The time has finally arrived. The house was filled with baggages and cardboard boxes. The day for leaving my village and moving to the city has come.
"Hah... Finally! I have completed my part of work. Everything is packed and we can move out today afternoon. Man! I can rest at last." I said in a tiring voice as I put down a cardboard box which I had sealed. I then rested myself on the sofa.
Then entered my little and cute sister Yuki in the room. "Brother! What are you doing? Why are you being so lazy. Come on play chess with Yuki." she said expectantly. She had been playing chess with me for at least four to six hours everyday after losing to me on that day.
"Nah! I'm tired doing the heavy work today. Let me take a break today." I said as I am too tired and reluctant to play with her.
"No!! You cannot get any break! You have to play with me now until and unless I am satisfied. Hmph!" Yuki said angrily with a swollen face and letting out some tears in rage.
"Hah... Okay, okay. Fine I give up. Now pls don't cry else it will make Yuki's cute face look ugly." I said with a sigh.
Yuki became cheerful again. "Yay! My brother is the best!" she then gave me a hug. Then we were interrupted by mother. "Alright, both of you. Come to have your lunch. We shall depart after 2 pm!"
Yuki and I both rushed out to the dining table. The table was filled delicacies such as fried rice with curry, fish fry, chicken drumsticks and so on.
"Mommy, you are the best cook in the world!" said Yuki as she was digging in. "I guess that you should start a business of a food stall."
"Oh! What an idea it is! But there might not be any profit in this business because if I start it, a certain glutton named Yuki will eat all the food of the stall. So how could I?" Mother told Yuki with a laugh.
"Aww! Mommy, Yuki is no more a small child anymore! Yuki is already two years old, so stop teasing me!" Yuki said bustling with anger and a swollen face. She is pretty cute in that expression. We all had a good laugh, after hearing her out.
"Alright now, finish your lunch fast kids. After an hour's rest we shall load our baggages and set out to the Taixing city. We will reach there by night if everything goes unhindered" Mother said after finishing her meal.
"I am too excited that I will meet brother Kelvin and my little Yumi pretty soon. I want to see their funny faces for seeing me after a long time. Hehehe." I said in excitement and expectance.
"Ah! About that, your father along with your brother and sister are currently not in Taixing city. They have gone to your father's main family for your grandmother's death ceremony and might probably take more than a week to come." mother said as she was washing the dishes.
"Aww! What the hell!" all my excitement vanished and I was in a bad mood. Now that I thought about it, I had never know that my father has a family to begin with and no one had ever informed about it to me about my paternal family, also I have no idea about my mother's family in the same way. It truly felt odd to not know well of my own family.
Now, all this is too much for me to get and I should probably not focus on this matter too much because my parent might have their own reasons and privacy to not tell me about this. They might tell me themselves in the future when they feel right about it.
"Brother don't be mad, you have Yuki, your little and cute sister with you forever, so no need to think too much! Hahaha." Yuki said with a smile on her face. It helped me get over my bad mood and I have out a sigh of relief.
"Well, umm... if I remember correctly a certain naughty girl was saying that she was too old to be a little girl and that to, two years old, really an old age hard to reach." I teased Yuki with a curious experssion.
"Aww! Brother please don't tease Yuki like that." She told moving around her hands aimlessly at me.
"Hehehehe." I started to tickle her around and Yuki jumped around as my hands reached her. We spent almost the entire time left in village for us, having fun this way.
Then came the time for us to depart. We loaded the baggages and cardboard boxes into the truck and sat ourselves within it. I sat by the window seat and Yuki decide to sit on my lap.
"Brother will you miss Denzu village? Yuki is really going to miss the village here." Yuki said to me as she was in deep thoughts and viewed the village through the window with her dreamy eyes. "Well of course. Probably." I said in a low tone. "But we can always come back when we have holidays." I said to comfort Yuki as she was worried after hearing what I said previously. "Mm... I hope so." Yuki said and then she returned to her normal self.
The pleasant memories of my birth place and sweet times of my childhood are all connected to this place and I felt that this place will forever remain engraved in my heart, eventhough it is the place where I was betrayed and had to suffer a lot for that so called best friend of mine. It all just felt like it was a sweet and yet it was something which gave me the most painful feeling that I could remember.
Now mother seated herself. "Now, now. both of you brother and sister brace your seat belt and get ready. Here we go." The engine started and the truck started moved on the pathway.
After the forest area had passed, there came the huge cemented buildings with the gleaming light of stars on them and a good road ahead road. As we entered the city, the streets were crowded and there were a lot of shops and buldings on both the sides of the road. Yuki was very excited seeing this marvelous site, but for some reason, which I was unable to understand, it left that this site was not that appreciable and there was no element of excitement in me as if I had already witnessed something more marvelous than this.
"Brother! Brother! Check out! there are a lot of cars moving outside and people are moving around like ants here and there and oh, look at those gleaming buildings, Yuki is very excited." Yuki said with a smile on her face and after seeing the gleaming smile of her face, I gave out a smile too. My heart felt that, after all, something which was more marvelous and joyful than the scenery of this city to watch, was the sight of my little cute sister with a smile on her face.
Now, we went into an alley and arrived infront of a lane of houses. Finally, we stopped at a house which was the fourth in number in the lane.
The house is a big one than the previous house in village and there are two floors to it with a rooftop and a balcony along with the front view of a river bank.
We started to unload the things to get it into the house. Mom opened the house with the passcard and then we entered the house. It was quite modern form me to use such high end technological method like entry card to open the door of the house. The inside was a big one and there was a sofa and TV along with several chairs in the hall room.
Then we began to place all the thing and finally, we settled down after doing a lot of tideous work. It was pretty much late. Yuki had already fallen asleep and was sleep talking. "Waa... plase... brathar... da nat be stingy... gaive mei... a few mare chickan waings." she said in her sleep state and was drooling. She was a foodie after all.
"Ah! Kate can you please rush out to the nearby convenience store and buy some eggs. We don't have much in the kitchen to make food." Mother told me hesitantly.
"Right now! I also don't know the way to the store and it's too late as well." I complained to her. Then she went and came back with a smartphone in her hand, it was new and latest model too. I had seen it on the TV.
"Ta-da. Here take this, it is from your dad for you. You can use the GPS function of the phone to get to the store." she handed over the smartphone to me with a gesture and handed the money to me for the eggs.
I was very excited as I had never expected that I would be able to get my very own smartphone pretty soon. I then reluctantly said, "Fine, I am going."
I rushed outside and wore my slippers and opened the GPS of my phone. The convenience store was nearby. I then moved towards my location observing the map.
The street was almost dark with the ticking of the streetlight. Though there were still some vehicles going to-and-fro, there was a type of dreadful silence in the entire street.
I reached the convenience store. As I entered, I could see that most of the places where the stocks were kept was empty. I picked up the last few dozens of eggs which was packed in a plastic box. I then rushed to the counter.
At the counter I could see a pretty lady with dark black long hair, sharp eyes, beautiful and tender skin, the the hair were tied in an old fashioned Japanese manner and an indifferent look like as if she cared about nothing that has to come. She was almost of my age.
The girl noticed me as I reached to the counter. "Kid! Do you not see the time, it's almost the time for the store to be closed and here you are picking the stuffs and extending my work time.!" She shouted at me (it would be rather better to say that she barked at me). I gave off a smile without uttering a word as I did not wanted to cause any trouble for the store and waste time arguing with her.
"Geez! Give the stuff and let me get completed with the billing already." she proceeded with the billing. "Are you new here? Never seen you around." She asked me as she was making an entry of the bill in the computer. To this I replied in a lower voice, "Yeah! I am new and just arrived today evening in the city."
"Where do you live?" She asked.
"In lane number 4, the fourth house in the row." I replied.
"Ah! You live in the house next to me? But as I recall, a man along with his daughter and son used to live there." She asked curiously.
"Oh! They are my family. That old man is my father and the girl and boy are my brother and sister." I replied to her.
"Oh... I see. Well ok, if you need any help in future... you can look for me. I live next to your house in the third house of the lane." she said.
"Oh, ok." I replied. I felt odd, because it felt as if she was pitying me like I would going to suffer something great in the upcoming future and might need her help.
She then handed over the eggs in a bag and I made the payment.
"Ok kid take care and be careful on your way back. There are a lot of furious street dogs wandering on the street nowadays." She said.
I was pissed, because she was almost the same age as me, but regarded me as a kid and even gave me warning to watch out for street dogs. So, without saying any word, I left.
As I was walking on the road, I could notice that there were no more vehicles passing by and there was a complete dead silence. I walked the path as I remembered. As I walked forward, I could see that the area ahead had streetlights fused and it was complete dark.
I regardlessly walked forward without a second thought. But as I walked into the dark area, I could feel a wired chill and something wrong. I am unable to understand a thing but my heart has been feeling anxious as if something bad is going to happen.
Then I felt that I had been walking for too long in the path but yet I have not to reach the home. I took out my phone to check my GPS, but to my surprise, the GPS was not working and it was as if I was lost somewhere, from where getting out is quite difficult.
I became anxious and fear arose in me. Then I heard heavy steps from the back, they were comming closer and closer. The darkness behind me was eerie and I was not able to see anything clearly. I then started to run on my instincts out of fear and the footsteps too strated to follow me .
I passed through various turns and alleys which I could not know, there was not a single noise on the road except for the voice of footsteps following me and me who was running. The houses were darkened and felt as if no one had been living in there for ages.
I was not able to understand anything and it all felt too strange and sort of a nightmare. But still the most shocking thing for me was that, even in this type of situation, my brain was very calm and was still able to think clearly.
I moved into a narrow path and after going through various tweaks and turns, I faced a big challenge. The creature was approaching me with a faster speed and had been throwing something dark towards me wick on impact was doing heavy damage to the road, but it was not the thing that made me worried, the most worrisome thing now was that the path ahead was a dead end!
I could feel the footsteps of the creature were slowing down and he was approaching towards me in a slow pace, knowing that I had nowhere to hide. I could hear deep breaths and a joyful cry of laughter of the creature. I tripped on my toes and fell down. I was afraid and could not make much of a movement.
Eventhough my heart was torn apart in the fear, my mind was still calm and wanted to keep going. I was not feeling satisfied from the outcome that had come about, I was not able to accept this painful fear and I was not able to understand what kind of creature has been following me. At that moment of time, an unpleasant thought came to my mind, "Is it... really the end?"