Gakupo was the first to react to the abrupt appearance of the man in the grey suit, letting out a roar as he landed a punch squarely on the man's jaw.
He might as well have punched a brick wall.
The man calmly grabbed Gakupo's fist and lifted him off his feet. After a brief appraising look, the man tossed him aside. The sound of his body hitting the stairs and tumbling down was ripe with horrifying possibilities, but Luka had only a moment to fret about it. Something was happening to the skin of her wrist, under the man's fingers.
The sensation spread quickly upwards engulfing her arm in agony. It expanded like a ripple, crossing her chest, reaching her limbs before her next breath. She screamed, and many inhuman howls echoed from above, in mockery of her pain. Her legs buckled under her, and would've tumbled down as well if not for the steely grip around her wrist. Tears filled her eyes and swiftly evaporated before they had the chance to roll down her cheeks. She began to choke, her ears filled with the sound of creaking and sizzling. Everything in the world became nothing next to the heat engulfing her.
Suddenly, a bright light hit her in the face, tapping at her closed eyelids. Without any transition, the fire gripping her body vanished, and with it any trace of the searing pain. Luka opened her eyes, squinting in utter confusion.
An old woman was standing on the landing below, pointing at the man in the suit with a potent torch. Gakupo was lying on his side at her feet, unmoving. The old woman looked completely out of place due to her contemporary style of dress, with her dark slacks and pale pink cardigan, pure white hair in a long braid, sensible black shoes and a floral print handbag hanging from the crook of her elbow. The woman smiled reassuringly at Luka before switching her attention to the man. Then, her wrinkled face adopted a look of intense concentration and she began loudly reciting words in a language Luka couldn't understand.
The fingers around Luka's wrist immediately began to loosen their grasp. The girl looked upwards, and found the man staring at the old woman with a slightly tilted head. His perennial smile was now gone, replaced with a neutral expression. Now and then, his face muscles twitched. The glow of his eyes lessened, and his eyelids drooped until his eyes were murky slits.
Luka freed herself with little difficulty from his fingers, and pulled herself up. Her body felt wobbly as jello, but somehow she managed to descend the steps until she gracelessly dropped to her knees next to Gakupo. She pushed his hair out of his face and saw his eyelashes flutter. His brow creased momentarily.
"Gakupo!"
His eyes opened, but he seemed extremely out of it.
Luka called his name again, with a croaking voice miles away from her usual tone. Finally, to her immense relief, his gaze focused on her and he let out the ghost of a chuckle. "That…really hurt."
A bony hand touched the top of Luka's head before she could reply, making her jump. She looked up to see that the old woman was still locking eyes with the man in the suit, endlessly reciting her incomprehensible litany. However, the hand gestured energetically, pointing towards the lamp resting next to Gakupo's feet and then downwards to the ground floor. The urgency was clear.
"Who…?" Gakupo began, but Luka pulled him into a seating position, turning the rest of the sentence into a cry of pain. "I think…I think I broke something."
"Can you walk? I don't think I can carry you-"
"Yeah, just…Ow! Just ignore me if I- Oh, god…" Gakupo defaulted to curses as Luka got them both into a standing position, her arm around his waist.
"We can make it!" Luka said, more for her own benefit than his.
"Yes…yes, right…" He breathed shallowly. "Oh, man…"
They began the slow descent. Above them, Luka could hear the growls of the creatures she had yet to see. There was inhuman disdain and malevolence in those sounds, and yet the unknown beings didn't follow them as they fumbled and almost fell numerous times. Halfway down, another sound joined them: a scream so feral yet desperate that Luka and Gakupo couldn't help but turn to look around, wide-eyed.
The man had his head in his hands and was shaking and swaying back and forth violently. The scream went up and down in tone, sometimes sounding like there was more than one throat making the sound, yet was similar enough to Gakupo's voice to make Luka's tremble. The old woman raised her voice even higher to try and surpass him, although tiredness was noticeably beginning to set in.
"What's going on?!" Just as the final syllable left Luka's mouth, the man stopped shouting. His body froze in the middle of one of his contortions, in a position that seemed to defy nature itself. A red eye glinted from behind his now loose hair, staring down at the couple. Even with the light of the torch, his expression was hidden in shadows- it was impossible to guess what the abomination above them was thinking.
Then, in the blink of an eye, the body garbed in grey twisted into an impossibly coiled shape one last time and leaped upwards and into the darkness. The growls lessened in volume and vanished. Silence dominated the tower.
Gakupo and Luka waited, inmobile. The old woman also remained in place, her torch now illuminating nothing beyond the reddish steps of the great staircase.
Finally, her shoulders relaxed and she let out a big sigh. Her free hand massaged her neck and she grumbled something under her breath. She turned around and frowned.
"What are you waiting for? Move!"
Nevermind that man and whatever else is going on here, a loose patch of soil is going to kill us.
Luka bit her lip as she struggled to keep her and Gakupo steady on the trail. The dirt path next to the irrigation canal was much less manageable when dragging someone along, even if Gakupo was trying his best to burden her as little as possible as they walked.
The old woman made no attempt to help them. She just watched silently as Luka regained her footing and her grip on Gakupo's waist, then the three of them resumed the arduous march towards the abandoned house.
In truth, Luka was glad the woman offered no assistance. The last thing she needed was for the old lady to overexert herself. Luka had no way to carry both Gakupo and the stranger across the fields before nightfall if that happened.
And the woman truly did look like she was on her last legs, uncharitably speaking. Perhaps it had the poor lightning conditions, or her own distress back there in the stairs, but Luka could swear the woman had looked more hale and alert back in the tower. Now, out in the light of the late afternoon, she appeared incredibly frail, almost like a wisp of smoke made flesh.
After a while, Luka couldn't help but ask, "Ma'am, are you sure you don't need a breather? You don't look so good."
The old woman shook her head without even looking in Luka's direction. She was a perfect representation of obstinacy, walking at a very slow, yet constant pace. Her eyes were trained on the growing shape of the home in the distance. "I told you, we don't want to be out here after dusk."
"But-"
"We can all rest once we get there. Keep going." The old woman had said a variation of the same words every time Luka had tried to make conversation, so far. On a regular day, Luka would've felt tempted to argue, but her numbing exhaustion was a good incentive to go along with their mysterious saviour, at least for the time being.
As for Gakupo, he didn't react at all during their exchange. In fact, he had been abnormally quiet during the entire trip back to the house. It was yet another thing tying Luka's stomach into knots.
Despite it all, the trio reached the orchard just as the light was beginning to abandon the valley. Only the house and nearest trees were shapes with detail and weight; everything else was quickly becoming a smudge. The sensation of being trapped in a completely vacant world returned in full force.
The gate of the home was ajar, just as they left it hours ago. The old woman pushed it open cautiously and listened intently for a few seconds, before nodding and signalling Luka and Gakupo to go to the main bedroom.
"If you told me I'd be so glad to see this place again..." Luka muttered as she opened the door. The fireplace had gone out sometime in the afternoon, so the room was chilly; the only source of light was the lamp tied to Gakupo's belt. Nevertheless, it was a relief to be back- enough to give her the energy to walk the last miserable steps, help Gakupo lie on the bed and then plop down by his side.
Bliss. There was never a softer bed in the history of mankind.
The old woman mumbled something about barricading themselves. It seemed like a good idea.
The bed was so soft…
A hand landed on her shoulder. "We need to talk."
Luka sat up groggily, pushing aside a thick blanket. Her hand brushed against another body next to hers, and for a second she was surprised to see Gakupo by her side. There was a cold compress pressed against the top of his head. One of his hands was resting over his chest, with a fresh bandage circling his wrist.
"Let him rest. Come, we might not have much time." The old woman moved slowly, as if carefully rationing the amount of effort involved in crossing the room and sitting by the now lit fireplace.
Luka sat on the stool at the feet of the old woman, like a small child waiting to hear her grandmother tell a story.
"Where do I even start?" The old woman breathed deeply, then exhaled. She glanced at the bed for a moment, then she fixed her eyes on the girl before her. "My name is Luka Kamui, née Megurine. I don't belong here, just like you two."
"Wha-?" Luka stopped herself, and really examined the lined face, the cool blue eyes. Her chest constricted with fear at the sheer wrongness of it all, and wanted nothing more but to shout her denial. At the same time, she couldn't understand how she hadn't noticed until that moment.
Ms. Kamui nodded grimly. "I'd wager there are countless of us, each and everyone in their own world, old and young. All tied up in our little problems. Turning and turning in circles, like ballerinas in millions of music boxes." She clicked her tongue. "Or perhaps I should say maypole dancers?"
"What do you mean?" Please, please make sense, Luka added mentally.
"I don't know the details. It's been hard to sneak around here without being noticed, as you can probably guess. However, I believe we are tied to that tower, somehow. That one of us is always meant to serve it."
"I don't understand." Moveover, Luka didn't especially want to understand. Every word made her chest tighter with anxiety.
Ms. Kamui's mouth twitched. It wasn't a happy smile. "You understand more than you'd like." She leaned back, resting her head on the back of the two-seat. "Why did you have to barge in the tower like that, anyway? I don't recall being such a fool at your age."
"What were we supposed to do, then?" In some obscure way, it felt particularly offensive to be scolded by her own aged self.
"I've spent weeks here studying the situation on my own without being tortured or thrown down a step of stairs, you know?"
Luka scowled, but then a sudden thought crossed her mind. "Hold on, what do you mean 'on your own'? Where-" Luka clamped her mouth shut as the next horrible thought paralysed her.
Ms. Kamui straightened up. Her eyes were hard, so abruptly full of cold rage that Luka instinctively raised an arm to protect herself. "Yes, on my own! Do you really need to ask what happened to my husband!?" The woman's furious stare lasted only a few seconds, before she sank back on the chair and muttered bitterly, "Stupid and courageous to the end."
"I'm sorry."
"Oh, you will be, if you don't take care of that boy over there." Ms. Kamui took another deep breath. "But we need to focus. There're some things we ought to cover." She pointed towards her floral-print purse, currently resting on top of the chest by the foot of the bed. "Hand me my bag."
"You are having those flashes, right? Of her life?" The first object Ms. Kamui extracted from her bag was an irregular crystal of some kind, with a simple gold crimp and chain, a twin to the pendant the old woman was wearing around her neck. "Maybe this will help. Oh, I only have two of these, so don't lose it."
Luka examined the crystal in her hands with a raised eyebrow.
"I'm afraid I have no idea how it all works, or if it will work on you at all. I just know the visions only came whenever I took mine off."
"Where did you get something like that in the first place?"
"My husband had these made for my birthday, using rock samples from the site of his latest project." Ms. Kamui held the crystal close to her eye. It seemed to gather and project the glow of the fireplace in waves of amber light that caressed her brow and cheekbones. "He was so happy to be working on the anomaly survey… I bet he'd have so many theories on all of this." Her lower lip trembled for a moment, then settled on a stubborn and terse line.
"There's also my diary. Here," she produced a small pink notebook and pen from her bag. "It has everything I've managed to find out about this place and the tower, so far. It should help you from here on."
Luka examined the notebook. Several pages were marked with colourful tags, each with a label written with her own precise handwriting. She flipped through it, and some of the sketches inside reminded of the maps in the papers Gakupo had been examining before their trip to the tower.
"You'll have plenty of time to read later." Ms. Kamui waved her hand. "The important thing is, you cannot let Gakupo climb past the library floors of the tower. Or go to the basement levels. You'll have to do it yourself."
"Eh?"
"I told you before, our lives are chained to the tower. But, that also means we have some protection from the terrible things that live inside it. If I'm right…" Ms. Kamui once again turned to examine the sleeping figure on the bed, "She let her Gakupo be consumed by those powers."
"Huh?! Why would she ever do that?!" Luka said, raising her voice. Gakupo grumbled momentarily in his sleep in response, but didn't wake up.
Ms. Kamui wagged a finger before answering in a lower tone. "Who knows. Maybe she was indulging his curiosity and something went wrong. I suspect we'd know more if we let her completely invade our minds but I'm not about to let that happen. How about you?"
Luka shook her head.
"Still, I managed to glean something useful from her thoughts, before I completely cut her off." Ms. Kamui took the notebook from Luka's hands and turned the pages back and forth for a couple of seconds. "Here, you'll need to learn them by heart." It was a lengthy list of directions under the rather puzzling title of 'M?'
"What's this?"
"The way to something that can help you fight what's inside of him. I think it's a relic, or a ceremonial weapon of some kind. They made her memorise the route to many treasures, when she was chosen as the Revolving Maiden." Ms. Kamui's eyes unfocused for a moment, as she relived the borrowed memories. "It took some time, but I found ledgers on the ground floor that filled in the gaps of what she showed me." The faraway look passed, and she trained her eyes on Luka. "This 'M' is somewhere underground, so you'll need to retrieve it on your own."
Luka recalled the stairs descending into the depths of the tower with a shudder. Ms. Kamui gave her a pitying look, but that only made her angry. "Didn't you stop him with that spell or whatever it was? If it's that important, you need to come with me to get this thing!"
"That spell, as you call it, is why I can't join you." Ms. Kamui rubbed her temples. "It was supposed to be a last resort, but you two just had to push my hand, didn't you? Well… Whatever the case, my body is beginning to catch up to what I did."
"Catch up?"
"It's killing me," Ms. Kamui said indifferently. "Don't make that face. I had the most wonderful time, all these years." A gentle smile softened her features, as she turned once more to look at the bed. "We've failed him twice now. It was an easy decision to make."
"How long do you have?" Luka asked reluctantly, after a moment.
"A few days, perhaps?" Ms. Kamui rose from the seat with the same measured movements she used to cross the room previously. "Like Gakupo might say, I haven't died before." She shrugged. "I'll take the spare bedroom."
"Oh!" Luka sprung to her feet.
"What?"
"Have you seen a couple of girls around here? Gakupo's sister and her friend, the man took them, I think!" Luka couldn't believe she had once again taken so long to remember Gumi and Miku's existence.
Ms. Kamui raised her eyebrows. "So that's what it was. I thought I heard someone crying on the upper floors."
"Do you know if they are ok?"
"Haven't even seen them myself. But all the more reason you need to get the relic. You won't get past the beasts patrolling the library otherwise." She observed Luka's white knuckle grip on the notebook for a few seconds, before turning towards the door. "It'll be hard, but you can do it."
In a land without clocks or even the song of morning birds, there was no such thing as raising early. Not for Luka, in any case. She took her time, despite the demands of her hungry stomach, and the uncomfortable sensation of a pen under her ribs. The messy lilac hair, pale neck and rumpled shirt filling up her view gave her little incentive to move. After an eternity, the shoulder under the shirt shifted a little.
"Luka? Are you awake?"
She let out something close to a 'mmrf'.
"You wouldn't happen to have some painkillers, would you? I feel like a crushed tomato."
Luka sat up with a yawn. The pink notebook slid down her belly and landed between with a small thud.
"What's that?" Even through a pained whisper, his curiosity was palpable.
"That old woman wrote about her time here in this."
"Who?"
"The lady that literally saved us?" He didn't react at all to her words, so Luka pressed on, "Do you remember anything about yesterday?"
Gakupo stared at her for a few more seconds, blankly. Then, his gaze wandered upwards, and his fingers gingerly poked the bump on his head. "It's all very…blurry." He went silent for such a long time that Luka was about to probe him further when he continued, "I think…I think I've seen her before, somewhere."
You don't say.
Gakupo made to sit, but immediately grimaced and desisted. "I might need a day off." His left hand patted the bed for the notebook, but Luka quickly snatched it away.
"You are not going to enjoy reading in that state."
"True." His eyelids drooped. Seconds passed without anything besides slow breathing.
It was perplexing to see him apparently fall asleep mid-conversation, but there was little Luka could actually do, aside from fixing the blanket over him. She then examined the compress resting on the pillow. After hours of use, it was room temperature.
Suddenly, Gakupo opened his eyes with a more focused look than before. "Luka, if anything happens, I-"
"Shut it. We've already had this discussion, I'm not leaving."
He regaled her with a childlike pout before chuckling. "It's not that… Ah, you're not the type to enjoy dramatic love confessions, anyway."
Luka's face went completely red. "I, I'll go get us some breakfast."
Another soft chuckle. "Thanks. Then you can tell me what happened in the tower."
Luka nodded, then jumped off the bed and stiffly exited the room. Once outside, she rested her back against the door, breathing deeply to calm herself.
It's not like he hasn't made it obvious, chimed up a cynical voice inside her. Don't overreact.
"But saying 'love' out loud…" She looked around her, as if searching for some reassurance. But it was the same foggy courtyard as before, with no answers on hand. Finally, her eyes rested on the door to the smaller bedroom. She pictured Ms. Kamui resting on the bed, skin and sheets the same ivory colour.
What if…
She straightened her posture, and the blush on her cheeks vanished. She walked a couple steps until the tip of her shoes reached the rim of the pool. She looked downwards, not really observing the bottom.
One of us is always meant to serve the tower, Ms. Kamui had said.
What if that wasn't the only thing that was meant to happen, over and over again?
Ms. Kamui and the Luka that once lived in that house had both loved and married their respective Gakupo.
Was that their future?
Luka crouched down and hugged her legs. Burying her face in her thighs didn't quite dispel the agitation she felt, but helped just a little.
It wasn't that she resented sharing her life with him. Just not because of fate or some unseen power moving them around like puppets.
If it had to happen, it should be because he loved her, and she loved him.
The fog curled above her head, uncaring. In the distance, black shapes twisted over a deserted town square. After a while, they faded out of existence, without ever being noticed by the only possible spectator.
Some time later, Luka stood up wiping her eyes and headed for the kitchen. She wasn't going to allow those dark thoughts stop her from doing what ought to be done. Gakupo needed breakfast and another cold compress, after all.
Some time later, Luka knocked on the door of the smaller bedroom a couple of times, then waited. Nothing.
"Ma'am?"
More silence.
She pressed her ear to the door. To her relief, she heard a soft voice say "It's open."
The bed was a colourless corner of the otherwise vivid and messy room. Slightly threadbare bedsheets and loose white hair surrounding a face that barely had any coloration left. Even her irises seem somewhat faded.
"I brought you some food."
"Thanks." She watched Luka place the plate on the nightstand without making any attempt to move. "How's Gakupo?"
"Black and blue all over, achy head with a big swollen bump. Doesn't remember much about yesterday, but he sounds coherent otherwise."
stared at the ceiling, thinking. "Concussions take at least a week to heal, if I remember correctly. I'd say you have a day or two to go get the relic before he starts to get antsy." She eyed the tray Luka was balancing on one hand. "Is that for him?"
Luka nodded.
"You shouldn't keep him waiting, then. Go."
"He's going to ask me who you are, you know?" Luka blurted out. "What do I tell him?" The thought had occurred to her while she prepared breakfast, and in retrospect it was terribly obvious. "Do I tell him you're sick? And why?"
Ms. Kamui's expression grew serious. "Good question." She finally reached for a small handful of nuts, and slowly brought them to her mouth. She chewed pensively.
Luka wasn't sure of what he might come out with, but clearly Gakupo wasn't going to stay resting if he got the idea into his head that Ms. Kamui was dying because of him.
"An old broad like me doesn't need a particular reason to kick the bucket," Ms. Kamui finally said brutally. "Just tell him I fell ill after following that monster into this world. Nothing more is needed."
"And how do I explain our escape, then?"
"Do you know what's inside the Gakupo in the tower and how it operates?"
Luka blinked.
"Then why should you know what made him have a spasm and run away? It just happened at a very opportune moment, luckily."
"That's…"
"If you over complicate things he'll know you're keeping something from him."
Luka fought to keep her discontent away from her face. What kind of answer had she been hoping to receive? She wasn't sure. So in the end, she reluctantly nodded.
"Another Luka!" Gakupo exclaimed with giddy excitement. "You know, this whole thing reminds of a book I once read, it talked about universes floating like bubbles in the current of time…" His eyes glinted. "And she said something about an anomaly survey? That must be how she came here. Do you think she'll mind if I ask her a few questions?"
"By 'a few' you mean a million and a half, I'm sure." Luka shook her head. "You're hurt, she's sick, neither is doing anything but staying put for a few days." She used her most authoritative voice, and crossed her arms for good measure.
"But-"
"I'll tie you to the bed if I need to."
Gakupo laughed, not particularly intimidated. But he immediately countered with the argument Luka was expecting, "Look, I won't bother her, but I can't stay like this too long, Gumi and her friend need us."
"I never said I'd do nothing in the meantime. While you rest I'll study the situation, maybe I'll find where they are."
"You can't be serious."
"I won't take any unnecessary risks, obviously." The risks I have to take are necessary, Luka added mentally.
"Luka…"
"I already know how capable that man is of ruining my day, I won't slip up." Luka placed her hands on her hips, adopting a cocksure air. "Didn't you say I was the smartest girl you've ever known?"
"I did say that," Gakupo said with the look of a child gulping down a terribly sour medicine.
"Then trust me."
"I do. Just…be careful, ok?"
"Who do you take me for?" Luka replied, a bit too forcefully. To compensate, she took Gakupo's hand and squeezed it. "It will be fine," she said much more softly.
Luka sat on the edge of the pool, in the yard. The sky was predictably cloudy, but the air wasn't as chilly as her first day in that world.
Ms. Kamui's notebook was on her lap, opened on the 'M?' page. Those words would be her only help in traversing the tangled roots of the tower. And yet, the more she looked at them, the more they seemed almost abstract lines of ink, just curves of black on white taunting her.
The underground levels of the tower were a labyrinth of twisting corridors that ascended and descended, burrowing into the earth with no discernible logic. If there was a map of the place, Ms. Kamui wasn't able to find it.
Worse still, there were areas in which light was prohibited, for some reason. What would happen if she defied that rule, purposefully or by accident? Ms. Kamui said they were somewhat protected, but Luka wasn't going to count on that. As abhorrent as she found the idea of walking blindly in those sections, perhaps it was worse still to see what was hidden down there. She was nowhere near Gakupo's level when it came to horror and sci-fi knowledge, but even she knew the phrase 'things men were not supposed to see.'
"I can't believe this is my life now," Luka groaned out loud. She flipped through the notebook absently, then stopped at a random page.
I asked Kouki what happened. Not the most tactful thing to do, but I need to understand what I saw. He missed most of it, and that saved him, but he heard some of the adults in town calling her a witch, blaming her for all the bad weather and his madness. That accounts for the burnt mess in the square, then. Awful way to go.
Kouki was with his herd up in the cliffs when there was an awful sound and that land itself shook. He thinks the tower itself was angry and roared when she breathed her last.
Perhaps that's why the villagers are appearing periodically as phantoms. The kid's theory is as valid as any I can formulate at this point.
What.
Luka stared dumbfounded at the words for a few seconds, then slowly her face turned towards the town in the distance. Everything was still.
She rubbed the skin of her arm, the spot where the man in grey suit had grabbed her. There was so much to be confused about in the few sentences she had just read. But from the swirling waters of her thoughts, one rose to prominence: the effect the man had on her always seemed to be associated with fire. Was that somehow connected to whatever happened in this place?
Almost in a daze, she rose. Before she knew it, she was reaching the gates and walking outside the house.
For the first time, she stepped on the path connecting the house to the rest of the small town. Dead leaves and small pebbles crunched under her feet, tremendously loud to her ears. She constantly looked from left and right, holding the knife she had taken from the kitchen with both hands. The trees were too sparse and the bushes surrounding the path too ratty and close to the ground to offer a good hiding spot. The world was so silent that she was bound to hear anyone sneaking closer.
Despite all of this, she gripped the knife as hard as she could.
Things changed when the first houses began to surround her, blocking her vision of the environment. Luka slowed down, unconsciously crouching a little as she walked.
It had been a beautifully picturesque town one day, with fragrant herbs and flowering plants growing in clay pots placed in every corner. Trees spread their branches burdened with plump fruits over the walls guarding the small backyards. But now the paths were stained with the dark rotten remains no one had picked. The more sensitive herbs hung limp from their pots and the buds were brown.
As she neared the square, a foul odour began to assault Luka's nose.
She turned a corner, and a scene of red and black misery unfurled before her eyes. In the centre of the square stood the remains of a cross, surrounded by the ashes and last logs of a large bonfire. Twisted bodies laid all around the square, seared skin and rotting flesh and skeletal jaws opened in a soundless scream. Most were posed as if escaping from the stake. Hands big and small scratched at the stone pavement.
Luka supported her weight on the wall to her left, covering her mouth with one hand. She fought with her nausea for a long painful minute, staring at the ground between her shoes. Finally, finally, she felt sufficiently in control of herself to lower her hand. Still, the stench and the very idea of taking into herself anything emanating from those corpses made her wrap the woolly cape around her lower half of her face.
Logically, the thing to do was to leave immediately and go back to the house. She would've done that, but her feet marched into the square and carefully stepped over the bodies to get closer to the cross. Her fingers stretched out to touch the singed wood.
She died here.
A small breeze rustled the dying vegetation nearby and stirred the awful smell all around her. For an instant, the world seemed to open an invisible mouth to draw breath and speak. Her skin prickled with goosebumps.
But the breeze passed and nothing happened. Luka frowned and looked downwards at the crystal hanging from her neck. She held it to her eyes, examining it closely. Was it a bit warm? Perhaps a little cloudier than the last time she looked at it? Had it actually blocked her from seeing what happened in the square?
Then again, why did she want anything weird to happen? She could easily form a theory with the spectacle before her and Ms. Kamui's words. They had burnt the woman at the stake as a witch, and then…
And then something killed everyone in town? Was it the tower? The other Gakupo? Something else?
"Oh, what does it matter?!" Luka exclaimed, staring with disgust at the soot on the fingertips. "His way of thinking must be contagious…"
Go back and keep studying those instructions, Luka. Don't try to make sense of this nightmare of a world.
As soon as the thought crossed her mind, something changed in the square. Luka whipped around after catching movement in the corner of her vision. The shadows on the ground deepened and shifted. Something was now blocking the cold light from above.
Bodies, as many as the ones littered on the ground, perhaps more. Flailing limbs, inflamed and cracked skin, jaws wide open. Over and over again, the bodies floating above her crumbled while reliving the moment of torment.
Luka watched completely paralyzed. Her mind went as blank as the cloud-covered sky. She had never seen someone die, or even been gravely injured. Now, death was all over her, showing off every grotesque detail. For the longest time, all the instincts that should've made her run abandoned her.
Suddenly, one of the burnt husks turned its skull-like face towards her. There was no way its hollowed eye sockets could see her, no way, but it was enough for Luka's body to unfreeze. A shriek caught on her throat as she jumped over the corpses on her way. Fast, faster than she had ever run before, she made her way past the empty backyards, crushing a couple of blackened fruits on the streets, rustling fallen leaves no one would sweep.
Luka was unaccustomed to such exercise, and yet she didn't stop until the now familiar gates were closed behind her. She dropped roughly by the side of the pool, mind and body equally drenched with the deepest fatigue. Enough of this place. Enough!
She took out the pink notebook and held it at arms-length, twisting her mouth with disgust. Oh, how she wished to chuck it away as hard as she could! But it wasn't like she could throw her surroundings along with it. Instead, she opened it again on the 'M?' page.
She'd go to the tower tomorrow, first thing in the morning.
