Two

Chapter Two

Avenne’s POV

I don’t know how long I had been falling.

There was no ground beneath me, no light around me, and nothing I could hold on to as my body continued to drop through the darkness.

I could still hear the sound of my own scream in my ears, but even that slowly became distant until everything went completely silent.

Then I felt something hard beneath my body.

I landed heavily on the ground, and pain immediately spread through my entire body.

For several seconds, I didn’t move.

I simply lay there with my eyes closed, breathing heavily as I tried to understand what had happened, I was alive.

Somehow, I was still alive.

I slowly opened my eyes and stared at the unfamiliar ground beneath me.

It wasn’t the floor of my house, there was no dining roo, no  Riven, no Serelle, no sound of people laughing at me.

For a moment, I thought perhaps I had been dreaming. Maybe everything that happened had only been a horrible nightmare, and if I opened my eyes properly, I would find myself lying in my own bedroom.

I turned my head, nothing  looked familiar.

I pushed myself up slowly, but my arms were too weak to support me for long, so I fell back down.

My cheek still hurt from Riven’s slap, and my body ached from the fall and now I was lying somewhere I had never seen before, with no idea how I had survived the fall.

I slowly sat up.

This time, I forced myself to look around, the  place was strange, the  sky above me was not the sky I knew.

It was dark, but not completely black, and there was a faint red glow spreading across the clouds as though something was burning beyond them.

The air was cold and heavy, making it difficult for me to breathe normally, strange  plants grew from the ground around me, some had long black leaves that moved even though there was no wind, while others had flowers that gave off a faint purple light.

I saw something move between the trees. I froze. It was too large to be an ordinary animal.

I could only see part of its body before it disappeared into the darkness.

I swallowed hard. “Where am I?”

My voice sounded small in the strange place.

I had no answer, I placed my hands on the ground and slowly pushed myself to my feet, my legs shook beneath me, but I managed to stand, then  something caught my attention.

There was a strange light floating in front of me.

I blinked several times. It was still there.

A transparent blue screen seemed to be hanging in the air, directly in front of my face.

I stepped backward in shock. “What is that?”

The strange screen moved when I moved, remaining directly in front of me.

There were words written across it [System Activated.]

I stared at the words. “What?”

I reached out and touched the screen, my  fingers passed through it.

I quickly pulled my hand back, my heart began beating faster.

I looked around, wondering if someone was hiding nearby and playing some kind of cruel joke on me. “Who are you?”

The screen didn’t answer.

More words appeared. [Host successfully entered the Underworld.]

My heart seemed to stop. “The Underworld?”

I looked around again, and this time everything seemed even more terrifying.

The red sky, the  strange plants, the people running for their lives, the  creatures hiding somewhere beyond the trees, the cracks appearing in the ground.

I took several slow steps backward. “No, this can’t be real.”

Another scream came from somewhere nearby.

I turned toward the sound, but before I could see what had caused it, I heard something else.

Someone was breathing heavily.

Unlike the people running in the distance, this person wasn’t moving.

I followed the sound cautiously, pushing past several strange plants until I saw a large black stone beneath one of the trees.

I stopped when I noticed the man sitting beneath the enormous black tree.

At first, I thought he was simply resting, but when I looked closer, I realized something was wrong. His clothes were soaked with blood, and dark lines ran from beneath his collar toward his neck. His head was lowered, and every breath seemed to take an effort.

I stopped. There was something frightening about him, even though he appeared to be the one who needed help.

He looked powerful.

Then his eyes opened, they immediately found mine.

I froze, for several seconds, neither of us said anything.

His gaze moved slowly from my face to my hand before returning to my eyes, and the expression on his face changed.

It looked almost as though he had seen something he had been searching for.

“You.”

I looked behind me.

There was nobody there.

I slowly pointed at myself. “Are you talking to me?”

He nodded. “Come here.”

I immediately stepped backward, frightened, why would a stranger in this world tell me to comes when everyone is trying to survive?  “I don’t know you.”

His eyes remained fixed on me. “You don’t need to.”

There was authority in his voice despite how weak he sounded, and for some reason that frightened me even more, I glanced toward the trees.

I looked back at him. “What happened to you?”

His eyes lowered briefly to the black marks spreading beneath his skin. “Poison.”

I swallowed. “Treat it, what does that have to do with me?”

He took a breath, but it came out unevenly, and his hand tightened against his chest.

I watched the dark lines slowly spread from beneath his collar toward his heart, and then I noticed the blood covering his clothes again. Some of it had already dried, while fresh blood continued to seep through the fabric.

I looked away.

I didn’t know this man. I didn’t know what kind of person he was, and after everything that had happened to me, I didn’t want to make the mistake of trusting another stranger. I had spent years believing that the people closest to me loved me, only to discover that they had been lying to me all along.

I should have kept walking.

This place was dangerous, and I had no idea what was waiting for me beyond the trees. I had no food, no shelter, no idea how to get home, and now I had found a wounded stranger who looked powerful enough to be dangerous even while he was dying.

But my feet refused to move.

I remembered something my mother had taught me when I was young. She had always told me that seeing someone suffer and deliberately choosing to ignore them could change a person’s heart, and no matter how badly someone had hurt me, I should never allow their cruelty to make me cruel too.

I closed my eyes for a moment.

Riven had betrayed me.

He had humiliated me in front of everyone.

He had taken away the life I thought belonged to me and then looked at me as though I was worthless.

But that did not mean I had to become like him.

I opened my eyes and looked at the injured man again.

He was still breathing, but each breath was becoming weaker.

I slowly turned back toward him. “Are you hurt?”

His eyes lifted to mine.

For a moment, he said nothing, but his gaze moved from my face to my hand.

Something in his expression changed. “Use it.”

I frowned. “Use what?”

“Your power.”

I stared at him in confusion. “I don’t have any power.”

For the first time, confusion appeared in his eyes. “You don’t know?”

“Know what?”

He didn’t answer immediately.

He closed his eyes as another wave of pain passed through him, and for a moment, I thought he was going to lose consciousness.

When he opened his eyes again, the urgency in them was impossible to miss. “Save me.”

My heart began beating faster. “How am I supposed to save you?”

He looked at my hand. “Put your hand on me.”

I hesitated.

Everything about the situation felt wrong, but when I looked at him again, I saw the darkness moving beneath his skin.

Whatever was inside him was killing him.

I slowly walked toward him and knelt beside the stone. “Where?”

He guided my hand toward his chest.

The moment my palm touched him, a strange warmth moved through my fingers.

I immediately pulled away. “What was that?”

His breathing became heavier. “Again.”

I stared at him suspiciously before placing my hand against his chest once more, nothing  happened.

I waited, still nothing, I looked at him helplessly. “I don’t know what you are talking about, cause this clearly is not working.”

“Close your eyes.”

I didn’t understand why I was listening to a stranger in a world I didn’t even know existed, but there was something in his voice that made me obey.

I closed my eyes. “Now breathe.”

I took a slow breath. “Think about the poison inside me.”

I closed my eyes tighter and tried to concentrate, I thought about the black marks spreading across his body, I thought about his difficult breathing, I thought about the darkness inside him.

Then the strange blue screen appeared in my mind.

My eyes opened immediately. [POISON DETECTED.]

I stared at the words.

Another message appeared. [UNKNOWN POISON DETECTED.]

Then another. [PURIFICATION ABILITY AVAILABLE.]

My heart began pounding. “What is this?”

The man looked at me. “Do it.”

I stared at the final message that appeared before me. [ACTIVATE PURIFICATION?]

I didn’t know what would happen if I accepted, I didn’t know what this system wasx I didn’t even know whether it was safe but the man was dying.

I pressed ACTIVATE.

A sudden warmth rushed through my body.

The man gasped beneath my hand.

I almost pulled away, but he caught my wrist. “Don’t stop.”

Energy began flowing through my palm and into his body.

I could feel it moving through me, and it was so strange that I could barely breathe.

The black marks on his neck suddenly began moving.

I watched in disbelief as the darkness slowly pulled away from his skin.

The black veins disappeared one after another, moving downward toward the hand I had placed against his chest.

The man’s breathing became heavier before suddenly becoming steadier.

I didn’t understand what I was doing, I only knew that it was working, I closed my eyes again and concentrated harder, imagining the poison leaving his body completely.

The warmth became stronger, the  darkness continued disappearing.

Then, finally, the last black mark vanished. Everything stopped.

The strange energy disappeared from my body, I opened my eyes.

The man wasn’t moving, his  eyes were closed, his  body was completely still.

Fear immediately filled me.

I pressed my fingers against his neck, I couldn’t feel anything.

My breathing became faster. “Did I kill you?” I shook his shoulder gently. “Please…”

Nothing happened.

I looked around desperately, but nobody was coming.

The people in the distance were still running for their lives, too frightened to notice what was happening beneath the tree.

I turned back to the man. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…”

His chest suddenly rose, he took a deep breath.

I jumped backward, his  eyes opened.

For a moment, he simply stared at me.

Then he slowly sat up, he touched his chest, he touched his neck, the  poison was gone, his eyes returned to me, and for the first time, I saw something different in them, he looked stunned.

“You saved me.”

I shook my head. “I don’t know how.”

He studied me carefully. “You purified the poison.”

“I don’t even know what that means.”

His gaze remained on me for several seconds before he looked toward the strange blue screen still floating beside me.m“You have a system.”

I stared at him.m“You can see it?”

“Yes.”

I didn’t know whether that answer should comfort me or frighten me.

I looked around again.

The strange world seemed even more terrifying now that I knew I might have to survive here.m“Where am I?”

He looked at me. “The Underworld.”

My stomach dropped.

I looked toward the red sky. “The Underworld…”

He nodded, I felt my chest tighten. “Can I go back?”

He remained silent

I stepped closer. “Can I go back to my world?”

He didn’t answer.

My heart sank.m“Please.”

His eyes remained on mine. “Here in this world, no going back”

I had spent years believing that Riven and my daughter were my family, only to discover that I had been living a lie. I had lost my home, my marriage, my career, and the child I had loved as my own, and now I was trapped in a world where people were running for their lives while creatures I couldn’t see moved somewhere beyond the darkness.

I wiped the tears from my face before they could fall.

I looked at him.

“I don’t know here how do I…” 

Those words hurt more than I expected.

For the first time, I truly understood what it meant to have no one, the  man slowly stood.

Although he had just survived something that had nearly killed him, there was already strength returning to his movements.

He looked at me. “Come with me.”

I hesitated. “What? ”

He turned toward the darkness before looking back at me. “Because you saved my life.” He started walking, then stopped after a few steps. “I’ll give you somewhere to stay.”

I stared at his back, I still didn’t know who he was, I didn’t know where he was taking me, I didn’t know whether I could trust him but I knew that remaining alone in this place was even more dangerous.

He glanced back at me. “Consider it your reward.”

I looked once more at the strange world around me before following him into the darkness, because whatever waited ahead of me had to be better than standing alone in a place where everyone else was desperately trying to survive.