Colin's posts

"Right." Luke replied.

"That'd be nice." he said.

"That'd be great." he said further.

He then proceeded to pace, pinching himself every so often.

Hard enough to bleed at times.

But he didn't feel it.

"Yeah." Luke said.

"It is." he said further.

"It's scary." he then told her.

"Let's go as soon as possible." he went on.

"Now would be good."

"........." Luke was silent, before meeting his sister's eyes.

"....Lily, I can't feel." he told her.

"I'm... I'm numb to nature." he said.

"I'm numb to... everything." he went on.

"It's gotten so that it is physically impossible to... well... touch anything!"

Just as she asked that question, she heard footsteps.

Panicked footsteps.

And they were coming down to where she was.

Soon, her brother appeared, and he did NOT look happy. He looked like he was very worried.

And he looked even MORE worried when he saw what Lily was holding.

"....it's down here." he said quietly.

"Oh no..." he whispered.

"........." Darrel was silent for a moment, before sitting down beside Sammy.

He wrapped his arm around her, and held her close to him in a reassuring manner.

"I hate it when all one can do is wait." he said.

"But that's all we can do here." he sighed.

"I'm here to help you, though." he then told her.

".............I see." Darrel said.

"...damn you, Evan." he muttered to her unconscious brother.

"Odds are you went somewhere you weren't supposed to." he said.

"And NOW look what happens." he went on, shaking his head.

"He'd better apologize to you when he wakes up." he then said to Sammy.

Meanwhile, at the hospital, Darrel finally made his way to where Evan and Sammy were... and Evan was still unconscious.

"Hey." he greeted Sammy.

"...still unconscious..." he muttered, looking at Evan.

"How is he doing?" he asked her.

"And how are YOU holding up?"

"We do." Lindsay agreed.

"Regardless, I'll start focusing on the book itself, and finding more info on it." he told her.

"I'm where I can probably get good information, anyway." he reasoned.

"Listen, I gotta go." he then said.

"The monks here find it disrespectful if you talk on a phone for very long." he finished.

"Ugh." Lindsay muttered.

"I know of it." he told her.

"It... well, okay, I vaguely remember SOME of what it can do." he admitted.

"I remember it had torture techniques in it... I recall something about insanity..." he went on, telling her things she had already heard.

"Oh, and I believe something about nightmares and darkness." he continued.

"As in, it had instructions on how to cause nightmares in people, and plunging a person into eternal darkness." he told her.

"I know, vague. I apologize." he went on.

"I'll let you know if I recall or find out anything more."

The male nodded in response to what Vicki told them.

"Yes, ma'am." they replied, before getting back to work.

At this point, normally, her brother would have been unreachable. He tended to go to places that had horrible cell reception, but with some mana enhancement, her cell phone and his were specially connected. Like walkie-talkies, but vastly superior.

The phone rang for a few seconds, before it was answered.

"Hello?" Lindsay answered.

He tapped away at the computer again, searching what he could.

"Hmmm." he mumbled.

"According to this, the tome was created for... well... torture." he told her.

"But it's vague as to what kind of torture." he went on, sighing and searching a little deeper in the files.

"I can see if I can find anything else, but it mentions that the torture was never meant to kill. It was to bring victims to the brink of insanity."

The man was silent for a moment, before going to his computer and checking the database.

"That tome is... unaccounted for..." he said.

"Maybe it was assumed to have been destroyed from severe damage, or just the ravages of time." he continued.

"According to this, at the time it would have been moved, Gerald was responsible for the relocation." he went on. "And that was when Ms. Remmington was in charge." he continued.

"....it wasn't destroyed, was it?" he then asked quietly.

When she got to the room, and looked for the book... it wasn't there.

Where it should have been was empty. Hollow.

At that point, the staff member in charge of curating and documenting the artefacts showed up.

"Oh, Miss Fyrane." he addressed her.

"I didn't expect to see you here." he commented.

"What can I help you with?" he then asked.

Darrel was off being seen for his smelling issue, so she received no response, though he had told her he would join her as soon as he could. Whenever THAT was.

As he lay on the bed, Evan looked... almost troubled. Like he had experienced something harrowing before he passed out.

And the book was... a book. It was very old, but remarkably well held-together.

It also seemed to... almost exude a presence of sorts. An ominous presence. Almost like something was inside... and it yearned to be let free again.

And whatever it was, had gotten to Evan.