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Chapter Forty Seven
Omphalos
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The hills around Gokibiru lay still and silent.
Unseen, the water bubbled and foamed as two blank circles emerged from the shore, the red having washed away long ago. The procession of figures that broke the surface trudged onto the sand with a weariness bogged down by seaweed and sludge. A glance was sent between the artificial entities, and together they tore off the artificial binds before launching themselves, one by one, towards the towering peak before them.
The tallest figure turned its inhuman head, the slab face with its simplistic eyes fixed for a moment on a solitary security camera affixed to a distant building before returning its gaze to the peak before it and leaping away.
—
“That’s it?”
Ren’s hand slammed into the side of the steering wheel. “THAT’S your excuse? One guy was clever once and now you can’t do anything at all until somebody else willingly hands over your other eyeball?” His shoulder tensed to prepare another attack on the steering wheel, but relented with a shake of his head. “If I thought you were lying to me I would’ve backed out a long time ago, but you’ve really gotta explain yourself.”
“𝐼 𝓉𝑜𝓁𝒹 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝐼 𝒶𝓂 𝒶 𝓂𝒶𝓃 𝑜𝒻 𝓂𝓎 𝓌𝑜𝓇𝒹.” The Demon grumbled, his voice sounding off of every surface in the vehicle. “𝐼 𝓀𝑒𝑒𝓅 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒹𝑒𝒶𝓁𝓈 𝐼 𝓂𝒶𝓀𝑒. 𝒲𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝓌𝒾𝓃𝒹𝓁𝑒𝒹 𝓂𝑒 𝐼 𝒸𝑜𝓃𝓉𝒾𝓃𝓊𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝓊𝓅𝒽𝑜𝓁𝒹 𝓂𝓎 𝑒𝓃𝒹 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒷𝒶𝓇𝑔𝒶𝒾𝓃, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝐼 𝓌𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝒹𝑜 𝓈𝑜 𝓊𝓃𝓉𝒾𝓁 𝐼 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝒶𝓉𝓉𝒶𝒾𝓃𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓌𝒽𝒾𝒸𝒽 𝐼 𝓈𝑒𝑒𝓀.”
“What’s that?” Ren continually looked to the empty passenger seat in anticipation that someone would be sitting there he could make eye contact with. “A third eyeball or something?”
“𝒜𝓂𝑜𝓃𝑔 𝑜𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔𝓈, 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓅𝑜𝓌𝑒𝓇 𝓉𝑜 𝒷𝓇𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝒲𝒾𝓁𝒹 𝒷𝒶𝒸𝓀 𝓉𝑜 𝓁𝒾𝒻𝑒.” The Demon’s voice abruptly silenced, and when it resumed it was much smaller than before. “𝒯𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝓇𝑒𝑒 𝓅𝒶𝓇𝓉𝒾𝑒𝓈 𝒸𝒽𝒶𝓈𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓃𝑜𝓌. 𝒪𝓃𝑒 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓂 𝒾𝓈 𝒶𝒷𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝒸𝒶𝓉𝒸𝒽 𝓊𝓅.”
“Wait, three parties or three people?”
“𝒴𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝒻𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓃𝒹𝓈, 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝑒𝓃𝑒𝓂𝒾𝑒𝓈, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝒸𝓇𝑒𝒹𝒾𝓉𝑜𝓇𝓈. 𝒴𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝒻𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓃𝒹𝓈 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓂𝒶𝓀𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓂𝑜𝓈𝓉 𝓅𝓇𝑜𝑔𝓇𝑒𝓈𝓈 𝓈𝑜 𝒻𝒶𝓇.” The voice of the Demon was now only present in his mind. “𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓂𝓎 𝓅𝑜𝓌𝑒𝓇 𝒶𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝒹𝒾𝓈𝓅𝑜𝓈𝒶𝓁, 𝒽𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓈𝓁𝒾𝒸𝑒, 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝐼 𝓌𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝒾𝓃𝓉𝑒𝓇𝓋𝑒𝓃𝑒 𝒶𝑔𝒶𝒾𝓃.”
“You have no idea what that even means.” Ren frowned.
“𝒪𝒻 𝒸𝑜𝓊𝓇𝓈𝑒 𝓃𝑜𝓉.” The Demon’s voice took on a long-abandoned whimsy in response. “𝐼𝓉’𝓈 𝓅𝓇𝒾𝓂𝒶𝓇𝒾𝓁𝓎 𝓉𝑜 𝒶𝓃𝓃𝑜𝓎 𝓎𝑜𝓊. 𝐼 𝒶𝓈𝓈𝓊𝓂𝑒 𝒾𝓉 𝓈𝑒𝓇𝓋𝑒𝓈 𝒶𝓈 𝒶 𝑒𝓊𝓅𝒽𝑒𝓂𝒾𝓈𝓂 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝒽𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓁𝑒𝓈𝓈𝓃𝑒𝓈𝓈 𝑜𝓇 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒶𝓀𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝑜-”
Ren’s arms swiped through the open air, feeling for a steering wheel that wasn’t there. The dark sky around him blended in with the dark land beneath, and the only visible light for a ways being the headlights of his car, which swerved off the road and immediately flipped against the railing.
No sooner had he reached inside his jacket than a stiff, inarticulate hand caught him by the back of his collar, the static fingers hooking into his jacket and holding him aloft, but with a creaking in the attached limb that bode ill. “You got it?”
“The eye, I mean.” Rook turned the mannequin head at its base to line up the eyes of his silver mask with Ren’s. “I assume you’ve got it with you. And I hope that’s Hawk’s mask you’re reaching for, or we’re both going to hate this next part.”
—
Her phone slipped from in between her fingers.
Effortlessly matching the speed of its descent, the gloved hand retrieved the device and spun it around to reveal the video playing on its screen. Rook’s eyes glowed out of the center of the screen, the smooth interior of a train car behind him, a handful of phone cameras turned towards his mask.
“Shhh.” The masked figure placed his opposite hand over her face, interrupting her shock at his presence and lowering her to the floor. Gently closing her eyelids, his hand reached for the door right as it opened.
—
“You’re pretty quick.”
Ren blinked, trying to clear the sensation of colliding with a tree from his eyes. The mask had done a reasonable job of cushioning the blow, but it still hurt, although not quite as much as the thought of what would have happened to his neck were he going too much faster.
“Hawk was much faster, though.” Rook floated through the air, the mannequin missing two of its inanimate limbs. “You wouldn’t believe the thrill of using that eye against him. It was almost like I could feel again.”
“Still,” Rook mused, turning around after having abruptly swapping places with Ren in time to see him smash through another collection of branches and slide across the ground. “I hated that feeling of losing it so much it made me forget what he was doing. His movements were too slow for me to realize I was being attacked, 'cause of the lack of feeling. You, however, have the opposite problem.”
“Gotta… Corey…” Ren groaned, pulling himself up on his elbows and glancing at the groove the beak of the mask had carved into the ground. “If I don’t-”
“I know, I know.” Rook sighed, swapping places twice with Ren to spook him off of his elbows. “You want to get revenge for Corey and Wild, you’ll use the eyes to do it by making a pact with the enemy of everything we stand for in order to avenge their deaths, and you already shoved Race around to get this far. That’s pretty run-of-the-mill, don’t you think, sir?”
“I don’t want revenge,” Ren growled, wiping dirt and dead leaves off his mouth. “I want them back. If you try to stop me-”
Ren abruptly swapped places with Rook, catching him in the middle of his sentence as the artificial figure slammed into him in midair, before swapping again as he flew back towards him, and once more as he turned around, the base of the mannequin ramming into his side and dropping him to the ground.
“W-wait.” Ren coughed, sticking his palm out to stop Rook’s advance. “Just… nngh Tell me.” It took another second of breathing before he continued. “What would… What would you have done to avenge Corey?”
The empty eye sockets of the mask stared down at Ren with no visible answer hiding behind them. The sounds of the forest slowly returned, the heavy branches creaking and rustling as cold winds swept through and reminded Ren of the stinging in his skin.
“Then,” Ren slowly pulled the old wooden mask off his face, greedily devouring each heavy breath he took to nurse his bruised ribcage. “Don’t ask me my price to save him.”
“You’re sure this will bring him back?” Rook spoke, the mannequin head rotating back towards him after the rest of the mannequin turned away. “This thing you’ve concocted, it’ll save Corey?”
“It’ll save them both.” Ren swallowed, trying and failing to use the arm he was propped up on to brush the hair out of his face. “And I’m sure. No matter what it takes, I’m getting them back.”
“I bet.” Rook exhaled nonexistent air, ending several seconds of silence that felt like hours. The mannequin head slowly turned away from Ren, lining up with the rest of the body which now faced the shattered branches he had flown into. “Better get going, then.”
Ren shoved one knee underneath his chest and forced himself back up on his feet in one motion, taking a couple breaths to make sure his ribs were in working order. “You’re not coming?”
“I did everything I could to keep him alive.” Rook turned the mannequin head ever so slightly as he replied. “I tried to die. I guess I did die. Am I dead, Ren?”
Ren didn’t answer. Softly returning the beaked mask to his features, he flew up and out of the forest, leaving Rook alone in the cold clearing, unable to feel the stinging wind that rushed across the ground and stirred up crumpled leaves in its wake. Dead, decaying leaves.
—
The serving cart rattled against the wall.
Leaning back, the stewardess did everything she could not to scream at the black gloved hand that approached. Its forefinger stopped just shy of touching her lips, retreating to meet the face of its bearer who placed it atop where his mouth would be were his mask not covering it.
“English?”
She had barely forced out an awkward nod before he continued. “Get everyone away from the emergency door, quickly. There’s… For crying out loud. There’s a bomb, and it’s gonna blow up. Hurry.”
The stewardess nodded, quickly exiting the rear of the plane and hurriedly ushering passengers away from the immediate seating. The masked figure exited down the isle after a moment, choosing not to address the multiple phone cameras turned towards him as he moved to the emergency door, and with a sharp turn of the handle, flew out of the plane with the door in his grasp.
—
