Vanishing Crimson

Prepare

As I was standing, freezing and terrified, I thought of my sister and Trevor. All the things we’d been through will be wasted. The energy, persistence, the decisions, even the unfortunate tree who sacrificed itself to save us, had gone nothing! I wanted to give up. I was hopeless. No matter how I tried, I wouldn’t be able to bring my parents back. But wait, there’s still one hope left that I know. God. I know He will surely find a way to save us from these hundreds of creatures. So I whispered, “Help us.”

A great impact was released from where I was standing. “Trevor! Don’t just hold me, do somethi—. Ahhhhh!“ Alex was paused after being threw by the impact.

The impact froze all the attacking creatures. I covered my mouth because I was shocked. Then, silence followed. One by one the frozen creatures exploded into golden bits, until all of them did. Alex shouted and I looked back. She’s still safe, they was just affected a little bit. A hopeful smile showed up from my face. When I was about to come for them, Trevor raised his palm to me. “Hold your position! There’s something coming.” So I did.

I felt something dangerous was coming, something we wouldn’t want to encounter, and something that gave me an different feeling. I took my daggers and readied them. I positioned myself and alerted my senses.

There they were. Two creatures with a size of a human were crawling on the ground and were coming for me. There were only two, time to expose my dagger skills. But they were familiar.

They were my parents.

They stood and glared me in the eyes. I dropped my daggers and stood straightly. I walked to them unconsciously. My jaw dropped, my head slightly titled to the left and my eyes straight to theirs. They were meters away from me when I stopped walking. I heard someone screamed my name. The last thing I remembered was my parents jumping on me, with their mouth wide open and fangs showing up. And I, staring into their red piercing eyes.

*All black*

 I can see a very old and big building. The sky was dark and the surrounding was gloomy. Ghostly screams and bones were everywhere. I was so curious so I entered the building. While walking, I heard footsteps running around. I found myself standing on the floor full of bloodstains. There I saw three people running. Then I paused, surprised. I knew the three people. It was Alex, Trevor and I. We were being chased by some sort of a huge monster. I couldn’t tell if it was a monster or a ghost because it was  see-through. I followed the four of them until the three people were trapped on a corner.

 The monster made a move and stabbed one of them. The blood stained the wall. The monster faded slowly from see-through to smoke then vanished. I took the opportunity to know who was stabbed. I kneeled next to the lying body with a scar on its palm. The face was blurry but slowly becomes clear. A little moment and I will see its face.

 “Kim!” Alex woke me. I took a breath like I was just saved from drowning. “Oh thank God we are safe. What happened?” I find myself lying under the tree in the forest.

 “You lost consciousness before the monsters that looked like our parents scratched you. You were like, hypnotized. Trevor saved you and sprinkled golden dust to them until they fainted. He assigned me to kill them because he couldn’t kill while he is still under the killing conscience.”

 Oh. So that’s what happened. “I see. Thank you. Where is he?”

 “There.” She pointed to Trevor who was polishing the claws of the monsters that looked like our parents.

 I sat near to him. “Thank you.”

 “Nah. It’s okay. By the way, one for you, one for me and two for Alex.” Trevor handed us the hands from the monsters. It had long sharp and pointy fingers.

 “Wait, what are these for?” Alex wondered.

 “Just bring it with you. That would be handy.” Trevor answered.

 “But why two for me?” Alex asked.

 “I already have the golden dust.” Trevor showed his pouch full of golden dust.

 “How about me?” I asked.

 “Give me my bottle of water.” He reached out his hand to me.

 “Could you answer me first?” I asked impatiently.

 “Give me the bottle first and I will tell you what you have.” Trevor said in a poker face.

 “Oh sorry. Hehe.” So I handed him his bottle of water.

 He prioritizes his thirst than answering my question? Great. 

 “You have this.” He took something inside the bottle.

 I was surprised. I felt so happy as if I found my parents.

 “My locket! Sis, I have my locket!” I was so happy that I raised my voice a little bit.

 “Shhh. Just lower your voice or some creatures might hear you.” Trevor hushed.

 “I’m happy for you Kim! And by the way, Trevor, how did you know that the locket was there?” Alex congratulated me and asked Trevor again.

 “I hid the locket, for the safety of Kim. I took it the day before the invisible creatures captured us. So once they check on Kim, they wouldn’t find any locket, or what they usually call, the Talisman. Then when we were exploring here in the forest, I took my bottle of water and emptied it then placed the locket inside. You see Kim? That impact was produced by your locket.”

 “How come this locket has some kind of a special magic?”

 “I don’t know. Maybe I forgot.”

 “Oh. So we have to keep her safe. Unharmed?” Alex asked.

 “No. You don’t have to cover me. I want to fight. It’s our parents that we have to cover.”

 “She’s right. We don’t have to cover her Alex. We have to fight equally so this will be much easier for us.”

 “Okay. So be it.”

 We continued resting under the tree. My sister and I just talked about random things that popped in our silly heads.

 “Hey. Take a look at these.” Alex handed me some papers.

 “Woah. New designs? That’s great!” She drew her own designs of her dream gowns.

 “Want me to make yours?” She smiled.

 “Sure! I’d love to.”

 “So tell me, what impressions do you want from the first glance of you gown? Hmm?”

 “Amazing. Spectacular. Strong.”

 “Wooow. That’s pretty hard to picture out. Give me time.”

 “Haha. Okay.”

 Few sketches made and I realized she drew my face first. Then the limbs, body. So I watched every line she made.

 “That’s cool. It looked like me.”

 “I intended it.” She winks.

 She’s on the gown already, but a sudden wind circled our tree, but disappeared instantly. So I didn’t mind it. 

When Alex drew a line, she stopped with the tip of her pencil still resting on the paper. Then I asked her if there was a problem.

 “I feel something odd. It’s like my pencil became heavy.”

 “Huh? But there’s nothing on it, only your hand holding it.”

 “I know there’s nothing. But I can feel it.”

 Then she slowly let go of the pencil. We were surprised when the pencil remained to its standing position. Then it moved. It went to the drawing of my face. It moved slowly making tiny scribbles. Until it moved faster that it scribbled the whole face.

 “Trevor!” I shouted.

 Trevor sprinkled the golden dust to the pencil. And an unbelievable happening surprised us…