Twilight of the Vast Expanses-Chapter 31: A Desperate Mantra

As I jumped down the metal rails, descending through the hot, stale air that pricked my skin, my mind wandered into territories that I never even knew it could wander. That I never knew it could explore.

Thud–!

The sole of my shoes collided with the ground, and the impact caused my toes to shiver. The shiver traveled quietly throughout my body, brutally affecting the rate of my already drumming heart, and fueling the pain I felt in my ribs.

I had no idea what that shiver was. I didn’t know if it was a mental thing — the dread that tugged at my mind anytime it wandered, simulating the endless possibilities of what might have been of Craffold — or if it was really from the toe impact.

But I didn’t care about that. Not at that moment.

My lips moved, ever so subtly, whispering prayers that felt like they all drowned inside the eternal void of hopelessness.

I whispered, "Please, be safe, Craffold..." Over and over again. Like it was a mantra.

And it was, in an insane kind of way. The shaky repetition of that mantra was the only thing that managed to calm my wildly beating heart as I ran, speeding past the unsightly, nose-defiling den of dead bodies that belonged to both humans and spiffs alike.

As I reached a few inches away from the metal door, the entrance from which we had come, I noticed a presence.

At that point, my gaze wasn’t focused forward. Instead, it fixated on the ground. On the pool of red blood that my legs dashed on, leaving wild footprints on the surface of the crimson nectar with each step I took.

But then, while still fixated downward, my gaze took notice of something that felt out of place, because all I had seen was blood, viscera and dead bodies.

It was a shadow. One that belonged to the source of the presence I had noticed.

The presence of the one who blocked the path of the entrance.

I halted almost immediately.

And as I did, I instantly raised my neck and my gaze to scan the face of my supposed threat.

As a result of the pressure that built up in my boiling, swirling blood that surged through my veins from my wildly thrumming heart, every single hair in my body stood erect. My teeth were clenched, and my jaw quivered in anger.

I couldn’t care less about the role of who my darkened, narrowed gaze met.

And it didn’t matter whether they were friend or foe. My already balled-up fists would offer them the peace that came with a seamless death.

But one small detail about the face of the man made me stagger slightly as my furrowed brows curled up.

Ignoring the hardened, squeezed and rumpled face, even ignoring the grotesquely wrinkled forehead, my grey gaze locked onto the brown, hollow gaze of the man.

His gaze...

His grimly darkened brown eyes held a peculiar depth. And I don’t even know if I could call it ’depth.’

Because it was hollow. An endlessly spiralling depth of hollowness was what his eyes carried.

So dull. So lightless.

How could a human like that exist?

One with deeply hollowed eyes that told the tale of the multi-faceted burden that came with loss, and the body-damaging weight that lay in the gasket of eternal solitude?

And why... why, at that moment, did I see myself in his eyes?

"Who are you?" I tried not to sound rude or aggressive. But my temper, coupled with the sense of urgency that my instinct pulsed, betrayed me.

The man’s hardened oval face softened, for a moment.

"I am Ridosh. Executive of the Cyclo Gang." He uttered with a voice that strangely echoed through the entire building. The tone of his voice was incredibly solemn, yet so very bitter.

My gaze finally descended from his eyes, scanning the short-sleeved grey shirt he wore over his tightly fitted grey pants that barely hid the buzzing cyan machinery that was now his legs.

He was indeed a Cyclo executive.

I looked up at his face once more.

His lips slowly parted. And from them, a forced chuckle escaped, resounding softly in the darkly lit room that was soaked with poignant odour and endless blood.

"And I am one of the two executives that are still alive." He completed, turning his head outside the door, toward the direction of a small figure who sat on the ground, breathing heavily. "Although I don’t know if he’ll be able to make it. We’ve..." He turned to me once again, eyes meeting mine. "Lost too much, Mr. Stella."

I calmly nodded.

"Out of my way," I ordered. This time, I embraced the growing aggressiveness, letting it seep out from my undertone.

"But–"

"Get out," I uttered, raising my clenched right fist.

I only listened to what he said because I was slightly stunned by the look in his eyes.

But that was it.

Whether or not all the members of the Cyclo Gang died was none of my business.

As sad as it might be, and as bad as it might sound, they knew what they were getting into the day they decided to become gangsters. They knew the lives they chose, and they knew the dangers and risks that came with it.

The man’s mouth opened slightly, but no words came out of it. His lips trembled, his arms fidgeted, and he lowered his gaze.

"Please, pass." He spoke, moving away from the entrance.

I wasted no time, running outside immediately, past the man who lay on the ground, breathing heavily and past the rows of armored steel hovers.

Counting the man who lay breathing heavily on the ground, Mangé had lost nineteen men that day. Out of the twenty executives that followed us for this raid, only one survived. And of course, this was the number of people who died here. I didn’t know how much had died in Cyclo’s floating fortress, speaking from the fact that the spiffian leader had gone there.

I let out a soft, annoyed sigh.

Then, I paused.

I turned my neck, looking back at the direction of Ridosh, who was near the door. This time, he didn’t stand; instead, he sat down on the ground, on the pool of blood.

The weight must have been too much to bear.

Ridosh, huh?

He was the one with the flame elemental Til that fought alongside Mangé.

He fought well.

"Go upstairs!" I yelled. "Go and help Mangé retrieve the key! And when you’re done, my friend Mangé will be too scared to walk back to his base, fearing seeing the countless corpses of his men. But drag him back there!! Do not let him waver."

Ridosh turned his neck toward me. His brown eyes widened, and his cleanly shaved head glimmered under the sunlight as he stretched his neck outside the door.

"Do you hear me?!!" I yelled aloud once more.

He nodded. Subtly nodded.

And I think he cried.

But I had no business watching the pain-filled tears of another man.

I had to run to...

Run?

I turned to one of the steel hovers. The violet one.

Mangé’s steel hover.

That’s a much better idea.

Immediately, I leaped toward the hover.

As I landed on the roof, my palm traced the armored plate of the roof, searching for a small button that opened the roof.

Finally, I found it. And I pressed it.

The roof slowly slid open, exposing the clean, quality-designed interior of the hover.

I hopped into the driver’s seat.

It didn’t need a key or an ignition. All it needed was the automatic press of a digital button that lay on a small board-like screen next to a rectangular-shaped hatch.

The screen had various other buttons. Such as the one that opened the rectangular hatch, unearthing the retractable stirring wheels that one could choose not to drive with.

But I didn’t want to go automatic. Automatic meant that, even though fast, I had to put my safety and old man Craffold’s survival in the hands of a machine.

I was in a hurry.

So, I pressed the button on the screen, and the hatch opened up with a low buzz, the stirring wheel slowly making its way out.

Ding–!

The stirring wheel was fully out.

I immediately pressed the button to start the engine.

The engine roared.

And then I pressed another button. And a soft buzzing sound echoed as my body shook slightly, the hover trembling softly.

The fuel was circulating through the hover, causing it to levitate.

That fuel was Ta. The brilliant product of centuries of mankind’s endless research to manipulate Ta like the spiffs.

Greedy beings we are. They had Til diversity, something spiffs lacked.

But they still wanted the only thing the spiffs possessed. They wanted it so bad. So they tried to manipulate Ta through technology. But sadly, no matter what, Ta was deadly to the bodies of most humans of this era.

They could only use this Ta to fuel machines such as this or the Cyclo’s floating fortress.

As soon as the stirring wheel popped out, my right foot found the pedal underneath the driver’s seat.

Vroom–!!

I zoomed off with a speed that almost seemed desperate, heading out of the spiffian section and toward the human male section.

To Craffold’s house.

...

...

...

Kukukuku–!!

The machine came to an instant halt as I arrived just outside Craffold’s building.

It seemed the fuel had been exhausted.

My breathing grew heavier. My chest rose and fell along with the rhythm of my breath. My heartbeat had mellowed, softening along with the soft, tender pulsing of my blood flow.

My once boiling blood had cooled down.

And my prayer, my desperate mantra, replayed countlessly through my mind.

Darkness clawed at every edge of my mind, at every edge of my soul.

And somehow I knew that my calmed heartbeat was an even more eerie sign than when it thrummed violently.

Even my instinct had stopped alarming me.

I took a much-needed inhale, letting out the soft exhale slowly.

The way in which the soft air escaped my lips was.. shaky.

And then I noticed.

My lips were quivering.

Slowly, I raised my hand, my trembling index finger finding the button on the screen that opened the roof.

It took a while for me to properly tap the button. My finger just couldn’t.. wouldn’t cooperate.

The roof opened up, and I crawled out of the hover.

I took another deep breath.

"Please..." My voice dropped low. Very, very low. Not even up to a whisper. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"Be safe, Craffold..." I continued, desperately moving my legs toward his front door.

My knees trembled slightly as I walked.

I wondered why.

Was I scared?

Yes, I was.

Of what?

A lot. I was scared of a lot of things.

One was a selfish fear of the overwhelming guilt that would plague me for not being able to save him.

To save someone close to me, once again.

"Please..." I whispered, my voice coming out slowly amid the heavy breathing that escaped my mouth.

I reached the front door.

Raised my right hand to hold the metal door handle to open it.

But I hesitated. My hand remained frozen in place.

A tear slid down my right eye as I bit my trembling lips, my face rumpling.

Open it, Stel.

Open it, Stella! Open the damn door!

I didn’t feel any active wave of Te.

I didn’t feel any murderous intent either.

But strangely, I also didn’t feel the passive, familiar wave of Craffold’s Te.

My hand finally moved, and I opened the door.