HA\LF: Dead nor Alive

“Archie?” A faint voice of a woman called him who fell unconscious the moment he put the parasite in his mouth. “Can you see us?” she continued.

Archie’s vision was so blurry that he couldn’t see anything else but colors, his ears were ringing and he could hear something sticky coming from all around him. His eyes started to readjust and focused, and he looked at all the witches standing around him. He tried to move but his body won’t move, it felt like something was preventing him from moving not because his body had gone weak.

Archie looked at the grass in front of his right eye and he saw something black was crawling so slowly. His eyes were wide open and immediately jolted from his sleep, he could hear something was being stretched, and then the sound of snapping was coming from behind his back. He turned around and saw black webbings that seemed to be made of some gooey liquid and it covered the area around where he laid down.

“What is that?!” Archie asked as he tried to remove the gooey liquid from all around his body.

All the witches were just staring at him and didn’t say a word and that made him so confused. “What? Why are you guys looking at me like that?” he asked.

“I think that we should be the ones asking you that, Archie,” The black-haired witch said as she pointed at Archie’s hand.

Archie looked at his hand and something was moving out from every pore in his hands, it looked like thin hair but it moved. He kept looking at them and it went back inside then he could feel something was moving inside his body like water was flowing on his arm up to his shoulder and then spread around through his whole body.

“That thing inside your body, it came out uncontrollably when you were unconscious. It reached out to everything around your body, the ground, the grass, the leaves, everything,” The red-haired witch said.

Archie kept looking at his hand and then walked toward the tree, he touched the tree with his right hand. He could feel the water flowed from his body to his right arm and to his right hand, the same black gooey liquid came out from his hand and spread out and covered the tree. He could feel the liquid crawling on the tree as if it was his own hand, he then removed his hand from the tree but it stuck, the same feeling he had earlier he then forcefully pulled his hand and it made a snapping sound.

The liquid was slowly wrapping around the tree trunk and it stopped like it was a gel that dried up from the wind. While Archie was observing the thing that came out of his hand, the red-haired witch walked past him and punched the tree where the gel was. The trunk wasn’t even taken any damage from her punch, and she tilted her head while raising her eyebrows. “This is interesting, isn’t it?” she said as she walked back and stood next to Archie.

The black-haired witch stood next to Archie and pointed at the gel. “Could you control it?”

“No, I don’t think I can because the moment I snap it from my hand, I can’t feel them anymore,” Archie answered.

“Open your hand,” The black-haired witch said.

Archie opened his hand and the witch put her index finger on his palm, the same liquid immediately came out and wrapped her finger so slowly. The witch tried to pull her finger but it got stuck and no matter how hard she tried, it won’t snap. “Can you help me out?” she asked as she kept trying to pull her finger.

Archie looked at his hand and tried to pull the liquid back into his palm, it worked as intended but it moved so slowly. “I need to learn how to control this,” he said as he kept focusing on removing the liquid from the witch’s finger.

“Yes, you should,” the witch said as she pulled her finger from Archie’s hand. “I never thought it would be this strong, I mean, I could try to use all my strength but it might pull your whole arm off if you’re not ready for it,” she continued.

The earth witch walked toward the tree and touched the gel, it didn’t react to her touch since it seemed dead because Archie removed it from his body. The witch touched the tree bark and closed her eyes, she then opened her eyes with a surprised expression. ” This is interesting, it didn’t take any damage at all because the gel absorbed the damage,” she said.

The fire witch torched the gel and it immediately melted and fell off the tree, all of them in fact. They were surprised by how weak the gel was to fire and it helped Archie learn about his new ability. She took the piece of the gel and tried to crush it with her fingers but it was still sturdy so she had to use a lot of strength to crush it.

“So this ability react to everything that I touch, it’s a bit hard to control if it has its own will to move,” Archie said. “I really have to control it or it might bring trouble for me,” he continued.

“For now, you have to keep wearing this then,” The black-haired witch threw his gloves at him. “By wearing that you will learn to control it all the time,” she continued.

Archie wore his gloves and he could feel that the inside of the gloved had been filled with that gooey liquid. He looked at his gloves as he tried to control them but it was so not that hard, but it felt like he was holding his sneeze, it was better to let go than hold it.

“How long did I fall unconscious?” Archie asked them.

“Only half a day, maybe it’s because you’re used to it or the parasite wasn’t even trying to resist,” The black-haired witch answered.

Archie hummed and then looked at the deep forest next to him. “Do you guys know anything about the landing site?” he asked.

“Landing site? Are you referring to the place where it came down and met the chosen one?” The red-haired witch replied.

“Yes, where is it?” Archie asked as he looked at her.

“You have been there,” The red-haired witch answered.

Archie was so confused that he tilted his head and furrowed his eyebrows. “I have been there? When?”

The black-haired witch rested her head on Archie’s shoulder from behind and she smiled while she raised her eyebrows. “Do you remember that lake? Where the mother is? That place used to be the place where the chosen Drautnir met with it,” she said. “Why do you ask?” she asked as she kept staring at him.

“Oh, that’s unfortunate…” Archie said as he sighed.

“Are the humans going to check on that site again?” The earth witch asked.

Archie looked at her and raised his eyebrows. “You know that the humans went there back then?”

“Of course, we were watching as they were mesmerized by the discovery and the excitement on their face made them don’t realize that it brought them neverending nightmares,” she answered.

“Yes, they killed themselves a few weeks after they discovered the site. What happened back there? What made them kill themselves?” Archie asked.

“You could say that the atmosphere back then was still thick that nothing dared to enter that area. We believe the humans got some kind of revelation or something and it made them realize how doomed humankind was at that time,” she answered. “Who knows, but whatever they saw, their behaviors changed entirely when they went back to the city,” she continued.

“So it’s safe now, right?” Archie asked as he looked at the earth witch.

“I’m not sure if you can call it safe when the Mother is there and keep breeding new species while we speak,” The black-haired witch answered. “If you’re going to bring those humans there, the only thing they will see is a nightmare,” she said. “Unless you’re planning to kill her then I guess it’s about time for her to disappear,” she continued.

“I’m planning to, before I leave this continent…” Archie said as he looked at the forest. “I already have the blacksmith that can make me a weapon from the meteorite so it should be useful against her,” he continued and looked at the black-haired witch.

“Ah, you’re leaving? Is it because of the thing that you did in the north?” The red-haired witch asked.

Archie nodded. “Yes, I made a huge mistake by waking them up,”

“It’s not really your fault, it’s going to happen sooner anyway, it’s just that you’re making it happen, that’s all,” The red-haired witch explained.

“What about you guys? Are you going to stay here? Aren’t you guys going to be in trouble because the kings are going to come out?” Archie asked.

“We are all going to stay since this is the task that was given to us. Don’t worry about us because they won’t bother to kill us since we are not a threat to them,” The earth witch said.

“I see…” Archie said as he nodded his head. “Well then, I have to go back and check on the meteorite. I will see you guys soon,” he continued and walked out the forest.