NOVEL NEXT Chapter 50: The Definition of insanity
The morning sun cut through the trees like blades of molten gold, casting eerie, jagged shadows across the outpost's smoldering remains. Wade knelt beside Vaas, who lay half-conscious, his body bloodied and battered. Jason's fading life force hovered, barely visible, a faint green glow coiling like smoke from a dying flame.
Wade looked at the faint wisp and smirked. "Guess you're good for something after all~, Jason," he muttered, pressing his hands over Vaas's wounds. The energy pulsed beneath Wade's fingers, seeping into Vaas's skin like drops of water to parched earth, and the burns and cuts began to close up.
Vaas groaned, his eyes fluttering open as the wounds knit together. He glanced at Wade, a faint glint of clarity mixed with something Wade hadn't seen before—maybe fear. "That… wasn't half bad," Vaas murmured, his voice weak but steady.
"Glad you noticed," Wade grinned, slapping Vaas on the shoulder. "Welcome back to the land of the mostly alive."
Vaas chuckled softly, though it sounded hollow. His gaze drifted, as if he were seeing something beyond the trees, beyond the broken camp, beyond Wade. "You know, Wade…" He paused, his tone growing strangely distant. "I really enjoyed our little adventure."
"Flattery will get you nowhere, sweetheart." Wade brushed him off with a playful smirk. But Vaas didn't laugh. He just kept staring at Wade, a faint, cryptic smile on his lips.
"I'll let you leave this place, Wade. Consider it… a gift." Vaas gestured to a rusty one-seater plane by the shore, its propeller slowly spinning in the sea breeze.
Wade raised an eyebrow, unsure whether to laugh or take him seriously. "Wait—you're serious? Just like that?"
Vaas looked at him, his face darkened by the shadow of the jungle behind him, as he uttered something low, almost reverent, that sent a chill down Wade's spine. "Do you know the definition of insanity?"
Wade blinked, unsure if he was supposed to answer. Vaas didn't wait for a response, his eyes flickering with that familiar madness, yet softer somehow, as though it were a memory being dredged up from someplace deep and dark. " Insanity is doing the exact... same fucking thing... over and over again expecting... shit to change... ."
Wade felt the weight of Vaas's words pressing on him, but before he could ask anything, Vaas nodded toward the plane. "Go now. Get off this cursed rock before it claims you."
Wade stared at the plane, then at Vaas, a mix of regret and confusion gnawing at him. "I'll miss you, buddy. In my own not-so-dramatic way."
Vaas chuckled, a strange glint in his eye. "I wish I could remember you." His smile faltered, distant and sorrowful.
Wade took a step back, frowning. "What are you talking about ?Do you have Alzheimer?!."
But Vaas just turned away, watching the jungle with an unreadable expression.
Shaking his head, Wade climbed into the rickety plane, muttering under his breath. As he buckled up, he looked back one last time. Vaas stood in the clearing, his back to Wade, a shadow against the rising sun. Wade felt a weird pang—something was off, but he couldn't place it.
The plane's engine roared to life, sputtering a few times before finally catching, and Wade took off, soaring high above the dense jungle. He watched as the island grew smaller beneath him. But as he looked down, his eyes widened in shock.
The outpost below him… was as if nothing had happened. The fires were gone, the bodies of the kyraties he'd taken down were nowhere to be seen. Everything had returned to how it was before—pristine, untouched.
"Wait… what?" Wade rubbed his eyes, squinting to make sure he wasn't just seeing things. But the island had reset, everything right back to where it had started.
His mouth dropped open as he watched the outpost beneath him return to the way it had been when he first arrived. Jason's menacing laugh echoed faintly in his head, and Wade's confusion turned to anger.
"What the F—?!"
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A.N: gimme some stones