Accidental Healer-Chapter 68 - Disappearances

Cassie barely registered her own footsteps as she walked back home.

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The air felt too heavy. The world too empty.

She had just given up everything. Hadn’t she?

Maybe it was for the best. Jordan was a good enough man. It wasn’t like she could lead on her own.

She was never supposed to lead. That was Andrew’s job. That was always Andrew’s job.

“Baby, I know it’s scary,” he had told her once, his grip firm in hers. “But since when have we run from scary?”

Cassie squeezed her arms around herself, as if she could trap the memory before it slipped away.

Over the last decade of their lives that had become their mantra whenever things got hard. We don't run from scary.

Her husband, Andrew, was a plumber by trade. In his early twenties he decided to leave the company he worked for and start his own plumbing company.

He said the same thing then. At first, it had been hard. But they stuck with it and Andrew made it work. Two weeks before the induction they had celebrated their first million dollar year.

Like everything in his life when the tutorial had started he was ready to attack it head on. That's just who Andrew was. A natural leader. A fighter.

Cassie wasn’t a fighter. She had chosen to be a jeweler. Even after she chose it, she didn’t know what she was doing. It just seemed like a good choice.

It was. She was able to craft accessories from different materials that could hold small enchantments if they had the shards. It was exciting how the system worked and also rewarding to track her growth.

Her crafting had been a hot commodity around the community of nearly 3,000 people. When the world changed there were more than 4,000, the day the deadline hit still haunted her memories. People had just disappeared. Then one by one they would reappear, or at least what was left of them.

Not even the children were spared. It was that very memory that spurred her on to craft. She HAD to occupy her mind from the brutality.

Andrew had taken that day hard as well, everyone had. People all reacted differently. It was terrifying. Some like Andrew resolved to get stronger. Others hid away. There were still a hodgepodge of modern suburban homes that had been pulled through. But not nearly enough for everyone, and the amenities they had all grown accustomed to were no longer working.

But people adjusted, gradually the area had begun to change as rudimentary cabins mingled with the more modern homes. The inconsistency nagged at Cassie’s OCD but she made due.

Andrew had been the one to receive the objectives. He was surprised that of the 3,000 people, the system had chosen to give him the objective to begin founding a territory. Cassie wasn’t surprised at all.

She was surprised however at the complacency of so many of the people. There were many who wanted to join Andrew in spreading out and growing their influence but it was only a fraction. It was enough though and soon they had cleared their territory and even completed fighting off the raids.

Andrew had formed a small council of people together to help him plan and make decisions that had both fighters and non-fighters. The home where they met would often ring with competing voices on what the next best plan of advance would be. It became especially heated when the first raid handed them a number of casualties. It was the first time since the tutorial anyone had died.

No one had taken it well, especially Andrew. That didn’t mean the reactions were the same. Andrew wanted to push forward. Others had pointed out that they didn’t NEED to fight the dungeons. Soon enough others would fight the dungeons. There was no hurry. All they had to do was wait, let the military handle this.

It was around this time that people had started going missing.

When the first woman disappeared Andrew and the council had shrugged it off. The family had shown up and explained she had disappeared overnight, but it had only been a few hours certainly she would show up sooner or later.

She hadn’t. The day came and went without a trace of the missing woman.

The next morning, two more women. Same as before, gone without a sound.

The pattern continued, but it wasn’t just women anymore. Night would fall and people would vanish.

This went on for a week. Andrew was flustered after the third night he began having men walk through the streets patoling. Then one of the patrols disappeared. He made the patrols stay in groups of at least three.

It was in this precarious situation that Jordan had entered their factions' territory with five other strong looking men.

He had announced himself as the faction leader of a neighboring territory. One that was only a few Territories away. He was a pleasant Man in his 50’s with a bright inviting smile.

Jordan explained how one of his faction members had been scouting surrounding areas and he stumbled across their town.

He had told Andrew he was relieved that there were other people nearby and he hoped they could work together. Andrew agreed and asked if he would like to meet the rest of their council.

-

Andrew ushered Jordan and his men into the home where they had gathered their small council.

“Please, come in. Make yourself at home.” They met in the front room of one of the larger houses that made it through the induction. The former owners had chosen to ignore the tutorial. They were a beautiful family of five. They had taken down the pictures, Andrew had taken one for himself. He kept it in his inventory, occasionally he would pull it out and look at the smiling faces. It kept him grounded, kept him moving forward. This is the life he would still create with Cassie.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The five men huddled into the room and found seats not already occupied by his own people. It was a tight squeeze but they made it work.

“Andrew, thank you for getting this put together on such short notice. Especially when we showed up on your doorstep out of the blue.” Jordans smile was infectious. Andrew was in no mood to smile though.

“Of course, we're all still people after all. The world might be falling to shit but that doesn’t mean we have to.”

Jordan laughed. “Sure, Sure.” Jordan reminded Andrew of his own father. With creases at the eyes made from having an easy smile his whole life. “But I think we can all admit, we are living in a very unusual time. With more than its fair share of tragedy and challenges.”

“You are really underselling it.” Tyler, one of the members on Andrews council said under his breath.

Jordans eyes softened and his smile faltered. “I try to stay positive. It can be hard. I’m not sure about your faction here but we have experienced more than our share of loss already.”

Andrew could relate to Jordans deflation. “We have also. This home is a painful reminder. The family that lived here was lost when the tutorial timer counted down. They had three children.”

Andrew's words seemed to Sober Jordan. “I couldn’t convince my wife of 20 years to join our group. I didn’t know…” He trailed off and his eyes began to fill with water. Jordan cleared his throat. “Yes, well, I didn’t come to tell you my own sad story.”

“So why did you come?” Cassie, another member of the council, asked maybe a bit more pointed than she meant.

Andrew glanced at her, half exasperated, half amused. That was just like her—no dancing around, no patience for politics.

Jordan met her gaze, his expression sobering. "You’re right, of course. It’s a fair question."

A beat of silence.

"You should know my intentions aren’t altogether altruistic."

Andrew nodded for him to continue.

"Finding you wasn’t entirely an accident," Jordan admitted. "For the past few days, people in our faction have been disappearing randomly in the night."

The air in the room shifted.

Andrew felt the unease ripple through the council.

"We’ve taken measures to stop it," Jordan went on. "We’ve doubled patrols, set up watches, but… nothing works. At first, I thought it was some kind of monster, something stalking us from the dark."

His eyes swept across the room, gauging reactions.

No one spoke.

"But the more I thought about it, the less that made sense. The only monsters anyone had seen were in dungeons.” Andrew had that same thought himself. “But If it wasn’t a monster, it had to be one of our own. A traitor. Someone taking people for their own reasons."

Tyler stiffened. Cassie’s fingers curled into a fist against her thigh.

"We conducted a full investigation. We searched every home, interviewed every person. But we came up empty." Jordan exhaled. "So we expanded our search. If it wasn’t someone in our group, then maybe—"

He let the words hang.

Andrew’s stomach sank.

Tyler beat him to it.

"Maybe it’s someone in ours?"

Silence.

Cassie let out a sharp breath, eyes narrowing. "Are you serious?"

Jordan didn’t react to the accusation. He simply raised his hands in a calming gesture. "If it feels like I’m pointing fingers, that’s not my intention. I’m simply here to get answers."

"Well, maybe we want some answers too," Tyler shot back. "Because it isn’t just your faction losing people."

Andrew closed his eyes briefly. There it was.

Jordan straightened in his seat. "You’ve been losing people too?"

Andrew hesitated. He hadn’t planned on revealing that yet. But now the information was out.

"For the past three days. Yes."

Jordan raked a hand through his silver-streaked hair. "This is worse than I thought," he muttered, half to himself.

Andrew’s pulse ticked up. "What do you mean?"

Jordan turned to one of his men before answering.

"Think about it," he said carefully. "Two factions. Forty miles apart. Experiencing the exact same disappearances."

He let the weight of it settle.

Cassie was the first to reach the conclusion.

"That means there are two of whatever’s doing this."

The room went deathly still.

For a long moment, no one spoke.

The air was thick, suffocating.

Andrew didn’t know what was worse—the fact that something was out there taking people in the dark…

Or the fact that they still had no idea what it was.

“So if you're not here to point fingers, then why?” Andrew already had his suspicions.

“I hadn’t come here expecting your group to have the same problem.” Jordan had admitted.

He hesitated. “Our hope in coming here was to try and find answers. Ideally, collaboration. We didn’t know what to expect. Now?” He shook his head. “I don’t know.”

Andrew sat scratching his chin. All that they had learned tonight was that their problem might be even bigger than they thought. Jordan came here but he didn’t have any solutions.

“There is something.” Jordan said a bit slowly.

“What?”

“I’m just brainstorming here but if we work together it might be easier to root out the cause. The problem is our factions are so far apart. But, maybe you’ve already seen the teleporters in the panel shop?”

Andrew had seen them. He didn’t see how that would help anything though, they only worked in your own territory. Jordan hadn’t said it yet but he knew where this was heading.

Of course.

“The answer is no.”

Jordan played at a look of shock.

“No?”

“That’s right. No, we are not going to join your faction. We don’t know you, you don’t know us. It’s much too early to consider anything like that.”

Jordan again raised his hands in surrender.

“Normally I would completely agree. But everyday we don’t find a solution, more people go missing. Those people matter to me. If you are not willing to join our faction would you consider us joining yours?”

Andrews brow furrowed.

“You would want to join our faction?”

“No. I don’t WANT to join your faction. I also don’t want my people to keep disappearing. Together I think we could find a way. I’m willing to do whatever I have to.” His tone was solid.

“How would joining our factions help?” Cassie asked with genuine curiosity.

It was a good question. So far, neither faction had any success protecting their people. What would MORE people do?

Jordan scratched his chin thoughtfully. “Cassie, the truth is, I don’t know yet. What I do know is that I am scared, and the thought of working together to fix this helps me feel just a little better.”

I could tell Cassie was buying it. Jordan seemed like a good man, with good intentions. Still, something about how the conversation just all worked toward combining factions didn’t sit well with Andrew.

“Jordan, this is not a no. But before we talk anymore about combining factions I would prefer to visit your people. Just to get a feel for who we’d be aligning with. Is that asking too much?”

Jordans pleasant smile returned. “I think that is a perfectly reasonable request. If it’s all the same to you, I’d prefer to not waste any time. Why don’t we all get some rest and in the morning we can make plans?” Jordan began to rise readying himself to leave.

“Why don’t you and your men stay here tonight in this home? It has enough room for everyone. You’ve given us all a lot to think about.” Tyler said, looking to Andrew for his approval.

Jordan followed tylers lead looking to Andrew.

“Of course. Yeah, please. Make yourselves at home. I have some responsibilities to handle but we can meet again in the morning.” And with that Andrew reached out to shake hands with Jordan and the rest of his men.

Everyone exchanged pleasantries briefly and then Andrew and Cassie left together into the fading light of the day.

“You don’t like him?” Cassie asked, reaching out to walk hand in hand with Andrew. Grabbing his upper arm and pulling him close.

Andrew looked ahead. “I don’t know… It's not like I don’t like him. It’s just. I don’t know.”

“Aren’t you at least a little bit relieved that we are not alone in all of this?” Cassie asked, pulling Andrew to a stop and looking up into his eyes.

“Of course I am. It’s great. I just want to make sure we are being careful.”

Cassie nodded and rested her head on his chest.

“I trust you baby. I know you will make the best choice for us.”

And with that she kissed him on the head and they walked home, holding hands hopeful.