Chapter 46 - Voices

"Arya! Arya! Wake up!" shouted Teressa as she shook Arya's limp body, he was still breathing albeit barely. His breathing was arrhythmic and his temperature was steadily dropping, Teressa didn't know what to do and she barely had enough strength to carry Arya to the other side of the river stream.

At first Teressa thought that perhaps Arya had collapsed due to exhaustion, however he was becoming visibly pale and his temperature was dangerously low. If this continued he would soon look like a fresh corpse. Teressa's mind began playing tricks on her as the world around her seemed to get colder and darker, her fear of being alone began taunting her.

"What do I do?" said Teressa out loud as her vision became clouded by the tears that collected at the rim of her eye, images of a fire and the words of shadowed figures ravaged her mind. "Run! Get out of here Teressa." echoed the voices in her head. The fear of loneliness gripped at Teressa's throat like a thief in the night.

She was scared, scared that Arya might die, scared that she might be alone once again, scared that the two men might find her and force her to live a life way worse than death. "He just needs some food, that's it. It will all be okay." said Teressa to herself in denial as she picked up the frozen bird and dipped it in water to melt the ice quicker.

"A fire! Right a fire!" muttered Teressa as she left the still frozen bird beside Arya's unconscious body and started to collect small twigs. She made sure to collect only the dry ones and stacked them into a small mound, she then collected two oddly shaped rocks and began striking them against one another.

"Is this how your suppose to do it?" said Teressa out loud as she attempted and failed to set the twigs alight many times. At this point the tears were streaming down her cheeks. She turned around to look at Arya and nodded , "He's okay, he's fine. He's still breathing. He just needs to eat." thought Teressa as she struck the stones even harder.

"Ouch!" exclaimed Teressa as she accidentally hit herself with a rock drawing blood. She dropped the rocks and began sobbing loudly, "It's pointless! Why! Why me!" she shouted as she the tears ran down her pale skin that tinged rosy as she continued sobbing. It was all too over whelming for her, just when she though she could live a new happy life, life itself began playing its tricks on her. "Arya please wake up don't leave me!" she shouted but Arya wasn't there.

"Brother this girl is really clingy." echoed a voice from the void. "Where am I?" asked Arya as he looked around and saw only darkness. "We are in what you would call your mind scape." said a different voice this time as if it was an obvious answer, which reminded Arya of the pessimistic voice he would sometimes hear.

"Mind scape?" asked Arya confused by what was going on. "I knew you were a lot of things, but I didn't think dumb was one of them." replied the pessimistic voice as a dark figure appeared in front of Arya only made visible due to it's glowing white eyes. "I told you not to use anymore spells. But you never listen do you." said the figure as white light shone from its mouth each time it spoke. The dark figure crossed its arms like an angry mother scolding her child as it spoke to Arya.

Arya was taken aback and fell on his bum. "You're scaring him you know. Don't worry brother you aren't dead... yet." said the other voice as a white figure appeared this time with glowing black eyes and a black light shone from its mouth as it spoke. "You guys are, y-you're the voices." stuttered Arya as he looked at the two figures in awe. "Wait, what do you mean dead yet?" asked Arya suddenly realizing the implications of the events that were taking place.

"You see brother, you've used too much life force while casting those spells and your life force is dangerously low. Right now you're body is in a catatonic state, the only reason you're still alive is because of that thing." said the figure as it pointed at a section of the void. That section was like a beating heart with white veins, Arya couldn't see anything but he noticed that that section seemed to be darker than the rest, and the white veins seemed to be pumping something, Arya just wasn't sure what.

"What is it?" asked Arya as he tried approaching it. "Don't bother, you will never reach it." said the black figure, "We've tried. And as to what it is, you tell us. It's your mindscape isn't it." continued the black figure. "Wait I don't get it, if you're voices made by my brain as a coping mechanism how come you know more about what's going on than I do?" asked Arya confused by the madness of it all.

"Made by your brain you say? That's an interesting theory." said the black figure as it turned to its white counter part. "Brother I think you misunderstand something. Do you believe us to be figments of your imagination?" asked the white figure seemingly flabbergasted by Arya's words.

"I told you didn't I." mocked the black figure as it opened its mouth laughing and white light burst from it. "Brother you disappoint me." said the white figure visibly saddened by the prospect. Arya remained silent, for a long time he was content with the theory that the voices were nothing but fabrications made by his brain to cope with depression. Yet now all evidence said otherwise.

"Listen brother, we don't have much time left. This time we will help you, but there won't be a next time. Surpassing your limits is good, but don't over work yourself." said the white figure as he touched Arya's head.

"We're helping him? I never agreed to this. He won't survive a day without us anyways, better to end his misery right now." complained the dark figure as it stepped back. "Come on Sauron, it is our duty." replied the white figure. "It isn't our duty to help him in his foolishness." replied the dark figure as it began walking away. "I'll owe you one!" shouted the white figure before the dark one could disappear.

"Deal!" said the dark figure almost too quickly as his mouth formed a wide smile, that looked almost sinister to Arya. "See you soon." said the dark figure as he touched Arya's head as well.. In that split second light filled the void and Arya opened his eyes to find Teressa bawling her eyes out a few meters from where he lay.