Spirits of Valea

It was a terribly awful morning in Wintuck on the 16th of December, when the "wise" stay indoors and the "daring" do otherwise... I think.

I wouldn't say I'm daring, but instead I think of myself as stupid and scared. My name's Naku Dova, I'm 15 (along with my peers), these eyes of mine, painted white and hair the colour of snow, my skin is the same. Mother and Father aren't around to explain this, but I'm sure it has some part in me having panic attacks all the time... actually on second thoughts, that makes no sense. But I doubt my deaf sister Ori would know.

I've told my friends to meet at the statue of Millie the Alaskan Husky at 10:30am, at the center of our town between a four way crossing of "streets". I say "streets" because there about the size of my palm, and there's only one district. As I was saying, there isn't much to do alone on a horribly silent winter day in our almost isolated town.

As I shuffle towards the four legged iron hero, I hear a soft whistling coming from the path that leads to more civilisation.

'I don't like it' my mind whispers to me as if telling me to swiftly move away. I gladly do exactly so and hurry to safety. The whistling gets louder and closer, so I decide to pick up the pace. I turn the next corner onto Himword street and my friends are in sight, the whistling quiets down. Feeling safe once again. I slow to jog.

"Come on insect!" Shuny shouts as I approach them.

"Hey guys," I say feeling slightly high spirited.

"Come on, cheer up! After all, we've got the town to ourselves!" Stephane gestures. However, It sounds like the first thing that I would think she'd say.

"Anyway, ever thought of dyeing your hair back to its original colour Mennie?" Steph asks me.

"Why do you still call me that?" I mumble back like a dumb teen.

"I quite like the way it looks with the snow," Nakui says, intercepting the conversation.

"I like your hair too. You know, the way the brown goes with your white ribbon..." I reply. Nakui stares at me intently, eyes wide, almost as if shocked to hear me compliment her. "I mean u-uh... I guess I like my hair too..." I quietly but quickly snap to cover myself from my stupidness. I'm pretty shitty in terms of small talk.

"pffffft," Shuny spurt as he forces stiff laugh, with the intention of frustrating me. I'm not sure if that was funny but sometimes stuff like this happens when you're with these guys, I can't stop myself turning red either, reminds me of my love for cherries. Yes, cherries.

This isn't what I invited them for.

"Hey, I wanted to go to a really nice bookstore in the town a few kilometres west. It has all sorts of manga, light novels and stuff." I finally tell them.

"Ah. It's been a while since I went there," Shuny reminisces.

"It's ok, just follow me." I say.

Satisfied that we're finally departing, I take my first step, Forcing myself to forget most of my worries. This happens every time I take a walk, whether it's in the woods, with my friends, or just strolling around town my myself. Although I especially enjoy it with the bucket heads over here, as it gets them in a good mood, which is always pleasant. More than that, I just love the calm serenity of an empty town.

It's strange that we ended up like this, we're quite different after all.

As we walk to the path, I look back and see the three of them bantering amongst each other, chuckling at crappy jokes, the sunlight illuminating Steph's brown and Shuny's black hair, while Nakui's white bow has its own way of lighting her up. The wind softly caressing her hair one way, and slowly back. Well that's a fucking creepy way of describing it. And their eyes shine together, Nakui's turquoise eyes complementing Shuny's black and Steph's brown. Suddenly, almost as if punched in the face while asleep, I come back to reality as I stand in front of the path that I've seen hundreds of times. The only difference being the soft whistling noise...

What's going on? What's this sound? Why does it sound so familiar? Something warm's rolling down my cheek, down my eyes, my nose, my mouth. A liquid. It's blood.

The snow turns red. It's loud. Somebody. Make it sto-

"Gah... Ahhhhh!"