A Wish

“Are you sure you don’t want to spend the night here?” Stein asked.

Risette just nodded as a reply, “There would be people who might wonder where I had gone, so I go there to prevent them from worrying.” She said. She refrained from creating eye contact with Stein. She put her hands behind her back, “I’ll be going now...”

“Yeah... Take care...”

With that, Risette ran back to her place, leaving just Luke and Stein by the intersection.

There was a pregnant silence as they watched Risette back fade into the backgrounds. Stein looked at the sinking sun, “Say...” He started, “Are women always thinking about many things?”

Luke looked at Stein in confusion, “Women are very intuitive to the point that they over think everything.” He replied. He pulled out a picture of his sister an his husband. It was a beautiful elf and vampire in the picture, “My sister is very possessive, so she always misunderstands the situation...” He chuckled upon recalling a certain memory, “One time she saw her husband with another woman go inside a cake shop—she wasn’t aware that her husband was just with her sister, so she mistook them as an illegal affair. After her husband got home, she threw so many materials... completely forgetting that her husband was just buying a cake for her birthday.”

Stein raised a brow, “Why didn’t she rationalize first?”

Luke gave a good mannered chuckle, “You can’t underestimate a woman’s jealousy!” He started to walk back. Stein had no choice but to follow Luke’s pace, “You actually can’t comprehend a woman’s way of thinking... they’re very sharp and quick on picking up on something.”

Stein gave an even more confused look, “Would that mean they can tell something even though it’s still not happening?”

Luke chuckled as he watched birds pass by, “In a way, yes... but I think they are just that capable of seeing through...” He followed the other people’s movements with his eyes. He blinked once then redirected his eyes back at Stein who doesn’t look too concerned about anything, “What are you to the other girl though?”

“A potential heart beater... or so she says...” Stein replied, “Why do you ask?”

Luke shook his head, “No good reason... I was curious since the two of you looked like an item together...” He folded his arms behind his head, “Have you heard what immortals are capable of?”

“No... Do you?”

Luke stared up the sky, “I was a former warrior sent to exterminate and retrieval missions... Immortals were one of them...” He looked at Stein to see a reaction before continuing, “They are spawns of dragons. That’s why they have extremely hard to beat hearts...” He pulled out a picture of a slain dragon and showed it to Stein, “This so-called ‘love’ makes their muscles move... Strong love to make them beat.” He put the picture back under his coat, “Well, I don’t know why it happens, but perhaps she can tell why...”

Stein had his eyes remain looking at the floor as they walked, “Love is a huge word, don’t you think?”

Luke pushed away the thought with a good-mannered chuckle, “It’s not so huge, really... If you must rephrase it, it’s expressive. That’s why it seems so huge!” He noticed that the sun was setting. He stopped to cherish the remaining lights before it goes out. Stein followed in lieu since Luke was his conversation partner. Luke admired the lights before sun down, “Every expression done is equivalent to a different form of love...”

Stein also looked at the sunset, “I see...”

“Well! My home is this way...” Luke pointed to the opposite direction, causing Stein to raise his brow in confusion. Luke chuckled, “I wanted to talk to someone...” He said as he spread his wings, “I want to talk with you some more but my mom gets worried when I don’t get home by sun down!” He waved.

“Luke.” Stein said, causing Luke to temporarily stop his waving, “I love you.”

It sent chills down to Luke’s spine, “DUDE!” He shouted as he wiped the idea away, “See you tomorrow!” He said as he flew away.

Stein was left all to himself as he watched Luke fade into the background as well. Ever since he interacted with other people from the outside his house, there more and more things kept bothering him. There were lies that Risette didn’t want to say. People want to extend their lives when it was supposed to be a taboo to live longer than what was set for them. Then there was this mystery with this thing called ‘love’. Stein just waited for the darkness to engulf his surroundings before finally heading home.

Thinking about it, today was the most haggard day compared to other days. He had to use his magic even at times when it wasn’t even a necessity. He felt as though he was hollow like he was supposed to be since he was nearly depleted of magic. Stein started to walk back home. As he walked, his footsteps sucked the magic out of the floor creating light in the process.

Stein walked home leaving trails of light made by his footsteps.

Little slime people greeted him upon entrance. The gradually shrunk as they approached their master then disappeared the moment they touched Stein. He watched them groan a welcome as they became magic particles to be absorbed. Stein watched them be converted to his energy. He gently closed the door and headed for his bed. He laid there and stared at the ceiling.

Long enough, he was unconscious.

...

...

Stein was inside his house again. It was just like how he left it. He heard chopping sounds by the other room. He let his feet guide him wherever it was. There he found an old man wearing the same set of clothes as him. He had greyish to white hair. He had gentle blue eyes that resembled the calm ocean and complimenting bright sky. The old man noticed Stein’s presence, “Oh! Good timing! Come’re!” He said. Stein just complied as he went to the old man. The old man gave him a gentle smile before encouraging Stein to come nearer, “I just finished this new potion for a client! Care to sample it?”

Stein eyed the potion. It was clear as crystal. If anything, it looked superb and very entrancing, “What’s this?”

The old man grinned, “Makes you curious right?” He grabbed the potion and raised it to eye level, “It’s an invisibility potion!” He made a toothy smile, clearly proud of his work, “It took me a while to do it but I’m certain that this is the finished product!” He tried to feel something in the air, “Let’s see... some of my items were used to test this potion...” The old man continued to grope the air in hopes of finding an invisible item. His eyes lit as if saying he’s found one, “Ah! Here we go!” He grabbed something with both hands. While it looked meaningless to grab something as though it was non-existent, the old man shoved it by Stein’s face, “This is my infinity box!”

Stein stared at the space that was said to be the infinity box, “There’s nothing there...”

The old man chuckled, “Hehehe! Of course there is nothing there! It’s invisible!” He shouted in pure excitement and wonder, “Now I can hide this without worrying about thieving elves!”

“Grim..?”

“Yes?”

Stein looked around, “If you are going to hide something invisible, where would you put it?”

Grim closed his eyes to ponder about it, “Hmm...” He crossed his arms then pressed a finger on his forehead, “Well... If I’m to hide it, I’d probably hide it somewhere I’ll forget... Like the corner of the basement, I think...”

Stein raised a brow, “Why would you hide it in somewhere you’re bound to forget?”

Grim opened his eyes and gave a gentle smile, “There is certain happiness in knowing that you found something you have forgotten.” He said then proceeded in finding a good spot to hide his invisible infinity box. He walked out of the room with Stein following behind, “That reminds me, how’s the outside world for you?” He said while looking at potential hiding places.

“There are many things that I still need to know... Emotions are weird...” Stein replied as he helped in finding good hiding places for something invisible. He looked inside drawers but Grim said no, “One said that women are sharp and perceptive...”

Grim chucked, “Haha! I can’t argue with that...” He let out a good mannered sigh as he played with the invisible infinity box, “Women are the reason why men are complete.”

“But then again there are vices and contraptions...” Stein added making Grim looked partially devastated.

“It would’ve been much better if you didn’t add that.” Grim deadpanned.

“I apologize.”

Grim sighed once more before looking at Stein, “You should enjoy life. You’ve even got a lady waiting for you there...” He said. Grim placed the invisible infinity box under his work desk, “I’ll look for a better place tomorrow... For now, I want to know what you’ve experienced today!” He gave Stein a fatherly smile as he walked to his favourite leather couch. He let gravity do it job as he landed on it with full force.

“I feel sorry for the couch, Grim. You should be gentler.” Stein commented as he took a seat by the table.

Grim brushed off the comment with husky chuckles, “No worries! I can always fix this!” He laughed a little more before continuing, “I also noticed... You seem to be depleted today. Is there a reason for that?”

“The person I met the other day kept waking me up—you should know that since you were with me.”

Grim caressed his chin, “Now that you’ve reminded me... that did happen—”

...

...

Stein woke up upon feeling a heavy knife stab his body. He knew what was going to happen next.

I met a weird guy on my way home. I just woke up and I found myself in a place far too unfamiliar to me.

Stein practically got out of his bed then tried to locate the mini notebook hoping that it is with Risette. Everything keeps blurring every time he was about to figure out her location. He was able to gather magic around him but it was not enough to get him to find her within a given time. He went out of his house and tried to locate her using her trails on her way home. That girl walks on bare foot, so it might be easier to find her.

He went to the intersection where he last saw her. Mysteriously enough, her trails where gone—not even a slight track of presence could be detected. Stein tried to go straight the path where Risette went but he only met a dead end. Stein gambled on finding her on the other side. He leapt on to the top of the dead end. He saw multiple footsteps but none belonged to Risette. He suddenly felt another knife stabbing him.

The weird guy keeps whispering creepy words. I’m starting to feel uneasy...

Stein ran to the trail of footsteps. He kept running and running until he was tired. He heaved his breath and tried to run again. He kept running towards an endless trail of footsteps. He suddenly stopped on his track and clenched his head like there was no tomorrow.

For some reason he suddenly visioned Risette being bound by metal ropes. She was quivering in fear. Her complexion was paler than her usual color. She was most likely to be scared. Stein also noticed that she was on the brink of crying in fear. She was trying to back pedal away from the guy. Her eyes constricted, indicating that she saw something more terrifying. She was feverishly shaking her head. Stein could make out the words that came out of her mouth, “No... Please..!”

Stein suddenly felt uneasy as the vision stopped there. He had no idea why he was acting that way but his body was telling him to find her as soon as possible. The image of Risette quivering in fear suddenly flashed in his mind, urging him to run faster. The trail was endless it didn’t seem to be ending soon, he mentally concluded. Stein was running out of magic and stamina. Regardless, he kept running forward in hopes of getting something other than footsteps.

He could feel his senses numbing. He knew that this was where his limits would end his movements. He trudged to move forward. Risette was in danger, he knows that very well. Something in him was pushing him to find the girl, he was just not sure who or what was doing it. Stein’s vision was starting to blur. This wasn’t a good sign. Everything went very slow and blurry.

And then, everything was dark.