บท 7: Rustic Visit

Standing at the front of a creepy, rusted, weak gate, Max in the company of Penelope remained silent for different reasons. Before coming here, he felt more terrible than he thought he could ever feel. The death of the security men who lost their lives for his sake wasn't a minor burden for him to shrug off. Furthermore, they all had a family which he didn't know which words could make them understand his mourning feelings and sorrows.

They died for no reason.

On the other hand, Penelope was wondering when was the last time she visited this place. Hundred years ago? Two hundred? Three hundred? She couldn't really remember. It was a place hidden from human reach in the middle of the forest located to the west of south of Anyway city, a forest by the name Warriors.

"Let's take a step towards making a good past that can delete the bad ones." Penelope pushed the old gate and slowly walked in without looking at Max.

"How I hope the word good still exists." Max also followed afterwards. "What sort of assistance can we receive in an empty, uncompleted building?" He asked when catching up with the old woman's gentle pace.

Standing weak and beaten by the forces of nature, an uncomplicated small apartment house welcomed their views. It was silently surrounded by cracked tall walls that looked healthier than the house itself. Its red soil smelled blood and to horrify its details, some human skulls were randomly thrown all about.

No sign of trees.

No sign of living.

'Ah~ so rustic.'

"Who said so?" Penelope said and remained silent, walking to the right of the house only to find an isolated, rusty, rectangularly bared cage that could accommodate three to four people of average body size. "It's filled with good things. It is not empty. Enter."

Max entered without any objections. "Now what?" He asked while turning around to find the woman replaced with a blank wall. "Penelope?" He questioned her existence. Then, a low pitch of music started hitting his ear drums because:

Because he was in a:

"Club?" Max made a face that had green, blue, red and many different colors flashing on it. "Oh Penelope~" He looked around him to see nobody in the club, but for sure it was a club, indeed it was an empty club.

Cold smoke rising from the red wines filled in glass cups of the bar, the familiar smell of sweat and cheap perfume dominating his extremely sensitive nasal cavity, the Teen Spirit in the absence of teenagers: It was just an empty club that was ready to serve the regular clubbers.

"What a waste, isn't it?"

Startled, "Just what are you Penelope!?" Max asked with slight irritation. If he were still the human from his past maybe he could have had a heart attack a long time ago because of how Penelope could suddenly appear out of the blue.

"Wishing you more heart attack." She walked forward, "Let's receive the assistance you need."

Hardly hiding his anticipation, "From whom? What kind of assistance is it?" Max questioned. Hearing him, "From him." Penelope pointed her metallic stick at the empty air in front of her with a "charming" smile etched on her wrinkled lips.

"Who?" Max asked, confused.

"Hahaha, very funny. Can't you really see me? You are no different from a human... Ummm, or are you a human?" questioned a voice out of nowhere. "The name is Nobody, you are welcome to the club." The masculine voice added happily.

Max looked at Penelope questioningly. "Can you explain what is going on?"

"No freakings are allowed here, young man. But let me tell you a secret, I freak when I see snakes. Haha... What is the full name?" The masculine voice resounded in the club from almost every direction.

'Do I look like someone who freaks?'

Max took his eyes off Penelope and analyzed his surroundings lazily, but he could not see the person, smell him, hear his blood flow, or hear his heartbeat. Except for him and Penelope, nobody was literally here.

"Maximus Everett. Max in short." Calmly replied Penelope. "Your assistance is needed, Nobody..." She walked gently-sluggishly to a creepy looking door as she spoke: "...as much as I want some private moment with you. Alone."

Max grabbed his brown hair in his hands with calm eyes as he brushed it backwards. "Uh, granny, and what unscientific place is this?" He inserted his left palm in his jean pocket. If something like this should come from Penelope, he was never going to be surprised from the beginning.

Penelope was already at the other side of the creepy door, looking at him with boredom. She said: "Don't touch anything and wait for me!", then slammed the door:

Bam!

Inside the room, behind the creepy looking door, she stood silently in the frightening darkness, her hands placed on her metallic stick. The darkness seemed to be moving as she observed with no admiration, seventeen candles in their respective sconce lighting the circular, empty space mild-orange.

"You brought the young billionaire Mr Xim to Warriors?" Nobody's voice said jokingly. "Don't blame on me the deaths of his security men, nor the death of any governmental official who'll come looking for him if he can't find his way back to Anyway."

"Don't worry even though you are not worried. I wouldn't blame you but the young millionaire himself if he dies or gets lost. Why should he trust me?

"Anything new pertaining to exploration of The Mind? How's my team doing?" Penelope asked in a friendly voice.

As she took the air toward the center of the empty room, she could nearly feel Nobody's disappointed eyes staring at her, but only if he had the ability to do so. Being at the center, she smashed her stick on the floor, demanding Nobody to say something rapidly.

Nobody sighed and said: "Huh, after five hundred years of absence you are asking about your exploration team's well being? You are definitely a caring exploration leader. There's nothing new about The Mind. Nothing. No progress at all."

"Your voice says you are still missing Cooper, are you really?"

"Why did you bring a Gifted here?" Nobody canceled the old woman's question with his own question, clear for her to understand he needed not to speak about Jayden Cooper at the moment.

But then, even Penelope didn't want to speak about one of the most powerful figures the worlds could ever witness, whose name had been removed from the records of history millions of years ago. . .