34 Chapter XXXIV - The Venture Pt. II

Even though what the spirit spoke was in a distinctively different dialect- something completely foreign but familiar at the same time. The meaning of its words rang clear in my mind- '...Now you must die.'

I just stared, as the spirit reached toward me with a hand. A dark, dark feeling rooting me to the spot. My darkest fears, my worst nightmares writhing in the corners of my head. My most terrible, terrible memory- the night when my mother's life was taken before my very eyes.

It paused in its advance, hand inches away from my neck. It looked at me strangely, an almost human, sad expression crossing its features.

"...Raven! Where are you?!"

'North,' I thought. The sound of the familiar voice snapped me out enough of my daze for me to regain control of my legs, stepping back from the spirit.

The spirit didn't move after me, its hand dropping back to its side.

'No...time...' It looks over my shoulder, then back at me again.

"Raven!!"

'...' The spirit silently drifts back, the fog seemingly swallowing them. Still looking straight back at me, its expression completely unreadable, its eyes glinting the faintest of green, just before they fully slip into the haze of the mist.

I blink, the pounding in my head finally reducing to a dull ache. 'What..what just happened?'

"Raven..!"

I turn to see North coming out of the now dispersing fog, his face full of worry.

"Are you okay? What happened?"

Hotaru follows closely behind him, still in her work uniform, her arms crossed over her chest, but her face entirely passive.

"I...I don't know," I said, rubbing my temples, "It was...strange, to say the least."

"What happened to the crystal? Did you manage to catch the crow?" North asked.

I spare a glance at Hotaru nervously, before exhaling, "No, I wasn't able to. Sorry."

Thankfully, Hotaru didn't appear to be angry or annoyed, instead, to my surprise, she gave me an apologetic smile.

"As long as you're not hurt, don't worry about the thing in the chest. I'm the one who has to apologize that you had to go through all the trouble," She said, "Come on, I can portal us back, this place was a shrine where it also doubled as a cemetery, now abandoned. You better wish to not linger here after midnight."

I shiver, the adrenaline from the encounter with the spirit fading, the cold damp evening air now apparent.

North nods, "I still am sorry that we couldn't hold up our end of the deal, and...agreed." He looks around at the darkness beyond the branches of the trees, shuddering slightly.

"As I said, don't worry about it. Since I am nice, I will still give you want you came for."

"Oh, thank you! You won't believe how much this means to us!" We both share a brief look of relief and surprise as Hotaru said this.

"I won't let you forget it, now let's go, the humidity here is messing with my hair. Besides, I don't think the dead would be happy about us treading on their burial grounds," She said, and then opens a portal effortlessly with a flick of her wrist, walking through it first.

North puts a hand on my shoulder, turning me slightly so I'm facing him, "...Are you sure you're okay sister? Nothing bad happened to you did it?

"...Yeah, I'm sure," I replied.

He must have seen the moment of hesitation on my face, because he gives my hand a brief squeeze, "I know you are, but if anything happens, tell me. We have to stick together since we are our only family now."

I nod slowly, knowing he can probably tell how out of it I am, "...Thanks, brother."

I understand where he's coming from, but looking back, the grief from that day never relents. Maybe it was all the memories that flashed in my head, giving me a painful reminder of what we lost. That's why we have to complete the mission, our mission. To find some peace finally. But for now, my head is just a mess.

North gives me a small smile, and steps into the portal, disappearing.

I look over my shoulder one more time, only to be greeted by the eerie swaying of the shrubbery, and the almost whispers of the undead upon the wind. I shake my head and vanish into the portal.

...

We all end back up at the back alley of the café, where Hotaru hands us a folded piece of paper.

"This document will have what you're looking for, and I wrote other necessary details down too." She explained, placing the note into North's hand.

I notice the chest that we had initially taken tucked under her arm, unable to resist the urge, I ask, "...What was that crystal thing in the chest? Exactly?"

"Er..." Hotaru seems to weigh her words for a moment as if debating either what she can say and what she can't. "...It was an unknown piece of ore uncovered from Misalt island, I heard it had some...unique, properties. But it's fine that we lost it, you actually already helped me more than you know."

"Ah...well thank you then," I said.

Hotaru nods, pursing her lips into a charming smile, "Don't count on it. I will see you two some other time." She turns and steps through the back door, the back of her ponytail disappearing inside.

I shiver again and run my hands up my arms, unusually cold even for a cool autumn evening, "Ugh...let's hurry and get back to the dorms. Then we can over the document and see what we have."

North chuckles, "If we didn't miss curfew that is, we wouldn't be able to get in then."

"What are we waiting for then-?!"

We both head back to the school's gates, over the slight hill.

I trudged up the path, my headache still throbbing and feeling strangely sluggish. I stop to rest on a nearby tree, North already paces ahead of me. The world seems to spin before my eyes again, I started to slouch over, the headache overwhelming my senses now, "Wait..."

"...Sister?"

North's voice sounded like a thousand mile's away, and I swear my vision was swimming with stars.

Then I face-planted into the pavement- blacking out.