*Bang* *Thud*
Inside a room in some shady building barely 400 meters away from where Acht and Dia lived, a man was kicked as he fell to the ground with a groan.
He had a blood stain in the middle of his trousers with all kinds of injuries on his face. The culprit for such torture was obviously Acht. He had dragged this man across the street like a goat while Dia followed behind him with an extremely worried look. She was beyond nervous and even thought of stopping Acht a few times as they were walking.
But, every time, she shook her head while remembering the words he said to her.
'I need to trust him. If I don't trust him, then who will?' She resolved herself and then approached him.
"Why do you want his money?" She asked.
"For us of course, silly. I want us to make a fresh start."
"But, what if he tries to find us. You don't believe that this could make him stop his hideous crimes, right?"
"No, that's why…" he then gestured for her to come closer until her ear was near his mouth and then he whispered.
"I'm going to break all of his limbs to the point where they will never recover. I want him to live his life while suffering the consequences."
His words made her shudder with horror. She had never heard these words come out of Acht's mouth before. They were cold, ruthless, and spine-chilling.
She straightened herself again and looked at him with squinted eyes. She wasn't against the idea at all since she hated that man to the bones but she was also worried about Acht.
Since this morning, he felt different. The air immaturity he had before suddenly vanished and was replaced by a cold, calculating look that exuded maturity far beyond what mere children could obtain.
Also, the way he looked at her was that of someone who is sad, lonely, and also….regretful. But, regretful about what? And why?
All these questions bugged her mind like a horde of violent bees. She had no idea what to do or how to wrap her head around this. So she took a deep breath and said with a hesitant tone.
"Acht, are you ok?"
Her question seemed to trigger something in him since he bent his head down and answered calmly.
"Do I seem that different to you?" He answered her question with another question.
"Yes. You have been acting weird since this morning. Since when were you this indifferent about killing people?" She responded with a more stern look. She was somehow angry since she knew that he was hiding something from her that he didn't want to say.
"What's wrong? You could tell me anything…Remember our promise?"
When she mentioned that 'promise', his mind immediately wandered to a certain moment a few years ago. It was exactly their first meeting when he was still considered a toddler.
They had promised to be there for each other, to support each other no matter what happens and no matter what consequences that could bring to them. And most importantly, to tell each other their secrets and their problems so they could solve them together.
At the time, Dia said a few words that Acht still kept in his heart to this day.
"We are a family, so anything that affects you affects me."
He muttered those words to himself. He has followed those words until that point and cherished them greatly. But, this time, he couldn't really do it.
He didn't want to spill out what he had become in the future and what he had done when he became older and their paths diverged.
'She will hate me. I know she will hate me.' He thought as dark thoughts clouded his head.
Dia saw his difficult expression and sighed loudly. It hurt her how he was like this and she felt as if she had done something wrong or maybe something wrong was there from the beginning.
"I will go out to take some time to calm down." She left those words and left the room.
In between all of this, the boss watched as they argued with a small smile on his face.
"Hehehe, you deserve it!"
Acht looked at him with extreme fury and muttered a few words with a quiet tone that carried a heavy killing intent.
"Shut it, pig."
Then he tied the boss to the wall with a rope he found in the room. It was probably something he used for his torture or some other sick uses.
Then, he sat down on the chair and fell into deep thoughts.
'What should I do? I can't tell her. If I do, she will definitely get disgusted….'
He then tried to imagine her looking at him with hatred in her eyes and he immediately shook the image away. Even imagining it made him shudder.
'I will….have to…huh'
He suddenly felt his eyelids grow heavy and his body stiff. It was as if he was falling asleep again.
'What's…going…on…' before he could continue his train of thoughts, he closed his eyes involuntarily and fell into a deep sleep.
************************
In an unknown part of the forest, there was a cave that was carved into a mountain. The cave was small and barely big enough to make Tania sit comfortably beside Acht, who was unconscious.
She had to walk with him on her back for 7 hours non-stop in order to find a good place for him to rest and regain his consciousness.
She had sat down and waited, and waited, and waited. The sun slowly moved and the darkness started covering the sky, riddling it with luminous stars that tell the ancient tale of this vast cosmos.
She gazed at the vast, beautiful sky with a deep look in her pupils. No one knows how much she was worried about Acht and his injuries and didn't care about anything else including her well-being.
She did indeed like seeing Acht act in tough situations and show his cool side. But, she hates seeing him hurt a lot. Whenever she sees him get injured or pained, she feels her hurt jolt with a shock of pain as if someone was shredding her insides over and over and over again.
Then, as she was sitting there alone. She heard a groan to her side.
Her eyes immediately shifted to Acht with hope filling her heart.
There, the unconscious boy started opening his eyes slowly like a baby. He had a frown on his face the whole time as if he was suffering from a nightmare. Tania tried to ease him up as she caressed his face and his hair but it didn't work.
When she saw that he was finally fully awake. She screamed in delight.
"Achat!" Even her scream sounded quiet for some reason. Yet, it held some deep emotions that are hard to find in someone else.
Without caring about his condition, she jumped on him and hugged him tightly while muttering some incomprehensible words.
The boy was confused at first.
'Was it a dream?' he asked himself a question he knew he didn't have a clear answer for.
Everything that happened was too real for it to be a dream, the feeling of Dia's warmth when he hugged her. Her feelings when she spoke to him and the pain she felt when he didn't tell her his secret.
It was all too real, too vivid, and too painful for him to consider it as a mere dream.
'What is going on with me? Am I losing my mind?'
Ever since he entered this forest, he was experiencing some extremely bizarre things that only he could feel.
Was this forest cursed? Or is it some kind of trigger that started this trip of memories for him? Or it could even be Livia the goddess?
Many theories and no clear answer. So, he decides to calm down for now and see how he should deal with the test. As for Dia and the dream, he will deal with it accordingly. A part of him wanted that dream to be something more. But, another part wanted it to be a mere passing dream. He didn't want to handle the consequences of what could happen to Dia if she knew what really happened.
'I'm a fucking coward, fuck! since when did I hesitate to face my own problems?' He clenched his teeth in disgust at his own selfishness.
"Acht?"
Suddenly, Tania's voice woke him up from his thoughts. She looked at him with worry in her eyes.
That was when Acht finally took a look at his surroundings. They were in a cave and the sky was darkening. That meant that she had to take care of him for a long time in a dangerous forest like this.
'This girl…'
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