The Soul Keeper

"Sorry to keep you waiting," Mona said as she sat on the grass covered earth besides me. 

"Don't worry about it," I glanced at the basket on her lap. "What's that?"

She giggled. "I prepared us some food. Like a picnic!" She put the basket beside her and opened its lid. 

My eyes widened as she handed me a drink and a sandwich. "When did you prepare all this?" I asked as she took her own portion of the food. 

"I was doing that when you came." She chuckled. "You startled me, actually. I wanted this to be a surprise." She smiled, then gestured to the sandwich in my hands. "Aren't you going to try it?"

I didn't need to hear anything else. I bit into the sandwich. "This is amazing," I said as soon as I swallowed my piece. "Mona, you sure you're not a cook?" 

She laughed. "My mom taught me a lot. Though, it was a challenge to adjust to the different meat, fruits, vegetables and spices in this world." She sighed and looked up to the skies. "I miss it." Her smile was a bitter one as she watched the clear blue sky. 

"I miss home," She added after a moment's hesitation. "I miss my mom, my little sister, my friends, my flowers." She glanced at me. "What do you miss, Kai?"

Her question caught me off guard.

"I…" I hesitated. It was not an easy question. Not because I didn't miss anything, but because I had focused on how to escape so much that I hadn't even thought about what I wanted once we were free of this world. This game. This trap.

"I miss Aoife," I spoke softly after a while. "I miss home – I haven't been there in so long…" How long had it been? I wasn't sure. "I miss my old tree, I hope Uncle Eion took care of it during his visits."

Mona tilted her head slightly as she listened. She didn't say a word. 

"I miss dad, I miss Mother." I chuckled. "I guess I just miss everything." 

"You weren't home when you got trapped in here, were you?" Mona asked. "How long had you been away?"

I hesitated. "I think about two months. I left a while before classes started, both to get used to the new place and because I needed to take some extra classes before the school year began so I wouldn't be behind the other students." I chuckled. "I guess all of that was for nothing."

"That's unfortunate." Mona mumbled. She sighed, then lay down on the grass covered earth. "Ah, whatever. Tomorrow we'll finally get out of here, right?" She asked as she glanced at me.

I hesitated. "I hope so." While I didn't want to bring her mood down, I didn't want to give her false hope either. I didn't think she would be able to handle that disappointment well. To be fair, I didn't think I could handle it at all either.

"We'll see tomorrow." She said, then giggled. "Cheer up a bit, Kai." She reached to my arm and pinched me. "The sun is bright and there is a nice breeze. Why don't you lie down a bit?"

She was right. It was a beautiful day – the sunlight warmed my eternally cold chest as the breeze blew my hair back. "It is a nice day," I said with a faint smile.

I lay down with her and closed my eyes. The chirping of the birds reminded me of home. While rare, on good days I could hear the birds there as well.

"Kai." Mona spoke again.

"What is it?" I asked. I heard the rustling of her clothes beside me and opened my eyes to glance at her. She was sitting up now, hugging her knees. Her crimson hair reminded me of the flames of the phoenix as it shone under the bright sun.

"Promise me something," Her voice was but a whisper. 

I hesitated. She took my silence as a sign to go on and continued speaking.

"Promise me that we'll meet once we're out of here." She whispered with a catch in her voice. "All of us. Rina, Alex, Laura, Theresa," She stopped to wipe her face. "Lucius, Asher, you." She chuckled. "Even Erik and Vincent, if they want to come." She shot me a quick glance, then looked away as soon as she noticed my eyes were open. "Please, tell me we're all going to make it."

I gulped. How could I promise such a thing?

I sat up, then wrapped my arms around the shivering druid's shoulders. She leaned on me and hid her face. "I'm sorry," She whispered.

"It's ok," I glanced at my left palm. "I promise," I finally spoke after a moment of silence. "I promise to do everything I can to keep everyone safe."

I heard a faint voice and glanced at her. Was she crying?

I wanted to say more. Talk about how strong we had gotten, about how we all had each other's backs. I wanted to remind her how far we had come, how many battles we had survived, how we could even defeat several inquisitors at once.

I also wanted to promise that we would all be fine. We'd meet again, after we were free of this virtual world. That we'd all make it out with no issues. That we could live our lives freely.

But it was either not the place to say such things, or I'd be lying. So, I remained silent, and let her cry it out.

A while later, as the sun began to crawl to the horizon, Mona finally lifted her head and wiped her tears.

"I'm sorry," She said with a weak, trembling voice. "This wasn't how I wanted today to go." Despite her best efforts, she couldn't hide the redness around her eyes and her slightly swollen cheeks. "It was supposed to be a nice, relaxing evening."

I chuckled. "It's fine. And you do look a bit more at ease to me." 

She paused for a moment, then laughed. "I guess I am. Thank you, Kai." Her smile was as bright as the setting sun.