I ran as fast as I could and behind
me, I could hear the creatures, whimpering, snarling and panting. As I
scrambled up the slope to the house, I glanced over my shoulder and saw my
missing best friend, standing under a crooked tree. However, it was just a
glimpse since the creatures, which is a pack of hell hounds were catching up.
Irresponsible of me, huh?
Well, what do you expect me to do?
Turn around and grab her innocent neck to safety? For your information, if it
was not for the fact that she was the
one who summoned the hell hounds, I might have done it earlier. I kept on
running until I reached the door. Suddenly, I felt a searing pain on my
shoulder and I noticed that fresh blood came out from the wound. A claw stuck
onto the door and my best guess was it definitely came from the hell hounds.
I quickly went inside the house and
locked the door with a big, metal lock. Then, I ran upstairs and saw a hole
that seemed to be fitted perfectly for a person to jump inside. With no time to
waste, I immediately leaped into the hole and found myself sliding inside the
hole until the darkness overwhelmed me.
My name is Renee Misaki, your
average Japanese-American girl. Oh. If you are wondering which side of my
family is Japanese, I must say it is on my dad’s side. Anyway, I am fifteen
years old and I have a best friend named Hayley Unger.
How did all of this happen?
It all started when we went for a
camping trip in the woods at the outskirts of Miyagi area. My dad can’t come
along as he was busy. In other words, it was just the two of us. So, by the
time we arrived, Hayley unpacked our camping equipment. She brought along
strange gadgets with her and before she tested it on me, I was still working on
with the tent.
We were planning to take a nice, hot
bath when I realized that something’s missing. “Hayley! I forgot to search for
firewood. Want to help in wood hunting?” I asked her. She looked at the sun. It
was dusk.
“Er... you go alone. I-I-I’ll stay
here,” she stammered.
You see, Hayley was a happy-go-lucky
type of girl and she was also the craziest between the two of us but if there’s
one thing that Hayley is afraid of, it was darkness and cramp places. Well, I
don’t know the reason of her claustrophobia but I don’t want that became the
reason that ruined our friendship. So, I never asked her.
I shrugged and went deeper to the
forest. Before that, I took a glance of the campsite and saw Hayley was going
inside the tent. One fashion tip that I would like to share if you want to go
inside the forest during autumn: wear at least two or three layers of shirts
before you use a jacket. It was extremely cold around here because I only wore
a long-sleeved shirt with a denim jacket as my top. After I’ve done with my
task, I tried to trace back the path to the campsite but then, I got lost.
As a final resort, I took out my
cell phone and punched on Hayley’s number. Then, it rings. “Hello. Hayley? I am
very sorry to ask you to do this but I think I’m-”
“Reene? Please, help me! I’m stuck
in some kind of cave,” I can hear Hayley’s voice was trembling. “Cave? What are
you doing there? Wait a sec. There is no such thing as a cave in these woods!”
I exclaimed. “I know but trust me, there is a cave here. I changed my mind a
few minutes ago but when I tried to find you, I found this cave. I thought that
nothing will happen if I went inside but then a big boulder blocked the
entrance. Please, Reene. Please save me,”
sobbed Hayley.
“Okay, I got it. Don’t hung up the
phone and describe the route that you took earlier.” I walked according to
Hayley’s instruction. I have to say, she has a good memory about these things.
“If I’m not mistaken, there’s a big
tree beside the cave and-” she stopped talking abruptly.
“Hayley? Hayley?! What happened?” I
quickly ran until I saw the cave. Just like she said, it was blocked by a
boulder. I tried to move it but it was in vain. Suddenly, a green light shone
through the split between the cave and the boulder thus, making it opened by
itself. I cried out her name but the only thing that I can hear was my echo.
I went inside and took out my
torchlight. I walked deeper and deeper into the cave until I found out that
there were two paths in front of me. I let out a curse in Japanese. I was about
to take the left path but then, the same green light appeared at the right
path. So, I thought maybe that was where Hayley was and went straight to the
light.
Sure enough, I was staring at a tomb
at the end of the hallway but then, the girl that stood beside it attracted my
attention. “Hayley?” I called out her name. She turned around and smiled at me.
Wait a minute. That smile of hers was not her usual happy smile. It was some
sort of those smiles that the witches in the movies... Uh oh. Don’t tell me...
“W-w-who are you? What have you done
to my friend?” I stumbled back.
‘Hayley’s’ eyes glowed green and
suddenly, my chest hurts so much that I thought I might blacked out right on
the spot but I tried to hold back the pain. “Well, well, well. It looks like my
dear twin sister is inside this
girl,” she said. Then, she leaned over me. “Hmm, she does resemble me and
Esmeth when we were young. Anyway, mind if I take that heart of yours? Oops, I
mean my sister’s heart.”
‘Never!’ was the thing that I wanted
to say but the pain really got the best of me. Well, at least I have the energy
to crawl back. “No worries. I assured you that you will be not in pain.
However, I must say that your life will be over as soon as I take that heart,”
she showed her creepy smile. I grabbed some sand and threw it on her. While she
was rubbing her eyes, I stood up and ran as fast as I could.
I looked back and saw ‘Hayley’ was
summoning the hell hound.
After what it seemed to be an
eternity, I finally got out from the tunnel and found myself inside some sort
of basement. I took a little trip around there when I found these cool twin
scythes. There was a chain that linked the scythes and somehow it was telling
me to touch them. Crazy, huh? Anyway, as soon as I touched the scythe, a flood
of memories flowed into my head. There were images of twin sisters, same white
hair but different eye colour. The eldest, which was Esmeth had red, crimson
eyes while her sister, Lucia, had green, scaly eyes, like a snake’s eyes. There
were so many images from they were baby until they grew up and became adult.
Then, I saw Lucia stabbed Esmeth at the stomach by using telekinesis and Esmeth
last words were : don’t let Lucia have her heart.
Suddenly, the visions had
disappeared just like that, leaving me experienced a major headache and I saw
the world was spinning around me.
“Finally, you knew,” a voice came
from the dark.
I turned around (still dizzy) and
saw Hayley/Lucia standing a few steps from me. “Why? Why did you do such a
thing to your sister?” I asked. Lucia held out her hand in front of her and a
big sword came out from thin air. “Why? I tell you why! Our family always
thought that since Esmeth had the mythical Dragon Eye, she was the one that
brought luck for our family. And me? I had the cursed Snake Eye and my own
family ignored my existence. So, I planned to use Esmeth’s heart to perform the
Armageddon to start a new life, only for me. Me! Lucia Grayhound!” she burst
into laughter.
I was extremely angry with her
reasons. My mind was completely blank as I took the twin scythe and slashed
her. Unfortunately, she dodged it but actually, I sighed with relief. You see,
that Lucia girl took over Hayley’s body and I don’t want to kill my best
friend.
Lucia landed a strike on my stomach.
I can’t really described the pain but if you were thinking of a stomach ache, try
multiplying it with two. That’s how it felt. I was panting heavily because her
attack just now really disturbed my breathing. Then, suddenly my chest hurts
again. This time it was even more painful than before.
I dropped the scythe. Lucia was
surprised with my sudden act.
“Oh, do you wish to surrender? Fine
by me,” she mocked. I clutched my chest and willed myself to fight the pain. Not now, not now. Please, I beg you!
“Don’t worry. Everything will be
over soon,” a woman’s voice whispered to my ears. With that, I felt like my
body was no longer mine. When Lucia was about to swing her sword towards me, my
hands moved by its own and somehow I was doing magic. Lucia was extremely
shocked. “E-E-Esmeth?” she stammered.
Esmeth? Wasn’t she dead? “Nope. I’m
in you all the time, Renee,” Esmeth’s voice came out from my mouth. Then, the
next thing I knew that I was using the scythe to fight Lucia. My body moved by
its own and I’m impressed by myself that the moves that Esmeth put on was
incredible. We stopped for a while and looked at the nearest mirror. My brown
eyes had been replaced by Esmeth’s eye colour, red crimson.
“Let go of the girl that you
possess, Lucia, She can’t die like this,” my mouth moved with Esmeth’s voice.
Lucia chuckled. “I can’t, sister. My body had crumpled and I need this body!”
Esmeth was about to perform another spell when I stopped her. “Wait! Esmeth,
can we change places again?”
Somehow, Esmeth knew my plan and she
willingly changed places.
As soon as I found out that I've
gained control of my body again, I started to talk to Lucia. “Hayley! I know
you’re in there! Please, fight her! Come back to me!” it was my voice that came
out this time. Suddenly, Lucia jerked hard. When she looked at me, her eyes
were blue -- Hayley’s eyes. “Renee? Renee! I can’t hold this much longer. I
have something to tell you,” she gritted her teeth. “What is it?”
“I- ARGHH!” she jerked again and
this time, I’m sure that Lucia came back.
“How dare you to defy me! I’m going
to kill you right this instance!” she lunged towards me. Automatically, Esmeth
changed places again and both of our weapons clashed. After we backed off a
little, Lucia jerked for the second time and went closer to me. Esmeth was in
defense mode but she relaxed a little when she saw her blue eyes.
“Renee... I’m so sorry,” she said.
She took one of the scythes and stabbed herself. Esmeth remained calm but me,
inside my consciousness, I was dumbstruck. Lucia that was inside her wailed and
I could saw the green light was getting fade until Hayley collapsed.
Esmeth gave back my body and I
quickly went beside Hayley’s blooded body.
“No, no! Hayley... What is the
meaning of this?” I moved her to my lap. Now, my pants and my hands were
covered with her blood. Hayley put her hand on mine. “Renee... The thing is I
don’t have much time left to live,” she said. Between tears, I tried to meet
with her gaze but I can’t. I can’t looked at her pitiful eyes that shows
affection and without regrets.
Her hand moved to touch my face. She
forced me to see her, eye-to-eye. “Renee. I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you
earlier but my disease was getting worse. I only had a few days left. When I
saw you were happy when I followed you here, I can’t just ruin that smile of
yours. Forgive me, okay?” she explained.
I’m speechless but then I nodded. Tears were heavily flooding my eyes to the extent that my sight was clouded. Suddenly, her hand dropped.
From that, I knew that she had already left this world.
From that, I knew that she had already left this world.
