The Sight Beyond The Haze

Chapter 22: Getting Out of the Illusory Fragment

"Where were you again?" Sir Apollyon asked me out of nowhere.

We both decided that we would have to explore the crime scene to further investigate what happened to the girl. I was squinting my eyes on the space that surrounded the girl when Sir Apollyon abruptly asked the question.

I turned towards the direction he was at and blankly stared at him who was casually kneeling at the side.

"I was at the second floor," I stated, "exploring other parts of the manor—"

Before I could the word manor completely, there was a human being by the door who was breathing hard and sweating bullets he looked like an extremely wet puppy. No, a wet puppy was too adorable for Caspian. He looked like a wet stray dog.

Pitiful.

"Yes, Mr. Cashel?" Sir Apollyon inquired gently at him. "Do you need something?"

"I—" he said before heaving a deep breath for about a full minute "—I was just talking with um..." he paused and surveyed the whole scenario that greeted him. "Wow, you guys, what are you doing here?"

"Investigating," I responded coldly at him.

He went over to where I was kneeling, but, unlike me, he did not went down as I did. He just leaned forward to where I scrutinizing the body.

"What are you waiting for?" he asked, but to me, it sounded like a demand and that irked me somehow for what ever reason.

"Nothing," I answered coldly again, but before I stood up, which I planned to do, I felt a warn hand on my nape, plucking some thing on my skin.

I whipped my head towards him, glaring for the life of him.

"Are you tired of being alive, Mr. Cashel?" I asked him with a cool grace.

He showed me a piece of glass and smiled awkwardly before he answered me.

"There's a thing stuck on your collar," he awkwardly responded to my non-threatening statement, "how the heck did you got a glass on your collar?"

I did not bother to answer Caspian. I stood up from where I was kneeling on the floor, but I stayed still for a moment and close my eyes for a split second while Caspian has already moved on.

My head ached.

I felt dizzy as though a thing has been slammed straight to my skull. Despite feeling terrible physically, I also moved on as Caspian did.

I surveyed the whole area. Of course there were not a single door that could lead outsude inside this room. Asides from the obviously destroyed door knob of the door, not even the windows were in an disorder. Everything appeared to be normal.

"There's a broken glass over here,"Sir Apollyon revealed then his forefinger was already pointing out the fine dust of glass and some jagged bigger pieces on the carpeted floor where it was quite well hidden by the fibers of the carpet.

Caspian and I looked at each other. What I did not saw was how Caspian looked at the piece of glass he was still holding in between his finger.

We both walked over to where Sir Apollyon was still kneeling, fine dust of a particle of the glass. Small they may be, Sir Apollyon's skin was still punctured when he touched them. The tearing of flesh was not an accident, it was to show Caspian and me just how wickedly sharp those were.

"But those are not enough to be a part of a piece," I concluded, my eyes turned into slits while I scrutinized the pieces of the shards of broken glass in between of Sir Apollyon's fingers. "Are they?"

My feet automatically walked toward the corpse and lifted the tablecloth that was covering it. Almost fifteen minutes have already past since the death and already the skin has turned taut. If earlier it was almost as though she was just sleeping soundly, now the surface of her exterior was waxy and ashen.

But that was not what I wanted to look at, but the large gash on her neck.

"You don't think the murder weapon was the..." Caspian speculated, horror and terror were both evident on his voice. "It's not it, is it?" he even asked, his tone was imploring for assurance.

"I think that's exactly it," I muttered, "but where is the murder weapon?"

As soon as I said that, I felt a throbbing on my side, but none of the parts of my face betrayed me. There was a thing poking on my waist, stuck on the waistband of my black pleated skirt.

What was happening?

My eyes went in circles, trying to focus on just one thing but failed to do so. I was only snapped back to reality when Caspian was practically shouting my name.

"Seraphim!" he called out to me.

"What?" I asked, my voice felt as though it was under the water— muffled and barely distinguishable even in my own ears.

My mind suddenly have visions, flashes of memories, going inside of this room and unlocking the door.

What was happening?

I put my hand at the back of my head and when I looked at that same hand, it was blood. I quickly wiped it on my skirt but when I did, the blood did not came off. When I was not able to do anything, I hid that hand on the folds of my pleated black skirt before either Sir Apollyon or Caspian could see.

They were both standing in front of me, their backs were what I could see.

"Nevermind," Caspian responded, "there's a service elevator from here to the upper floors. Are you... are you sure you don't know anything?"

I shook my head. However, seeing the that they were both standing with their backs in front of me, it was a moot movement when they could not see it.

"Where were you again at the upper floor Miss Griyego?" Sir Apollyon said, his hand was moving a piece of furniture aside to reveal the service elevator.

That was when I realized something.

Was I really stupid? How could I not see the clues when they were sitting right under my nose? There was dampness on my skirt when I closed both my hands on the fabric.

Why did I not sat earlier on one of the sets of furnitures just like Hannah, Roi, and Caspian? Because I was instinctively trying to hide someting. The mystery genre of the books on the shelves? What were they for really? Just a bunch of displays? No one would be able to read them.

In this temporal illusory fragment, there was a certain vibrancy and it could only be attained by the innate energy of the life force of a living and breathing human being.

Giving up with hiding the fact that I was suddenly soaking with blood, I was already reaching to my side and pulling the murder weapon. The blood has dried off the jagged edges already, though it was still rather damp. When both of the people in front of me turned to look at me, the serene and almost calm expressions on their face were replaced by alarm and terror. Their eyes instantly fell to the jagged sharp object that I was holding on mone of my hands.

"I am the murderer," I stated with a breathless tone, but I could not focus on the fright on their expression.

Through the haze of my blurring vision, I saw a butterfly landing on the tip of my nose.

I was the murderer.

"But I cannot remember anything," I protested.

I looked up at the ceiling, but I could feel both Caspian and Sir Apollyon's eyes on me, still full of that horror.

So it was just a play after all, all of us were characters inside of this make-believe world, trying to appease the owner of this temporal illusory fragment. I could not remember anything, but my head throbbed and there were glass dust on my sleeves. My skirt was dampened with a wet substance and there was the elevator that goes up.

And I was the only one who was exploring the upper floor. That cannot be just it, can it? But apparently it was enough for me to be the culprit. I pursed my lips and smoothened my expression into what it usually take form; a neutral placid one.

Was it fun for that person to see us be frightened and nervous? And I just felt it, the owner was in here, in this very illusion. Somewhere here was the person that has been pissing me off. The key was to find out who was the murderer, but what if the murderer was not aware that it was them who waa the murderer?

"Create a blaze, will you?" I whispered at the golden butterfly that was still perched on the tip of my nose. With a resurgence of energy to the butterfly, it flew down on the floor and started to vibrate.

"What are you doing?" Sir Apollyon asked me, and, with shock, his eyes gazed at the butterfly that was on the floor; seemingly dying with the way its vibrance beats. "Stop it," he commanded and muttered a series of words, heavily encrusted with magical energy, and then told us a command again, "drop down!"

But it was not me who was affected by his rather harsh command. Instantly, Caspian dropped on the floor. Though the command did not entirely put me under his control, I was still forced to kneel down.

"What the heck, Aldovia?!" Caspian roared at the teacher. "Let me go!"

It did not took long for the butterfly to create a fire by its own light. There was a small blaze, until it was already smoking. Sir Apollyon's eyes widened and lept to the small fire to extinguish it, but the small blaze had already spread to the carpeted floor.

Out of nowhere, bullets of water started to fall down on us until it was full-on raining. I squinted my eyes at the ceiling and saw that there were sprinklers suddenly appearing on the ceiling.

"Ahh!" there was an incessant yelp made by Caspian whose face was mere inches away from the fire. "Ahh!"

Almost right away, the fire that was quickly spreading on the carpeted floor has been extinguished. I heard an audible sound from Caspian who cursed and trashed at Sir Apollyon's name for making drop his body on his own.

"Lift the command, Apollyon!" Caspian roared at him.

"I'm sorry, my lord," Sir Apollyon stated and knelt in front of Caspian. "I withdraw my power over you."

With that statement, Caspian immediately sat up and pointed at me.

"You're the murderer?!" he asked me with disbelief. "How come? Why?"

"This is an illusion, of course," Sir Apollyon said, his eyes falling to the corpse of the girl that, though touched with fire, was not being scorched. "Everything is being controlled by the grandmaster of the illusory fragment."

My eyes were casted downwards. I was watching the blackness of my skirt trickling with water. The trickles of the water, droplets continuously falling down the floor, were all tainted with red.

It was a play.

This whole illusory fragment was just a play.

"What happened?" Hannah asked after she and the boy dashed through the door. Like Sir Apollyon, Caspian, and me, they were also soaking wet.

"There are sprinklers in this house?!" the boy, Roi, asked rather incredulously.

A book materialized at the midde of the room. With my blood-soaked hand, I took out a book bound by leather and stared at it.

There was a class with one of their instructors that found a manor in the middle of nowhere. In that manor, no one would be able to get out as long as not a person has perished and the remaining of the players must find out who was the murderer.

My other hand came to cradle the back of my head which was throbbing. There were only flashes of what I allegedly did. Killing that girl oft, creating a plausible alibi, and now finding out who was the murderer. I could not remember any of it.

"A hidden elevator shaft was placed inside the room," Caspian said, there was that glint of seriousness on his eyes again, "you destroyed the door knob after you killed her, making the five if us believe that it was one of the boys who could have done it by force. Then while you kill her, she fought you off at first. Didn't she hit you with the vase? Isn't that why you have shard on your neck? Because you killed her, and now your skirt is soaking wet with her blood. It has already dried off when somebody discovered her corpse."

We all looked at the corpse which was slowly disappearing, one of the illusions of this place. The blood was not real, the girl was not even real.

Just some dummy who pretended as one of us in this illusory fragment.

A shiver ran back and forth on my spine, it made the hair on my arms stood. Now the case was solved and every corner of the place turned black, the area being swallowed by the shadows.

The only thing that remained shining was the golden light butterfly that perched itself on my shoulder. The next thing I knew, I was already standing inside the gallery that Caspian and I originally went into before getting siphoned to the temporal illusory fragment.

There was no Sir Apollyon, no Hannah, and no Roi. Just Caspian and me.

Even in reality, I was still wondering how I murdered her, the illusion of the person of that temporaral illusory fragment, without ever having any recollections of it. A shiver ran through my body yet again.

How terrifying it must be to have done an action without ever knowing how and why you did it.

"You have to go back to your... classes," Caspian muttered to me. The last word was uttered without much conviction when Caspian's hazel brown eyes pointedly looked at my appearance.

We initially thought that every single thing in that illusory fragment was practically just part of the owner's imagination, it seemed that it was not a fact. Even in reality, both Caspian and I were still soaking with water, but I was dreadful to look at the red tinge on my pleated skirt.

Water with a reddish hints were trickling down the tiled floor of the gallery.

There was not a clue, not even a speck of shadow, of the the entrance of the temporal illusory fragment. It was an ordinary gallery full of paintings that, majority of which, were covered with white cloth to avoid the dust.

"Never mind," Caspian told himself with an exaggerated sigh, "go back to the dorms and get changed."

"What about the other two?" I asked Caspian. "Hannah and Roi. We have to make sure that they were truly transported back in the reality."

Caspian shook his head to me before speaking, "I'll inform the..." He looked at me with hesitation, but I just arched my eyebrows at him, daring him to continue. "Others," he ended weakly, "I'll..." Now he looked at the golden light butterfly perched on my shoulder and there was a physical shiver that visibly ran through his body. "I'll get going. Just... can you please, please, don't tell anybody? That illusion was not—"

"It was not real," I continue for him and nodded as an agreement, "I know that much, do not play me for a fool."

With that being said, I took my leave, but Caspian called me before I even make it to the door.

"How... I don't... um.. I don't exactly know how you knew," Caspian spluttered noisily, "but I just want to know—"

"Stop," I told him coldly as my eyes turned into little slits, glaring in front of me, "I told you I would sew your lips shut if you would not spit out what you want to say, did I not?"

"Eh?" Caspian responded, almost quizzically. "When?"

I sighed and did not answer him anymore.

It was painstakingly annoying to go back to the dormitories with my uniform and skirt soaking wet. By the time that I reach my dormitory room, my clothes were already dried and there was someone waiting by my door.

Haziel Imbert's hair was in a somber mauve shade. Though gloomy at first sight, it added a sense of soberness, a slight maturity, on Haziel Imbert's child-like and innocent face. She was standing in front of my door, looking rather serious while her dark green eyes that were heavy lidded were staring at the white door of my dormitory room.

I hesitated, taking the small step back when I took a step forward.

With only a faint sound of my footsteps, Haziel Imbert's dark green eyes lifted from my dormitory room to where I was standing. Her face was expressionless and when she moved, it was with that careful grace that I have been accustomed with.

"I was worried when I could not sense your presence inside the academy's premises," Deo stated as they move to get closer to me, "what has happened?" they asked in an expressionless manner that I almost doubted if they were ever worried.

"I fell into a trap," I shared with them, I reached towards my skirt's pocket and pulled out a handkerchief to wipe my hands clean. It was futile though, the piece of cloth was also damp and reddened with blood from the murder I allegedly committed. I sighed and put it away, but I could feel Deo's cold glare at the red stained white handkerchief.

They did not have to ask anything before I started to explain what has happened and how it happened. The reason though of why it happened, it was still rather unclear. Even Caspian seemed to be befuddled with the temporal illusory fragment.

"There was an entrance to a temporal illusory fragment," I told Deo. I reached down to the door knob and turned it, a little energy surging through it that commanded it to open by itself.

Upon learning the basics of magic, I have learned to put protective barriers on my rooms just as what Deo had instructed me— for an extra precaution. It was as though Deo was expecting me to suddenly get attacked, just like what had happened two days ago with the siren's song.

I still could not understand what was that about and Deo never explained or provided any logical reason.

"No, that is not right," I suddenly blurted out, "there were entrances of a temporal illusory fragment here, in this very academy. I was with some schoolmates including that Caspian Cashel and a teacher."

When I looked back at Deo, who followed me inside my room, their face was full of grim and grave. The door of my room silently closed and, just like the state it was in earlier, barriers and seals became activated again quietly. Earlier, Deo's face was void of any emotion, but now it was touched with both grim and wrath.

"I have been neglecting you," Deo abruptly apologized, "there is no reason that could explain my lack of action."

I shook my head at Deo's rather gloomy statement.

"It was rather abrupt actually," I said to them, "not even I was able to tell that I have jumped from the threshold of the reality to a temporal illusory fragment one. It was too neatly sewn together and when I came back, there was not even a speck that indicated the presence of the illusory fragment. Deo..." I hesitated, but Deo nooded their at me, encouraging me to speak up.

"Does this have anything to do with the siren's song?" I asked with precaution.

It took Deo a while before they answered my question. Usually, their face would wear a mild or gentle expression. It became easy to discern their moods; even more so when they were wearing their mask.

I was still shocked nonetheless when Deo answered me with eyes brimming with anxiety.

"Someone is trying to kill you," Deo answered me.