"And I don't remember because?"
"Oliver, you just had the experience that no known mortal have had since the beginning of time, surely, this could be one of its side effects."
"Whatever you say, but for the record, my name is Leo, not Oliver... and while you all go on babbling about mortality and transmigration, or whatever you choose to call it, I'm going off to find my brother. So, see you later, fairy godmother,puhhh!"
"Hmmm, I can't say I didn't see that coming,"she sighed, and turned to the duo staring back at her dumb, and fixed like a statue without batting an eye.
"Did he say he was going in search of his brother?"
"Sure, you heard him."
"But Benjamin can't be here. I left him while he was in his embrace."
"There are still things you and I do not know, so let's hope it's the brother we know. That Leo he mentioned has no good kin."
"Rahee, don't beat yourself up, you have done what you can already," said the man beside her.
"But is it enough?"she quizzed, looking pensive and defeated.
For a moment, their black eyes locked, and their sharp similar features, such as the outlines of their faces, their brunette hair and even the sharp nose, accompanied by high chubby cheeks on each side, met and screamed their kinship.
"You have done all you can, big sister,"he comforted, tapping her on the back," let's leave the rest to fate."
The sky was gloomy and there was no cloud nor star, and like a night cursed with a heavy downpour scaling the roofs and tearing through the skies with rumbling thunder and the blast of a sudden lightening, coming and dwelling for a moment like the first cry of an infant escaping the womb, there was no sun. Every sign of rain but not a drizzle.
"Unusual right?
Yes, the first time we arrived at this gate and met them so, I wondered what storm was brewing...but they say it's the one reminder left behind by the Sovereign. A reminder of the judgement to come, the dread of every creature that ever walked the earth.
There's neither sun nor moon. With time you will get accustomed to the gross darkness of the world you have walked into, just like you will slowly obtain the floating knowledge. The fireflies and dragonflies would illuminate the paths, although you need no light to see, and once your vision has adjusted to the environment, night would be to you as day, and darkness as light."
Speechless, Nina locked her eyes on her, and each time she tried to talk, her lips wouldn't part, and when they finally parted, no word could come, not even a sound escaped.
Although, she was admirable to begin with, but watching her, even with those long straight strands with the darkest shade which she greatly admired on her perfectly carved oval face, and her pale light skin, slightly freckled, which were a good complement for the strands that fell by the sides of her face, concealing her ears and falling almost over her hip region, concealed by a long lavender sleeveless gown, hook across the shoulders by thin chains, with a similar one going around her thin waist, like a belt, Nina felt a strange animosity towards her, indescribable and untraceable at first, until the memories began to return, fixing its broken and scattered self.
"You may want to follow him before its late."
"You took possession of him as a boy... and you his brother Benjamin, who you left to die in his mother's arms. Why don't you both follow him since that's all you have done since he was a little boy,"Tyler shot angrily, finding his voice for the first time since their arrival.
"It was not our making, young man, and even if we wanted, we can not."
"It wasn't your making?... you want to tell me that my friend left home insane, for fifteen long years right after you took hold of him, and it wasn't your making? Do you know a thing about Benjamin?"
"Tyler that's enough."
"No, Nina. They have to know how they ruined that family's life."
"Tyler, I said, stop."
"You see, he was my friend. Unsightly and nervous as he was for a boy, he had a compassionate heart. He wasn't confident or bold, but he looked out for others the much he could. He was a good friend, and you took him away from me as a child and ruined my childhood and made us all grow up too quick. How dare you look me in the face as a fellow man and deny it."
A tear escaped Renee's eyes, just the same time it escaped Nina's, and although both caught the sight, they could not stare.
"When Katharina took the chance to come back to life, it was not her ghost alone that was released.
She was given the chance and I have no idea who she struck the bargain with, but it involved implanting the Crystal ball in the womb of a pure soul. And to do it, she needed help, so she woke some to do the work while seeking to possess the body of the woman's prized jewel and eventually, she found the boy."
"Billy,"Nina gasped.
"Yes... that was his name. And I woke up one day on the ship, I and my little brother here, Lucas, stranded with no idea how we had vanished from here to the ship we had drowned with. But that was not all, as whatever Katharina conjured propelled other spirits to do her bidding, it tempered with the balance between worlds, releasing the Fates, as well as the son of perdition. We were propelled to the Rosewood home were I felt a familiar connection.
One day, I met the body of my long lost son, but he had been killed on the ship, so I came to my new found friend, and my brother went to his. But we never expected what happened before dawn the next day.
I was subsumed under another soul, pushed behind the mind."
"And I, when I found out I had entered the boys body, I struggled to leave for sometime. I couldn't bear to have him lost in his own body," Lucas chipped in, immersed in anguish.
"I never wanted him to be hurt... the boy could see me and somehow wanted to protect my presence from the knowledge of his family. He didn't want them to chase me away...he was also my friend."
"Do you have any idea how long you were in his body?" Nina asked, melancholic.
"Days maybe."
"Fifteen years... you were struggling in Benjamin's mind for fifteen years... that explains why he went mad but Oliver didn't. Oliver was able to push you away and you submitted...but you... you wanted him to be rid of you. How fate plays us?"
Watching the countenance of the youths laced with so much pain, a thought suddenly crossed Rahee's mind.
"Oliver didn't recall his life, how did you both?"