CHAPTER FIVE: EMERGENCE

Images of Aōn soaked in his blood, dying and pleading for help run through my mind as I walk down the path the merchant pointed out to me in search of him. My heartbeat quickens and my strides lengthen as I look around searching for a familiar mop of red hair. Strange unfamiliar feelings course through me, feelings I know of which are called fear and anxiety. I worry for Aōn and though I know that it is too early to come to any conclusions seeing as he might have willingly gone with the other boys, I still worry because of the intense feeling of danger my instincts warn me about. I walk through the path at such a fast pace that it could almost be considered running, I dart my eyes around searching everywhere for Aōn but I do not find him anywhere.

I ask merchants and people around, but once I give them the description of Aōn, their faces shrivel up in disgust and they ignore me. In annoyance, I stop asking the people around me any questions and just follow my instincts hoping that it would be enough to guide me to him. I walk pasts various shops and stalls till I get to a section of the town that is almost deserted, with only a sparse amount of beggars and the disabled, I walk further till I see them no more and I begin to doubt my instincts, wondering whether I had been wrong all this while by choosing to follow them. I turn around a corner, seeing two teenage boys laugh and kick something on the ground and I am just about to walk past when I see a shock of red on the floor. I immediately stop my movement and look closely, and indeed it is Aōn I see curled up on the floor. I look at the two boys, they are laughing, enjoying themselves and seem to be playing and then I look at Aōn, and his face is squeezed in..... Pain?

I am not familiar with this emotion hence I do not know whether I am right or wrong in my assumptions. I look closely at Aōn and with the little sound he makes and the way he curls up his body trying to shield it from the kicks of the other boys, it makes me sure that whatever he is feeling is indeed pain. With this realisation, I feel anger, so much anger, raw powerful anger that makes me envision the cobble stones smeared with the colour of red, the colour of their blood. How dare they hurt Aōn?! How dare they hurt him?! I will make them pay! I do not realise when I stride over to the boys,

'Enough!' I say with a voice not my own. The two boys immediately stop and turn to me and when they see that I am just a little child, they snicker. I feel two people walk up behind me but I do not turn around nor acknowledge their presence. 'We are just teaching him a lesson, Vacants like him do not belong here.' A boy behind me speaks which I assume to be the leader of this group. Here is that word again, Vacant. I wonder what it means and why they keep calling Aōn that. I look at Aōn, he is not moving but he seems to be breathing. With this knowledge, I turn to the two boys behind me disregarding the ones beside Aōn and I say to them, 'I do not care about your opinions, he is mine and he is coming with me.' The leader chuckles and looks at me up and down while licking his lips 'Little girls like you should learn not to interfere in matters that do not concern you but since you are here, then I guess we have no choice than to play with you but first, you will have to show me your face so that I can see whether or not you qualify.' I shiver in disgust and once again, rage consumes me when I turn my head to look at Aōn, seeing all the blood that surrounds him..... his blood. I snap my head back to look at the leader, 'kill him.... kill them all,' A voice speaks inside my head, 'We shall make them pay, their blood mussst be sssspilt. Kill them, kill them, kill them all.' The voice chants and I feel myself sinking through a black fog, slipping...drowning.

The four boys smirk and chuckle, advancing on the little girl standing with the hood over her head. Although, they do not see her face, her mysteriousness is enough to intrigue them and they presume that she must be a beauty. They advance on her wanting to tear off her cloak when the girl lifts her head and stares at them with completely black eyes. They pause in their movements and stare at the girl in shock but then begin walking faster towards her, eager to touch her, to do to her all the dirty things that run through their minds, not fearing the strange colour of her eyes. The little girl sees them coming and smirks, her lips opening to reveal two pointy canines. She licks her lips and whispers, 'Yessss, come to me.' The boys blind to the doom awaiting them, walk forward in a daze to reach the girl and as the first boy stretches out his hands to touch her, the little girl grabs unto his hands, crushing his bones in the process. 'Arghh!!!!!' The boy screams, the intense pain he feels wakes him and the others up from their daze. The little girl chuckles and turns his hands every which way. Cracking sounds can be heard from the alley till the boy's hands are completely torn off from his body. This action throws the other boys off and they stand, frozen in shock. The boy screams in pain, crawling backwards away from the little girl. The little girl laughs louder in response. 'Yesss, sssscream for me, let your pathetic sssoundsss fill my earsss.' The little girl then walks over to the boy and gouges out his eyes with her fingers and rips out his throat. Silence fills the alley as the boy drops down dead. 'Weak,' she says and motions the three other boys to come towards her.

The three boys finally snap out of their state of shock but in their foolishness instead of running away, they stand ready to fight. The little girl chuckles, licks the trail of blood down her hands and smiles with her reddened teeth at the boys. Vines crawl through the floor and coil around the arms of two of the boys and they smirk at the girl, having the thought to teach her a lesson but later look on in confusion when the little girl smiles wider. 'Ahhhh..... magick users. This should fun.' Before any of the boys can blink, the little girl arrives in front of her target, a small looking boy with caramel coloured hair and a freckled face. 'Boo!!!' She says, punching the boy hard enough to tear through his skin, break all of his bones and smash his organs with her hand protruding from his back. The boy is unable to scream before he falls to the ground, dead. The little girl looks at the remaining two boys while licking the blood off her hands.

The two boys, finally realising something is extremely wrong with the little girl turn around in an attempt to run. The little girl frowns and immediately attacks one of the boys, saving the leader for last. She pulls out the spinal cord from the boy's back with blood splattering on herself, the walls of the alley and the ground and flings him to a wall, killing him instantly. She then races ahead to block the leader's escape route. The last boy and the leader of the group gasps in horror when he sees the little girl standing in front of him splattered with blood. He begins to move backwards, begging. The little girl sees this and frowns harder. 'Pathetic mortal! Fight me, I command you.' She says to the boy and immediately a strange haze comes upon the boy and he gets into a combat stance. Seeing this, the girl smirks 'Now this will make things truly interesting, I will get to make your death long and painful,' she chuckles in glee.

The boy makes a battle cry and the ground shakes in response. He lifts a huge slab of stone off the ground and throws it to the little girl, the little girl blinks and casually flicks the stone to the side, sending it crashing into a wall. The boy growls in frustration and sends huge earthen spikes to the little girl. The little girl just smirks and dances around the spikes, catching the last one and throwing it back to the boy. The spike impales the boy's foot. The boy screams in pain but is unable to move due to his foot being impaled by the earthen spike. The boy seethes in rage and lifts the ground the little girl stands on. The little girl sees this and calmly hops, from the lifted ground, runs along the walls and arrives in front of the boy, all of these are done in the blink of an eye. The boy freezes in shock and lifts two rocks trying to crush the girl between them. The little girl stretches out her hands and touches both rocks and they are stopped from moving any closer to her. She gives the boy a smile and pushes both rocks away from her. The boy falls to the ground in exhaustion and pain and stares at the little girl. 'Mmmonster,' he rasps, his eyes wide in terror. 'Now, that isss not a very nicccce thing to sssay, isss it? You have had your fun after all and now, it issss my turn.' She hisses as she moves closer to the boy on the floor. The boy in tears and trembling in fear, tries to move back begging the little girl to spare him. The little girl kneels in front of the boy. 'I'm hungry,' she suddenly says and stretches out her hands to touch him. A deep soul wrenching sound can be heard in the alley and after several long minutes, all become silent.

'Burp,' a small sound is heard, coming from the little girl. She looks down at the boy, the source of all the screaming. 'Sssso noisy', she says. She walks, towards the only other living person in the alley, a boy with bright red hair. 'Mmmmm... food.' Just as she is about to touch the boy, she grunts, doubling up in pain, 'No!!!' She screams, gold colour flickering within her black eyes. The little girl struggles with something unseen, two beings combating for dominance in one body. Minutes pass and then the little girl stands up unsteadily, swaying on her feet. She looks around her and sees the dead, mutilated bodies with blood splattered everywhere around the alley. Her eyes widen in shock and fear and she looks down at her hands and her body covered in blood and specks of internal organs. 'What have I done?' She asks herself in horror, gagging to get the taste of blood off her tongue. Freya sways lightly on her feet, overcome by a dizzying spell. 'I can't fall asleep now, Aōn needs me.... Aōn!!!' She exclaims and immediately looks at the little boy, finding him breathing but injured beyond belief. She turns around and walks to the other end of the alley opposite the boy, there she picks up her bag of newly purchased clothes and turns around to return back to Aōn. She then spots a weird creature on the floor and walks towards it. Upon closer inspection, she gasps in shock and takes several steps back.

This is because what she saw was a shrivelled up creature, with greyish white skin and husks for eyes. The creature has its mouth opened in a silent scream. This creature was one of the boys that attacked Aōn, the leader of the group. The little girl falls down, hit with another dizzy sensation. She immediately grips the wall for support, shaking in both exhaustion and fear. I did this... I killed all these people, they attacked Aōn and I... I murdered them. Who am I? What am I? Why can't I remember what I did to them? I.... I... I am a monster. I almost hurt Aōn. 'Aōn!' Freya exclaims, 'I can't think about any of these right now, Aōn needs me,' she says to herself. She moves unsteadily, gripping her bag and grabbing onto the wall for support till she reaches Aōn. She picks him up, breathing heavily as she does so trying to fight off her exhaustion. With Aōn's arm slung over her shoulders and her hand holding unto his side, she walks unsteadily staggering along the path to get help, all the while repeating in her head, Aōn needs me, I will not fall asleep... Aōn needs me, I must not fall asleep. She walks forward determined not to lose consciousness and looks around for anyone that could be of help. She searches around but cannot find a single person, shop or house to ask for help and she is about to lose hope until she turns a corner and sees a small house, the curtains of the house are pulled up though she is not able to see into the house. With her spirit renewed, she manages to drag Aōn to the door of the house and knocks with all her might. She bangs on the door continuously, praying to whatever gods out there that someone comes to help them because she cannot hold on for much longer. 'I'm coming, I'm coming. Be patient, will you?' The voice of a woman comes from within. The woman walks to the door, wondering who could be the person knocking on her door in such a manner. She opens the door, about to tell them off when she sees two children in a terrible state, looking like they are hanging on to life by a thread. Freya looks up and sees a woman wearing monocles holding onto the door. 'Help,' she says and passes out, Aōn falling along with her.