All his life, not once did Kimi Mikaelis ever think that he had a sibling-much less an elder sister-as he stared at the picture his mother had given him. Staring at the monochromatic, portraitlike picture-which had patches of yellow and lemon-with a shocked expression, the only thing that made him realize who his sister was was his mother's white hair, because his sister and mother were splitting images of each other with twin grins and the same height.
"It was taken the period before she'd died," Kara whispered with a cracked voice.
Kimi dropped the picture on his lap and looked at his mother. His thoughts became fuzzy and jumbled as he swiftly breathed, "why are you both wearing freaking traditional garbs? Why does she freaking look like your clone? How old was she? What the heck is her name?!" His voice held a hint of happiness?
Kara sighed and dropped the box on the floor. "Back then, when I still lived in the African country of Kïsan. I hailed from the Kerkuu tribe and was called Tilaya. I had your sister there before your father and I relocated to Rhodes Isles. And-"
"Wait, wait. Freaking hold on." Kimi glared at his mother. "I'm African. Like... I freaking come from the Kerkuu tribe? It..."
Kara froze. "What do you mean 'the Kerkuu tribe'?"
Kimi shrugged. "I don't know. It's just that I once read somewhere that the Kerkuu tribe was famous in magic and-"
"Stop! Stop talking nonsense. That's not true." Kara heaved a sigh. "There's no such thing as magic. And don't interrupt me again when I'm talking."
"Sorry," he mumbled, and picked up the picture. He scrunched up his face in confusion as he looked at it again. "Why does she freaking look like a replica of you?"
"Our tribe was known for maintaining their youth with traditional herbs and ointments." Kara sighed and looked to the ceiling, a pensive look on her face. "Your sister was the epitome of patriotic and kind. She... She sacrificed a lot in order to save others. But she died due to some disease that was wiping out the people of our tribe during that time." Kara shuddered in remembrance and dropped her gaze. "She was called Kidagakash, which meant 'princess' or 'goddess', a beautiful name for a beautiful girl."
Kimi dragged out an exhale and returned the picture to his mother but she held it to him.
"Keep it, so that you'll always remember her."
Kimi nodded. "What about those other stuffs?" He motioned to the other two objects.
"Oh, this." Kara picked up the lighter along with the ring. A deep frown worked its way onto her face. "Kimi, today I got a call from your principal and was informed that your school will be going on an excursion to Ashville."
"Yeah, we'll be leaving this Friday." Kimi took the form from his bag and gave it to his mother. "You need to sign it."
She nodded and put it away. "Kimi, what I'm about to say, to tell you, don't you ever go against it."
Kimi hummed and nodded in response.
"Lately, there's been some deaths and abductions." She looked at her son with a cold expression. "Do you believe in 'vampires'?"
He furrowed his eyebrows in disdain. "I believe I'm about to freaking hear something I don't want to."
"Well, in this case, the killings, the abductions, stuffs like that. They..." She sighed. "They were caused by what we call 'cadavers' or adz-é in our native dialect."
Kimi grimaced. "What, so zombies now freaking exist?" Kimi sighed and held his head. "I need to freaking visi-"
"This is not a joke Kimi. Cadavers exist and they're what that killed your father!" she yelled, an angry glint in her eyes.
Kimi froze and shook his head. "Impo-No... No they're not real. My father was killed..." He held his head and groaned as tweaked images flashed through his mind and they finally became clear and he saw a face. "Vdélla!"
Kara nodded. "And they're not the only family of cadavers." She stood and walked to her bedside table. She opened its drawer to retrieve a book and returned to Kimi's side. "The reason why our tribe was thought to have been witches was because we believed in things like deities and cadavers, not magic, but incantations and rituals."
Kimi frowned in confusion. "Then what's the freaking difference between magic, rituals and incantations?"
Kara opened the book and shook her head. "Let's just forget about that because this Ashville you're going to"-she stared gloomily at the page she turned to-"is being polluted by all kinds of cadavers."
"What?!" Kimi shot up. "No, no, no. Freaking no!" He passed his hands over his head. "I can't just fucking walk into a den of my..." He froze. "Then why did the fucking school make this trip compulsory?" he growled, his fists clenched.
"I don't know, and that's why you need to trust nobody." Kara's frown deepened and turned serious. "Kimi, whatever you do do not trust anybody!"
"How..." Kimi grimaced and swallowed thickly. "How many cadaver families like the Vdélla are out there?"
Kara's expression mirrored her son's as she uttered, "seven main families and over a hundred subfamilies."
*
Kimi stared at the ceiling, his face blank and his thoughts bubbling with bundles of knowledge.
"Caedis, that's one of the names she called. The strongest," he whispered disappointedly as he picked up the shirt that was beside his head and stared at the embroidery on it. But it was you who saved me from my fears.
"'Fear makes us stronger', those were the last words you said to me before disappearing," Kimi whispered, a choking tightness stitching its way round his chest. "But it was only you who understood me."
He flung the shirt across the room with a stony expression. He picked up the ring and lighter on his chest and stared at them like they held the key to freedom.
"I can't believe you'd left a piece of you for me." He studied the intricate writings on the ring. "You still loved me... Dad."
Then he glanced at the lighter and turned it around in his hand; it was just a plain, silver lighter. But then again, not everything was plain in his life.
It's called a burner, he recalled. It has a limited number of times it burns but it obliterates cadavers.
"This is not fucking revenge but..." He held the lighter tight in his grip. "I will get answers."
*
"Mikaelmas Dae-yang get back to your seat!" bellowed Tobe as he crosschecked the number of students under his care, the bus they were in zooming towards the coasts of Rhodes Isles.
Dae-yang scrunched up her face. "But Coach Tobe I need to pee and if I don't pee my bladder will burst and if my bladder bursts-"
"And I'll still say 'get back to your seat' and act like nothing happened while I enjoy my trip to Ashville." He dropped his hand and bellowed, "so, get back to your seat!"
Dae-yang grumbled all the way to her seat and plunked onto it with a loud groan. "That fiend."
Kimi just hummed, his head rested against the window, his hood up.
I'm going to get my answers, Aurum Caedis.
"So," Dae-yang started with a nod, "get anything for Qulture. If you didn't, I brought extra stuffs." She picked up her bag from the floor and opened it. "I got my Qulture keychains that I bought last summer from my hometown, a signed Qulture fan shirt, an unsigned Qulture fan shirt, a Qulture fan boxers, a Qulture fan le-"
"Dae-yang fucking cut the crap!" Kimi grumbled a little louder than expected.
People turned their heads to look at Kimi and casted loured looks his way. They erupted into whispers that were not so subtle or hushed.
"That dude's always angry."
"...better get away..."
"Why's she sitting..."
"...better fucking leave."
"Dae-yang's clueless if..."
"Clover's right to..."
Dae-yang huffed in embarrassment as she returned everything to her bag. "S-Sorry." Her lips stitched shut and her posture slackened.
Kimi folded his arms across his thudding chest; he felt like his own reflection was sneering at him as he closed his eyes and sighed away his anger.
The buzzing of his phone in his pocket made him internally curse technology. He plucked the phone out of his pocket and peeled open his eyes. It was a message from an unknown number.
"Hey Kimmy," the message said.
And when he realized who sent it, he grumbled, "that dumb fool."
The phone buzzed again as another message was sent.
"I'm sorry," he read with squinted eyes. He gripped the phone tightly before he decided to just ignore his cousin. It buzzed again and he opened an eye to read the message. "I'm sitting behind you."
A groan escaped his lips and he sat up and looked behind. He was greeted by his beaming cousin.
"What?" he grumbled, "I'm still mad at you."
Silver sighed with a shake of his head. He scratched his chin and grinned. "I'm sorry." He leaned closer to his cousin and whispered in his ear, "how's my favourite cousin?"
Kimi rolled his eyes. "I'm your only cousin, Argyr."
Silver's eyes narrowed and he smirked slightly. "That's not cute Kimmy. Try harder."
"Leave me alone," Kimi grumbled as he slid down the chair and tugged the hood closer to his head.
"To let you drown in your own darkness?" Silver shook his head and spared a glance at Dae-yang who was sighing with each passing second. "She's upset."
"She's freaking annoying."
Silver tapped his cousin's shoulder. "If I can apologize, so can you."
Kimi sideglanced at Dae-yang and something tight gripped his heart and twisted it. Was it regret? Or perhaps, a mirrored feeling?
A tired sigh left his lips while he sat up and picked up his bag; he pulled the embroided shirt out of it and dumped it on Dae-yang's lap.
Dae-yang blinked rapidly in confusion and looked at Kimi. "Huh?" She raised an eyebrow.
"I got that years ago before I had left Rhodes Isle."
Dae-yang's mouth gaped open as she picked up the shirt and examined it. "This is..." She gulped. "This is an original bandmate shirt!"
Kimi froze as everybody-even the teacher and the driver-exclaimed, "WHAT?!"
Coach Tobe's shoulders tensed and his eyes grew cold as he stared at Kimi's embarrassed face. He groaned as the bus was hurled into disarray as students expressed their shock and anger-that someone ordinary was that close to a member of Qulture.
"Fucking Qulture!" Raja screamed with a scratchy voice, jumped onto his seat and drove his knees into it. He glared at Kimi and yelled, "dude you can't be fucking serious!"
Kimi froze and tried to drag the shirt out of Dae-yang's hand but she just buried her face in it. "Fuck! Give me that!"
Tobe's eyebrows twitched as he voiced, "shut up!" Everyone froze as he adjusted his glasses. "Mikaelmas return that item to its rightful owner."
"Yes Coach Tobe," she laughed as she took one big sniff and tossed the shirt to Kimi, who fiddled with it before hastily throwing it into his bag.
"How was it?" Raja asked before returning to his seat after Tobe smacked his butt with the clipboard.
Dae-yang blinked and stared at others, who had hawkish gazes on her. "Dirty. Old."
Tension was torn out of the bus as everyone sighed in disappointment and returned to their various discussions, sparing sly glances at Kimi's dishevelled form.
Silver cleared his throat. "That was..."
"Unexpected?" Raja completed with a raised eyebrow as he pulled out his phone and turned it on. "Rin is so fucking hearing this."
"Inappropriate," Silver muttered as he slumped in his chair and sighed.
Author's Note: Hi! I updated, how was this chapter? I don't know if I did justice to the chapter. :) So, please vote, comment and share. Bye!
Trick question: how many cups of water do you guys take each day? :D Mine's eight, to the annoyance of my parents. ;D