The One who lost her voice

The time keeps ticking until the heart stop beating. For neither each past ticks of it could be rewound nor the future ticks could be told beforehand - [Joie Devivre]

[Warning : You may find some scene disturbing]

Xi walked home with a thousand questions in her head. She got so attached to this case. It felt like she didn't only do it for catching the new story for her column news, but it seemed having a deeper meaning more than that. Her guts said so, but she didn't know what exactly it was yet. She began to wonder how to solve this and who could she asked to. Yamla's image was popped out of her mind. A little part of her heart believed that the only one who might be able to answer it was that Death Deity. But she immediately shook her head. She still resented him because of this unbelievable journey and the uncontrollable and beyond-imagination- connection between her and that Death Deity. She sighed.

The empty and dark surround her seemed unnoticed by her. She walked without noticing someone followed behind her. The heavy breathing from that person was barely heard but got clearer as it got closer to Xi. That person extended hand to reach Xi and touched her shoulder.

She was surprised. Uncontrollably, she overly reacted. Her eyes suddenly turned yellow again like someone had pushed the "explode" button in her. She turned around. She was in full anger all of sudden. She grabbed that person's hand with an anger face. Unexpectedly, it was Jasper. But, she totally lost control of herself like a wild horse. She looked like the different person. She looked into his eyes and that vision unexpectedly came once again. This time, on her vision, she saw a teenage boy was in front of burning house. She realized that the boy was Jasper. He looked so devastated but he clenched his fist restraining a rage inside him. Anger and desperation mixed up and were shown in his face. Xi saw his tears poured down in rage. Her vision started to become blurry. She slowly pulled herself together. This time, her inner-self emerged and set her consciousness back.

She finally got control of herself. She shook her head in disbelief after seeing what happened in Jasper's dark past,. She was weak on her knees then she was tremble. She always felt drained after she got the visions, like she used all of her power at once. Seeing that Xi almost lost her balance, Jasper held her swiftly to save her from falling. He looked at her in pale face. They looked at each other and they both were puzzled.

Xi wondered who this person really was. It was ridiculous for her to catch a glimpse of someone's memory like that. She couldn't control herself. Somehow, she felt something was resided inside her. She couldn't know how, but it definitely started after Yamla sealed His power in her. She cursed that "Lunatic" Gothic Death Deity once again inside her head for it.

After strange feeling and moment, Jasper pushed her to make her standing. He cleared his throat and started to speak,

"It is nearly dawn but the surrounding is still quite and dark, it is not good for a young lady to walk alone like that. I'll walk you till the main road to get a taxi." Jasper talked coldly.

Xi felt relieved that it seemed Jasper didn't know that she accidentally intruded his memory.

She smirked at him.

"Oh my gosh, what a gentleman." She ended up mocked him then walked away.

Jasper shook his head in disbelief. He cursed her.

"Waah, that little brat!"

But he still kept his word to walk her to grab taxi. He ran to her and accompanied her until the main road.

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In the morning, at home she decided to take a shower and got dressed earlier. She decided to follow her guts. She packed her bag and she was going to Kwangju High School and suddenly something startled her.

"XI YUAAAAAN!!!!"

Amma yelled at her.

"What the hell are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be at hospital right now?"

Amma's yell startled Xi. Xi sighed. Xi remembered that she was supposed to be in hospital and got discharged on that day. But after the "magical abduction" by Yamla, the morgue incidents, and, so on, she couldn't think anywhere else but home. She came home subconsciously. She forgot the fact that Amma would be shocked seeing her at home when she was supposed to be at hospital right now. Xi then made up excuses to tell.

"I picked up something that I left at home, Amma. Okay. I'm going to get my belongings at hospital then go to work. Bye, Amma. "

She took nothing but her leather-case notebook, ID card, and pen. She had to get back to be journalist rather than being "supernatural".

She smiled at her Amma mischievously and kissed Amma goodbye.

She ran away as fast as she could to prevent Amma's rage. For this matter of time, her wrath was scarier than any deity's wrath.

Amma shook her head in disbelief.

------

After the hassles of administration completion to get discharged from hospital, she finally arrived at Kwangju High School. Something inside her forced her to go to this place. As it was nearly afternoon, Xi guessed that the students probably still got their classes. But her guess was completely wrong. The school was quite, she didn't even meet any school guard in the front gate and a few police cars were parked. She walked fast to find what happened to that school.

From far away, in front of the playing park, she looked several police officers standing firm. She found familiar figures there: Captain Cheng and obviously Jasper Chu. Captain Cheng was talking with a mid-aged lady with a very serious expression. The lady's face looked so stern as she had an authority there. She guessed that the lady was the headmistress. With the serious view that happened before her eyes, Xi made a second guess that the school sent the student home due to what happened to one of their late student.

As she came closer, Xi hid her ID card inside her shirt. She didn't want to make any commotion in this kind of serious state. Journalists were not always welcomed in the case like this. Well... It was almost "every time". A police officer moved closer to her and stopped her

"Young Lady, what are you doing here? The school is closed for today." said the police officer seriously.

Xi looked at the officer's badge. He was not from Kwangju so did the other officers. It was only Captain Cheng and Jasper who originally came from Kwangju sector.

When Xi wanted to answer the officer's question, Jasper Chu grabbed her rudely and took her away. Xi pushed his hand.

"It is painful and definitely rude!" Xi complained towards Jasper's attitude.

He looked at Xi's eyes in fiery look.

"I don't know if you were just curios girl or a dense journalist, but don't you know that it is forbidden to civilian to come to the suspected crime scene?" he whispered.

She was offended with Jasper's words. She looked at him back also with a fiery look.

"I think you are the dense one. It's also a journalist's duty to look for any fact of the news in any circumstances and report it to the public and this case is definitely no exception and I might have something to help you solve this case"

Jasper looked angry but puzzled at the same time. He felt something strange in her look. He might just know her, but deeper in her eyes, she seemed different. He met so many journalist before but no one looked and acted like her before. She looked so fearless and her eyes told him something which other didn't. But, he didn't know it yet. Jasper lost it for now.

"Okay, come again in 2 hours or give me your phone number. I'll text you when others dismissed."

He grabbed his phone from his jeans and gave her his phone.

Xi was surprised on that sudden change. She never wondered that rude brat would willingly help her.

"Are you hitting on me?" She spoke suddenly.

"What???"

Jasper shook his head in disbelief. He nearly put his phone back, but Xi grabbed it and giggled.

"Kidding."

She saved her number then left as what he said before.

But after she thought that she was out of sight, she turned around and looked for another way to get inside the building. Her guts said that if her vision last night from that demon was right, so the school building was indeed the place where that little girl's soul was kidnapped. She took a different roundabout path. She even crawled near the bushes to avoid her from getting busted.

She finally arrived at the school's backyard. The school backyard was a beautiful garden. She definitely recognized mango trees and any other fruit trees. Near the garden, she found a hut. She guessed that the hut was the gardener's station to keep the gardening tools. She wanted to come closer to hut and check inside it. But she decided to move inside the building first to prove her vision before. The building had two floors which Xi believed it would be like any other school.

Surprisingly, the back door was not locked. She opened it easily and moved inside. The first thing she found was the hallway. The similar hallway like what she saw on her vision before. Even the painting on the wall looked exactly the same. She got goosebumps. Her vision was true. But the building's atmosphere was so weird and pretty terrifying. She could even feel the evil spirits presence. She started to lose confidence and felt scared. But she was persistent and kept walking deeper until the room in the corner.

She heard a movement behind her and turned around. Suddenly a pair of red eyes popped before her eyes. The similar gudu-gui. But this time, it was more powerful. Its aura was so dark even darker, its wings were firmer and bigger than before. It giggled then grinned. Xi could see all its sharp teeth. Suddenly that demon recited a mantra. She didn't know what spell it used, but Xi knew for sure that it was another inhumane language. Suddenly, she felt so weak on her knees. She felt so giddy. It was harder to breathe. She was frozen like an unseen rope was tightened her body and made her couldn't move. It laughed devilishly.

"The famous Death's apprentice is actually an easy prey."

She looked at the its grin, but nothing she could do. She fell down and passed out (again).

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She opened her eyes. There were two gudu-gui in front of her, guarded her, while the biggest one sat on the teacher's desk looking at Xi. Looking from its appearance and behavior, it supposed to be the leader. It looked scarier and more arrogant. It looked at Xi deeply like it scanned her from top to toe.

"So you are the one who killed my sister. Sent her to Diyu." It started to speak in Demonic Language.

Ah.. She understood that even in Demonic world, they also had gender, although they looked similar. She finally knew that the one she sent back to Diyu last night was the feminine version. She nodded accepting that strange fact.

"I guess the rumor is true. The Death already has his representative on earth. Your soul is definitely priceless. Every demon on earth and beneath would definitely compete over you. Especially for that "Seal". "

It pointed at Xi's forehead.

Xi didn't say anything but at that time, Xi finally understood that the "Seal" didn't only give her power but also made her a prey for every evil creatures.

The demon kept talking about "revenge", "seal", "death" but Xi didn't notice it at all. She looked around and found a familiar figure in the corner : THE VICTIM SOUL.

That soul kept staring at the wall blankly. Xi was a bit surprised with the view. That soul was the real definition of "Soul-less soul". Xi tried to attract that girl's attention without making any suspicious moves or sounds. The girl finally looked at Xi. Xi saw the girl's eyes were teary. She felt a strange radiance came from that lost soul. The mixed feeling of sadness, confusion, and regret.

The Demon leader then stopped its talking. It finally realized that Xi's main attention was that lost soul. The Demon leader then stood from the desk and moved closer to Xi.

"That soul just already lost her voice. As for her sins for saying so much hatred when she was alive. Even she won't be able to be judged in Diyu."

The demon leader sounded manipulative. It could provoke and spread so much hatred by only talking. It laughed devilishly.

"You are such a great temptation for us. I want to kill and eat you a whole. But for the bigger fish, we'd try so hard not to do it. We'll see what will happen if we harm the precious Death's apprentice." The demon spoke with its hoarse voice then grinned.

The demon pointed Xi's cheek with its sharp nail. It started to scratch it hard. She felt painful and surprisingly blood came from the scratch. The other demon started to torture her. The demon leader came closer to her and push her forehead hard with its finger. She felt burnt on her forehead but couldn't move any part of her body. She felt like she was electrocuted with a high voltage electricity. Her eyes started to blurry. Right before she closed her eyes, she felt the strange feeling came back again. A hidden power inside her emerged and forced to come out. She felt like she was filled with anger. Her eyes turned into yellow and she broke the tie which tied her before. The demons were surprised and started to be afraid.

The weaker demon told the leader.

"That.. is.. The Empress Golden Eyes!" the demon stuttered.

Xi didn't what it meant but the demon leader knew exactly what his subordinate meant. The fear started to be shown on his face. But he still wanted to fight Xi.

Xi ran to the lower demons and fight them madly. She kicked a demon and grabbed its neck and the poof! It turned into dust then vanished into the air.

"One's done! Three more!" Xi clapped her hands tried to brush off the dust.

But when Xi came closer, the demon leader once again recited the mantra. This time it seemed more powerful. It seemed that the demon leader knew something that Xi didn't even know : her weakness. She felt an awful pain. She couldn't even move then fell down on her knees.

But right in time a thunder came in sudden and startled all of the demons. It was YAMLA!

Her heart was so euphoric of this moment. She would be saved. Yamla took out his golden whip and whipped the demons near Xi simultaneously. The way Yamla slayed the demons really mesmerized Xi. It turned even much cooler when Yamla finally killed the Demon leader who tortured Xi before. It definitely looked like a charming knight who saved the princess from dragon.

After Xi finally got back her power, she started to move closer to the lost soul. Xi asked her name but the soul seemed lost her voice.

"Are you Jen Hui?"

She didn't answer it. The only one the soul did was only pointing at a locker room with the name badge "Jen Hui".

She gave Xi a sign to open it. But Xi seemed hesitant. She waited for Yamla to open it together. Although Yamla might already know what inside it.

As Yamla finally finished cleaning his whip, a horse faced Diyu guard came out of nowhere. Yamla gave him a sign to take the soul away. The horse face nodded and did what he was asked for immediately. After that, the soul was taken away to Diyu.

When Yamla was about to talk to her, He suddenly disappeared as someone came in.