Eternity Split

Chapter 15; Connection

Gray's pupils immediately constricted.

He had to find a plausible explanation for Nekare's disappearance!

Teleportation…? Invisibility…?

He quietly walked deeper into the hallway, scanning it to find the girl's position.

The beige hallway was packed with locked doors, leading to rooms where students couldn't enter, making him doubt about her being there.

Regardless, he kept moving forward, focusing his senses as much as he possibly could, doing his best to avert any possible attack.

He tightly held the walkie talkie in his pocket, preparing to call Casanova in case she struck.

His heartbeat was off the roof, his forehead producing cold beads of sweat, slowly dripping through his face.

He diverted from calling Casanova instantly and decided to call only once she exposed herself.

Avoiding it momentarily was the best option; he didn't want to blow Casanova's cover, and possible surprise attack.

Furthermore, Gray wasn't sure if Nekare was watching him at this moment. For as much as he knew, if she were truly invisible, she could have been standing next to him the whole time.

He was extremely tempted to bring out Dusk Catcher to scan the room. If it activated randomly, it would mean she was still inside the hallway. 

However, such act would mean exposing the eye and the whole operation. It was also possible she might've regarded the torn, bloody eye as a threat, ambushing Gray to divert his 'attack.'

"I have to act as normal as possible…" he thought, not daring to voice his thoughts out.

While walking, he started to focus his senses, trying to hear Nekare's steps.

He silently hoped that Genesis would activate lest he be inside a deadly situation, causing him narrowly avoid the phantom threat.

Nonetheless, he didn't make the mistake of relying upon it, as it could prove to be a death sentence.

Seeing the hallway completely empty, he decided to walk over a place containing a large amount of people.

Gray retraced his steps and went on the same stairs where he and Nekare met. He decided to keep going downstairs, until he had reached the ground floor.

In the midst of going on the courtyard, he noticed many students engaged in various activities in the hallways.

Some were talking to each-other, some were arguing, and some were doing pushups.

Unfortunately, Nekare wasn't one of them.

She truly disappeared as if she had never existed all along.

If Gray hadn't gotten the proof of her existence by Rowan, he would have felt like the main character of a C-tier movie, one that would've had as an ending the famous, 'It was a dream all along.'

He then reached the courtyard.

Many people were spread out in many groups, some ranging to a minimum of two people, to a maximum of five.

As soon as he found the biggest group, he went there, staying amidst the students who engaged into a conversation while they sat on the school-benches.

He couldn't care less about their discussions, he just wanted a place where he could be protected by any attacker. 

He felt a little guilty for using his peers as a cover—although he only considered them as a way for an attacker to consider their assault on him, not as a literal meat shield. Of course, if he ever was to be attacked, he wouldn't dare to drag a student into the course of the assault.

This situation reminded him of the selfish herd theory he had read in one of the books belonging to his mother's library. Unfortunately he wasn't able to remember the author's name, but he could faintly remember the theory itself.

It stated that animals within a population attempted to reduce their predation risk by putting other individuals between themselves and predators, making the outer regions more susceptible to attacks by their enemies. 

Since the center of the group was the safest one, animals strived constantly to gain one of those spots.

The dominant and strongest animals were usually the ones to gain such low-risk positions, using the weaker animals as meat shields, without caring of their responsibility as the strongest of the herd. 

Gray thought of how this situation could be used for humans too—be it how throughout all history when kings and queens commanded soldiers to fight in meaningless wars while they stayed on their castles, without the risk of losing their lives.

Bringing his attention towards more important matters, he began to scan every student with his gaze individually, hoping to find the girl. 

Even though he was aware that break was about to finish, signaling that the plan had to be redone, he still did his best to find Nekare, wanting to have the confirmation of her presence in the school-grounds. 

If she were missing, the plan would fail. 

The bell then rang. 

Gray sighed and followed the herd of students back to their classes. 

As he walked inside the white, pristine floor made of marble, he felt a strange feeling in his heart.

It was beating irregularly—sometimes fast while extremely slow on the others, as if afflicted by bradycardia.

The inexplicable sensation stemming from his chest made his cheeks flush in a slightly red tone. 

"W-What is this…?" he felt dazed.

Gray's mind began to spun in multiple directions, causing him recall the memories of his oldest past. 

He remembered of when Kathy fought with his bullies; he remembered about how he and Kathy shared a pizza with their last euros; he remembered his mother's funeral and remembered the stories she wrote to make him fall asleep. 

Just then, he saw other events—other events he had never experienced. 

He saw a girl, but her face was hazy, too warped for him to figure her identity.

She and Gray sat in front of each-other, and somehow, he was able to tell that she was laughing.

Hell, from the hazy image, he was able to see that her eyes were full of tears, and her clouded mouth was agape, as if he had told her the funniest joke ever uttered by man. 

Then, the image changed, and with it, he could see more of the girl once again, but was still unable to recognize her.

This time, her face was ashen, yet, her eyes had a strange determination. She said something, but he was unable to decipher her words.

Gray was just about to speak, to ask her what she meant, when the image changed once more.

This time, from his clouded point of view reflecting an unfamiliar bed, he understood he wasn't laying inside his room.

He focused his eyes and was able to see the girl, who was standing on the ledge of the unfamiliar balcony. 

Behind her, the moon lit up the star-less night, accentuating her figure. She wore a velvet, patterned dress, making her look like a scarlet, moon goddess.

As she turned around, he was able to finally see her expression and just who she had been all along.

The girl, the same girl he was doing his best to find her identity and understand if she truly meant to harm him, had tears in her eyes. 

There, while he was still bedridden, he felt a strange emotion. 

It was an heart shattering feeling of nostalgia. 

… 

Dazed, Gray lagged behind his fellow classmates as he held his throbbing head.

Strangely, he felt a compulsion to turn towards his left, as if gravity itself was gently calling for his attention. 

As he did, the view of a girl with short, black hair with bangs that almost covered her left eye was glimpsed inside his pitch-black eyes, seemingly even darker than usual.

She had smile marked on her face. 

The smile wasn't threatening nor evil in any way; she just seemed genuinely happy.

Gray's pupils constricted once he recognized the person next to him. 

Nekare! 

He quickly noticed, however, something different about her. 

The girl seemed familiar to him in somewhat, but in a way he wasn't able to decipher, as if he had known her a long time ago. 

He couldn't help but slow down subconsciously, his thoughts rushing through his head. 

"There's something to you, of which I can recognize—but what is it? Why do I feel a strange that a connection existed between the two of us? Is it because of what I've just seen?" he painstakingly reflected.

He blankly stared at Nekare's moving figure, his heart still beating irregularly. 

Taking some moments to regain his clarity, he broke out of his daze and continued walking towards his class.

Once he reached it, he sat on the desk next to Rowan like always. 

He swiftly glanced at Nekare and noticed she was still writing on her notebook. 

Gray started to massage his forehead, trying to figure what had just happened. 

"Does she have an ability that can evoke memories and emotions? Or an ability that allows her to influence the emotions and memories of people? If so, how did she disappear?"

His eyes narrowed, and his lips slowly curled upwards.

"How could I make such a foolish assumption…?"

"The influence I felt wasn't because of Nekare's ability; it came from my own! The images I've seen and feelings I felt weren't coming from the past, they were coming from the future!"

He did the reality-check Casanova had taught him, and then he closed his hand into a fist. 

"Genesis is getting stronger," 

"I'm at the point where it's finally manifesting upon real life. Now, I just have to find the right method to use it consciously."

"Once I'll reach that path, nobody shall be to plot anything against me and Kathy.

"How could they defeat an enemy who's two—No, it's even more than only two steps ahead. The potential of my ability is immeasurable!" his hands began to tremble with excitement.

To know his power even further, he decided to rank its statistics of Genesis from one to five.

Attack: 0

Speed: 0

Defense: 5

Durability: 0

Endurance: 0

Fighting Capabilities: 0-5

"The other stats may be extremely poor since it only focuses on revealing the future; however, with my ability, if I were to fight someone, I could be able to win by predicting every single possible attack that'll come from them."

He sighed. "…In the future of course."

"Right now I'm practically useless…"

"But realistically, what would be Casanova's statistics?"

"From what I've seen in my Apocalyptic dream, he had fought with the giant mantis, destroying a room of the house where they worked. Then he also said something in the lines of "I require your strength…" 

"His voice then boomed in my eardrums, almost shattering them. Judging from how the room was destroyed and his words, his power should be based upon strength."

"So, his strength should be rated 5."

"…That's all I know."

"I doubt he would tell me his ability, for it would mean revealing his trump cards…"

"Oh, I almost forgot about Dusk Catcher too; our abilities are somewhat similar."

Suddenly, the door opened and an old man entered.

Gray couldn't recognize him; however, he could figure from his timetable that he was the history professor.

"So, what are we going to do today? Are you down to going to my house?" Rowan asked curiously, breaking Gray's stream of thoughts. 

"What do you mean?" he answered in confusion.

Just then he remembering about his agreement to Rowan's request of hanging out.

Oh.

"Today I can't, I'm busy…"

While saying that, a cold bead of sweat slowly dripped down from Gray's forehead.

Rowan lips quivered, and he was ready to fight in the middle of the classroom.

"Are you serious," he asked.

"We'll hang out tomorrow; I promise." Gray said seriously, knowing that he couldn't avoid it this time. 

Rowan then sighed heavily. "You'll come to my house when school ends tomorrow, then. We'll watch an horror movie. I heard from some reviews that it's considered as one of the best and scariest movies of this year, although not many people know about its existence."

Gray, pleased to see that his friend's anger subsided, thought for a moment before remarking, "If I had a cent for every time someone had said those specific phrases, I would be rich. Take Terrifier 2 as an example; some said that it was so—heh, "terrifying" and disgusting, and added that some people ran out of the cinema to throw up."

"But in the end, it was just a slasher among slashers; it wasn't original in any way." 

"I'm serious this time. I've never seen people talking about a movie like that." Rowan tersely said. His expression expressed a feeling of seriousness, as if he were scared himself.

"What's the title?" Gray inquired, raising an eyebrow. 

"You'll see tomorrow; I don't want to spoil the fun." Rowan said, grinning once more. 

"Alright then…" 

They two intended to talk once more, but when they saw the history professor growing increasingly furious, they decided to stop entirely. 

The history professor then kept talking about the 2nd World War, occasionally asking questions to the students.

Gray wasn't too worried about them; the war had always been something that he was interested with. Especially since many of the books in his mother's library talked about it. Most information had been wiped, but he still retained most of the superficial and important details.

"Montoya, when did the attack on Pearl Harbor commence? What did the Unites States do to retaliate?" the professor suddenly asked, trying to catch him by surprise. 

"I can't remember the precise date… Was it in the 1942? 1941? I know what had happened next but I can't choose between the dates…"

After some moments, Gray stood up and started explaining, 

"If I'm not wrong, the Japanese Air Force attacked Pear Harbor in 1942 after tensions between them and the United States had escalated throughout the years. Since the United States wanted to stop Japan's expansion, they enacted economic sanctions on trade embargoes on aircraft exports, especially oil."

"Since oil was extremely important for expansionism, the United States hoped that Japan would stop its expansion. However, the Americans were wrong. They should have known that the Japanese people were going to stand their ground."

"I mean—Japanese people literally used suicide as a means to attack their enemies."

"At that point, Japan knew that the war was inevitable, so they chose to attack first. In the end, the Unites States retaliated against them—and we all know how it ended."

Gray sighed, pondering about himself with amusement.

"How is it possible that I can remember these things, but not the names of my own classmates and teacher? Are they really not that important for me?"

The professor smiled, nodding earnestly. "You mistook the date. It was in 1941, not 1942. Overall you did a great explanation; however, be more concise and formal, next time."

He seemed happy; apparently, people didn't listen to his classes much.

"Hey, it could have gone worse," Gray mused silently.

"Yes, sir." he said, satisfied with his explanation.

Moments after the professor's judgment, the bell rang, making him go to his next lesson.

Gray's heart rate started to rise, pounding against his chest.

He realized he only had ten minutes to use Dusk Catcher on Nekare.

He simply couldn't fail.

His uncertainty on her intentions was detrimental to his life and Kathy's.

If Nekare even dared to lay an hand on his sister, Gray would surely be ready to end her—even though he didn't know the method for the execution. 

Regardless, he knew he was ready to act upon it, by any means necessary.

This time however, he grew more vigilant, for she had possibly manifested her ability. 

"How could I possibly catch someone who's able to teleport or become invisible? If Genesis helps me, I may predict the place where Nekare is going to teleport to…" he silently noted.

"If she has the ability of invisibility, Genesis might reveal the location where she's hidden. But even then, I can't rely on its activation on the real world."

Nobody would rely on a faulty parachute on purpose, after all.

"I must call Casanova, he has to know how she disappeared. Nekare won't be able to follow me; she has to stay inside class. Luckily, the professors avoid letting two students with a different gender to go inside the bathroom at the same time."

Immediately after Gray thought that, the old science professor entered the classroom. 

Perfect! Thank you, kind sir I don't recognize! 

"Sir, can I go to the bathroom? It's urgent!" Gray held his hand up.

His actions caused Rowan and a bunch of students to shoot him some glances; he brushed them off, for the situation was too important for him to care! 

"Oh, Montoya, come on… You should have asked when the last professor was going away," the science professor said, his voice weak from the older age.

"It's urgent. It's 'really' urgent." Gray said, uncaring of the laughter of the students that echoed throughout the classroom. 

"Alright, you can go…" The professor nodded. 

"Thank you!" he said as speed out the classroom.

He ran through the hallways as fast as he could, and once he reached the bathroom, he entered a stall, locking the door.

He quickly took the black walkie talkie from his pocket and pressed the red button. 

The sound of static noise resonated through his ear for some seconds before he finally heard the call being picked up. 

"Casanova?"