make contact with the Eye. I sense some of that magic up ahead so I'm going to hide myself from you so that nobody else can see me." Bethany explained before she suddenly disappeared before Lukas could respond.

"Who are you talking to? Is there somebody else that I can't see?" Niko asked as they continued to search around. "Um, I'll be straight with you and just say yes. I talk with her a lot but nobody else can see her... well from what I know of at least." Lukas replied as he didn't seem to mind telling Niko about Bethany. "That sounds kind of like how we have conversations." Niko stated as they started pulling furniture away from the walls to see if there was an exit behind any of it. "I mean, it's not exactly the same but it is kind of similar." Lukas agreed as he was just trying to find a way to mention the door that he had seen without seeming ignorant. Niko stayed silent for a few seconds so Lukas took that as his chance to talk about the door. "Hey, I think I see a door behind that wardrobe by the other wall." Lukas explained which immediately got Niko's attention. "Oh, wow that's actually quite hard to spot, how did you see that?" Niko asked as they walked over to the wardrobe and began to push it aside with their back.

"Let's just say that I have a good eye and leave it at that." Lukas requested as Niko pushed the wardrobe out of the way. After about a minute of attempting to move the furniture out of the way, Niko stood up straight and looked at the door. "What's with this weird shape?" Niko asked as they stared at the oddly shaped hole in the door. "I don't know, can you open it?" Lukas replied with another question as he too was curious about the meaning behind the design. Niko lightly pushed the door with their back which caused it to swing open rather quickly and nearly made Niko fall onto their back but they thankfully caught their own balance before it was too late. "What the hell is this?" Lukas inquired in the hopes that Niko would have an answer as to what he was seeing.

The world outside of the door was a flat, barren plane with a blue, sparkling, sand-like substance covering the ground. Lukas looked up into the sky to see nothing but the colour black overhead with a giant silver tower being barely visible in the distance. "This is... interesting to say the least." Lukas stated as he turned to face the building that he and Niko had just exited only to find that it wasn't a part of a town or a city, just a single house out in the middle of nowhere. "Well, yeah, it's interesting but where are we?" Niko asked as they began to observe their surroundings for any other landmarks. "I'm not sure, I've not seen anything quite like this." Lukas admitted as he turned his attention towards the tower in the distance that seemed to reach further into the sky than his eyes could see.

"So, what should we do now?" Niko inquired as they looked down at the oversized light bulb that they were carrying around. "Well, I'd say it'd probably be for the best if we start moving because I don't think that we'll find a way to get you back home just by standing here." Lukas responded as he gazed back in Niko's direction. "Okay then, how about we go towards that tower? Even if there isn't any way to go inside it and climb to the top, it's probably better to go there instead of just wandering in a random direction where we might not find anything." Niko suggested. "I was thinking the same thing." Lukas responded as the two of them began to travel towards the tower.

The two of them spent quite a few minutes in silence as they made their way over to the looming tower in the distance. "Wow, this thing is quite far away, isn't it? We've been walking for a while and I don't feel like we're any closer to it." Lukas stated as a means to break the awkward silence. "Well, things do seem worse than they actually are if you look at them with a pessimistic view. The way I see it, we're making progress no matter how minimal it seems so if we carry on going, we'll eventually reach our destination." Niko expressed without slowing down in the slightest. "I wish I could think like that all of the time." Lukas said under his breath so that Niko wouldn't hear him. Everything fell silent once again except for the constant sound of their feet against the sand beneath them... Lukas could tell that he was going to dread every moment of it if he didn't speak up so he attempted to get a stronger understanding of Niko.

"So, what is your home like?" Lukas asked... whether he was asking out of boredom or genuine curiosity was something that even he didn't know. "From what you've told me, it isn't too different from where you used to live. I live in a small town that's got this huge wheat field right next to it. My neighbours are all really nice, one family always invites everybody over when they've just made a fresh batch of bread." Niko replied with a laugh as those memories seemed to be incredibly dear to them. Lukas closed his eyes to peer into how his mind was picturing Niko's description of their home. He didn't only see exactly what he thought that Niko was telling him about, he felt it.

He could feel the wind against his face as the wheat and the grass waved in the breeze. Not only that, he could hear the sounds of the residents of the town as they went about their daily business. The serenity that Lukas felt at that moment was incomparable to anything else that he had experienced before. If he could've made that moment last for at least another hour, he would've done anything to make it happen. "Hey, you, get inside, you don't want to catch a cold, do you?" A voice questioned Lukas in his mind as his imaginary self turned around to see a woman standing behind him. "There's also my mom, she makes pancakes for every one of my birthdays. She's also really pretty, her hair is so-" Niko began explaining before Lukas talked over them.

"Long, bright blue hair." Lukas spoke as if he was in some sort of daze. "Well, no. My mom's hair is more on the darker side and it's short like mine." Niko corrected Lukas. "Beautiful blue eyes." Lukas continued as if he was completely unaware of Niko's presence. "Lukas, is everything alright?" Niko asked in a concerned tone after a short pause. Lukas opened his eyes to find that he was no longer standing alongside Niko, he was now present in the area that he had just been imagining. Standing before him was the girl that he was describing to Niko. Like Lukas had previously stated, her hair was a bright blue colour and it was long and flowing, her eyes seemed to simultaneously be as bright as the sky and as dark as the deep ocean, she was wearing similar clothing to Lukas except for the fact that they were all various shades of blue.

Lukas couldn't help but smile as he looked at this girl, he didn't know why but he just found her presence to be calming and it also brought relief along with it. He reached his hand out to hold her to make sure that she was real but the girl slowly and gently grabbed his wrist before pushing his hand away. "Not right now, maybe later. Look, I'll try and find a way to constantly be in touch with you but right now, you need to wake up and pay attention." The girl stated which caused Lukas to start worrying once again. With a sigh, the girl began to speak once again. "I know that you miss me, believe me, I know the feeling. I promise that we'll be back together soon, you just need to do your part and carry on with your big adventure, okay?" The girl requested of Lukas as she put a hand on his shoulder and gave a slight smile.

With a look of slight disappointment appearing on his face, Lukas nodded before everything began to get brighter once again. "Be careful, he's still out there somewhere and I don't know when he's going to strike next." The girl explained as Lukas felt himself regaining consciousness.

"One lonely child sitting all alone

One eerie presence chills him to the bone

Tries to get himself noticed so he may have a friend

Finally, he found one although that would unknowingly cause his end.

Everything seemed fine as they chatted and got along well

Until one day, nothing happened and that's when he fell

Down into the depths, where he was; he couldn't tell

All he knew was that it was worse than the fiery pits of hell.

It wasn't his fault, he just wanted a life

He just wanted to fight past the strife

Alas, life never was that kind

Through silently suffering, a friend he did find.

Everything she does to help hurts her more in the end

Slowly but surely, her will started to bend

She sought out somebody, a person she could call "friend"

He knows the truth, all she does is pretend.

The only thing that he seeks to do is perfect everything

That was, until the bells in his head began to ring

Now he only seeks to protect his only friend

Nothing else will matter until the very end

With his heart stabbed and mind shattered

His Life is the beginning and the only thing that ever mattered."

His Life created by Me.