Chereads / Fractals of a Whole / Chapter 2 - Symphonic Requiem

Chapter 2 - Symphonic Requiem

In Abuela's house, an elderly woman was pacing back and forth, wondering where her eldest granddaughter might have been. The twins were playing with the blocks from back when their Abuela was a child in the 1980s. Abuela was rocking in her chair, watching over the twins with a gentle smile.

She was worried about Ava until she heard a familiar screech from a particular vehicle. It was Ava's van. Abuela took her cane and saw Ava slam the car of the vehicle and leaned against the door exhausted. Abuela opened the door and Ava fell face down on the wooden floor like a ton of bricks.

"OH GOD ABUELA! IM SO SORRY! '' said Ava as she was reaching her hand shakingly, to find something to help herself up the wooden floor.

"Ay, mi hija... When are you ever going to get here on time? I was worried about you." Abuela said with a giggle.

Ava stood up from the ground and heard the pitter-patter of small footsteps and loud voices.

"AVAAA!" the twins ran from the direction of the living room and tackled Ava.

"OOF!! Wow, you two are getting good at tackling. You ready to go?" Ava patted both their heads and hugged Abuela.

"Mi hija, why don't you stay for a couple of minutes? I made some pastelles and cafecito." said Abuela warmly smiled at Ava. knowing cafecito and Abuela's pastries can convince her.

"Okay, okay Abuela. We can stay for a while longer. Just let me contact Mom first, okay?"

Ava notice a few vehicles near Abuela's apartment, and she saw a piece of a tutu skirt sticking out from the vehicle.

"Señora, they seemed to have followed you from when you came to Abuela's..." the Moth Woman's voice cautiously said to Ava.

She closed the curtains from the living room and the kitchen and quietly went to Abuela and made a grave expression.

"Abuela, take the twins and yourself out of the house and go to the neighbors quickly!!" Abuela looked at her, scared.

"You best be joking, mi carina, angelita." said Abuela, confused.

"There are men who want to hurt you right now. And if you don't leave. I can't protect you." said Ava hastily.

Ava squeezed her Abuela's hand tightly. The men in the tutus ran out of their vehicles and started sprinting to the door.

Ava yelled at her Abuela, "GET OUT NOW!"

Abuela quickly packed up the kids' bag and her Bible, a photo of her deceased husband, and ran off. Abuela said a small prayer for her eldest granddaughter.

"Ay Dios. Proteger a mi niñita del Cielo." prayed Abuela. She did a quick hand cross motion.

Ava took her music player and said in her head, 'Which one is up, guys?'

The voices started to uproar and fill her head with voices and one firm voice said, 'ENOUGH!! Let us finish this Ava, and you will see how good I am!'

Ava hurried to find the song in a couple of seconds and played the five-minute song. The flowers in Abuela's house lose their petals and swirled around. The transformation brought piercings into view, along with a kimono with flowers, long silver hair, and nine fox tails intertwining.

"Hello, Ava. I am Reisha, so let's get to it." sneered the kitsune.

Reisha grabbed an umbrella from her back as the men busted through the door. They only saw a fox woman playing an erhu in a gentle melody as the flower petals are still slightly floating by.

"You have come to the wrong place to mess with us..." they said.

They looked at the men, their guns pointing at Reisha in proximity, and all they did was a smirk. And their eyes turned amber gold and took the two tuning pegs of the ehru. They turned into long daggers (shotos) and then disappeared.

The armed tutu men were muttering, "Where is she? Who was that? Damn it, you let her get away!"

But, while distracted, they all were seeing each of them dead from their napes being sliced. Until there were two left. Reisha reappeared and smiled with a surge of intentional blood lust with only specks of blood on their kimono and their eyes turned red.

"You seem either brave or foolish to try killing us, you insects," she said.

Reisha moved their blades away to let the blood splatter onto the floor and the men in tutus were so scared, thinking, 'I'm going to die, I'm going to die.'

Both men were stuttering, "W-we can tell you everything we know!! Please, just let us go!!"

Reisha used one of their tails to raise the man by the neck and sneered at them.

"Oh? Then let me ask the questions then, you little worm." sneered Reisha.

Reisha growled and yelled at the hostage, "WHO HAS SENT YOU?!"

The man whimpered and screamed in terror, "A MAN IN A CAT MASK ASKED US TO FOLLOW YOU TO YOUR GRANDMA'S PLACE! PLEASE DON'T KILL US!"

Reisha scowled at the other hostage and he nodded frantically in agreement along with his captured comrade. Reisha shivered and broke into a cold sweat. They looked at the men in tutus and regained their composure.

"He will pay for what he has done to us. You better make sure you send that thing a message. 'What a blast from the past has shown itself at last.'," said Reisha, in a threatening tone.

Reisha let go of their collars and the henchmen hurriedly ran off. Reisha chuckled in self-amusement.

"Ava, you seemed to be silent," Reisha asked with concern.

'He is still alive?!' exclaimed Ava.

Ava ended the transformation quickly and reverted to herself. Lips quivering and tearing up like she has seen a ghost. A twinge in her mechanical head grows stronger. Ava curled up in pain, flashbacks of a looming figure appearing to wear a cat's mask. Another scene of her screaming while she was seeing parts of her brain splattered across the floor.

She came to, sweating, and panting from the memories that she saw earlier. Ava regained back her focus and noticed that her family hasn't come back. So, she ran over to the neighbor's house and knocked on the door.

< knock>

The neighbor opened the door and frantically told Ava.

"Are you alright?! We heard gunshots, so we called the police. Your grandmother is inside, with the children." Said the Neighbor, nervously.

"OH GRACIAS DIOS!!" screamed Ava.

She smiled, ran to Abuela, and called out, "ABUELA I'M HERE."

Ava released the biggest sigh of relief. Two little feet started pitter-pattering on the floors as if running towards Ava.

"AVAAAAA" and they cried in Ava's gentle embrace.

"Oh, my sweet baby boos!! Where is Abuela?"

The kids grabbed Ava's arms and guided her to Abuela on a couch, praying for Ava, and saw her standing there with the twins. Abuela teared up and opened her arms. Drops of blood came down Abuela's face, and she stuttered in confusion. Abuela looks up at an enormous gaping hole in her forehead and falls forward.

The children screamed and cried, "Abuela ABUELA!!!"

Ava looked over her shoulder, and it was the neighbor that shot her innocent grandmother. They dropped the gun, still smoking from the shot. The murderer falls down and tried to run away, trembling what they had done. Ava's foot stomped on the murderer's knee, breaking it.

The murderer screamed in agony, and Ava grins. Enjoying the sound of bones breaking, torn muscle fibers. Her eye became pitch black and was pale. She regains her composure and went back to the kids.

"They said that you were going to kill us all! He gave us money so we could get away from this place if I killed all of you!" said the neighbor.

Ava held the kids close to her chest and Abuela's limp hand. Abuela's warmth drained from her body. The voices in her head screech and writhe in pain. The children in her arms were both scared and crying at the loss of their grandmother. Ava screams for vengeance and her eyes turned yellow and looked at the children, with tears falling from her eyes.

"RUN AMORA, ANDRES." She yelled at the kids.

She then heard a blaring song, metal, and Asian music. Ava hunched her back forward and screeched loudly. Fangs formed red markings. Her stance became that of a strong stag, blade-like golden antlers, with three tails like lions, the legs of a satyr, and the claws of a wolverine.

The blast melted the neighbor's face off, exposing their flesh and ashen bones from the intense heat. Ravu was born. He stands on his satyr limbs and glared at the deformed, stuttering walking corpse. The neighbor knew they are dying in excruciating pain that they could not scream.

The creature stomped his hooves on the ground, and the children cried in fear. But the satyr knew who Ava's protecting and which to decimate. Ravu stared at the walking corpse and sneered with his razor wolf-like teeth. The corpse then fell, and Ravu ripped its head off with his sharp claws.

He started mutilating the corpse with his antlers. Only a pile of slime with only a single half of an eye looking at the children was what they could see. Ravu was about to lunge at his siblings, but a couple of arms stopped him from different creatures and the music paused.

Ravu howled and regressed into Ava. She fell, covered in burns, as the twins ran to Ava's unmoving body. She saw them hovering over her body, crying, and she goes unconscious.