Whispers of Worlds Beyond: A Series-Chapter 159: Orchestral Symphony [24]

Aiden's breaths came in shallow gasps, each one scraping against his ribs like broken glass.

The blood on his hands had already dried, but the cuts stung like fresh ones. Emmeranne stood in front of him, shielding him with her body, her violet barrier shimmering weakly around them. Her arms were shaking more than they had earlier. Her face was pale. Every part of her looked moments away from collapse, but she still refused to let him take the next hit.

She was protecting him.

The cloaked figures stood in unnerving silence as they circled Aiden and Emmeranne, unmoving but far too close, like wolves that had studied their prey long enough to know when it would break. The air was thick with something unnatural.

Time didn't feel real anymore.

Then there came a laugh.

Lopt's laugh.

It rang out from above, loud and spiraling, mad and theatrical.

Emmeranne's head snapped upward.

There he was- Lopt- on the jagged cliff that loomed over the clearing, arms stretched wide like he was soaking in the chaos. His blond hair was messy, catching the breeze, his coat flapping like some performer's cape. His smile was too wide, too knowing. And then he began to move.

He twirled.

He spun, dancing along the cliff's edge like a mad conductor orchestrating the madness below. His feet tapped and skipped as though he heard music only he could hear, and when he stopped, he bowed grandly toward them, laughing.

"Oh, bravo, bravo!" he called, throwing his arms up again. "This is better than anything I could've planned! Look at you two, so broken! So heroic!"

Emmeranne didn't respond. Her face was still, but her hands were glowing brighter. The barrier crackled.

The cliff wind howled between them, stirring Lopt's hair like threads caught in a storm. The laughter had stopped, but the madness clung to him, visible in his stance- the slight tremble in his fingers, the flickers in his eyes. Aiden stood shakily behind Emmeranne, blood streaking down his temple, trying to understand the betrayal unraveling before him.

Lopt had been their friend. A prankster. Adrian's role model.

Unpredictable, sure, but never cruel.

Until now.

He stood at the cliff's edge like a puppeteer ready to cut the last string.

"I didn't want to do this," Lopt said, voice too soft for the storm in his eyes. "I really didn't. I liked you, Chase, as a fellow prankster. You were… decent. Smart. Honest, in your own way." His gaze turned slightly hollow. "But I needed her to come out. And I knew she'd never show herself unless someone she cared about was on the line."

He stepped closer to the edge, one foot slightly lifted, like he could choose any moment to tip the balance.

Aiden's voice was hoarse. "You think this is justice?"

Lopt didn't look at him. He kept his gaze fixed on Emmeranne.

"It's not about what I think," Lopt said. "It's about what Savion deserved. He died in the dark, afraid, and no one even asked why. No questions. Just a closed case. A beast, they said. A random death. But I heard things. I know things." He clenched his jaw. "And I know you were there, Emmeranne."

"I was," she said, voice quiet.

Aiden blinked, stunned that she didn't deny it.

Lopt's eyes lit up. "So you admit it."

"I was there," Emmeranne clarified, her tone unfazed by his triumph. "But I didn't kill Savion."

"You're still on about that?"

Emmeranne didn't shift her stance. Her barrier still held, though faintly, and she looked at him not with fear or malice, but pity.

"I found him already dying. I tried to stop the bleeding," she said. "But it was too late. He looked at me. He thought I did it… because he couldn't see through the blood in his eyes. But I didn't. I was chasing the real killer. I arrived too late."

Lopt shook his head, stepping back from the edge. "You're lying."

"I'm not," she said, and there was no shake in her voice, no hesitation. "You're just so desperate for someone to blame that you'll throw anyone off this cliff if it means feeling something again."

Aiden said nothing, still trying to catch his breath, still trying to keep standing.

Lopt's fists trembled. "You don't get to sound like you're sad, Emmeranne. You don't get to mourn him. I knew what I saw in his body. What I heard in the whispers." He glanced at Aiden. "I never wanted to use you. But she wouldn't come out otherwise. You were… my bait."

Aiden stared at him, the betrayal sinking deeper than the pain in his body.

"You really think Savion would've wanted this?"

Lopt didn't respond right away.

And then he whispered, "I don't know what he would've wanted! But... he's gone. And I'm still here. So I have to do something."

Emmeranne's eyes dimmed, and she slowly lowered her sword, just slightly.

"You're not thinking straight," she said. "You're grieving. Twisting the truth to make it easier to live with. But if you come down here… and try to finish what you started-"

She raised the sword again.

"- I will not hesitate to kill you."

Her voice was still calm, but it echoed through the trees like a sentence passed.

Lopt looked down at her, at her sword, then at Aiden, and at the blood on the ground. Something shifted in his expression- something old, like a crack finally widening.

His smile dropped. And in its place came a look of despair.

The sky cracked open in lightless gray above them, as if the clouds themselves were holding their breath. Wind coiled around the cliffs in erratic gusts, tugging at hair, cloth, and resolve. Down below, the forest lay still, but tension buzzed through the air like a string pulled far too tight.

"You know," he began, voice slicing through the wind, "I rehearsed this in my head a hundred different ways."

He looked down at the two below once again, Aiden especially, and something flickered in his eyes- real pain, buried under the madness.

"I thought it'd be easier," he continued, stepping just a little closer to the cliff's edge. "Thought maybe, if I convinced myself hard enough, I wouldn't feel anything."

His laughter started soft, barely more than a breath. Then it grew, frantic and uneven, the kind that made skin crawl. He ran a hand through his hair, and the movement shook.

"But I do," he said, abruptly halting the laughter. "I feel everything. You were my friend, Aiden. Maybe the only one who didn't look at me like I was just trouble waiting to happen."

Aiden's jaw clenched, throat too tight to speak.

Lopt's smile wilted at the edges. "And that's why I'm sorry."

He raised his hand in a half-hearted wave. "Sorry that you were the one I had to use. Sorry that Emmeranne only comes when it's life or death. Sorry that Savion's dead and no one cares except me. But…"

His fingers curled.

"…it must be done."

Lopt laughed and took a deep bow like he had just finished a grand performance.

He bent his knees, and threw himself forward over the edge.

Emmeranne didn't move. She simply watched as their upperclassmen threw himself off the cliff and vanished into the air.

And then, there came something.

A soft rumble rolled beneath their feet. Then it became increasingly stronger, like something enormous had been stirred awake beneath the soil. Emmeranne's portals flared to life without her command, wrapping them both in a deeper layer of light.

Emmeranne then instinctively stepped in front of Aiden, her portal reigniting in a pale pulse of light. Her breath caught, and her eyes narrowed.

Because something was changing.

The cloaked figures began to twitch. And then, one by one they vanished.

Aiden stood there, silent, until his legs gave out and he sank to his knees.

"No... I didn't ask for this..." he muttered, voice hoarse. "I didn't want any of it..."

His fingers dug into his hair, pulling without realizing it. His breath hitched. "I-I just wanted to be normal. Go to school. Have friends... laugh without wondering i-if someone's lying to me."

Emmeranne stayed still, sword lowered, watching him with a flicker of something unreadable in her eyes.

"I'm tired," Aiden whispered. "Tired of being used. Tired of being hurt. Nothing makes sense anymore. I don't even know who I'm supposed to be..."

His hands trembled, nails digging into his scalp.

"I.. I just, I just want it to stop. The fear. The feeling of betrayal... especially from- from someone you saw as a model. The fighting. I didn't want this life. I didn't care and even wanted this kind of life... Nobody told me I'd still be hurt even here."

Emmeranne opened her mouth, then closed it. She had no words.

And the silence between them felt heavier than the fall.

"Make... make it stop. Please. Bring me home... Emmeranne..."

THUD.