Chapter 3 : Acquaintance

His eyes widened in horror as the reality of what took place began to sink in. He realised he was in a cave, but he layed there motionless.

"That's right. My parents are dead." He mumbled to himself while tears started flowing down his eyes. He stared up in the dark cieling with his emotionless eyes.

"How stupid can I be?" he let out a scoff as his voice broke. He felt ridiculed by reality and was furious as to how he could have forgotten about THAT day.

His voice was wavering, he began to stutter the words coming out of his mouth.

"So all of that was true after all, huh?"

As he was lost in his own thoughts, a trembling and scared voice of a woman called out to him, "Even after seeing all that, do you still think that all of it was a dream?"

He was shocked to hear a woman's voice as he was oblivious to the fact that he was laying beside her all this time.

"This is the reality right now! I wish it wasn't, but it is! And you have to wake up now or it will come back, you idiot!" she broke into tears of sadness as soon as Sora looked at her.

He finally came back to his senses after he saw the girl cry. He felt guilty all of a sudden for leaving a girl alone for god knows how long in this mysterious forest.

"Did I pass out after bumping into her..? Oh god, she must've been so scared all on her own while I was lost in dreams.." he thought to himself. He then hurriedly got up on his feet and said, "Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?" As he stretched out his hand to help her up.

The girl, although looking really distressed with scratches and wounds on her body and her clothes in a bad shape, she replied, "I'm fine other than some minor injuries."

As she wiped her tears off her dirtied cheeks. He could not see her whole face because her long hair fell on her face, covering it whole. She took Sora's hand and got up.

Sora wondered, "How long has she been in here, for her to look like this? Because those were not just some "minor wounds" if you ask me. But come to think of it, how much time has passed since I've some here? And why has no one come to look for me? Have they all forgotten about me?". A certain feeling of being abandoned began to take over him. He became extremely anxious.

"Hey, how much time has passed since I bumped into you?" he asked in a very concerned and wavering voice. "And how much time have YOU been here?"

"Honestly, I don't even remember at this point. I only remember that I came here on the night of 23rd of december." She said as she was looking uncertain of her answers. "I don't even remember the reason I came here for though.."

Sora was now hyperventilating. "Ok, but how much time has passed since we've bumped into each other?"

The woman was still uncertain of the exact time but she replied, "I would say, approximately 5 to 6 hours?"

Sora now had a panic attack.

"So I've been asleep for the past 5 hours?"

He started gasping for air. His chest hurt so much that he fell to the ground and curled up in the fetal position. His eyes were wavering and he could not focus them on a single thing.

The girl was also panicking, she as well, was on the verge of breaking down, but she thought to herself, "No. I have to stay strong. One of us has to stay strong or we won't be able to survive."

She clenched her teeth, grabbed Sora by his collar, and yelled straight on his face, "You idiot! Come back to your senses! Do you want to die here? In a place like this? Do you think your life is a joke? Get yourself together, NOW!"

As he heard her say those words, he remembered something his father said when he was little.

"Listen carefully son, your life isn't yours alone. Every person in your life owns a part of you. For instance, mom and dad own parts of you right now! And you own parts of us as well. And the people who hold you dear in their hearts own a piece as well!

So, whenever, if in the future, you think of taking your life, remember that you're taking away all those precious memories of yourself from all the people that hold you dear.

Not only that, you're also taking parts of them with you and once you leave, you won't be able to return them back and that void will remain in their soul forever. So you should never do something like that, okay? Or else parts of you will drift away, do you understand?"

These were the words of his father, that had never shown him much affection, but left these words of wisdom with him.

"Yes father, I remember."

As sora came back to his senses, the girl broke down in tears. He held her in his arms to help her calm down. The girl begain to wail loudly, and kept struggling, but Sora kept calming her. He didn't stop her from crying, because he knew she must've held it in for a long time.

"It's okay, you can cry now."

As soon as she heard those words, she buried her face in Sora's chest and cried to her heart's content.

After a while she calmed down and both of them sat down beside each other in the cave. There was a moment or two of silence between them because both of them were embarressed of their actions.

"Hey-" "Hey-"

Both of them spoke at the same time because they wanted to break the awkward silence.

"You can go first!" Sora said as he got flustered.

"No it's okay you go first!!" she said while getting flustered too.

There it was again. Both of them sat in silence for some time when Sora finally asked, "So.. what is your name?"

The woman let out a sigh of relief and replied, "My name is Eimi. Narumi Eimi."

"Eh? Eimi as in the ocean?"

"Yes. And Narumi as in roaring sea. What about you?"

"I'm Kazehaya Sora."

"Then, Sora as in the sky?"

"Yes. And Kazehaya as in wind."

Eimi lets out a giggle as she pushes her long hair from her face and says-

"Isn't it funny we somehow have the complete opposite of names?"

Both of them laughed together when Sora's eyes landed on her face. She was looking down the whole time with her hair covering half of her face, but now that he could see it, he noticed that she looked really beautiful.

She had somewhat of a round face with a straight nose. Her eyes looked as though they might be black, but now that he looked at them closely, he could tell that they had a deep brown color.

Her lips were plump and had a heart shape with a beautiful baby pink color.

With long lashes and sharp eyebrows, her face looked like that of a forest fairy.

She noticed Sora staring at her, but she was too shy to ask why. She just sat their feigning ignorance, but her face could not hide how flustered she was.

The more Sora looked at Eimi's face, the more beautiful she seemed to become. He could not take his eyes off of her.

He had never fallen in love before. But when he looked at Eimi, he wanted to tell her that she's the most beautiful girl he had ever met in his whole life, but then he looked away from her and told himself,

"This in niether the time or place to be thinking about these things, let alone say them out loud. I should think about how to survive first."

He pulls himself together and then asks Eimi,

"Are you not tired or hungry?"

Still flustered, she just answers him with a no.

To which Sora gets extremely confused. He grabs Eimi by her shoulder and asks her again.

"How can you not be tired or hungry? Haven't you been here for almost 3 days?"

Surprised by Sora's sudden reaction, Eimi whipers to herself

"Now that you think about it, it really has been that much time, huh?"

But as Sora was holding her close to himself he could hear what she said.

"You only realized that now?"

She felt a little embaressed when she realized that Sora had heard her. Still flustered she replies-

"You heard me??"

"Of course I did! You're right in front of me, remember? And what have you been eating for the past three days?"

She didn't understand the concern Sora showed for her. She was confused as to why Sora was making it such a big deal. If anything, she thought he was being too pushy.

She nonchalantly answered-

"So what? I can survive without food for upto 5 days. This is nothing."

Sora was absolutely shook by her response.

He wondered what kind of life she had been living up until now for her to be able to live without food for 5 days.

It was still bothering him, but he decided not to pry into someone's private life. Let alone someone he had just met. He didn't want to make Eimi uncomfortable.

To change the topic and lift up the awkward silence, Sora asked,

"So where are you from?"

Eimi was a bit relieved that he broke the silence.

"I'm from the Yamanashi prefecture. What about you?"

"What a coincidence! I'm from Yamanashi prefecture too!"

They both looked at each other in surprise.

Sora exclaimed,

"We both lived in the same prefecture? How come I've never run into you before?"

"It's funny right? I don't think I ran into you either!"

The awkward silence was finally gone. they talked about other things about their life as well. As they were engaged in conversation, they forgot all about their circumstances.

Suddenly a gust of wind came riding on the crisp fallen leaves. Sora felt a chill run down his spine. He got a weird feeling and he knew whatever was gonna happen, could not be good.

Eimi didn't seem to notice this change in the surroundings. But Sora kept getting an ominous feeling. He didn't tell Eimi because he didn't want to worry her, plus he was still not sure if the feeling he had was real or he was just being paranoid.

Suddenly the wind began to pick up. The leaves started rustling wildly. The wind made a horror-esque sound as it intertwined with the trees. The wind was becoming really chilly, they thought there was gonna be a storm or something.

Eimi seemed to not take the cold wind too well. Her whole body was shivering. Sora could hear her teeth cluttering.

"Scootch in closer"

Sora says as he opens his arms to hug Eimi.

Eimi looked uncertain for a second but then she went closer to Sora and they cuddled together for a little bit of heat. He could feel Eimi shivering so he hugged her close to his chest to provide her with a little bit of his body warmth.

"Your body temperature is awfully hot" Eimi said as she warmed up a little.

"I know. My temperature is always above the natural. My hands and chest are the warmest. You should snuggle in closer."

Eimi listened to him and put her face on his chest, as Sora held her hands in his.

"Let's try to make it through the night. We'll think about escaping the forest in the morning." Sora said as he stared at the cave wall in front of him.

For some reason, Sora still couldn't shake the feeling that something was about to happen.

All of a sudden, there was a loud noise. It sounded like an old man laughing loudly. They were startled by the sudden loud noise.

"O HO HO HO!! It seems that you two survived and have made it this far!"

The voice said as if it was mocking them.

They were horrified when they heard the voice. They were also terrified because the voice seemed to come from somewhere close to them, but they couldn't see who it was. It was like a voice without a body.

Even though they were terrified of whatever or whoever it was, they were even more confused as to why it approached them only now. He could feel Eimi shaking again. Not from the cold, but from being scared.

Although scared, Sora mustered up the courage to speak up.

"W-who are you? What do you want from us? Where are you talking to us from? Come out now!"

There was a moment of silence. But finally, the voice replied in a somewhat funny tone-

"You see, today is Christmas! And I think both of you deserve to have a gift because of all your effort until now, don't you?"

Sora felt as if the voice was ridiculing them. He got really angry and replied in a stern voice,

"ARE YOU FU*KING WITH ME RIGHT NOW? Is it funny to you? Come out right now and let us out of here!"

The voice replied in a joking manner.

"Listen now, I can't really help you out of here, nor can I tell you who I am. But would you mind letting me finish first?"

Sora gulped in uncertainty of the situation, while holding Eimi closed in her arms. The voice took a moment and continued

"Now then, I did say that you two deserve a gift didn't I? I shall give you a gift, but you don't get to choose what it is. I shall give you two choices."

The voice again took a moment as if it was catching its breath or something.

Sora was unsure and scared of the voice's proposal, but he thought, might as well listen to what he has to say. With that in mind, he asked-

"What kind of choices..?"

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What do you think will happen next? What were the choices given to them? And who was behind the voice?

Stay tuned to "See Through" to find out how their fate takes a turn and what their destiny is!

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Hey guys! It's your author, kira-kween here! First of all I would like to apologize to everyone who has read my novel and has waited for the chapters to come out! The reason I have not uploaded chapters in a while is because I've been really really sick and bedridden for the past two weeks!

I apologize again for not letting yall know about the hiatus either! From the next Tuesdays and Thursdays I will be sure to upload chapters regularly!

Also, you can follow me on Instgram: author_kirakween to know more about the updates and future hiatus's and other things!

And I would also like to interact with all of you so please leave a comment on what you think so far!

Thank you, and bye <3