Chapter 6: Escape?
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When fear overtakes reason, what remains to do but flee?
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Second hour of the day plus thirty-two hundredths of an hour.
02.32/10.00
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After that very strange dream, the class went on as usual. Liu took the first break with Yumi; they went to sit on a bench behind the theoretical classes building.
Liu sat down while Yumi stopped in front of the bench and looked at her.
"Are you feeling better?" Yumi asked.
But before Liu could even answer, Yumi continued.
"You know you can count on me for anything, right? I'd be ready to die for you. And even to kill for you. I'm ready to tell you you're cute as many times as you want. So you can tell me everything, right?"
She struck a pose, placing her hands on her hips and lifting her chin.
"Ehehehehe, you're the one who's too cute, actually." Liu tried to dodge the conversation.
But Yumi noticed immediately.
"Stop that right now, you filthy cutie!!" she said in a dramatic voice while pointing at Liu.
Liu's expression changed instantly.
"Tch, it was better before. How do you even have that much comeback now, when before you couldn't even answer me whenever I asked you something?"
Yumi resumed her proud pose and replied.
"It's thanks to the books you lent me. After reading so much, I've made comeback a part of who I am."
She made a fluid arm gesture, trying to make her sentence poetic, supporting it with an awkward movement.
Liu was surprised by what Yumi had just said.
'That's strange, why did she suddenly become humble? But at least it's fine, I managed to change the subject. Haha, I win.'
Internally, she was proud of herself, but outwardly she showed a shy smile in response to Yumi's somewhat strange compliment.
Liu indulged in the satisfaction of recognizing her intellectual superiority, until Yumi destroyed all her pride in two sentences.
"And now, thanks to the books you lent me, I've learned not to forget important things. So you have to explain everything that happened to you."
Yumi looked straight into her eyes seriously.
"I'm serious. I know it might be hard to say, and I'm also afraid of what you're going to say. But the sooner it's done, the better it'll be. I'm sure of it."
In reality, she wasn't sure at all; it was just a sentence she had read in one of the books Liu had lent her.
"That's not fair, using a quote from my favorite book."
Liu looked at her, pouting.
Yumi sat down next to Liu, then lay down on Liu's lap.
She took the empty sleeve of Liu's right arm in her hand and played her best card to convince Liu.
"You know I love you, right?"
Liu became completely soft every time someone she cared about told her that.
"Ugh, that's not fair."
Liu lowered her head to look Yumi in the eyes, then sighed.
"Hhaa, alright. But give me a bit of time to think, just a few seconds. And I'm warning you, I won't tell you everything. I'm not ready to tell you everything yet."
"Alright," Yumi replied with a smile.
"But first, tell me, you didn't already tell someone else what happened, right? If it's your grandpa and grandma that's fine, but I want to be the third."
Hearing that, Liu almost started crying. But she held it back.
"Uh, I already told the steward and the doctor, but they didn't believe me. I also told Pasha, but I'm not sure she believes me. Sorry."
Yumi, seeing the expression on Liu's face, couldn't bring herself to tease her.
"It's fine. And Pasha is fine too, so everything's fine."
She stayed silent, giving Liu time to think.
Yumi was starting to feel a bit uneasy; she hadn't thought it would be this serious.
She tightened her grip on Liu's empty sleeve and prepared herself for what Liu was going to say.
"I'm warning you right away, but I'm going to lie a bit."
Then Liu began:
"It happened during the harvest. On the way back, I fell asleep because of exhaustion and Papi Mo carried me home. At some point, I woke up lying on the ground in the middle of the path. Mimie and Papi Mo had disappeared, and so had my arm. So I ran back, hoping to find them on the way or at home. But I didn't see them, and when I reached the village, I collapsed from exhaustion. That's about it."
Yumi stayed silent for a moment, tightened her grip on Liu's empty sleeve again, and asked softly:
"Are you sure you don't want to tell me anything else? You know, I'm not blind. I can see on your face that it's not just that, what happened to you. You know, even if you told me something completely crazy, like that you ate them, I'd still believe you."
Yumi stared at Liu's face, waiting to meet her gaze and hear her answer.
Liu sighed, lowered her head, and looked Yumi in the eyes.
"I'll tell you the whole truth soon. But for now, I still want to think about it on my own. And you're not allowed to go ask Pasha behind my back."
Yumi pouted, squirming strangely on Liu's lap.
"I wasn't going to anyway," she said, her head buried in Liu's sweater.
"But tonight I can come sleep with you, right? At least give me that, please."
Liu smiled. "We'll see," she replied.
"Come on, let's go walk in the back courtyard a bit."
Yumi stood up and moved in front of Liu.
"You'll never escape me," she said with a challenging look, then turned around and headed toward the back courtyard without waiting for Liu.
Liu's smile widened.
"What arrogance," she murmured. What Yumi had said had put her in a good mood.
She didn't want to escape indefinitely, and especially not from Yumi.
Liu quickly caught up to Yumi and took her right hand.
"Do we go through the forest or the lake?" she asked.
The back courtyard of the school was practically a whole mini forest.
Since the village of Luttren was located at the border between the plains and Lumeno's outer forest, the number of trees present was very large, even if it wasn't at the same level as the outer forest itself.
When students walked around during their breaks, they had quite a number of choices.
But in the back courtyard, there was only one path. The path crossed the small forest, and the choice when taking it was either to start with the lake or to end with the lake.
"Let's go through the forest," Yumi replied.
"I'm hungry, so I want to eat fruit as soon as possible," she said, pulling Liu's arm to go faster.
"I'm hungry too. Let's find some fries, it's the easiest thing to pick," Liu suggested, following Yumi.
...
A bit later, Liu and Yumi had found some fries to eat. They kept walking along the path while eating their fries.
"Mmammmemonmmienmemenmomma..."
Yumi mumbled an incomprehensible sentence while eating her fry.
Fries were fruits the size of a baguette; they grew at the ends of branches on small trees. Easy to reach but difficult to eat. As for the taste, it was good enough to make this fruit an essential snack for children of the countryside in the kingdoms of Lumeno.
Liu took the fry out of her mouth.
"Huh? I didn't understand anything."
Yumi took hers out as well.
"How long have we been walking?" she asked.
"I don't know, didn't you take the timer?" During each break, a timer was provided to avoid exceeding break time.
"No, I thought you took it." And the two idiots, being too focused on their thoughts, had completely forgotten to take it.
"Damn! We need to turn back, this is annoying. I hope we'll get back exactly at the end of the time of two breaks."
Yumi didn't want to calculate how much time they had left.
They weren't even halfway through the back courtyard walk. So they turned around, taking the path in the opposite direction.
Yumi took Liu's hand again and quickened her pace.
"No need to rush like that, I'll calculate it for you," Liu suggested.
"We lost track of time, right?"
Yumi answered with a question.
Without waiting for an answer, she continued, "I was so preoccupied that I don't know how much time passed. Maybe it's already been almost a whole hour, and we went over break time."
Liu replied, "You're worrying for nothing. Even if we went over break time, the teacher won't say anything since you're with me. I'll just tell him I wasn't feeling well and needed to get some air for a long time."
That answer reassured Yumi, making her slow down.
"That's true, we can do that."
Yumi sighed and went back to eating her fry.
'Why is she even worrying about something like that? Even if we go over break time, at worst we'll get scolded, nothing more. Why does it stress her out so much?'
Liu began to drift into her thoughts.
She looked around her without really paying attention to what she was looking at.
'I still wonder how long we've been outside, I didn't notice time passing either.' she thought, when her gaze fixed on the shadow of one of the trees to her right.
'What is that?'
The shadow of that tree was strange; it seemed thicker and darker than the others, with a slightly different shape, almost human.
Liu and Yumi kept walking hand in hand, when suddenly Liu quickened her pace until she was almost running.
'That's definitely not normal!!' she thought, her breathing accelerating.
"What's wrong?!" Yumi asked.
Liu answered in a rush and without thinking too much.
"Uh... I forgot something really important at home, I need to go back before something bad happens."
Her answer was broken, and her breathing became heavier and more difficult.
'Quick! What should I do??'
In just a few moments, they exited the back courtyard and arrived behind the theoretical classes building.
"Are you sure it's o—"
Liu cut her off and asked, "Can you go back to class and tell the teacher I had to go home urgently, please?"
Yumi was about to object.
"I'll explain everything tonight when you come sleep at my place."
But Liu cut her off again and offered her something she couldn't refuse.
Yumi hesitated for a moment. "Mm, alright, be careful on your way home," she said, letting go of Liu's hand.
"See you tonight."
"See you tonight," Liu replied as she turned around to run.
Yumi watched her leave for a few moments.
"There's really something wrong," she murmured as she turned around to go back into the building and return to class.
...
Liu ran through the streets of the residential district, turning her head in every direction.
'Is it following me?!'
She felt like the Form was present in every shadow she saw.
'I... don't see it.'
She wasn't truly exhausted from running, but the surge of stress made it difficult for her to breathe.
'I need... to catch... my breath...'
She slowed down, making sure to stay in a well-lit street.
Unfortunately, the streets were empty. In the residential district, the only times people walked outside were in the morning around the second hour of the day to go to work, and in the evening when they returned.
Liu kept turning her head in all directions as she continued walking slowly.
She checked every dark and shadowed place.
'Nothing, nothing here, nothing over there... phew, it doesn't seem like it's following me.' she sighed in relief.
She still turned her head behind her to check...
'Damn! Damn..'
The Form was in a small alley connecting two main streets, about ten steps behind Liu.
"Fuck!"
Liu immediately started running again, as fast as she could.
'Why isn't it attacking me? I already observed its energy condensation, and it has far more than anything I've ever seen. So why is it just following me? I'm sure it could kill me without any problem.'
She didn't understand the Form's actions.
A few moments later, she reached the chalet and went straight inside.
She locked the door as fast as possible, then went to stand in front of one of the windows in her grandparents' bedroom, which gave her the best possible view outside.
'Is it still there?'
She scanned the surroundings.
The chalet wasn't in the residential streets, but a bit farther away, right at the entrance of the forested hill where the harvest had taken place. And the windows of Liu's grandparents' room provided the best view of the forested hill in the entire house.
Liu looked at the shadows of the trees closest to the chalet.
'It's there.'
The Form wasn't really hiding; it was in the shadow of the closest tree, right in front of Liu.
'It's not even trying to hide?'
Liu still didn't understand what it was doing, but she was sure of one thing.
'No one else must see it.'
Even though she wanted people to believe her and understand her, she also knew that revealing something like this would bring nothing good.
She had already revealed everything the moment she woke up in the infirmary. She had thought she could rely on someone other than herself. She had wanted to rely on someone other than herself.
But after thinking about it, she regretted revealing everything.
'What should I do now?'
She didn't take her eyes off the Form for a single moment.
'Should I try to talk to it??'
She found her idea ridiculous, but she thought it might be possible, or rather she hoped it was possible.
'Maybe if I talk to it, it will release Papi Mo and Mimie, maybe even my arm.'
At that moment, she saw something moving and approaching the Form.
'A mush-mush?'
A small tree the size of a hand, with a cap resembling a mushroom on its head.
The mush-mush had no vision; it moved and oriented itself thanks to its small roots digging into the ground.
'It's heading straight toward the Form.'
Liu observed the scene without doing anything; she wanted to see what would happen.
The Form wasn't completely material, or rather it could be considered something between mist and completely black water.
The mush-mush entered the Form without realizing it.
The moment it entered, a horrible chewing and cracking sound could be heard.
Even Liu, behind the window, heard it almost as clearly as the first time she had heard it.
That sound froze her, drained the color from her face, and almost made her vomit the fry she had eaten earlier.
In reality, although Liu had not forgotten what had happened to her grandparents, she had buried that horrible sound deep inside herself, wanting to ignore it while also avoiding the obvious truth that her grandparents had been eaten alive.
And although she hadn't managed to ignore it earlier that morning when Pasha had eaten in front of her, the reason for that was the silence in the room at that moment, which made the chewing sound clearer than even her own thoughts.
After that, during her break with Yumi, she had managed to endure the chewing sounds while they ate their fries.
The reason for that was the environment; the noise of the wind, people nearby, animals... had muffled the chewing sounds, allowing Liu to endure that moment quite easily and bury her trauma even deeper.
Liu wanted to convince herself that her grandparents were not dead but simply inside the Form.
She wanted to convince herself that the chewing and cracking sounds she had heard had nothing to do with her grandparents.
But the moment she heard again the sound that had traumatized her, the barrier she had created completely shattered, flooding Liu with unbearable terror and despair.
Liu trembled all over.
'No, no, what am I doing??!'
She was terrified, and her thoughts became completely disordered.
The chewing and cracking sound didn't last long, and it wasn't loud enough to alert anyone to what had just happened.
But Liu didn't even notice that.
She was too terrified, so terrified that even though the sound had stopped, it refused to leave her mind.
The sound kept repeating endlessly in Liu's head. She couldn't stop imagining it, it had affected her that deeply.
She was completely overwhelmed, struggling to breathe.
'I have to do something.'
She struggled to think.
She was too afraid, terribly afraid, so afraid that it led her to one conclusion.
'I have to run away.'
She had to flee.
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When fear overtakes reason, what remains to do but flee?
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End of the First Arc: Village of Luttren.