3 Deafening

12 years later…

It was late noon.

A boy ran over the walls and jumped around the houses as if someone was chasing him.

He jumped on the branch of the tree, but soon someone cut it.

The boy glanced back and saw the girl who was chasing him. He was wearing dirty clothes, seemingly hadn't washed for days, and the girl was wearing a uniform and had long black hair.

"Stop running!" the girl yelled.

The boy jumped down and ran to the left. The girl didn't jump down and kept chasing him from up.

"Stop running, or I will seriously hit you!"

The boy paid no attention to the girl and kept running.

The girl was right above the boy; after running ahead of him, she jumped down on top of him to pin him down. But as soon as she jumped down, the boy jumped on the wall, then jumped back behind the girl, and started running in the opposite direction.

The girl's face twitched as she cursed the boy. "You forced me to use this!" she screamed.

The girl's body shined with her sword. She then aimed her sword at the boy and started chasing after him.

This time, she was running at almost triple the speed as before. She caught up with the boy in three seconds.

"You still have time to stop!"

"Who are you? And what do you want from me?" the boy asked as he jumped on the tree.

"My name is Liz Earl, and I am here to pick you up for the school, Luka Aldini." the girl jumped on the tree and swung her sword.

Luka fell with the branch of the tree. "That's not how you pick someone up."

"Shut up!" Liz jumped on Luka.

Luka threw the branch at Liz. Liz swung her sword and cut the branch into pieces, only to find Luka had run away.

She caught a glimpse of him running over to a big empty sand garden.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, and sighed. 'I can't believe this person is Luka Aldini. He is pathetic.'

Liz took a different route to reach there and hid behind the wall before Luka could get there, then patiently waited for Luka.

When Luka got there, his clothes were drenched with sweat, and he was panting crazily. He sat down with the wall as a support, the same wall Liz was hiding.

Liz slowly climbed the wall and reached her hands to Luka.

"I wouldn't do it if I were you," Luka uttered.

Liz was surprised and pulled back her hands. "How did you know I was here?"

"If you think you were hiding, then you are wrong. You should practice your stealth ability," he commented.

"If you knew I was here, then why did you stop here?"

"To talk with you."

"Huh?"

Luka looked at Liz and said, "I don't know what's your problem, but I am not coming to school with you."

"Why?!"

"I gave up. I have no 'will' to become an exorcist anymore." He looked at his hands and muttered, "I can't save anyone."

Liz stared at Luka for some seconds, then put her sword back in her sheath and opened her mouth to say something.

"I--" Before she could say anything, there was a loud 'BANG' in the distance. Luka and Liz glanced in the direction of the noise.

Soon, the sky was veiled in darkness by black matter, and someone fell at some distance from Luka and Liz.

It was a girl wearing the same uniform as Liz. She had pale pink hair, and her body was covered with bruises with strange marks— and her red blood dyed the white sand.

Liz's eyes widened as she rushed to the girl. While Luka just kept staring at the pink-haired girl.

He looked like he had seen death. His eyes widened, almost as if they were about to pop out of his eye sockets.

"Ana!" He then screamed. His scream was deafening and piercing that it could rupture one's ears.

The skies, ground, and everything between them started rumbling as if they were trembling in fear because of Luka's scream.

Ana was badly injured and infected by the monster. She was taken in immediate operation.

The infection was extracted from her body, but it was too late. The infection had reached her brain and damaged it.

After the experts handled this case carefully, Ana's life was saved, but she had lost some of her memories.

The doctors said that this memory loss would be temporary, and she might regain her memories within two to three weeks.

When a person gets infected by any impurities, the impurities first attack the brain and infect all the memories. Once the brain is infected, the impurities spread further and further when there is no resistance in the body. Finally, the blood burns out, and all the organs inside the body melt and gets ruptured.