Chapter 4 By Ojas Vatsyayan “We found Eric!” I thought back to yesterday… Freya ambushing us, me abandoning Eric without thinking about what would happen to him. And now, Bluu finding him. If he had really found him, why wouldn’t he bring him over here? Unless he was in no condition to be moved. Goddamn it. Could Eric be dead because of me? Get a hold of yourself, Cartwright. “What are you waiting for, Cartwright? You want me to carry you over there?” Bluu said. I got up from my chair, anxious. “How is he?” Bluu rubbed his hand over his face. “ You’ll see.” Roshani and I ran after Bluu. If Eric was in the shape he was proclaimed to be, could I have stopped it? Would I have stopped it? Suddenly, my thoughts were interrupted. Bluu had stopped...in front of the house I had “bunked” in for the night. And I quickly realized why. Eric, the great Dreamer, summoning flaming spears from his hands, was in front of it. His crisp tie was gone, charred. He was hunched over, mumbling something. We inched closer, and he turned around. And his eyes… His eyes were completely black. A voidless end, a delve into the night, and nothing else. And he was mumbling...”Jimmy...Jimmy...Jimmy.” I stumbled back. This wasn’t Eric. I don’t know who this was. It looked like him, but his eyes, his demeanor. His mind had been shattered and left by Freya. Bluu came to my side. “ It’s time to take him back to base.” We led him back to the base. All throughout the way, he kept mumbling...”Jimmy...Jimmy...Jimmy.” As the Sun turned into the Moon, and the starry night lit up the path in front of us, we reached the base, and immediately set Eric down onto a bed. He turned over, still mumbling my name. “Goddamn it. What’s happened to him?” I said. Roshani answered. “Jimmy, your ability…you know how you can turn emotions into what you want them to be? Fix the knot, untie it
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