Whispers

The sun was dawning on Aster City slowly warming up the city as it awoke from its slumber. Emmia was seen laying in her bed, bedsheet thrown to the side, pillow clutched in her embrace, while the girl herself was sleeping on the crumpled bedsheet on top of the bed.

Light footsteps, almost inaudible, echoed outside her room. The door opened with a click as a young woman stepped into the room. She looked to be in her early 20s, her crimson-red eyes pierced through the darkness in the room as she looked around.

Finding her young sister in an extreme sleeping position as always, Seril sighed in worry. 'Will she ever fix her bad sleeping habit?'

Crouching near Mia's figure, Seril started to shake her awake.

"Mia, it's time to wake up."

"mmmm"

"You need to get ready to go to school."

"mmm, 5 more minutes," Mia mumbled in her sleep.

"5 minutes will become 30 minutes. Now wake up, it's time for school."

"mmm, 2 minutes."

Pinching her younger sister's ear, Seril started to pull, stopping at the point where it would've started to hurt.

"Ow ow ow...." Emmia cried out, waking up immediately.

"You awake now?" Seril asked with a smirk.

"You didn't have to pull my ears..." Emmia accused rubbing her ears in pain.

Rolling her eyes, Seril stood up and left the room.

"Get yourself ready for school. Breakfast will be ready in 10 minutes."

Emmia lugged herself out of bed and pushed herself through her morning routine.

Putting on the academy uniform, she hopped down to the kitchen.

There she found Seril sitting on the couch typing away at the laptop. Currently, her blond hair was covered with a beanie. In fact, it was always covered with a hat of some sort. That was to cover the fact that Seril did not have human ears.

This was obviously due to the fact that Seril was not an actual human. She was in fact a Dread Lioness. Even though she could transform into a human, her ears wouldn't truly transform with the rest of the body. Thus, much to her discontent, she was forced to wear something to cover her ears when she was in her human form.

Emmia too wasn't an actual human, but after multiple years, it was concluded by Seril that the twins were stuck in their human forms by default. While Icarth could partially transform, Emmia was not able to at all, leaving her without access to the benefits of their animal form.

Realizing that she was slightly late, Emmia started to shovel the food down in an effort to save some time.

"Eat slowly," Seril called out from her position on the couch.

Ignoring her sisters' words, Emmia finished the rest of the food on her plate and rushed to get her bag.

"Bye Seril, I'll see you later!" Emmia called out and hurried for the door.

"Wait," Seril called out suddenly.

"What is it?" Emmia asked impatiently. She was going to be late at this rate.

"...how is Icarth?" Seril asked without looking up from her screen.

Emmia froze. Nervousness exploded within her as she struggled to answer.

"...he's fine.." Emmia squeezed out with difficulty. This topic was always a landmine with either of her siblings, every time it was brought up Emmia would become a nervous wreck. Today was especially worse for her as she didn't want Seril to find out about the mini-fight that she had with Icarth yesterday over the same topic.

"Mmm. Alright, have fun at school." Seril called out after a short pause.

Sighing in relief, Emmia called out, "Thanks, see you later!"

Emmia then made her way out of the house and towards Nova Academy.

The Struze household was located in the middle of the residential district of the city. It was pretty close to the academy and was a 15-minute walk if you hurried fast enough.

And that was what Emmia intended to do. Jogging, or speed-walking, she rushed down the still-empty streets. It was still pretty early in the morning. The time for workers to leave their houses to go to work had yet to arrive. Although those who wanted to leave early were leaving their homes now.

Passing a few of her neighbors, Emmia waved to them. Waving back, some of them greeted her while others merely nodded a greeting.

Checking the time on her watch, Emmia sped up a little more.

Her lungs started to burn in exertion as her body had already warmed up to an uncomfortable extent.

'Shit...' Emmia thought as she felt herself tire out exponentially.

Emmia always hated the fact that she was weaker than the average person. It wasn't due to lack of trying or anything. In fact, Emmia had tried multiple times to expand the limitations of her body. Even though she failed each time, she never stopped trying.

Her eyes started to blur as Emmia pushed herself to maintain her half-run pace now.

'Come on....don't give up now....' Emmia thought with such ferocity that kept herself moving.

Reaching the open gates of the academy, Emmia passed through them without any trouble.

"...*huff*..I.....*huff*...made it?" Emmia questioned incredulously.

Before joy could rush to the surface, Emmia was hit by a wave of nausea. World spinning, Emmia collapsed.....or she would have if it wasn't for Luna catching her at the last moment.

Luna, almost a head smaller than Emmia, stared at the taller girl in her arms. Out of breath and unconscious, Emmia had totally collapsed after pushing herself that hard.

Other students passed by, most of them going along their ways, not bothering with the two girls at the entrance.

Mustering up her courage, Luna asked the nearest student, "...do you know the way....to the nurse's office?"

The student, lifting his head from a book, was slightly surprised at the request. That was before he found Emmia's pale and unconscious body leaning against Luna.

"Straight, turn left before the main entrance, and go straight until you see a sign indicating the nurse's office." The boy gave directions with a sympathetic look.

"....thank you..." Luna thanked him with a soft voice and started to drag Emmia along toward the office.

Interestingly, Luna didn't seem to have any trouble while half carrying Emmia's limp body toward the nurse's office.

Along the way, Emmia's head rolled onto Luna's shoulder and a wave of nausea hit Luna.

Suddenly, whispers of unknown origin started to sound out through the pathway.

They were neither loud nor soft, seemingly shifting between the two or somehow having the same volume at the same time depending on how much one paid attention to each voice.

Though each voice had a different pitch and tone, all of them revolved around the same topic.

Kill.

Blood.

Destroy.

Erase everything.

All the voices relentlessly continued to chant phrases relating to these topics.

'Kill the girl in your arms.'

'Let lose. Destroy everything.'

'Let blood rain from the sky.'

'Erase everything from existence.'

....

They carried on endlessly while people passed by without noticing a thing. None of them seemed to notice the presence of the whispers.

Well, there was only one person who could hear them. Luna continued to carry Emmia without changing her expression even after hearing the whispers.

Seemingly used to it, Luna ignored the whispers and focussed on something else.

Gazing at Emmia's blond hair, Luna wondered how something could look so shiny and soft at the same time.

Soon after, the voices stopped, disappearing and returning to where they came from.

Pleasantly surprised, Luna moved forward feeling better that the whispers had stopped pretty early this time.

While Luna had ignored the voices this time too, there was some power to them that lured her in little by little each time she heard them. Even if she did succumb to the whispers, would she have the power to carry out their wishes? Only Luna knew the answer to that question.