Oasis: Zarah and Royalty

7: A safe haven

"I don't think so," Vixans refusal comes immediately I say my last word.

I stare at him challengingly, "If I am important to you which I know I am, unless of course you want to go back to obeying that asshole lord of yours and I know you don't. So you will regard my health as important as well, food is important, so are clothes and you need to change out of that armour if you don't want my people giving you weird eyes everywhere you go." I will never know where the audacity came from, but one my mouth opened, the words came pouring out.

He immediately turns to his conscience, "Is this what you wanted?!" He snaps angrily at him, sending him into a cold state, leaving his conscience looking helpless and hurt.

"Don't bully him!" I find myself scolding Vixan and that does not seem to be a good thing to do even to me.

He laugh a little and it's the type of laughter one makes when they can't believe the audacity the other person has, "You're going to tell me how I should treat my own conscience?! I save your life twice and what do I get from you? More smart mouth and stubbornness all because he couldn't keep his mouth shut!" He explodes, his eyes turning black and he walls towards me.

I move away from him, back to his conscience and using him as a shield against Vixan, "Wh- why is his e- eyes black?" I stutter fearfully.

He stays silent for a few moment and I think he's wondering if he should speak or not and finally he says, "Because he is so furious he wishes he could kill you, he's really mad at the both of us."

My eyes widens and I point out the obvious, "But he can't kill me, you said he needed me right?"

His conscience studies him for a moment p before speaking, "He's debating his options and he doesn't think you living would be such a good idea anymore."

I step out from behind Vixan's conscience and walk towards him even though my inner voice screams that I shouldn't do that, "Fine, I'm sorry for being stubborn and smart mouthed. You saved my life twice and I think I owe you a thank you for that and I hope we can work together from now on."

He grits his teeth and the blackness in his eyes takes a moment before finally vanishing, leaving his eyes in its natural colourless form. I know it's taking a lot from him to quench his anger and return to calmness, instead of reaching for me and strangling my neck.

"We need to get to safety!" He finally bring himself to say.

"Safety after we find the nearest place to get food." I counter, my need for food outweighing his need for safety.

I turn so we can walk together, having reach an understanding, but he surprises me by drawing me back against him and I see him pull out a small knife and my heart seizes in my chest. I panic with the thought of what he is about to do to me this time, but he doesn't thrust the knife into me like I fear, instead he cuts into his own palm and then pushes it against my mouth so that I taste the blood rushing down his hand even as I continue to struggle.

Once the blood touches my mouth, he places the bleeding hand to my forehead and begins to mumble some foreign incantations into my ears. "Tā-ra-ki-rû-sal-lo-val-nè-ma."

Immediately the last words leaves his mouth, I feel my body take a painful and forcefully hard hit and my legs gives out on me as they lose their strength and I should be on the ground, but for Vixan's strong hands holding me up. My head becomes wobbly and my vision darkens completely. With my vision gone, I can feel as if my body is being taken off the ground and covered with some sort of shield.

My brain can barely make sense of what is happening, but for the next moment, I am somehow standing above ground and looking down at my worn-out body in Vixan's hand and I feel like I am experiencing some form of astral projection. I don't see that for long because I am forced back into my body and I slowly regain my strength and my legs straighten and touch the ground and the blackness of my vision soon becomes a blurriness, before everything completely clears up.

Vixan must have felt it too because he releases me from his hold and I step away from him.

I cover my mouth, the taste of his blood still lingering on my tongue, "What did you do to me?"

He doesn't answer and just stared at me like those who stare at crazy people do and it only infuriates me. "You sick asshole! What did you do, answer me!" I exclaimed, panicking uncontrollably, rubbing my forehead to wipe off the stain he left there.

"It's a cloaking spell!"

"A cloaking what?" I asked, a little taking off by what he just said.

He rolls his eyes and sighs dramatically, "It is a cloaking spell." He says, dragging each word out annoyingly.

"I know what a cloaking spell is damn it!"  I snap, feeling irritated with the way he has treated me in the last three minutes, "why did you cast that spell on me? Your blood is all over me and you fed it to me."

His brow shoots up, "If you really know what a cloaking spell is, then you wouldn't be asking me senseless questions like why I casted it or-"

"The both of you are exhausting!" Vixan conscience speaks up, taking us both by surprise and we turn to him to see that he is clearly bored with what has been going on in the last three minutes. "It's a cloaking spell mastered by only a few in Oasis, Vixan casted it to protect you from the rest Oasisans who may still be out there looking for you. This way, you get to hide out and be safe for a while."

Oh that's what he did? Now I feel like a jerk for attacking him the way I did. I mean you wouldn't blame me, what he did scared the life out of me and still freaks me out.

Vixan is a rather confusing being, but in the last couple of hours he's only done things that would keep me safe rather than endanger me, and I've fought him all the way through, most of which were because of my own ignorance, but he has kept true to his word which is to keep me safe at all cost.

"Thank you," I say to his conscience for clarifying that up, before turning to Vixan and saying, "thank you too, I really appreciate you trying to protect me, I shouldn't have called you an asshole and I mean that from the bottom of my heart."

He puts the small knife back into its holder, before looking at me, "Well don't thank me yet, that spell only last for a day. We need to find a way out of this somehow before it wears off." He replies curtly.

I pause a little, feeling a little hurt by his obvious neglect of my apology, "Has anyone ever told you how difficult you make it for those who are trying to be your friend?"

"On a contrary, I have a lot of friends and none of them have ever told me I made it difficult on them." Vixan replies, walking on, completely unaware of the point I'm trying to make.

'Oh okay, maybe you're just an asshole towards me then,' I murmur to myself.

I follow behind him, "Well over here when someone is trying to be grateful, you allow them. I think you are a good guy, but maybe something bad happened and now you don't show that anymore." He doesn't reply so I don't know if my words are getting anywhere with him, but I continue, "You need to smile more and yes I've seen you smile and it's a great look on you but you need to do it more often we've got a great look and many people on earth would kill to look as good as you and you've got it with no stress so being a little friendly wouldn't hurt."

"Do you ever get tired of talking?" He asks instead, glancing at me with a curious eyes.

I shrug casually, "I do when I'm sleeping and what I said is a good advice, you should take it."

"I'll take advice when it's coming from someone with equal strength as me and who doesn't whine and complain all the time." He shoot back crudely.

Way to be a complete jerk.

"Now do you know where you can get food and change of clothes?" He asks instead.

Thousand of options would have popped into my head if this question was to have been asked yesterday, but now I know all the places, restaurant and stores I could go to would be a danger zone for me, because I mgiht put myself at risk of arrest.

I begin to wonder where could be safe for me and only one person comes to my mind.

"Raymond," I answer, before pointing out the obvious. "but he stays in the city so we have to go back to the city."

I am however distracted when I see a car coming from afar off for the first time since being on this road, also heading towards where we are going and I begin to wave to them, hoping to slow them down, but instead of slowing down like I expected the car speeds past us.

"Oh come on!" I scream out trying to run after the moving car.

"What are you doing?" Vixan asks in a puzzled tone of voice.

"He could have given us a ride back to the city." I manage to say, looking at he and his conscience and surprise that the both of them aren't doing anything, but just watching me like I'm an i***t. "What do you intend we do?"

"I could take you there if you want." Vixan offers simply as though it's so simple. "First of all, do you know where this Raymond lives?"

"Yeah, I do, but how do you plan to take me there?" I ask slowly, with my brow rises as I trail off with, "What else is left?"

He walks close to me and my breath goes rigid in my throat and my palms become sweaty as suddenly having him come close becomes unbearable. He's taller and larger and him standing in front of me is overwhelming and makes me looks pathetic before him.

"You have to let me into your head so I can see where you are and take you there."

I stare up at him for a while, keeping my eyes fixed on him, "I don't know how to do that." I finally point out to him. "Besides how do I know you're not going to try to manipulate my mind?"

"Firstly, it's easy," he assures calmly before adding, "secondly, you don't, you just have to trust me, now think of your safe haven and I'll be there with you." He says as if it's as easy as he makes it sound.

I take a deep breath and calm my nerves because him being this close makes me feel uncomfortable and knowing that he's going to be looking into my head still doesn't sit well with me. He steps closer and if trying to make things worse, he places his hands on both my shoulders and I forced myself to relax at his touch and my eyes flutter uncontrollably.

It takes a while to clear out the many things going on in my head, but finally there is a calm and I'm in the six avenue street, staring up at the building Raymond lives in. Then I make my way up to the forth floor and I can see the door to Raymond's apartment which is the forth door to the left. I open my eyes to tell Vixan that can seen Raymond's place in my head when I realise that I'm standing in front of Raymond's door like I just envisioned and Vixan beside me.

I am confused and I know that after everything I've seen today I shouldn't be surprised anymore, but I can't help it.

Vixan's hair is back to the parted black and white colour and I know his conscience is back in him. The merging must have happened while Vixan was bringing me here and now I wonder when next I'll see his conscience.

I don't know if allowing Vixan into my head has given him some sort of power over me, but I can't bring myself to think of that now, he brought me to my dear friend and that's all that matters right now.

I knock on the door and wait for response and when it doesn't come after the first few seconds, I knock again.

"Who's it?" I hear Raymond's loud voice from inside the room asking.

I hesitate before saying, "It's me, Zarah, please open "

The door opens and Raymond appears, wearing a red shirt and an apron on his neck and I'm certain he is cooking, which makes me happier to see him.

"Hey Ray," I say, smiling wearily at him not really sure how he would react to seeing me.

Ray is a great friend, but at the end of the day we are all humans and after everything he must have heard about me, an outburst is expected. I do hope he gives me the benefits of a doubt though.

His big amber coloured eyes melts as they lock in mine, "Zarah!" He gasps out in joy and before I know it he wraps his arms around me for a tight hug.

"I'm filthy Ray!" I say in panic, trying to pull away from his touch because I know what this will do to him.

"I don't care." He replies stubbornly.

For the past three years I've known Raymond I've been certain of one thing, his love for cleanliness and hatred for things that are filthy. Ray has lived with the need to have things neat and arranged because he grew up with his mother. She was a single mother who like everywhere neat and arranged after a long day of work. So it was Ray's duty to make sure everything was perfect and as time went on, perfection became his life style.

This was one of the reason his last relationship ended because his ex girlfriend couldn't keep up with his constant need of cleanliness, orderliness and most of all perfection. Ray said he was diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) when he turned fourteen, but his mother never thought about seeking treatment for him until he moved out to live on his own. Even when he lived on his own, he never sort for treatment until after Sofia left him four years ago, and he has kept to the treatment ever since then. I learnt his story three years ago when we became close friends and since then I've tried to be supportive in his journey to gain control of his disorder.

Here I am filthy and in the worse state I've ever been and Raymond not giving a damn about it and still hugging me. It shows a huge improvement from the man that'll clean everywhere I touch before even when I was clean.

I am unable to do anything but hug him back, "I thought you were dead," he says in relief, tightening his arms around me as though afraid of letting go.

"Not yet," I tell him and I'm glad that I'm not dead yet.