‘I once found a girl in the dark…’
‘She looked frightened…’
‘Others didn't pay the least bit of attention to her…’
‘But strangely…’
The tiny innocent boy stood obediently and silently between his parents, fixed his icy eyes on a particular spot, eyeing the trembling hands of a girl whose face remained unclear in his hazy memories.
‘I couldn't feel sorry for her.’
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The Red Flower
Chapter. 6
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Elois didn’t get the time to register when he was swiftly pushed by the gloved hand of the muscled stranger, speeding his fall to the ground and going through the trees of one of the many gardens in the academy. He fell on the grass with a groan; several small broken branches were lying above and below him. Ignoring the pain all over his body, he slowly pushed his body up with his trembling hands and flinched when he heard the close voice of the man from behind.
Karl stood from a distance with a languid smirk, looking playful even with his sharp, frowning eyes. Picking on his pointy ear with his pinky finger as he casually asked, “Let's start with this one first. Do you remember me?”
Elois turned his head around with a scowl toward the buff man as he answered in frustration, ignoring the leaves falling from above his upper body, “How many times are you gonna ask the same thing?! Do I look like I remember you at all?!”
Karl rested his hands on his hips, looking slightly annoyed, “Nothing? So you don't remember the time I saved you?”
That only angered Elois even more, “Huh?”
“Hmm… I don't think this is proof enough, though…” Karl mumbled as he turned his head in thought. He then shrugged and looked back at the other with a wide smirk showing his sharp canines. “Alright, c'mon!” stretching his right hand out to the side, a huge sword appeared out of nowhere. He grabbed the sword so easily with one hand and gestured with his other hand for the other to come closer, “Entertain me, will ya?!”
“Wha—!?” Elois only had 2 seconds to react fast when a strong blowing air charged toward him; he reflexively dodged fast and jumped to the side enough distance away from the attack. He didn't have time to understand what was even happening anymore before facing another incoming attack. He found Karl charging toward him with the giant sword.
“Fight me, kid! We're playing a game now!!”
“Then—” he jumped the highest he could manage with his legs stuck to his chest to avoid getting cut by the big weapon, then stepped on the man’s broad back to help him jump and quickly kicked the closest tree and jumped to stand safely on a distant branch, looking down at the man, “Find someone else to play with—!!” however he didn’t have a break when he quickly dodged another attack from below, jumping away from the cut and falling branch to step on another, he started running and jumping from one tree to the other as the man from below continuously attacked with his sword. And when he was about to jump to another tree, he found himself flipped over. He went up fast to the sky, the same thing that happened to him in the classroom. He stiffly stayed quiet, frowning up at the sky as he silently cried in his head, ‘Am I— Am I flying to the sky this time?!’
Karl came into his view again, smirking down at him, “Hi, AGAIN!”
He wasn’t given any second to think as he received a heavy hit to his gut by the pommel of the other’s sword, sending him fast back down to the ground. But before he was met with the grass again, he was kicked on his side and flew to the other side of the garden. Laying still for a second before trying to push his beaten body up, “…mng-” he couldn’t feel his hands, however, and fell with his face down on the grass. Giving up and laying in silence as he basked in the short moment of peace he was given, ‘Damn… I’m beat…’
But it didn’t last long when a sudden shout came not far from him, “Up you go!”
“No—” He widened his eyes as he knew his body wouldn’t be able to handle the torture anymore, and in the next second, he was sent up high again. He silently looked in a daze at the distant man down below him. Unmoving even as he saw the odd movement of the other’s hand as it pointed down and slowly lowered.
“Down you go~”
He expected it, but it didn’t lessen the pain even a bit as he was thrown straight into a giant stiff branch and collided hard with his middle, “GAH—!”
He stared face down at his limp hands dangling in the air, too beat and tired to struggle or move anymore, ‘Is that beast even a human…? Isn't it strange that I'm still alive…?’
“Don’t wanna fight, huh?” said Karl as he cut the branch effortlessly, making the younger fall down again on the grass with a thud; walking to the young man leisurely to stand by the limp body. Karl looked down with his usual frown and his hand on his hip, “So, no chance of pushing you to your limits? Although I can't smell anything odd from your blood… that's still not proof enough…” he squatted down and took a closer look at Elois, who managed to crack one eye open and look back at his attacker. “Shall I look into your memories, then? I don't really wanna do this, y'know. But it needs to be done, so let's get to it fast and be done with it, yeah? Forgive me, kid.” Karl offered an apologetic look, the playfulness from before nowhere to be found, as he grabbed a fistful of Elois' hair from the back of his head to pull him up closer to his face, forcing Elois to meet his red glowing eyes.
It felt like a switch was clicked in his head. Everything came like a wild flood from the rock bottom of his mind. Like a movie playing right before his own eyes, as if it happened only yesterday. It was all too much for Elois, the fear from that day, the panic, the coldness, everything coming back in full force, making him unable to breathe.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Help me, okay? You love your mother, right?! Then, help me!”
“You said you'd help me no matter what!!”
A beautiful woman with messy hair and wide eyes stared at him, barely holding back her tears as she was in fear of something he wasn’t sure of.
“You know, Elois? People are so cruel.”
“Lu… L-Lucas…”
“I'm looking forward to that day, then~”
The picture of a man wearing a lab coat and round sunglasses, with messy black hair tied messily to rest on the shoulder and a cold smile that meant anything but good, coming closer and closer to him in what looked like a surgery room in his eyes.
“Lucas…… Luca-Lucas—”
He didn’t want to see anymore; he didn’t want to be aware of anything. He wanted an escape; he tried to forget and escape the rushing memories. He felt cornered, he felt cold, he felt weak, he felt—
“NO!!” he snatched his hand out of Karl’s grip and then hurriedly crawled away from the other, his whole body trembling. He clutched his head with both hands as he cried out loud, “Stop sTOP STOP STOP STOP STOP!!”
“Dammit… so what that shit said to Albern was true…” Karl’s frown deepened as he looked at the serious situation unfolding before him. Slightly raising his hand, summoning his big weapon again as he muttered to himself, “I have to get rid of you fast—”
“ENOUGH!!!”
An explosion filled the place out of nowhere at the scream coming from none other than Elois.
Javi, who was walking peacefully in a hallway among other students, flinched as everyone else and stopped abruptly at the sudden sound of an explosion not too far from his location. Everyone looked out the window, following the direction to the source of the sound, “An explosion…?” he stared at the smoke for a while, furrowing his eyebrows in worry.
.
.
Davante was left to do nothing but read the book as he was locked in the empty room and had nothing else to do. He deduced that it was supposed to be a book of Yeolard’s diaries or a way of connection disguised as mere diaries. He started reading the first page with his calm eyes.
—Dear Davante Fixsen…
I know this is not entirely convincing coming from a complete stranger, but I hope you would believe one thing first: I am not your enemy and never will be.
I am only trying to help you with the game we were both unknowingly forced into.
The room you are in now has been hidden and protected by a barrier for years; consider it a shelter for both of us for this short moment. I needed to reserve this book for you and only you. However, I can't promise to keep you safe in this room for long, for you now have the book in your hands.
She will find and chase you no matter what; you need to be alert.
Please, be careful from the eye watching you everywhere.
There is little time; I'll break the barrier soon. Run as far as possible, far away from her.
I shall end the page with one last thing.
"Never Lose the Book"—
Just as he read the last line of the page, a faint sound came from the door as it opened behind him. He turned to look at it silently. He was utterly lost and had no chance of understanding a thing with that kind of introduction that started with a vague warning. Yet he felt like it wasn’t anything ridiculous to ignore it simply.
-Run as far as possible-
As he contemplated what to do next, he sensed a careful movement of something- someone behind him. He turned to find a girl with very long white hair and eyes wide open, nearly popping out of their sockets. She looked like she hurried to the room and was out of breath. She stayed in her weirdly ducked position with both hands and legs on the floor, raised her head, and eyed him before eyeing the book in his hands.
-Far away from her-
He stayed still as she slowly stood up, revealing her tattered old white dress. They stared for a short, silent, and heavy moment.
On instinct, he ran out of the room with the book hugged tight in his hands before she leaped toward him with her thin hands reaching for the book. He didn't have time to decide where to go; he was met with the same hallway he was in before getting into the room, but looking deserted and destroyed, with huge branches pierced through the roofs and floors everywhere. He ran to whichever side and dodged each branch in the way as he felt her following close behind him, ‘Was I always this fast? My body feels much lighter…’ he glanced behind to find the girl chasing him on all fours like a wild animal. At that moment, he really thought of her as a monster rather than a human. She suddenly jumped so close, and he instantly decided to jump out of the windows while still facing her way.
He was taken aback by how high he jumped and found himself flying up in the air.
And in no time, she jumped so close to him with her hand extended once more for the book.
.
.
Karl groaned and coughed as he rested his forehead on one of the trees around him. With much difficulty, he tried to push himself up with one hand and one leg as he had lost his limbs a moment ago and was dripping blood everywhere, “Shit—” He gradually grew back his limbs and part of his head, “I should've come sooner…”
“You wanted to play, yeah?”
Karl froze at the sudden voice and creepy appearance of a half-monster poking its head behind the same tree with a wide grin. He quickly jumped away from the half-monster Elois and readied himself to fight, immediately bringing out his weapon.
The grinning Elois with black eyes asked while raising his scissor-like hand in Karl’s direction, “Rock Paper—” he paused as he enjoyed the confused look on his enemy’s face. He excitedly screamed, “Scissors!” he closed his hand with a snap like a scissor.
Karl was so confused that he overlooked the large red crystal on each side of him, shaped like a big scissor. “Shi—” Karl widened his eyes and tried to jump away from the attack, but it was late as he was quickly cut in half. His body flew in two opposite directions; his upper body fell to the ground with a thud, and he could hear his limbs falling to the ground not far from him.
The monster strolled with its wide toothy grin while snapping its hand like a scissor, “You lose~”
Karl huffed a sigh of relief as he rested his cheek on the sand beneath him, ‘My heart is safe, fortunately— but this is way too bad…’ he looked up to find Elois walking slowly toward him, or more like staggering.
Just a few meters from each other, Elois fell to the ground, and all the creepy fog around them disappeared. Karl observed him silently; when it seemed like Elois was not going to move anytime soon, he waited for his body to regenerate again and stood up tiredly with a huff, “Phew, thank you for passing out, kid…” he dragged his feet toward the passed out Elois and raised his sword again, looking at the kid with sympathy displayed on his face, “Sorry you got dragged into this mess… time to get rid of you now…”
Just before he got to kill Elois and finish him for once, a sudden laser beam sliced off his two arms and sent them flying far away from him along with his weapon. “Heh,” Karl lowered his hands after a moment of silence, throwing a relieved grin to the unconscious Elois with eyes closed as he started disappearing with the smoke, “And you're saved once again. Later, kid!”
And Elois was left alone, beaten and defenseless on the ground.
Soon, a tall boy wearing a black hoodie that hid half his face walked toward the unconscious young man and sat on one knee on the ground. With a weapon like a rifle gun tied by his arm, the boy moved his other hand to check Elois’ pulse, sighing as he looked at the tears on the guy’s eyelashes.
“Still alive…”
.
.
Davante bounced from the ground with his foot and lost balance in the air, looking down at his feet as he got far from the ground in slow motion, ‘Is something wrong with the gravity here?’
He glanced behind him, looking at the mess of all the long trees and branches, ‘Did I manage to get away from her?’ just as he thought so, he was suddenly aware of a presence in front of him and turned his head back forward, barely dodging her reaching hand and hugging the book to his chest as his body descended to the ground. He slid to a stop as she was getting ready to jump again at him—
‘Why is she after the diaries?’
He stood for a moment when she decided to stand not too far from him, shoulders raised from all the tension. She stared at him with her eyes wide as usual, showing more wrinkles on her forehead as she looked wary of him. He finally could take a clear look at her, pointy ears and body too thin and bones jut out. Hair long enough to slide on the ground.
“Hm?” he blinked.
‘Wait—You… You're—’ And at that moment, he recalled a memory that was forgotten long ago. He was the one to jump toward her this time and towered over her smaller frame. She suddenly cowered and tried to step away from him, sweating heavily when he got too close, and bony wings slowly came out from his back looking like a web, circling her as if locking her along with him in his own cage, and his horns got longer and larger.
With his eyes slightly glowing in the dark, he darkly mumbled, “You— I had to kill you… I have to kill you.”
She gasped loudly, teeth gritted and trembling. Then she shrieked so loud that it felt like the whole place was shaking around them. In a blink of an eye— everything went back to normal.
Davante eyed the place around him to find himself back to normal, no more dark sky with red clouds, no monster hands, and no sight of the girl. He was back to reality, with the diaries still in hand. ‘It felt like… my whole memory was within my reach, but fled away the second she started screaming…’
He looked around him to process where he had ended up; obviously, he was still in the academy. But when he was more aware of his surroundings now that his head was clear, he noticed the ruined garden before him, as if a giant rocket had fallen, causing a massive hole in the ground.
“What… happened here?”
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The End of CH. 6