CHAPTER 15:

  After a few moments, Sylvia came back to the tent now all well

  Haru glanced back at her, his eyebrows furrowing slightly

  “Are you alright?”

  “I'm fine, I just needed some air”

  Sylvia fixed her clothes a bit as she spoke, standing up straight

  “Let's get a move on. This place will be no more”

  Haru turned his head to Lana when she uttered those words

  “And what exactly do you mean by that?”

  “What I mean is that we have to burn the evidence left behind”

  Silence fell down upon the tent, Sylvia looked at Haru, and both were now looking at each other

  They knew that what Lana was saying wasn't entirely untrue, but it was risky since the police would be called immediately in case of a fire, and the firefighters too

  Haru turned his head to glance down at Zoe, kneeling down beside her

  Without even looking at Lana, he spoke

  “And what will we do about Zoe?”

  Lana kept looking at the pile of blood that she had made

  “Isn't it obvious? We will carry her with us, we can't afford to lose her”

  Haru lifted Zoe up in his arms, bridal style

  Lana brought out a lighter and some alcohol. She throwed the alcohol against the tent and tossed the lighter where the alcohol had splattered

  She then turned around and walked past Haru and Sylvia, stepping out of the tent

  Turning her head back and speaking

  “You two are going to stand there or what?”

  With a sigh, Haru started walking first, being careful with Zoe in his arms

  Sylvia followed quietly behind, the both of them stepping out of the tent

  “Let's get going and fast. It won't be much longer before the entire tent catches on fire”

  The three of them started walking towards the edge of the city center, looking for a bus stop to chat and talk

  The fire had engulfed the entire tent

  It collapsed under itself

  The bystanders, after seeing this, immediately called the police, plus the firefighters who arrived shortly after

  The fire was put out relatively easily, and nothing but mere ashes of the tent were left behind, scattered all over the square…

  After much walking, our group found a bus stop, somewhere in the city of Berlin

  Cars moved by the street as per usual and pedestrians walked behind the bus stop

  Oddly enough no person seemed to want to wait for the buss

  Maybe it was because it was simply too early

  The glass of the bus stop was clear and transparent with usual advertisements being plastered on the side of the glass

  Haru panted a bit, laying Zoe down on the bench

  “It's difficult carrying around an unconscious person”

  He straightened his back as he talked, trying to appear normal

  Sylvia sat on the bench away from Zoe, saying nothing as she looked down

  Lana, on the other hand, leaned against a pole that was next to the bus stop and spoke

  “It seems that you need to hit the gym, Haru. We didn't even walk for that long”

  She faced the road ahead as she spoke, seemingly more relaxed than before

  “Yeah I noticed that too, I could use some bulk”

  Haru retorted, scratching the back of his head sheepishly

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  Sylvia turned her gaze to look at Zoe, noticing that she still was unconscious. She didn't dare to speak

  A loud silence hung around the air for a while. It was suffocating, and no one knew what to say…

  Lana gently pushed herself off the pole, speaking in a soft voice

  “Wanna hear my story?”

  Both Haru and Sylvia looked up in curiosity. It was unexpected, especially coming from Lana

  “Sure, if you want to”

  Sylvia answered, her voice giving off her earlier melancholy

  “I didn't have much of a childhood, already at a young age my parents were taken away to be executed for crimes they didn't even commit, I kept bouncing around houses all the time just to stay alive”

  Her eyes fell a bit to look on the street as she spoke, remembering those painful memories

  “...”

  “I was used by whoever took me in their house, sometimes even raped by them, that's until the true cross chose me, then i was basically imprisoned underneath vatican City for a long time”

  “I would spend most of my time under there rotting to the very core, the treatment and the conditions were god awful, I was basically being treated like a human experiment down there”

  Haru stiffened a little at Lana's descriptive tails

  Sylvia looked uneasy to, she managed to keep at it at bay, showing that she is more mature than Haru

  “I can't imagine being in that hellhole for so long, I was in there for minutes, for what felt like an eternity of constant gloom”

  Lana scoffed, crossing her arms under her chest

  “I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy”

  “Wait, you never actually told me who it was that decided to imprison you there”

  “It was the government. They asked the eastern orthodox Church for permission, and they got it, I don't know how how, but they did”

  “It seems that the government wanted to keep my powers secret and they were afraid of my potential, locking me up was off better use to them”

  Haru scratched his chin slowly in contemplation. It was indeed strange

  (Why didn't the church get involved directly? Would that draw too much attention?...)

  “There has to be some sort of reason behind it. If they saw great potential in you, they would have taken you in themselves and trained you, this doesn't make sense”

  “It's not that they couldn't. They feared that she might turn on them because she was so abused before”

  Sylvia spoke up calmly, as if she had thought about it herself before

  “Seems like the elf is sharp”

  Surprise flickered in Lana's eyes, although it was a pleasant surprise

  “That actually makes a lot of sense. It would also explain why she was locked up in the first place rather than being hidden”

  Calmly Haru left his arm fall to the side

  Sylvia continued with her explanation

  “It's no surprise, the eastern orthodox Church is known to do some shady stuff, this is something they would absolutely have done”

  His expression hardened listened to Sylvia's words. He knew firsthand just how corrupt this world could be, especially the organizations within it

  “From their standpoint, it is completely rational, it's not like they care about traditions or morality. They had no morality ever to begin with”

  Disgruntled Lana spat on the ground, the eastern orthodox Church as a whole be fucked she thought

  “It would be safe to also assume that the knights there in the dungeon cave thing were there to protect you, or really to protect the outside world from you?”

  “Beats me, I wasn't disclosed to any information during my imprisonment”

  “Of course they would keep you in the dark. That's what they always do when they don't want unwanted attention”

  “.....”

  “So, why did you help us in the first place?”

  “To be honest, I admit that I cheated against you…truth be told you are a much better fighter than me…and in a way bigger person than me. An innocent soul like you shouldn't be tortured like that”

  It looked like there was genuine guilt in Lana's eyes

  “So you really regret that huh?”

  “I have no excuses for it”

  Even if guilt ate at her, she couldn't look them in the eye

  Whilst gazing at the boundless blue Sky, Lana rattled off

  “I see, well thank you anyway, I just don't know if I'm really the ideal role model though"

  Sylvia said, adjusting her glasses to the right, in order to see more clearly

  Momentarily Haru glanced at her, distracted from the conversation

  “You ok there?”

  “I'm ok, it's just that my glasses keep falling, they probably got more lose as I have worn them for a long time”

  Gently so Haru bent over to take a look at Sylvia's face

  “Are you sure that you're ok?”

  A wolf whistled, it was Lana

  “Wow, I didn't know you two were close”

  Sylvia rolled her eyes at the comment, and Haru backed away, straightened his back

  “Not in that sense”

  “Whatever, it's my not my business anyways”

  “I have a question though”

  Lana tuned her gaze towards him, still in the same position

  “What is it?”

  “How did you even manage to get in that dimension in the first place?”

  “It was easy actually, all I had to do was scare him then I could demand, so I demanded that he would transport me into that dimension:”

  “I got to hand it to you when you're that calm”

  About then, Zoe started to stir on the bench

  She opened her eyes slowly, gazing up and then looking around, seeing the 3 of them gazing at her

  “What happened? Where are we? Why does everything look so different”

  Haru smiled when he heard her words. At the same time, he was relieved that Zoe was ok

  “Easy there, you just woke up from being unconscious”

  Zoe lifted her head to look up from the bench, clearly disoriented

  “Didn't I just say to take it easy? You don't have to do anything”

  Sylvia's and Lana's expressions remained neutral. They weren't as concerned

  Zoe moved her hand to her head, rubbing it slightly

  “I'm ok, it feels like I got hit in the head”

  Haru sighed after hearing those words

  “No one hit you, Zoe. Something weird happened back in the dimension. Because of that, you lost your senses”

  Zoe now looked up at Haru in slight confusion

  “In that dimension? You mean we aren't at my home right now?”

  Haru forced a smile on his face, just to comfort her

  “That doesn't matter right now, I'll explain it to you later. The most important thing right now is that you're saved”

  “But I wanna go home…I still have my garden to water and other stuff”

  “I promise we will get you a new home, an even better on”

  Even when Zoe was still confused, but she reluctantly calmed down, glancing to her side, seeing Lana

  “Uhh, who is that lady?”

  Haru's eyes darted for a bit between Lana and Zoe before answering

  “That's the lady that helped us, I swear to you she is a nice lady, she means no harm”

  Hearing that Zoe's face brightened up with joy, now smiling warmly

  “Oh it's nice to meet you then. My name is Zoe, by the way, yours?”

  Lana couldn't help when a small smirk appeared on her face, seeing Zoe's happiness. It was like seeing a child in a playground

  “It's nice to meet you too, Zoe. My name is Lana, and it's all my pleasure”

  “Lana? What a nice name! I will be sure to remember it!”

  Not even Sylvia could resist smiling at this point

  Haru, glancing around, noticed that everyone brightened up when Zoe did. It was like she constantly emitted a relaxed but joyful vibe to everybody around her

  Lana's face turned serious, sighing

  “Sorry for spoiling the mood, but we have to go. This is a bus stop. After all, people are going to crowd up here”

  Sylvia, without hesitation, stood up from the bench

  Haru, hearing that, extended his arm towards Zoe

  “Come on, I will help you. You're still in no state to walk alone”

  Zoe glanced at his hand for a moment, accepting it with her smile on her face

  She gently got lifted off the bench

  Immediately, Haru pulled her closer and put her arm over his shoulder gently

  “So where are we going?”

  Asked Zoe innocently

  “You'll see, it's a great place”

  Sylvia walked towards Lana, taking her left arm out of her sweater and putting it on Lana's shoulder, looking back at Haru and Zoe

  On the cue, Haru started walking with Zoe by his side, who he was gently handling

  Sylvia extended her hand back

  Upon seeing that, Zoe gently took her hand

  “We're all ready to go”

  Lana teleported all of them back to the base quietly…

  Soon after they left, the bus stop got crowded with people, as Lana had said

  The atmosphere around the bus stop shifted, from cozy to cold once they left

  Everything went back to normal, people being people and the place going on about with its own rhythm

  Just like that, back in Germany, everything that had to do with N had vanished

  Within just a day, he didn't have any friends or family left or assets to his name

  The evidence of his crimes would turn to ashes

  With the police thinking nothing of it, just an accident was probably caused by some hooligans

  The crimes of N would remain lost history with no evidence left behind, and no justice served for the families

  Dark times plagued the days of Germany. Several missing people have been reported, but all of them to no avail

  It tears families apart like cutting through paper

  The police naturally had to assume that all these missing reports were somehow connected. They had no way to prove that

  As N would prove to have been the ultimate lizard, he'd always cover his track and activities according to the situation

  It had become like a local legend in Germany

  It's probably the biggest mystery in its history, at least in the 20th and 21st century

  A man with no mask, no face, no body, it was like chasing a ghost for the police that always slithered away

  Unfortunately, now that all the evidence had been burned and the culprit killed, the bodies of his victims would remain unrest

  Cold and grueling, howling as they seek peace but will never find peace

  Their souls screamed from the depths of hell, aching for justice, justice that they deserved but never got, a cruel end to multiple stories

  When n died, his very soul was being dragged down to hell, with the rest of his victims that were evil

  He would scream in agony and pain. Their souls grabbed onto him and teared him apart piece by piece

  In a way, they got their revenge, but it didn't feel the same as their souls were still in vain

  And that wouldn't change for them until the end of time, even if they ended up tormenting their killer…