Splash!!
Lukas raised his head as he walked out of the water.
"Look at that, the cosmos is being considerate. Sending me into water for my burns, huh?" He said to no one in particular, clearly displeased. He walked underneath a tree and sat.
"It's been 8 years, so I forgot that darn 'Appellation.' A lost man has no fear of losing his way? Bullshit!" He threw a nearby stone into the water.
Splash!
"Is that your way of comforting me?!" Lukas shouted at the sky.
"Tch." Lukas buried his head in his knees as he took deep breaths. Soon his body calmed down. He slowly stood up and walked to the water.
"I look disgusting," he said, his calm manner of speaking coming back to him. "I wonder where I am." A smile crept up his lips, a clear contrast to his outburst a few moments ago. Staring at the stars, he muttered, "I seem to be remembering a lot of poems today."
-------
Nathan stood in an almost empty room with two chairs, staring outside a large window. In his view was a clearing filled with craters, flames, and piles of bricks, wood, and sand. The time portal was gone. All that was left of the 1008th district was rubble. Men and women in black cloaks and black masks that only covered their noses and mouths stood in groups around the site, each of them with different weapons: swords, guns, katanas, etc.
Reporters and journalists could be seen across the site barred by the men and women in black cloaks. There were tents on one side with ambulances parked around them; men and women dressed in medical attire ran around beneath them attending to the injured. Though the 1008th district's building was the only one that collapsed, it wasn't the only one that was affected; the shockwave from the explosion had a wide range, and a lot of people were hurt.
Hovering in the clouds above them was a huge spaceship, and on its side of was the image of a black tower.
Clank!
The sound of a door opening brought Nathan back from his thoughts.
"Mr. Nathan?"
Nathan turned around slowly with a frown on his face. In front of him was a tall man in a black suit; he had jet black hair and dark skin. He had one hand in his pocket, and he was looking at the time on the wristwatch on his other arm, which held a black envelope. Behind him was a figure in a dark cloak and a black mask. It was the same one the other guards outside were wearing. Even as the figure's body was completely covered by the cloak, Nathan could tell it was a woman.
"Captain Nathan." Nathan corrected.
"Oh... I feel like you don't like me already, Mr... Captain Nathan. The dark-skinned man said.
Nathan remained silent.
"Well, I didn't come here to be liked. You can call me Noah." He paused.
"That's a high degree of damage. Do you know the cause?"
"The time portal," Nathan replied flatly.
"I know it was the time portal. We shut it down, didn't we? I meant the cause of the time portal," Noah asked as he watched Nathan silently.
Nathan stood silent for a few seconds as Lukas's face appeared in his head. "No," he replied.
Noah looked at Nathan for a while. Opening the black envelope with him, he pulled out a few stacks of paper. According to your report, you had 258 staff. And they are all accounted for." After a moment of silence, he continued. "You see, this is funny because you seem to be missing a staff. This guy doesn't appear in your records. No employee records, nothing. Yet according to your other employees' testimonies and footage we managed to get from the cameras in 'your' building, he worked here for..." He took a glance at the papers in front of him. "Eight years—he worked for eight years. No pay." Noah paused, letting his words sink in. "One... Mr. Lukas, if I'm not wrong."
Nathan stood silently staring at the tall man in front of him; after a few seconds, he said.
"Who is he?"
Noah blinked, clearly surprised by the question.
"I should be asking you that question, Captain Nathan. Who is he, and why did you let him work here? We need everything you have and know about him."
"He is connected to the time portal, isn't he?"
"Mr. Natha—"
"Captain Nathan!! And don't treat me like I'm a kid!" Nathan snapped.
"He is the reason you came here in the first place. Considering the time we sent the beyond-scale situation SOS. There is no way you would have gotten here at the time you did. Which means you were already on your way here. And a Cluster-class spaceship? The tower sent a Cluster-class ship with its complete crew just for an unauthorized time portal breach?" Nathan said, pointing at the giant spaceship hovering in the clouds.
"I kept wondering why the tower would send a recruitment message to someone like Luke; it was impossible. He was a good detective, yes, but that was not enough for a cosmic organization like the tower to notice him. Now it all makes sense. You arrived with all your equipment ready, and even when the second indescribable rank monster came out, you took care of it and shut down the portal mere minutes after you arrived. It was like you already knew what to expect. And you didn't ask about the circumstances after the portal opened; all your questions ended up on Luke. And it's obvious you didn't question my men about him. How do I know? Everyone of them knew him as Luke; you called him Lukas." Nathan walked towards the dark-skinned man.
"You already knew about him. And the way he was trying to leave as if avoiding you... You're hunting him."
Nathan stopped a few steps away from Noah. "Who is he?"
Noah's gaze stayed on Nathan for a while; suddenly his entire demeanor changed. Nathan flinched as he involuntarily took a step backwards. Noah's facial expression was still neutral, but Nathan felt it. His bestial instinct as a phoenix screamed, telling him that the man in front of him was dangerous.
Noah returned the papers back in the black envelope and then turned around to leave.
Nathan clenched his fist...
Crash!!
Nathan threw a chair, slamming it into the wall.
"You think I don't know what that creature is!! Void entities!! That's what they are. Beings from Oblivion!! There's only one way a portal can cross from Oblivion, a medium. Something or someone that has been tainted by the void. Someone or something that has stared into the abyss. "
Noah stopped infront of the door. Despite the heavy pressure, Nathan continued.
"When you stare into the abyss the abyss stares back at you."
Noah's breath was the only thing sounding in the room as everywhere grew silent. "Luke... Lukas... He's the medium. He has seen the abyss... hasn't he?"
" I know you don't care about us, compared to the others we're just a little district in one corner of the vast universe. We're country bumpkins who don't know the depth and width of the world, but If you want information, you have to give information. I'm the one who knows the most about Luke in the 1008th district, and about everything he has done in the past eight years, so if you ever want to find him, you better be ready to talk to me."
Noah turned around looking at Nathan with a piercing gaze.
Ring! Ring!!
The pressure in the room vanished immediately.
Noah pulled out a phone from his pocket, answering his call.
"..."
"Yes. I understand"
Noah put down his phone and looked at Nathan.
"Come with me."
Nathan raise a brow at Noah. Turning around, Noah stole a glance at him and said.
"Congratulations Country bumpkin, you're getting promoted."
-------
"Urgh.. I should get rid of this body, every inch of me aches" Lukas glanced at the hole in his chest and then at his reflection in the water. Suddenly his reflection let out a small smile. Lukas body suddenly seemed to have frozen as his already black eyes became dull.
Splash!!
An arm suddenly burst out of the water as a figure stood up. The figure had long white hair tied to a loose bun behind its head. It had on, a black shirt and white trousers that really projected it's thin body. It's body and clothes shimmered as the moonlight reflected from them. It looked like it was made of glass... Lukas's reflection came to life!
The new Lukas looked normal. He didn't have a hole in his chest nor a missing eye. He looked like Lukas before the attack, completely unharmed.
The shimmering of his body caused by the moonlight soon began dimming as the glass-like nature of his skin and cloth slowly faded away, turning them back to normal, flesh and fabric.
The new Lukas gave his chest a few soft pats. "Yep, it just doesn't feel better without a heart."
Lukas walked to his old body, it stood frozen. The colour of his skin had faded making it look transparent. You could also see the bones that had also began to turn transparent. The skin had also hardened, leaving the tattered cloth on it flailing in the wind. It was looking more like a glass sculpture than a human body. Lukas put his hand on the shoulder of his old body and spoke as if comforting it.
"Look I'm sorry bro, but you gotta go. Don't think of me as heartless, this is just the way it has to be." He sighed as he slowly pushed it into the water.
"Wait!" Lukas suddenly grabbed the falling statue.
Lukas looked at the hole in the sculpture's chest, then he looked at his own chest. "I have a heart. You don't. Doesn't that make you the heartless one?"
"..."
A loud and hearty laugher rang out echoing across the calm and quiet Seashore followed by the loud splash of the glass sculpture falling and sinking into the water.
"Haha.. did I go crazy? I must have gotten influenced by that stupid book. Speaking of which, I wonder where it is right now.. I don't remember where I sold it. It probably thinks I'm... heartless... Pfft.. hahaha, it's still funny. Haha..."
The laughter continued for a good, long time.
---------
Beep! Beep!! Beep!!! Clank!
A finger with a golden ring on it turned off the beeping coffee maker. The owner of the finger, a young man with shimmering golden hair grabbed the cup of coffee and took a sip, the little action revealing the glimmer of gold between the young man's tooth.
Beep!
The man looked at his phone.
"Lucy?"
The young man left the poorly lit room, presumably a kitchen considering the coffee maker. He walked towards another room, this one was lit up.
Bam!
"Ow!! Ouch! This is why I said to fix the freaking lights. Ow! Ow!"
A few steps to the other room he had hit his foot on something. Limping into the brightly lit room, his golden hair shined every more brightly. He was a young man in his early twenties. He had a handsome face and a slightly thin but muscular body which was complimented by his glittering golden hair and eyes. He had on, a gold watch, gold glasses and his black waist coat was inlaid with gold chains. His body screamed 'I'm rich!'.
He tapped on his phone with one hand while rubbing his foot with the other. Soon a male voice sounded from the other end.
"Gold? Wow! Very nice of you to call me." The voice said in a sarcastic tone.
"Shut up and listen. I found Lucy." Gold said still annoyed about hurting his foot.
The voice went silent for a few seconds.
"Where?"