Chapter 9 - Part 2

[Regor reached through the crack and grabbed Haiden's hand sending through him a sear of freezing pain straight to his soul. It was so sharp it enveloped Haiden's mind, his thoughts stopped registering. Everything went black.]

A sense of overwhelming calmness came over Haiden as his consciousness came back. The feeling of being watched, the paranoia, it was gone. He did it.

The softness of his bed that supported his weight of his exhausted body just right . With eyes still closed, trying to steal a few more moments of shut eye, he relaxed. But, it soon proved to be impossible as his friends made their presence known through worried whisperings and outrageous assumptions that made Haiden mentally roll his eyes.

"He's dead!" Maree whispered. Haiden heard a thump which could only have been Camila smacking some manners into Maree.

"You'll be dead if you don't shut up!" Tasgal warned under his teeth. His chest purposly rumbled with his deep voice. Haiden was certain the Ash'en was trying to intimidate Maree, but not even Bras' beatings could keep him from taking a piss at on one of the Empire's most dangerous Elites. The vibrations of Tasgal's voice travled to Haiden's eardrums with a tingle. He felt as if he was whispering in his ear.

"What are you going to do, muscle boy. You don't even have your big sword with you." Maree laughed.

"At least I - "

"Both of you, shut the fuck up. We don't need this right now!" Camila interjected with an angry whisper.

I should tell them I'm awake. Haiden thought.

Y-y-y-ye-yes. Me thinks s-s-s-so too. Haiden's eyes flew open and he jumped out of bed, heart pounding. Haiden looked around in the dark, only a miserably dim shiny light stone hung in the air above Camila. He quickly spotted her and Tasgal laying on the floor with Maree in his chair, mouths gaped.

"Haiden!" Camila rose and flew onto Haiden giving a big hug. "We were so worried!" she squeezed. Surprised by the sudden contact he stood frozen for a moment before reciprocating the hug. A short thought ran through his mind; if only Tasgal was the one in his arms. He quickly shoved that notion aside; not the time nor place.

"You were right, meathead. He didn't die." Maree added, but his voice was not one of sarcasm but major relief and he slumped into the chair releasing the tension in his body

"How do you feel?" Tasgal asked, ignoring Maree's blatant insult. He braced himself as he raised to his feet. Worry was written all over his face in the dim light of the stone.

"I don't know." Haiden's heart started racing, remembering the events before he passed out. "I think I saw him! I...there were others!"Haiden took a moment to recollect the shadowy figures that hid in the gray haze. "Others! And, and the barrier was there! But I couldn't see you. It was really dark. They came for me, trying to get me, but the barrier held them away. I couldn't walk. Think! I had to think about it and BOOM I was there. And then Regor looked..." he stopped for a second to think and breathe through his flurry of stringed words. "And I did it! I think. I touched him, Camila. I did. He was so cold. I - "

"Calm down, Haiden." Tasgal reached and grabbed his shoulder, sending shivers through his spine. "Breathe," and Haiden did. "we saw you colapse as soon as you inhaled the Sparkling Howler seeds. Maree and Camila dropped the shield as soon as you hit the ground and we brough you here." That didn't make any sense. So many things had happened when he went to the other world. He relaxed and started from the beginning, and told them everything. They all exchanged worried glances in silence after he finished. Camila didn't know if she could belive what Haiden had just told them. Maree made a slight rotating motion with his finger around his temple.

"Is he here?" Maree broke the silence.

"No, he's not." He shook his head. Haiden shoved a hand in his pocket searching for something and then relief.

"Good." Tasgal added. Haiden didn't know if he should be grateful or sad, however, he was disappointed. He might not get to see Regor again because the ritual didn't work as he hoped. But that would be fine. He told himself as he looked at Tasgal.

He saw all three of his friends glancing again at one another not hiding their clearly worried expressions.

"I'm fine.' he said. "Just really fucking tired." he joked. He sensed his Fios stores were but a trickle of the former strong river it usually is. What he did in the other world must have taken a lot of energy which scared Haiden. Unlike his colleagues at the Academy he had an unusual ammount of Fios which was as just as strange.

"Alright, if you say so." Camila shooed the other to to let him breathe. "We'll get going, and let you rest. We'll check up on you tomorrow."

"But,.." Tasgal tried to argue.

"No buts, he needs to rest up." She manhandled Maree and Tasgal to the door. Tasgal turned and opened his mout to say something but changed his mind.

"See you tomorrow, sleeping beauty!" Maree added leaving first and mumbling something about finally getting some sleep of his own.

"Yeah, see you tomorrow...Haiden." Tasgal said and followed Maree. Camila gave him a reassuring smile and closed the door behind her.

Haiden waited a few moments, looking at the closed door before he pulled a brown stone from his cloak's pocket. He admitred its polished flat circular sides. It had thin white strikes that marbled it's surface. It was the bonding stone that Master Rowy had left with him when they trained with him.

I guess it didn't work, he thought regretfully. He looked again around the room, for the dark figure that always stood somewhere watching him. But there was nothing. He laid his head on his pillow only to be startled again by the same voice in his head.

D-d-din't wo-work? It asked, stuttering like a child with a fragmented weak voice.

"Who said that?!" he sprung up looking around but not seeing anything. He tried to sense anything and failed. No static, no trace of Wielding.

ME! It said. M-m-me said. The voice was growing stronger and more 'tangible'.

"Who are you!? Show yourself!" Haiden demanded, holding his blanket for a false sense of protection. In the corner of his eyes a shadow moved, but there was nothing there. Again the shadow moved just outside of his periphery, on the other side of the room. He strained his eyes but was met only with the dark of the room and the eerie light of the blue sister.

Here! It said, appearing right in front of Haiden, making him jump back so that his back hit the wall. In front of him the sight he behold made him question his sanity. The pure hideous appearance of the creature that was taininting his eyes made him sick to his stomach.

The naked blob of...of thing was something straight from the most ill-favoured nightmares someone could ever conceive. It was as if it was made of floating fluid rolls of viscous liquid. It lacked any sort of posterior members, it's weird body ending in a short tail like appendage that moved sinuously and slowly. It had two small scraggy arms in the front, what seemed like two more tiny undeveloped members in the back that stood upward. It's head, neckless, stood on top of his narrow shoulders, round and short with uneven slit as a mouth, and two eyes, bigger than it was necessary and yet one inherently smaller than the other, giving him a permanent incredulous look. The...thing, looked like it tried to smile at Haiden. His skin crawling with disgust he took his pillow and threw it at the thing. It went right through it, landing softly on the floor.

Tickles! It said unphased in a childish laugh that was more choke than laugh. There was a pause of realization and it said again but this time in the form of a question. Tickle?

Haiden was speechless at the creature. It didn't seem to want him any harm. He looked at it's now confused face. It seemed to ponder his interaction with the pillow, his whole body turning from the pillow on the floor to Haiden and back again. Haiden raised a hand and pooled any Fios he could gather from his exhausted reserves and tried a small force blast on the thing.

The creature flew across the room hitting the wall with the soft thump then falling to the floor. It seemed, even for all the liquid looking mass, that nothing stuck to the wall. The thing stood in its sickenly thin arms and pulled himself from the floor, gently floating up again towards Haiden. His expression confused.

Me g-g-go boom. H-hurt. Haiden tried to scuttle even further away but the wall stopped him. He was afraid the creature wanted to retaliate, but instead it said something quite unexpected. Again! And Haiden, just as confused as the creature, shot another force blast only for it to fly again to the wall and hit it with a thump. This time it looked satisfied and it yelled in triumph. Hurt!

"Who...What are you!?" Haiden asked it.

Me. it simply answered, unsure what Haiden wanted him to add to that.

"Alright, Haiden. It's just a glob of something, casually talking to you and fucking floating in your room. Nothing to freak about. It's just a hallucination. Right. A hallucination, from exhaustion. Yes, that's it." he tried to convince himself. "Once I go back to sleep and wake up everything will be normal, no blobby things that talk, no floating, just normal." He tried to grab the blanket but the thing came even closer making Haiden yelp.

NO! Me real! The thing patted its, what Haiden thought to be, his chest.

"Yeah, yeah. You said that." Haiden sighed in exasperation. That night already had been too eventful for this to go on, he thought. "I don't have the energy to deal with this. Not now. Can you go away?" He tried to reason with the creature since it seemed to understand what Haiden was saying.

Away? The creature repeated and floated a few inches to the right. It looked back from where he left and the back at haiden. Away. Haiden wanted to palm his face. The creature might understand him but it lacked any common sense

"No, no, no. Away away." He tried to clarify and made a shooing motion with his hands. The creature just floated again a few more inches. This went on for a while and the confused creature only moved back and forth not understanding Haiden's intention until he finally gave up. Haiden sighed dramatically. After a while the horror and shock of the thing's existence wore off, but not enough to warant him to not be cautios.

"Me, Haiden." he touched his chest, then repeated himself. "You..." he pointed at it and waited for a reply. The creature narrowed its bigger eye and opened his mouth.

Me... it started. With mouth ajar it mouthed a word but it was as if something was stopping it. It tried again Me... s... s... he stopped, obviously frustrated. It's body expanded and contracted rapidly as if he was out of breath. Me...s...scr. The creature let out an exasperated yell that made Haiden quickly cover his ears.

"Stop! Stop! You'll wake everyone!" he shushed.

Again the puffing creature mouthed. Me scree...scree...chhh. It forced out and fell to the floor seeming exhausted.

"Screech, it is then..." He could not believe he was trying to communicate with this hideous creature, or Screech as it aptly named itself.

Screech? Screech! The creature floated up, seemingly happy. Haiden rolled his eyes. It seemed harmless were it not for the way it looked.

"Why are you here, Screech?"

"You h-help Screech." It said pointing at the brown stone laying on the bed.

"No, I did that for Regor. I helped Regor, not you." Haiden thought that maybe one of those shadows hitched a ride with him while he gor Regor out.

Screech! It pointed to itself.

"I said No!"

Screech! It yelled, anger was apparent and the creatures' body started to shake. It's feature slightly rearranging to look somewhat human. It became more and more recognizable and Haiden's stomach sank. A flurry of emotions bubbled inside him. It searched the creature's face.

"Are you Regor?" he asked. And the creature, snapping back to it's hideous inhuman like features, shook its head. Anger settled in.

Screech is Screech. R-Regog no. Look. Look Regog to help Screech. It said.

"You!" Haiden's breath was hardened by pure rage. "You used Regor to get to me?" Something snapped in Haiden. He never considered himself as someone who would intentionally try to inflict pain on someone or something regardless of its nature. The room spun around Haiden and the scar on his palm trobbed.

Yes. Hepped free Screech. Good. Goo- the poor creature didn't get to say anything else as Haiden raised a hand to it. Even though his reserves were depleted, somehow, potent Fios poured in him and he felt his rage as pure crackle on his skin. He threw an unrestrained force blast at the creature and it struck the wall with a loud thump, leaving a big gash behind. Haiden grabbed it middair, encasing it in a barrier, and squeezed his fist.

Screech..hurt.. Screech no like hurt! Hurt..no...no more. It begged with its pathetic imitation of a voice with which he moaned and groaned at the pain, but Haiden was deafened by his own hurt and squeezed, feeling the resistance of its body around his barrier. Please! it begged no more hurt Screech! No more! it screamed so loud its voice cracked.

There was something in the pitiful cries of the creature and sounds of pain that ripped through his rage. He looked at it, defenseless, in agony just like Regor, just like the woman in the plaza. Just like Mara. Haiden released Screech and it fell to the ground, unmoving. At once, Haiden's eyes rolled into the back of his head, with his rage qualmed, he collapsed on his bed.