…
Back to the present,
Juin frowned as he tried to invoke that specific piece of memory, but no matter how he tried, he could not remember anything.
Director Wu saw the frown on his face and said, "Don't burst an artery. You were only 5 back then, it's not weird that you can't remember it. Although, what happened next was quite scary for us."
"What?"
"I wasn't at the party, so I'm not sure what the true story was. Apparently, you were playing at the bouncy castle with some of the kids when you suddenly screamed. You startled the kids, and chaos ensued as the crying kids all tried to climb out of the bouncy castle. For some reason, the bouncy castle deflated, and that only made things worse."
She looked at Juin and said, "And during headcount, you were missing. Someone thought you were in the bouncy castle, and they tried to look in it, but you weren't there. No one knew where you were…"
…
Flashback,
"Quick! Quick!" Ashton yelled at Director Wu who was driving. He coughed and snapped, "I told you not to let him go!"
"Ashton!" Director Wu warned him. "No one knew this would happen!"
"Bad things always happen to him when he's away from me!" Ashton snapped and kicked the front seat.
"Ashton! Sit still and quiet down, or you're going back to the orphanage!" Director Wu warned. She only took him because he was threatening to hurt himself by yelling nonstop if she did not.
Ashton growled in frustration and folded his arms as he looked out the window. His blue eyes seemed to have darkened slightly in his anger.
When they got to the preschool, Ashton jumped out of the car before Director Wu.
"Ashton!" Director Wu yelled as she ran after Ashton. Most people had already left, saved for the teachers and some adults who remained behind to look for Juin. Tables and chairs were toppled over, the beautiful cake that Juin wanted to eat was toppled and lay on the ground in a miserable state, and there were some injured kids who were being tended to by paramedics.
Against everyone who tried to stop him, Ashton ran to the deflated bouncy castle. He looked around before placing his hands on it.
"There's no one inside…" a man said to Director Wu, who had just arrived on the scene. "We searched around the school, but no one saw him. One of the kids said that he saw the boy walking into the woods…"
He glanced at the woods that was behind the school. There was a gated fence between the woods and the preschool, and the gate was opened now. "Some of the adults went in to look for him, but we called the cops just in case. If he stays in the trail, he would be fine. But he's still a kid…"
The woods behind the school was safe. There weren't any dangerous animals or anything that could harm a person, but it was quite big. If one walked away from the trail, it might take a while before he or she could be found.
"It's getting darker…" Director Wu said while looking at the entrance of the woods worriedly. For a 5-year-old, the woods was dangerous because of the creeks. Even though every kid who studied at the preschool was constantly told about the dangers of the woods, it would still be hard to tell what a kid would do when they were excited or scared.
"AHHHH!!!"
Everyone jumped up slightly when they heard the loud, unholy scream coming from the woods.
"Juin!" Ashton yelled and he ran toward the entrance of the woods.
"Ashton!" Director Wu yelled as she ran after him. Some of the nearby adults also tried to catch Ashton, but he was too small and quick for them to catch him.
Just as one of the men was about to catch him, a heavy gust of wind blew into his face, bringing with it small stones and sand, taking him back and causing him to miss Ashton.
Ashton ran into the woods without caring for any of them. He could hear curses and yells, but he was more worried about Juin.
"Ashton, come back!"
Ashton glanced back and saw Director Wu a distance behind him, but he kept moving forward, walking away from the trail that he used to walk with Juin and the other kids from preschool.
As he got deeper into the woods, the trees seemed to be thicker and the light was scarce. It was already late in the evening, and the heavy canopy of trees did not help with the light.
"Ashton, stay on the trail! Don't move! I'll come get you!" Director Wu yelled as she tried to get to Ashton. She could not understand how that little boy managed to go so far so quickly. And perhaps it was because of the lighting, but the trees seemed to move about, blocking her views of him.
Ignoring her, Ashton kept walking forward. His blue eyes glowed slightly in the dark, scaring away the little bunnies that were watching him from their hiding places, sending them scuttering back home.
"I can sense him…" Ashton thought before coughing heavily. He could feel that Juin was near, but for some reason, he was unable to pinpoint his proper direction. "Juin…�� he called out worriedly.
He kept walking with no sense of direction, but he believed that he was in the right direction. From the moment they met, Ashton's bond with Juin had been extremely strong, and every time they played hide and seek, he would always be able to find Juin.
"Is he hiding from…?" Ashton frowned. He closed his eyes and mumbled something under his breath, and when he opened his eyes again, his bright blue eyes had white rings in them, and his vision turned completely blue, like celeste. All the trees, branches, and stones… Everything was blue in his eyes.
Ashton turned around slowly, and from a distance, he saw a few white-ish figures walking toward him at a fast speed, but he ignored them, knowing that those were the adults who were looking for him and Juin. And then… from a short distance away, hiding among the tree trunks, he saw a sliver of bright red color.
Ashton immediately ran toward the red color. There was only one person that he knew with a red soul.
"ASHTON! STOP RUNNING!"
Ashton ignored the calls, and he ran toward the bright red color. When he got there, he saw in about 100 meters away, a fuzzy, bright red figure about his height, and the figure was being surrounded by many black wispy-like beings.
In the red figure's arms was a tiny white figure.