14 Escape Reality

The village head, Mrs. dos Santos, had lead us to the elders' hall in the middle of the village after sending away most of the villagers.

There were still a few straggling around the door of the small, open house, Marcellus and I sat in the middle with the head up front.

I felt even more on edge that before, barely controlling the urge to tell Marcellus to turn back now. I knew it was going to get dangerous and with hostages involved, it made everything ten times more difficult.

I even leaned closer to the man to tell him he better stay in the village while I went up ahead. It had been my plan for the beginning but I had hoped to be a little more smooth about it.

But the village head stopped me by speaking.

"Thank you so much for helping us," the village head started, her frail hands shaking. "Your colleague was the only one to hear our plea to begin with and…Oh. Oh dear."

I felt bad for her, I truly did, but we didn't have the time to listen to her crying yet again. I just needed some information so I could've left. They were wasting time.

"Tell us what happened. Quickly and to the point. The more time we spend talking here, the more likely people would die."

I gave Marcellus a sharp look, wondering why the fuck he had to say that so bluntly.

"They're going to die?" I turned around to the open entrance to see a small girl standing there, holding fistfuls of her shirt as she tried so hard not to cry. "My papa's gonna die?"

"Hey, hey," I said as I stretched out a hand to the girl slowly. The first thing I noticed was how much she looked like Sofia when she'd been a child, all tanned skin and wavy brown hair. 

It made the whole experience feel even worse for me.

She sniffed loudly but slowly stepped forward, taking my hand. I gently pulled her close, wondering why the hell the girl was being a little too trusting. I had expected her to reject the offered hand, I myself only offering it out of habit. 

It made me wonder just how desperate she was for help that she just blindly took my hand simply because I said I was an adventurer.

I pulled her closer either way and took a gentle hold of both her hands, giving her as warm a smile as I could've as I turned fully in my seat to face her.

"My friend and I are going to fight those nasty monsters and will beat it, I promise you." She stared into my eyes with her teary brown ones and nodded, making my smile soften even more.

I couldn't have promised her that her dad wasn't going to die. Hell, he could've already been dead for all I knew. That wasn't a kind of thing I wanted such a small girl to think about at the moment.

"Lucas!" the elder said loudly. "Take Helena back to her brothers and the rest of you. Go back home. There's not much else we can do."

I watched as a young boy, Lucas, grabbed the still teary Helena and walked out of the small hall, the remaining villagers leaving as well.

They didn't forget to remind me to find their loved ones, however.

Just what I needed. Pressure.

"I apologize for them," the elder said with a sigh, her frail hands balled up into fists on her lap. "They are simply just worried about their loved ones."

I could've understood that, at the very least. It wasn't like I was blaming them for me feeling wound up.

It was another reason I couldn't have been in the field anymore. There was just no getting used to seeing the despair on the families' faces whenever I had to deliver bad news.

"All is well," Marcellus said and I felt his eyes on me. I'd gone quiet for too long.

"…Yeah, yeah," I said as I cleared my throat, looking up at the elder and putting on a smile. "It's fine. I'm used to it. Back to the issue though. Do you know where exactly people have been disappearing?"

The elder looked like she was about to cry again but thank goodness she held it in.

"…Further up the mountain, right below the peak. There's a cave. Our lost ones would get too close and seemed to have turned into…What are those creatures that pop out from graves?"

"Zombies, ma chère," Marcellus interjected, earning a grateful smile from the old woman.

"Yes, those. Nothing we did or said could've stopped them. Why, my own daughter, Caterina, had pushed me aside. The thing is that we couldn't even get close to the cave to get them. It was like there was a barrier."

There isn't, I thought to myself. If it's a Mind Flayer, like I'm sure now it is, then it's not a barrier. The monster's in your minds making you think there is.

I looked at Marcellus who was already giving me a look, a small nod letting me know that he was thinking what I was thinking.

"Did you perhaps see this creature, ma chère?" Marcellus asked, less tense since the other villagers had left. He'd returned to his more soft and charming self. 

It made me wonder why he'd gotten so abrasive before.

"That grotesque thing?" The elder's voice held so much animosity for such a soft old woman. "It was vile! Jellyfish-like head with tentacles. Some of our men had tried to fight it and bring back our family members but it merely took some of them and left the rest in a coma."

She pressed her face to her hands for a moment, her shoulders shaking, before looking at us with teary eyes once again.

"Please. Please, help us. We are running out of options and no other adventurer has answered our request. The pay is not a lot but we are a humble village. I know ten gold pieces is not enough but it truly is all we have. I will even sell my own house if more is needed."

After hearing the price, I understood why most adventurers avoided the request. Ten gold pieces was chump change for even the original mission with the imps. A Mind Flayer would've been priced at almost 150.

And if there's one thing I knew about most adventurers, it was that they're a greedy ass lot.

Leon, you're a fucking saint, I thought as I tried to look as sympathetic as possible to the woman.

"Do not worry about paying us. Save that decision for the other adventurer we're about to rescue with your family," I said as I got up, almost instinctively reaching out a hand to help Marcellus up as well.

"You'd help us? Truly?" she tried getting up quickly and almost fell due to her weak knees.

Marcellus, ever the speedster, was by her side in a flash and caught her before her face made contact with the ground.

Holding her close, he smiled down at the woman softly and I wasn't the least bit surprised that even the elder was going a tad red.

"You will be reunited with your daughter, I can promise you that," Marcellus said and the elder cried but I understood the double meaning behind his words.

Whether she was dead or alive, the nobleman was going to bring her back.

I just hoped she was alive. I hoped by some miracle from the saints that they were all alive, but that was me trying to escape reality.