Nearly There Nicely 37

Nearly There Nicely 37 *_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

Will had sat down next to Crow on the edge of the bed. They held hands as Crow swallowed the Piece of Cirrus from the small bottle. Will watched as Crow's eyes closed, the gold metal in them glimmering briefly as they caught the light once more. A soft haze filled Will's vision, and within moments he was unconscious. When he opened his eyes, Will saw he was in an empty square room with wooden floors and plain beige walls. There was an archway on one of the walls leading to a narrow hall that was dark.

As Will stood up off the ground to brush his clothes off, he realized his clothes had changed. He was now in white slacks and plain white loafers with a turtle neck jacket that had pale blue sleeves, but a white front piece and back and a golden buckle at the center of the collar on his neck. Will felt the materials over, noticing that they were soft but thin.

“Who are you!” came a sharp voice.

Will looked up quickly. Standing in the archway, walking towards him, was a young man dressed in some light armor with a sword in his right hand. He had dark wavy hair, and shimmering golden eyes. He looked like Crow, but strikingly a few years younger.

The man waved the sword at Will's face after he stopped a few feet from him. “I asked who you were!” He repeated just as sharply.

Will stared at the young man, baffled. “Uh... I'm uh... I was sent here to destroy the Seal.”

The young man's eyes thinned, as he lowered the sword. “That's very gracious of you...” He paused, “But if that Seal's broken our soul will be easy pickings for that bastard of a god.” Again he paused, his golden eyes hardening a dark look. “You can either leave, or I can just kill you now.”

Will lifted his arms up, “Whoa, whoa. Y-you don't have to do that!”

“I beg to differ.” He said, gesturing his arms wide. “If I don't stop you,” he pointed his empty hand at Will, “Then you're just going to continue on and take us to our death.” He shook his head, “That doesn't sit well with me.”

Before Will could answer, the young man had rushed forward and shoved Will down. By the time Will looked up after being knocked down, he saw the sword coming down toward his face, so he closed his eyes quickly and made to roll away. But no sword came onto him. Nervously, Will rolled back to where he was, opening his eyes to see.

He saw two young men who looked like Crow. The first who had been in the light armor had his sword arm caught by a second Crow, who was dressed in heavy armor. They seemed to glare at each other for a moment, and then the first seemed to spark out of existence. The second, in the heavy armor, straitened up and adjusted the sword to his hip before turning to Will on the ground. As he peered down at Will, his golden eyes glinted in the light, but the look in his eyes seemed much more gentle.

He opened his mouth to speak, but some of the sounds seemed to just not come out of his lips and instead faded out. “You.... should-d... Stan-nd.”

Baffled, Will shifted to stand up slowly. “Uh... Hello...?”

The Crow nodded, closing his eyes, then turned around and started to walk to the dark tunnel. “You see-eeek the S-Seal?”

“Uh, yeah.” Will answered slowly.

“Th-i-is way.”

Will took a quick nervous look around the square room to see if he had any other choices. There were none, so he started to follow the heavy armored Crow. Will looked over the armor carefully as they walked into the dark hall. It was the kind of armor and design the High Knights would use, but it somehow looked different.

“Who are you?” Will asked as they entered complete darkness. The only light that could be seen was at the far end of the hall in front of them.

“Guar-d-i-ian.” He answered. “Par-t of me was ta-k-k-ken by Neo Phy-y-y-te.”

“Who was that … from before?”

“Defense.”

Will nodded a bit. “So... Who is... 'us'?”

The Crow didn't answer until they entered the light of the next room: another empty square room, with entryways on all of the walls leading to dark halls. “We are … Crow. He is us.” Will stared at him confused. The Crow nodded, walking to the left entry, standing in front of it. “We-e are spl-it into man-y per-cept-cept-tions. Beyond are m-m-more.”

Will squinted, looking down the dark hall behind the Crow. “I need to get to the Seal right away.”

The Crow nodded his head again, and gestured his arm to the dark hall. “I can-n-n-not go any fur-thur-thur.”

“Is the Seal this way?”

“There are man-y r-r-routes. Take the fast-st-est.”

Will frowned at the dark hall, but slowly started down it. He stopped after a few steps to look back at the Crow, but he wasn't there anymore. Worried, Will looked down the hall again and saw the light of the next room. He felt a knot in his stomach and a lump in his throat, but Will continued down the hall towards the next room.

As he walked, Will tried to soothe himself with thoughts. I'm sure it'll be okay. I still have plenty of time. I think. I mean... I hope. That... probably only took... five minutes? Maybe. He let out a heavy sigh. I have no idea how long I've even been in here. What if the hour's already up? Will I just be stuck in here until the end?

At that, Will stopped walking, just as he entered the next square room. He didn't have time to think over his glum thoughts anymore as he saw a little boy with dark hair curled in a ball in the corner crying. What's a few more minutes? Will thought, and walked over to the little boy.

“There, there. It'll be okay.” Will said in a soft tone, trying to sound as comforting as possible.

The little boy jumped up immediately, saw Will, yelped and ran down a dark hallway to the right. Will stared in shock for a moment, wondering if he should really follow the kid. His curiosity and guilt got the better of him though, and within minutes he was in another room with the little boy crying in the corner. Again, when Will called out to the child, he got up and ran and Will ran after him.

In the next room, the little boy just fell on the ground on his way to the next hall. He bawled and cried, hiding his face from Will, “Why are you chasing me!” He wailed.

Will frowned, feeling even worse as he knelt next to the kid. “I'm sorry... I just... I wanted to know what's wrong? Is there anything I can do to help?”

“N-no!” The kid wailed again.

“Who are you?” Will asked softly, reaching out to pat the kid's head.

The little boy looked up, sniffling. He too, had golden eyes that caught the light in them. “I'm Lost.” He said, crying a bit. Will patted the kid's head gently, stroking the hair.

“Aw, how are you lost?”

The little boy sniffed again, rubbing his nose. “I'm always Lost. I'm the saddest emotions and memories we don't want to recall.”

“So you have everything that's sad and terrible?” Will asked, frowning. The kid nodded, starting to cry again. Will shifted to hug the child, but he got up quickly and ran away from Will to the other side of the room.

“Why are you here?” He cried, pointing at will. “Defense couldn't have let you through! You're going to kill us!”

Will stood up, “No, no! I'm here to break the Seal, so you can be free.”

“You mean dead!” the child shouted.

“I mean free!” Will retorted. “Crow asked me to do it for him.”

The child paused in his crying a moment to stare at Will. “He did?” Will nodded slowly. “Why?”

Will shrugged a bit. Really, Will had no idea why Crow wanted freedom if the people here were acting like freedom was a bad thing. “I dunno.. I guess he just wants to be free. Don't you want that, too?”

“We do.” He nodded, sniffling. “Who... are you anyway?”

Will blinked in surprise. No one in here had really asked who was yet. “I'm Will.” he said, plainly. It felt weird introducing himself to someone who, he thought, would know him already.

The child's golden eyes became as big as saucers. “Will? Here? In us now?” Will nodded, slowly.

“I'm looking for the Seal. Do you know where it is?” He asked softly.

The child looked around nervously, then pointed to the hall across from where he stood. “In the area where there is no hope.” Will smiled a bit at the kid and then started for the hall. “You're going?” He nodded. “But aren't you scared?”

Will turned to look at the kid and smiled, kneeling down. “I'm terrified. I don't know what'll happen, but I just know that I have to help him.” Will paused, and added, “He's my friend.”

“But we lied to you.” The kid pointed out, tears starting to come down his cheeks again. “We stole your father's memories.”

Will frowned a bit, but quickly brushed it off and smiled at the kid. “I think... I'm here to help you.” He straightened up, turning to walk toward the hall again.

“We are sorry!” the kid cried to Will as he walked away. “We're very sorry!”

“I know.” Will answered softly, but just kept walking. I'm sorry... But if I turn around to talk more, I'll be wasting more time and I already don't know if I'm out of it or not.

As Will walked into the dark hallway, he thought over the situation. Every 'Crow' that he'd met seemed to act like destroying the Seal was a bad thing. The only one who seemed okay with it was the one who  was in the heavy armor and unable to talk clearly. Will didn't have long to ponder the idea though, because as soon as he came to the next room, he had to gape at what lay before him.

All over the room were drifts and piles of gold- coins, lumps of rock, odd statues and knick-knacks- everything from silverware to dishes to pieces of hardware. Gold littered the floor with only a thin path through it to the next hallway on the other side of the room.

As Will looked around, slowly stepping into the thin path, he noticed that the walls were actually decorated. If you call strange ancient looking frescoes decorations? I wonder if it's like this in me, too? Each wall had it's own fresco on it. The one on the left had what looked like trees and waterfalls, but the one next to it had large swirls of nothing it seemed. The next one, to the right of Will, seemed to depict a cape with a vast sea below, and the last one had what looked like the sun and the moon in two large circles.

Will stopped for a moment, looking over the fresco of the swirls. Upon closer inspection, Will realized that none of the frescoes were supposed to be there. They were all moving, fading back and forth, like a fog on the walls, but still enough that they formed a picture. Curious, Will took in a breath and blew a stream of air at the wall. The colors and chips of the fresco dissipated similar to how smoke or fog would when disturbed. There was nothing on the wall behind them, just a plain wall like the rest of the rooms had been.

Will took a moment to look around at all the gold littering the floor and said to himself, “I guess this is where the Colossus went- enough gold to fill one's eyes.” He shook his head and let out a disappointed sigh before continuing on out of the room.

I hope I'm at least getting close. This is taking forever. If I were out of time, I think I'd know it by now though... Will thought to himself, trying to offer some cheer on the dreary dark halls that they cast over him.