36th Tick: Empty Town 2
1010 Words
Rose stood up, carrying the sleeping Thomas in her arms. It was near midnight, and she was ready to start moving. Truth flew around, sleepy. The fairy followed Rose as she started pacing around, trying to figure out where the best spot for entering the new biome was.
Just as she expected, the scenery switched. Around her, instead of the island, was a very different view. She stood on hard rock, the ground was rough and slightly reddish-brown. The sky was tinted with the same colour, the moon red. Rocky and uneven mountains Rose high above her not too far away, the only signs of life being a few bushes here and there. Rose looked around, deciding not to think, she needed to be quick. Using her sixth sense, she started walking to her right.
“Where are we going?” Truth asked.
“To find a demon general.” Rose replied.
“Which one?”
“I don’t know his name.”
They continued on for a few more minutes. Truth floated some distance in front and stretched in the air. “From my stay at the demon realm, the closest demon general should be the one who captured me.”
“Right, who is he?” Rose asked, more to pass time than actual curiosity.
“Hm...” Truth tapped her chin. “He was... an interesting person.”
“Very helpful.” Rose muttered sarcastically.
“Hold on. There’s something weird about him” Truth continued. “I know of several accounts of him dying, old age, battle, anything. He’s been around for hundreds or thousands of years, he just doesn’t die.”
“He has immortality?”
“Something like that at least. Because I have never seen anyone, demon or not, live as long as he did.”
Rose was thinking. It made more sense that the demon general was immortal. Thomas said Amon had killed the venom general, but the demon general simply did not die. How or why, Rose was unsure of both questions. She kept her mind to moving forward, wanting to be over and done with the walking.
“Have you met the demon general?” Rose asked.
“Me? Of course. He captured me, so I got to see his face, but his name, abilities or history are all completely unknown. If I’m right, no one else in the world knows his past and how he got his immortality.”
Rose nodded and paused, seeing a town in front of her. She stopped in her tracks, wondering what the town was doing there. She had gone off her sixth sense, it should have led her to the second town. But she tried using her magic again, her instinct told her that the second town was in the other direction. She looked around them, confused. Truth followed after her.
“Did the landscape just change?” Rose asked.
“I think so.” Truth replied.
It was quite bright despite it being night, Rose looked at the town and saw a castle. She gestured with her chin towards the town, saying, “I think that’s the demon general’s home.”
Truth squinted her eyes to try and see the town. When she noticed the castle, her eyes widened. She shouted, “It is! It really is!”
She proceeded to attempt to fly away, so Rose held Thomas with one arm, grabbing Truth with the other. Rose’s left arm injury started to reopen from the stress of carrying Thomas. Truth struggled in her grasp, squeaking, “Let me go!”
“Are you too scared of something?” Rose asked.
“You don’t understand what I have seen in there!” Truth shouted. “I just remembered the important parts, and I don’t want to remember anymore! Get these memories out of my head!”
“Truth, what’s going on?” Rose asked.
Truth’s expression changed. Her eyes became lifeless. “Truth? But I’m Episode.”
She returned to her normal expression and shouted, “Let me go! That guy... those guys are insane!”
Out of shock, Rose let go of Truth. The fairy did not even look back once, she flew away faster than Rose could ever catch up to. She sighed, not knowing what had gotten into the fairy. Rose looked ahead and walked towards the town, Thomas still asleep.
When she reached the town gates, she noticed that there were no guards in sight. Rose walked along the town, observing the situation. There was not a single human or demon, only these weird statues made out of stone around the town. Houses were built, but did not have a resident. Rose came up with the next best plan, and that was to enter the castle. She assumed the demon general would reside in the biggest house, that was just how those in power worked.
Rose walked up to the massive building, then thought about one thing. There was a closed gate, how was she supposed to enter? She paced around the walls of the castle, wondering why there was a wall around the castle and another wall around the city. The lack of life concerned her, and the sudden panic by Truth was more concerning. Rose bit her lip, hesitating. She was technically safe, but she did not know the limits to Thomas’ protection. Furthermore, she did not know when Thomas would return to normal. Worse case scenario, she had to raise Thomas all the way back up to an adult.
She shook the idea out of her head and walked away from the castle, wanting to get a better view of the structure. The stone used to construct it was black, and in the slightly illuminated world, she could barely make out its features. She tried seeing if there was any light coming from the castle, if there was anyone to begin with.
Rose eventually gave up and went to a house, sitting on a table across from two stone statues of a couple. She laid Thomas down gently and looked up at the castle. She needed Thomas to return to normal already.
She looked back at her surroundings, then at the castle before snapping her view back to the couple. She could have sworn she saw a couple, but there only remained one. She held Thomas again, starting to get up. Rose did not like what she was seeing, not only was one of the statues moving, but all the other statues had their heads turned in her direction.
- Writer
