Chapter 9: Reminiscing
Morden’s heart couldn’t help but sink deeper as he thought of the fact that he might have actually done the exact same thing to his mother and brother.
From the memories he received, it is obvious that he didn’t consciously do anything and that he didn’t outright kill them, but the memories also show that he absolutely had no idea what happened.
And he seemed to be in almost the same situation again this time; the lady had completely cloudy eyes and didn’t appear to know what she was doing.
"I have to get out of here," he suddenly realized in the middle of his thoughts.
"Escaping first, questions later," he said while looking back at the village.
All of the villagers were still hiding in their tents with no signs of anyone anywhere; with the last shake of his head, Morden turned around and sprinted towards the dark, cold forest.
He believed it would be relatively safer than this strange place.
He moved as fast as his legs could take him in a short period of time without overworking himself. Being too tired in an uncharted territory was deadly news.
He ran for about thirty minutes before stopping to scan his surroundings, which proved very difficult as he didn’t have any light and there didn’t seem to be the moon out.
His eyes moved across the surrounding areas before eventually stopping on a particular spot.
’The visibility of that seems especially low,’ Morden thought.
In the direction he was looking out was a patch of darkness that appeared much different from the surrounding area; it was in the shape of an arch, signifying one thing.
"There’s a cave there,"
Morden didn’t hesitate any further before heading towards that cave with the unconscious lady still on his shoulder.
He knew there was a possibility of a beast being in there, but he was willing to take it over staying outside in the open. The decision wasn’t a brazen one, as he had also thought about other things that supported his decision.
Upon arriving at the entrance to the cave, Morden stretched out his neck to peek inside to see if there would be any reaction, but luckily for him, there was nothing.
Without wasting any more time, he strode into the cave while still keeping his guard up. He dropped the girl a bit into the cave so that he wasn’t right outside but also close enough to the exit that he could escape if things went south.
"I hope she wakes up soon," Morden said while staring at the girl’s unconscious face.
"And when she wakes up, she isn’t in some killer zombie mood or something," he laughed drily.
The little moment of rest he was getting resulted in a sharp reduction in his body’s adrenaline level, allowing him to calm down significantly.
He also made sure he cleared his mind of all thought of what had just happened; he just wanted a little moment of peace.
With his eyes still wide open and locked on the unconscious lady, Morden’s thought slowly drifted towards the family. The owner of the body’s mother and brother.
He saw memories of how they sat at the dinner table in the small, modest home, laughing and sharing noteworthy experiences about their day. He saw how the original Morden dotted so much on his brother that he broke an arm one time while defending him.
The life was absolutely beautiful, and it was everything he never had; seeing the dead people not quite long-dug things up in him he didn’t realize at that moment.
Without Morden even realizing, a smile slowly formed on his face while tears dripped from his eyes at the same time. But something confused him.
While going through those memories, Morden noticed irregularities. Some parts were missing; they didn’t follow a continuous flow, and some memories even had people missing from them.
That realization slowly drew him out of the trance he had gotten into and back into the real world. His eyes regained focus again, and he immediately noticed an eye staring at him from the side.
Modern vision slowly trailed towards the owner of the eyes, where he noticed the blonde-haired girl staring straight at him. But instead of seeing confusion or gratitude like he had expected on her face, plastered all over it was disgust.
’Why is she looking at me like that? Is that how one treats her savior?’ he thought and was just about to open his mouth to ask when it suddenly hit him.
He slowly moved his eyes back to where he had been unknowingly staring at for a while and immediately realized why.
His eyes had been locked on her slightly exposed chest since a while ago, and from her expression, it was obvious that she had noticed for almost as long.
But that immediately raised another question in Morden’s mind.
’Why didn’t she move away then?’ and the instant he thought about it, he decided to ask.
"Why didn’t you move away then or even do anything at all," he asked out loud.
The girl remained silent, no response coming from her at all, but Morden didn’t grow impatient; he could see the signs of her trying her utmost best to speak—her mouth was open and her throat was quivering.
"I... can’t... move," the girl managed to force out with everything she’s got.
And it was after hearing her that Morden actually realized what he was currently in. The girl who had subconsciously killed her parents, which forced him to knock her out and carry her here, was now completely paralyzed.
So bad that it was hard for her to even speak.
"What the hell is happening?" he suddenly said while grabbing onto his head.
He had expected to get answers to the pressing questions in his mind after she regained consciousness; never could he have predicted this.
Not willing to stop here, he knew his time was running out and he needed to figure things out fast so he could afford to waste time. He decided to be selfish and ask her another question despite her state.
"Do you have any clue as to what had happened, or do you have any idea what caused it?"
The girl looked at Morden, pain evident in her eyes, but she fought through it resolutely and managed to say just two words.
"Red... ghost."