Again, After 3 Months

It was a two-floor house in your typical neighborhood, with a small garden surrounding it. It was walled with steel and concrete fences, painted in a combination of dark brown and gray. At the small gate, a young man had been standing for more than 10 minutes. His name is Ahli, and this house is his missing girlfriend's house.

It had been 3 months since her disappearance, and for that long as well he hadn't been in that house. Yet, it was not the only reason for his anxious feeling. Almost everyone suspected him to be the person responsible for the incident. Not her girlfriend's parents for sure, but that was their opinion 3 months ago, not so sure how they felt after having no news at all about their precious little girl.

Ahli tried to make himself calm many times over the last 10 minutes. At the moment he was being there because he was summoned by his missing girlfriend's mother. And what it was for? That was something he was even not sure about.

Could the police be waiting for him? Or something worst?

He clenched his fist, grit his teeth, and finally with all the mustered courage in his heart, he pushed the doorbell at the gate.

PING PONG!

The sound as usual was loud and even you could hear it if you are standing 5 meters from the gate.

"YES! Ahli?" The moment his name was called, Mrs. Derevi's head popped out from the crevice of the opened front door. Ahli gave a small nod confirming her question. She walked toward the gate with keys in her right hand. Ahli could see her tired face, yet she still greeted him with a smile.

"How are you? What have you been up to?" asked her as she unlocked the key to the gate and opened it. Ahli walked past the small arch that was meant as the pedestrian entrance.

"I'm fine. I'm sorry I haven't visited both of you for a while." Ahli bowed to show how remorse he was about it.

"It's okay. Come on. Let's go in." He didn't catch her expression fully, but somehow, he had a glimpse of the smile fading from her face.

He followed her inside and as they both had entered the front door, she turned to face him, and again with a smile on her face, she spoke to him. "Actually, we've been cleaning Jena's belonging, and we found her card collection. Her father had almost thrown it away, luckily I stopped him knowing how important it was to her."

Ahli knew from that story itself; that the rumor of Jena's father had changed his opinion of him is certainly true. His eyes quickly checked his surrounding for any signs of him being around, and Jena's mom seemed to be able to read his mind, as she assured him. "He's not at the house at the moment, so, you can take all of Jena's collection in her room. I haven't gathered all of it, but the ones that were almost thrown out are at her table."

"Also, you have only one hour as my husband said that he should be back in an hour." Added Mrs. Deveri.

"Okay, I'll go get it now."

Ahli started to walk toward the stairs when suddenly her words stopped him.

"I know you two have bonded over those cards, so that's why I entrusted them to you. Please safely keep it until Jena's return." Ahli saw how her smile had faded again and drops of tears were at the edge of her eyes. That and her sincere words had pierced his heart, as he had mistakenly thought that both of her parents had changed their opinion of him.

"I will keep it till she returns."

Ahli walked up to the 2nd floor and into her room. The moment he entered it, it didn't feel moldy. Mrs. Deveri seemed to have been opening the window from time to time to change the air. Yet, he still could smell the faint fragrance of her room, the same one that he usually smelled when he came to it.

He looked immediately to the table and saw a pile of cards unstacked. Some were ripped or slightly torn, while others were folded or bent, and thankfully, quite a number were still intact. Ahli approached the table and started to tidy up the card and stacked them into piles. He examined one card with red color on its front and a name on top of it that read "Flame Blast".

It was Jena's favorite card in the game of Card Master, also the one card that made them meet each other for the first time. Ahli remembered it was 3 years prior at a local game store tournament, and it was the prerelease event of a new set. He was paired with her at his third match, and things were going well with him until she pulled out "Flame Blast" and started to turn the table on him. Since then, they kept on playing together until he finally asked her out, 2 years after their first encounter.

Ahli wanted to smile remembering that sweet memory, yet it gave him pain in his heart as he knew that she was gone, and the worst part is he did not know the reason for it. He knelt on his knees and started to cry, even though he tried as hard as he could to keep his voice as low as possible.

For 5 minutes straight he cried and as he came to his senses, Ahli tried to collect himself and wiped his eyes. At that moment then his eyes caught on something that was laying under Jena's desk. A deck box made of leather with several gems ornamenting it. He reached for it and carried it to the light to see it clearly.

"When did Jena buy this?" He asked himself and tried to remember if Jena had ever told him and he forgot about it. However, he clearly did not have any memories of it.

He opened it and it was empty. However, the brown leather shine on the inner part of the box showed how excellent its quality is.

Ahli paid his attention to the gems, and even though they were small, somehow, they felt heavy, as if they were real. Thoughts of hypothesis and deduction started to run through his mind again, stating every possible scenario and question regarding the box. However, it was cut short when his eyes caught the clock on the desk.

"SHOOT! I only have 10 minutes left before Jena's dad back home."

He rushed toward the table and took a bunch of cards and place it into the mysterious deck box that he still held in his left hand. As he was going to reach for the second pile of cards, suddenly he heard something.

<PROTOCOL ACTIVATED>

<PREPARING TO OPEN THE GATE>

He looked around to find the source of the voice and even looked outside to check if it came from a passerby.

<GATE HAS CONNECTED>

<CARD MAGE TRANSPORT PREPARED>

<SEQUENCE INITIATED>

Ahli became super curious, yet he was late to realize what was happening until he looked toward the deck box that he found. The gems that ornate it had been glowing and with every second passed, it became brighter and brighter. He quickly let go of the deck box and let it fall to the floor, while he turned his body to start running toward the door. It was then a bright light engulfed him.