The first thing Reina remembered when she ran out of that room was the sound of leaves. How they cackled and screeched in the darkness. The moon shining above them and her footsteps pounding in the ground.
The ground so soft, it almost felt like it would devour her alive. But she kept running. Trying to process all her thoughts. The memory buzzing in her mind.
The words.
'Cursed with you.'
Tears rushing through her eyes. The first time she in a long time when she felt utterly hopeless. Betrayed. Lied to. Her heart wrapped in chains, she wanted nothing more but to erase herself out of existence.
In the midst of the loud wind and the trees, speaking a language of their own, she heard another voice. She paused at the dead end of a river and turned to see a blurry image of the fox she met earlier.
"Running away?"
The second thing Reina remembered was the apologetic look in Gloria's face when Amelia released her. The way she begged for her to stay but Reina's mind had taken over herself. She couldn't bear to face her or speak to her mother.
She had given her enough chances to explain herself, to tell her the truth. She felt as if she could not trust anyone. Maybe it was because she desperately longed for it to be true, and for a second she really thought she found her place in the world. Or maybe it was because a part of her knew that something was always wrong.
The anger in her was blazing fire.
How beautiful it would be to watch the world burn down. Fallen to the core. To ashes.
"I told you she was a liar," the fox jumped on a pile of leaves next to her. It gave a slight shrug as it walked closer to her.
"What do you want?"
"You know what I want."
Reina rolled her eyes. Sniffing her nose and trying to wipe the tears using her sleeves, "Fine! You can just eat me!"
The fox stared at her with cold blood eyes, unfazed at her sudden burst of tears.
"Oh dear, this is no fun."
Reina kept crying. How pathetic she must have looked, but the last thing on her mind right now was the judgement of a fox she met a few minutes ago.
"I'll tell you what," the wind suddenly grew louder and if Reina wasn't so busy trying to keep the tears inside of her, she would have noticed the fox turn larger. Change in shape. Its arms and legs twitched as it grew and stood up in two legs. Almost the size of a human.
Reina stopped crying and stared at the fox as it walked closer to her.
"Do you not remember?"
"Remember what?"
"Do not let the darkness approach you."
A chill ran through her spine.
"I...Who are you really?" Reina whispered.
The last thing she could remember was the small hint of a smile in the fox's eyes before it plunged on top of her and pushed her down the river, "I told you. I'm the guardian of the temple."
The last thing before she fell deeper and deeper into the water. The water so thick, almost like jelly, spiralling around her and pulling her into the darkness. The light in the far distance turned smaller and smaller until it was but a small dot in the midst of the gushing water running through her body.
Strangely, it was for that short moment when she felt a little warmth of happiness.
It was not the water.
YOU ARE READING
The Magic Behind Her Eyes
FantasySomething was missing from Reina's life, a dark feeling of emptiness always cursed her. That was until one day, she saved a cat from drowning and was led into a strange shop she had never seen before, leading to a series of events that transported h...
