An Announcement chapter7

Story about Jack's pilgrim

I hurried to follow him. He and I continued to walk for 30 minutes or more, I had no clue to know where we were. But tall trees began to appear, the landscape around us gradually change color, and the premonition of a dense forest could be felt. He walked two steps ahead of me. I guessed who he was. He said he had died. And he said he knew me, too. Nonetheless, I didn't know him. But, I felt like I knew him. Indeed, have I met him before? If so, where? When had we met? I couldn't imagine at all. As I thought, he abruptly stopped walking. Without notice, we walked on a gravel path, and it led through the forest. There was a thick forest around us. Above our heads, the branches reached out like forming a ceiling so that we almost couldn't see the sky. And I remembered I had been there before. In my childhood, the shadows of leaves on my face, the rays of sunlight through the branches... who had I been with... who was he? I saw the man who had white hair. He never turned back to me. He kept on looking forward. Like seeing through everything. He had said, "dying means seeing". I tried to see over the end of road. It was filled with sunlight. I wasn't able to see anything except for sunshine. Maybe there weren't branches over there. Was he seeing what I wasn't? He wasn't in my memory. However, he might see or know what I do not. That was that.
"Boy, I can't go further with you. From here, you should go alone." He told me. Then I nodded.
He asked me to shake hands. I held his hand. The leaves rustled over our head. I saw his eyes. Shadows of me were swimming in the seabed existing in his eyes. Deep blue, deep silence, I was there. I could see myself by looking into his eyes.
At that time, noises reached me. The noises reached me. In the deep ocean, I suddenly felt like I was choking. Craving to breath, I was astonished by the noises. The noises certainly preyed upon me, and I can remembered that entity. All of a sudden, someone was shaking my shoulder. It got me to return to the dense forest.
"Boy, are you fine?" The older man asked me. I stood on the ground.
"Yes, perhaps." I replied.
"I must tell you one thing. He must return. And he's searching for you."
"What's? Who do you mean?"
"You must know! If I told you who he is, you can be traced by him. I can't explain to you, though I wish I could."
"Well, anyway, it's threatening to me, isn't it?"
"Yes, definitely, inevitably, one way to escape from him is to find yourself before he finds you."
"I see. I don't know who he is, but I'll find myself and my children as you mentioned."
"Good. Then, go. You should have all tasks done by the time night comes. He hides in the dark in the nights. When the dark comes, you can't escape. That means the end."
I nodded and turned around.
"Boy, you mustn't look back from here."
"OK, but how far does it continue?"
"By the time you find yourself."
"OK. Thanks. I'll go."
I took a step forward. My footmark was printed on witty roads. Every moment was printed on the line of lapse like my footmarks. I stepped. So, where did my memories go? I stepped. If they were inscribed, they were never lost even if they were forgotten. I stepped. How about mine? At that time, the face of the older man appeared in my mind. I stepped. I just understood who he was. He was my old memory, wasn't he? I stepped. Didn't he say that he was dead? Didn't he want to mean that he was lost, lost from my memory?

I stopped.

He said why water is transparent. That is, that was, my question. Once I asked him those question. He was my old doll. When I was alone, I was always with him. He might be a doll, but I can't recollect what kind of character he was. I guessed he had been a dog, maybe. He had been absolutely lost from my mind, which meant that he was dead. I was right that I had never seen his face. In fact, I had never seen him. Dying is seeing, he remarked. An older man might be the his real appearance. That doesn't mean a lot, as he said. That is that. I tried to look back, but I managed not to, remembering his remarks. I wondered if it was goodbye. If so, I wanted to talk with him more about everything that was lost from my mind. In front of me, the rays of sunlight sparsely cast lights on the gravel path. As I saw the scenery, I was certain that this wasn't goodbye. The lights were never lost, even if we're in the dark forest. Like there are no sea has no seabed.