Chapter 3 Carter

We went through the evergreen forest. We passed multiple red oak cabins each with a name labeled on the door. I asked, "So this chaos is magic." She replied, "No, it is different. It comes from enigma, clan of people whose origin is unknown but had chaos. They release it like how we release sweat or how snakes produce venom." I asked, "Then how do we get it?" She replied, "From our parents. It is hereditary." I don't remember an enigma in my family tree. She continued, "Where we're going? You will finally have a group to which you belong?" We were silent until we reached a broken-down train.

It was rusty and looked like it hadn't been used in years. We walked to one of the train carts and entered it. It was full of hay. Ephiria said, "Push the hay away. It will uncover the secret entrance to the Registration Centre." Well, that is a very well-hidden entrance. I obliged. It revealed a bunker entrance with no handle. I asked, "How are we supposed to open that." She replied with a smirk.

She put her hands on the entrance cover. The air around got warmer. Her hands glowed like the sun. The entrance cover melted within minutes revealing ladders. I guess I should stay away from shaking her hands. She smiled and walked down the ladders. I followed after her. We walked on the top of the ceiling of what seemed to be a cave. To us, it was the floor. We reached a crack in the floor.

There was a gigantic pond in the cave. Ephiria pushed me through the crack. I tried to hold onto… something but I was already descending to my doom. Was she crazy? She jumped after me. She said, "Don't freak out. There is water under us. It will hurt but we will survive." Won't change the fact that it will hurt. I shut my eyes as I prepared for impact. Surface tension was annoying. The water made sure to give me a good slap to the face. I swam to shore and got out with my clothes drenched in water. Ephiria walked out of the water after me and before I knew it, all the water on her had evaporated. She said, "Almost forgot about you." The golden light engulfed me and the water evaporated off me. That is a nice trick.

The cave we were in was lit up with glowing mosses. Ephiria said, "Let's go." We continued walking to reveal that we were on top of a cliff. Under us was a very wide and big area with multiple cubicles everywhere and was only made up of the ground floor with no roof. There were many people each in their cubicle with office equipment and multiple files.

Ephiria raised her hand and used her light to send a signal. Minutes later, a woman riding a puma approached us. She had a weird complexion. She had yellow skin and hair with black stripes passing through it. She had cat ears with dirt-brown normal ears. She was wearing a business midnight blue pair of trousers, a coat, and a light green shirt. She looked around 30 years of age.

She said, "It has been a long time since you last came to visit Ephiria. Now you even brought a friend." I could see Ephiria roll her eyes. Ephiria said, "Even you, Mrs. Celine. I have brought him to get signed into the Paricius System." She said, "By the way, has he taken the classification test." Ephiria's Adam's apple dropped. Ephiria said, "Not yet. I wanted to give you the honors." Celine said, "Thanks, remember you can't interfere Mrs. Ephiria unless you want a do-over of last time. Okay, boy, here is a dagger. Hold it."

Mrs. Celine handed me a dagger. Ephiria's eyes spoke to me as if telling me to hold onto that dagger with my life and I soon understood. Mrs. Celine and Ephiria distanced themselves from me. Mrs. Celine said, "Let the test commence." It was no pen and paper – I can assure you that. She whistled and the puma attacked me. My heart raced with fear. It jumped but I dodged in time. I ran for help from the people in the building below. The puma chased me down the slope. The puma launched itself onto me. I stabbed its chest. It didn't leave me with no payback. It scratched my arms leaving deep wounds. The pain ached around my whole body. I felt nauseous.

I turned and ran into a field of well-spaced samurai statues. They were big enough to hide me. I sat down to catch my breath. My bleeding was increasing. I tore my hoodie and placed pieces of it around my wounds and my neck. I held my knife tight and grabbed some soil in my other hand. I could hear the puma come closer to me. Fun fact: pumas have a great sense of hearing so my loud rapid heartbeat wasn't helping me out. I felt its breath behind the statue. I jumped out and started running. The puma was on my tail. It jumped. I threw dust in its eyes. I took the choice to demobilize it. I stabbed its leg and continued running. It didn't stop chasing with eyes full of craving for flesh like it was saying, "Don't blame me. Blame the lady who starved me for a fortnight."

I turned feeling that it was behind me. It wasn't. It had disappeared. I didn't blow the chance. I ran straight to the building. I could see the entrance. I almost got filled with hope until the puma attacked me from the sides. It held me down and went for my neck. It bit cotton. It continued going deeper. I stabbed multiple times but the thing refused to barge.

I felt its teeth make contact with my neck. I was filled with panic. If it hit the right vein, I'd die. I stabbed more with the little energy my blood loss had left me with. The teeth tore through my skin and went deeper and deeper. The pain turned my brain upside-down. My eyes shut. I felt my heartbeat slowly die out. Adrenaline was produced but still, my energy wasn't enough to push it off me.

I accepted my death and got ready to meet my parents. Ba bump. The teeth stopped going into my neck. They felt harder and just disappeared along with the puma. I opened my eyes to see nothing was left but grey dust. A miracle from Allah had occurred. I collapsed due to blood loss.

I woke up in my bedroom. It had stars painted on the black ceiling and blue and orange painted on the walls. Was it all a horrible nightmare? I happily went through my normal morning schedule and went downstairs to look for me but couldn't find her. I called out, "Mom" I heard a response from outside the house. I ran out the door and fell into a black void that ended with a watery floor. I fell in it and noticed it wasn't water. It was a pool of tears.

I was in a dream. I followed the current. It led me to a woman. I got close enough to see that it was my mom. I ran to her and hugged her. These were her tears. I said, "No need to cry, Mom. I have found you." She said, "This is a dream and there is no finding me. It is because I am not on the mortal plane." I said, "What do you mean?" she said, "I mean I am dead, and worst of all I was killed by my son. The creature that I held in my womb for 9 whole months. The creature I suffered to bring into this world. The creature that demanded so much love that I had to give it. What does pay me back with? Death." I said, "It was a mistake. I never intended to do it." She said, "Intend to do what? Say it, Carter. I want to hear you say it" I said, "Murder you"

She said, "Not just anyone. Your mother. How do you feel about yourself, Carter?" Tears rolled down my cheeks. I said, "I am sorry. I wish I could go back in time and find another way." She pointed at a pile of grey dust. She said, "Tell that to my dust. Your sorry won't resurrect me back to life so please save yourself the trouble."

She rose to the sky as dust formed dark cumulonimbus clouds. Lightning struck as tears rained. The black void filled up quickly. In seconds, I was drowning in my mom's tears. An image of my mom appeared in front of me. She said, "Death by drowning in your mom's tears, your life truly is pathetic."

I woke up with a gasp this time in a hospital bed. I was in a hospital gown with a drip of some weird orange liquid. All my wounds were healed. Alhamdulillah. It was like nothing had happened. It was now 4:00 p.m. I had been out for 4 hours. My stomach grumbled with hunger. I stood up. I went straight to put on the clothes that were next to me. It was a dark brown short-sleeved t-shirt, black sweatpants with green stripes along the outer sides, a grey hoodie, and white-black Puma shoes. I am wearing what tried to kill me moments ago – nice. The weird thing was that they were all my size.

I walked out the door into the cubicles. I needn't get a way out of here. This place is crazy and dangerous. I spotted Ephiria from afar. She saw me. Oh, no. I need to run. I started dashing off in the opposite direction. She noticed and started chasing me at a calm pace as if knowing exactly where I was going. I suddenly got taken into a daydream of myself with my parents. All of us were truly happy then. I got pulled back to reality. What was that? Whatever it was, it is the wrong time to disturb me. I continued my run from a beautiful girl. Wow, a teenage boy's dream–being chased by a beautiful girl. Well, it had become my worst nightmare.