August 15, 2051. Tuesday. I am 15 years old.
"I'm telling you, I saw a demon. Our mother had her soul stolen." Kiyro was dead set serious on what he saw. He knew he sounded crazy, but what he saw wasn't a lie. "That's why she died!"
He has repeatedly told his brother the same story for the past three days. The frustration has been building up in his heart every time his brother doesn't listen.
Why was it so difficult for his brother to understand that what he saw wasn't just a dream but a reality? He thought.
"You said that for the past few days, and I'll repeat it; I don't believe you." Kyle was busy typing up a report on his computer.
"Come on, Kyle. I told you, I'm not faking this at all. You've known me for the past fifteen years, and you don't believe me now?" Kiyro paced back and forth, getting agitated as the second went by. "Look, don't you remember what our mother said about grandmother having special powers."
Kyle finally stopped, leaning back onto his chair, and gave Kiyro a defeated look. Kiyro could tell that he wasn't pleased with being bothered. "Not really."
Kiyro ground his teeth; he breathed in a sigh to calm his agitation. "When we were six years old, mom told us a story about grandma."
"I might vaguely remember."
"She said that grandma had a gift. She saw and talked to the spirits."
"So, you're saying that you have the same gift?"
"Yes, though I'm not sure about the talking part." Telling people about what he could do, even if his brother, was complex. His hand started clammily, and his legs uncomfortably shifted from side to side, trying to be comfortable. Why was it so hard to say something so simple? The reason behind it; was that nobody would believe him, and his blood brother, who he has lived with since birth, was exactly saying what he had feared.
"Okay, fine. Let's say that you have the same gift as grandma. What about it? You saw your mother's soul get spirited away by some man in a hood that took her soul away for no apparent reason?"
"I don't believe there's no apparent reason." He replied, "Mom is different. I swear, I thought I saw…."
"You saw what?" Kyle scrunched his eyebrow, massaging his temple on his side.
"Well…"
"Spit it out, will you? Mom's dead; I know you are depressed, and to go so far as to say that mom's soul is stolen. What for? Why? How come? Do you even realize that it sounds, so farfetch'd?" Kyle's voice went up an octave. "Grow up, Kiyro. We're not children anymore."
Kiyro tried his best to calm his nerves. His body started to heat up, he wanted to punch Kyle for not believing in him, but he knew better. Using violence against his brother wouldn't change his answer; It was highly unlikely he would change his thought. If only he could prove it. If only he could show him what he had seen.
"It's not far-fetched. You always believed me when we were young. What changed? Do you not want to believe what happened is the truth? No angel came down from heaven and saved our mother's soul. A demon did." He seethed.
Kyle's shoulder slumped backward. He looked up at the ceiling and released an exasperated breath. "Fine, let's say a demon steals that mother's soul. What are you going to do about it? Do you even know how it's possible to get it back?"
"No."
"If you don't know, why bring it up."
"It's our mother!" He threw up his arm. "We got to do something."
"I think you need to sleep on this."
"Fine, whatever." Kiyro turned around sharply, his hand clenched, and Kiyro stormed out. Then, with a loud slam of the door, he left without another word. He stormed back towards his room, but his steps lightened, and he felt exhausted. Maybe fighting against the current wasn't a good idea, and he should let this go. But, honestly, he didn't know a single way around this whole predicament.
The whole thing was strange. Zero hadn't cried a single tear for his mother. Compared to his brother. He knew what had happened: his mother wasn't truly dead but left behind her physical shell.
Entering his dim room, he flopped face forward onto the bed, defeated. The muscles on his body ached; before meeting with his brother, he went out for a run to get rid of the stress.
"What the hell is wrong with me?" Kiyro mumbled into the cover; he turned around onto his back and stared into the ceiling wall. The dim glowing lights of the glow-in-the-dark stars lit up greenish yellow. He and his brother had personally put up those stars with their father when they were ten years old. The thought of having stars to look at, especially at night when he couldn't go out and sleep under the sky, was a calming effect on his mind.
"Why doesn't he want to believe me? Is it so hard to believe someone stole our mother's soul?" He gritted his teeth and clenched his hand. "I swear if I ever find that demon, I will get my mother's soul back." But then, with the resolution set in his heart, he felt more relieved to say it.
Kiyro smelled a creeping scent of garbage, filling his nose to the point where he pushed himself up to see where this smell was coming from. The smell got a lot stronger; he could even feel the room's temperature slowly dropping, leaving behind a smoky hot breath. The end of his hair started to rise on his skin.
He instantly knew this feeling, the quickening of his heart, the nervous restlessness of his body, and the terror that struck his heart. Again, the memory of the man with the hood flashed through his head. Again, his heart gripped in fear.
Their body tensed, and he bolted up, straightening his back. His gaze slowly, looking from right to left. Even though he said he would make the black shadow pay, he couldn't think of any answer on what he should do right now.
The creeping feeling became stronger, and the door to his room creaked slowly open. Kiyro's eyes became wide, and he gulped. He felt like a complete wuss for being afraid, but he had a justifiable reason. He didn't know how to make whatever it was go away or even how to fight it. Fighting physical objects was easy, and he and his brother weren't afraid of humans and could stand up to them.
But a demon or a monster? That was a different story altogether. He had searched through the web for various supposed ways to get rid of the spirits online for the past few days, but he hadn't tried using it before now.
His hand scrambled out near his desk and grabbed the sea salt he had brought. He bolted towards the door and started to shake a thick line of salt across the door so that no space had an opening. The door creaked open even faster, and his hands weakened, dropping the salt he had and running over to the bed.
Kiyro pulled back the blanket and dove into it. He covered head-to-toe, peeking out from the side. His hair fell forward, covering half of his view. He pulled back his hair with his right hand to get a better look.
What he saw next made him freeze. The same hooded black shadow appeared in front of the door, staring into his room. He could feel the shadow's gaze sweeping through the room and eventually resting on the bed.
Kiyro cursed in his head. His hand felt even more clammy than before. His arm trembles at the thought of his soul being snatched away by the demon. The anger that he had for his anguish was gone. Instead, the oppressive energy of death, darkness, and pure malice swept through the room, making breathing almost difficult. His lungs choked up, his breath became short and heavy, and he felt his heart squeeze.
Evil. That was the best word to describe the shadow by the door. No other words could describe the oppressive, overwhelming feeling but that one word. He had felt all emotions directed at him before, but not to this degree. Malice and Hatred were the core emotions he felt off the hooded shadow; the shadow wanted him dead, no question about that.
Then he heard Evil speak in a low, scratchy voice, making him gulp in fear.
"You're next."
The shadow slowly raised his hand and pointed directly at the bed. Kiyro froze up; his mind went completely blank, unable to comprehend what the shadow had said. Was he next? Has he become a wanted man, just like his mother? What the heck was happening for the demon to come after him to such great lengths?
Finally, the shadow slowly turned. The temperature in his room started to get warmer, and the smell of death was leaving his room, bringing instead a cool air that pushed away the smell. The board creaked as if he was a living entity with a physical body, and Kiyro could tell where the shadow was headed towards. It was Kyle's room.
No way. No way. No way. No way. He repeated those words quickly in a chant, the thought of his brother possibly being next made him jump out of bed. He grabbed the holy water bottle he had gone to a catholic church to buy and brought it with him to test. This was the only weapon he knew he had, and with every courage, he could muster, he peeked out the door.
The shadow momentarily stopped to look at their parent's room, then moved forward with purpose toward Kyle's room without stopping. Their rooms weren't far from each other, but it was at the end of the hallway, where Kiyro could see everything perfectly from where he was.
His fingers tightened around the plastic bottle, debating whether he should run towards the shadow now or continue watching. The problem was that his mind and gut instinct were screaming for him to hide, stay away from trouble, and sleep the night away as if nothing was real. Though his heart told him a different story, that he couldn't abandon his brother, even if he acted like a douchebag a moment ago, he was still his brother.
Opening the door ever slowly, Kiyro sneaks out. He advanced forward towards the next closest door, one step at a time. He stumbled over, almost making a blunder; he stopped and leaned against the wall. His back feet pushed against the wall to the point he was tip-toeing; he didn't want the shadow to be able to sense him as he tried to hide. He slowly quieted his breath, trying not to breathe too fast or too hard to compromise his position.