cHApTEr 20. sTAy HyDrATED (1 of 3)

Mioray and Mia searched everywhere for Farah’s body, but they couldn’t find it.

The street where she was supposed to have fallen was buried under debris. Crumpled car hoods jutted out from beneath the concrete like patches of color in a field of flowers. They kept digging through the rubble, with Mia doing most of the work. Mioray had a hard time moving around without his feet, and the missing chunk from his right hand made it difficult to grab concrete slabs and throw them aside.

It was like searching for a needle in a haystack. At one point, they thought they had found Farah after all. Mia dug out an arm from under the rubble, still attached to a body buried beneath it. Mioray helped her uncover the corpse, but it turned out to be someone else, a young woman who must have died during the meteorite fall.

They stubbornly kept searching, relieved at least that the Soul Collective was nowhere around. The monster had gone elsewhere, though they could not hope it had simply vanished. That was not how this worked, and at the rate it was growing, it really could become the cause of the second disaster, if it had not already. Mioray did not want to think about what would happen if the Soul Collective returned to the crater. If it did, that would surely mean the end of Reques City.

And it did not help that Reyna Kayree kept calling him. He ignored every call. There was nothing he could tell her right now, and no doubt she would insist that he and Mia come to her. They were not ready for that. Not before they found out what had happened to Farah.

Because without proof, the worst-case scenario could not be dismissed. Like Jean, Farah might have been eaten and absorbed by the Soul Collective.

Mioray shoved that thought away whenever it crept into the corner of his mind. No, of course that was not what had happened. Farah’s absence had to mean she had survived the fall and gone somewhere else. Why hadn’t she contacted them, then? There had to be an explanation. Her earpiece was broken, and maybe her phone was too. Mioray had tried calling her several times, but it never went through.

The search was leading nowhere, and the so-called competition should have already been over. In fact, it was already half an hour past the deadline, and they still had not received any update on the results. Just as that uncertainty began to press in and overshadow even Farah’s disappearance, a familiar voice came through the earpiece.

“Sorry for the delay!” As always, Lokiel’s cheerfulness grated on Mioray’s nerves. “We are ready to wrap things up here! Today’s winner of the annual soul-guiding competition is – drum roll, please! – Team Lokiel!”

Mioray clicked his tongue, exchanging a concerned glance with Mia. It was not as if he had expected a different outcome, but the sheer absurdity of the competition and the harm it had caused were not things to brush aside. What was it all for? So Lokiel, a greanrip who could not be trusted, could get his hands on the Cursed Blade of Avalon?

Was it worth it? Was losing the blade worth Erinel getting what she wanted? And in the end, she wasn’t even getting that.

“Well, by how many points did we win?” Amika asked, proud of their victory.

“I don’t want to upset the other team,” Lokiel sighed condescendingly.

“Try me,” Mioray challenged.

“Well, if Mioray here is asking,” Lokiel sounded thoughtful, though it was obvious he had been planning to reveal the score anyway. “What was your score last time? Thirty-seven? It stayed the same. Our team ended up with eighty-six.”

Even if Lokiel had set them up – and they still had no conclusive proof of that – it was a hard pill to swallow. Amika’s gloating after Lokiel’s announcement only made it worse.

Mioray saw Mia mimic a cutting motion, stroking her left index finger with the right. He nodded.

“Did Erinel give you the blade?” he asked.

“Not yet, but I can’t wait to have it in my hands!”

“Can she or Kevin confirm your victory? We haven’t heard from them yet.”

“Mioray, my friend, why are you asking me?” Lokiel’s voice carried a note of disbelief. “You should ask them. But just to be clear, they left after it became obvious you were going to lose. They didn’t look happy about it. No wonder they don’t want to talk to you.”

“Yeah, sure. Where are they, Lokiel?”

“How should I know? They didn’t tell me anything. They just left in a hurry. What? Are you jealous they left together, my friend?”

Mioray clenched his left fist. What was Lokiel hiding? Did he do something to Erinel and Kevin? Niles was suspiciously quiet too. The last time he had announced the score was when Farah was battling Jean. Mioray did not remember hearing from him after that.

He did not believe Erinel and Kevin had simply left. It was obvious Lokiel was making things up, but to what end? Did he have the blade or not? Did he want the Soul Collective to terrorize the city or not?

“Congratulations on your victory,” Mioray said bitterly. “I don’t want to spoil your celebration, but Jean was absorbed by the Soul Collective, the very same one you didn’t want us to deal with.”

“What are you talking about?” Amika snapped.

“Yes, you heard me right. Jean died, permanently. Remember the Soul Collective you threw out of the crater? It’s huge now, and it’s preying on souls and people alike. We wanted to stop it, but your boss here ordered Jean to keep us from interfering. Well, Jean is gone now. Good luck forcing the Soul Collective through the portal, because Mia and I don’t have the spiritual powers, and Farah is missing…” Mioray took a deep breath before continuing. “So tell me, Lokiel. Did everything go according to your plan?”

“Sorry, my friend, I’m not following. Jean is gone? That is very sad news to me. He was a good man, always honoring his contracts. He guided so many souls to the afterlife. Bless him.”

Mioray snorted bitterly. What in Lokiel’s words was even true?

“Please, my friends, keep your distance from the Soul Collective,” Lokiel said in a didactic tone that was offensive in itself. “I will handle it. You focus on other wandering souls. If you don’t have spiritual powers, just tell me your location and I will gladly share some with you. How does that sound?”

“Let us think about it,” Mioray replied, looking at Mia. She shook her head firmly.

It did not add up. Lokiel was volunteering to handle the Soul Collective himself? That did not sound convincing at all. But on the other hand, he was the only one who might be able to do something about the monster, unless they accepted his offer and told him where they were so he could share some of his spiritual power.

But could they really trust him?

Mioray did not know what to do anymore. He felt helpless. Frustrated, he called out for Farah, but naturally, he got no response. He tried calling Kevin on the phone, but all he got was the dull beeping of an unanswered call. And Erinel did not have a phone, so there was no way to contact her except through the earpiece, yet she had not said a word during the whole competition or after it.

The echo of footsteps alarmed them. Someone was nearby. Mioray tensed as he noticed a figure approaching. From the grey sweatshirt and blue jeans, he recognized Saria. He frowned.

How had she found them? Had she been close when he was calling for Farah? Mioray pressed himself against the rubble mound he had been lying on. Was Saria a friend or a foe? He hoped she was not hostile, but he could not let his guard down. At the end of the day, she was one of Lokiel’s people.

Mia seemed to think the same, only with a more radical response. The moment she saw Saria, she screamed at her. The sound waves burst from her mouth, distorting the air as they shot toward Saria with crushing speed. The young woman squeaked in terror. She froze in place and held her breath. Mioray jerked up on his elbows as if scalded. He knew exactly what was about to happen next, but it unfolded too fast for him to react.

The sound waves slammed into Saria, but instead of blasting her away, they bounced off her and hurtled back at their source. Mia watched silently as her own scream struck her square in the chest with such force that it ripped a hole through her sports shirt and tore through flesh, crushing ribs, heart, and lungs, leaving a round wound punched clean through from front to back. The sound waves passed through her and flew on, spattered with crimson chunks of flesh that left a bloody trail behind them. When the sound finally dissolved into silence, torn flesh slapped down onto the road. Mia collapsed face-first like a rag doll, blood spreading beneath her in a widening pool.

Shouting wordlessly, Mioray slid down from the mound of rubble, rolling several times in the process, and crawled to Mia. He turned her over. Her amber eyes were already glassy and unfocused. Mia’s heart had been crushed, and now she was dead. For how long? More than a day, that was certain.

“Shit!” Mioray finally remembered how to speak. “Shit, shit, shit!”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Saria screamed at the same time, her hands clapped over her mouth.

“Why did you do it?!” Mioray yelled at her.

“I didn’t mean to!”

“What do you mean you didn’t mean to?! Don’t you control what gets deflected off you?”

“I do, but everything happened so fast I didn’t have a chance to react properly!”

“So what, you’re saying it was all Mia’s fault?!”

“No, that’s not what I meant!”

“Are you going to kill me too?!” Mioray pressed.

“No, I’m not planning to do any of that!” Saria shouted back, nearly hysterical.

Mioray wanted to keep yelling at Saria, but stopped short when he saw tears welling in her eyes. He felt bad for making her cry, so he let out a long, heavy sigh and tried to collect his thoughts. There was nothing he could do for Mia except keep her safe until she came back. And if Saria was lying and planned to take him down, he had no way to stop her. He was in terrible shape. If he still had spiritual sight, he would probably see his soul burning close to its limit.

“Listen, I’m sorry,” he said once Saria calmed down. “I didn’t want to upset you, but this day is getting worse by the minute. What are you doing here? Are Amika and Kiriya with you?”

“No, we split up,” Saria hugged herself uncertainly. “I want you to know, I was really against this whole idea, us competing against you. Everything spiraled out of control so fast. Kiriya drained Matt’s blood, Amika threw that Soul Collective away.” She flinched. “And now it has absorbed Jean. Niles, Farah, Kevin, and Erinel aren’t answering. And on top of that, Mia died because of me!”

Saria was on the verge of crying again.

“I don’t know what is happening!” she sobbed.

“That makes two of us,” Mioray echoed, holding Mia’s limp body in his arms. He did not have it in him to comfort Saria. He truly did not know what was happening.

Saria stepped closer, every movement radiating discomfort. She kept twisting her fingers together.

“Do you think Mia will be mad at me when she comes back?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Mioray shrugged. “I mean, last time she was gone, a lot of things happened. Maybe if you explain to her that you didn’t mean to kill her, she won’t hold a grudge against you. Mia is very nice. Unless this is all an act and you’re doing exactly what you planned.”

“I’m telling you, I’m not!” Saria shouted resentfully, puffing out her cheeks. “I’m on your side, Mioray. We both know Lokiel is up to something, but I’ve been around him longer. Even if you think you’ve figured him out, there’s always another layer to his schemes. Always.”

The way she said it sent a chill down his spine. Mioray didn’t like Lokiel. He might even have hated him. That antagonism clouded his judgment, but until now he had not truly wanted to believe Lokiel had malicious intent. The facts were saying otherwise. People had died because of the Soul Collective. But was Lokiel the only one at fault? They had all been his accomplices, agreeing to the competition and now reaping what they had sown.

​​“Whatever he’s scheming, we can’t just leave Mia here.” Mioray looked around. “We have to hide her so the Soul Collective can’t get to her.”

Saria crouched beside Mioray. He grew wary, but said nothing.

“Actually, that’s why I’m here,” she said. “There’s a place called Heal Good Pharmacy nearby. I hid Matt’s body there. And your feet too.”

Mioray looked her in the eyes.

“Wait, really?”

“Yes, really,” she nodded with a faint smile.

After everything he had been through, that bit of news sounded like the best he had heard in a long while. He was relieved that Matt’s body had not been left in the crater, and that he himself might be able to get his feet back.

“We can move Mia there as well,” Saria suggested.

“I’m not going to be much help,” Mioray looked at his stumps. “If you don’t mind, I’ll wait here. We can meet up on the roof.”

He pointed at the building where Farah had fought Jean. Saria did not object. She took Mia’s body into her arms, something she would not have been able to do if she were alive, but managed now because she was dead. She headed for the pharmacy while Mioray returned to the roof by launching his arms at the building’s windows and pulling himself upward.

The ice covering the rooftop was melting, leaving water gently swaying in its place. For a brief moment, Mioray wondered what would happen if he tried to drink it. Obviously, the water was not clean. If he were alive, drinking dirty water could make him sick because of the bacteria and viruses in it. But how would his body react now, in its undead state? In the past eight months, none of them had gotten ill. Sometimes Mioray wondered how that worked. Were bacteria and viruses unable to reproduce inside an undead body, dying off on their own, or was there some other scientific explanation? He was not qualified to answer that question, and he had no one to ask. Besides, there were always more urgent matters to deal with.

Like now, for example. There was a reason Mioray had chosen the roof as the place to meet Saria. Jean’s guns were still lying around, though it was the sniper rifle Mioray wanted. He picked it up and looked through the scope, watching Saria move Mia. He wanted to trust the red-haired woman, he really did, but there was still a chance she was tricking him. Mioray decided to watch her from a safe distance, just to make sure she was not planning anything.

But it seemed he did not need to worry about betrayal. She kept her promise and brought Mia’s body into Heal Good Pharmacy. And when she came back out, she was carrying Mioray’s feet under one arm. Mioray set the sniper rifle down. If Saria was not sincere, then he did not know who was. He desperately wanted someone on his side, someone he could trust. He would have turned into John Doe if he could, but the mask was back at the storage facility, so he had to keep going as Mioray.

And as Mioray, he felt desperate. One by one, everyone was being taken down. Matt. Mia. Farah too, most likely. They were dead and unconscious, and the time they would lose could never be recovered. Mioray remembered the strange loneliness he had felt when he came back to his senses after the Dismantler attacked the university. He had been gone from life for two weeks.

No one wanted that. Not Matt, who was only a kid thrown into the cruel world of adults. Not Mia, who had suffered so much the last time she was gone for a month. And not Farah, who dreamed of earning enough money for an apartment. Every interruption like this pushed that dream farther away.

While Mioray waited for Saria, Reyna Kayree called him again. This time, he answered. Nothing good came of it, just as he had expected. According to Reyna, the military had clashed with the Soul Collective once more. The monster was more terrifying than ever, steadily growing bigger and more aggressive. Reyna herself had almost been eaten by the spiritual beast, but Lokiel arrived just in time to save her. The greanrip was fighting it now, though it was too early to tell whether he was actually gaining the upper hand. At the very least, he had bought the military time to retreat and evacuate civilians nearby.

Mioray did not know what to make of what Reyna told him. He could hardly believe that Lokiel had kept his word and gone after the Soul Collective. Maybe he had meant it when he said he would deal with the monster. That remained to be seen. From the sound of it, even Lokiel was struggling against it alone.

The stairwell entrance to the roof was still blocked by the two crossed ice pillars. That problem was quickly solved when Saria kicked the ice apart and stepped onto the rooftop. She nearly slipped on the wet surface, but managed to keep her balance.

“Did somebody order a pair of fresh feet?” she asked brightly, waving one of Mioray’s feet in the air. They were still wearing shoes. “I’ve also got a complimentary bottle of water!”

In any other situation, that would have been wildly inappropriate, but Mioray could not help laughing out loud.

Saria handed him his feet back, and he pressed them against the cuts. By now, he was something of an expert at reattaching legs, having found himself in the same situation twice. Then Saria gave him the bottle of water and sat beside him on the roof ledge.

“Thanks,” Mioray said, taking a sip. “What is Amika’s problem, anyway? Does she think she’s some hairy beast that collects her opponents’ feet and learns their skills that way?”

“Sounds oddly specific,” Saria gave him a sideways look. “Is that from some fiction story?”

Mioray did not answer. He turned the bottle in his hand and looked at the distorted city through the shifting water inside. His fingers should have blocked the view, but he was missing two of them.

For a place where the Soul Collective was roaming free in search of its next victim, the city seemed strangely calm. The sun had already disappeared below the horizon, leaving only a few pinkish-red streaks in the sky tangled with dark blue. In the distance, on the undamaged streets, he could see lights coming on. It was crazy how different that part of Reques City looked, as if the world had split in two.

Mioray lay back on the ledge, propping himself up on his elbows as he slowly sipped from the bottle. Everything was uncertain, and all he could do was wait for his feet to fuse back on.

“Don’t you want to rest your head in my lap?” Saria asked out of nowhere.

Mioray almost choked on the suggestion.

“I don’t think that would be appropriate,” he said after clearing his throat.

Saria’s cheeks turned pink.

“I’m not suggesting anything!” she said quickly. “I just thought it would be more comfortable for you that way!”

“Okay, okay!” Mioray tried to calm her down. “Thanks, but I’m fine. Anyway, how did you know where to look for me and Mia?”

“After we finished with the other Soul Collectives at the crater, Kiriya and Amika hurried back into the streets, while I took care of Matt and your feet. I figured you couldn’t have gotten too far, so I looked for a place to hide Matt’s body first. I found that pharmacy and decided it was suitable. I was planning to contact you next, but then I heard you calling for Farah and… well, you know what happened after.”

“Yeah,” Mioray said quickly. He did not want Saria to get upset again. “So, do you have any ideas about what Lokiel is plotting?”

“If I know him at all, then yes. Don’t think of him as evil. He’s just… bored, most of the time. I guess living too long can do that to you. He’s constantly chasing entertainment, trying to get that dose of dopamine. You could say he’s an addict, and he believes that stirring things up, bringing chaos, is the most fun.”

“I can’t believe you’re defending him,” Mioray said, genuinely impressed. It really was impressive.

Saria pursed her lips.

“What do you want me to say? He resurrected us, and he didn’t abandon us. That has to count for something. But I’m not arguing that he’s an ass. If you want to know, he came to me just a couple of hours before my death. How do you think it feels to find out you’re about to die when you were sure your whole life was still ahead of you? It completely destroys all the social constructs you’ve agreed to. All my life, I was studying to become a researcher, sacrificing time with friends and family, missing parties and leisure, and suddenly it was all for nothing. Or at least that’s what Lokiel expected me to think, that I’d crack on the spot. But I didn’t. I still had my kinetic energy shield research to finish, and I was determined to see it through. I think that’s why he took an interest in me and offered me the serum, and I agreed.”

Mioray listened to Saria attentively, but his opinion of Lokiel did not change. So what if he was bored with normalcy? He could have found some other way to entertain himself, one that did not require others to suffer. It was always possible to have fun together with other people. Like Erinel did. She watched movies and listened to music. She had tried hard to win the tree-face mask at the ring-toss game, and she had really been looking forward to visiting the hot springs. She had lived a long life, yet she was still learning how to find joy in small things.

Except, of course, none of that was what she truly wanted, was it?

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