Chapter 309: The Mask
"Is he ever going to wake up?" Aiden asked. He sat at the edge of the window, looking into the vast grassland and forest that extended from the castle that they were in.
He was dressed in a casual shirt and trousers. His face held no particular emotion as he sat there; even the normal light in his eyes was gone.
Inside a pretty large room was a massive bed, and resting on the bed was none other than Aren. His pale body lay there unmoving, even his breathing was very shallow.
Athena sat right beside Aren. She had been there almost every single day; even when they assured her that he would be alright, she refused to leave his side.
Zero was in the room as well. She sat cross-legged on a rug, wearing a black crop top and trousers. She stared at her feet without saying anything.
"I mean, it’s been a week now," Aiden said. He looked outside again.
"What are you trying to say?" Athena asked, glaring at Aiden. Aiden looked at her and then looked outside again.
"Don’t get riled up. I don’t mean to say he is dead or anything. I’m worried," Aiden said. He leaned his head back, hitting the frame of the window. "I don’t want anything to happen to him, not after what happened to—" He choked on the last word, tears filling his eyes. He wiped them with the back of his hands and looked outside again.
Athena looked at him wipe his tears, and then she dropped her head. "I wish I knew what was happening. Lucy said he would wake. Her healing managed to keep him from dying."
"Why would he even use something like that? It destroyed his insides entirely."
"Because they killed Kira," Zero suddenly said. She looked up. She opened her mouth like she wanted to say something else, but then she dropped her head and kept looking at her feet again.
Aiden, after a while, got on his feet. He walked towards the door.
"I need to clear my head." He opened the door and then looked at Athena. "You should get some rest yourself. You haven’t slept in days," he said to her, but she shut it down already.
"I’m not leaving his side. I made that abundantly clear," she snapped. Her lack of sleep and anger at the state of Aren were turning her into something that she was not.
Zero rose to her feet and then walked to the side of the bed. She looked at Athena for a few solid seconds and then grabbed her by her hand.
"Fight me later, but for now, you rest," Zero said, and then yanked her away from the bed.
"No, stop it, I’m staying here." Athena fought back and clawed at Zero’s hand, but Zero ignored all of that and dragged her by force. Athena kept looking back, wanting to go back and sit with Aren, but Zero refused to let her go and dragged her out. Aiden shut the door after them.
A few seconds after the door was shut, Aren’s eyes opened. He stared at the ceiling for a few seconds without moving, just looking at it.
His body felt like a complete mess at the moment, but he had control over it. He tried to move his finger and it responded, and then he tried to move his whole hand and it worked.
’I’m alive,’ he thought to himself. His eyes shifted, and he looked outside the window. He tried to use shadow sense, but what followed was a piercing headache that almost sent him to the ground crying.
"Arghh," he groaned and grabbed his head. Only now did he feel it; his connection to soul energy was extremely shaky, nothing like it was before. He could not feel the perfect flow that he had before.
Aren moved his legs and pressed his feet against the ground. He got to his feet and almost staggered right to the ground. He wobbled but pressed his hands against the wall and managed to keep standing.
"I really took myself out," he said.
He looked to the side of the room, and there was a large mirror there. He walked there carefully, looking at his reflection. He was in a loose shirt and trousers, his skin extremely pale, but something stood out the most.
His face. There was no emotion or light behind his eyes; it felt empty, too empty. It was like he was staring at someone he didn’t know.
He grabbed the sides of his mouth and pulled them up in an attempt to smile, but after he let go, his face returned back to what it was.
"I can’t smile?" he asked himself, stunned by this as well, but it only made sense. He could not smile because he wasn’t happy at all. He recalled everything that had happened, and despite being calm now, his entire mind had fought itself many times.
He stepped away from the mirror and looked over to the drawer beside the table, and resting on it was the mask that he had worn.
He walked there and picked the mask up. He placed it over his face and wore it properly. He walked back to the mirror and looked at himself again. His face could no longer be seen, the best solution.
Behind that mask, a tear ran down his face, but dried before it got to his cheek. He turned away from the mirror and walked to the door, placing his hand on the knob. When he opened the door, it meant that he was ready to face the reality that he had crafted; he was ready to walk into the life that he had participated in creating.
A life where he was now an enemy, a life where he hated the royal families, a life that had vengeance, and a life that continued without the first person he loved, Kira, his first ever girlfriend.