06 - Illusions

John had arrived at the source of the screams. There was no one on the ground, but the screams continued, coming from another part of the forest. He kept running towards the sound. A piece of brown fabric was caught on a branch, which seemed to be part of Sarah’s clothing. John picked up the fabric, examined it for a moment, and realized it was Sarah’s. He continued running towards the screams until he reached the entrance of a cave covered in moss. The rain still hadn’t stopped. He observed for a while and heard a faint whimper from inside the cave. It might be Sarah. He took a few steps into the cave, walked a few meters, and everything behind him turned dark. He couldn’t see anything inside the cave, only the silence that pervaded the place. The entrance had vanished, and he was trapped inside. He continued walking straight over the cave’s slippery floor, and in the middle of the path, something whispered in his ear.

"Hello, dear. I see you’re not so far off, hihihi." A sensual and high-pitched voice spoke in John’s ear.

He turned around and tried to feel the body from which the voice was coming, but there was nothing there. The voice spoke a few more phrases in John’s ear, and then he ran desperately through the darkness. After running for a few seconds, he ran into a wall and fell to the ground. Before he could lose consciousness, he saw the face of an Oriental woman and then passed out.

John woke up lying on a stone bed, with flames floating above his head as if attached to some imaginary thread. Everything in the place was made of stone. He was tied up and had a large wound on his forehead. His vision was still blurred when he lifted his head, and that woman’s voice spoke again.

"What a pity, to see you’re still alive. I thought I’d succeed this time." The woman said with a pout and an ironic tone.

John was a bit confused and tried to speak, but no words came out. He began to struggle on the stone bed. The woman looked at him with a wicked smile and spoke calmly.

"Be quiet, or I won’t return your voice." She tilted her nose and appeared in front of him.

She had slanted eyes, snow-white skin, straight hair with a large thorn tying half of her blue hair, was barefoot, and wore a dress made of black leaves. Her eyes were purple. She looked at John again with some disdain and said with ironic laughter.

"My dear, I believe you came searching for that useless cursed one, hihihi. I think you’d be sad to know that she died because of you. That girl was so foolish. She managed to escape for years, but as soon as a man entered her life, she became all full of love."

John's eyes widened with anger, and he began to struggle on the stone bed again. The woman became a bit bored with this and walked over to a shelf, where there were several jars made of shiny glass. She took one of the jars to John, placed one hand on his eye, and with the other poured a sandy powder into it. John began to panic and tried to scream, but it was futile. The woman did the same thing to his other eye. He was blind for a few seconds, and then his voice returned.

"You! What did you do to Sarah? Who are you? Let me out!" John was very angry.

The woman looked at John with her eyes narrowed. "I’m sorry, I didn’t introduce myself. I’m Ziya. I’m in charge of deceiving people. But what I’m telling you is not an illusion, or maybe it is. I just tell you that your little friend can no longer breathe, speak, or even think. Poor thing was only a hundred years old. Died so young." Ziya said, fake-crying.

John looked at the woman, terrified. Sarah couldn’t be dead; she couldn’t be a hundred years old and still look so young. How could all this be happening? It was too unreal. John looked at the woman with eyes full of fury and said.

"Tell me now! Where is Sarah? I know she’s not dead."

The woman walked to the other side of the room and started laughing. She took a strand of her blue hair and threw it at the ceiling. A mist formed, and an image appeared amidst the smoke. It was John calling for Linie, the tree where he was searching for Linie for the first time. The image showed Linie’s hair and her outstretched hands screaming for help, being pulled into the tree. John left and went to search for Linie elsewhere.

Then the mist disappeared, and the woman looked back at John. She sat in a chair, crossed her legs, and said.

"Do you understand now? It’s all your fault. If you hadn’t appeared at her cabin, this wouldn’t have happened. If you hadn’t done that..."

John was crying and trembling, the rage consuming his whole body. He tried to break the ropes binding him, but the attempt was in vain.

"Let me go! I did that for the love of my wife!"

Ziya gave a smirk and replied.

"I’m sure you did it out of love, or you’d be very foolish to give up your daughter out of hate? I think I can’t stay here with you any longer. You’re disturbing my life. If I could, you wouldn’t be here. Unfortunately, fate doesn’t allow it."

Ziya stood up, went to another stone shelf, took a clay jar, and poured a quantity of red powder from it onto John. When the powder disappeared, there was no one left but the stone bed.

"Foolish humans!" Ziya disappeared through a passage that opened between two stone shelves.

John had returned to the river. It wasn’t raining. Only the torturous sound of the lake echoed through the area. His bag was wet, and the sun was shining a little brighter. John sat a few meters from the river and thought about Sarah. She couldn’t be dead. How could she have lived a hundred years? It was impossible. John stared at the water and began to think of a poem. He started composing a poem for Sarah.

_"The wind blows, I can’t see you.

How could I live so long.

Without knowing you.

You made me realize there’s something better than dying."_

John finished imagining the poem and went to the stone where his bag was. He sat down and took out one of his shirts and a pair of brown pants. John removed the shirt he was wearing, the pants, and finally his underwear, and left them beside the bag. His body was well-defined with a light fuzz on his belly that extended to his genitals. He then put on a blue shirt, underwear, and finally the pants. His shoes were damaged, so he threw the clothes he had taken off into the river. As soon as the clothes touched the water, a demonic voice came towards him.

"You will regret it!"

Soon after, several puffs of black smoke emerged from the river and headed towards John. Before the puffs could reach him, he ran through the forest. The puffs chasing him occasionally hit some trees and disappeared, but two puffs continued the pursuit. One puff hit a large rock, and the other continued following John, who was running quickly. John stopped and was hit on the left arm by the puff of smoke. His left arm began to lose its hair, his hand started to form blisters, and some of his fingers exploded. John screamed in pain; his arm was disintegrating, the smoke rose to his shoulder, and then disappeared. John’s arm started to swell with large veins until, after a few minutes, the arm exploded, spraying blood everywhere. In place of the arm, there was nothing, and no wound was exposed. It looked as though John had never had a left arm; it was completely healed. It was too terrifying for him; the arm still hurt but had no wounds. It was an intense and sharp pain, endless torture. How could this happen? Just because he threw the clothes in the river? John sat at the base of a tree and remained there sweating and groaning in pain.

John began to experience illusions. He saw dice rolling in front of him, a large car with a bomb exploding in slow motion, dolls flying and dancing in the tree branches, a butterfly flying like an eagle and shooting green rays, and also a peasant family being decapitated in front of him, with their heads falling on top of each other. John was feeling ill from all this. These illusions were probably Ziya’s doing. John began to shiver, his body temperature rising significantly, until he fell asleep.

Blarest appeared and saw that John was sleeping and missing one of his arms. She giggled like a mischievous child and spoke calmly as if someone were beside her, though the place was empty.

"You know the council is going to be very angry with you, don’t you? Ziya!"

Where there had been no one, Ziya’s body began to materialize. She was laughing euphorically and then looked at Blarest with a bit of envy and said, crossing her arms.

"Miss Blarest. I don’t think you can talk about others. I wasn’t the one who almost expanded the existence of the Tartrios to the world. I think you should take care of your own actions."

Blarest looked at Ziya, furious, with a deep, possessed voice.

"Don’t come with your poison, you viper!" Blarest raised her hand and an enormous black smoke burst from it.