"You probably didn't hear my name since you were busy seeing my life ."She chuckled . I just didn't know what was going on with this woman's head . One moment she was serious and the next , she is chuckling and easy going . "I'm Cora . I'm 23 and working as a babysitter as my part time job . I'm an employee of 'Young Forever Entertainment'."
"I'm Rene Roosevelt . Daughter of a vampire and human , making me as you know , a Berthim . I had a miserable life and currently doing nothing but killing people ." I didn't care if my introduction sounded boring because I knew about the exciting parts of my life very well .
"You saw that I am a witch , as well as a fox . I was originally born as a witch , but was possessed by a fox spirit called Kitsune , which is known to common people as a Japanese folklore. The nine tailed fox you saw was me . Not my friend ." But when she told 'friend' , she lowered her gaze for sometime . I assumed that maybe they were not in good terms right then . "Did anything happen between you too ?" I asked because I too believed that once someone takes time to talk about their problems , the problem as well as it's solution becomes clear in mind . Cora seemed like a kind hearted woman so I was simply happy to help her if I could .
"Well .... the problem is not between us , actually . Her name was Beth .Both of us were best friends since the beginning of our teenage years . I had always kept the fact that I was a witch , even when I found her , a secret . But she was not that keen on keeping her secret from leaking . She told me that she was a witch , I was shocked but she even dared to use her magic in front of me , when she didn't even know that I was a witch . I made her promise that she would never tell anybody else that she was a witch . She kept her promise until..." Cora's voice trailed off , as if she had remembered something very tragic .
"Are you ok with sharing this with us Cora ?" I asked worriedly because I knew how someone would feel about bad memories . It was really hard for me to remind myself about how Bob and Hailey had thrown me out of the house just because I had to tell my story to Stacy in the past . And because I knew how one would feel , I was ready to wait as much as I can so that Cora would be able to spill HER painful memory to us .
I was proud of Cora when she continued again , unlike me who had to wait longer than her to tell Stacy my memory , which now that I look back , felt nothing closer to the number of tragedies that could happen to those who are close with me .
"...Until we tried something stupid . Beth had read about many legends and folklore's, which she believed was real . The Japanese folklore about the Kitsune , was her favorite . Even though I was a witch myself , I never believed in legends , nor folklores. So I had researched and found a way to summon a Kitsune spirit . But the piece of information I found wasn't real and was one of the entries of people making up believable stuff so that people would look them up. "
I was curious to find out what happened then . "What happened next?" I asked .
"Well , I looked what I needed on google again and found out that Kitsunes cannot be summoned . They come and go as they please . So my whole surprise on her birthday was ruined . Or so I thought . Two Kitsunes had appeared in front of us . I didn't know whether it was because of the ritual we carried out or whether it was because they had come on their own will . But one of them had a bright aura and the other had a dark aura . Both of them flew right into us and the next thing we know , we were transforming into foxes . Beth was looking like a normal fox whereas I had nine tails . We were like that for a whole week and only then , was able to transform back into being human . Beth's personality had changed completely and gave out the same dark aura of the second Kitsune spirit so my instinct said that both of us were possessed . I tried telling her that I would fix everything and try to find a way to break the possession apart but she only told me not to bother and vanished as if she wasn't there a moment ago."
I patted her back with understanding . "Don't blame yourself though Cora . You did nothing wrong , ok ?" After a few emotional hours , where I shared my story too , both me and Cora was hugging each other and crying like we were hanging onto dear life , not paying any heed to Nathaniel , who was staring at the both of us with Harvey .
I was doubtful why Cora wasn't able to find Beth since she was a which but it was immediately answered by Cora herself . "Beth had used a cloaking spell to hide her own location . Only a Berthim can find someone who's in hiding using magic ." I didn't know that would be able to do that otherwise , I would've found Nathaniel's wife as fast as I could .
Talking about other problems , I asked Cora for a piece of paper before she started feeding Harvey and wrote down everything I had to solve then just so that I would be able to remember it when I needed . I had to kill my target the Boss , find out about the witch that helped boss before killing him , check out what's going on in the Nowhere , find Nathaniel's wife , and Cora's friend as well as find a way to take out the bad Kutsine possessing her . I had a lot on my plate that I didn't think I would be able to afford anymore .
Nathaniel and I left Cora's house and went in search of Boss . We reached the factory and went inside . We entered his office room and found it like it was left before ; father's blood , the chains that were used to tie him up , another pool of blood which was from boss , and all the files that I remembered seeing from when I started working here still in it's place . Nothing was taken , except boss who I remembered was lying down , clutching his chest , as I last remembered . Someone must have helped him because he was too weak then .
I looked around and there was nothing useful there . We left , promising to come back there if we remembered that we needed something . That's when I realized that I could ask those mafia bosses where Boss went because from the last two years , he always used to hang out with the mafia bosses to either keep his image , or because he wanted to , now that I was unsure of his intentions . We ran back to the factory and took all the files in his office and went back to my house .
It was already dark so Nathaniel left , since he didn't want to disturb Cora , or her husband , who was supposed to be back home now . I looked through the files , taking record of their phone numbers , activities , as well as the evidences of the illegal businesses they have done so that I would be able to threaten them into giving information if they are hiding something because of Boss . Of course , I wouldn't go there empty handed . Father had promised that he would give me the best and most useful weapons he had because he wanted me to use my powers only when it becomes a real emergency .
I slept and thanks to Cora , was back to Nowhere , this is is thee name of the world which charges me up when I'm drained after using my powers , if you didn't know it clearly . The noises were still not there so I walked around in the utter darkness . I had only walked around the first time when I bloomed and even then , I hadn't ran into any obstacles so I wasn't afraid of running into something when I was walking there now . But I should've thought that I had only walked a small distance and wasn't supposed to be so sure of myself because right then , I came upon a huge hole . I fell in and was VERY surprised to see light . I also realized that I could see a beach with no one on it . The sky so clear and bright while carrying the sun around with it . Even though it looked hot , there was cold breezes blowing towards me every minute and kept me cool . I was half relaxed and half confused . The Nowhere I knew was dark and full of voices of my past self . But this was a different place .
As soon as I had felt completely relaxed , I noticed a huge volcano quite far away . I could tell that it was huge but it wasn't in a distance that made us notice it so easily . Feeling a strange feeling , I tried using my powers towards the volcano and surprisingly heard the voices of Samantha and the others comforting each other , saying that I would most definitely find them and save them . It definitely sounded like a dangerous situation so I didn't think twice before running towards the volcano . I would've used my powers to reach there faster but I wasn't sure that I wouldn't need to use my powers to save them too so I thought it was best to just reserve my energy for the last second .
I reached the volcano, panting heavily . Without wasting time , I started climbing the volcano . Climbing it would've been very easy if I didn't have had to run all the way here . But being physically tired wasn't an excuse to give up . I kept on going all the way towards the top , feeling the temperature rising around me , to the point that I feared I might melt away into the lava that I could see now as I finally reached the top .
"Rene ! Finally you came ! I almost started loosing hope that you would ever reach here !" Samantha shouted at me . Meanwhile I could only nod open-mouthed as I was mesmerized by the beauty of all the other woman within the cage that they were all locked up in . Those woman were definitely the people who advised me only through voice and not showing themselves . I came back to my senses and went to complete what I came here to do .
Since I did not know what to do , Samantha and the others were giving me directions on how to set them free . Even though I had a lot of questions to ask , but I needed them alive for their answers so I followed their instructions . I couldn't understand how they were tied up in there because as far as I knew , they were all united and only Berthims lived in the Nowhere .
The lava had started boiling more now , allowing me to see the redness of the floor they were all standing on . How much heat were they able to withstand ? Just as the floor started melting away , I set them free and all of them flew to the sky , disappearing , except Samantha . She held my hand and took me back with them .
I had never imagined that I would ever miss being in the full darkness and feel the cold but I weirdly did . Once I was back in the dark again , I was only able to see Samantha . I wanted to see the other too but I was unable to . But since that wasn't what I wanted answered the most , I let one from the many questions that I had to ask to her when she said , "So , bring in your questions!" .
What I didn't know was that I wasn't breathing at all in earth and that it was morning , and my own father was going to think that I was dead . I didn't know that my impatience was going to put someone in an unforgettable pain ....