CHAPTER 69: ILLUSIONS

Ishiki’s eyes widened as his body involuntarily took a few steps back and fell as his feet hit the slightly raised platform. He went down hard.

The Princess was shouting something. Filch too. Their voices blurred into meaningless noises in the background. All Ishiki could focus on was that thing wearing Sam’s face.

His pupils shrank, he was feeling... weird, as if something was peering into the depths of his soul.

The frozen body suddenly moved, it felt... no, the bastard was actually breaking the ice apart with his raw strength and a wide malicious grin.

Those hollow eyes never left Ishiki.

In the face of primal fear and panic, Ishiki thrashed his hands around in a frenzy, trying to ward off something that wasn’t even touching him yet. He forgot to summon the [Curved Bone], he Couldn’t remember anything except the overwhelming need to get away.

But the beast like human seemed to grow in size with each passing second, and as he did, the ice that encased his lower body cracked.

Ishiki’s heart beat fastened and he gritted his teeth, gasping. "Get... get away—" His voice came out strangled. "Get away from me, bastard!"

The vivid feeling of dying once crept deeper and deeper into his heart... making him tremble. The specific sensation of, getting stabbed in the neck, the feeling of cold spreading through his body as blood pumped out onto the wooden floor.

He was terrified.

His whole body shook. He kept pushing himself backward across the floor until his spine hit the wall.

The ice holding Sam back gave away and the fiend was freed. The ugly grin on his face grew wider as he slowly walked towards Ishiki.

Filch slapped Ishiki on the face, hard enough to knock him back to his senses.

"WAKE UP, ISHIKI!"

Ishiki gasped and blinked, looking at Filch with wide eyes. His stomach twisted in ways it shouldn’t have.

He looked around in bewilderment and saw three pair of eyes fixed on him with a expression of confusion. He... was lying on the floor and doing what exactly?

He was lying on the floor. Why was he on the floor?

What had he been doing?

Ishiki took several shuddering breaths, trying to force his lungs back into regular rhythm. "What... what happened to me?"

Yuki stepped closer, examining his face. He was drenched in sweat like he had just sprinted through the Crimson Canopy.

Filch, who was bent just besides him stood up and sighed. "Guess he is back."

Sam, with regular human eyes—was leaning against the wall across the room. He laughed. "He is going mad, believe me."

He paused and then grinned looking at Ishiki. "He is dangerous. What if he had summoned a weapon and killed someone?"

"Get out of here, Sam." Filch snapped at the tall man.

"Tsk." Sam pushed off the wall, muttering curses under his breath as he left.

Ishiki managed to calm down a little, marginally at least. Knowing that everything around him was normal again, or maybe he was normal again, helped a little.

"Are you alright, Ishiki?" Yuki asked, a bit of concern lingering in her voice.

Ishiki looked at her with his blue eyes, Filch was standing just besides her and looked at him with narrowed eyes.

He shifted a little and then walked to the wall, leaning against it he simply asked. "What were you so afraid of? You suddenly toppled over and started screaming."

He chuckled. "Honestly, it was almost funny. You looked like some invisible ghost was trying to strangle you."

’Screw it... what the hell is wrong with me?’

First the nightmare. Now this... hallucinations? Was he actually going insane?

Ishiki sat up properly and covered his face with his palm. The embarrassment was almost as bad as the terror had been. Had his paranoia finally eaten through his sanity? Was he so convinced something bad would happen that his brain started showing illusions?

He could tell them what he had seen. Maybe that would help.

’No it wouldn’t, It will just make things worse.’

"I just had a nightmare earlier." The lie came easily. "Was remembering it. That’s all."

Filch and Yuki both frowned. Spoke at the same time: "Huh?"

But Ishiki was already moving. He stood up, brushed past them, and left without another word.

On his way back, he could feel people giving him weird looks. Usually, one or two of them would have said hi and waved at Ishiki when he passed by, but no one did.

It wasn’t just with him, the whole environment inside the clearing had suddenly turned somber, suspicious and doubtful. The fragile trust they had built over the last two months was shattering just like that, only one crack and it comes down crumbling like a glass.

Human values were always like that. Hard to build and easy to destroy. At the end of the day, people were selfish. They acted for their own benefit first, and nothing would ever change that fundamental truth.

Ishiki wasn’t particularly bothered by their reaction. He never had great relations with most of the refugees anyway.

Well, at least not with the twelve people that the princess brought with her, the other ones—who had somehow made it to the clearing on their own just like Ishiki had were more or less neutral.

What he was more concerned about right now was, his mental health. He was seeing strange things, and on top of that there were similarities in them.

A single similarity, the hollow eyes.

In the nightmare, someone with hollow eyes had attacked him in his house, now he saw Sam attacking him with those same hollowed out eyes. The eyes that seemed to make his very soul shudder with fear.

It was like... he was seeing illusions.

He could not help but be afraid that some forgotten god was cursing him, if they existed that is.

’How many times have I seen those creepy eyes already.’

Remembering his past sightings of the hollowed out eyes, Ishiki frowned.

’1... 2... and 3...’

’Wait three...’ He stopped mid way, feeling a creep run down his spine.

The first time he saw those eyes was in the temple.

Ishiki’s eyes narrowed. Had that actually happened? Or had it been part of the nightmare?

Did he really see that pale figure in the temple? Or had the entire thing been a dream?

Or worse...

Was any of it a dream to begin with?

Was he in a dream now? Or was he awake and there had never been a dream at all?

Ishiki had no Idea.

This uncertainty was worse than any fear could ever be. At least with fear, you knew what you were afraid of.

This was... different. It was as if his own mind had become unreliable.

He walked the rest of the way to his house in silence. His house. The one he supposedly lived in alone. Had always lived in alone.

Right?

The word "supposedly" kept echoing in his head.

When he reached the door, he paused. His hand stopped on the handle. He just stood there for a long moment, trying to decide if opening it was a good idea.

What if someone was inside?

What if someone had always been inside, and he had just... forgotten?

What if he opened the door and found someone sitting there, staring back with those hollow eyes?

’Stop it.’

He forced himself to push the door open.

The house was empty.

Just like it should be. Just like it always was.

’Right? It was... empty. Right?’

Ishiki stepped inside, gasping heavily and closed the door behind him. He Leaned against it and slid down until he was sitting on the floor with his back pressed against the wood.

His hands were shaking.

He hadn’t noticed until now, but they had been shaking since he woke up from whatever that dream was or since before. Since before the nightmare... since—

’When did they start shaking?’

He couldn’t remember.

’What am i afraid of?’

He didn’t know.