A Wish

Luke was walking back to Stein’s house. This time he made sure to consider the time of visit, since he could practically feel Stein being so off even though he doesn’t look like it yesterday. He whistled random tunes as he made his way to Stein’s house. Then he grinned upon remembering that he has a chance with Lisa—forced chance actually, but who cares? He was going to prove himself worthy for that pretty lady.

An elf ran fast him. Luke didn’t actually mind it since the elf didn’t steal anything from him. Another ran past him. He thought that they were just playing some tag.

That was his thought until he saw a huge crowd ahead of him. Curious, he headed to the crowd, “Hey, excuse me but what’s happening here?”

A lady with a scaly skin answered, “The supervisor was found in the outskirts.”

Luke raised a brow, “Supervisor..?” He already had a bad feeling about it as he made his way through the crowd. As he made his way to the front, he saw the supervisor—better known as Stein was being carried back to his house. He felt himself fall in a bottomless pit, “STEIN!” He shouted as he went to his side, “Come one, please wake up..!” He shouted, albeit gently so he wouldn’t cause a ruckus. He went along the movement of the team responsible for Stein’s movement as of now. Luke shot a glance at some of the movers, “Hey! Can you tell me how he ended in the outskirts?!”

One of them just shook his head, “Somebody just found him and called us.”

Luke just clicked his tongue and continued to stay by Stein’s side. He helped in ushering Stein to his bed. He thanked the movers in Stein’s behalf then closed the door. He stared at Stein’s state. Stein was covered by so many clouds of mysteries. He keeps finding out more and more about him even though he thought that he has known more than enough. He let out a broken chuckle, “So you’re the supervisor...” He said. He covered his eyes as he waited for Stein’s awakening, “That must be a sad life...”

Knock! Knock!

“Hey! Are you awake Stein?!”

It was Lisa’s voice.

Luke went to the door to open it for her.

“Hey—Oh...” Lisa said.

Luke just gave a small smile, “I didn’t know you were so concerned for him.

Lisa just shook her head, “If that’s jealousy I’m sensing, you better cut it off.” She said as she helped herself inside, “If anything, I just come here to kill time.” She sat at the vacant seat and glanced at Stein, “He’s probably lonely...” She rolled her eyes to Luke, “Being a supervisor and everything...”

Luke avoided the eye contact as he chose to stare at the side of the table, “In all honesty, I didn’t know he was the supervisor... I only heard stories about him...” He leaned against the door then slumped down and covered his face, “And I was talking about emotions and everything yesterday... I’m a very inconsiderate person..!”

Lisa watched Luke wallow into the well of self-pity, “What stories have you heard about him..?”

Luke deeply exhaled then ran a hand through his hair, “They said he will live for eternity. He has no heart but he is very considerate.” He said then redirected his eyes to Stein, “They also said that even without a heart, he will still be very nice—too nice exactly. He knows what to feel but he doesn’t know how to express.”

Lisa nodded to confirm some things. She crossed her legs then propped her arm on the table then rested her chin on her palm, “You’ve got them right, but you’ve got something wrong...” She glanced back at Stein to make sure that he was still unconscious before continuing, “Stein has a heart but it died along with the original owner of it.”

A question mark appeared above Luke’s head.

Lisa sighed, “His master failed to transfer the heart to Stein because he was on the verge of death...” She felt herself falling into depression as she reminded herself of the image of Stein’s master, “Stein isn’t just some insensitive jerk like how others see him.” She looked up then, “Well he IS a jerk when it comes to words, but he is much promising with his actions, you know...”

Luke pointed at Stein, causing Lisa to look as well. Stein was reaching for something.

The two of them immediately to his side then Lisa held on to the stretched hand, “Stein! What happened to you?!” She exclaimed.

Stein forced out a breath, “Risette... gone... somewhere...” He managed to say. He gripped Lisa’s hand as he stared at her eyes, “Find... her... I sense potential danger...” After that, Stein was unconscious again.

“STEIN!” Luke shouted.

“Don’t panic! He’s not going to die!” Lisa said to reassure.

Stein suddenly arched his back as he let out a pained groan. He rolled on his stomach, revealing that the back part of his suit was burned away. What’s worse was that his back looked like he was stabbed by a madman.

“Stein... what is happening to you..?” Lisa carefully said.

Stein only replied by another painful groan and another additional stab at the back.

Luke cringed at the sight of brutality. He cleared his throat, “I’ll try to gather some man power to help find the girl!” He said as he rushed out and flew to their head quarters.

Lisa watched Luke go away then back to Stein who was in unbelievable pain. She retrieved some of the health potions that Stein had made before. She rubbed them on Stein’s back, earning some scary hisses from him. Lisa just continued to apply them while keeping an uneasy look. She got a huge towel and placed them on Stein’s back, “Stein... you need to tell me. Where did you last saw her..?”

Stein jerked then arched his back in sheer pain. He was catching his breath, “Third..... intersection—GRAAAAHHH!!!” He managed to say. His breathing turned heavy and rigid, “She’s scared..!” He said, “She’s under a traumatizing situation—NNGGG!!”

Just when the bleeding had stopped, the additional stabs just now re-opened his wound. Lisa was taken aback. She swallowed a lump, “Just stay and try to recover your magic! I’ll help in finding Risette!” She dashed out of Stein’s house and extended her wings as she flew to her place.

~o0o0o~

“Heheheheh...!!!” The guy eerily chuckled. He skipped back and forth as he stared the scared Risette. He had tons of scars around his body but he was crazy enough to reveal everything in front of the girl, “You must be HUNGRY!!!” He suddenly shouted as he threw his arms in the air.

Risette whimpered in fear and shook her head, saying she wasn’t hungry.

The guy rushed to her then grabbed her by the cheeks. He forced eye contact with the girl, “I said you ARE hungry!” He exclaimed, emphasizing that she is hungry.

Risette didn’t have the choice of refusing as she felt her head be forced to nod an approval.

The guy jumped back to being joyous, “GOOD!” He chirped. He turned around one moment then back at her the second later, “HERE!!” He shouted as he threw her mud to eat. He grinned maniacally, “THAT’S MY HOME MADE PIE!!!” He clapped his hands together, “EAT!” He watched Risette look at the mud pie in horror. He grinned ear to ear as he decided to feed her instead, “Ahhhh!!!” He picked up a fist full of mud and slowly made its way to Risette’s mouth. His eyes grew wide as he stared at Risette.

His eyes suddenly shifted color from red to blue. The guy suddenly looked in shock, “Oh my goodness! Why am I feeding you this?” He exclaimed as he threw away the fist-full of mud. He cleansed his hand with a rag then gave Risette an apologetic look, “I am so sorry I had to give you something so disgusting...” He said.

Risette just remained petrified in fear. That guy may have apologized for trying to feed her mud, but he was still grinning like a maniac and the expression in his eyes haven’t changed as well.

That person was named Gi, a deranged necromancer. He is suffering from multiple personality disorder, most likely because of his attempts on taking over other beings—at least according to Risette’s understanding.

Gi walked across the place and grabbed an object that seemed to be a hand. He sharply turned around to meet his eyes with Risette. He grinned wider compared to just now and showed her an elf’s severed arm.

Risette stifled a shriek in horror. Tears formed in the corners of her eyes and feverishly shook her head left and right as Gi slowly approached her. She tried to push herself further into the wall to no avail. She kept shaking her head to say ‘no’ and turned her head away from the severed arm.

“I’m hurt..!” Gi weakly said. He looked at the severed arm then back to Risette, “This is the most delicious part in an elf’s body!” He explained. Gi licked the arm to prove Risette that it really was delicious but Risette was far too scared to even look at the guy’s actions.

Risette didn’t dare to open her eyes upon reacting to the smell of decaying flesh. Tears flowed out of her eyes, ‘Help!!’ She internally shouted. She felt the cold and disgusting texture of the severed arm. She whimpered in fear as she placed more distance away from the severed arm. She was already sobbing out of the sheer intensity of fear. She kept shaking her head and she kept avoiding the feel of the severed arm.

“Come on..!” Gi begged, “It’s very delicious!”

Risette just shook her head in response.

~o0o0o~

Stein kept groaning in pain. The stab keeps getting deeper and it keeps intensifying by the moment.

What was happening to Risette that her troubles are turning to pain? Intense pain. He can hear her voice, her whimpering voice. He was certain that Risette was fighting in her own way, but it should be stopped so both of them would seize to hurt.

He heard her scream to the top of her lungs then he shot up and felt a large slash add to his collection on his back.

He breathed heavily and he tried to calm his senses from the sheer pain. He, himself, was already shaking. He didn’t want the pain anymore. He was more than grateful if he could stop the pain from ever occurring again. He looked at his bed.

Blood tainted his sheets. He massaged his face as he released a deep—“GRAAAAAHHH!!!” He shouted as he felt another large slash embed on his back. He fell down to the floor, feeling that he was losing his strength. He was practically hyperventilating and profusely sweating.

This had to stop.

He mustered all his strength to his arms. He crawled to his drawer, groaning while on the way as he felt the pain. Upon finally reaching the drawer, he got out a paper and pencil.

Stein tried to find a chance to relocate Risette, since he knows that she still has the notebook he gave her. He was already rigid and wasted, but it wasn’t a good enough reason for him to stop and find the girl. He gripped the pencil with all his might since it wasn’t so much of an option for him. He shut his eyes ever so tightly—partly because he was writhing in pain—and let out o forceful breath.

The way he held the pencil made heavy marks on the paper. His hand would suddenly thrash away because of the sudden intensity of pain. He was getting teary due to it, but in order to make the pain stop, he must finish his concentration of securing Risette’s location.

He suddenly shot his eyes open and let the tears fall as they please. He remained wide-eyed as he stared at the paper with heavy graphite marks. He was shakily breathing in and out. His whole body was shaking. He wasn’t able to move his hands anymore.

All because the pain was too much to bear.

Rather than panicky, he was all in a hurry. He wanted this nonsense to end. He wanted Risette on the safer side. Most of all, he wanted to punish the offender.

His eyes shot at random directions all in vain of trying to suppress his pain.

The door banged open.

“STEIN! WE FOUND A LEAD!!” Luke shouted then held back a gasp as he saw Stein’s poor state. He rushed to Stein’s side, carefully as he checked the rest of his body, “What happened to you?” He softly asked. He helped Stein stand up and let him sit of the chair without letting his back touch the back rest. Luke scanned the room for something to help stop the bleeding.

Just as Luke was about to grab the rag just across the room, he felt Stein hold on to his arm as though his life depended on it, “Stein..?” He asked then cringed in pain as the grip became tighter. He was about to try to pry off the grip but he saw that Luke had just attained another large slash. He needed to vent off the pain to another vessel. Luke let Stein do it regardless of knowing that it really hurts. He can tell that much that his pain is much more unbearable compared to this grip on him. After the tightening of grip, Stein relaxed again but he was completely getting wasted by the moment.

Luke massaged his aching wrist as he relayed the information, “Risette was last found entering a cave.” He looked at Stein’s eyes to see if he was getting Luke’s words. After confirming that Stein got it, Luke continued, “She was at the other side of the dead end.” Luke nodded once and waited for Stein’s confirmation of hearing it. After seeing Stein’s way of confirmation, Luke continued, “Someone saw her being lead there by a mysterious hooded guy—we assumed that he’s responsible for taking her away...”

Luke swiftly grabbed the rag then said a quiet, “This will hurt...” then proceeded to wiping off the blood on Stein’s back.

Stein arched his back in pain. He grabbed the edges of his seat and let out an anguished groan.

Luke also cringed in response with Stein’s expression of pain, “Listen. Our troops are on the way to retrieve the little miss.” A new slash appeared on Stein’s back, making him groan in pain once more. Luke hissed at the additional wound, “I need you to terminate the magic you created with the little miss!”

“CAN’T!” Stein managed to blurt out. He shook his head a few times then panted heavily, “It’s far too attached to her!” He added. Stein then hissed when he felt the cloth touch his skin again, “SHE NEEDS TO BE AT EASE IF I’M TO TERMINATE THE SPELL!” He then released a heavy breath as he felt the cloth lifted up.

Luke wasn’t able to think of a good reply. He swallowed a lump, “We know she’s there, but we don’t know how to get there.” He carefully said. Luke slumped his shoulders as he helplessly looked at Stein’s gruesome back, “Some of my men tried to go across only to find themselves walking for hours...” He watched Stein’s shoulders heave up and down as he craved for air.

Stein dejectedly shook his head in dismay, “She has her full trust on me.” His whole body suddenly tensed, but it was less intense compared to before. Stein didn’t fail to notice this vast difference, “If I terminate now... She’ll know that I betrayed her.”

“We won’t be able to cancel the mirage barrier if you won’t be able to help us...”

“I’ll force myself if I have to.”