The scene went into a historic move that would make even the hardest heart beat faster. Austin, wielding the power of gold all around him, shining forth like a god, fought his way through all the enemies. The ones that seemed like gods who could end the duo’s life before now became little toys that Austin could kill and maim.
He moved with fury while protecting Carmel in an embrace, making sure that nothing happened to Carmel as he moved through the maze. Several powerful monsters took shape as they kept attacking the two, but the power that Austin held helped him move through the place. The maze quickly filled up with dead bodies of monsters and their blood.
Austin, protecting Carmel, moved in a frenzy-like manner, killing his way through, body parts scattering here and there. As the call of the monsters got louder and louder, the monsters formed a wave as they followed after him. Austin moved with fast steps as he reached towards the exit, soon seeing a light coming out of the place.
And just as he reached the end, the power running through him seemed to come to an end with Carmel still in his arms. The wave of monsters still behind him, Austin gazed upon the light shining outward, the white light seemingly pointing to the outside, calling him, the power throbbing within him guiding him to that escape.
Thus Austin focused all his power on his legs, the wave still behind him, just inches away from getting him. With one final leap, Austin threw Carmel out of the exit. At the same time, he quickly expanded into an unexpected twist, taking a turn that ended up with him taking the whole wave of monsters behind him as he rushed seemingly into a hidden trial.
Carmel’s body flew out with a thud. Outside, Carmel’s body fell off the maze, rolling on the green ground as it came out of a huge opening that kept swirling around, complete fog covering the area, with the entrance to the maze being within a forest, the whole place being creepy.
“This?”
The shout came from the young Melvin and Nix, who had just arrived with an army, the two focusing on Carmel who escaped from the place. From then came the truth that Carmel came to believe and one that had held their friendship till the end.
Carmel, who had lost her memories, found out that Nix and Melvin had come to her rescue with their own army, along with the royal one, saving her nearly from death. The words of the troops matched their statement, though just the fact that they came to save her was more than enough for her to have taken in the support of the two.
And as time passed, they became best friends, though now history has shown the truth—a truth hidden behind layers of betrayal that both Carmel and Carmelia never saw coming.
….
“No… no… no… no! This isn’t true! NO!”
Carmel kept shouting out as she hunched up, her hands grabbing her hair tight as her reddened eyes focused on the ground. She tried desperately to forget the truth now fixed deep into her mind, yet no matter how much she tried, the memory that was sealed away had opened up, showing her the truth she never knew she had.
Carmelia seemingly lost in a daze, her mind a bit fractured from the truth—the very truth that she was living in a lie—but above that, it’s the immense pain of guilt of not remembering the one life she had ever loved, the pain of not remembering the one person, the first person she had ever given her complete trust to.
‘This is impossible!’
Carmel tried her best to get rid of the pain lunging through her heart. She couldn’t believe that after everything he had done for her, she had hurt him. Even above that, she couldn’t believe that she didn’t even remember him. Even when she could have gone to make his own easy life, he didn’t—Austin stuck to her, to the promise he had made to her long ago, one that she didn’t want to keep.
“This is the truth…”
The voice of the flame sounded out, the whole memory breaking away as Carmel was left on the ground huffing to her limit, her eyes reddened beyond their limit, while her mind was being shredded to the depths of its ability, the ideology that she lived like this being extremely painful.
“Di-Did he really stay for this all the time?”
Carmel couldn’t believe it. She couldn’t even begin to imagine the pain he must have gone through when he met her again, and she acted like she never knew him. She had promised to share his responsibility and pain with him, the two of them being the ones against the world. It was always like that, yet she was the first one to betray everything the truth stood for.
A mix of extreme guilt, sadness, betrayal, and a certain emotion started to confuse deep into Carmel’s mind, a warmth like she had never felt before wrapping all around her, her cheeks going to flush deep red, her temperature rising beyond the normal, several mixes of everything hitting her mind till a certain memory played in her mind.
The extreme situation pushed both Carmel and Carmelia to gaze at a scene, a moment that was sealed away, a memory retaining to that woman that held no more love or respect from her.
“Daughter, do you know what it feels like to be fully in love with a man?”
Carmel and Carmelia’s mother asked the innocent 5-year-old child in her lap, the woman swaying around in a rocking chair as she held her daughter in her lap, who shook her head with a curious gaze, to which, smiling, the mother spoke.
“It feels as if the whole world will be brighter for you, you would feel a spike in your heartbeat, your body would feel really warm, and it would feel like there are butterflies in your stomach. It’s an amazing feeling.”
As the mother spoke, her eyes flashed with a certain nostalgia as the young sweet girl on the lap asked in an innocent tone.
“How would I know that a man is for me?”
To this, the mother’s eyes flashed with a certain emotion as she, holding her daughter tighter, spoke.
“A man that would keep a promise to you, even to the ends of the world, even when the world is against him, and even when you no longer care about it. A man like that, my daughter, is one worth holding on to and fighting for…”
“The day you fall in love with a man, your body will speak of it, for the world will be far too bright for it to be anything normal…”
“So my daughter, when you do fall in love, fight for it, never let it go, for unlike me, you have the strength to take what you want. Never regret the lost love, for a man will hold his love for you to the end of the world, but he will never hold it in betrayals of his trust. They are special that way…”
“My daughter, when you fall in love, love like it’s your last day, fight like it’s your worst day, and live like it’s your best day. I hope with all my heart that someday you will be able to feel this…”
The light tone of the mother’s voice filled the girl’s eyes as she nodded her head enthusiastically, and just like that, the memory broke, bringing the two girls back to reality.
Tears, never-ending tears, started to fall from the eyes of Carmel. Carmelia, too, shed her own untold tears. The reality sitting in, the situation they were in, getting in. The two of them understood that they were sinners. The two of them understood what they had fallen into. They had fallen into something they swore they would never take.
‘This love… why is it so beautiful?’
Both the girls focused their mind, the memories of the time they spent with Austin flashing through, the time as a child and as an adult. The one single boy to man that stood by their side, even in silence, protecting them and caring for them irrespective of whether they asked for it. The one person who had first shown unconditional trust and care to the two of them.
And the person who had changed them, the person who had made them better, a person who had done everything to make sure they stayed happy and yet never asked for anything in return. The feeling blooming through both their hearts was something foreign, but in no way did they hate it. The feeling just brought more into them.
The mind that stayed broken cracked, new information bounding into their mind. The words of her mother she never remembered sinking in, a trauma that had been inflicted flashing, the good memories she never thought she had of her mother now showing, and traces of things she hadn’t seen before now being clear.
Trauma that had held her down slowly mended, unknown to her, the flame of spirit was slowly healing her mind, giving it the healing it always needed, forcing her to face her trauma, flashing the truth in her mind, and now it was slowly healing everything, a fire-like cocoon covering over the body of the girl.
Her mind slowly falling into a certain loop, and within all that loop as she healed, a light smile filled her face, the thought of a single boy covering her mind, which would last for now and forever…
