The Creatures Series

Ninth Dark

Ninth DarkCreatures of the Dark

© All Rights Reserved

##### Ninth Dark #####

--------------------------------

You don’t know how many revelations can be found in the dark, until your end arrives.

The last memory is already inside of me when I step out of the pentagram. As my sight is back to reality, I begin to notice that Marylin is nowhere in the council room. Not even in the manor. And so do the rest of the elders.

Everything is so quiet in here, I can even bet that three quarters of the Rainfolds had escaped along with those old wizards.

I smirk thinking about it. I'm back after all. So they must have made quite a running for their lives.

But I miscalculated a little. It is unavoidable to happen. I was still not completely myself yet. Much harder to remember when was the last time I was myself. I am far from full.

I didn’t tie them down to one of the pillar when I decided to step into the pentagram. And as I regain my memory back, they used that chance to escape. So now I need to find Marylin.

She is the key to my 'death'.

I can hear footsteps from miles away in the maze of corridors walking near even before I take the figure in. And from the wavering shadow, I know almost instantly who that is.

"Well, if it isn't Anthone Tay Rainfold. I've heard so much about you. But I don't think we've officially met yet. I'm Arsene,” I hold out my hand to the confused-looking boy that stops in front of me when I approach him. "Arsene Noirmelns,” I smile ungenerously while thinking of various methods of how to end his life.

"Do you know where Marylin had gone, by the way?" I ask casually, making sure of his usefulness. If he knows something, then I don’t need to kill him. Yet. The impression that he left on Centry isn’t very good for me to let him stay being around for long.

But it doesn’t look like he’s planning to talk as he clenches his jaws tight, after realizing who I am. “Stay away from us, Noirmelns. If you try to make a move again, I will make sure that you lose both of your arms,” he threatens me. He’s also torture-trained, so it doesn’t seem like I’m going to get anything from him. Too bad.

As I raise my hand, another voice interrupts us from afar. The voice that rings as light as a bell stops Anthone immediately from attacking me.

“ Anthone, wait for me! Don ’ t leave me alone. I want to help with the search, too. They might be with her ─”

Anthone cut her immediately, trying to warn her. “ Wait! Don ’ t ─”

I push him away so that he can hit the wall and land on top of the rows of frames that ’ s hanging on it. He falls to the wooden floor along with a number of framed pictures ─ all showing ungenerous smiles. The glasses break and get her attention.

“─ come, ” Anthone finishes, already too late to stop his little cousin as she runs faster towards where we are.

“Anthone? Where are you? Are you okay?” She asks, sounding worry. She still has no idea what’s going to happen to her until she makes a turn from an intersection to the left.

“Hello, Hayden. It’s nice to see you again. But if you’re looking for other than him, then the rest of your cousins will not be around anymore,” I greet her with the depressing breaking news.

Hayden freezes in the spot. Her lips numbed as her eyes just stare at me. She looks mesmerizingly at me, until she distinguishes something. She runs towards me, spreading both of her hands widely to hug me. “Centry!” She sounds happy.

“No! Hay, get away from her. She’s not who you think she is,” Anthone shouts, trying to stand. But one glance from the corner of my eyes and my shadow comes alive from above him, chaining both his hands down to the floor. And just in case so that he won’t give me another trouble, I block his mouth as well.

“What are you talking about, An? This is clearly Centry, even though it’s kind of hard to recognize her before since her facial expression is different from before,” Hayden trails off. She pouts when Anthone doesn’t seem to say anything, still hasn’t see the blockers over him at all because of the dim lighting.

“But I’m positively sure she is Centry. Don’t you remember? It’s kind of impossible for you to not recognize her at all. I know that we have a big family, but you have a picture of her in your bedroom.” Anthone glares at her in return to keep quiet, while I only arch an eyebrow.

Now that’s something I don’t know.

“Now, Hayden,” I say, getting their attention. “Do you happen to know where the rest of the family went to? It will be a great help if you can tell me where your Aunt Marylin is,” I smile sweetly at her as she lifts her head to me.

“ Of course I know, Centry, ” she smiles gradually. “ Aunt Marylin, along with the rest of the clan, is in ─”

They’ve escaped to Graveyard City, the most bounded place of all places in the entire universe. No human can trespass it, because there’s a barrier that circles the whole place. It’s not such a hard thing to find Marylin and the rest of my future victims, because they’ve been practically waiting for me over their family’s tombstones.

“I don’t care how desperate you all had been. Your despair means nothing to me. So let’s all just end this very quick so that I can go back to my life, and you can go to where you’re all supposed to be: Hell. I’ll start with....” My voice trails off as my eyes scan the shaking flesh on the well-cared green grass.

Whose figure is going to get my hands on them?

“You,” I point at Hayden who’s standing right beside me. The girl still has no clue about what I’m about to do, probably because she already sunk too deep into this play. “Since you’re such a good kid, I’ll do you a favor for not watching the misery that your entire family is going to face,” I mutter at her with a soft smile. Then, rising underneath her shadow, one tentacle with a size of a wooden block pierces through her heart in a heartbeat. The smile is still plastered on her face as my solidified dark shadow releases her body to the ground with a soft drop, welcome by a chorus of variant screams.

“No!” Anthone yells. Tears start to surface in his eyes as I thought he’s already clear from it.

“Don’t worry, you’re close to second after I finish the entire elders,” I tell him before I turn my head away. “And Marylin will be the last, so that she’ll know what it feels like to lose everything,” I say to her.

“ You ─ ! ”

Before Marylin can curse, a rain of blood practically stains her body. I intentionally make sure that she gets the idea of the aftermath when creatures mess with me, so I prominently squeezed some at her direction. Her eyes begin to be filled with terror as the last heir to Rainfold family crumble to the now red grass.

And I think I’m starting to like the color. It can be my new black.

Her mouth is gaping as an attempt to say something, even though what comes out later is just empty air. Finally, after some minute, she regains a small amount of her strength.

She whispers slowly. “ You.... You said that you ’ ll kill all of us. D ─ does that mean.... ” Her body goes cold as the temperature of her blood gets lower. “ ...That you ’ ve killed those who are still in the manor, too....? ” Her skin is as white as paper when she ask that question.

I snuffle. “If your ears can reach the manor, then I’m sure that you can’t hear anything.”

My answer is pretty clear to describe everything she wants to know. And so does to Anthone and the elders.

“....Why...?” A voice says weakly.

I turn my head to the body below.

“Why did you do this? We didn’t even kill you....”

“Anthone!” Marylin snaps at him.

“Didn’t kill me?” I snort at his remark. “Look at my face clearly. Does it look like it has aged since the day your elders put me in the penalty spot? And since 5 years has passed, don’t you think I should look older? How can I, when this is even not my own body!” I snap a shadow and fire it at my palm in frustration. Then, I face my injured palm at him. “Does it look like I’m bleeding to you?” I ask sarcastically.

It takes some second for him to progress, but he finally widens his eyes. “You’re....”

“Yes. Your elders had transferred me into a freaking doll. And they didn’t even bother to tell me that,” I inform him. “Now,” I turn to Marylin. “Tell me where my real body is, and I will spare your last remaining heir.”

She only stays in quiet.

“Are you sure, Marylin? It’ll be such a waste, though. Sacrificing the best youngest generation of Rainfold for your own ego and self-pride. Don’t you want him to take your entire clan’s revenge on me one day? Come on, Marylin. Starts answering and you will have your heir alive. Only one family member but all of you. It will be a very fair exchange. Besides, you’re not getting any younger. You might be able to create a perfect imitation of me with a piece of wood, but it doesn’t mean that you can have any other children with your age right now, if you’re able to escape from me. The same goes to the other male elders. All of you who still alive have the same fate, except for....” I intentionally let my eyes travel to where Anthone languish.

Even he is too shock on what just happened to put a fight with me. He knows he’ll never win.

“So what should it be, Marylin?”