It was early morning, a Sunday. He had gotten a message from Father Christ last night telling him he has another volunteer opportunity for points. So he is now at a church with some hunters.
This time he had seen multiple hunters there, he recognized one person, it was Victor from their last interaction. He looked upset and seemed as if he had been crying the night before. Adamant on staying out of his issues he tried to stay away from him but before he could go to the furthest corner of the group he was spotted by him.
"Oh, um hello Noah."
Victor had said with a strained and exhausted voice. In turn Noah now felt obligated to have a conversation with him.
"Hey Victor, I would ask how it is going but… I think I already know the answer to that."
Noah said while he observed Victor. He noticed the slightly swollen eyes that had slight red undertones. Before he could ask why he was crying he was interrupted by one of the people of the church.
"Find one other person and we will go to the site where the anomaly is located. Remember to stay close with the other person and never go anywhere alone."
He was holding a file while he started to lead the group of hunters and volunteers out of the cathedral into a grassfield not far from where they were.
Now currently by a forest, the difference for this one was there was no fence, rather it was just a forest. No indication where the border between the pain and the forest.
The person in charge looked behind and looked forward. Now he started to speak once more, it was instructions.
"When you go into the forest you and your partner will be alone in a dark forest, stay close to each other, everyone will automatically be split up so don't wonder off. Your goal is to find an object that doesn't fit in that world. You will have a premonition when you see it, so when you do, tell your partner to grab it and run back where you had walked from."
Then the guy took out a watch from his pocket and set a time. When that happened everyone there got a notification that had set a time limit on how long they can go into the forest to find the object.
"Everyone has 30 minutes to find the object and 30 minutes to run out of there. If you don't make it back in time we will assume you died. The clock will start the moment you walk into the forest."
Everyone there quickly entered the forest and disappeared, Noah and Victor were no exception.
Now in the forest, it was dark black, it reminded him of the first time in the forest. The area is dark and it looks almost identical to the road. Dark and gloomy with no semblance of light so we used our flashlights from our phones.
"Guess we can chat while we walk down the path."
Victor said while holding his flashlight to the road in front of him. Noah nodded and waited for victor to take the first step.
As the two of them started to walk through the forest the trees were silent and there was only the sound of the two of them breathing.
"Don't want to meddle in your problems but I can't help but ask. Were you crying last night?"
Noah said and victor looked to the right toward him. He sighed and spoke as a reply.
"Is that noticeable huh?"
Noah nodded that the two of them were now both silent so awkwardness filled the air as they walked down the path.
To break that awkwardness Noah spoke first, it felt unbearable to him, usually he would like the silence but he could tell Victor wanted him to ask cause he was eyeing him every time he took a step. So Noah had seen that in the corner of his vision.
Sigh
"Want to talk about it?"
"You sure?"
Noah nodded so Victor took that as a confirmation. Victor held his phone a little bit lower before he started to speak.
"Have you ever regretted not doing something?"
Noah looked at victor who held an emotion of despair and looked as if he was going to burst out crying. But he only nodded when Victor looked over at him.
"Before the mission in the forest I had planned to ask Hazel out on a date. For a long time Hazel and I were friends, more than that we were childhood friends."
When he said that he put his hands in his pockets and took out an item, beyond further inspection it was a bracelet charm. It looked as if it was made by a child, it was indeed made by a child. The bracket had Victor's name on it with different beads and the letters b,f,f next to it.
"I guess I was too late."
Victor then put the bracket back into his pocket and they continued to walk forward. Noah noticed the saddened expression that hadn't changed. But he for some reason also wanted to cheer him up. He felt as if he understood what he meant.
"Let me tell you a story."
Victor heard Noah and nodded in a bit of confusion but He didn't care about that confusion and just continued on.
"There once was a knight who was friends with a prince. The two were childhood friends but one day the two were in the garden in the palace with a pet goat beside the two of them. That day the prince asked the knight not to leave but the prince had to follow the orders of the king. Although they saw each other once a while they could only wave at each other."
Victor was still confused and wanted to ask how it was correlated to his situation with Hazel, but he saw the pained look Noah had as well and he closed his mouth.
"The prince then one day betrayed the king and left. Before that day the prince had asked the knight to go with him, but he couldn't do that, he had a duty to uphold."
"Did they ever see each other again?"
Victor said this time hoping for a happy ending but Noah just shook his head with a more depressing reply.
"No, the two had a tragic ending. They had held a war between two kingdoms. The prince was a traitor so he had to be hunted. And the knight was responsible for that."
"Did he kill the prince?"
"In a way he did.
"How so?"
"The prince took the knight's sword and stabbed himself."
But I still held that sword, even if he had grabbed my hand to stab himself. The blood is still on my hands.
"Ah, a bad ending too."