Ethan silently stared ahead, his arms wrapped around his legs, chin rested on the knees. Behind him were the faint, muffled sounds of crying, woven into the ambient sounds of the platform. Adrian's voice rose softly now and then as he moved from one person to another, offering comfort.
Samantha's sobs were, however, strained, etching discomfort into Ethan's heart. He occasionally looked back to see Gilbert and Reyna try to soothe her. He turned front once more, swallowing his throat and staying still; expressions of comfort and empathy were not his strength. Perhaps they never would be.
He looked onwards, in an attempt to distract himself. The platform they were on had been moving slower after the flat world came into sight.
The world itself… was unique.
Firstly, the sun was rotating extremely fast. Ethan suspected that either the days there were extremely fast, or the more probable theory would be time dilation, since they were moving through space at a slow pace.
Secondly, the world was.. well, Flat. Ethan couldn't wrap his mind around how the physics worked there. Such as gravity, seasons and atmosphere.
Lastly, was the landscape itself. The world had two distinct halves split, evenly down the middle, separated by a river of flowing lava. The molten liquid trailed off the edge of the world and disappeared into the darkness below.
On one side of this divided land was a desolate, barren wasteland, devoid of any greenery. There, a ghostly moon hung, motionless in the sky, casting a soft, eerie glow but leaving everything in stillness.
The other half had a lot going for it. The sun surprisingly only rotated in this half, leaving the other half with no light. There was a spot where the sun's rays never wavered, as if tethered to that centre by some unseen force. The entire world seemed to only have a single sea, which was flowing infinitely into the void.
The sight was surreal.
Ethan's thoughts however, were interrupted with a cracked voice from behind.
"Will I… will I ever see my mother again?" Samantha said with shaky breaths.
For a brief, startled moment, Ethan's heart skipped, his eyes momentarily widening, as he quickly dropped his gaze again, retreating to his silence. Tightening the hug around his legs, he buried his face against his knees; a familiar ache penetrating his chest.
He didn't really have any memories of his parents; yet, the ache of not having them never ceased, only intensifying after the death of his grandfather.
"Gramps…" he muttered under his breath. Every time he remembered the old man, two scenes flash in his mind. The charred remains of his corpse, and the serene smile he had when he whispered his last words.
"I'm sorry."
What did he mean by that? What was he sorry for? Ethan didn't know. Perhaps he would never know.
Suddenly an image flashed in his mind, his neck creaking front as his face flushed with realisation.
"Bonds."
He whipped his head backwards, frantically searching for the vase, it was there. Still murmuring some gibberish while its pupils, now, seemed to have gone backwards. People kept their distance from the creepy vase and it was totally understandable.
He hurriedly got up, people throwing him confused glances. His shadow soon fell on the vase. Was it the same vase? Ethan simply stared at it.
'Was this the thing you traded all your bonds for Gramps?'
The gold reflected his image as the glint of his vermillion eyes matched the ruby gem on the Vase.
His expression went blank, frozen as realization dawned on him.
'The red eyes… Was Gramps from another world?'
He shivered, heart hammering.
Ethan's hands involuntarily came closer to the vase, shuddering but didn't back down until...
He grabbed it.
The platform buckled and swayed as a sickening rumble filled the air. Screams erupted around him, piercing through the sudden chaos as people clutched each other for balance. He gulped, staying frozen in place. The vase as it lit up with an unholy crimson glow, swallowing the yellow like a spreading fire. The monkey's eyes snapped open, their pupils dilating, expanding, until they looked like endless pools.
They stared right at him, lips parting. "I was waiting, My lord."
And before Ethan could even comprehend, he fell.
"Uh—?" The gasp was torn from his throat as the darkness opened its jaws. A sensation tore through his very being, a visceral crack forming somewhere deep, like a piece of him was tore apart. He forced himself to look up, a chilling feeling taking him over. He saw his body—still there, standing, hands clamped onto the vase, frozen in place.
"That's… my body." The thought whispered through his mind, echoing in the vast silence around him. 'So, if my body's still up there, then what's falling… is my soul?'
It was the only explanation that made sense, the only plausible answer.
He tried to speak, to hear his own voice steady his thoughts, but no sound came. Silence surrounded him, his tiny body falling into the void. The platform, his body, his friends, and the cursed vase all grew smaller, swallowed by distance. Eventually, they vanished, leaving only the flat world suspended in space in his vision.
For a fleeting moment, a thought ran through his mind, 'I wonder how life would have been like there.'