"I'll see you next time." Bright gently pinched Eirin's cheek. "Rest well, okay?"
Bright's handsome face remained inside Eirin's head, almost making her trip. The boy's smile was the last thing she saw before she noticed how the gate of their house was slightly open. Her eyes narrowed as she walked inside the gate to the front porch. There were large traces of shoes on the tiles leading to the door. 'Grandma!' Eirin rushed to the door and opened it.
She heard a crunching sound as soon as she took a step inside the house.
Eirin walked towards the light switch, and the second she turned the lights on, she saw everything clearly. It was a mess. Hints of blood were all over the place and there were shards of broken glass table on the floor. "Grandma?" She walked into the house barefooted, careful not to step onto any of the glass shards.
'Is it a burglar?' she thought. However, in the back of her head, the crippling fear of the unknown that was chasing after her resurfaced. Eirin headed towards the stairs, but due to panic, she accidentally stepped on the shard piercing her foot, causing her to groan and cry in pain. Her sobs and the pain didn't stop her from walking towards the stairs, leaving a trace of her blood on the floor.
Negative thoughts filled Eirin's head as her hands trembled while leaning on the stair's banister. "Grandma!" she cried. Her heart wouldn't calm down, and her eyes were blurry with tears. Was it because she took her guard down? Regrets stuffed her heart, thinking that her grandmother might have gotten hurt because of her.
'Please,' Eirin begged as she arrived on the second floor. "Grandma! Where are you?" she continued screaming, calling for her grandmother.
"Will you stop screaming?"
Eirin flinched as she turned around. "You!" That familiar jet-black hair and emotionless face. "What did you do to my grandmother?" The man's words came back inside Eirin's head. 'He told me not to regret something.' She remembered as tears fell down her face.
"Eirin, dear?"
Eirin's heart dropped the moment she saw Eleanor, her grandmother, covered with blood. She was being helped by two other unknown people.
"Grandma! What happened?" Eirin rushed to Eleanor's aid and hugged her. "Who did this to you?" Tears flowed to her cheeks out of relief and worry. She could not imagine how she would have felt if she could not see her grandmother again.
However, Eleanor could not answer as she looked at the other guy who was helping her walk. "This must be confusing. Let us go to my room for now." She said, "Hold on, your foot is bleeding, dear!" Eleanor reacted, seeing how the blood coming out of Eirin's foot covered the white carpet.
"This is not the time to worry about me. You're the one covered with blood." Eirin's voice cracked. "Did these people do this to you?"
"Calm down, dear." Eleanor smiled, but there was no way Eirin could calm herself in that situation. "Let us all get inside my room first."
The unknown man wearing those thick black gloves pulled Eirin off while the other two people helped her grandmother. Eirin could not even feel the pain in her foot as she was staring at her grandmother's back.
"Please, heal my granddaughter's foot first. She's a ballerina, she can't injure her foot," Eleanor said to the girl with black hair and blonde under-hair highlights.
"Heal? Who are these people? How will this girl heal my foot?" It sounded ridiculous to the young girl's ears.
Eleanor sighed after seeing the confusion in her granddaughter's eyes. But it was inevitable. "This is Cali," she introduced.
The girl with black hair and blonde under-hair highlights named Cali approached Eirin. Her winter gray eyes stared at Eirin blankly, making the young girl wary of her. "Could you sit down?" The coldness in her tone made Eirin quickly obey.
"I can tend to my wound," Eirin said.
Cali ignored her words as she grabbed Eirin's injured foot, surprising the teenage girl with how cold her hand was. "What are you–" Eirin felt an icy tickling sensation on her foot, thus making her forehead crease.
The curious teenage girl glanced at what Cali was doing, and her eyes soon widened. 'What the heck?' Her gaze went to Cali, but the emotionless girl stayed unbothered and continued what she was doing. 'How is she doing this?' Eirin thought in awe.
"How… how are you doing that?"
Eirin still could not believe her eyes as she stared at the tiny snowflakes coming out of Cali's hand, but she did not receive an answer. Instead, the wound on her foot started disappearing without a trace. 'Like magic.' She thought.
"How is this possible?" She looked up and saw her grandmother's hand glowing. And her wounds disappearing after being touched by the light from her hand baffled the young girl even more. "How are you doing that, grandma?"
"For a former number 1, it is disappointing how much you didn't teach your granddaughter about anything," the man with the black hair said as he crossed his arms. "How foolish."
Eirin balled her fist and threw the nearest object right at that guy, which he dodged in an instant. "For a guy who threatened to kill me, you sure got lots to say."
This man with messy jet-black hair and sharp monolid black eyes glared at Eirin and was ready to fight. "You want to die that bad, huh?"
"I don't even know who you people are, so who are you threatening me again!?" Eirin blasted her anger.
"Shade!" The other man with bright pastel pink hair stood in between Shade and Eirin. "I apologize for that, and I also apologize for not introducing ourselves. My name is Link." His soft voice calmed Eirin down as he removed the sunglasses from covering his sea-green eyes.
Eirin was stunned by how beautiful of a man Link was. "This is Shade, and that is Cali." Link introduced the other two, but Eirin could not care less.
"Why have you come here? And what did you do to my grandmother?"
Link scratched his cheek as he glanced at Eleanor. "We came to bring Ms. Eleanor Luxfield and her granddaughter Eirin Luxfield back."
"Back? To where?"
"To Senerra–"
"No."
Eirin turned to Eleanor after she cut off what Link was saying. It was unlikely for her grandmother to be rude and act like that towards someone. "We cannot go back, and we shall not," Eleanor said with a firm tone.
"But Miss Regina said–"
"Regina does not know what she is doing. She even sent Shade Cromwell. What is she thinking?" Eleanor sighed and stood up as she pulled Eirin away from Shade. 'His name suits him because he looks shady as hell.' Eirin thought as she stole a glance at the man.
"What? Am I some kind of monster?" Shade scoffed.
"You are, though," Cali said, which caused Shade to glare at her and Link stood in between them.
Eleanor hid Eirin behind her. "I do not see you as a monster, Shade," she said, as her grip on Eirin's arm tightened. "But you cannot be near my granddaughter."
Shade scoffed once again as he avoided Eirin's gaze and rolled his eyes. His face brimmed with annoyance, but he did not leave.
"But Miss Eleanor, we will still come back here to persuade you." Link said.
"That is not necessary." That was the first time Eirin heard Eleanor talk strictly. Even as a child, Eirin would only hear the softness and calmness of her grandmother's voice. "No one will persuade me," Eleanor added.
Eirin noticed how the determination in Link's eyes did not vanquish. "Miss Eleanor, this is for you and your granddaughter's safety."
'Why is he so desperate? Aren't they the ones targeting me? Is he manipulating my grandmother right now?' Eirin thought with her eyebrows furrowed.
Eleanor raised her hand. "We have lived here for years and nothing happened. You may stop now because we will not move out of this place."
"It's different now." Shade said in annoyance. Eirin could not fathom what they were talking about or what they were planning to do. She doesn't even know if these people truly care about her and her grandmother's safety, knowing that they were 'targeting' her. 'But how come grandma knows them?' The teenage girl thought.
"Your stupid granddaughter just made herself a target." Eirin saw how her grandmother flinched. "And you know that. You even removed her memories of that night. For what? To protect her? Or to protect yourself?"
"G-Grandma?" Eirin grabbed her grandmother's trembling arm as she saw fear in Eleanor's eyes. "I-I don't understand," she said,
"You think being chased by the æons is far better than going back?" Shade looked down at them. "Your dumb granddaughter just revealed herself to them and almost got killed. But what did you do? You acted like nothing happened."
Eirin saw how her grandmother fell to her knees as she trembled. "Grandma, I don't understand what they're saying." Eleanor quickly pulled Eirin into a hug. "Please, grandma, tell me. Explain it to me, so that I could understand what's going on right now."
Eleanor moved away with tears in her eyes. "No, you shall never learn of that place," she said as she wiped her tears. "You three need to leave."
"But Miss Eleanor–"
"Leave."
In a flash, the room lightened up and those three disappeared along with the light, leaving Eleanor and Eirin inside the room.
"Grandma…"
Eleanor quickly opened the closet. "We cannot go back to that place, and we cannot stay here either." She said as she started pulling her clothes out of the closet. "We must leave this place."
"Why? What is going on? Why are we leaving and where are we going to go?"
Eleanor glanced at her granddaughter. "You had contact with those creatures with bloody red eyes." Eirin flinched as she remembered the memory of being chased by an unknown creature. "I thought I could reset it by removing your memories, but they are still after you. I cannot let the others find you."
"Why? Who is after me?"
Silence followed that, but Eleanor immediately broke the silence. "We do not have a choice. Those people will know. We must depart now."
"We can't! I don't want to leave."