The Creatures Series

Sixteenth Dark

Sixteenth DarkCreatures of the Dark

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##### Sixteenth Dark #####

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

A new slate.

The same old blood.

Glowing crimson under the moonlight.

But it is not what you are looking for.

"So, where are my friends now? Are they still here or are some of them are still on the missions? Oh, don’t answer that. Never mind. I will find them myself,” I say, excusing myself from his office and walk inside the elevator. I make a stop at the Newbie Training Section at the second level to visit Shara first. She looks like she just spot a ghost going through the corridor when I find her, giving some training at children in the practice room. I don’t expect us to talk, though, remember our history and all. But Shara surprised me by leaving the care of the children to her assistant and approached me.

“It can’t be.... Arsene? You’re still....alive? But....how?” Shara ask. But the figure that stands in front of me, now that I take a look closer at her again, is completely different from the reserved Shara that I knew treating me before. Her magenta hair has become darker, a sign of maturing from the younger previous her. Even her deep magenta eyes have becoming this close to chocolate.

I’m about to tell her what happened when a familiar figure appears, too. But he drops his bucket of yellow paint to the floor before I turn to him.

“Nono. What a coincidence. I was planning on visiting you soon after Shara. Why don’t you join us?” I giving him a kind smile.

“A-Arsene? Is that really you? I-I can’t believe this.” Nono stutters. At least he still looks pretty much the same as five years ago, that I don’t even feel like he had passed without me.

Just when Nono is about to step closer to us, another figure appear. This time, rushing like a maniac.

“I’ve heard about it. Where is she? Is she hurt? Does she need healing powder?” Crease asks to a random member she can spot around once the doors of the elevator slide open and let her get through. One of them points a finger towards my direction, who gives me a horrid look as well. Crease follows where he pointed his finger at, and her eyes instantly land on me.

Her once long black hair had been cut to a very short bob. Her phantom eyes are watery when they meet mine.

“Crease,” I call her.

She disappears at thin air and reappears right in front of me, giving me a big hug. “Arsene! You’re here! You’re really here! And if this is just another false dream, I will break everything I spot with my eyes when I wake up,” she swears from my neck.

So far, she’s the most enthusiastic one that has welcomed me.

“It’s been a while. I miss you, too. And no, I can assure you that this is not a dream,” I reply.

“That was what you usually say, too. And the next thing I knew, you’d puffed,” mumble Crease back, still hugging me so strongly and energetically.

Speaking of energetic.....

“This is real, Crease. You can believe in me this time. But I know that I’d probably said that, too, in your dream.”

We both laugh at that part, follow by Nono. And even Shara as well.

“It’s so nice you see you all, too,” I say to both of them.

“You’re alive, Arsene. And I can’t believe you didn’t come back earlier. Or else we might have been still....er....” Nono drift his eyes from me.

“It’s okay, guys. I already knew what had happened,” I tell them.

“How?”

“Link,” I answer. “I thought my parents were in the top office.” I nudge up there.

“You’ve got to tell us what had happened,” they urge me.

So I tell them the same story I’ve told Link earlier after, which by now is probably be shared with my parents. I wonder what they will do next. They can’t give the title to me anymore, now, because Link already has it. What are they going to do now? Just welcome me back, or even no greeting at all?

“And you’re not planning to go away again, right?” Crease asks me.

My smile shifts to a sad one instantly.

“I’d promised you guys the same thing once when I’d got back before, but unintentionally break that. I can’t say the same thing now. Fate always has its own, it seems. But we’ll see.”

I continue retelling again, and am about to get to the part when I’d survived the kill, before the room suddenly become so loud to the point that it’s just too unbearable to the ears.

“What’s going on?” I ask, wincing.

“It’s them,” Shara says sounding completely bored.

Them? I follow the girly screams to the front part of the elevator, gaining nothing but bewildered ladies. What are they cheering for?

Just when I’m about to ask another question again, two figures appear. Standing at the left, is the golden-blonde one, with icy blue eyes that look careless with the screaming audience they have built. While at his right, as a statue as he can be, is the boy on fire. Not just because the color of his hair is like freshly erupted magma or because his eyes is like a laser beam that pierces directly through the ladies’ hearts, but also because of the annoyance that his face hold. He looks really pissed, even though we all know that he can turn the volume off just by a lift of a finger. So that surely isn’t the problem....perhaps.

My voice is ready to call them out, but is stopped by a hand. Nono shakes his head. I reply him by looking very confused, and then avert my gaze on them once more.

They are looking at us now. And with the same expression everyone else had threw at me when they see me, too.

“ Wait ─”

Nono calls them even though his voice is being devoured by the loud noise, but Banri runs away almost immediately.

Not before I see the mixed emotion on his face, though.

I’ll be back. Let me handle this. I move my lips at my friends’ direction, before dashing to catch up with him.

“Banri.”

He turns back surprisingly, but it just make him run faster when he realized that I’m almost right behind him. He breaks through the crowd carelessly, letting a few screaming ladies fall when they are blocking his way or about to reach out, hoping to touch him. I manage to catch a few of them that fall within my range, even helping them stand with the rest of the crowd, before trying to catch up with him again. But he just keeps on speeding up until we reach a dead end. Or so I though, until he opens one of the large window at the side of the elevators’ corridor.

Banri jumps out, falls for a few seconds, and rise with his fire. All four burning under his shoes and palms. With those, he flies off to the cloudy grey sky that covers the tall buildings that surrounds the Sorcier Tower.

Following him, I jump from the same window as well. I free fall in deathly style, but able to emerge black fire around me as well. I fly off to benet him, but he’s already circling through the glass buildings to lose me.

This has to stop soon.

Ensnaring them, I doubled the speed myself. He looks back to check on me right away, and decides to become faster than me. This won’t end if we keep doing this, but I have another trick under my sleeves. I diffuse myself with the air, becoming muddledness into black fog until I became invisible. He can’t check on me at all after this.

My plan work; Banri looks back and can’t find me. After a while, he lets his guard down and slows down, thinking that I’m not around anymore. I take a shortcut to sneak up at him.

“Banri,” I call him once more.

He’s startled and almost falls when I do that.

“Stop it!” He shouts at me.

“Stop? I just want to make sure that you’re okay. And your reaction isn’t practically well. How can I stop after this, except if you tell me what’s going on?”

“No! Stop!”

“Tell me something, at least.”

“Why can’t you just GO AWAY?”

“Why do you have to be so mean, Banri? This is not the you that I know.” He looks a bit affected by my saddened tone. I try to get closer, but he just shouts at me again.

“No! Stay away!”

“Banri....”

“Stop! Haven’t you hurt me, enough? Haunting me every single of my waking day, pleading and conjuring me to come and mourn for you each night? I can’t live like this anymore.”

I blink. So this is what has been happening.

Poor Banri. He can’t forget my death. I’m back now, and he can’t even tell the difference.

Tears rain down from his eyes, crying in such a disheartening way. I fell a piece of mine fall, too.

Slowly, but carefully, I reach out to him. He tries to fight me off, the hallucination he thinks I am still clouding his eyes. But I let him feel my body, the warmth it is radiating. He gives in eventually. Wrapping my arms around him, I let his body rely on me.

“There, there.” I pat his back lightly. “ Neil opsus sees triesem (There’s no use to be sad.) ”

We both head back after staying like that for a while. Our friends are apparently waiting for us at the rooftop. And Shrade is there, too. So another strong huge of reunion is unavoidable (pretty bone crashing and all). Thankfully, the others have explained about what happened to me before to him and Arch, so I don't have to do it again. Banri still hasn't known, though.

"Guys, can you fill Banri in? I need to take care a little of something for a moment," I ask them.

They agreed on helping, while I distanced myself away from the crowd to reconnect with the communication line with my parents.

And my brain breaks into two.

"Where are you?"

"Are you alright?"

"Why haven't you contact us before?"

"We'll come back right now."

"Don't move from where you're standing."

Apparently, reconnecting back means they can start sensing me very soon and got attacked mentally. I wince, wanting to block the loud sound away, but I know that they will just be angrier at me. So I only deliver my purpose.

"Don't come to Sorcier. Meet me at home," I say quickly when I managed to slip from the headache, before pulling myself out of the connection.