AU: Before this chapter, I just wanted to ask you guys. Do you see my replies? I haven't been getting any notifications for a week now, which is very unusual due to how much I interact with other authors' works. When I checked out on an alt account, I couldn't see this account's replies.
Did I get banned or something? Or is it just another bug from Webnovel?
Anyway, yesterday, I couldn't upload anything due to some stuff. So, this chapter is a little bit longer.
Remember to enjoy.
PS: Ariana is the same actress from LandMan for those who are wondering. I really liked the character.
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Ariana's POV
When Ariana pushed open the bunker door, the air hit her like a slap, cold, metallic, and thick with the stench of blood.
Her eyes darted across the empty street, searching, hoping to see Levi's small frame appear amongst others who were exiting their shelters. But nothing. Only the fog of morning was crawling down the street like fire and the trembling hands of those stepping out beside her.
Except no one said anything as their eyes were drawn to the middle of the street. A thing- a corpse left out in the open. At least, what was left of it. The body had been dragged there deliberately, a long, glistening trail of blood snaking across the cracked pavement.
Her heart drops as her vision becomes blurry, tears escape her eyes, and she gasps. As if she had been suffocated and her body remembered to breathe. Blood left her face as no one, not even her family, said anything, except to place a hand to the side of her arm as comfort.
Whatever was left of her sane mind told her that it should have impacted her this much. She barely knew Levi Harker; he wasn't even a friend. But her body felt like something important was gone, the sole string that held all her hope.
She didn't know when she was walking forward, towards the corpse, and she still couldn't command her body to stop. As her mind was too busy remembering the previous day, how he had made them laugh after staying in this place for so long. She could see her parents' genuine smile after a lifetime, even more, laugh, as if it was the freest thing in the world.
The memory made her smile, as more tears escaped her.
And as she got just a bit closer, her eyes fixed on the torn-out corpse, her brain whispered.
'Levi isn't that tall.'
She stopped as hope bloomed in her chest, and her walk had turned into a run. Five steps, and she was over it, looking down at the torn-out rips and the face belonging to the man.
'It's not him.' She told herself, and immediately, her body weakened with relief. She almost crumbled-
"HELP!!!"
The cry snapped everyone, including Ariana, out of their daze as a boy, a teenager, ran towards them as if ghosts had chased him down.
Donna and Khutri were the first to reach him, hands outstretched as the boy stumbled, breath hitching, his face streaked with sweat and dirt.
"They- someone fell!" he wheezed, clutching his knees. "Fell from the trees- by the forest line! It's- it's the new guy! The one who was digging yesterday!"
For a second, Ariana didn't process it. Her ears rang, her mind refusing to piece together what he'd said. Then the words slammed into her chest.
Levi.
Khutri grabbed the boy by the shoulders. "Where?" he demanded, his voice sharper than usual. Donna was already moving, scanning the tree line that bordered the town.
The boy pointed with a trembling hand behind him. "Back there- by the edge of the forest! Near the mansion! He just- he just fell!"
Khutri didn't wait. "Show us."
"Follow me!"
They started running, boots hitting the gravel pavement and then grass, the fog splitting around their figures. Ariana didn't even remember deciding to follow; her legs just moved, dragging her forward as her father called her name behind her.
"Stay close!" he barked, but she was already sprinting after Donna and the others, her pulse thundering in her ears. Every step made her throat tighten. Her hands were shaking, part fear, part something else she couldn't name.
Hope maybe.
Her mother's voice echoed faintly from behind, shouting something about preparing the house, but Ariana didn't hear, though her dad did as he repeated it to Donna and Khutri in front of them.
The closer they got to the treeline, the stronger the smell became: damp moss, pine, and something coppery underneath.
Branches loomed ahead like black claws, and the fog swallowed their shapes. Ariana's lungs burned as they reached the spot, where the forest floor was torn up and broken branches hung at odd angles.
There, at the base of the tree, half-covered in leaves, was a body.
Khutri stopped dead, and Donna swore under her breath.
Ariana's world narrowed to the sound of her heartbeat.
Levi.
Only, he looked different now.
When she had first seen him, his short height was the first thing she noticed; he didn't look taller than five feet, with hair as black as the night. But now, looking at him as everyone else checked his injuries and decided to bring him into town. His hair had changed. Not by a lot, but there were some gray and white in there. Another thing was, he looked older, maybe by a year or two in one single night.
Her heart ached in grief for no reason. Or for reasons she couldn't figure out.
When they were in town, Levi in Khutri and her dad's arm, her mother called out, opening the door. Not a minute later, he was put on the couch. As if given permission, her mind cleared and her body moved.
Ariana dropped to her knees beside the couch, her breath catching at the sight of Levi's face. He was pale beneath the dirt and blood, lips cracked, eyelids twitching faintly as though trapped between dreams and pain or a nightmare. His hands- his hands were wrapped in what remained of her bandages, now stiff and brown with dried blood.
"Mom, scissors- alcohol, anything clean," Ariana said, voice sharp, leaving no room for argument. Her mother, still standing near the doorway in shock, blinked once before snapping into motion, pulling open drawers, searching for the first aid kit they'd kept since before the fall.
Her father hovered by the table, uncertain. "What do you need me to do?"
"Boil water," she said without looking up. "Now. And a towel- clean. Or as clean as we can get."
Ariana's mother returned with the kit, half-empty, but it would have to do. "There's no disinfectant left," she said quietly. "Only peroxide and some gauze."
"That's fine. We'll make it work." Ariana's tone was clipped, controlled as years of study rammed in her head. She held the quiver in her voice back by sheer will as she focused on Levi.
She pulled the small scissors from the kit and began cutting the crusted bandages from his palms. The sound of tearing fabric mixed with the faint hitch of his breath. When she peeled the first layer away, her stomach turned.
His skin was torn and raw beneath, blood mixed with sap and bark still stuck to the wounds. The edges had fused together like they had been burned. "Oh, Levi…" she whispered, barely audible.
Her mother knelt beside her with a bowl of warm water, gently dabbing the edges of the wounds. "Hold him steady," she said softly.
Ariana braced his arm, her hands trembling as the water turned red. "Sorry," she murmured to him, though he couldn't hear. "I'm sorry."
He stirred faintly, a weak sound catching in his throat. It was almost enough to undo her composure completely. "Levi?" She whispered, closing her ear to see if he was trying to say something. But nothing but a groan of pain. But her action relaxed his body as her smell hit him. It was that same smell. Of being free, unshakable by nightmares, and being at peace.
Her father returned with more towels, laying them across the table like an operating surface. Ariana's mother worked with quiet precision, cleaning and wrapping while Ariana directed the pace, checking his pulse, feeling for broken bones and rips- three she counted.
The house was quiet except for the soft clatter of bowls and the shallow rhythm of Levi's breathing. The air smelled of iron and boiling water, the faint hiss from the pot filling the silence where words should have been. Her parents spoke only in glances now, their faces tight with something between fear and disbelief.
Her Khutri and Donna were outside as the teenager, Mark, told everything that had happened last night outside the house.
Ariana wrung out another cloth, the water pink and steaming. She pressed it gently against Levi's temple, brushing away the streaks of blood that clung to his hairline as her mother did the same for his hands. His skin was too cold for someone alive.
"Stay with me," she whispered. The words came out before she could stop them.
For a moment, she thought he hadn't heard. Then his eyes flickered open- barely. Clouded. Lost. He didn't seem to see her, only the vague outline of light behind her. His lips parted as if to say something, but only a faint rasp left him.
"Don't," she murmured. "Don't talk. Just breathe."
But he didn't seem to listen as it parted once more, a word escaping this time. A name.
"Julie."
He blinked once, slowly, and then closed his eyes again. His face eased- not in pain, but in relief. Not seeing the confused expression on Ariana's face as she heard the name. But she pushed it to the side; that wasn't important right now.
"Mom," she said quietly. "When you're done with the wrapping, bring the blanket from my room. He's freezing." Her mother nodded and stood, the floor creaking as she left.
When Ariana looked back down, Levi's fingers twitched. She froze. His hand moved weakly, curling around the edge of the couch as if searching for something- anchor, reassurance, she didn't know. Instinctively, she reached out and placed her hand over his.
His grip was faint, uncertain, but he held on.
—
Levi POV:
Everything was wrong; everything that he was seeing and feeling right now was wrong. He wasn't sure where he was, but it was dark, walls were barely visible. He could hear a music box playing in a loop.
Levi walked forward until he finally found the wall. Only there were cuffs installed, as if it were a dungeon from medieval times' prisons. Suddenly, flames erupted, and the torches on the wall lit up as he could finally see his surroundings.
It looked like he was underground, inside a ruin. He so badly wanted to yell out a "Hello," but kept his mouth shut. He watched enough horror movies with Dean to know how stupid that was. It would be a signal for whatever was in here with him. A beacon.
Instead, he looked every inch of the room that he was in, seeing the door but not yet. He looked around as the music played and played. It was eerie at least and horrifying at best.
A shiver ran down his body. He tried remembering how he had arrived here, but it was blank. The last thing he remembered was seeing somebody in the basement of the mansion. Shaking the stray thoughts away, he walked up to the slightly open door.
He was oh so tempted to take one of the torches with him, but it would show his position from miles away. Instead, he closed his eyes as tightly as he could, hand on the door to make sure nothing on the other side could open it without him knowing.
When his vision was entirely dark, he opened the door and closed it before him, his eyes already adjusted to the darkness of what looked like a cave. A tunnel.
Confused, he looked both sides- "MOM!" something- somebody called as Levi snapped to the direction where it came from. He heard faint murmurs of another voice, an older woman, something about getting out of here.
"MOM!" The voice called out, closer now, and before Levi could return to the ruined chamber, a figure turned a corner. Someone taller than him, but just a few years younger, and before he could do anything, she saw him.
"Levi?" The girl asked, in confusion, and Levi backed away slowly. "Who are you?" He hissed, defensive, wishing he still had his mace or at least he had grabbed a torch. He could have put out the light and used it as a weapon.
"It's me, Julie!" She answered. "Julie?" He parroted, as if the name meant anything to him. "Yeah! What are you-"
"Angkooey." The word shut both of them as they turned to the tunnel where it came from. "Angkooey." It repeated again and again. As if hypnotized, both of them slowly walked towards the sound as it got closer and closer.
And then, they were in a dugout area of the tunnels with light as they watched. Children. Creepy, pale white, as if they were drowned children. The only hair they had looked like it clung as if their life depended on and Levi almost shrieked as the daze left his mind.
"Angkooey."
"Angkooey."
"Angkooey."
"Angkooey."
They all turned to them and both screamed-
Only Julie screamed as the smell hit him.
Of being free, unshakable by nightmares, and being at peace.
Instead of a scream, a smile bloomed on his face as he felt the gentle breeze of the wind. "It's gonna be okay." He whispered, a hand on Julie's shoulder as she felt it as well. Her screaming stopped. The children stopped.
And she was gone, as Levi was left alone, his surroundings changing. Now, he was deep in a forest, colored leaves rustling in the gentle wind. He looked to the sky, seeing big puffy white clouds moving so peacefully, so slowly that his smile grew just a bit.
It was, in a word, peaceful.
"You're not supposed to be here."
A kid's voice broke him from his calm. When he glanced at him, it was a boy fully in white. "You're not supposed to be here." He repeated, and Levi remembered the night. His smile broke, and fear flashed in front of him as more memories played.
How he had deliberately used himself as bait to draw the monster away from the basement, how he had climbed the tree and hid. He remembered everything: the fear, the horror, the regret, and self-hate for forcing himself through that.
The forest changed, autome fading and the colored leaves falling to the ground as the cloud changed. From white to gray and the sky transformed, from calm to unsteady, turning darker.
"You're not supposed to be here." The boy in white repeated with a frown, slowly aging in front of Levi. It snowed, and Levi looked to the sky, gaze blank, broken. Just for a moment, as the voice whispered.
"Stay with me,"
As if a summer bottled in a nuclear bomb was dropped on his position, everything changed once more. The ground morphed from muddy and filled with snow to something solid, the dead trees came back to life, sprouting new and green leaves on the branches, and the clouds were wiped from the beautiful blue sky as they returned to being puffy like cotton.
When Levi looked at the boy, he was young again, looking around in wonder. "Maybe, but I am here." He answered, a smile on his face.
The boy in white looked at him as the children, tortured children, showed themselves from behind the trees, looking around in wonder, then slowly walking up to Levi. Maybe for the first time in a while, he was looking down at someone else, and a part of him was satisfied.
"Help us." One of them, a girl, just a couple of heads shorter than him, whispered, asked for help. "Okay," Levi replied.
In just a blink, his surroundings changed once more. When he opened his eyes, he wasn't in a forest anymore. He was in the dark, his body in pain, but his mind sharper than ever. Rage and fury had replaced the calm as he was told just a little about the smiling creatures.
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I just finished season 3, and it's safe to say, the last 3 or so episodes were a disappointment. And my hate for Elgi increased a lot.
"We don't have time."
Proceeds to waste time. While the whole time, I was screaming, GET THE TOOLS AND DO IT!!!
Also, Tabitha, every time I think she gets just a bit better, she gets worse. It's like a dance with that woman. Please, stop running around for a second and share your freaking discoveries.
"I can't, I can't." Woman, you have no other choice. Shut the f- up and just say what you saw/heard/discovered.
I'm trying not to give spoilers to those who haven't finished. But man, rant!