Chương 24: Curse

And it was gone just like that. Three bites and gone, my fingers messy, stomach still asking for more. I sneaked a peek outside. Milo A young child residing in Life's Last Hope. Having higher metabolism than the rest of the kids, he got hungry pretty often. One day he decided to do the deed and steal. He got caught. He expected severe punishment. Instead, Burtic took pity on him, filling his stomach and quietly spoiling him with hot meals whenever he visits. Recorded in the Akashic system in the year 13530.

The kid was smaller than Pyiari and Lania, with beige hair, pale skin, his cheeks wasn't sunken in. He wore the same white robes that went down to his ankles. It was sullied with sauce and veggies falling from the sandwiches. His plate had so many. I wanted to steal them. Burtic made those strange grunting noises that I couldn't understand, but the rift beings always did. Burtic picked up a napkin and cleaned the kid's robe, then his face. He really did love feeding others. He grunted something low.

"Can't I stay here? Please, Uncle Burtic?" The kid made those adorable eyes that children make—the kind that melts anyone's heart. But it looked like Burtic had grown immune to it. I don't know how any man could grow resistant to that. Burtic growled and grunted, which the kid understood. He picked up the remaining two sandwiches on the plate—one in each hand—and stood up. They moved to the door, and Burtic held it open.

"I will come tomorrow again! Bye for now!" he shouted, and sprinted away. Burtic stood there for a moment, watching the child go. I took the opportunity and grabbed a whole plate of savory meat skewers, sneaking back below the table. The tablecloth swayed when Burtic closed the door, but he couldn't see me. Below the table, I swallowed all the food, making sure I made no noise.

But I think I took too many plates, or maybe Burtic had spotted me long before and just hadn't confronted me because the kid was there—or perhaps he wanted to let me eat my fill before fighting. He stood in front of the table for five minutes. When I was done and licking my fingers, he bent down, pulled back the tablecloth, and stared right at me. Just like all the rest, he was completely covered in black sludge.

His face was devoid of any normal features; an uneven, grotesque growth on the right side of his face made it look as if another head was sprouting from his neck. He growled, getting ready to lash out, and then I was gone. I used Shadowstride to zip outside, then repeated it twice until I was far enough away to feel confident he wouldn't be tracking me—unless his food had something in it that allowed him to curse me. I hoped to God it didn't. Burp. I was full to the brim, and even more lost than before.

"Fuck." It wasn't that far. I finally reached the Archive. Somehow. Looks like some luck was left inside me, because I had been fully expecting to die in the maze or walk straight into the boss room. I entered the Archive by pushing open the creaking door, squeezing past the towering shelves until I finally reached the clearing. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. The click-clack of the typewriter echoed through the quiet room. Filki was hard at work.

She struck the final key, reached up, and pushed the carriage return bar. The metal mechanism clinked sharply, turning the roller and advancing the paper up a line. She noticed me from the corner of her eye and stopped typing. She took in my ragged clothes—half my left sleeve gone, my pants shredded at the hem, and my big toe poking out of my shoe. She took off her glasses and stood up, not even reaching for her cane. She didn't need it to walk.

"Filki, I—""Yeah, yeah. I will hear you out, but sit down first." She pointed to her own chair, urging me to sit and relax. The chair was made of ivory wood with plush, soft cushions. How could I sit in her chair? At that moment, I learned that I was a truly shameless man. I melted into the soft cotton, letting my body relax. Filki dragged over the of folders and sat on top of them.

"So, tell me what happened." And so, I began reciting the tale once again. Just like Pyiari, she did not interrupt me, merely nodding her head at intervals to let me know she was listening. When I was finished, she fell silent, thinking for a moment.

"Sorry," she said softly. I was taken aback. What fault was hers in any of this? I asked her why she was apologizing.

"I should have known. I should have researched better and known that Kach was stationed there—or at least accompanied you. Then maybe we could have defeated her together, faster, before Aran could have arrived, and escaped. I am sorry for my incompetence."

"No, you did your best. You came to this facility only because you wanted to save the kids here, right? Did your mother ask you to do it?" She shook her head.

"She never even told me about it. I only know this because she used to have nightmares about this place until the day she died of old age. She lived a happy and fulfilling life, but even then, it wasn't enough to heal the scars this place gave her."

"That's why you came here. Letting go of your destiny as the greatest sleuth so you could save these kids."

"A task that I have failed at to this day. How do you know I was a sleuth? Well, not that it matters. I only had one goal that I took seriously in my life, and even then, I couldn't complete it. To this day, I haven't been able to destroy this place, nor help a single kid get out of here. I thought today was the day—that I finally helped two kids escape out of here. But no. I haven't done the only thing I am supposed to be good at. I didn't sleuth enough."

"No, you did whatever you could. It was me who was not strong enough. And we got Pyiari out of here, so that's half a win." Filki was emotional, but not a single tear fell from her eyes. Old age had dried them all up.

"Do you really think she will turn back?" Filki asked.

"Well, the only path out is blocked, so she doesn't have much of a choice."

"She will find a way. You don't know her the way I do." Her eyes darted along the floor, reminiscing the time when the girls used to play here.

"So, I'm guessing you turned back because you didn't want to leave without Lania?"

"That's correct. If I left now, I don't know how much time it would take me to return, or what might happen to her in that time. Aran was talking about how her power will let them cleanse themselves of their curse. Do they call aging a curse here? Because I know they are trying to make an immortality drug."

"You are half correct."

"Enlighten me."

"What they call a curse... is their superpower."

"How is having a superpower a curse? Are they some religious zealots who believe God wouldn't bestow people with powers, so it must be from the devil?"

"You couldn't be further from the truth." She took a deep breath, like people do when they are about to explain something long.

"They found historic texts from a time when humans didn't age. They aged to adulthood, and then just stopped. A man could live for thousands of years until a disease caught him or someone killed him."

"What the fuck?"

"Just listen to me. At start, it was believed to be just a myth, but then more and more proof started popping up. Archaeologists found a millennium where no human baby fossils were found. Weird, isn't it? They had two choices to believe in: either no one was born for a millennium, or every kid that was born survived and made it into adulthood. Scientists decided to believe in the second option because that made the most sense.

There were healing superpowers; there might have been someone with a fairly powerful one at that time who just didn't let kids die. They just didn't want to believe humans were naturally immortal and lost it somewhere along the way. Why would they? It made no sense. Until they found the diary."

"What diary?" I asked. This story was so damn interesting that I needed to know more.

"The Diary of the Accursed," Filki said solemnly.

"Written by Zoldyk the Covetous—the traitor who sold humanity's eternal life in exchange for petty superpowers."