The Legends of Anigma: Ethiel Archer | ONC 2023

PART I

The conversations of the passengers had mixed into a lively, noisy disturbance, the clickety-clack of the train was steady, Aunt Louis was shouting over her phone, but Ethiel was deaf to it all. His eyes were blankly looking out the window, fixed at the skies. The sunlight filtered through the dense crumbs of gray clouds, shafts of it falling beautifully over the passing by sceneries. However, he didn't bother to appreciate it; he was lost in the replay of his recurrent, choppy dreams about his late mother.

She was wounded, covered in blood, propped against some wall, her disheveled hair falling over her face, hiding half of it... But she was breathing slowly, trying to say something. All he could hear was a whisper, a whisper of his name... before the dream collapsed into darkness.

Someone tugged his shirt, muttering his name, abruptly popping the bubble of his thoughts. It was his eleven-year old sister, Tifa. She was looking up the other side, at someone. He looked up too and got startled.

A man, somewhere in his mid-thirties, stood in front of her, thoughtlessly staring at them both. His skin was pale. Blood was enormously dripping from his head, all the way down to his shirt.

"Not this again–" Ethiel thought, pulling Tifa closer.

"It's them isn't it?" She asked, apparently tired and sick of it, "The dead..."

"Don't worry, I'm here, you're safe. Just ignore, he will go away."

Aunt Louis put her call on hold, "What happened to her? You okay, sweetie?"

"She is just sad," Ethiel lied, "I will take care of her, no worries."

He knew better than to tell her that they had been seeing ghosts ever since their mother, Alice, died – not to mention, he and Tifa even noticed how their strength and stamina had also increased manifold. It was just a few days ago that he tried to tell her only to be seen as someone who was having symptoms of mental trauma.

Therefore, he chose to remain silent and ignore the dead man, but the dead remained there for the rest of the journey, those unsettling eyes set on them.

The train arrived at the station by afternoon. The three of them took their luggage and got off the train. The dead man was still staring at them, Ethiel noticed, but hopefully, he didn't follow them like the annoying dead teen with the psychotic smile he came across earlier.

Driving through London, taking in the beauty it had to offer, Ethiel couldn't help but feel nostalgic. Everything, every little detail, was just like his mother used to describe when she still used to come on special occasions, even after moving to the new house she bought in London, the very house where he was presently headed. He hoped he would hear from her someday, but all he got to hear after all those years of patience was the news of her passing, of how she had been murdered.

"We're almost there," Aunt Louis announced.

The house was quite big, or maybe it only felt so because their last apartment was a congested small box. Inside, it was very simple, and yet so luxurious. The whole place was spacious.

What caught Ethiel's attention was the photo wall in the living room; the most heart-touching fractions of his childhood framed and arranged in order.

"She... remembered us... loved us... still..." He thought to himself.

It was too hurtful to look at the beautiful yesterday.

"Ethiel," Tifa called from behind. She was standing by the staircase. "Come with me."

The top floor had a narrow passage with a window at the end. There were two doors opposite to each other.

Tifa opened them, "Bedrooms? There is already one downstairs. Why would she need two more?"