When I reached the place Silas told me he was in, I found nothing.
And for some mysterious reason, It felt more quiet than all of the place, as if the air itself went still on it.
The suspicious thing was that there's no barrier between it and other places, it was a part that maybe a little on the side but nothing could make it special.
Maybe Silas did something,
Or maybe it's all my illustration and it was the same.
"Where is he?"
That was the most important question, so to speak. Not all of my all-over-the-place thoughts…
"Silas —Oh, here you are."
But wait, where did he come from?
"Just come here, hurry." He pulled me so fast that I didn't even get the chane to see where I was going. Then when it was done, I found myself standing in the same spot I was—
As if I didn't move at all…
"What just happened?"
"It's a temporary barrier." Silas answered while sitting on a chair. "It took too much energy to do it, do you have anything to eat?"
"Do you think that I'm your personal assistant?" I handed a sandwich to him, despite what I was saying. "Plus, why barrier? Are we on the wrong side?"
"We aren't."
"So why all this? You made me feel as if I'm being pursued?"
"Because you are?" He said it casually before he continued to eat, and I just stood there unable to progress what I've heard.
"How could you say that and just stop after? What did you mean?"
"Wait until I finish my meal."
"Okay."
I just went to a far chair in order to sit on it but ended up with a heart attack when I found a body laying down on the floor out there.
"Hey." I bent down, making sure that he was breathing. "Are you alright?"
No response.
"Silas, what's up with this man?"
"You must be the first one to know."
"Ha?"
"What will you do after something so traumatic happens to you?"
"To… sleep?"
Oh, that's right…
He was sleeping.
When I looked at the man again I was shocked when I recognized that he was the man from ethics, the same one that the people out there tried to kill just about half an hour ago…
Poor man.
"Wait, how did you know that I tend to sleep after getting into bad experiences?"
"Are you asking someone who used to see you passed out on the way to your room after every bad work day?"
"I used to? Really."
"Yeah, you just wake up randomly and go into your room somehow."
"But I don't remember?" Was it a made-up story or what?
"How could you remember? You were sleeping."
That was right, again.
"By the way, is he—" I hesitated a little, not sure if I could say that. "Is he an anomaly?"
"What a great question." Silas said, sarcasm filled his voice. "Was that the problem?"
"Yeah? What that group wanted from him if he wasn't an anomaly?"
"So you think that they are really know who is an anomaly and who is not?"
"Wasn't it the case?" At this point, I got confused. "Why did they tried to kill him then?"
"What will happen if someone had the ability to 'know who is an anomaly and who is not'?"
What will happen? Maybe he would become an important person? Too important to a company like this? Or even in the whole field?
So, if someone got it, would he be a simple employee who would got involved in such game like everyone else? As if he is as important as anyone without any special thing?
Of course no.
"So he is not able to know the difference? So what was all of these doings by following him as if he is the clue to solve the game or something?"
"Because he could do something similar."
"Like what?"
"See how related this person to the Vessels maybe? Or how likely he could be related to?"
…?
So what?
"So, I'm a target too?"
"What do you think?"
"Yeah—"
That was a bad news.
"So, It's my bad luck again" l sighed, then sat on the nearest chair. "But that way, they'll kill half of the people here?"
"As if they care."
Yeah, as if they care…
The people who got killed would likely be in a random Vessel now, try to survive…
"They killed Adeline too."
"Oh, that's cruel." I nodded, then just stopped with the sudden realization. "They Killed Who?!"
"Adeline."
"What?!"
"How did they kill that monster?!"
"Twenty verses one, who would win in your opinion?"
"You seem too stable comparing to someone who saw his relative die. What's wrong with you?"
"What do you want me to do?"
"At least try to call her or something?!"
I was looking at him with a fully shocked expression, and he typically show the mist confused expression ever after what I said…
I myself didn't know that's wrong with all this conversation until I reviewed my last sentence, at that moment I Just wanted to throw myself off any cliff.
"I mean— in this specific case, you have to try calling her or something. Khm"
"Why?"
"Just in case?"
"In case of what?"
"... maybe," I cleared my throat then just told him what I think. "Maybe this Vessel is somehow has a different rules, you know? As the one you keep dieing in it until something special happens?"
"...?"
"Could you do it please without doubting my mental health? Your expression is cruel."
Silas didn't do anything aside from looking at me as if I was an alien for around three minutes, then he simply sighed.
"That was a possible chance too." A strange voice interrupted the conversation, making me have my second heart attack of the day. "The bodies are gone."
"What do you mean?" Silas asked, too focused.
"After got killed, the people just disappeared."
The man on the floor stood up slowly while fixing his clothes. His dark blonde hair was so messy but it seemed that he had no idea.
"So you two say that they may just transferred out side?"
"Perhaps to get killed was the way to get out." That man said, offering a good way of thinking. "This company is crazy enough to make this amount of people enter a Vessel if the Vessel itself could accept this number. More people more benefits."
…
Yeah, that was a good way to think about it…
Maybe the company itself got this Vessel lately and just wanted to get the full benefit of it, as much as possible. It' was something totally understandable.
"But maybe they got transferred to different Vessel?"
"..."
"..."
Both of them looked at me with a question marks over their faces, so I did my best to explain.
Or at least, I tried to.
"It's just my instincts."
Yeah, best explanation ever…
What a great job, Nathan.
"Could you do a little more explanation?"
"It would make me seem as a weird man."
"As if there's anyone here who don't think that you are one."
"What? How could you—"
That man from the ethics was nodding too… He was nodding.
Agh—
Who could they be that cruel?
"Fine." Let me be more weird. Being weird in crazy people's eyes meant the complete opposite. "I found a report in a Vessel."
"...? How?"
"In a computer? I don't know what and how they do it but it seemed as if they investigate these things too."
"Oh… yes, we found things about that too but we could get into the system they have, how did you do it?"
That man seemed too interested somehow… too focused.
"By chance, it was open. I didn't do anything… it was on the desktop."
Spare my self from unnecessary achievements was the best thing to do, as always.
"On the desktop? Where?"
"I can't tell you. I just knew you." I answered that man, very honest about my attitude. "All you need to know Is about tee report."
"Yeah, right. What about it?"
The way he just took my words so lightly and moved on made me feel like a villain who was bullying someone so innocent.
And that wasn't a good feeling,
Or was it?
I didn't know.
"It said that if someone got killed here, he would likely be in another Vessel, or 'in the other world' as the report say."
"So they are alive?" That man asked.
"Perhaps." I answered.
"But the 'other Vessel' may not be somewhere we've ever went to." Silas spoke, as if he was talking to himself. "That's more dangerous if we thought about it."
"Yeah, and we have no clue if they all went to the same place or not."
"Let's ask Adeline then…"
The two of them looked at me in that way again, as if I was such a heartless human being.
What did I do to deserve that? I had no idea.
I just have that feeling that someone as Adeline would just die that easily.
"Okay, let's do it."
Silas sighed then just pulled out his phone. I was pretty sure that phones mustn't work in the Vessels but Silas's items were always out of the calculation…
One minute passed,
Two,
Ten,
Twelve—
We were about to give up when she picked up the call, her voice was barely out.
"You said where?"
"—s-hos"
"What?"
"Storehou—"
"The storehouse?!" I repeated. The two others didn't get it as I did. "In the Carnival you mean?"
"Yes."
"Hah—"
Yeah,
What a great news to hear…