Chapter 4: Doubt.

A doorway connecting to a hall full of whatever was inside that awaits them was an adventure full of many, many, many, many possibilities to the point of it being profoundly infinite, regardless of its ominous pressure it still resembled a simple door that could open and close nonetheless. As Naraja proceeded to open the door by tightly grasping it and turning it with ease he could hear the creaks and crackles exude from the door which made him wince a little at the sound coming from the door.

Naraja peered in through the door and could see a hallway that would stretch on and on like a road that would never end nor see an end. As he looked more in depth at the massive opened hallway he could see a ton of lit candle lights that illuminated the hallway with each flame and shadow dancing around waiting for their purpose to come to an end, whilst still enjoying it nonetheless. Each candle light that was illuminating was assigned a door as if their existence was predetermined by something, but also not. Naraja saw that and took that curious thought into consideration while looking around to see if the close was clear and then decided to head in whilst each member behind him walked through the entrance as well hearing the door close shut behind them. As they walked through the stretched out corridor with each step passing them it was beginning to look like the path to the other door to help them get closer to the “Red Book Of Memories” felt like it was getting further and further away from them with no end in sight. As Naraja sighed he began to hear a voice caress its way into his mind that started out as echoes of the mind, but then it gradually grew into whispers that were chilling to him, cause he couldn’t quite understand what it was saying…

Naraja: “Hm, y’a guys said anything?”

Everyone, including B-little, looked at Naraja as if he had asked them all a foreign question spoken in an entire different language. But, in reality they were all confused as much as Naraja, cause not even one single person had opened their mouths to speak nor ask him anything. Weird..

Nai: “You sure you’re alright Naraja?”

Weird.

Naraja: “Huh? I mean yeah sure I’m alright, I got my arms and legs still working here..but..No! Didn’t y'all not hear a voice say “Weird” just a moment ago?”

The moment Naraja announced this word “Weird” in the air for some reason everybody started to feel different. He could sense it. Or more accurately to put it, It's like the atmosphere around Naraja and everybody else had gotten strainful and awkward for a quick moment. He could sense it, Naraja felt like he had said a godforsaken “Should Not Be Mentioned” kind of word...

Naraja could’ve sworn he had heard someone say that, but at the same time he didn’t have any logical way or a silly “Haha” way to prove it to anyone here in front of him. Unless they each individually were inside of him. Inside of him to feel his toes that feel his shoes. Inside of him to feel his hands shake just because there was no way to explain this. Inside of him to feel his legs shake and wanting to run away and huddle up in a ball just simply from this crippling change in the atmosphere that he has no idea how it happened. Inside of him….

Anima: “...”

As Anima sensed Naraja’s soul/heart beginning to crumble piece by piece right before her, she couldn’t help it, but proceeded towards him and as she approached him…

As Naraja felt a warm soft-tender little hand grasp his hand out of nowhere as if it was intended only for Naraja. As if he was supposed to receive this hand for help at this exact moment. He thought it was weird because he could sense his vision was starting to come back to him little by little. Reality by Reality. Naraja really wanted to cry and let it all out just from this simple act of kindness….but he just couldn’t..he had no idea why he just couldn’t let it out…(yet) . So instead he just simply held onto her hand and didn’t let it go. 

Naraja: “Let’s go.”

As Naraja turned his back with Anima hand in hand by his side and announced that demand aloud to everyone in a sensible cold manner. Everyone behind could sense that shift. That change from Naraja was a weird shift indeed because both Nai and Isilia scrunched their brows in perplexion at that statement. Even John shook his head left to right whilst Teresa sighed a deep painful sigh that sounded like that only a mother would have for their own child. Each individual had become more worried for Naraja in their own respective ways. As Naraja started to walk again through the corridor towards the door to get closer to the ‘Red Book Of Memories’ he became more worried about himself because he had thought to himself…

“What the hell is happening to me…”

As he went into deep thought with that thought with his eyes closed, that thought had  begun to hear more thoughts...but they had become more vivid and comprehensive inside his mind. Like they were amplified by something, but Naraja just sighed and opened his eyes back open, because he couldn’t care less to think about the “how’s” of the amplification that came to be from this complication that just occurred in his mind.

As they proceeded more and more deeper into the corridor passing torches that were lit as ever on top of doorways that lead to wherever they lead too, they finally came towards the red coated blood of a door that would lead them to getting closer to the “Red Book Of Memories”.

Naraja: “Huh. How did we get here so soon…”

Nai: “Hm? What do you mean Naraja? We didn’t get to the door soon. Nope! Not at all! Look at B-Little. He reaaally~ looks tired from all this walking~.”

As Nai said this to Naraja he turned his head and peered his vision down behind him towards to see that B-Little was panting not from the lack of exercise but from the lack of not taking a moment to relax. A moment to just rest. 

Naraja: “Ah...My bad… My bad, B-Little. My bad Nai. My bad everyone..”

Nai acknowledged Naraja’s apology and shook her head left to right and said…

Nai: “It's alright Naraja~ and plus aren’t y’a tired from all this walking as well? I know everyone, even myself, is tired from this long walk of a journey to the door.”

As Naraja contemplated the words in his head that Nai uttered into the air around them. He couldn’t believe them, he just couldn’t. Because to him from his perspective with his senses. His head to his feet was telling him that they’ve only been walking for about five to fifteen minutes. Which shouldn’t be that too strenuous on any human being at all. But for Naraja’s group they were tired out rather quickly.

Naraja: “I don’t know if it’s because I don’t have any memories of myself or because I’m just super weird like that, haha.”

Naraja scratched his right-cheek while giving a sheepish smile and turned around to face everyone and bowed his head down to give his apologies to everyone that he had burdened. After showing his deepest apologies, Naraja plopped down onto the floor almost immediately and opened up his arms big ‘n wide with a devilish, but yet a bright and warm smile on the side to welcome everyone to do the same as him. Rest.  As each member sat some of their equipment and behinds on the ground to give their feet and body a second, Naraja was the first to open his mouth and...

Naraja: “Alrighty, now that everyone is sitting down and relaxing I feel like this is a given chance for all of us to actually chat, heh.” “First up is Minch! Hehe.”

Minch: “Naraja, do y’a think we have the luxury and time to be doing a ‘chat’ at this time?”

Naraja: “Hue hue, you said ‘y’a’, Minch.”

Minch: “Shut up!”

Isilia: “Goddammit Naraja...”

B-little: “Arf!!”

Teresa: “Alrighty children, it's time to move on to business and come up with a plan before we enter that doorway.”

John: “I’d second that course of action.” 

Nai: “Ditto!”

Naraja: “Fine. Fine. A plan. A battle plan….”

As Naraja pondered on that thought while caressing B-little’s head to calm down his nerves screaming at him. Naraja came to a conclusion in his mind that he couldn’t come up with a plan. At all. Was it because of him losing his memories of himself that he wasn’t able to come up with a simple plan or was it because he just sucked at making plans, especially for this situation…

Naraja: “Dammit...come up with a plan you worthless dumbass. It's simple.”

As he said these words towards himself trying to rack his brain around to come up with a plan beyond this door that rested before them covered in blood-shot red paint to the point Naraja felt uneasy-ness looking at it. He was starting to feel another feeling. One that was more painful. Doubt. Doubt had started to seed its way into his heart/soul. He could hear it figuratively crackling under pressure in his ears.

B-little: “Arf!! Arf! Arf!”

As soon as Naraja heard the barks coming from the scruffy mutt stopping his thoughts in their tracks. He didn’t know if the bark from B-little was intentional or not, but regardless of it being intentional or not, it did help him come out of his kerfuffle of thoughts.

Nai: “You okay there Naraja? You're lookin’ a little sad n’ wonky in the face.  You okay? You okay?”

Naraja: “I hear you! I hear you! Geez! First of all, who the hell says ‘sad ‘n wonky’ in the same sentence and I’m alright, I’m alright my face just tends to do this, don't worry about it too much, k.”

Nai: “Hmmm, if y’a say so but if there’s something bothering you, just say so.”

Naraja: “Aah, ‘just say so’, huh. I’ll keep that in mind in the back of my mind as a mental tab...”

As Naraja heard those words from Nai, they resonated an odd feeling inside of him that he wasn’t quite aware of nor familiar with in a sense. For some reason the words alone are what irritated the boy. Not because of the feelings of concern behind it, but because the words seem to have challenged the boy. Why did those words make him feel this way? Why does this person care about Naraja when he doesn’t even remember who he is? Why does his face pose a concern of worry just because it looks a little sad? Why?

Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?

Why!?

Teresa: “Alrighty, children! Let's get back to business about that battle plan, yeah?”

Naraja: “Oh yeah...about that I will just say for our sake “Geronimo!” and “It’s not an adventure if it isn’t at least a little fun!”. So there is a plan and there isn’t one, heh, heh.” 

Minch: “The hell you mean there is and isn’t one! What kind of plan is that, Naraja?!”

Isilia: “Yeah! Get on with it already Naraja. Plus what even is this “Geronimo? You speak of. And that weird saying you speak of. I have never even heard of it, but yet it sounds familiar..”

Naraja: “Ehhhh, I would have thought y’all would know about that saying at least even in this weird world. Familiarity is still something, even if I don’t remember who I am, but still...I mean I only know them because of how my heart/soul resonates with them. That's how I feel behind the words, but yeah it’s y’a know a pretty common saying where I’m from. Both of them, mhmm!” 

Sunshine: “Well you thought wrong Mister Naraja. Now can we hurry this up. I'm getting bored of all this talking and sitting around. I want to explore and explore and explore and explore!!”

Naraja: “Geez! Contain your excitement little one! But yes we will continue onward with our adventure even though we don’t have a single plan thought out. Except this one plan…

Naraja held his ring finger up in front of his face to gather everyone’s curiosity with anticipation awaiting them as well and then he opened his mouth wide and…...

Naraja: “Just go with the flow. That’s all, heh.”

Everyone gave their own individual reaction to Naraja’s answer. From Sunshine wryly chuckling, Minch facepalming, Isilia groaning in annoyance, John bursting out in laughter just because of the simplicity behind the words. Teresa and Nai just held a certain gaze of awe at the words Naraja had said. The two gazes from the beautiful lady’s only were holding a fire of inspiration behind them. For some reason Naraja’s words had sparked something in both of them, that not even Teresa nor Nai could comprehend it. It’s like these words had touched their very heart/soul. 

Naraja: “I know that everyone will have different types of reactions to everything, but this just hurts!!”   

Even though Naraja had said this out towards everyone there were two amongst his ‘Family’ that he couldn’t quite see the impactfulness he had on Teresa and Nai. Since he couldn’t ‘sense’ that from them, yet. Naraja just ended up giving a deadpan face while sighing towards everyone for giving him those types of reactions.

Isilia: “Oh don’t fret Naraja.”

Sunshine: “Yeah! Don’t fret!”

Naraja: “Shut it, you! I don’t want to hear that from a little girl that doesn’t understand the position that I am in while you're all dressed all frilly, at that!”

Everyone became quiet after Naraja had put his honest thoughts out into the air with an “Ah”. Why had everyone become quiet all of sudden? Were’t we just joking earlier? I thought we were joking with each other…

John: “Naraja. You know very well that’s not a very nice thing to say. Especially to a little girl. Say you’re sorry. Now.”

Naraja looked at everyone, even Nai's beautiful face became displeased, this hurted him the most was seeing her face become displeased. He saw the disappointment on her face and then he proceeded to look over and saw that he had made Sunshine cry. That careless, blunt tip of a sword's opinion. Basically an asshole’s opinion. Naraja had no right. No right at all to hurt Sunshine like that even if he was joking with her in a banter matter. Naraja’s soul/heart was starting to hurt even more now just because of the pressure everyone was giving off. At the same time Anima was starting to hear his soul/heart scream n’ burn inside her mind, she didn’t know whether to intervene or not. 

Naraja felt stupid for what he did so he decided to... 

Naraja: “Alright, alright I am sorry Sunshine. Like I always like to say “It's not an adventure if it isn’t any fun”. So let’s go have some fun.”

With that being said by Naraja everyone didn’t know how to take it, but they just took it nonetheless. Sunshine also rubbed her nose to stop the sniffles and just shook her head up n’ down to show Naraja that she understood. Regardless, everybody knew that it wasn’t a sincere apology, whatsoever. Naraja proceeded to get up off the ground and turned around to face the door. Nai, John, Minch, B-little, Teresa, Sunshine, Anima, and Isilia all followed Naraja’s suit and joined him from behind. 

Naraja: “Soooo Orb can y’a still not tell me what I am/what we’re getting ourselves into, huh?”

Orb: “...”

Naraja: “~sigh~ Figures. Always the silent treatment with you.”

After Naraja had finished with that statement with no response from Orb, he placed his right-hand on the red door to push it open. As he began pushing the door open he was beginning to feel cool air brush past his face and see particles of sand float out as well as he pushed the door more ‘n more open. Naraja finally opened the door fully and saw a vast open land of sand that could stretch on and on. He saw an oddly huge tethering knot all the way on the other end by squinting his eyes that had the door inside of it. Getting lost in this place could lead to madness. So Naraja clapped his hands together and decided to…

Naraja: “Alright-y, Everyone! We got a vast sea of sandland and an oddly huge knot all the way at the other end that leads to the next passageway that could lead us to the “Red Book Of Memories”, hopefully it does, but for our sakes everyone should stay on guard from here on out.”

Minch: “What do you mean by ‘hopefully’, Naraja. Are you sure of yourself or not?”

As Naraja was pointing at the knot that was way off in the distance and about to put his first foot into the sandy area to begin walking forward, instead he ended up flinching at the mention of his name being mentioned in a way to the point it sent shivers up and down his body. He wanted to laugh it off but for some reason he just couldn’t. The way Minch asked that question had started to infuriate Naraja. Why couldn’t he just believe what Naraja said. He had nothing to hide or any ill intentions whatsoever. So why….

Nai: “Now, now Minch, let's just trust Naraja on this, even if we don’t know where we are walking towards too. Like they say “You don’t know any type of situation until it actually happens”. So let’s just trust him, okay.”

After Nai said that while expressing a prideful cheshire cat-like grin on her face while holding up her index finger to Minch, he gave a ‘tsk’ to that response and abruptly proceeded to walk past Naraja and became the first person amongst the group to walk into the unknown sandy territory. As Naraja blinked his eyes in surprise from that whole moment of interaction between Nai and Minch, he couldn’t let go of the fact that Minch just acted that way towards Naraja. He couldn’t let go of the way Minch talked to him like that. 

As Nai, Teresa, B-little, Isilia, John, Anima, and Sunshine all gather their gear up and did not peep a word of two cents at Minch talking to Naraja like that nor gave Naraja anymore comfortable words they proceeded to walk past him as well to join Minch in the desert area that went beyond the door’s hinges of reality. Naraja just stood there with Orb floating beside him. He didn’t know whether to act out on his feelings or join the others beyond the door that led into a weird sandy desert area.

Naraja: *Sigh*.

Here we go I guess.

                                    

           End of Episode 4: Doubt.