Triiffic-Soul: Can I Be In Control?

Chapter 18 – Trouble 

Anna ran through the chaotic forest. 

The disturbance was felt throughout, birds were screeching, wolves were howling and everything in between was running about.

[What is… going on…] (Lilly)

[Not sure, there are a myriad of possible reasons, but none of which we could realistically find out right now.] (Red)

The cold dark forest was far from welcoming, but at least nothing additional was attacking Anna right now. For the most part, every creature was looking out of itself and trying to hide or run.

[Whatever it was that caused this, it has managed to affect the entire forest…] (White)

[It doesn't matter, we should be able to escape with our skillset.] (Red)

[...What about everyone else…?] (Lilly)

[Don’t worry about them.] (Red)

[They should be safe Lilly… Houses were boarded up and some of the adults were already fighting them off.] (White)

Red sidestepped a snake that tried to take a cheap shot from a tree as she ran past. 

[The wolf is catching up.] (White)

However, their friend from earlier still wasn’t ready to give up its prey. Their head turned around for a brief moment, to find the crazed beast still after them and catching up. 

[Well, ain’t that lovely.] (Red)

Red stopped in her tracks and turned around to face the beast.

[Red run!] (Lilly) 

“Don’t worry I got this!” Red smiled, “I may not have a weapon, but there is more than one way to deal with a pathetic beast.”

The beast pounced towards Red, but she simply sidestepped around it and laughed.

The beast kept trying to swipe at Red’s young flesh, but whenever it neared Red easily dodged out of the way.

Red always moved away from the creature’s sights into its blind spot, forcing it to fully turn around after each attack.

Red stopped for a brief moment in front of a large sturdy tree.

[Perfect spot.] (Red)

The furious beast noticing this momentary pause, viciously leaped forward, overexerting itself for this one strike.

Red pumped blood through her body and jumped up to dodge the attack, and when she did, Red rolled backwards before landing horizontally on a tree trunk. Then within an instant, she sprung off the tree diving for the wolf’s back. 

[What are you–!] White cried out.

But then Anna’s tiny arms grabbed around the wolf’s neck.

“Come on you bastard!” 

Woooooargh!

The wolf tried to shake off Red, but it was to no avail, as she kept tightening her hold.

Then, Anna’s eyes went bloodshot as Red pushed her Blood gift to the maximum output she could muster.

Crunch

Anna’s pulsing arms had fully clamped the beast’s neck, snapping it. Red let go and stepped back.

[You okay Red?!] (White)

“Yeah…” Red exhaled, [...I never used Blood to this extent before when I was this young before. Well never had it when I was this young, turns out… hArghaaaa. It is not that effective even with using additional mana to compensate.]

[It would’ve been far worse without your training, I predict we may have just fainted.] (White)

“Damn, but I thought Blood was supposed to strengthen the body and keep it healthy and fit even past old age.” Red half jokingly sighed.

[It does, I just think it is just because the body hasn’t adapted to it yet] (White)

[Yeah… probably.] (Red)

After taking a moment to breathe, Anna jumped and hid in a tree. 

[We should be safe, but I will be keeping a lookout for anything that tries to sneak up.] (Red) 

[All good…] (White)

As they stared into the depths of the forest.

Lilly asked from within the Soul Space, [What are we supposed to do about tomorrow?]

Red switched to being half in their Soul Space, still controlling their body with her senses on full alert.

Red replied, “I don’t know, it doesn’t really matter. It is simply just do we want to make Mum and Dad happy or not by going along with their family plan.”

Lilly snapped, her complicated bottled-up emotions erupted out in fierce anger. It wasn’t one thing. Lilly tried burying so many things deep inside her while trying to ignore what was troubling her, but it was Red's half-arse attitude to their relationship with Jen and George–that Lilly personally continued to struggle with–which broke the camel's back this time.  “You may be the only one to properly call them Mum and Dad, but don’t act as if you care about them any more than either of us do.”

“Then how is one supposed to care about their parents?” Red sarcastically asked, knowing full well what Lilly was implying. 

“You show them love!” Lilly replied, “You hug them when they don’t ask, you get embarrassed when they do literally anything, you show off whenever you do something that would make them proud, you ask how they are doing, and say that you care for them…”

Red sighed, and rolled her eyes, “Look, apparently, all I know is how to at least pretend to care for them. Cause at least, it makes this situation easier to navigate, and I know how it is a bad idea to get attached to anyone.”

Lilly paused and muttered, “That’s… just sad…”

Red taunted, finding this topic stupid, “Then why don’t you connect with our parents then?”

Lilly cried back, “Cause I already have a pair!”

Her nails cut into her transparent body not causing any wounds, but Anna’s body copied the behaviour even while Lilly wasn’t in the pool. “I may have been a failure, a disappointment, cost them way too much money, a stain that could never be erased, but they deserved all the love, and they were mine…” 

…

“And I… left them behind.”

Red sighed, She couldn’t believe how childish she was being right now, but she also knew her point was correct, “Move on already! You literally died. If there was any reason to pack up your things and move on, it would be that.” 

Lilly yelled back, “I can’t!”  

Red snarked, “Well, that is how life works. People die and there is nothing you can do about it, so just forget about them and get back to trudging through the thick muddy waters of life.”

“I said, I can’t do something so cruel!”

“There is nothing cruel about it! It’s just nature.” 

With Red’s and Lilly's argument increasing, White just watched. 

Initially, she didn’t know what to do.

What could she do?

She only partly understood both sides…

Family…

But then White realised, and that caused a lock to finally snap free in White.

And so, White screamed, [STOP IT!].

…

She couldn’t… 

…

Wouldn’t let her family fall apart.