The Creatures Series

Third Night

Third NightCreatures of the Night

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##### Third Night #####

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Join the dance of the night

Full of mischievous and tricks.

The kappa refuses to talk.

I have been using all the methods I can think off to make him utter his secrets, but he is making me hard to get on my revenge on by not cooperating with me at all ─ not that he knows about me planning to take my revenge on his little creature-of-the-night friends or anything. But it is just too obvious even though I have not mention any of it. He is not stupid.

Done talking, I shift him back into the tattoo of my wrist. At least this will stop his complains about my lack of liquor stock. Before having some, what is the point of having one? I don’t have any and I don’t like that kind of stuff, anyway.

Feeling tired, I decide to take a shower. The bathtub is starting to get full, when a doorbell of my room rings. Who would be ringing by bell? No one that knows me practically knows where I am.

I rush from the bathroom to open the door, only to find Shara standing outside.

“What a surprise to see you here, Shara, but I thought you don’t want to associate with me anymore,” I mutter, opening the door wide and gesturing her to come inside.

She walks in, but doesn’t take a sit. “We need you back, Arsene,” she says right. But I only stare blankly at her until she continues with a sigh. “After the night we encountered you two years ago, we’ve been suspecting that the monsters are gathering alliance to conquer the world. I know this sounds kind of epic, but we have some strong proofs for this matter. Our spies managed to locate one of their meetings and able to report it back to the Sorcier before they managed to capture them.

“We suspected that they won’t leave any living evidence for anyone else to hear, but they haven’t realized that we already knew. Now, with proof under our hands, we still need to recruit more members into our group. They have quite a number of strong creatures, you see. So,” she sighs once more, “we need you to join back with us to eliminate this rebellion.”

Sorcier has a duty to keep the balance of this world from letting creatures like us to be known by human ─ or at least, to keep us from being acknowledged by something more than just some mythical creatures. Other than that, it also posts as the protector for the humans from being attacked or killed by rogue monsters, beings that want to destroy the humankind.

So when it comes down to world domination from wild monsters, this problem is pretty big and so unavoidable that it has to be taken care of immediately.

I wait for her to continue, but seeing her pressing her lips tightly, I guess she has finished talking. Now it only comes down to my choice.

Do I need this? I’m not really sure. When I walked out from them, I had made my decision to never turn back. I was sick of the hunting and killing. I was sick of the danger it brought to us. I couldn’t stand the loss of our members. So I left.

If Minny were still alive, what would she say? She would want me to join back, go back to the wizards I used to cared so much about. But they’re not like her. They are stronger, more resilient. They can take care of themselves. That is why I managed to leave them with almost no guilt.

But Minny isn’t here anymore. She must want me to move on, to be happy. Just like what an angel will say.

So I lift my gaze at Shara’s dark magenta eyes and say, “I accept your offer.”

*

The ride to Sorcier is fast. I do not have much to pack from my hotel room. Shara brought her own car, and I do not have any other thing to do. So we agreed to go to Sorcier for me to re-adjust to the new wizard facility.

The whole building is like any other office, with normal lobby, normal reception, and any touch of an extravagant class for any normal 150 floor-tall building. Except, this one very building is very exclusive to certain wizards.

Not every wizard is part of the Sorcier. We have a certain level of ability for our membership. Although it is a proud thing to be part of it, not much dare to die in duty either.

The building still has the same structure from the outside as the old one. It is located at the very center of the city, surrounded by nine safety security posts the circle the area, but separates itself from touching the ground near the city.

The whole area is so private, it takes ten kilometers from the very outside of the level one security post, to the second higher post. And it does not even include the distance to the main building.

It is so obvious about the difference between the area of the hotel I previously stayed before and the area in here. It is like a totally opposite class of community.

Once Shara parks her car at someplace I am pretty sure reserved especially for her only (by the color that was painted on the cement), we walk inside through the South door. The places are exactly the same replica as the old one, only this one has some different newly-bought furniture.

From the greetings that Shara gets since the moment we step inside the area, I already know that she is famous at here. That makes me wonder to how well have the old group has developed.

We step into the elevator (they have ten at here) after passing some more security checks. Shara pushes the level number 145 (some level they’ve got!). We wait for five minutes before the doors slide open. Once we got out, I follow Shara, who leads us to a certain turns through the bright hallways. And even the hallways are decorated in high class taste.

We arrive in front of these metallic double doors. Shara walks in when the doors slide open automatically, followed by me. Inside, my old mates are all in there, and by the look in their faces, seem to be waiting for my arrival. I notice the anxiousness that are being held in their faces, as if afraid I might decline the offer. But they all smile and welcome me once they see me walking behind Shara.

“Hi, guys,” I greet.

“Arsene!” shouts Banri, with enthusiasm bigger than any of us can ever have. This makes me wonder where he gets all of that energy to be so happy all the time. “We can’t wait for you to get to work with us. Things never felt the same without you, you know. It’s like we have this missing piece in the team. This mission’s going to be the most interesting and thrilling ever, I bet!”

“You should see his look when he found out that there’s a possibility that you’re coming back to us. This monkey has been jumping up and down from the floor to the ceiling like he just won a lifetime stock of bananas,” Crease says to me, losing a bit of her awareness. Banri only grunts to her as a reply.

I giggle. “Me, too,” I reply to Banri. “Not about the jumping up and down the building, but about working with you guys.” The others choke with laughter by my comment.

“I agree with Banri about the missing piece thing, though,” Nono says. “I miss the drawing competitions. And since you’re here, I want to have a rematch from our last duel. You better watch out, Arsene. My skill have gotten much better after a two-year break. And I’ve learned new painting techniques,” he warns me with a playful tone. Nono and I are the best artists around, so we used to compete out abilities against each other to decide who is better all the time.

“I’ll take you up to that. I’m not lazing myself around in this past two years either,” I challenge back with the same playful tone.

“Up for a duel already?” Shrade asks, his golden eyes glow with excitement. “Then I won’t lose to Nono either. Arsene, why don’t we have a real fighter match after you guys are done?” he offers.

“Sounds interesting,” I answer. “But I think we better have all of these bounding times after the mission is complete, okay?”

“So you’re planning to stay? Like, forever?” Banri asks enthusiastically.

I nod slowly.

“But how about Minny?” The question stings me like a lightning, fresh from a dark sky. How about her? Should I tell them now? I don’t want to crash the good mood that we have. But I think it will be better for me to tell them rather than them hearing this from someone else (or for more specific, from the monsters that attacked us).

“I’m afraid I have some bad news, guys,” I say slowly, staring at the floor. “She died.”

Everyone turn silent in an instant.

Do they hate me now? That I’d killed Minny....?

“What?!” It is Shara who shouts, breaking the hollowness. “What happened? How come? Weren’t you with her?” She asks accusingly.

I bite my lips. Then I tell her the story. “I was too late, Shara. She was already dead when I got her into the elevator. She died because she protected me, because I lost focus in that one split second. I couldn’t do anything else for her. Even those monsters who had attacked us have escaped when I looked for them. I didn’t have any other choice but to bury her in the cemetery with my own two hands,” I snap between short breaths.

I never tell this to anyone else. No one besides them now. Tears are building themselves in my eyes, but I hold them in. When I look up, they all hold the same grieving expressions that I held after I realized that Minny was dead.

Picking the worst timing of all time, the doors slide open. And when I look at that direction, revealing four unfamiliar figures. The four boys hold very arrogant expressions on their faces. The front one has hair as long as his shoulders, colored by silvery green. Beside him is someone with short dark blue hair. Behind them are two other boys; one with orange hair and the other with yellowish. They all have the body proportion of well-built soldiers, almost able to match Shrade’s. They excel more in looks, though.

Who are they?

“Hello, fakes. Lazing around to waste Sorcier’s money again, I see. Even the number of monsters you guys slaughtered isn’t enough to feed yourselves, huh? What’cha gonna do again for your next missions? Run like chickens when the big boss shows up?” the silver-haired boy says with a smug smirk plastered on his face.

“And when they do, we’ll defeat him and save the day. They just need to handle the weak ones while we prepare for our last battle,” add the one with the yellow hair across from him.

They all laugh together, but don’t seem to notice the new additional member of this team.

Seriously, who are these wizards? They can’t just barge in like that and insult my friends.

It is Nono who recover first from the shocking news and answer the question that has been pounding inside my head. “They are the Fourth, a team superior one more level than us. You know how power and position make beings; they like to tease and laugh at us like bullies. But now that you’re here, I’m sure our team can win over them.”

They’re just bullies?

“None of your business,” it is Shrade who replies them. “You all are just jealous because the mission fell into our hands rather than yours. You think this will easily boost up your reputation, but you are wrong. This mission is a seriously important one and we won’t let the world being destroyed just because it falls into your arrogant hands,” he continues firmly.

“Jealous?” The orange haired asks between underestimating laughter. “Jealous of you wizards? Oh, please! Spare me the lies. We all know who’s eventually gonna fail.”

“Don’t test our patience,” Crease spats in. “We’ve been tolerating your insults since we become the top five. It’s time that you all back off and mind your own business. You all are higher than our position, after all,” she admits bitterly. “Surely you have some more important missions to take care of than to visit us every time we have better mission, right?”

Feeling offended, the one who talk first, the silver boy, ballasts at her. “You think just because you manage to the top five that you’re all so high and mighty now. We can crush you anytime we want. Do remember that, rats!”

Some of us hissed when they call us rats, some even in a position that says: I’m ready to whack your heads of your necks. The Fourth doesn’t want to lose from posing their square off. But Shara, being a good leader, interrupts them.

“Enough, everyone,” she says with a firm tone. She is not yelling, but I can tell that everyone in this room can listen to her. “I’m sorry for not able to tend your arrival, but we have business to do, too. So if you can excuse us, Fourth, then I will be glad.”

They let down their fists, restoring their calmness (or I guess that’s what their calm faces look like) and back to their arrogant expression.

“Now that’s better. Show some respect to your seniors. Next time, though, if you act disrespect towards us, then we will make sure that you’re not even able to work at this building,” the silver-green haired boy, who looks like he’s the leader of the team, tell us before they leave.

All of my friends look tired after they are gone, even Shara who always look so collected let out a sweat. I feel really bad for them now. If I had stayed around, surely I could have defended them more.

“That will be all for today, guys. We’ll start our mission tomorrow night. Banri, take Arsene to her room,” Shara says her final words. We are all dismissed at the same time.

To the rest of the walk, Banri’s expression seems to harden. And for his measurement, that is not okay at all.

I touch his long sleeve. “Don’t mind their words, Banri. I know you guys are better than them. They showed it just by coming here,” I tell him.

A couple of seconds pass before he nods his head.

My room is right beside Banri’s and right across from Crease. The inside is composed by four walls with the length around ten times ten meters and an additional five times five meters as the second floor. That’s not even included with the bathroom and closet. It has been furnished by plain furniture such as the king size bed, couches and tables, a double-door fridge and a set of kitchen counter, along with the small dinner table for two. The windows are freakishly tall and wide, covering half of the walls, giving a full view to the outside landscape.

This is how the room looks like before anyone is staying inside of it.

“Simply beautiful,” I comment.

Banri explains some more about the things around my new room, before retrieving to his own.

“Listen, Arsene. I know that this is not really necessary, but I am really glad that you’re back again. We all do,” he says with a thin smile on his lips before closing the door behind him.

Thinking I should get some rest too, I put my backpack inside my closet (which has many space to put wardrobe for ten people), get changed into my nightgown, and sleep.

That night, after two years, I can finally have a true, sweet dream.