Stories sometimes

Chapter 1: Seeing Ghosts

“Are there any spirits here with us?”

The rain fell, as always, pattering against the windows, droplets sliding down the panes. Lightning flashed in the ink black sky every so often, followed closely by the low rumbling of thunder.

Six hands placed firmly, determinedly, fearfully, with uncertainty on the planchette on the ouija board, surrounded the group of three. The flame of the slowly melting candles around them reflected their mixed emotions in which the darkness of the mansion would’ve hidden otherwise.

The trio tonight consisted of a small-looking, timid boy, whose thick brown hair curled in front of his eyes, quite literally covering them, though not covering his quivering hands. A girl with the sparkliest hairband, her eyes equally shiny with tears that were still kept at bay. Lastly, a girl with the boldest red hair with a shine of determination and adventure in her eyes. The three look to be about seventeen to eighteen years of age, with the bold red-haired seeming to be the oldest of the group. 

“Can we go back home please? I don’t like this!” The timid boy squeaked. The hairband girl said nothing but nodded quickly.

“Oh come on, y’all agreed to this! We’re not going till we have a sign, you said so yourself!” The bold red-haired scoffed, pressing her hands firmly on the planchette, looking up to the grand chandelier hanging in the middle of the ceiling, the patterns on the white alabaster shades long obscured by the layers of dust.

“Is there anyone here with us tonight? Please give us a sign.” The bold red-haired repeated, louder, her voice echoing slightly in the empty mansion. 

Of course there was someone, they just could never see. People come and go, hoping to see something, expecting to see something, only to leave disappointed. Their closed eyes never seeing, never noticing. Even when they set candles to light up the dimmest of nights.  

All focused on a board and a planchette. 

Oh well, I couldn’t care less anyway. So what if they couldn’t see, I’ll send them running. I always will. And this group was no exception. 

“Oh my god! The front door! It opened by itself!” The timid boy screeched and jumped up to his feet. The bold red-haired shouted a warning but the damage was done as the timid boy stumbled, knocking over a nearby candle. The candle rolled over to the sparkly hairband girl, frozen in the confusion, the flames flickered to her skirt and caught fire. The girl screeched, swatting at the growing flame singing her skirt. 

“Get it out! Get it out!” She kicked and screamed, knocking more of the surrounding candles to the ground. Scrambling to her feet, she rushed towards the open front door, under the falling rain into the thick fog, with timid boy following closely and hastily behind. 

“Hey! Come back! What the hell!” The bold red-haired girl called out after them in protest, her voice muffled by the rain. The two that ran could no longer be seen. 

The bold red haired girl sighed in dismay, holding her head in her hand. She got up and cleaned up the mess, putting out the fire of the fallen candles and gathering them with the ouija board and planchette. Then, finally sat back down, back against the railings of grand stairs, a hand running through her red hair that fell messily on her shoulders.

Silence fell again. The darkness returned. I blended out of the front door, which was still wide ajar. Rain was entering the mansion, splashing slightly onto the marble floors. I went up to the girl, approaching closer to her. 

I thought she looked small. Smaller than I thought. Smaller than she was before.

More rain seemed to have splashed in. She shivered slightly, bringing her knees to her chest. So, I made myself small. As small as her. Just for a bit. 

She mumbled something inaudible, resting her head on her knees, soft red hair spilling onto the floor.

“It’s warm here.” She said softly. “Maybe there aren’t any ghosts here.” She said, staring past me. Into the foggy rain. 

“Hey! Wake up!”

I felt a sharp poke on my arm. My eyes flew open and I instinctively scooted away.

“Whoops, sorry. Was that painful?”

My eyes met hers. Those glittering black eyes shone brightly in the sun’s rays from the windows. Middy smiled apologetically, a smile that could make anyone forgive her for anything. 

“Forgive me, Kate?” She pouted like a child. A 29 year-old child. 

I sighed, ruffled her silk auburn hair and cupped her face in my hands, rubbing the little butterfly shaped birthmark on her cheek. Middy was like a child in an adult’s body sometimes, or maybe more than sometimes. A ball constantly full of energy, an energy that I didn’t have. 

“All right, Middy. All right.” But it’s worth it. 

Middy giggled and kissed my hand. She bounced up to her feet, towering over me. 

I could already tell, without her having to say anything, that she was absolutely brimming with adventure. I couldn’t help but smile at her child-like excitement. Middy loved adventuring, exploring, and dragging me along with her. 

And I would follow. Willingly.

I got up and started tidying up the bed. 

“So? Where are we going this time?” 

Middy chuckled.

“Remember the cave we found yesterday?” 

I froze, and clenched the blankets in my hands. I looked up at Middy to see her smiling evilly.

“The dark and scary one?”

“Yep.”

“Oh no.

“Oh yes.”

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

It was a good day. The kind of day where it wasn’t too bright or hot that it was scorching your skin, nor was it too dark or gloomy. The kind of day I would spend feeding the horses fresh carrots, dancing around the house, and falling asleep under a shady tree with Middy.

Oh hell no. Instead I stand at the entrance of a black hole. The entrance was huge, making it hard to miss during our previous exploration. We had shone our torch into the cave from the entrance, but the light showed nothing in the murky darkness. 

Yet, the cave seemed… alive. 

Well I’m just glad we didn’t decide to go at night. I shifted the quiver on my back and tapped a finger on my bow, assuring myself that I would be safe. 

Middy rummaged through her backpack and pulled out two lanterns. She placed one at the entrance and one further into the cave. She stood up, proudly putting her hands on her hips. 

Then I thought I saw her finger twitch slightly, or maybe her arm shaking a bit, or maybe her smile falter a little. I reached out a hand to see if she’s alright. But she whipped around and picked up her sword and backpack. “Alright, let’s go!” 

“Ah!” The only sound I could muster, and then I clamped my mouth shut when Middy turned to look at me. She seemed completely fine now. 

“You okay?” Middy asked. Should I ask? I took her hand, unsure of both questions. I smiled, and nodded.

“Let’s go then.”

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

“It’s so… empty.”

We had left a trail of lanterns every 20 or so steps we took, but it was useless, since the cave’s darkness swallowed up more and more of the light. Without our handheld lanterns, or the glow worms scattered sparsely throughout the cave, we would have been in the suffocating darkness. 

“Yeah,” I responded. “The darkness isn’t exactly comforting either.”

Middy collapsed onto a huge rock, setting her lantern down on the ground. I joined her. 

“A big, dark, silent and empty cave.” Middy sighed, disappointedly looking at a glow worm crawling on her finger. “How depressing, I was expecting something more.” She flicked the glow worm away. She sighed again, leaning back with her hands on the rock.

While Middy moped around, I waved around my lantern, reaching out as far as I could. Besides the glow worms –even then there were very few of them in such a huge cave– there wasn’t a single living thing residing here. No insects, no creeping vines, nothing. This whole cave was not only dead silent, it felt dead in general. 

I lowered my lantern from the cave ceiling, down along the cave walls in front of us. 

Then suddenly, the cave wall disappeared into the darkness. I shifted my lantern to the left. The cave wall appeared again, only to disappear into darkness once more. What the heck?

I got up to take a closer look. Middy questioned, but followed closely behind me. 

Turns out it was actually two pathways, a wall separating them in the middle. There was an ‘X’ scratched out on the wall, with an arrow pointing to the right side. 

Middy traced it with her finger, “Someone’s already been here.”

Just as she said that, a high pitch screech came from the right pathway, vibrating off the cave walls. I winced as it rang in my ears, my hands halfway to my ears.

“Middy, you hear–” I paused when I saw the look on Middy’s face. She was frozen, almost like a statue, her hands in fists, gripping her sword tightly. Her eyes, wide and unblinking, fixed on the darkness leading down the right pathway, as if there was something there.

I’ve never seen her like this before. I gently rubbed her shoulder, and she blinked rapidly, as if I broke her out of a trance. 

“Don’t worry, I’m okay.” She smiled, but it was a different smile.

“We don’t have to do this, we can just go, and maybe do this another day…” 

“Kate.” Middy said firmly, “You worry too much! It's probably nothing, I just got a little shocked that’s all.” She ruffled my hair and turned towards the darkness, raising her hand and pointing to the darkness in a confident pose. “Let’s go!”

But I could tell she was still shaking.

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

We ventured down the rocky path. This time, the cave seemed both alive and dead at the same time, and also somehow even darker than before. Or maybe it’s just me. We tread carefully, shining our lanterns around the walls. There was this uneasy feeling that there was something hidden in the darkness, just out of the light, just outside of our vision. It was unsettling.

“Woah!” Middy exclaimed. I whipped my head around just to see her catch her balance. “I think I kicked something?” She crouched down. It was a grey backpack. A worn out picture of a white crescent on a purple circle was printed on the front. Below it was a name badge.

“Martin Ward.” I read it out. “Is he still here? Why would it be just lying around here?”

Middy zipped open the backpack. A couple packets of bandaids, a water bottle, an empty lunchbox, an energy potion, and a book and pen with the title, ‘Martin’s Journal’. A dagger was in the side pocket of the backpack.

“This guy packed extremely light for a trip down a dark cave. Not even a single lantern.” 

We picked the backpack up and walked forward a few steps before finding a stray arrow abandoned on the ground, the shaft had another name engraved on it: Ekina Salters.

“Huh, is there another person here?”

Middy kept talking, but I started to tune out when I heard a quiet scuttling sound, like metal tapping on the ground. I placed my lantern on the ground as gently as possible. “Middy, do you hear that?”

She stopped talking and got to her feet immediately, her sword drawn and lantern raised, on guard immediately. The scuttling got louder and slower. We stepped back. I nocked an arrow, alert, scanning the ground.

It got closer.

And closer.

And then it stopped. Near my lantern, right outside the light. 

Suddenly, the same high pitch screech broke the silence, but it was so much louder. My ears rang, and my eyes started to water but I held my ground. A black figure launched towards us, the source of the scream. I raised my bow and immediately released the arrow. I heard a wet thunk and thud following quickly. The screech reduced to a gurgle and everything went silent. 

“Yins.” I recalled Middy saying to me one night, pointing to her drawings in her journals she had shown me as I was wrapped in her arms. The picture she pointed to looked like a beetle. It had black, slick and slimy oval body. The legs were shiny metal, the ends sharp. They have small, beady red eyes that could stare straight into your soul and instantly know all your darkest secrets. 

“They’re quite rare, but if you do encounter them they would always arrive in clusters. They would latch onto you, and dig into your skin.” Middy flipped to another page. A sketch of a Yin clinging onto an arm. Its metal legs dug into the skin, blood seeping out of it. “Many others will join and it’ll be hard to get rid of them, so you’ll either die of blood loss or sustain serious injuries.”

“Have you met any Yins?” I had asked, tracing circles around Middy’s arms. 

“No.” Short, curt answer. No “Nah I wish I did though.” or “Man I wish.” Just a cold “no”.

“No?” I echoed.

“No, I just heard these from a traveler during one of my travels.” 

“Anyway, you can get rid of them and just stab them, but there’s a catch.” Middy flipped to another page. A drawing of a dismembered Yin, an arrow pointed from it to a reconstructed Yin. 

“You can’t actually kill them, they’ll just keep coming back.”

“After all, you can’t kill what’s already dead.”

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

“We have to run Middy!” I could barely hear my own voice over the screeches of the incoming Yins. There had to be hundreds of them, clustering around us, metal legs scratching against the rock floor, threatening to dig into our skin till we bleed.  

I tugged at Middy’s arm, but she was stiff. I looked back and saw the same expression on her face from earlier. 

Except she was absolutely petrified. Her hands were shaking, covering her ears, and she had dropped her sword.

Something clung onto my ankle and I kicked it away. The Yins were surrounding us at a rapid rate, I felt a sense of growing panic in my stomach. Middy wasn’t responding the way she usually did and we were going to get consumed at any moment. 

I slammed down my bow on a Yin creeping up to Middy’s feet. 

“Middy!” I screamed. And she came to life. I looked her directly in the eyes. It was the first time I had ever seen Middy’s eyes filled with so much fear. I grabbed her arms, squeezing tightly so that she stayed with me, “Snap out of it, please!”

Middy gulped, and nodded her head. 

“We have to run, understand? Grip my hand tightly and don’t stop running until I say so.” I grabbed her hand, and she grabbed her sword with a shaky hand. “Run!”

I kicked the grey backpack up and caught it with my hand which also held my bow. 

Middy and I ran as fast as we could, deeper into the cave. The light from Middy’s lantern swayed violently as she ran, our pounding footsteps combined with the neverending screeching from the Yins that chased us down echoing off the walls made my head pound along with our feet. It took my every will not to collapse right there and let the Yins consume me. Middy was with me, I had to make sure she was safe.

“There’s a hole there, big enough for us to crawl into, we should be able to hide from them!” I slid to a halt, Middy nearly bumping into me. I helped Middy into it, and crawled in after her.

Middy extinguished the flame in her lantern and we held our breaths. 

The screeches and skittering of metal against rock grew louder.

I shut my eyes tightly, a hand tightly over my mouth, another even tighter around Middy’s hand. Her head buried into my neck. I could feel her shaking slightly.

The screeching stopped, but they got closer.

My chest burned, aching for air. 

They were right in front of us. 

The Yins were slow, like dogs sniffing out its target. I pressed myself against the wall behind me, as if the distance between them and me changed. The sound of metal scratching, dragging, against the ground so near us was unnerving, like a train screeching to a halt on train tracks, like chalk on a blackboard, sounds that I wish didn’t exist. 

The Yins scuttled past, lingering in the same place just right outside of where we hid.

Middy was shaking even more, I squeezed her hand. It felt like a flame was lit in my chest, burning painfully.

Then, silence. LIke time had frozen. Then, time restarted again. The Yins started skittering again.

This time, however, they were all in sync, like soldiers marching in a line. And they were crawling away. They got quieter and further, until there was just silence. 

Middy and I let out our breaths, the silence broken by our ragged breathing. Middy clinged onto me, her breath hot against my neck. I’ve never seen her this terrified before. “It’s alright. They’re gone now.” My shaky hands found her lantern and turned it on. 

Two huge, green glowing eyes stared back at us. Middy muffled her yelp by clamping a hand over her mouth and I stiffened up. 

The three of us stared at each other for a good while. He had red, long and unruly hair that nearly covered his eyes. His eyes, now that I took a closer look, were like a cat’s eyes, his pupil a narrow slit, staring warily at us. He wore a black turtleneck and jeans, which were torn in a lot of places. His olive skin was filled with scratches and dried blood. 

Poor kid. “Are you, perhaps, Martin?” I spoke up first, gently as possible. 

Martin’s eyes widened for a second, surprised, then squinted cautiously at us again.  

“Hey, we got your backpack! Here.” I slid his backpack towards him. Martin snatched it and checked its contents. He took the dagger out and hugged his backpack like a teddy bear, the dagger ready in his hand.   

Martin looked a bit more relaxed, but I could tell his guard was still up, understandably. 

I put down my bow and surrendered my hands in the air, moving slower than a turtle. Middy put down her sword, showing her empty hands. 

“My name is Kate and this is Middy. We have plenty of food and medical supplies back at our house. It’s quite near this cave. It’s safe, and I promise that neither of us,” I pointed to Middy, who nodded, and then me, “Will hurt you.”

Martin’s expression stayed the same.

“I’m sure you’re a very brave kid, having made it this far. This girl’s been through worse and she’s shaking like a cowering little puppy.” I nudged Middy and laughed, who rolled her eyes and pushed me back playfully. Martin let out a breathy laugh.

“We also do need your help to guide us back out of this cave, since it’s, well, incredibly dark.” I nodded at him, at his night vision eyes. Those with green, cat-like eyes had night vision, which explained why Martin didn’t bring any sort of light source with him. “In exchange for your help, we will give you food and something more than those bandages.” Martin hugged his bag tighter, I smiled sheepishly, “Yeah, sorry, we were curious.”

I crossed my legs and extended a hand towards Martin, a sign of trust and peace. Martin looked at my hand and then up at me, at Middy at my hand and then at both of us again. Martin reached out a hand, a long scar that seemed to have been there for years already ingrained across his entire palm, and grabbed my hand. It was so small compared to mine, very firm too. 

“Alright, let’s go then.”

But he didn’t let go of my hand, he held on to it, and pulled a bit, as if he wanted to ask me something. 

“Yes?” Martin squinted his eyes, thinking for a moment. Then he rummaged through his backpack to produce his journal. He started to write, taking quick glances at us. He turned the book and showed us what he wrote: “I have a friend. They’re somewhere in this cave and I lost them and I need to find them, please help.”

Middy and I looked at each other in silent agreement, and I turned back to Martin, “We will help, where do you think they are?” 

Martin looked down at his book and wrote again, but he didn’t show us. After a few moments he shut his book and packed it quickly. He gestured us to come and crawled out of the hole, with Middy and I in tow. 

Middy and I followed closely behind with our lanterns. We didn’t run across a single Yin, as if they had all disappeared in thin air, like someone had snapped their fingers and made them all vanish in an instant. 

We ran till we reached the place before the paths diverged. Martin looked around frantically, but there was no one that we could see. 

I was suddenly pushed back by an invisible force. I stumbled back, Middy catching me from behind. The air in front of us rippled, and a person appeared in front of us, holding a bow, arrow pointed right in front of my eyes, Martin behind them. I noticed the arrow shaft had a familiar name on it: Ekina Salters.

“Hey… Are you supposedly Martin’s friend?” Ekina’s face scrunched up even more and stepped forward, the arrow’s tip ever so close to my eye. I felt like if I breathed my eyes would end up at the back of my head immediately.

Martin yanked Ekina’s sleeve, catching their attention. I felt Middy wanting to step in but I held her down. Not now. Martin signed something with his hands and Ekina paused for a moment, glaring back at us. Then Ekina sighed, putting the bow and arrow down. Middy and I sighed in relief. 

I extended my hand, and smiled as kindly and friendly as possible, “Hello, my name’s Kate and this is Middy. We’re sorry for startling you but we found Martin alone, and he wanted to find you.” Ekina looked at my hand and scanned me and Middy, then shook my hand briefly. 

Ekina looked at Martin again as he signed something. “What– why?, we can go back home now.” I was slightly taken aback by Ekina’s voice which contrasted with their dark-looking appearance. It was soft, gentle, and mature.

Martin looked at Ekina with puppy-dog eyes, pleading, the same way Middy would do if she really wanted something. Ekina sighed and said, “Fine, only because you trust them.” Ekina turned back to the two of us. Middy stepped beside me, squeezing my hands. 

“Martin here wants to follow y'all, and I will follow too. Y’all seem like nice folks but one wrong move and we are gone, understand?” Ekina’s face softened, just slightly. “My name’s Ekina Salters.”

I grinned. “Yeah we know.” Middy said, causing Ekina to raise an eyebrow. 

“The arrow.” I interjected quickly. We smiled. 

This is gonna be awkward. I readied myself.

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

“You really like strawberries don’t you?” 

Martin nodded vigorously, his red hair bobbing up and down as he scarfed down a second plate of strawberries like no tomorrow, while Ekina nibbled on their second. 

The atmosphere in the house was odd, but the good kind of odd. There wasn’t any awkwardness I was expecting. Middy chatted away like she always did, and Martin took in every word she said silently but eagerly, like a plant taking in sunlight in the afternoon. I patched up Martin’s wounds, while feeling Ekina burn holes in my back, watching everything I do. While it was slightly uncomfortable, I understood that they were only being protective. After all, we were still strangers. 

“So…” I decided to strike up a conversation on my own for once, “How old are both of you?”

“19.” Ekina said bluntly. Martin showed one in his left hand and six in his right hand. 

“Wow, 16 and you’re in that cave. You’re so brave!” Middy exclaimed, and Martin shook his legs in excitement. I chuckled, asking him to keep still as I applied the last plaster. 

“I’m done patching you up. Let them heal for a few days and then you can take them off, okay Martin?” Martin nodded, licking his strawberry stained mouth. He seemed so much more alive now, a cheerful twinkle in his eye, completely different from the boy in the cave we met not long ago. 

Not only Martin, Middy too.

Ekina took a tissue from the table and wiped Martin’s mouth gently, as I put away the medkit. Martin stuck his tongue out at Ekina and let out a breathy giggle. Ekina smiled, the first time I’d seen Ekina smile. Small and sweet, loving, caring for Martin. Middy noticed it too.

“So… are you two siblings or something?” Middy asked casually. Martin nodded, but Ekina looked hesitant. Martin signed something to Ekina and Ekina looked back at me, and then at Middy, and then back to Martin. 

“Yes we are siblings, but not really at the same time. Do you want to explain, Martin?” Martin jumped off his chair and ran to his backpack, taking out his journal once again. He placed it on the table and flipped to a blank page. 

Middy huddled closer to look, Ekina’s eyes fixed on her, but less guarded, more… trusting. I took a seat next to Ekina as Martin started writing. 

“Ekina and I are siblings, not related by blood though, but I still consider them family.” Ekina smiled again, a bit wider this time. 

Martin continued writing, “We also have another sibling, his name is Fredrick, and he’s like, way older, 21 years old.”

“Wow he’s only like, 4 years younger than us!”

“Y’all are 25? You seem so much younger, except you Kate.” Ekina said suddenly. Middy burst out laughing and I raised an eyebrow jokingly, pretending to look offended. “I-I mean that you look more mature, so I thought you would be a bit older.” Ekina stumbled over their words. I laughed.

It was Middy’s turn to be offended, “Are you implying I’m not mature?” Then she burst in fits of laughter again. Martin was kicking his feet, smiling so hard we could barely see his eyes. 

Ekina, though flustered, looked much more relaxed, now sitting comfortably, hands no longer a fidgeting mess. 

In some way, Ekina reminded me about the time I met Middy. I was so much more closed-off, but somehow Middy’s charm drew me in. She may seem immature, but she was lovable, didn’t mind when I was too tired, or when I wanted to be alone. Middy always made me feel warm, made the rainy days feel better, taught me that you could also enjoy the rainy days even before the sun comes up. She opened my eyes to so many things, so many new experiences, so many new… feelings. 

That’s how I realised what love is. 

I snapped back to the conversation. “So do all of you have powers?” Middy asked, a question Ekina and Martin probably get asked a billion times. Humans with magical powers aren’t rare, but they aren’t the most accepted most of the time, despite the situation getting a bit better these past few years up till now. I never saw the reason why we hated or were scared of them in the beginning, they were just humans but a bit different, but I guess most people are scared of what they don’t know.

Martin tapped the sides of his cat-like eyes and wrote, “Nightvision!” Ekina looked reluctant to say anything. I gently tapped their hand. “You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to.” Middy nodded in agreement. 

Ekina shifted their legs close to their chest, eyes wandering over to the side. “Yeah, Frederick, Martin and I all have powers. I don’t think it’s much of a surprise, but people don’t really like us. It’s not like they will beat us up or anything, but they act like we are the most dangerous beasts or something. Like they haven’t seen something more terrifying or disgusting than us.” Ekina’s voice reduced to a mumble at the last sentence. The room fell quiet. Martin shifted his eyes to his book. 

I wanted to say something to lighten up the mood, but didn’t know what. This was what I feared, the awkward silence, the moment when we step into a territory filled with landmines, every step will send us to our immediate death.  

Thankfully, Middy knew exactly where to step.

“Yours is camouflage, right Ekina? I met a person who had the same powers too. She kept messing around with me.” Middy laughed, a lighthouse on a stormy sea, “We would play tag and I would try to chase her, but she would disappear, and I wouldn’t be able to find her. Oh! And she would disappear sometimes and pour water on my head, and I would think it was raining!” Martin already had a smile on his face, letting out short breaths in amusement. Ekina chuckled softly too. “So in retaliation, I poured water on her head! Then our parents would scold us for playing with water.” 

Middy told them story after story, listening attentively, curiously, intrigued. Martin would chime in on his own stories, writing furiously in his journal. Middy and Martin threw stories back and forth, laughing and widening their eyes in awe. Ekina watched and listened, their head propped on their hands, smiling fondly. Middy showed her scars on her hand, telling how she got them one by one, describing each adventure in vivid detail, every creature she’d met, every person. 

I noticed Ekina kept eyeing a music disc on the table. A music disc with the picture of a cartoon girl lying comfortably on green grass, the reflection of clouds in her glasses. I picked it up. “Do you want me to play it?” 

Ekina nodded slowly, “If it’s alright?” 

I smiled. It was my favourite song, “Of course.” I put it on the player. Soft, comfy piano filled the air, as the familiar tune played out. Ekina closed their eyes, and their shoulders relaxed, as if a weight had been lifted off their shoulders. Even Middy stopped talking to listen, even though this was the umpteenth time I have played it. Martin bopped his head along to the beat and played an imaginary piano. 

The song played on loop as the sun started to shyly hide behind the tall trees, like a shy child hiding behind their mother. Soon it was time for Ekina and Martin to leave, unfortunately. Middy never stopped chatting with Martin, not that he minded. Those two had formed such a strong bond in just a few hours, which wasn’t surprising to me. They radiated such similar, chaotic, thirst-for-thrilling-adventures kind of energy I’m surprised they hadn’t met sooner.

Whereas Ekina and I, we were more of listeners than talkers like Middy and Martin, I think we shared that similarity. 

I handed Martin a container of fresh strawberries, and his eyes lit up in an instant. He snatched it out of my hand and waved it at Ekina as if Ekina wasn’t right next to me. Ekina smiled, this time bigger and brighter, “Yes, we will share them with Fredrick when we get home.” Ekina went and stood next to him.

“Speaking of home, do you know where to go? It might be dangerous.” Middy asked before I could, startling me. 

“Yeah, the woods look familiar, if not we can always contact Fredrick. Oh and speaking of contact.” Ekina nudged Martin. 

He rummaged through his bag and fished out his journal. He opened it, but this time to tear out a page. Martin and Ekina pressed their thumbs onto the corner of the page, creating the imprints on the page and wrote down their names below it. Martin took Middy’s hand and my hand and we did the same. Our thumb imprints appeared on the paper and he wrote both our names below them. Martin handed the paper to Middy.

“That paper,” Ekina explained, “Is a messaging paper, used to contact anyone whose thumbprints are on that paper. Write anything on that, and it’ll appear in Martin’s journal.”

“Wow, thank you.” I said, as Middy turned and flipped the piece of paper, examining every inch of it, as in awe as I was.  

Ekina suddenly hugged me, and I blinked in surprise, “Thank you for making me, us, feel normal.”  Ekina whispered. I patted their head, it was then I realised a small scar, on their forehead underneath their long bangs. 

“You don’t have to thank me, Ekina.” I said. Ekina looked up at me.

“Please,” Ekina looked at me and Middy, “Call me Eki. It’s what my friends call me.”

“Group hug!” Middy shouted and threw her arms around us, Martin followed suit, burying his head into Eki’s side. We laughed. 

Good things always felt like a dream. I relished the moment, just in case it was.

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

The moon rose, a full moon, bright in the starry night sky. I took out the messaging paper Martin and Eki gave us, with Middy over my shoulder, tapping her foot in anticipation.

“Are you two back home?”

I sat back and waited, Middy’s hands fidgeting on my shoulders. 

Then, below our message, a word was written out, like an invisible hand holding a pen. “Yes!” Then both messages disappeared.

I felt Middy’s whole body relax, her forehead resting on my head as she muttered out a “Thank god”. 

“Aww were you worried about them?” I cooed at her. Carefree Middy was worried? Middy scoffed in response. 

I got up and wrapped her hands around me, staring up into her eyes, black as the night sky, but brighter than the full moon. I could get lost in them. She grinned her silly, special little grin. 

“I’ve been meaning to ask you, are you alright?” Middy cocked her head to the side, as if she had never heard of the question before. 

“I mean, I have never seen you so… awfully terrified before, back in the cave. I was just.. You know… wondering if there was anything you wanna talk…” Middy pulled me closer, her head over my shoulders. I was on my toes, but I felt like I was floating, felt like the whole world fell away and it was only us. 

Middy’s soft breathing and heartbeat was all I could hear, not even the sounds of the night could reach us. 

“I’m fine, I really am.” She and I sat on our bed, but we never let go of each other. “It’s just a shock to the Yins again–”. She cut herself off, letting me go. “I mean, yeah those Yins look incredibly freaky haha.”

“Again?” I was confused. “I thought you said you’ve never met any before?”

Middy remained silent, not looking me in the eye. I felt an invisible wall between us. 

I took a deep breath, “Why would you lie about something like this?”

The silence grew thick, suffocating. 

“Middy…” I didn’t want to fight, I didn't want this silence to go on. Please talk to me.

“Do you promise not to laugh at me?” Middy finally said, in a small voice. 

“Of course I won’t!”

Middy clutched her legs close to her chest, and leaned against my shoulder. 

“It was a few years ago, before you and I even met. I had a few close buddies back then, and they would always compliment me for being brave.”

“One day, they dared me to go down this cave, and of course I did it. I went down, it was dark, extremely quiet. I only had one lantern with me, and my sword of course. I went deeper and deeper. And then I saw them. There was one at first, I thought there was only one, suddenly so many more came.” I thought back to our encounter in the cave.

“I fought and fought, but it got too much, I was getting exhausted, and they were relentless, they were so loud, I was reaching my breaking point. Then I dropped my lantern.” I suppressed a gasp. I could see she was shaking, hand clenched so hard it turned ghost white. I rubbed her hand, letting her continue.

“It… was… dark. So awfully dark. It felt claustrophobic, like it wrapped around my neck, squeezing it. Everything was loud but I couldn’t see anything. So I ran. Blindly. I didn’t know where I was, I didn’t know where to go. The screeching sounds from the Yins were gone but they echoed in my head. I was hurting all over, too.” Middy rubbed her neck.

“Eventually, I heard the sound of rain and followed it, and I got out. When I got out, I cried. More than I would like to admit. My friends had left but I figured it was because of the rain. I ran back home and told my parents about it, but they didn’t really believe me, they were more angry at the fact that I came home late and wet.” I shook my head. I never liked Middy’s parents, and the hate was mutual. 

“I told my buddies the next day. I thought they would comfort me, because I was still very shaken. Instead, well… they laughed at me and called me a coward. Worst thing was, I believed them.”

A few drops of rain fell, reflected by the moon. Then more, and soon the rain was beating against the windows, like they were trying to get in.

“Do you still talk to them?” I asked.

“Oh, no. Never again. I tried not to let their words in my head, but it’s kinda hard sometimes.” Middy traced the scars on her hands.

“I’ve met and fought things and creatures, many creatures, none scared me as much as Yins. I’ve thought about going back to the cave I went into a few years ago, but everytime I think about the darkness and what I felt.” Middy shuddered and shook her head. “Didn’t know they’ll appear here though.” She chuckled dryly.

The wind sighed in the branches of trees. The silence was no longer suffocating. But I didn’t know what to say, even though I wanted to say something. It was the first time Middy opened up to me like this, so vulnerable.

“Well, I bet if they were dared to do the same thing they wouldn’t even follow through.” I don’t know who Middy’s ‘buddies’ were but thinking about them made me fume, “You know, I bet the moment they even step into the cave, they’ll come running out, wetting themselves!” Middy laughed, a genuine one. I missed it.

“They don’t know who you are, they don’t know the Middy today. Yes, you froze up today, but tomorrow, you will rise up and fight, I know it. You’re braver and stronger than you think you are.” I tapped her forehead. “They don’t know what they’re talking about.” 

Middy leaned back to look at me. She leaned back in and kissed me. I kissed her back, tasting strawberry. Then, she rested her head on my shoulder, her face warm on my neck.

“Kate?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you.” Middy tilted her head up and smiled. Warm, full of love.

I kissed her forehead. “I love you too.”

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

We went back to the cave, to the two pathways that we found. We had asked Martin and Eki if they wanted to come with us, but they already had some other plans. 

Middy placed a lantern at the entrance of the left pathway, and lit another lantern of her own. I stood by her side, gripping my trusted bow, the familiar weight of my arrows in my quiver, slung over my shoulder. Yet it could not calm the uneasiness that grew like a seedling inside of my stomach. The right pathway was scary in a way that something might jump out and attack. But the pathway we were about to go down, it had an eerie vibe, like something was crawling in there staring at us. They can see us, but we can’t see them. 

Which somehow felt much, much worse, I shivered, though it wasn’t cold. 

“Hey.” I felt a warmth spread around my body, like the warm morning sun shining through our bedroom windows when I wake up. Middy had her hands around my stomach, her chin over my shoulder. “You okay?”

I let out a held breath, and put my hand over hers, “Yeah I’m fine. This place just gives me bad vibes.”

“Breaking news!” Middy joked, and we both laughed, which faded into silence once more. I felt that Middy was more silent than usual ever since we left. 

“Did you pack the mana potions we got? Just in case.” Her voice barely over a whisper. 

“Yeah, you told me multiple times to pack it.” I took out the glowy liquid encased in the glass flask, secured to my waistband. It was only to be used during emergencies when we were extremely weak. “What’s with you huh?” Her face was warm in my hand as she nuzzled it in the palm of my hand. 

Middy grabbed my shoulders and twisted me around to face her. The yellow glow of the lantern made her eyes look like there was a flame ignited in there. Being a little over half a head taller than me, her stance felt intimidating yet comforting and safe at the same time.

Her face softened, “Nothing, nothing at all. I just wanna say…” She hugged me again. “I love you, and I would never be able to do this without you by my side, not in a million years.”

I cupped my hand on her face, “Let’s do this then. You and me.”

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

There were thousands of Yins. On the walls, on the ceiling, on the floor next to our feet. Middy and I stayed close together, our backs literally stuck together, our guards up and weapons drawn.

What was strange was that none of them were attacking. All of the Yins travelled in the same direction, organised in single lines close together. They weren’t tripping or climbing over each other trying to get us. We couldn't even hear the tapping of their metal feet against the rocky surface. 

In fact, it seemed like they weren’t even acknowledging our presence. 

They were everywhere, trapping us in a tiny space in the middle of the pathway, shuffling us forward with the fear of accidentally stepping on a Yin and having all of them attacking at once, from every direction. 

Just thinking about that made my knees weak.

“What the hell is this?” I nearly tripped when Middy whispered, her voice like an explosion in the pin drop silence, she even stiffened up a little. 

The Yins did not react in the slightest. 

“I don’t know. Do you think this is a trap?” I winced at my own voice, a mere whisper vibrating off the walls. 

Middy didn’t answer, which I’m glad. I don’t think either of us wanted to know the answer. 

Middy tried to lift her foot over the Yins crawling just centimetres away from her feet. They didn’t budge, or even bothered to look up. Just kept on crawling. 

Middy and I had no choice but to keep shuffling forward, anticipation level high up. The thick silence was suffocating, only broken by my heartbeat thumping in my ears, so loud I thought Middy might be able to hear it.

Thump Thump.

Thump Thump.

Thump Thump.

Thump- 

Thud. 

My foot connected with a wall in front of me. I was so focused on the Yins around me that I didn’t notice that we had reached the end of the path. The Yins skittered away, behind us. 

“Kate?” I touched the wall as the Yins began to disperse, trailing my lantern up along the wall. Walls in front of us, to the left and right. 

“Kate, they’re all gathering in one place.” Spider-web cracks spreaded across the rocky walls. I felt something light drop onto my head, like the first drops of rain at the start of a thunderstorm. 

But it wasn’t water, instead tiny pieces of rock fell from above. I looked up. 

“Middy, what’s going on?” Thick green vines slowly snaked out of the cracks of the ceiling, towards the ground around us. The ground started to shake like an earthquake. I bumped into Middy and finally turned around. 

All the Yins were starting to merge. Their slimy bodies stuck together, metal legs digging into the black void of their body to form something bigger. Middy swept her arm in front of me and both of us stepped back, my hand subconsciously on an arrow behind me. 

The Yins grew and grew, and suddenly light from our lanterns went out, and we were plunged into darkness. Middy gasped, and a loud clang reverberated around in the dark.

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

I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t see anything. Not a sliver of light, no silhouette, nothing. It was darker than the darkness when you closed your eyes. A lump formed in my throat as I blindly fumbled in my pocket for my matchbox. The darkness was incredibly claustrophobic. 

“Kate!”

Come on. Come on. I rubbed my thumb along the edge of the box for the rough patch and struck the match.

“Oh god!” Middy was pinned against the wall, holding off a black metal crab-like claw that was as big as Middy herself. The claw was just centimetres away from her face, the only thing between them was Middy’s sword, but the distance was closing more and more. I quickly lit up my lantern on the floor.

“Shoot it!” I shot, the arrow landed into the goopy black arm with a wet squelch and ended with a loud ‘clang!’, like it connected with more metal. The claw retracted, and another appeared out from the darkness to yank the arrow out. It threw the arrow to the side.

I shot another arrow into the darkness, but all I heard was a loud snap as it fell down into two pieces. Middy roared as she ran forward and connected her sword with one of the metal claws. It barely made a dent, and it sent her flying back against the wall. 

“Middy!” I lunged out for her to cushion the fall. Middy recovered surprisingly quickly and was on her feet, sword raised.

“Stay away!” Her voice wavered slightly, but her stance didn’t. She stood in front of me, her empty hand swept to the side as if to cover me. My heart pounded in my ears, adrenaline and admiration pumping through me. I grabbed her hand, and stood by her side. 

“Well… well…” The voice boomed, or rather, voices. It was as if dozens of different people all spoke in unison, bouncing off the walls. I could feel a headache starting to form behind my eyes. 

Then, it stepped into the light. 

A monster stepped into the light, though it seemed as if the light was consumed by it. It was like a Yin, only it was the size of the entire cave. The slimy body was a black void, which looked like it could consume and trap anyone in eternal darkness. Four, large metal claws attached to appendages protruding out of its body, like some weird hybrid of an insect and crab. 

I would have laughed at how ridiculous it looks if it weren’t for the fact that it can slice my head clean off with one swing of its claw if it wanted to. 

And it certainly wanted to. 

“How does it feel to be so tiny and insignificant faced with something so vast and great?” Deep voices, high pitched voices, taunting whispers, banshee shrieks and hateful cries were all I heard say back. I never wanted to rip my ears out so bad until now. 

“Even the mightiest of elephants cower at the sight of mice!” Middy’s voice was like an angel sent from the heavens, the dove among a murder of screeching crows. She gripped my hand tighter, and I mentally gave her all my support. 

Six, red beady eyes similar to that of six lava pits in its void of a body met ours, burning holes into our faces. 

“Such bravery and ferocity.” A claw crashed into the wall right beside Middy and she sunk her sword into the slimy flesh, hitting the metal skeleton underneath. 

“Down!” Middy pushed my head down as the claw dragged along the wall right above our heads, bringing Middy’s sword along with it. Bits of rock rained down on us. I pulled out another arrow and shot it directly in one of the eyes. The arrow sank into the eye and the monster roared, louder than the thunder. 

Middy took this opportunity to grab her sword and ran it against the metal hidden under the flesh of the arm, making a horrible screeching noise, searing through my head. Sparks flew and Middy yanked out her sword and rolled away.

The monster made a sound similar to thousands of dying horses. Then I saw why. The sparks had made the flesh on the arm melt, exposing the metal skeleton underneath, which was slightly melting as well. A long scratch etched into the metal from Middy’s sword. The black goopy flesh dropped to the floor and disappeared into smoke, and the arm did not repair itself. 

Middy’s eyes met mine, reflecting my surprise. I nodded. I knew she was thinking the same thing.

We’re not letting it take our lives away!

I threw her my matchbox and grabbed my lantern. “Hey you!” I called out to the monster. I swung my lantern and let it fly into the air towards it, though short lived as the lantern was immediately smashed onto the ground with an unsatisfying crunch by the monster’s claws. The same asphyxiating darkness fell again, but not for long. The light in Middy’s lantern came to life and sank into the monster’s flesh, exploding into flames. 

Earsplitting demonic screeches echoed throughout the cave, so deafening it could bring the whole cave down to a rubble. My bow slipped out of fingers as I clamped both hands on my ears tighter than ever, my eyes grew hot, my ears rang. I opened my mouth but whether I screamed or not didn’t matter. 

I felt myself hit the ground, and the last thing I saw was Middy thrown to the ground like a ragged doll.

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

I couldn’t tell if I was alive or not. My limbs were stiff as glue, my mouth dry as sandpaper. My eyes were open, staring up at the cave ceiling. Like my body was a corpse but my conscience was still there. My ears no longer rang, leaving a dull throb. 

Silence. Then a muffled sound of distant shuffling, as the ground below me shifted ever so slightly. A soft crackling noise above me. My hearing slowly came back to me, and I realised the warmth I was lying on wasn’t the ground. 

“Hey. You’re awake.” Middy’s exhausted eyes met mine, but her voice filled with relief. Multiple scratches littered her entire face, some reaching down to her neck. An especially large gash reached down her cheek like a tear streak. The gash red as the monster’s lava-like eyes. Her clothes ripped in some areas. She held a match in one hand, holding mine in the other. 

“I know right? My red hair compliments my face very well.” Middy joked when I stared for too long. Playing fun, even in such a dire situation. I sought to scan our surroundings with no energy or voice to tell her off.  

From the looks of it, it was the same cave we fought the monster in. Except thick green vines encircled around us like a cage, firmly planted to the ground from the ceiling. Thorns littered around each vine, making escaping infinitely more impossible if we didn’t want to poke our eyes out. 

“It knocked my sword out of my hand,” I squinted into the darkness of the cave and saw a glint of metal. “I don’t think your arrows are sharp enough to cut through.” My arrows lay scattered across the cavern floors, some in the cage with us and others outside the cage. The ones outside the cage were all broken into pieces. 

“Don’t worry, your bow is right here.” That’s the last thing I’m worried about right now. 

My lips felt like they were stuck together with dried glue as I pried them open to see if I had lost my voice. It was as if all the fluids from my body had evaporated, leaving me like a dried raisin, a wilted plant deprived of water. Middy raised her water bottle to my lips and I gratefully relinquished it. 

“Fire…” I tilted my head to the matchstick Middy held. 

“I tried, but it’s gonna take a lot more than just matchsticks to burn our way out” I got myself to sitting position, my limbs stiff and sore. But I’m sure Middy was feeling worse.

“Hey, don’t get up so fast, you’ll get a headache.” Indeed my head spun and purple dots floated in my vision, but I didn’t care. I collapsed at the slightest loud sound and Middy would fight till she was dead. 

I was disappointed, mad. Mad at myself. I didn’t do enough. Maybe if I fought longer we wouldn’t be trapped in the first place, maybe  Middy wouldn’t have gotten hurt.

I didn't realise I had been crying until Middy touched my cheek and I realised how warm it was. “Hey now, why’re you crying? I’m fine, I swear!” Middy patted my face, a weak attempt in calming me down. “It’s just a little cut, nothing major, I have had lots before!”

I didn’t know what to do, so I just babbled out my mind, “I’m sorry, I should’ve done more- You got hurt because of me, I didn’t do anything-” I choked between sobs. 

Weak.

Middy threw her arms around me, careful of the match in her hand. Her body was warmer than the tears rolling down my face. I’ve never cried this hard in front of anyone, not even Middy. My whole body rocked, and I could barely breathe.

Pathetic.

Middy pressed her lips to the side of my head, and breathed out next to my ear. I breathed out along with her. When she took a breath, I breathed in.

She breathed out. I breathed out.

She breathed in. I breathed in.

Breathe in. 

Breath out.

Middy’s entire sleeve was drenched with my tears by the time my sobs were reduced to quiet sniffles. It was also then I realised how tight I was clinging into Middy. I tentatively leaned away and wiped my face with the palm of my hands.

“Sorry.” I mumbled, unable to look at Middy, my face hot. I heard her laugh, a pleasant, honey giggle that made my heart flutter. 

“This,” I flinched when she touched the long red gash, even though I didn’t experience it. “This might heal into a scar.” Will heal into a scar. 

“But you know what?” Middy grinned. The goofy grin. The grin that made my heart throb when I first met her. The grin that told me that everything was alright. That everything was going to be okay. 

That you can also enjoy the rain before the sun comes up. 

“I think that this will be my favourite scar. My favourite story to tell.” Middy took my wrists into her hand and held them against the sides of her face. My fingers tentatively brush the skin beside the cut, feeling the warmth of her skin on my wrists. 

“I’m not touching it, I might infect it.” I placed my hands on her neck and bumped my forehead against hers. Middy chuckled.

We stayed like that for a while, and I wish we could stay like that forever. Ignoring the dark, dangerous cave encasing our fate and demise. 

Just the two of us, together, a pleasant silent air between us. 

“We’re definitely getting out of this place, alright?” I nodded back, wiping away the last of my tears. Middy got up, helping me up to my feet. 

I heard a rustle, and caught a glimpse of something falling out of my pocket. A paper lay at my feet.

Not just any paper though. It was the messaging paper Eki and Martin gave to us.

“You had it in your pocket?” Middy asked.

“I must’ve put it in unknowingly.” 

Then it was like something clicked simultaneously in both our heads. 

“We don’t have a pen though.” Middy said, looking around as if a pen might drop down from the cave ceiling. I glanced at the thorns on the vines, small but sharp, and pondered for a bit.

“Maybe we don’t need a pen.” I hovered my finger over one of the many thorns, thinking aloud. 

Middy immediately grabbed my wrist away from the thorn. “Woah now, let’s think this through. Both Martin and Eki are incredibly strong and resilient, don't get me wrong, but we have seen them before in this cave. You really want to call them here again? They might not agree to come back. They’ve also only met us once.”

I blinked, surprised yet again by how much Middy thought this through. Past Middy probably would’ve just jumped on into it immediately. I smiled, proud.

“Well, I was thinking that they could bring their brother Fredrick? He’s only a few years younger, and he has fire powers, which is the monster’s only weakness. And,” I stepped forward, closer to Middy. “Martin and Eki won’t be alone this time.”

“Do we have any other choice?” 

I shrugged. Middy sighed, “At least let me do it then.” She said softly. I let out a short breath of amusement, and pressed her palm on my cheek. 

“You have already done so much, it’s time I also do something.” I released her, “Besides, I think it’s also time I get my own scars.” 

Middy laughed, “I don’t think that alone will leave anything.”

“Well, next time I guess.”

I pressed my thumb down onto the tip of the thorn, wincing as the blood flowed out. I pressed my bloody thumb against the paper. “Let’s hope they don’t get too freaked out.”

I wrote, Danger, help, trapped, in the cave. Not at all ominous.

As I wrote, my thumb the quill and my blood the ink, I thought I heard a voice. A tiny squeak somewhere around the cave. Footsteps too. 

“Did you hear that?” I tore a bit of my sleeve off and wrapped around the cut on my thumb. Middy was already peering out into the darkness of the cave, but that was all there was. Cold darkness. 

“Actually wait. Look.” Middy pointed to the darkness. I squinted, then realised it wasn’t just darkness.

 A spark of light, then two, then three, bobbing in the darkness. Then voices, but I couldn’t hear what they were saying.

I see something move on the messaging paper. Words formed on the paper.

“WE ARE COMING!”

And then they appeared in the light.

Eki and Martin ran towards us. “Over here!” Eki shouted out. 

“Careful, there’s thorns.” Middy said as they reached the vine cage. I couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across my face. 

“How did you know we were here?” I barely sent the message before they found us.

“We heard an incredibly loud sound coming from here.” Eki explained, as Martin ran back to another person who came out of the darkness. “We remembered y’all said y’all were going back into the cave and got worried. We brought Fredrick along too.”

Fredrick, the new person Martin came back with, was tall, maybe taller than Middy even. He had dark hair and fiery eyes and walked up to us in a casual manner. 

“Stand back.” His voice was deeper than I thought. He cautiously slipped his hands between the thorns and gripped one of the vines tightly. His eyes glowed brighter than the sun, and though I wasn’t him, I could feel the heat surge through his arms, to his hands, to the tip of his fingers. A spark, and then fire, eating hungrily at the vines, turning the bright green to mere ash in seconds. The greedy fire spread further to other vines, eventually leaving a whole large enough to let us through. The fire, having satiated its hunger, dissipated into smoke. 

The boy with fiery eyes extended a hand, an amicable grin greeting us. “Name’s Fredrick, but I think you two know.” I shook his hand, followed by Middy, an excited and shocked twinkle in her eye.

“Thank you, I’m Kate and this is Middy, but I think you know that too.” I shot a knowing look at Eki, and they smirked. 

I saw Martin hand Middy her sword, and Fredrick burning more of the vines, weakening it and pulling the still green bits to the ground from the ceiling. Seeing more people, despite only being only a few more, filled me with a sense of comfort, security, and hope. 

The cave seemed so much livelier and brighter. Gone was the dreaded, suffocating darkness. 

It didn’t seem so scary anymore.

I felt a sudden poke on my shoulder, startling me. I whipped around but saw no one. But I knew who it was and I rolled my eyes. The air rippled and Eki appeared, smirking at me. “Cheeky.” Eki laughed in response.

Eki handed me my arrows, but I noticed that there was an extra arrow that stood out from the rest. It’s arrowhead was red as fire. “Here, use the red one wisely by the way.” I nodded, only half understanding.

Martin kicked some stones on the ground. One of the stones skidded and hit the wall beside us. Then I saw it.

“Hey there’s a hole here.” A hole that looked slightly similar to the one we had hid in the first time we went into the cave. Middy crouched in front of it. 

“I think this is where the monster went.” As soon as she said that, she immediately jumped back and swung her sword, cutting off a screech. We ran forward to see a small Yin, body sliced clean in half, but was slowly putting itself back together.

“Bleh. I’ve heard about these creatures but never seen them up close, I’m disappointed, safe to say.” Fredrick said. 

I turned to Fredrick. “Could you maybe set this on fire Fredrick?”

“Can do.” He knelt down and placed his hands just above the dismembered Yin. A small fire came to life, and the Yin let out a fading squelch. It melted and disappeared into the air. Everyone except Middy and I widened their eyes in awe, a few ‘woah’s whispered.

I carefully picked up the thick green vines that were left, the wheels in my head turning. 

“Are you able to control your fire, as in which direction it goes and what it burns?” I asked.

“Yep. Trained for a long time.” Fredrick said proudly.

Middy had a knowing look in her eyes, and I could tell she was thinking exactly what I was thinking about. We turned to the three of them, looking at us attentively in anticipation. Middy’s hand in mine, gripping firmly, by my side.

“We have a plan. Listen carefully.”

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

The monster was expecting us.

But we were expecting it too. 

“Well, well, well…” Its million voices boomed. “About time you escaped. I’m rather disappointed it didn’t take longer.”

“So sorry, you were just so unimportant we almost forgot about you.” I said sarcastically. 

The monster stood tall, the height of the cave. Two of its claws dug the ground, the other two dragged against the walls, producing a horrible screeching noise. 

The noise seared through my head, grating against my ears. 

I held my ground, and felt Middy’s shoulders brush against mine, a comforting touch. A sense that I will be safe, there’s help and support on my side in a face of such monstrosity. 

“You think you can defeat us that easily?” I surprised myself, speaking up at it. I felt the seed of bravery growing, sprouting and blossoming inside of me. Middy raised her sword, the blade brandishing in the monster’s red eyes. Its evil gaze did not waver us.

Suddenly, an arrow flew from beside us, and struck one of the monster’s eyes. Then another arrow struck another eye. My bow stayed by my side. 

The monster plucked the arrows out, confused. Just what we wanted.

“Now!” I shouted, only then shooting an arrow of my own. 

Martin and Fredrick ran out from behind us with the vines, quickly wrapping it around the claws that planted it on the ground in the midst of the monster’s confusion. Eki appeared from thin air beside us, releasing one last arrow before running after Martin and Fredrick, nearly getting hit from the monster’s claw as it descended onto the ground like an asteroid.  

Middy seared her sword against the claw, and the monster let out a shrill screech that shook the cave ceiling, threatening to collapse on us.

Fredrick slammed his hands on the floor. Cracks formed on the floor, inching its way to the monster, sending the heat towards the monster. Flames burned bright, melting off the inky flesh, the metal skeleton was no longer hidden. The monster howled, sounds that came from the deepest depths of hell. Adrenaline pumped throughout my entire body, my thumping heartbeat overpowering the screams as I shot more arrows into the monster’s eyes, trying to distract it from the others.

The monster couldn’t move forward, as Martin and Eki were holding it back, but I knew they could only hold it down for so long, we had to act quickly. 

Frederick melted the rest of the flesh of the monster’s head. The shiny metal skull exposed the six eyes, which now looked like six fragile red tinted glass instead of lava pools. He finished the job and quickly ran back to Martin and Eki to help them.

I leaped back to aim better, and shot an arrow into one of its eyes. The arrow flew through the air, shattering the first eye with a satisfying crunch, and the light went out of it. 

The monster let out a shrill screech. 

“Kate watch out!” Middy screamed out as a claw hurled towards me. I couldn’t avoid it fast enough and the next thing I knew, the wind was knocked out of my lungs and my arm scraped against the floor, burning. My hands covered my head to protect it. 

I quickly got up, trying to catch my breath. I checked my arm. The gash, like a long, ugly and bloody red river reaching from my shoulder and flowing down to near my elbows. It stung so much, like a thousand thorns poking at it. 

But I didn’t have time to dwell on it. I grabbed my bow off the ground and shot directly into another eye. The monster screeched and swung its claw again. This time however, Middy jumped in front of me and blocked it with her sword. 

“Quick, destroy the rest of the eyes!” I nodded and ran, preparing three arrows. 

Middy dodged the thrashing claws of the monster so well it was almost graceful, like a dance of some kind. She grabbed the last vine and wrapped it around one of the two remaining claws, took out a dagger and pinned it to the ground. The monster only had one remaining claw left. 

“Your efforts are useless, you might as well stop trying.” It snarled, tugging at the restraints that once trapped us. 

“As if!” Middy shouted, creating another scratch on the monster’s metal skeleton. 

Two eyes left, lit up, the rest like broken spotlights, the light blinked weakly before fading away completely.

I shot another arrow. Missed. 

The monster was growing weaker, the one free claw it had was nowhere accurate to hitting Middy, but it still fought hard. The more scratches and dents Middy put on the monster’s thrashing claw, the more difficult it was to hit the remaining eyes without killing Middy, and I could tell it was getting harder to hold the monster down for the three of them. The monster was sliding forward ever so slightly, threatening to crush me against the wall that was behind me.  

I could hear the vines slowly starting to rip apart. 

My last arrow flew through the air. 

It hit. Stray pieces of glass clinked onto the ground. The light in the fifth eye flickered and died off. 

“One more Kate! One more!” I fumbled for another arrow in my quiver, my arm shaking. My hand only felt cloth instead of the wooden shaft of my arrows. I panicked, a lump starting to form in my throat.

My quiver was empty.

“Kate! Over here!” Middy had stopped fighting to pick up a stray arrow from the ground. The arrow with the head as red as fire that Ekina had given me. It must’ve fallen out of my quiver when I got hit earlier. 

“Catch!” She threw the arrow at me, but I saw a black blur heading towards her. 

“Duck!” I grabbed the arrow and lunged for Middy, knocking her to the ground. I could feel the claw miss my head by a hair.

I pushed myself off Middy and scanned for the claw, the red arrow in my hand. 

 I ran towards it, possibly the same speed as it rushing back towards me. 

Closer. The claw gnashed open and close. Threatening to squish my head like a stuffed toy. 

Closer. My feet and my heart seemed to pound at the same time, the air whistled through my ears. 

Closer. I could see my reflection in the monster’s claws. 

Jump. I jumped onto the monster’s claw, running across it. I could feel the monster pause for a moment, as if surprised by the sudden bold action, but immediately lifted its claw up, lifting me up at the same time.

I leaped into the air, and suddenly it was as if time had slowed. I felt light in the air, above the monster, above everything. The red arrow was nocked into my bow, the head aimed directly at the last eye, which burned holes into my soul.

I stared back at it, daring it. 

“Good-bye.”

I released the arrow.

And everything burst into flames.

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

“Hey! Wake up!”

I feel a hand gently slipping through my hair, playing with it. My eyes blinked open to see Middy’s face bathed in the sun rays. Her deep black eyes reflected the morning sun, but her smile was warmer and brighter than the sun.

“Morning kiss?” Middy puckered her lips, and I scoffed and rolled my eyes, lightheartedly. I pressed my lips against hers, which tasted very strongly of strawberries. 

“Were you eating strawberries? Without me?” 

Middy laughed, “It’s not only me that’s eating them.”

Middy and I went out into the dining area, where Martin, Eki and Fredrick were eating strawberries and strawberry jam sandwiches, chatting between mouthfuls. They waved at us.

“Good morning!” Middy ran up to Martin and lifted him into the air, giggling, as Martin kicked his feet in the air, a half eaten sandwich in his hands. He ate the rest and signed at Middy. 

“You want to go play in the cave? Sure, wash your hands and let’s go!” She put Martin down and he ran to the bathroom, and soon was out the front door. 

Eki got up and gave me a cup of tea, “Strawberry tea, wakes you right up.” And ran out with Martin.

Fredrick started gathering the plates and cups left on the table. 

“Go join the others Fredrick, I’ll clear up.” Middy said, and Fredrick immediately ran off, leaving Middy and I the only ones in the dining room.

We went to the kitchen to wash the dishes. A comfortable silence between us, broken only by the sounds of water and the clinks of plates and cups. Middy hummed a tune of no particular song. 

It was a good day. A perfect day even. It was a beautiful day. The kind of day where it wasn’t too bright or hot that it was scorching your skin, nor was it too dark or gloomy.

We put away the clean utensils and walk towards the front door. Middy’s hand sneaked into mine, kissing my cheek over and over again. I couldn’t help but giggle. “Come on, let's go meet them.”

Middy stuck out her tongue playfully, and raised her hand which was intertwined with mine. The rose quartz stone on our rings glinted in the sunlight, sparkling like the shiny pebbles in rivers. My sleeve rucked down and exposed my scar, from when we fought the monster. My first scar.

Middy and I walked towards the cave. The slight breeze whispering through our hair, in our ears. Though it happened a year ago, I still remember when both of us walked the same path, a time before Martin, Eki and Fredrick knew us, a time that seemed like a dream and a nightmare combined.

We arrived at the entrance of the cave. It wasn’t dark and ominous anymore, like when we first came. Flowers of many different colours adorned the sides of the cave, lanterns rested amongst the vines, giving a soft and welcoming glow.

We ventured down the left pathway and they were there, frolicking around in the soft grass. Frederick and Eki danced around in the grass that grew through the cracks on the cave floors. It was no longer barren and dead. Grass, flowers, planted and grew on the walls and floors. Fireflies flew around in the air. Middy joined them while I went to Martin, who sat in a corner writing.

“You know it’s not good for your eyes to be writing in such dim lighting.” I sat down next to him. 

“Nightvision dummy.” I chuckled.

Martin looked around the cave, taking the atmosphere in. It was peaceful, lively. We could read books, tell stories together and sleep under the fireflies. 

“Funny how this place used to be where the monster lived, where we fought and defeated it.”

“I know right.” I ran my hand across soft grass, tickling my fingers. “It’s only been about a year, but it was crazy. I still remember how I felt when I shot it and it burst into flames.” I mimed shooting an arrow with a bow. 

“It seems so much like a dream.” Martin wrote, flicking his pen in his finger afterwards, deep in thought.

I closed my eyes, “More like a nightmare, but it’s worth it.” I gestured to our surroundings. I watch Middy try to pick up Fredrick while Eki laughed at her efforts. “Seems like a dream now.”

“Good things always seem like a dream.” Martin smiled, proud of himself. I raised my eyebrow, impressed.

“That’s why you need to enjoy it while it lasts.” I got up and pulled him to his feet. We ran up to Middy and the others. I jumped up onto Middy’s back and she spun me around, and I laughed like a schoolgirl.

Eki plucked a flower from the ground and gave it to Middy. She held the flower and brushed some hair out of my face, putting it in my hair.

“There.” Middy kissed me, her smile contagious as I felt my lips curl up.

Everything felt like a dream.

I cupped Middy’s face, warm in my hand, and touched her forehead against mine, closing my eyes.

But it was definitely a dream come true.

~End

The blaring emergency alarm broke Praxis’s train of thought. It rang throughout the ship loudly, and Praxis covered their ears, panicked. They ran out of the sleeping chambers into the hallway. The once white walls were now painted red by the emergency lights, giving Praxis a headache. They suddenly felt a hand on their shoulder.

It was Rosaline, coming out of the changing room. Her red hair seemed to blend in with the red lights, her necklace which was a heart with a heart-shaped hole in the middle sparkled blood red as well. Rosaline’s face was more confused than scared, which made Praxis feel a bit of relief.

“Relax, I think something got tampered with,” Rosaline’s voice soothed Praxis’s mind. “The crew knows how to deal with this. Come.” Praxis closed their eyes and grabbed Rosaline’s arm to balance themself

The duo went down to the main area, where five crew members were rushing towards the oxygen chambers. Suddenly, the alarm stopped, and Praxis’s headache slowly faded away, and they slowly opened their eyes, healed by the white walls of the ship. A tall man with black curly hair came out of the oxygen chambers, holding a wrench. He emitted a very intimidating aura, one that could make Praxis shiver in fear.

“Something just came loose, it’s all fixed now so everything’s alright.”

Praxis raised an eyebrow, surprised. His voice sounded much sweeter and softer than his looks.

“That’s Gregory Finn, don’t worry about him. He’s sweet.” Rosaline chuckled. “You can’t judge a book by its cover.”

“Let’s go find Elijah, then I can introduce you to Coraline, she’s nice too.”

“I asked Coraline to go check on the food in the pantry, so she should still be there.”

Elijah was the definition of fascinating. Praxis had never seen two different eye colours. Elijah’s left eye was black, while his right eye was a hazel brown, and his shoulder-length black hair suited him. Elijah caught Praxis staring and grinned. “Nice hair newbie.” Praxis patted her neon green hair shyly.

The trio walked into the huge cafeteria. It had a dozen long benches and tables spread out evenly throughout the cafeteria. The pantry door just on the opposite wall. Rosaline and Praxis stood beside the door while Elijah twisted the door handle and it creaked open. It was dark.

“Coraline?” The only response was the eerie silence. Praxis cowered a little behind Rosaline, sensing that something was amiss.

Elijah felt around for the light switch and flicked it.

“Oh my god-”

He suddenly stumbled back, a hand over his mouth. Rosaline lunged out and grabbed his arm to prevent him from falling. Elijah’s eyes were as wide as saucers, face as white as a blank paper. Rosaline looked into the pantry and fell to her knees, screaming.

Praxis peeked in from the side, and they wished they hadn’t.

Blood was everywhere. A headless girl sat at the far wall of the pantry. The girl’s clothes were completely drenched in blood, but that wasn’t the worst part. Just a few centimetres away from the body, her head lay on the ground in a puddle of blood. The blood was dark red, with black marks in it. Her long, dark auburn hair was stained with the unusual blood, plastered all over the floor. Her eyes were rolled back, crying the same peculiar blood, which streaked all over the poor girl’s abnormally sunken cheeks. Black veins snaked across her face, connected by the neck.

“Coraline…”

The silence hung in the air, tension so thick it could be sliced with a knife. The six crew members sat around the table in the main area, not one saying a thing. Elijah was comforting Rosaline, who was still crying silently, and Praxis sat next to them, still in shock and horror from earlier, looked down at her clenched hands. The other three crew mates, Elyza, Gregory and Bianca sat on the other side of the table.

Cameron came back and leaned against the wall.

“Body’s taken care of. Now what?”

Rosaline suddenly shot up, angry. Her cheeks were streaked with tears, and her eyes were red.

“You moved on like it was nothing!” She shouted at Cameron. “Do you not care that someone just died? Or maybe you really are just a cold, heartless jerk! You’re not even taking a single minute to grieve for Coraline.” Elijah grabbed Rosaline’s quivering hand and squeezed it, in an attempt to calm her down.

Cameron just ran a hand through his brown hair, Praxis peeked up and noticed his hair had a red streak in the middle. “Right now what matters is not that Coraline got killed, it’s what had killed her.”

“What do you mean?”

Cameron sighed, “The blood, and the black veins, isn’t it obvious by now?” He looked up and stared hard into Rosaline’s eyes, making her flinch.

“W-what do you mean-”

“The virus is on this ship.”

Rosaline stiffened, and so did everyone else, Praxis bit her tongue to prevent herself from crying. Rosaline sat back down quietly, a devastated look on her face.

Bianca stood up, “The virus could be controlling one of us now. We have to run tests to check.” She scanned the room with her cold black eyes, “Now.” Bianca marched off to stand next to Cameron. Praxis looked at Elijah and Rosaline, unsure of what to do.

“I don’t understand why any of us would kill someone.” Elyza’s blue eyes were devoid with emotion. “It’s against–”

“Oh shut up about that already.” Bianca scoffed. “The virus doesn’t care about whatever god you believe in, it’ll kill anyone it sees. Plus, the person it's controlling is nothing more than a puppet by now.”

Bianca marched out of the main area towards the laboratory, with Cameron in tow. Elijah got up.

“Come on, let’s get this over with, it’ll be fine.” He helped Rosaline up and gestured the rest to follow. They walked out and caught up with Bianca and Cameron.

It felt like years had passed when they finally reached the laboratory. Praxis felt uncomfortable, and chose to follow at the back of the group, behind Elijah. Bianca stopped in front of the keypad to the laboratory. As soon as she took out her card everything went dark. Rosaline squeaked out of surprise and everyone jumped. The emergency lights came on and gave a red glow similar when the oxygen chambers were tampered with, but this time Praxis was too nervous to have a headache.

“Ugh, that means we can’t get in.” Bianca huffed.

“You all stay here, I’m going to go fix it.” Cameron said, and without waiting for a response he set off towards the electrical room.

Bianca folded her arms and leaned against the laboratory doors, looking at the wall. Gregory and Elyza talked to each other in hushed whispers. Rosaline and Elijah sat on the ground, back against the wall. Praxis joined them on the ground.

“Do you really think the virus is on the ship Praxis?” Rosaline whispered.

Praxis looked down, “Black veins and unusual blood are usually the main symptoms of when the virus attacks someone. So unfortunately, it’s highly possible it’s on this ship.”

Rosaline rested her head on Elijah’s shoulder and he ruffled her hair. She chuckled sadly, “I was hoping you said no just to make me feel better.”

“Oh, sorry.”

“I’m just kidding.”

Elijah held out his pinky and said, “No matter what happens, we will always stick together. Promise?”

Rosaline took his pinky with her own. “Promise.”

Praxis held up her pink and connected it with his, smiling.

“I promise.”

“What’s taking him so long!”

Even though Praxis hated to admit, they had to agree with Bianca. Cameron was taking way too long to fix the electrical, it’s been at least 45 minutes. Maybe it’s just very complicated wiring.

“I’m going to go check on him.”

Elyza stood up, “I’ll go with you.”

“No!” Bianca snapped. Elyza was taken aback by her sudden hostility, and so was everyone else. “You all are staying here, I’m handling this myself.” Then she stormed off.

“Wow, rude.” Elijah said.

“She has always been like that, Bianca would rather be working alone. It’s like she literally hates everyone.” Rosaline said.

“Maybe she just likes being independent?” Praxis spoke up.

Rosaline shook her head, “Been working with her for a few years, not the kindest person.”

“I hope nothing happens between Cameron and Bianca.”

“You’re doing it all wrong!”

The electrical room was quite small, probably could fit a maximum of three people in it. Some of the wire box’s doors were open by Cameron, as he tried to fix the wires.

“None of these are labelled clearly on what they do. Oh, you can probably access the laboratory now, but you can use any of the equipment. Power still out, I’ve connected everything together so I don’t really know what’s wrong, maybe this is the wrong-”

“Shut up! Can’t you see?” Bianca shoved Cameron aside and pointed at the connected wires. “You did it all wrong! They’re not the same colour!”

“Oh, I’ll fix it then. Move aside.”

“No!” Bianca snatched the pliers from his hands. “You’ve messed up enough. I’m doing this myself you dimwit.” She angrily used the pliers to cut the wires, Cameron noticed her teeth clenched, hands white and she’s sweating.

“You’re oddly stressed right now. You’re usually quite calm in these kinds of situations.”

Bianca snatched the soldering iron and applied it on the wires, put it on the top of the box, and cut another wire using the pliers.

“And?” She said without looking at him or stopping.

“The virus changes people.”

Bianca stopped. “What are you implying, Cameron.”

“Are you really Bianca?”

Bianca slammed down the pliers and glared at him. If looks could kill Cameron would probably be dead by now. “Stop this nonsense.”

“Calm down, I’m just sayin’. You’ve never been nervous about anything, and now you’re all sweaty like you’re the one who killed Coraline-”

“I didn’t kill her!” Out of blind rage, Bianca shoved Cameron hard. He couldn’t catch his balance fast enough and fell backward, hitting the back of his head against a sharp corner of a wire box door. Bianca gasped, dropping the pliers.

“Cameron?”

He didn't respond.

No, no, no. Bianca fumbled for the pliers and cut the remaining wire. She threw the pliers on the ground and grabbed the soldering iron with her quivering hands. As soon as the wire connected completely, the lights immediately switched back on.

Bianca didn’t want to turn around, she didn’t want to see what she had done. Yet, an invisible hand forced her to turn her head to the right.

She fell to her knees.

White fluorescent lights flooded the halls, yet Bianca and Cameron still haven’t returned. The five crew mates decided to go to the electrical room to find them.

“I have a very bad feeling about this.” Rosaline whispered to Elijah.

“I’ll admit, me too.” Elijah whispered back.

Praxis, once again, hung around at the back of the group. This time where Elyza and Gregory were. Praxis walked with their head down, dragging her fingers along the white walls lightly. The whispers of exchanged conversations sounded so far away.

Praxis tried to think about the different planets that they would be, the amazing and otherworldly beauty that was out there. But their mind kept going back to the things they wished they could shut out of their mind. Coraline’s death only made it worse. Praxis thought they could hear the gravel crunch under their feet, which each step they took, taking them back to when their parents died. Praxis miraculously managed to survive that day, but they could never forget the horrified faces of their parents. Praxis could almost smell the blood.

Praxis stopped. They sniffed the air.

“Y’all, do you smell that?”

Everyone stopped, and Gregory spoke up, “Smells like…” he widened his eyes before he could finish his sentence. The group looked at each other before sprinting towards the electrical room. The smell getting stronger the closer they got to the room.

But nothing could prepare them for what they saw.

“Oh god…”

Cameron’s head rested on a sharp corner like a pillow, his blood trickling on the sides of the wire box’s door, dripping on the grey floor. Just in front of Cameron was Bianca, kneeling like she was praying, eyes fixed on Cameron.

Bianca suddenly snapped out of her stupor and raised her head. She got up to her feet and everyone outside flinched, Elijah made everyone stand behind him. He has a fierce look on his face, glaring at Bianca.

“No, wait. Please, hear me out.”

“Listen to a virus? Hilarious.” Elijah sneered

Bianca took a step forward, and everyone else stepped back.

“It was an accident, I accidentally pushed him. I swear. I swear!”

Elijah took a step forward and punched Bianca’s face. She fell, unmoving.

“We need to send her out the airlock, she’s clearly sick.”

Elyza knelt in front of Cameron’s body, “I want to clean this up first, I can’t stand the blood staining the door and floor.”

“We found it.” Elyza looked out of the telescope in the flight deck. Gregory nodded.

“It’s Drion MX, the planet and I and a few others discovered back in 3108. Let’s go land and check it out right away.” Elyza announced.

“Wow, that’s great!” Rosaline exclaimed, clapping her hands excitedly.

“Can’t wait to land.” Elijah smiled. Praxis nodded in agreement.

“Now hold on.” Gregory said. “We will land, but we should get some shut eye before roaming around. It’s been a long day, I’m sure.”

Elijah, Rosaline and Praxis all mumbled in agreement, but Elyza disagreed.

“We need to get this done fast, we have no time to rest. There are people dying on earth every second, and we’re here taking ou-”

“Three people just died, Elyza.” Gregory sighed. “We’re all tired here. Give us a break.”

Elyza looked conflicted, glaring at Gregory. She huffed and left, towards the flight deck. “Whatever.”

Elijah got up and lightly punched his shoulder, “Thanks man, now let’s go land.”

Praxis woke up, standing up. Dressed in a thick green jacket that’s soft on the inside, like being surrounded by dozens of cats, a pair of blue jeans, white boots with sparkly green laces, and a rainbow coloured, wooly hat that covered their red ears. It wasn’t snowing, but it sure was cold. Praxis looked up and realised where they were.

They were back home. Lush evergreens surrounded the wooden house that Praxis’s father so lovingly built. Mist floated into the air as they breathe out, reminiscing the beautiful memories of when Praxis would play hide and seek among the trees with their parents. Which brings Praxis back to the house in front of her. They walked forward towards the front door, the gravel crunching under their feet with each step.

Praxis turned the doorknob, and the door creaked open. It was even colder inside the house, and they couldn’t see anything in front of them.

“Mum? Dad?”

Praxis remembered that there was a fireplace at the very end of the room. Just as they took a step forward the fire started all by itself and illuminated the room with its orange glow, showing the horror around Praxis.

Praxis’s mother and father were nailed on the left and right wall respectively. Nails were pinned through their ankles and wrists. Their head was split open in the middle, dark red blood with black spots in it were trickling down all sides of their head.

Praxis fell to their knees, painful crying, their tears staining the wooden floor. When Praxis looked back up, their parents had disappeared, replaced by human-shaped black mists. Praxis stumbled to their feet and twisted the doorknob.

But the door wouldn’t open. Praxis screamed and banged on the door, “Let me out! Help!” The black mists surrounded Praxis and squeezed their neck. Praxis clawed at it, coughing and choking, their vision getting darker and darker.

“Praxis… come join us…” Praxis parents’ whispers echoed in the darkness.

“Praxis… come…”

“Praxis…”

“Praxis!”

Praxis’s eyes snapped open, face dripping with cold sweat, their eyes meeting with Rosaline’s, Elijah’s and Elyza’s.

They were back in the spaceship, in their sleeping pod. Claustrophobia set in and Praxis couldn’t breathe. They quickly pressed the button and the pod opened, letting them fall forward onto the ground, gasping for air.

“Are you okay? You were sweating, mumbling and choking yourself.” Rosaline helped Praxis up.

“Yeah, I’m fine, just a nightmare, that’s all. Everything’s fine.” Elyza had left the room. Elijah and Rosaline looked at each other, they didn’t say anything, but their faces said everything.

“Did something happen?” Praxis asked.

“Gregory’s missing.” Rosaline said.

“Maybe he just woke up early to explore the planet?” Praxis didn’t see anything wrong with it.

“That would be impossible.” The three of them walked out of the sleeping chambers into the changing room. Rosaline pointed at one of the space suits lined up on the wall, specifically Gregory’s. Praxis then realised what was wrong.

“If he were to be exploring, he would be wearing his spacesuit.” Praxis said.

“That’s right.” Elijah sighed, “We checked the whole ship while you were sleeping, he’s nowhere to be found.”

“Well that can’t be. Let’s go search again.” Praxis ran off to the first place they thought of, the oxygen chambers.

Gregory wasn’t there.

Praxis ran and searched every nook and cranny of the cafeteria, and reluctantly the pantry. Gregory wasn’t there.

On the way back to the sleeping chambers Praxis passed by the entrance of the spaceship. They looked out the window, there wasn’t any grass, but the ground was green, and so were the rocks. Everything was green, with a mixture of shiny white pebbles scattered here and there. Praxis turned away from the window and left. Her hand was dragging against the wall, so it accidentally hit a button that opened the door.

Praxis panicked and tried to close it but it still kept opening. They then realised that nothing was happening to them, so they released the button.

Gregory lay only a metre away from the ship, back against the ground. Someone had stabbed his heart, and dragged whatever weapon they used straight down to his stomach. His grey t-shirt was stained dark red with black blotches, and so was the ground around him, but there was less blood than Praxis expected there to be. A jagged and sharp green rock and a clean pair of gloves lay next to Gregory.

Praxis couldn’t move, they weren’t terrified, but Praxis wished that all this could end. They closed their eyes, and wished for it to be a dream. But there was no time for wishing, so Praxis screamed the first word that came to mind.

“Rosaline!”

The silence was much more deafening this time, and longer too. Praxis knew what everyone was thinking though.

They were all wrong about Bianca, and the virus is still here.

Everyone sat at least a foot away from each other. Elijah had his face in his hands, his hair disheveled. Rosaline’s eyes were red from crying, now she sat with her head limp to the side. Elyza sat straight, she and a cup in her hand, taking sips every now and then. Praxis watched her legs swing under the table.

“What now.” Rosaline said it more as a statement than a question. “There’s only four of us now.”

Elyza took a long sip from her cup, her face showing not much emotion, but her eyes had an authority look in it. It was as if they were saying, “It’s no time to grieve, get up and deal with it.”

Elyza got up and set her cup aside, “We need to continue forward. Get your suits, we have important work to do.”

Rosaline grabbed Elyza’s arm when she passed her. “Wait,” She sounded desperate. “The cameras. There’s a camera right at the door, it should’ve seen something. You’re the only one who knows how to operate the cameras.”

Elyza shook her hand off with a serious look. “We have no time. The longer we wait the more people will suffer and die.”

“Yeah but the virus here is gonna kill us all before we even completed the mission.” Elijah spoke up. “You see how smart it is at hiding itself. If we don’t do anything about it, it’ll bring more danger to us and the people we are about to bring here.”

Elyza pondered about it for a moment, then turned around and walked to the direction of the cameras. “Let’s go.”

All the monitors showed only a black screen. Elyza switched back on while the rest waited outside the room. Elyza tried to rewind back to yesterday, but no matter how hard she tried to search for the footage, it was all gone. Deleted, Elyza reasoned. But who? No one knew how to operate the cameras except herself.

“What’s taking so long there?” Elijah called out from outside.

“The footage is deleted.”

All three of them instantly came in. “What!” Elijah stared at the monitor, as if the footage would suddenly appear by glaring at it.

“Someone must’ve switched off the cameras yesterday, can’t find it.”

“B-but you’re the only one who knows how to–”

“Operate the cameras I know!” Elyza snapped at Rosaline, suddenly irritated. “I’m the only one who knows things around here.”

“Hey back off.” Elijah said. “Why so angry all of a sudden, huh? If anything we should be suspicious of you.” Praxis wished Elijah would stop talking, but they didn’t say anything.

“What in the world are you talking about.” Elyza was hunched over the computer, clicking the mouse in hopes of finding the footage.

“Just saying that you could’ve just deleted it and pretended like–” A black blur that headed for Elijah’s head interrupted him, and he dodged it fast enough that it didn’t hit him. Rosaline jumped. It was the mouse, and it landed at Praxis’s feet. The three look at Elyza who just realised what she had done.

“Oh god, I’m so sorry, I wasn’t thinking.”

Elijah gave Elyza the death stare, his suspicions deepening.

“We’re discussing this is the main area.”

Rosaline and Praxis sat side by side. Elijah and Elyza positioned on opposite sides of the table, like they were about to debate

“Do you think it’s actually Elyza?” Praxis whispered the Rosaline.

Rosaline thought for a while, “I do believe that this kill happened yesterday night when we were all sleeping. I trust you and Elijah a lot, since you two probably had more than one chance to kill me, hypothetically.” She added. “So, yeah I’m not entirely sure it’s Elyza but I’m heavily suspicious of her.”

Rosaline said it so wisely that Praxis couldn’t help but admire her.

“First of all.” Elijah started, bringing Rosaline’s and Praxis’s attention to him. “When I saw what had happened to Cameron, I noticed that the sharp rock and gloved were very clean, and placed very neatly next to his body. That’s a very big red flag to me, because I know that you are very particular about things being neat and tidy. To the point that it was very peculiar.”

Praxis couldn’t deny that. Elyza was obsessed with things being in order, and even the slightest bit of mess could drive her crazy. But Praxis didn’t want to judge her too badly for that.

“Secondly, you are the only one with access to the camera room, and know how to use the cameras. Literally no one here would’ve tampered with the footage, no possible way. You must’ve turned off the cameras yourself.”

Elyza didn’t try to defend herself as Elijah talked on and on. She instead looked deep in thought, not paying much attention at all.

“What do you have to say for yourself?”

Elyza looked up and stared at Elijah, so much so that it made Elijah slightly uncomfortable.

“Mind you, the camera itself has a button that when pressed, the cameras will switch off, so it’s not my fault that the cameras are not on.” Elyza folded her arms. “As for the placement of the gloves and rock, you have no right to accuse me of that.” Elijah scoffed in response.

“And why are you so sure it’s me? Why aren’t you accusing these two?” She pointed to Rosaline and Praxis.

Elijah looked at them and smiled. “I trust them both. They never show any signs of hostility and have been nothing but nice to me.” He then glared at Elyza. “Whereas you always seem so cold towards us, and you literally tried to hurt me.”

“That was an accide–”

“Nevertheless you are clearly a threat here. But I want to hear you two’s response.” Elijah and Elyza looked at Rosaline and Praxis.

The three finally stepped outside, onto the grounds of Drion MX. The atmosphere of Drion MX was similar to Earth’s atmosphere, so they didn’t need their space suits.

Praxis took a deep breath and exhaled. Felt just like home.

“It’s quite interesting isn’t it?” Rosaline said.

Elijah bent down and picked up a white pebble. It was like any white pebble you would find on Earth. Shiny, glistening, standing out against the green ground.

Praxis didn’t seem to see any signs of plantation around. So they went to hunt for a flat ground that didn’t have many rocks around.

Praxis suddenly heard a soft crack, not far behind them. Praxis turned around and ran back to their friends.

Just a few feet away from the ship, Elijah was lying on the ground, head resting on big green rock, with Rosaline kneeling over him. Praxis caught some blood, nearly blending in with the green rock.

“Oh god! Are you okay Elijah!”

Rosaline didn’t seem to move to help, or to respond to Praxis. It was the first time that Praxis realised that Rosaline had what seemed like a gash on the back of her head. Rosaline shifted her long red hair to hide it.

“Rosaline?”

Elijah stirred, and then got up to his feet, like nothing happened. He looked dazed, his eyes seemed to stare into nothing. Rosaline turned to face Praxis, a smile on her face. Praxis had an uneasy feeling in their stomach, sensing something amiss. There was so much blood on the green rock it might as well be red.

“Are y’all okay?”

Rosaline rested her arm on Elijah’s shoulder, who didn’t budge at all. “Of course, why’d you ask?” She kept grinning.

In the corner of their eye, Praxis caught some black smoke, seeping out of the cracks in the ground, into the air.

Coraline twisted the blue pen in her hand absentmindedly, scanning her clipboard held in her other hand. She frowned, and looked up at the shelves of food in the ship’s pantry again.

“Something’s missing…” she said to herself.

“Is it this?” Coraline jumped and twisted around to find Rosaline, standing at the door of the pantry, holding a piece of bread.

“Ah yes! Please give it to me if you don’t need it.”

Coraline stepped forward to take it for Rosaline’s hand. In a flash Rosaline lunged forward and sunk her teeth into Coraline’s neck.

Coraline had no time to scream and only managed to gurgle, the life already draining out of her. Black smoke started to feed onto the blood of Coraline, black spots marking the red stream of blood.

Rosaline, no longer a human, used her sharp teeth to tear Coraline’s head off, making a wet crack, the head dropping onto the cold floor. Coraline’s body went limp, and slumped over Rosaline. Rosaline pushed her off and wiped her mouth. The black smoke seeped back into the gash on the back of Rosaline’s head. She shifted her red hair to hide it.

“Could you speak up?!”

“So dumb, can’t even do something simple.”

I tried to keep the tears in. I didn’t wanna wake her up. I eyed the box in front of me, hidden away from them. She’s still sleeping.

I scratched the skin underneath my uniform sleeve, pushing the tears back as hard as I could. Why did I take this route? I mentally slapped myself.

“Still scratching. Angry is it!?”

I stopped scratching, biting my tongue this time, a less effective tactic.

“Look up when I speak, you bitch!”

Slap! Ow.

The sting on my cheek was enough to blur my eyes with tears.

In the corner of my eye, I saw the box shift, and shift again.

Dang it.

“Please, just leave me alone, you’ll be in great danger if you stay here any longer.” I winced as I moved my arm, which was covered in bruises from the blows these shitheads gave me earlier.

I’m surprised I managed to endure those without crying. I should get a high score for th-

Pow! “How ‘bout you eat this!”

I fell to the ground, touching my cheek as they laughed.

Ouch, that actually hurt a lot.

Suddenly, a small blur hurls past me towards the gang.

Oh god, it’s gonna be a big mess.

I stared at the ground, picking at the dirt as Sash does her work. I couldn’t hear screaming, not even a whimper, Sash is quick. Dark red blood flowed to my fingers and I quickly scooted backwards. Ugh.

“Arf!” I looked up and sighed. Sash’s tiny mouth was dripping with blood, her fangs shining in the dimness of the alley. She wagged her tail and rubbed her furry face against my thigh as a greeting.

I picked her up and wiped her mouth with a handkerchief.

“Let’s get out of here, never gonna take this short cut again.”

I walked away with Sash in my bruised arms, leaving the gruesome scene to be discovered by some other poor soul.

The Cliff

“Goodbye.”

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“Finally done!”

I put down my pencil and sighed in relief. I finished a fan-art of one of my favourite shows and was really excited to post it on social media.

“Maybe, they’d notice my artwork!”

“They’ll never.”

Wait what? “Who was that?” I leaped out of my chair, startled.

“Over here!”

I twisted around, no one was there. I had no idea what was going on. Is it just in my head-

“No stupid, I’m here.”

I twisted back in front and was face to face with…

What the hell?! “Who are you?!”

She looked like… me? But she was all black, like the night sky. But instead of being calming, she radiated… evil. Her eyes were the only things that weren’t black, they were white. Just white, which only made her more scarier.

“I’m you, of course.”

And then with a wave of her hand, my bedroom disappeared, and darkness surrounded me.

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“What are you doing!?” I panicked and stumbled backward, keeping watch of the dark creature.

“I’m trying to make you realise something.” Suddenly, black tendrils came out of nowhere and grabbed my wrists and legs, lifting me up. My heart was beating so fast, it hurts. I kicked and pulled, but I couldn’t even get the tendrils to move.

“What do you want from me?!” Tears blurred my vision.

“Don’t you realise? You’re useless here in this world.”

I was suddenly hovered over the edge of a cliff, I couldn’t see the bottom, it looked endless! My heart picked up speed. No! I must get out! I kicked and did everything I could to get out.

“It’s no use struggling. What good do you contribute to this society? This artwork?” The black creature floated up to me, face to face, holding up the fan-art I did earlier.

“Don’t do anything to it!”

Rip!

The shreds of paper floated down into the abyss.

I couldn’t hold in the tears anymore.

“What do you want from me! Let me go… I did nothing…”

“That’s the problem, you do nothing. You’re useless. Nothing you do is good. You couldn’t even win the art competition last week. Can’t even dress well, look at you!” We were lowered to the ground, she grabbed my collar, lifted me up, and the tendrils disappeared. I couldn’t fight back.

So… so tired…

“Please…”

She smiled.

“Goodbye.”

She released me, and I fell into the abyss.

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“Hey, this looks amazing.”

I snapped out of my daze and looked up. Connor, my boyfriend, was looking at me fan-art drawing.

“You’re so good at drawing.” Connor gave me back my drawing, and ruffled my hair. Then, he walked out of my room.

I looked at my drawing, and smiled.

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Connor caught my hand, and pulled my back up from the cliff.

A Normal Family

“Wake up, honey! Or you will be late!”

Oscar’s sits up, and slides off his bed. Marching over to Oscar’s wardrobe, he opens the drawers and takes out a blue shirt, and dark blue jeans. Oscar puts the clothes on his bed and takes off his pyjamas. Then, Oscar looks at his clothes, takes them and puts them on his cold body.

After doing so, Oscar exits his bedroom and walks down the stairs. Oscar goes straight to the blue dining chair and sits down on it. His mother, Melissa, comes out of the kitchen as soon as Oscar sits on his chair, and places a bowl of cereal directly in front of Oscar. Oscar looks at the blue spoon and picks it up, scoops up some cereal and eats it.

After Oscar takes his first bite, his father, Nate, comes down the stairs and says, “Melissa, I am going to work!” When Nate reaches the end of the stairs, Nate suddenly stops walking and his head tilts downwards, the light in his eyes dims. Oscar keeps scooping cereal and eating it.

Melissa comes out of the kitchen exactly a minute later, and walks towards Nate. Melissa grabs Nate and turns Nate around. Melissa places a hand on Nate’s back, some lights flashes and the light in Nate’s eyes lights back up. Nate’s head tilts back up, Mellisa walks back to the kitchen, and Nate walks out the front door.

Oscar takes the last bite of his cereal, puts his spoon down in the bowl, pushes his bowl a centimetre away and stands up. Oscar walks towards his blue backpack and picks it up and puts on his shoulders.

When Oscar reaches the front door, Melissa appears at the entrance of the kitchen.

“Honey, when grandma asks how is your day, tell her everything, but do not tell her about Dad losing power.”

Oscar’s eyes turn red, then turns back to its usual black colour.

“Okay Mom. I will not tell grandma about Dad losing power.”

Oscar opens the front door, steps outside, and closes the front door.

Truth or Dare

“Truth or Dare?”

Hah, I'm no chicken! “Dare! Let’s do this.”

My friends chuckled evilly. I put on a brave face, but was screaming on the inside. Hopefully they don’t make me do anything embarrassing.

Oh man I hope…

The next thing I knew someone blindfolded me, without giving me any heads up. “Guys w-what are we doing?”

They shuffled me to... a table? My hands felt the texture of the wooden table in the kitchen. They made me sit down.

“Put your right hand on the table.” I heard Connor’s voice.

“Hehe, couldn’t you guys just tell me what’s going on.” I said as I slowly put my hand on the smooth, cold surface of the table.

“Spread out your fingers.” Connor ordered again.

I obeyed, nervous.

There was silence for the next few seconds.

Then I heard Miso say, “If you really are our friends, then prove yourself, do not resist.”

Before I could even get a word out, I felt something go “thunk” on the table.

Right between my fingers.

“Guys no! You don’t have to do this!” No one responded. The only sounds were the “thunk thunk” sounds of the knife stabbing the table, right between my fingers, and my heavy breathing. Cold sweat formed on my forehead, and my eyes were filled with hot tears, threatening to let loose! I shook my hand, desperate to stop this but it was no use, someone was holding my hand down like an iron shackle. I used my other hand to pry loose of that iron grip but all efforts were in vain, I was going to be dead meat.

Why did they have to do this?

I lost all hope...

Then, a plan formed in my head.

I timed the knife plunging into the wood, and as soon as I heard the next ‘thunk’, I immediately shot my head down and bit as hard as I could into the ‘iron chain’, I heard a familiar screech and finally, my hand was free!

But.. maybe I should have timed the knife better...

The knife plunged into the flesh of my finger, I immediately started screaming. I tumbled to the floor from my chair, shrieking my throat raw. I clutched onto what was remaining on my injured finger. I could feel warm liquid spilling on to my left hand. “Please guys! Help! Call an ambulance! Do something!”

They made the most horrifying response.

They laughed.

“You thought we were your friends?”

“You’re a good for nothing to us.”

“Good luck, and good night.”

“No please!”

And just like that… they left.

“SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!”

But no one came.

Thanks Inky

I can’t breathe.

My chest hurts so much, I can barely hear the pen I dropped on the ground. I could hear my heart thump so loud in my ears…

It hurts.

Someone help. Help help help help help someone help.

Hundreds and millions of thoughts are screaming at me I can’t hear any of them.

I’m sweating.

I’m trembling.

My hands are shaking.

All I see are flashing colours.

. . . . . . . .

“Miao”

I blinked. The flashing colours slowly faded away.

The thoughts are suddenly quiet.

Two pairs of confused black eyes look at me, my hands shakily reach out and I run a hand through her soft fur.

Shakily exhaling, I hugged Inky as she snuggled her face into my stomach.

Something about her always…relaxed me.

My heart calmed.

Thanks Inky.

Stupid

ALYSSA smiles sadly with downcast eyes.

Alyssa: Stupid. You’re so stupid

Points to head.

Alyssa: You think bandages can fix this wound? No. Of course not. Are you that naive? Or do you think I’m just that dumb?

ALYSSA throws her head back and starts laughing.

Alyssa: (Mocking sweet voice) Omg yesss let’s be besties, I soooo forgive you ahahaha. (Returns to normal voice) (frowns) Seriously? Stop wasting your time on me, idiot. Haven’t you learnt that?! Stop leeching off me. Go away.

ALYSSA turns away and sits on the floor, clutching her knees to her chest.

Alyssa: What do you want? Could you just leave me alone. You’ve done enough damage… (sniffs)

After a while of tense silence, ALYSSA gets up and turns around. Her expression has changed to anger.

Alyssa: (sneers) WHAT DO YOU WANT SO BAD, HUH?! YOU’RE JUST GONNA COME BACK, TRY TO MAKE ME YOUR LITTLE TOY AGAIN! WATCH ME SUFFER AND CRY. I HAVE KNOWN BETTER, DON’T EXPECT ME TO FORGIVE YOU WHEN YOU COME PATHETICALLY CRAWLING BACK TO ME.

ALYSSA is out of breath. She calms down, and turns around. After a while, she turns her head to the side and looks down.

Alyssa: I can never forgive you. I’m not going to sympathise with you ever. I’m better now, but I shouldn’t have been friends with you ever. Find someone else to give you a second chance. But...

ALYSSA looks back in front of her.

Alyssa: You don’t deserve one.

ALYSSA walks away.

Water

The wind howled.

It was a cold night, but I continued to walk in the water.

No one was in sight.

I could hear the pool water sloshing against the pool walls.

Everyone was asleep. I wasn’t.

I stopped walking in the pool and let my hand float on the surface. I closed my eyes, and listened to the sounds that we often don’t hear. That we often ignore.

Something about the night always seemed peaceful.

Something about the water always seemed peaceful.

And when you put them together, it’s like heaven. It’s like lying on a soft comfy bed and never wanting to get up. I didn’t want to leave the pool.

I have always loved the water. I didn’t know how to swim, I just liked wading in it. But nowadays, it’s rare that I get to go outside and into the pool. For medical reasons.

See, I have epilepsy. Epilepsy can’t be cured, the seizures can, but medicine is expensive. Ever since my parents’ business went bankrupt, we weren’t too financially stable. So medicine was very expensive. There were times I had near-death experiences.

But then, you ask, why am I in the pool?

I slowly spun around in the pool, my arms out, relishing the icy cold water around me.

In the corner of my eye, I saw a dark figure walking towards me.

See, my parents have worked so hard to pay for my medicine, hospital bills and others. Maybe now they don’t have to work as hard.

I hopped to the wall to meet the dark figure I saw earlier on. He wore a black robe.

“Are you ready to go?”

I smile, “Yes.”

He helped me out of the pool, and we started walking. On the wall in front of us was a bright light.

“Why did you do it? You do know that seizures in water is fatal.”

I didn’t answer the question. “I know.”

He didn’t ask.

“I have a small request, can I come back here every night?”

He paused.

Then said, “Your request shall be granted.”

We stepped into the light.

Shake my Hand

He strolled up to me and shook my hand, gave me a small, toothless grin and walked away. Okay, maybe not strolled instead he limped rather heavily and used his cane to support him. Very queer. He looked like an 80 year old, his skin was all wrinkly, he had dark eye bags around the bottom of his eyes. I think he had insomnia. Poor old man. He lost most of his hair, only left a few strands barely even surviving on his rash covered head. Judging by his appearance, he must have lived all alone, with no one to take care of him. I shook my head, I pitied him. The old man probably lost all human connection, maybe this was his first handshake in years. I smiled to myself, I hope he’s happy. I love making people happy.

“Stop with that stupid grin! Go back to work!” I rolled my eyes and grumbled, obeying reluctantly.

“Poof!” I collapsed onto my soft, welcoming bed. Finally home! What an exhausting day. I slid off my bed and sat on the floor, appreciating the peacefulness of my room at last. I opened my eyes and saw something on my skin. On the palm of my hand, there was a black, circle-like shape mark. It had black hook-like things around the circumference of the circle.

“What the hell is this?” I rubbed the strange mark with the heel of my hand, not even a smudge. I ran to the bathroom and washed it with soap and water till my skin turned raw. It was still there. Nothing changed! How the heck did it get there anyway? It’s like someone drew on my palm with a really strong permanent marker. Dammit! I must’ve spent at least half an hour trying to get rid of the stubborn mark. But nothing got it off my palm, it was still there, just like how I found it.

In the end, well I just gave up. I was starting to get really dizzy and my head was throbbing. It was already really late, so I decided to just go to sleep, praying that the mark will disappear by morning.

“I’m sure it will.” I said to myself drowsily before falling asleep.

It’s. Still. There. It seemed bigger but I dismissed it as my imagination.

Besides, I had a rough sleep as my headache prevented me from sleeping. I tried getting rid of the mark but all efforts were in vain. It was still the same as before. I scratched my neck. What the hell is this? Is someone trying to pull a prank on me?

On the way to work it was still there.

During work it didn’t even fade.

Even at the end of the day, once I got back home, not only did it not fade, it seemed to have gotten bigger, it was about 3cm wide! I kept staring at it, trying to catch it growing larger, but I never got to see it. What if it spreads to my whole palm? What if it spreads to my whole arm? What if… I scratched my itchy neck, the skin of my neck had gone red, something must have bitten my neck. Suddenly, it felt like a thousand hammers were hitting my head. It was throbbing madly, it was so painful and I could feel it right behind my eyes. “I...I need to go to sleep” I coughed, scratched my arm and got ready for a restless sleep.

I didn’t sleep at all. I kept coughing and sneezing. My throat felt so dry, water only helped for a little while. Luckily it was the weekends, no work. I took some pills to help with the headache and lay down in bed, exhausted. I looked at my palm, the mark seemed to grow a bit bigger. Despite this, and everything else, I drifted off to sleep.

“Wow… I am really tired.” It was already nighttime. I was still, so damned exhausted, I could barely move, my limbs were like jelly. I just slid off the bed like a slime. I coughed, sneezed and scratched madly for a few minutes, before I got my wobbly feet underneath me and stumbled to the bathroom, using the walls as support. Glancing at my palm, I saw that it had almost taken over half of my palm, but I could barely react to that, I was still, so, so weary. I looked into the bathroom mirror and saw dark eye bags around the bottom of my eyes. My neck was red with all the scratching, and so was my arms and legs. I touched my face. It seemed dry? And rough. I looked at my arms, they were a little wrinkled.

I collapsed onto my bed and opened my mouth, but no sound came out. I let my head tilt to the left and saw that my pillow had a lot of hair… my hair. Weakly, I lifted my hand and gently pulled at my hair, there came out a concerning number of strands. I let my hand fall limply onto the bed, as tears trickled down.

What’s wrong with me?

I bit into an apple and ripped out two teeth. More hair dropped from my head and everywhere felt itchy and uncomfortable. I was so sick and tired that it came to the point when I stopped going to work and lay in bed for the entire day. The mark on my palm had covered my entire palm by the time I started hallucinating things. Everything scared me from them on. I isolated myself in my room.

I was dizzy, with unbearable headaches, exhausted beyond belief, so ill, my skin was rough and dry and wrinkled and red, I had lost most of my hair, my teeth were starting to drop out, and I was seriously on edge.

I felt like I was on the brink of death.

~~~~~

I woke up without realising I had rolled off too near the edge of my bed, and before I could react, I fell off. I landed hard on my arm, and let out a small gasp. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t speak. Electric-like pain was coursing through my broken arm. It was unbearable. Unable to scream for help, I caught a glimpse of my phone on the desk.

I had to try. I rolled onto my back, wincing at the pain. Luckily the pain was slowly numbing. With my good but weak arm, I grabbed the edge of my bed and held onto the fabric. Slowly but surely, I pulled myself up bit by bit. I used the same arm to grab my phone and call a hospital. After all that effort, I dropped my phone and fainted.

I woke up to the strong but pleasant smell of the hospital. Everywhere was white, so white it might have hurt my now-sensitive eyes. An amiable young nurse smiled at me as she checked my arm, which was now in a cast. I did my best to hide the black mark. I did not want to show it. They would never believe me.

“Good afternoon Mr Leon. I hope you’re doing fine now. The paramedics found you passed out on the floor. About your arm, it’ll heal in about 2 months time, nothing to worry about!” I smiled weakly and my head went limp on the soft pillow.

Then, all at once, it started again.

It was as if they left my body for a while only to come back stronger than ever. The pain in my head was unbearable, the itching got worse, and I cough so loudly and harshly that nurse looked concerned.

“I’ll get you some medicine, old age can make you more prone to sickness.” Old age? I’m only 33!

“Ma’am?” My voice was so hoarse. Somehow the nurse was able to hear me. “I think I have a virus..” She smiled and asked what symptomes I have. “Well you see, I have had a lot of headaches lately, it itches everywhere, I have been coughing and sneezing a lot, I was too weak to move so I couldn't go to a clinic and I lost a lot of hair, also I have been hallucinating but I don’t know why… I’m sorry this is a lot to take in..”

“It’s okay, is there anything else? I looked at my palm and considered my decision for a moment.

“Also… I have this on my palm ever since the headaches began, It’s been growing bigger and bigger.” She stared at my palm, and raised her eyebrows.

“I don’t see anything sir.”

“No, it’s there. It’s a large black mark covering my palm. It’s there!” I looked at my palm to be sure, and turned it towards the nurse. She just smiled sadly.

“It might just be a part of your hallucination. I’m very sure I don’t see any black marks there. It’s alright, elderly people often hallucinate.” And before I could even utter a word, she turned and walked away.

No. It’s there! Why can’t she see it? I did the exact same thing to the patient on my left. He had the same reaction, he couldn’t see anything on my palm. Is..is it invisible? But it’s there!

I suddenly thought of the old man I saw so many weeks ago. How he shook my hand, I didn’t see any black mark either! A wild thought appeared in my head. Is this some kind of sickness? Could I pass it on and be free of all the symptoms? This wasn’t any normal illness, it couldn't be. Could I just pass it on...by shaking hands with another person? The nurse came back with some bottles.

It was now or never.

Without Him

I hope you are okay.

I didn’t even notice I had paced from the front door to the couch for the umpteenth time. I took a deep breath and told myself to just sit down and relax. I walked over to the couch and plonked myself on the soft cushions. I closed my eyes.

But the next thing I knew I was biting on the pillow I squeezed like a teddy bear. I couldn’t help it. Sammy had been gone for a week, some may consider it short, but I really miss him. He always bring me such comfort and closure, love. He made all my fears go away. Without him even for a day, I feel like non-existent eyes were watching me through the few cracks in the walls. At night, when it’s dark I always had that irrational fear something would jump out from the dark and whisk me to somewhere horrifying.

I could barely eat and sleep without Sammy. I constantly texted and called him to check on him, it’s not like he can’t take care of himself, I’m just...a little paranoid. I can’t help thinking that something bad was going to happen to him anytime soon. The times when he didn’t respond to the texts I sent for 5 minutes already made me super worried. Everyday my mind just tortured me, hindering me of doing anything.

I felt so vulnerable alone. Every half and hour I would go around the house to check if the locks are still intact. I kept thinking I see something in the the corner of my eye and it really freaked me out. There was one day where I sat in bed for 2 hours straight, dazed, unable to move. Every day waking up without Sammy felt like hell.

That night I lay in bed, waiting in anticipation for tomorrow. The empty space beside me felt... well... empty. But Sammy will come back, tomorrow. I tossed and turned, unable to find a comfortable sleeping position to drift off.

Sammy is going to be okay. I reassured myself over and over again.

My Imaginary Friend

I always had a wild imagination. And it was no surprise that I had a imaginary friend. Her name is Natalie. She’s great. My father left and my mother didn’t care too much bout’ me, and she worked lots of shifts, so Natalie kept me company. She was cold to me at first, but after talking to her, playing with her, and entertaining her, she warmed up to me. She. Was. Great.

Let me describe Natalie. She had long, and messy (the cute kind of messy) black hair. Dark-skinned. Cute blue eyes. (Like me!) The outfit she always wore was black and white striped t-shirt, blue pleated skirt with black leggings, red sandals. Lovely outfit.

She was always with me for 8 years, since I was six years old. I forgot about her after that since, well you know, school. It was very lonely after that, I had no friends at school. But I occupied myself with homework and music. I liked my school. However, two years later when I was 15, my mother decided to move houses, moving houses means moving to another school. Ugh. What’s wrong with our own house.

My new school was much, much worse. People were constantly picking on me. I try to ignore them.(Easier said than done) But I have other stuff to think about than my haters, so whatever. (Again, easier said than done.) My mother is still working a lot, thus not paying much attention to me. Thus I’m lonely again. But, at least I have food to eat and a house to live in, so hey, ain’t that bad.

I’ve been having the same weird dream every time I go to sleep, eversince I moved. I just see this silhouette of a person in front of me, as I stand in water, unable to move. And that’s practically it, I would wake up again, calm but confused.

Pretty weird if you ask me. (Even if you don’t.)

My mother had been distant lately. I mean, she was always distant, but she has this look in her eye that I can’t decipher. But who am I to care! (Just kidding I did care. I just didn’t wanna she her.)

Even the kids at school had been shooting me weird looks lately! Everytime I passed by, they would always shift further away from me, as if I had some sort of deadly virus. Ridiculous. I ignored it. (Okay, I lied again.)

My mother hadn’t returned from work. I don’t care. I fell asleep eventually.

I woke up...not in my bedroom. Instead I was strapped to a table in the basement. Huh, this was a different dream. This time though, I was able to move. Good sign. This dream though, felt uncomfortably real. I looked around and realised that the shelves were cleared, replaced by lit candles. Their glow was too real. Suddenly I heard someone coming. It was my mother. I giggled, (I don’t understand how I could be so calm) and said, “Hi mom. Quite a weird dream eh?” She looked at me and said, “This is no dream Elisa. Nor is this a nightmare. I’m killing you tonight.”

I froze. No way. My fear turned into anger. I shook violently, trying to free myself! My mother just looked on, with no emotion in her eyes. “LET ME GO TRAITOR. WHATEVER DID I DO TO YOU TO DESERVE THIS!?” My mother smiled, (She had the gall to smile) and explained calmly, “Oh dear Elisa, though you’re gonna die, I’ll tell you anyway. You had a sister, Natalie.”

Natalie. That name sounded familiar. But I had a sister? “Where is she then?” My mother, no I can’t even call her mother anymore, the traitor’s mouth contorted into a frown.

“She’s dead Elisa. I killed her. If she wasn’t disgustingly black, maybe I would change my mind.”

What the hell! “What kind of woman are you!? Killing her just because of her skin colour. What does this all have to do with me anyway!?” The traitor’s from deepened. “You...remind me too damn much about her. I can’t afford to have a guilty conscience. You have to go.”

My anger turned into panic. “NO NO. Why can’t you just take me to an orphanage?! You won’t have to see my anymore!!!” She just silently narrowed her eyes. I tried all I could to free myself, yet all my efforts were in vain. Then, she revealed the knife that had been behind her back the whole time, and slowly advanced up to me.

My panic meter broke.

She lifted the knife above my heart.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

And I heard the knife clatter on the floor.

My eyes flew open. And there standing in place of the traitor, was a messy haired girl, dark skinned, wearing black and white striped shirt with blue pleated skirt and black leggings. Natalie, my imaginary friend, my dead sister.

“N-Natalie! Please untie me!” She looked at me sadly. “I’m sorry Elisa. No one would find you here. Even if they eventually do, you would be dead by then. I can’t untie you, but we will play together again, soon!” Tears rolled down my cheeks. Natalie stares down at me sadly. “I’m sorry.” She whispered. She took my hand, and my vision went black.

An Unusual Emergency Call

I had been working as a police officer for quite long. One of my jobs was to respond to the emergency calls. I would respond to the call, and send help where necessary. Everything had been going quite smoothly. But I still do remember one very unusual emergency call.

As usual I picked up the phone.

Me: 999, what’s your emergency?

Unexpectedly a little girl’s voice responded on the other side of the phone.

Caller: H-Hi. Um, my mummy collapsed. And she’s not waking up.

Me: Your mom collapsed! Is she breathing?

Caller: I’m gonna check.... She is breathing. She is breathing! When are you going to come?

Smart kid. I thought.

Me: Help is on the way, don’t worry! Could you tell me where you live.

Caller: I-I don’t know...

Oh no... what was I going to do... no location at all. Then I remembered that this was a really small town so I asked:

Me: Sweetie, could you please go outside for me? There should be a sign there showing your street. Could you please tell us the street and describe your house?

I didn’t quite hear much but I now knew she was on Queen’s Street, and she had a wind chime on the front door. Thank god. I hope I could locate the right house.

Me: Thank you! We are very near it’ll only take us about 3 minutes. What’s your name dear? How old are you?

Madison: Madison. I’m 6 years old. Is mummy gonna be okay?

Me: Okay Madison. Your mummy is gonna be just fine be calm my dear. Help is on the way! What’s your mummy’s name? What happened to her?

Madison: I-I don’t know what happened. Just heard a loud sound. And then I saw her on the floor sleeping with some blood on her head.

Me: Your mummy is going to be just fine. What’s your mummy’s name Madison?

Madison: Um.. Mika.

Me: Okay. You are taking care of mummy right? When you hear the police sirens please tell me okay Madison dear?

Madison: O-okay. Oh! I hear sirens!

Just like that, the line went dead. All heard was the beeping of the phone. I thought since she said the police arrived, I assumed that they would be fine, I hoped.

The next day, the news about Mika was shown on television. Thank god she was okay. But I never got to see Madison. I asked my friend about it. She was confused. She said, “There was no little girl in the house, we only saw Mika.” I told her, surprised, that the person who picked up the phone was a 6 year old girl named Madison. My friend suggested we go visit Mika, see if she was able to tell us anything about Madison. I told her maybe it was just her neighbour. My friend raised her eyebrow. I sighed.

My friend and I visited Mika in the hospital. After some small talk to make Mika comfortable. My friend went straight to the point. “Mika, do you have a daughter name Madison?” Mika froze at that question. She smiled sadly. “Yes I do have a daughter. Madison died at the age of six. I miss her so, so much.” Wait what. “But Mika, I just heard your daughter call for help when you were unconscious.”

Mika smiled even more. “Madison may have passed away. But she will always be there to protect me, like my own little guardian angel.”

My Happy Balloon

Throughout my childhood, I always held my Happy Balloon. Sometimes it deflated just a bit, but it always expanded after a day or so. It floated with me the whole way.

When I was a teenager, things got a little bit rough with my Happy Balloon. They were people who would try to pop it by stepping on it. It was a bit dirty, and sometimes it would deflate for a long, long time due to some holes in it. But Cassie would come. She would pick up my Happy Balloon, and put plasters on the holes, my Happy Balloon would then return to normal again, smiling. It was all thanks to my dear friend Cassie.

Then I went to college. Cassie and I went to the same school. One day we saw some people messing up someone else’s Happy Balloon. Cassie and I quickly ran to get help. When the people went away, Cassie and I went and fixed up the person’s Happy Balloon. It was as good as new. The person thanked us and introduced herself as “Lessie”. Lessie, Cassie and I became very good friends! Or so I thought.

Cassie, Lessie and I helped each other, we were best of friends, ready to protect one another. But soon, I noticed Cassie and Lessie started to drift away from me. I felt my Happy Balloon start to deflate little by little, day by day. Then finally, they popped it. Without my Happy Balloon by my side, I felt sad. I had no more friends, and no Happy Balloon.

I was now working at a convenience store as a job. One day, the new guy came up to me. He had a Happy Balloon by his side, it reminded me of when I had my own Happy Balloon. He came up to me and told me his name: Jonathan. Jonathan asked if we could be friends. I was skeptical about it, but I accepted it.

I expected Jonathan to be like Cassie and Lessie. Drift away from me after a while. It’s been 3 months. He hadn’t drift off yet. He had been so kind to me, he had protected me. He even gave me a Happy Balloon. It’s been forever since I had my Happy Balloon! We were best of friends.

It’s been 2 years. Jonathan still hadn’t drift off yet. Neither did I. We had ups and downs, but nothing deflated our Happy Balloons. Nothing at all. Not even when Jonathan finally told me about his medical condition.

He had cancer. Something that cannot be cured. He had this for 3 years. He didn’t want to tell me as he thought it would deflate my Happy Balloon. I cried of course, I was a little bit mad at him for not telling me about it, but not for very long. It didn’t deflate my Happy Balloon one bit. I wanted to make his last few months with me the best months in in entire life. We went everywhere, to the places we always wanted to go, took pictures, memories.

Before he died, we went to our hangout. The swing under the apple tree on Silent hill. We looked at the beautiful scenery. It was so peaceful. Then Jonathan told me, “Promise me, that even if I am gone, you would hold on to your Happy Balloon. Remember that I’ll be up there, looking after you.” I cried and hugged him for a very long time.

I kept my promise. I visited his grave, holding onto my Happy Balloon that Jonathan gave me. When I saw Jonathan’s Happy Balloon floating next to his headstone, I cried, I knew he was at peace now. His death didn’t pop my Happy Balloon. And it will float by my side even after death.

Headphones

Ah! Such sweet music, flowing through my ears! Nothing was more amazing than such beautiful music. Free from the dreadful city noises that gave me horrible anxiety. Music is awesome.

I recently got a shiny new headphones, which was great. The headphones help me avoid daily gossip, news from strangers I don’t care about. If I didn’t get headphones anytime soon, I might’d lost my mind! Once I put them on, I was immediately in heaven, any noise around me would be muted, and the only noise I would hear is my own.

I brought it everywhere. The train, on the streets, in school. Everywhere. Especially in places that were always crowded.

My headphones saved my life. No one could take it away from me. No one.

I was a loner in school, which immediately made me a target by bullies. Music always made me happy though. During recess and breaks, I would go up to the school roof with my headphones and listen to music. No one goes up there for some reason. It may be dusty, but the view was breathtaking. No people, no bullies, means sweet silence except for my own music.

I was always up there, alone. No one went to the school roof. Yet.

It was like any other day. During the lunch break, I sneaked up to the school roof to listen to music and enjoy the fabulous view. Like usual. Except...

They found me.

“Hey twig!” I heard a far off voice which could be covered up by my music if I turned up the volume a bit higher. I froze. I recognised that voice, and it was the last thing I wanted to hear. I didn’t know what to do! I continued standing still, pretending not to hear him. Maybe they’d think I’m another person, maybe they’d walk away-

Suddenly, my beloved headphones were yanked off my head. All the sweet sound was gone. I was hysterical. In an instant, I turned towards Randy and kicked him, screaming over and over again, “GIVE IT BACK. GIVE IT BACK!” My headphones were in his grubby hands, they were screaming for help! I have to save them, I needed them. Randy smirked evilly, he shoved me aside and walked forward to the edge of the roof. I screeched and tried to run after him, but his friends held me back.

Randy stood at the edge of the roof. He turned towards me, laughing at my struggle. He had the nerve to laugh. I screamed at him again to return my headphones.

And then, he did the worst thing that broke me.

Randy stretched his hand over school roof fence... AND DROPPED MY HEADPHONES!

“NOOOOO!!!” I kicked and punched Randy’s friends, and I was finally free. I rushed forward, screaming like a maniac. I pushed Randy aside and without thinking. I jumped off the roof after my headphones.

Everything was in slow-motion. Everything around me blurred. I grabbed my headphone. I felt the leather of my precious headphone. I put them on. I smiled.

No one can take my headphones away anymore.

My Friends

I have friends in my head. I’m sure everybody has them.

They can be good, they can be bad, or maybe even both. It also depends on how you handle them.

I have many friends in my head, but I can only introduce a few of them. I’ll be very glad to introduce them to whoever is reading this!

Joyce is one of my best friends. She was always there to make me smile, and remind me of the wonderful things that happened to me. She always tell me things like, “You can do it!” Or “Good job!”. She allows me to look at the positive side of things.

But sometimes, when I don’t handle Joyce well, sometimes people will call me selfish. When people play tricks on me that I don’t like, she will tell me to go along and smile, to not be mad at them. I don’t like that, so I will have to handle Joyce well.

Sam is another friend I have who lives in my head. I don’t quite like him, since he is quite the opposite of Joyce. He reminds me of the bad memories I had, like the time I was in a competition and lost, and I cry. He makes me cry. And I don’t like it. People will call me a ‘crybaby’.

But Sam can also be nice. Sometimes Sam will motivate me to do better, and because of that, I will be happy with the result.

Joyce and Sam work together from time to time. Sometimes they remind me of a memory which both sad and happy. Remember the memory I told you about that competition I lost? Well even though I was sad, Joyce told me that at least I had fun! Which looking back, I did have fun. Which makes me happy. Even though I was sad that I lost, I was happy that I had fun preparing for the competition.

I want to introduce one last friend: Fran

Fran is helpful sometimes. Sometimes my friends urge me to go on a scary roller coaster ride. But Fran tells me not to, as it is scary. I listen to her no matter what my friends say. In the end, my friends might come out crying or sick. Fran helps me avoid these situations from getting me into trouble.

Somethings though, when I listen to Fran, people will make fun of me, taunting me and calling me a ‘scaredy-cat’. I don’t like that. So I will tell Fran that I can do it. Though she might urge me to stop, I won’t listen to her and will face my fears. There may be good and bad outcomes, but at least I have the experience.