Instantly Ava puts her hands over her mouth and the black tattoo thing that just looks like a choker, but after she said that zigzagging lines appear off of it and she screams in pain. 

It continues for several minutes and her whales sounded like a feral animal that got cornered. She also let out a pressure that felt like the air was getting filled with water. I could barely breathe and all I could get out was a yelp as I fell over, gasping for air. 

My mind races and I panic, thinking I’m going to suffocate, but suddenly her screams got weaker and weaker till it was just a whimper as well as the air becoming breathable. 

While still riled up, I ask “What was that?”

For a couple minutes she just breathes heavily but eventually says, “I’m not compatible with that weapon at all.” between breaths. Then she coughs a couple of times and rolls onto her side. In basically a whisper she says “Just give me a couple minutes…” while closing her eyes.

So I pick up my card and wonder why I didn’t get that type of reaction. Well, she did say something about compatibility, so I guess I’m just compatible and she isn’t. Knowing that I focus on the card and think what type of situation I was in while it appeared.

Honestly, I thought I was going to die in that cell and was numb to everything for a while. I try to muster up the same feeling by remembering the times I got shocked as well as my time in the cell.

Then suddenly the card lets out a dull light, and it changes into a small pocket knife. I just kinda scratch my head… Why isn’t it a sword this time? While inspecting it, I feel a surge of emotions and none of them are good.

I hear whispers “Kill…!”

“Kill…!” 

…

“Kill…!” 

…

“Kill…!” 

My body moves on its own.

My grip on my knife gets to the point my knuckles change colors.

I look over at Ava and raise my knife high above my head and all these feelings I can’t deal with. 

They want blood…

I swing down at her vulnerable sleeping body, ready to cut through her like butter and see the blood and gore. 

I hear Ava say, “I guess you are not very compatible with it either.” then her hand knocks the knife faster than I could swing it and it turns back into its card as soon as it hits the ground. Soon, a calmness washes over me and I feel normal again. No more thoughts of killing. It kinda felt like there was fog in my brain and they forced me into the passenger’s seat.

Wait, who do I mean by they?

The last couple minutes get fuzzier and fuzzier, but I know what I tried to do…

I just weakly look at Ava and try to apologize, but she cuts me off and says, “It’s fine, Eric. You went berserk because of the artifact. It happens with a lot of people if it doesn’t take a physical toll.”

I’m kinda shocked, mostly because she says it’s fine. I almost killed her, but also that this is the most I’ve heard her speak before. The response comes out of my mouth weakly to the point all I could muster up is, “Then, uhh, thanks for understanding?” I still feel extremely guilty because I almost ended her.

Sadly, all she responds to me with is another head nod, but she says, “Alright, we better get going soon.”

I grab my card and say, “I’m getting piggyback this time…” this is just a weird situation. She crouches down and I hop onto her back. She immediately dashes extremely fast through this hallway and we soon find ourselves outside. The giant iron door was the front door or just a side exit, but either way, we found a way out.

Not that this means we are out of the thick of it because as soon as Ava get’s a couple feet from the exit a bunch of white magic circles appear on the ground and a loud dull alarm like noise echoed around the forest and Ava just kept running without looking back.

After Ava running for what felt like an hour, she pauses and says, “You can walk now.” while crouching down to make it easier for me to get off. Once I’m on my own two legs, I feel wobbly because they fell asleep from being clenched tightly. Not that’ll affect anything so I follow Ava and we head in the same direction she was carrying me.