The Mystery Man - Mefan

Chapter 6

-Carter-

What am I doing out here? I wondered. Maybe I should have just gone back. Mefan wouldn’t be far away, and I’d be fine returning on my own, but I couldn’t bring myself to move. There was something about this place—it brought me peace. Even so, I dared not touch much of it. I had reached for the water, and surprisingly, it remained just water. But I wasn’t about to test my luck with the flowers or leaves. I didn’t want to watch them crumble beneath my touch.

I still hadn’t found a way to control what I was doing. Mefan, of course, wasn’t affected by it, but he had also been the one to bring me back.

I glanced briefly at him. It wasn’t just my touch that had strange effects—his did too, on me. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Shouldn’t I be worried? It hadn’t felt like this when I was truly alive. It was because I was bound to him now. There was no other explanation.

“What are you thinking so hard about, Prince? I can practically hear your brain working,” he joked.

He caught my eyes on him, and I quickly looked away.

“Just contemplating how annoying it is to be tied to you,” I sneered.

My words only made him laugh, and for some reason, the sound didn’t annoy me as it once did when I first met him. Now, it made my heart race, and a strange, nervous feeling spread through my body.

“Come now, who more interesting than me could you possibly want to find yourself tied to?” he asked.

I looked at him, shaking my head, before replying, “No one. I don’t want to be tied to anyone.”

“Well, then you’d be dead.”

“Maybe I should be,” I said, standing up. “Maybe being dead was what I was always meant to be in the end. Dying young like my brothers.”

Mefan shook his head, regarding me as if I were being foolish.

“You weren’t supposed to die,” he stated.

“How do you know that? Are you playing God?” I retorted.

He didn’t answer. He just averted his gaze, leaving me puzzled. He rarely grew silent or wore such a bewildering expression. Usually, he sported that infuriatingly crooked smile that sent shivers down everyone’s spine.

“How can you be so sure that God wanted you dead instead of alive?” he countered.

“I was impaled with a sword. It went through my heart. You don't think that’s a sign of divine intervention?”

Mefan rose from the stone slowly, and I instinctively stepped back, needing some distance. It was hard to think clearly with him standing so close.

“But I was also right there with you, with the power to save you. How do you know that wasn’t God’s plan—to bring you back through me?” Mefan reasoned.

I opened my mouth to dismiss his notion as absurd, but I found myself speechless. He had a point.

“No,” I finally responded, shaking my head. “Humans don’t typically survive something like that. We don’t return from the dead, looking like…”

“Like me?” he interjected.

“I seem to have acquired some of your traits, haven’t I?”

“They suit you well, Prince,” he remarked before walking past me.

I was... taken aback. That wasn’t the response I had anticipated, and for a moment, I just stood there, unsure of what to say.

I shook my head, attempting to compose myself, before I turned to face him. He had begun to stroll around the lake, and I sighed, irritated that he was simply walking off when our conversation wasn’t finished. I hurried to catch up with him.

“We’re not done talking,” I asserted.

“But we are. Just enjoy the tranquility,” he countered.

“Mefan, I was supposed to die,” I insisted, reaching out to grab his arm, but the touch felt strangely powerful.

A surge of warmth coursed through me, and I instinctively recoiled, as if his touch had scorched me. He glanced at the spot where I had grabbed him, then back at me. Did he feel the same sensation?

“Is that so?” he inquired, breaking the tense silence.

I nodded. “My family was waiting.”

“Or were they simply exchanging brief pleasantries?” he countered with a smile, scrutinizing me for a moment before, without warning, he shoved me backward.

I stumbled, losing my balance, and my foot slipped over the edge, plunging me into the lake. The cold water splashed everywhere, and I swiftly resurfaced, finding myself near the edge where I could stand. Coughing, I wiped the water from my eyes.

“What the f*ck?” I exclaimed, my frustration boiling over. “Why the hell would you do that?”

He simply grinned and shrugged nonchalantly. “Thought it might be amusing?”

“What?” I spluttered.

“And it was,” he confirmed.

Shaking my head in annoyance, I located a suitable spot to pull myself out of the water, which had soaked my clothes and body. Dripping wet, I emerged from the lake and glared at Mefan, jabbing a finger in his direction.

“You’re just trying to avoid this conversation,” I accused him.

He maintained his smile and resumed his circuit around the lake.

“Or perhaps it’s you who want to avoid it,” he suggested.

“What? What does that even mean?” I demanded, trailing after him as the sun rapidly began to dry me off. “I’m the one pursuing this conversation!”

“And I’m helping you avoid it because we both know deep down you’re not truly ready for it,” he remarked.

“But I am! I want it!” I insisted.

“No, you’re just seeking an excuse to resent me. To direct your frustration at me because you’re feeling adrift right now. You’re uncertain how to control your newfound abilities. You’re unsure how to face your family in your current state, and you’re grappling with your sense of purpose,” he asserted, coming to a halt.

I did likewise, and then he turned to face me, locking eyes with an intensity that left me speechless. Those dark orbs seemed to swirl with an inner darkness that held me captivated.

“You don’t want to have this conversation because eventually you’ll realize you should be thanking me.”

“Thanking you?” I chuckled incredulously.

He nodded solemnly. “You’ll come to understand that, by restoring your life, I granted you freedom.”

“Freedom? Freedom from what? I was a darn prince! I had everything! And I wasn’t bound to you!” I retorted, jabbing a finger in his direction.

“No, you were merely trapped in your old life, which we both know never truly fulfilled you. But now, you’re out here. No one besides me and my assassins knows you’re alive, and my assassins aren’t the chatty type. You’re genuinely free now, and that terrifies you, doesn’t it? What do you do with all this newfound freedom, Prince?”

His words echoed in my mind. What indeed? It was the question that had plagued me since I awoke in this unfamiliar place.

“I...” I began but faltered, unable to articulate a response.

He arched an eyebrow, silently prompting me to continue.

“It wasn’t your decision to make,” I asserted, unwilling to agree, for what would it say about me?

Mefan offered another knowing smile and shook his head ever so slightly. “Oh, but it was, Prince.”

“Quit calling me that.”

“But I rather enjoy it,” he replied, his voice laced with a teasing undertone that stirred something within me... sensations I preferred not to dwell on.

“You shouldn’t have brought me back. I was ready,” I insisted.

“You were far from ready, or else you wouldn’t have returned,” he countered.

I shook my head, signaling the end of our exchange, and turned to head back toward his castle, yearning to distance myself from him yet unable to venture too far.