Aras' warnings kept ringing in my head. He said that I had to give up all this. I also felt it might be better to back off this time as well. However, several things made me think again to continue to find out who had made this wandering spirit commit murder as Summer did. Something inside me kept telling me not to give up, and I didn't want another Summer and things like this to happen again.
Honestly, I was scared because I didn't have skills like Winnter's sensory abilities, sword skills as good as Shashin, or archery like Yoru, who was always precise at his target. I didn't have any skills I could use to defend myself. "I'm not like them. I'm just a woman who just finished her studies and is struggling with trauma that sometimes comes on. Am I capable of doing it?."
I looked at Mickey, who was sleeping beside me. When the night came, it felt like a terror for us. I couldn't move into my house in the city because of the distance to work, but next Sunday, I had plans to visit Emma and clean the house there. Next semester, I had to apply for further studies, and with that in mind, at least my residence wouldn't be too bad for me to live in later. I remembered very well there was a section near the dining table where the roof frequently leaked, at least I would fix a few things so that I could live there again.
"Will the eyes of Manji that I have be a help for me? Or, will I really be able to finish this?" the Manjis were creatures that came from the underworld. In the past, they were assigned to punish humans, to pay vengeance for sins throughout their lives. Later, they were elevated to the upper world and released from that task. As a reward, Charon gave them a pair of eyes.
"I never realized that their eyes were on me" our accidental meeting led me to them. We were three different people with a pair of eyes.
I laughed at my funny destiny. I recalled one of Zie's writings in his notebook again. "I guess what Marionette meant was burning her own strings, it wasn't Zie, it was me." We were a couple of marionettes in a play that my father made, but we chose our own paths. I had to thank Antonie for sending Zie to me.
…
You might say I was reckless, even though I didn't mind if you insulted me crazy but believe me, my curiosity was bigger than anything else. I peeked out of my bedroom window when that person came back to my house. He stood at the railing and lit his cigar. No! It's not a cigar, but maybe a human finger.
It was still fresh in my memory when Ami and I were very shocked when we saw a rotten finger cut instead of cigarette butts. I was sure that my eyes—that morning—saw cigarette butts. How could it turn into a finger cut? My mind was slow in processing it.
He looked like a human to me. Even though I couldn't see his face, I was absolutely certain that he was human. His slender fingers and also the way he walked really show that he is human. "I'm sure that he's human" even so, I was still afraid that my eyes would be deceived again.
I was thinking about going over to him, I guessed hiding and being afraid wouldn't solve the problem. I also wanted to know why he came here. I took a deep breath, held back my fear, and tried to be brave. I turned on the light in the kitchen as well as the living room and grabbed the key to the front door. Seriously, my hands were shaking when I turned the key. 'I have to be brave! I have to be brave!' I kept saying that to myself, like a very powerful spell.
When I opened the front door, the person was facing me. I still hadn't seen his face because of the dark outside. I slowly walked towards the gate. I wouldn't open the door but just talked to him from behind the fence.
"Sorry" I saw him drop his cigarette and then step on it. "I saw you these days keep pacing in front of the gate of my house, what are you really doing?" He was still silent, and I took the time to judge his appearance from behind the bars of my gate.
A few moments passed, and he was still silent until I finally said, "if you want to steal something from this house, I'm sure you have a better way, I've been watching you all along. What is your real purpose in coming here?" Although I tried to speak as calmly as possible, my legs felt very limp now.
"To take care of you," He simply said.
'Take care of me?' I thought, 'What is he talking about? I don't understand it I was just silent, looking back at him, judging and trying to comprehend his words.
I gasped as he laughed as if my bewilderment was funny to his eye. "You forgot about me?!" He took off his hat so that I could see his face clearly. Even so, I didn't seem to know this person. "That little kid in alpha camp that you helped recover his memory from. The lunatic who helped your father kill mentally…."
"Antonie?," I interrupted, hesitating. He didn't resemble Antonie in the slightest, not at all. I didn't recognize him, even when I took a closer look at his face. He was like a complete stranger to me, but from the way he laughed, they were indeed very similar. "You're not Anthony. Who are you?!" I demanded.
Then, he laughed out loud after hearing my question. "You know what nickname your grandmother gave me?." I just kept quiet and looked at him, confused and wary. Finally, he spoke again, "'Conch'. Cute little conch on the beach. That is me" He was still laughing even though I didn't understand his joke at all.
From the way he talked and laughed, he was indeed very similar to Antonie, but from what I saw, he was another person. "If you don't believe me, that's okay. Don't bother." He said lightly. "Especially after everything I've done to you.".
I shook my head, trying to clear my aching head. "You're dead," I muttered. "I saw you were dead." I believed he was dead that day.
"Do you think it is that easy to kill me?" he said arrogantly. "Remember? I have an immortality spell, and that fat cat isn't the only place I can put that spell. I have more than one place to store the spell and it is unknown to others, just in case I can use it again in the future" He smiled slyly as if he had managed to fool me.
I was still trying to find the truth of what he said, so I asked, "how old are you?" If it was very hard to die, that would mean he could live a long time. But was it possible?
"I once gave your grandmother a spell book for beginners when I was a hundred and two years old," He said with a proud smile on her lips. "I am a snail, you remember? If my body is damaged, I can move and change to another better body."
I still couldn't understand this person. How could he be here if he was Antonie?! Accepting the fact that he was still alive, although I clearly saw him dead, was very difficult for me. I couldn't believe it. My mind couldn't accept it. Nevertheless, he was actually in front of me.
"So it's you?" I didn't know how to react to it. "What do you want, and what is your real purpose in coming here?" I said in a high-pitched voice, feeling angry that it seemed like he actually managed to fool me.
"Have you ever played chess?" He just asked something out of my expectation instead of replying to me.
Getting even more confused, I finally managed to say, "No."
He nodded once. "Just wanted to say that I like pawns. They are weak like you." He laughed again. A mocking laugh while looking at me. "The pace is slow, but when it reaches the end of the enemy territory—booom!!" His hands made an explosion when he said the word 'booomm', and I really didn't understand what he meant.
"You?" I didn't know what to say, I just looked at him, confused and irritated.
He burst out laughing before finally saying, "Just open the door for me!"
"Hm, Hm, it turns out to be that old and chatty geezer?" I wondered when Mickey went out of the house when I just realized he was now standing beside me. "Don't open it, Tha! I don't want to be in the same room with this fussy old man. My ears hurt when I have to hear all the babbling. Let him be a block of ice outside!" he wagged his tail and turned away, about to walk back inside.