Chapter 4: Pool Of Questions

3.00 am

It was 3 in the morning, the family was sleeping peacefully in their own respective rooms. Lily kept the diary safely in a drawer with a lock, to prevent her mom from getting it. Outside of their house, the full moon was shining from the dark sky, with twinkling stars nearby, making it more gorgeous than ever. They're living somewhere in a village with less people, without having too much interaction with anyone there in the area.

Just then, two shadows were lingering around the area, as if they were searching for something essential.

Shadow 1: Are you sure they are here?

Shadow 2: I'm pretty sure, his family might be living here somewhere.

Shadow 1: They might be lucky to escape from us that night, but I don't think they will escape again for tonight.

Shadow 2: Don't disappoint our leader, you know the consequences when he found out we didn't do our tasks well. I mean, the last time...

Shadow 1: Don't recall that, I hardly ever forget about that. Anyway, let's make this quick. Where do we start?

Shadow 2: Their house has to be here somewhere....ah ha!! That would be it!!

The two shadows finally found Howard family's home, which they were looking for since the start. Their only intention of looking for the family was to....TAKE THEIR LIFES. They were not standing in front of the house door.

Shadow 1: This is it, this is what we're waiting for. It will be over for this specific night.

Shadow 2: I know right? This is our only chance to make our leader to feel proud of us.

Shadow 1: Let's not talk further longer, let's get inside.

The shadows quickly went inside the house by walking past through the closed door without opening it. They looked around the house and found no one in the living room.

Shadow 2: I guess they might be in their rooms, let's go!!

The shadows immediately searched for the family in a fast speed, they kept looking around until one of the shadow found someone.

Shadow 1: Hey, I think I found one here.

Shadow 2: Who is it?

The shadow went inside one of the rooms looked at the girl who was sleeping peacefully on her bed, it was none other than LILY. They found her sleeping without having any signs of waking up.

Shadow 1: She must be the first daughter of Howard, right?

Shadow 2: Yup, it's definitely her.

Shadow 1: Howard and his stupid friends literally spoiled our whole ultimate plan, but his family are sleeping peacefully while we're suffering like hell now? Well, pretty bad it's going to be her last night. I can't wait to have her as my next dinner.

One of the shadows took out a huge sword behind its back. He smirked devilishly and looked at the other shadow.

Shadow 1: Now it's time to finish our business, kill her now!!

One of the shadows slowly took its steps and went closer to Lily, amazed by her desiring smell.

Shadow 2: You are nothing but a form of beauty, I would like to explore her for a while.

With an evil smile, the shadow proceeded to get even closer Lily, who's unknown of what's happening around her while sleeping peacefully. As the shadow touched her soft hand, something that they can't see forcefully pushed the shadow back with a powerful vibe. It fell on the ground with a thud, waking up Amanda from her bed quickly.

Amanda: What's that loud noise?!

Meanwhile, the two shadows had no idea what just happened a few minutes ago.

Shadow 1: What happened? Why did you fall?

Shadow 2: I touched her hand, and something pushed me back hard. It's so painful and powerful at the same time.

Shadow 1: What do you mean powerful? She's just an ordinary girl.

Amanda: Lily!!! Lily!!!

The shadows were alerted when they realized they accidentally woke up Amanda with their noise.

Shadow 1: It's Amanda, Howard's wife.

Shadow 2: She's coming toward the room, hide!!

The two shadows hid themselves behind the closet, Amanda opened the door and investigated the whole room. She found her daughter Lily sleeping on her bed with no distractions, she looked around the room but she couldn't find the source of the noise.

Amanda: I thought I heard something loud coming from here, but Lily's sleeping and no one else is here. Am I hallucinating things right now?

Amanda can't stop thinking about the sound she heard, yet she eventually gave up and went back to her bed before took a last look on Lily, before closing the door. The two shadows then came out from the closet and looked at the door.

Shadow 2: I still couldn't believe they survived from the crisis.

Shadow 1: They might have saved themselves from there, but not here.

Shadow 2: But the problem is, what's stopping me from getting closer to Lily? Does she have any supernatural power?

The two shadows looked at Lily for a while, they're still clueless and started to get suspicious of her true identity. However, there is another identity of her that Lily herself wasn't aware of.

Shadow 1: What are you waiting for? Just kill her man!

Shadow 2: I don't think it's safe to go next to her, something's not right.

Shadow 1: You fool, being a coward all the time makes me feeling shame on you for working for our boss. Let me deal with this.

The shadow snatched the sword away from the other one, rubbing the sword if it's sharp enough to slash Lily's body into perfect pieces.

Shadow 1: She literally can't dodge this attack of mine, I'll send her to the hell where she is belonged to.

The shadow raised the sword and charged toward Lily with a powerful force, but you might have guessed, something more powerful pushed him back like how the other shadow who tried to attack Lily earlier.

This time, the impact was too strong, because the sword the shadow was holding it tight flew back into him, cutting his left arm in a fast pace. Blood splashed everywhere and the shadow shouted in pain.

Shadow 1: AHHHHH!!! MY ARM!!!!!

Shadow 2: What the....how could this happen?!!!

The shadow held his shoulder from leaking too much blood from his body, they no longer felt easy to even get closer to Lily.

Shadow 2: It will be fine, let's go back to our leader, he will fix this.

Shadow 1: I can't, this pain is unbearable, like something I haven't felt before.

Shadow 2: Come on, let's get out of here.

In a second, the two shadows disappeared into thin air, along with one of the shadows's arm that had been cut. As for Lily, she literally had no clue of unknown things happening surrounded at her.

7.00 am

Rise and shine, birds started to chirp, roosters started to crow, sunlight started to shine among the Earth. Lily started to move her closed eyes as she felt bright outside, she opened her eyes slowly and realized another starting of a new day.

Lily: Is it morning already? I thought I just slept like 10 minutes ago.

Lily woke up from her bed and yawned loudly, fixing her hair and got out of the bed, when she spotted something horrifying that shocked her to the core, that she screamed in panic.

Lily: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! WHAT THE HECK IS THAT?!!!!!!

Amanda who heard the screaming sound of her daughter ran inside her room.

Amanda: What's the matter? Why did you scream?

Lily who was unable to speak looked dizzily at her mother, she tried to speak but no words came out, other than her mouth opened widely.

Amanda: Why do you look stunned? Did you have a bad dream again?

Lily looked back at the ground and breathe heavily, Amanda stared at her weird behaviour and walked to get next to her, when she also spotted that terrible thing on the floor, which she gasped and held her chest.

Amanda: Is that....is that blood on the floor?!!

Amanda was as shock as Lily when she saw a pool of blood covered on the floor, although it was dried out but the amount of blood made them wonder who could have got hurt so badly.

Lily: That's not even fake blood, it's dried out.

Amanda: I guess something might have happened last night.

Lily: What do you mean last night?

Amanda: I heard a loud noise coming from your room, I came here to check but there's no one here at that time.

Lily: Last night? ( gasps ) Are you saying someone sneaked into our house?!!

Amanda: It could be, but who knows? Anything could have happened, however that person was not careful enough that he even bleed himself.

Lily: Should we do something about it? I mean, it's a lot of blood.

Amanda: Well, I don't see any signs of someone sneaked inside, no windows or door broke, no weird footprints, it's literally nothing.

Lily: Then was it a ghost?

Amanda: I didn't mean it like that. Hold on, did you hurt somewhere?

Lily: No, I'm perfectly fine. Look, no wounds or injuries.

Lily showed her arms and legs to Amanda which there was no sign of scratches or injuries on her liked she said.

Amanda: All right, I'm glad that you're not hurt. And, as for the blood, I think we should just let that slide away.

Lily: Slide away, you say? Mom, it's blood!!

Amanda: I know, sweetie, but it could be an animal or bird sneaked into our house.

Lily: Are you serious, mom?

Amanda: ( sighs ) We have no other choice but to forget that. Now, go take a shower and I'll clean this up. Don't step on that blood.

Lily: Uggh, fine. I can't believe there's blood in my room.

Lily mumbled upon herself before leaving the room, Amanda started to get worried when she saw a stain of blood on the floor.

Amanda: How could this happen? Would it be.....No, that's impossible!!! They might have gone by now!!! Uggh, Howard, I wish you were here.

Amanda can't stop reminding herself about the trauma she had, she wanted this to be a dream however she felt that one day that trauma would be back again to her and her daughters. She didn't want to lose both Lily and Sarah after her husband Howard's demise.

3.00 pm

Somewhere at a dark place, evil vibe surrounded with black magic, statues of horrifying figures placed by side, red orbs shone from above. It was literally a place for demons, devils and evils, or we could simply say it's Hell. The two shadows then appeared in the place out of nowhere and looked around.

Bats were flying around the place, wolfs were howling as scary as monsters. Spider webs were placed at the corner of the creepy place. The shadows were looking around the place as if they were searching for someone they wanted to meet.

Shadow 1: Hey, call him out.

Shadow 2: No way, I just hate to tell this news to our leader.

Shadow 1: But we have no other choice, do you want him to find himself out that we failed to kill the Howard's family or you want to tell it by yourself to be in the safe side?

Shadow 2: ( gulps ) I guess I rather tell it by myself, we do know what will happen next if we hid the truth from him.

Shadow 1: Good, now call him for the sake of demon, can't you see I'm in pain right now?

The bleeding still didn't stop from the shadows's injured part, they kept wondering what kind of power did it stop them from attacking or even touching Lily.

Shadow 2: Fine, I'll call him out.

The shadow took a step forward and gathered his whole courage to face all he could.

Shadow 2: Leader!!!! Our dear Leader!!! We are back to your precious place, please have some mercy and meet us!!! We're pleading you!!!

Just then, the doors that were locked opened in front of them, bats came out from inside and went through the shadows, causing them to jump back a little. They tried to get rid of them as they could before they saw something appearing from inside.

Shadow 2: Hey, it's him!!

A figure with glowing red eyes showed up from inside, with a huge body and furry arms and legs. He held a huge weapon on his right arm and his body covered with blood and scratches. He walked down through the stairs with heavy footsteps, making the whole place shaking in fear. He finally went down and looked at the two shadows whose they were waiting for him to arrive, he had been taking the lifes of so many humans and animals just to increase his power. He even fed on their blood to satisfy himself. He's also known as....

Shadows: Hail to you, Mr. Roger Fernando, our greatest and powerful leader of the evil!!!

Roger: Well well well, it's been a while since we met.

Shadow 2: Yes, leader. We have been looking for the Howard's family for a very long time.

Roger: And, did you find them?

Roger's voice began to change unexpectedly as he wanted to hear the main part. The shadows quickly alerted themselves as they knew it's coming.

Shadow 1: We did find them, leader!! They're not far away from Levilion City. In fact, they didn't even go near to that city.

Roger: Ok, now to the point...did you both kill them?

The shadows were nervous and tried to find a way to speak up, they didn't want Roger to find out that they messed things up which they never wanted that to happen.

Roger: Tell me, did you or did you not kill them?

Shadow 2: The thing is...leader.....we tried to kill Howard's first daughter....

Roger: Yes, it's Lily.....then?

Shadow 1: We tried to kill her but.....

Roger: But what?!!!

Shadow 1: Something stopped us from killing her or the family.

That's all Roger could even hear, he shouted furiously and started to break things nearby.

Roger: I knew you both were going to fail, how could you both?! Aarrrrggggghhhhh!!!!

The shadows can do nothing to calm Roger down, they pissed him off just when they didn't want that to happen. They were frozen after seeing their leader getting out of control. When he kept breaking things, someone appeared behind him with glowing eyes as well.

???: ROGER!!!!!

Roger stopped his move and looked behind him, it was his one and only trusted assistant he had since the start, his name was....

Roger: Chris, as I expected, they failed again!!!!

Chris: I know Roger, but being so furious is not going to help anything right now.

Chris climbed down the stairs and looked curiously at the shadows.

Chris: So, you're saying you both didn't kill the Howard's family, did you?

Shadows: Yes, sir.

Chris: All right, tell me what really happened without leaving any small details.

Shadow 2: We both found the family and we went inside, then we found Howard's first daughter, Lily. I just touched her, and something pushed me back so hard, as if something prevented me from getting close to her.

Chris looked at the other shadow and found one of his arm went missing.

Chris: What happened to your arm?

Shadow 1: Just as he said, I tried to kill Lily by using my sword to slash her into half, but something charged me back and I stumbled, to the point that the sword cut my left arm with a huge force. That's what happened at that time.

Chris nodded his head after hearing the shadows's explanation, he looked back at Roger who now had a confusion on his face, before looking back at the shadows again.

Chris: I see, so you can't heal yourself after the injury?

Shadow 1: I can't, it keeps bleeding.

Roger: Let me do something about that.

Roger raised his hand and touched the shadows's injured to get his arm back, but something pushed him back, made him almost fall out of balance.

Shadows: Leader!!!

Chris: Roger!!!

Roger: I'm fine, I'm fine. Ok, you both can leave now, and for you, ask to one of our demons to help you bandage your injury.

Shadows: As you say, our leader. We will take our leave.

The shadows bowed at both Roger and Chris before leaving them alone.

Roger: What just happened? What did something pushed me when I touched that shadow's injured part?

Chris: If that injured part is not allowing you to touch it, then it means that the power that protected Lily from the shadows might be more powerful than you.

Roger: What?! That's impossible, Chris!! No one can literally destroy me.

Chris: If you forgot, there is only one which can destroy you instantly.

Roger: Yeah, The Heart. I should have claimed it at that time, but I failed to do so, all because of that stupid Howard and his stupid two friends.

Chris: Roger, I know you lost that chance, but don't worry, we can wait until the next solar eclipse. If you found that gem after the eclipse over, then you will become the most powerful demon in the world.

Roger: Let your words come true, Chris. I will make that happen, but the problem is the gem went missing. Where can we find it before the next solar eclipse start?

Chris: You need to find it by yourself, Roger. Howard might have hidden it somewhere in the Levilion City, but you need to be find it as soon as possible before anyone could.

Roger: I won't let that happen until I'm here. I'm gonna make sure to find that gem and use it against the Howard's family so I can take my long awaited revenge, I will make sure to win over my father so I can make him suffer with his soul. I'll never forget for what he had done to me for lifetime. He should be punished so badly.

Chris: Calm down Roger, your father may had betrayed you, but you need to be patient for now so you can make your wish come true.

Roger: Howard's family, I'm coming for you soon....

To be continued....