Chapter
35: This Foreboding Feeling
As Takeshi pushed opened the
door, he found it falling to a worn out floor where it coughed up dust. Stepping
over the fragile thing, he entered the house with a flood of light and as the
hardwood crumbled like twigs under his feet, he realized exploring the second
floor wouldn’t be an option. Instead, he
could only follow a trail of empty bottles as it led him through a curtain of
webs, and into a once extravagant room. He was sure there had been valuables
here at a time; a vase that sat atop a pedestal in the corner, and a line of
plates above the fireplace, but all there was now was a raggedy couch and tattered
rug, and pieces of the ceiling that had joined them as time passed. Following
the room brought him to a dining room through an arch, and made him pinch his
brow as he interrupted a macabre feast.
“Someone
must have thought this would be funny.” Sakuya came up behind him, and felt her
eyes bulge at the sight.
“Bandits,”
Takeshi replied as he moved into the room and ignore the dirt and dust covered
skeletons that sat around a dinner table. “I’ve seen something like this
before, as if to say they weren’t afraid of the town or whatever, a group of
bandits would sit the dead up like this.” He continued through another door and
found himself in a kitchen.
“That’s
right, you’ve probably seen a lot of stuff like this.” Sakuya followed close
behind.
“A
lot more than I was ready to see.” He continued across broken-checkered tiles
and stopped as he peered into a perilous darkness. “When I finished my training
with my teacher I was about fourteen. I thought I was ready to go looking for
my parents, but I learnt quickly just how unprepared I was.” He took a step as
Sakuya joined him at his side, and they continued deeper into the abyss. “It
bothers me,” He admitted as he found a beam of light on the other side of the
room.
“That
it feels familiar?” Sakuya looked around, and found a wooden box in the shadows
of a furnace.
“Yeah.”
Takeshi said as he moved toward a desk in the light. “This place feels a lot
like a village that the Town Stealer attacked… It feels like it just wants
people to forget it…” His eyes sunk as he found a journal, and threw back its
cover. “The reason I was in Hokutaga…” He began to flip through the pages. “Was
because I wanted to see the village I grew up in.” He said as he found writing
and took a seat.
“That
must have been hard for you.” Sakuya said as she pried open the box.
“It
was, but at the same time, it made me feel pathetic… I guess.” He murmured as
gave his eyes to the words, and his mind to the past.
He
recounted as he recalled, telling her of what his town used to be. It was a
small one like all those the Town Stealer had assaulted before, with a circle
of twenty-or-so houses opening into a square. If he followed a road, he could
find his school and few other buildings, a weapon shop and grocery store, and a
place where he had often gone to see newborn pets. He admitted, as he gently flipped the pages of
the tattered book, that he didn’t know what he was expecting when he had
decided to go home, but it was nothing like what he felt when he saw the fire
damage, and the bloodstains of anyone who was foolish enough to fight.
“I
was five when it all happened…” His attention left the tome for a moment. “I
didn’t really have much cares back then, the most I had to worry about was when
my dad would get home. The only travelers I had met were the people he invited
home for dinner, and all of them were people he had invited before. I had just
started school and everything, so my afternoons were pretty free with the other
kids and me playing around the fountain in the square.”
“That’s
awful!” Sakuya exclaimed as she realized how terrible the moment had to be. “You
were so young, there was no way you were prepared for any of that.” She looked
to him as he stared through the basement window.
“Not
at all. I was playing in the square when I realized my mom didn’t call me for
dinner. I tried to remember where she was…” His head lowered as distant panic
pulled at his heart. “The store…” An evening flushed sky flashed in his mind,
and a realization, that the store had never seem so far off before. “I
remembered that she went to the grocery store, and decided I’d go there too,
and we’d walk home together. I thought I’d help her make dinner for dad and
whoever his guest would be, I even laughed because I didn’t mind if it was the
one with the daughter who always tried to kiss me.” Now he leaned forward as he
held his head.
“Did
you ever see her again?” Sakuya forgot the box as she turned and listened.
“I’m
not even sure.” Takeshi closed his eyes and remembered a chained woman walking
thirty people ahead of her, and he tried to remember if that was really her. “I
started running, thinking that I’d be with her before nightfall, and then I
heard a horse and a scream.” He recalled the pain of falling as he heard the
horse, and the scream made him trip. “I ran, not from it, but toward it, and…”
A sudden pain jolted up the back of his head, “I was struck and knocked out.
When I woke up, I was in chains, I remember my father calling for me, telling
me that everything would be alright, but I can’t remember my mother saying
anything… I’m not even sure it was my father.” He said as he remembered how
strange his father’s voice had seemed with depression and exhaustion weighing
it down.
“You
couldn’t do anything back then, so that’s why you felt pathetic?” Sakuya came
to his side.
“I
wish that was it,” His eyes met hers. “It worse than that though. I had lost
everything when I was five, spent two years bound and shuffled around, and
months wondering when an awful monster would make me its lunch, and despite
that, after going home I somehow felt that all my hardships meant nothing because
people had it worst.”
“Even
if people did have it worst, that’s not fair to you.”
“I
know, but I couldn’t shake the feeling. I didn’t realize why, until we came
here.” Takeshi was brought back to the book in front of him, as he began to
read again. “It was because despite everything, while travelling Geura, I had
seen what a real Town Stealer attack could do. I had seen how much destruction
and despair he left in his wake, and nothing in my hometown compared to that by
far.”
“And
this place feels like that?” Sakuya crossed her arms as she leaned against the
wall.
“Yeah,
that why I want to find the witch and the thing she’s after, if it has anything
to do with the Town Stealer I have to stop it at all cost.” Takeshi looked to
her, and Sakuya smiled, realizing it was too late to drop out now. “Say Sakuya,
what was in that box over there?”
“I
didn’t finish going through it, but most of it is music sheets.” She looked to
the box and Takeshi stood and nodded.
“I
thought so.” He murmured. “All this journal talks about is how the author had a
song in his head. The first few entries talk about how it was a whisper, but as
it goes on it gets louder and his doctor suggests he writes them down.” He put
the book aside and began to go through the box.
“Don’t
waste your time.” Sakuya let out a sigh. “It looks like music but the notes on
the page are strange, they fall in the right lines and spaces but… it doesn’t
feel like you can play that song on an instrument.” She explained, and Takeshi
confirmed, as he flipped through the music and returned it to the box.
“The
author says that the music felt so strange, and that he wasn’t the only one who
started to hear it. He consulted the thing they worshipped and when they
learned it made the music, they decided they had to bury it. It was a nice
melody, but they felt like it made their mind wither away.” He explained, and
Sakuya thought about the book and about the town.
It
was too small for any landmark to be hidden, and yet she was sure she hadn’t
seen a graveyard. She admitted to herself, that it was a strange line of
thinking, and yet she couldn’t help but feel that a graveyard was where they
had to go. She thought about the bones sitting at the feast of the dead, and
about the bottles left scattered on the floor, that made a road to them, and
then she looked to Takeshi who was deep in thought as well, and suddenly
wondered why the witch sought this power above all over.
“It did this…” The realization hit
Takeshi first, and Sakuya stay silent in agreement. “I thought those skeletons
were set like that because of the bandits, but they were just doing what the
thing wanted.” He berated himself silently as he threw the book aside.
“We’re
probably looking for a crypt.” Sakuya said and Takeshi returned with a nod,
then together they left the house, and headed back to the town square.
There,
Aeriane and the others stood puzzled in defeat, and listened intently as the
duo began to explain. They too, found the thought a bit perplexing, but couldn’t
find an argument to defeat it, realizing instead that they had been pulled into
a web.
“I
saw a town map at the school.” Aeriane told them, but hesitated with each word.
“But are we sure we want to go?” The question forced itself out, and the group
went silent for a moment.
“I
think…” Takeshi raised his head. “That the witch is who the music wants the
most, and that even though it feels like its manipulating us, that’s more of a
double-edged sword for it.”
“Then
it’s time to decide how everything is going to go.” Zuku repaid his raised head
with a stern look. “My siblings aren’t going to let us just go after our mom,
and you guys know that they’re willing to die for her. When the fights break
out, we have to know who’s fighting who, so that we can finish them quickly and
stop them from draining that beast.”
“They’re
your siblings so we’re in your hands.” Sakuya looked to him.
“I
want you to leave Kyotaro to me, which would leave Charlie, Prea, and Dal’cade.”
He looked them over and deliberated. “One
of you two should fight Dal’cade.” His eyes fell onto Takeshi and Sakuya. “I
hate to say it, but you should fight Prea, magic girl, Charlie’s going to be a
lot tougher though.” He wondered about Jasmine, who had done so poorly against
Haze.
“Don’t
worry…” Jasmine gave her head a strong shake. “I won’t lose like I did before.”
She looked resolute, but Zuku did nothing to hide his doubt, wondering if he
could finish Kyotaro in time to come and help.
“Well
worry about it, when we get to it.” He said and after retrieving the map from
the school, the group set out for a crypt on the outskirts of town…
