Slave: Zero Chapter 12: Chapter 12

Read chapter 12 of Slave: Zero by HEAVENLYLARPER on NovelPedia.

Eric’s eyes flew open, gasping for air, he was looking up at the ceiling, his arm reached out. “Eric, are you alright?” His eyes glanced to his side, it was Arop, standing with bags full of supplies. Eric nodded as he sat up, rubbing his face. “Do you normally scream in your dreams?” Arop asked. “N, no… was it loud.” “Yes it was… Very loud.” Eric sighed. “Where did you find those supplies?” He asked, gesturing to the bags of supplies. “I managed to break into a storage room while you were sleeping… Here.” Arop knelt down and began searching in the bags of supplies, until he pulled out a white towel and tossed it to Eric. “Take it. You're sweaty.” Eric touched his face and his shirt and indeed he was sweaty. He began to dry himself with the towel, as Arop sat beside him on the bench. It’s white cool fabric brushed across his face, calming him. “Let’s just relax a bit, you need it.” Eric sighed, resting his arms on his knees. The cold air in the mall vanished, leaving Eric to deal with his restless heat, plaguing his body. Even though the coldness was non-existent to him, he still shivered. His body was unfamiliar with the trauma, but his mind wasn’t. He could still feel the undead mawing away his body. Tearing away at his flesh with an unsettling look of joy on their face. But he couldn’t bring himself to hate or be afraid of them. Instead what he felt was pity, and the effects of sympathy and empathy towards them. Images of the people he saw flashed in his mind, from the dancing children to the sufferers. Even though he escaped the nightmare, Eric could still feel them, their weight immense, as they clung to his heart, squeezing it. He gasped for air. Arop looked over at him, concerned, but Eric managed to stabilize his breathing. There is one thing Eric failed to understand, and that was why is this all happening to him. What great sin had he committed to cause people he doesn’t even know, come to haunt him in his dreams. Why, why, why, why, he asked himself, but he was left without an answer. Then the question shifted from why is this happening to me to why can’t I do anything. Eric was hit with a realization. Everytime he tried to be the person he always wanted to be, there was always a non physical force preventing him from even taking the first step. It’s as if every time he walks he is in the same spot, and every time he runs forward towards his ideal, there is an unbreakable wall pushing him back towards where he started. And no matter how hard he tries to resist, no matter how much he tries to push forward, the unbreakable wall refuses to be broken through. And as he finally grew tired of trying to push forward, the wall would still push him back until he had no control of where he is even going or what is happening around him. Like a small fish being pulled and pushed by a raging current, unsure of its fate. As he sat on the bench, trapped in his sea of thoughts, there were 2 that stood out to him. Can I really go against the tide of the thing called destiny? Can I really break through the wall and go as far as I want to go? He asked himself these questions over and over again. He didn’t give himself an answer. Because that answer will end everything for him, nothing would be the same again. No matter what, he cannot embrace Arop's ideology, he cannot stop striving forward, because if he stops believing in his ideal, even once, he will die. He has to keep struggling, he doesn’t get to dictate his luck, because at the end of the day he is a struggler, an ordinary that is a part of a far greater narrative. And so he made a promise to himself, no more complaining, even if it hurts, even if he might die pursuing, he will just come back over and over and over again no matter what, until his dream could finally be fulfilled. Eric looked over at Arop and he seemed to be lost in thought, as he steered up at the ceiling window. He was completely still, as if he was just as lost in his mind as Eric was. Then he muttered, “It’s