"How is this even possible?!" Jay asked us. I told my friends-Karma didn't want to hang out with us today-about what happened last night. Somehow, the same situation happened to all of us. The only difference was that we went one at a time, one hour after the other. We were eating lunch at "Manchi's Diner", but it seemed only Jay was in the mood to eat.
"I'm not sure, but she seemed to remind me of someone we met a long time ago." Mune said, glancing at all of us, hoping for us all to understand.
It was the same girl we met four years ago in that old, broken place. But why? No one could seem to answer that question. Maybe we knew, but were too afraid to say it. Maybe we really didn't know, and were simply waiting for the next person to answer for us.
Nico got up and left without a word. After a few minutes, we all decided to follow him. We all got up and left, but not before Jay paid.
He took turns when we least expected it. Where he was headed, we didn't know, nor did we ask. As we were following him, Mune seemed to notice something we didn't. "He's following someone else." He said.
At first, none of us understood what that meant. Later on did we realize he was following someone, Vanitas to be specific. It seemed strange, following someone who we just met last night. Every now and then, he would stop at a store and leave with nothing. "He's making a map in his mind." Jay said. He all stared at him, confused.
"How do you know that?" Mune asked. "And who? Nico, or Vanitas?" Jay shrugged.
"I just know that either of them is making a map in his mind." We continued to follow him until he reached the Solstace house. It didn't seem to surprise me when I saw Karma waiting on the front porch. They started having a quick conversation, while the rest of us hid behind a nearby abandoned house. They both left in a matter of seconds, leaving us in silence with the sound of crickets chirping.
Nico revealed himself and ran to the house. ���What's he doing?" I asked.
"Isn't it obvious? He's trying to go to jail." Jay said, taking out his phone and beginning to record what Nico was doing. Mune snatched the phone, deleted the video, and placed it in his pocket. "That's my phone." He pointed out.
Mune nodded. "I know, which is why I'm not giving it back." Jay frowned and sat down.
"Should we follow him?" I asked. Mune shrugged, while Jay looked at me in shock.
"Are you nuts?! Do you plan on sharing a cell with him?" He said.
I ignored him, and decided to just follow Nico. He was able to pick the lock and went inside. As I followed him, I thought about it. What was I doing? This is the house that nearly killed me four years ago. This was the same house that caused the near death of my adopted brother.
Nico seemed to tell me something, but I wasn't listening, because something else caught my attention; the crying sounds of a young girl. I followed the noise to the basement door. I stared at it, trying not to remember what happened that horrible night.
"Oni!" Nico said, grabbing me by the shoulder. I broke away from my trance, leaving me with nothing but a slightly worried cousin in silence. "What are you doing? I called you three times already." He said.
He was calling me? I didn't seem to hear him say anything."I heard something else that caught my attention." I replied.
"I heard it too." He said, a grim expression falling onto his face. "It was the girl. The same girl that we all encountered last night."
"Oh come on, Mune! Please don't follow them, please!" A familiar voice complained. We turned to see Mune, and behind him was nonetheless Jay. Nico and I frowned, while Mune just sighed and dragged him along anyways.
It took Jay two minutes to realize he was inside the Solstace house and not behind the safety of the trees. He frowned at all of us, but mostly at Mune. "So, what are you guys doing?" Mune said, ignoring him.
"We were just about to see what was in the basement." Nico said.
"What good would that do? All we'll find are the remains of that werewolf-beast that Nico killed when we were ten."
"We heard a voice downstairs." I told him. "We believe it may be the girl that we had seen last night."
Mune and Jay looked at each other, shocked. Before anyone could say anything, someone began to cry. We all stared at the door, for it was where the noise was coming from. We looked at each other uneasily.
I opened the door and headed downstairs. My friends slowly followed, one by one. We looked through all the rooms, but all we found were spacious rooms, with the walls and floors burnt. While the others were looking through the other rooms, I slowly walked to the last room. I could remember everything clearly; The screaming, the blood, the noise of a gun being fired, the fear, everything.
I hesitated, my hand hovering the knob. What if that beast that I encountered all those years ago was behind the door, waiting for me to open the door and tear me to pieces? Impossible, I thought. Nico shot it at least three times. And even if it survived that, the place burned down to the ground. I grabbed the doorknob and opened the door. What I saw was nothing that I expected to see.
Lying in the corner was a little girl. Tears were rolling down like an endless waterfall. Standing in front of her was a woman with a whip. She also happened to be missing an eye, but it seemed obvious that she was annoyed by the child's crying.
Sitting beside the girl, though, was a young boy. Unlike his elbow partner, he just sat there, looking around for an exit. The door behind me slammed shut. I tried to open the door, but it wouldn't budge. I could hear my friends pounding at the door. "Enough!" The woman said angrily.
The girl stopped crying and the boy simply stared into space. "I've had enough of your whimpering! If you wish to live then tell your father to give me five Grand!" She yelled at the girl. She looked at the boy. "And you!" The boy blinked from his trance. "If you try to escape, I will kill you along with her." I stared at the boy.
I recognized his face. He was the boy that saw me kill a clone of himself. He was the boy that ran in fear and screamed in terror. He was the boy that nearly died that night. Despite having to have different features, I could recognize him. The boy that was sitting in the corner was Karma.