The next day I woke up more refreshed than ever; my room, which had been left like a mess the day prior, had already been fixed, and the sun was shining brighter than ever, scorching my delicate face.
Did Mom do something to me? I remember being kicked pretty brutally that day, but when I looked at myself in the mirror yesterday, there was no bruise or swelling. I guess it's better not to think about it.
Wait, who the hell kicked me? Whatever, it's useless thinking about it now.
Once again my first instinct was to head over to my window and look outside. What I saw was a massive floating island, as big as a mountain, connected to ours via a golden chain that sometimes dragged us along with it.
Wow! Uncle's floating islands are massive. I knew he was well off, but this is on a whole other level. These things are big enough to… I don't know, but it's definitely bigger than the small remote village we lived in before, although it's still smaller than the entire dome.
I remember enough of my last visit to the upper cities to be able to distinguish these floating islands from the real deal; they weren't flashy enough, there weren't enough decorations, and there weren't flying vehicles roaming just about everywhere.
We weren't the only floating island that was being dragged by such a gigantic island; there were many others all around it; I counted at least eight. However, out of all the islands, only ours had a colored building; the others looked like sturdy gray cubes with extremely small windows.
That's probably where the demons are stored. The one's uncle uses to make weapons out of.
I felt a little uneasy knowing so many demons were lurking nearby. But the fact that so many powerful individuals were gathered nearby made me feel a bit more at ease about it.
Now, what should I do… Probably see what I couldn't yesterday.
Before my mother could get in my room to wake me up, I decided to sneak out to pay a little visit to Elena; it was obvious that my parents wanted to distract me from the topic. Whenever I mentioned her name, they cleverly changed the topic, so I had to take things into my own hands.
Since I knew my mother had extremely sensitive ears, I decided to put on some socks and slide on the floor instead of walking. When I reached her door, I opened it slightly, just enough for me to pass through the gap, and closed it behind me.
The room was incredibly dark; the window in her room was covered by a bunch of bedsheets she had stacked over it, the bed was bare, having no sheets covering it, and Elena was nowhere to be seen.
"Elena? Are you there? Where are you?" I whispered while looking behind me; I was afraid making too much noise would wake my parents.
Oi, are you okay? Can you at least give me a sign of life? That way I can finally rest at ease.
Then from beneath her bed I saw a card being thrown out; it was the card of the knight. A card I was more than familiar with.
Fuck, I've got to get out of here.
I bolted towards the door before the knight even finished materializing itself and tripped on a small glass bottle lying on the ground, narrowly avoiding the first attack of the spiked ball.
Fuck! That was close!
The horizontal strike demolished a bunch of pieces of furniture nearby; I heard the sound of wood being cracked, and wooden chips flew everywhere; some almost flew into my eyes.
I rolled my body to the side, fearing the next attack, and as predicted, after making a full spin around the room, the spiked ball came crashing down from above to my previous position.
I rapidly got back up and rushed to the doors, and just before I could reach them, I saw the massive spiked ball being hurled at my face. I was too slow to avoid it and definitely too weak to block it; I was stuck in what seemed like an eternity, watching that weapon inch closer to me.
Then, nothing happened. The ball passed through my body, leaving no injuries behind; the door in front of me, however, was completely destroyed.
Confused, I opened my eyes again only to see a spear thrown at me. I closed my eyes, thinking everything was over, but nothing happened once more. No matter what he did, his attacks could not connect.
Huh? Isn't that her father's ability? Why does she suddenly have it?
"Get out! I don't want to see you!" Elena suddenly screamed with a broken voice.
She was currently hiding under her bed.
"GET OUT!" She shouted the moment I tried to step forward.
"Elena…"
"Can't you hear me? Get out!" She kept shouting; she was slowly losing her voice. Despite that, she kept shouting even though she was injured and seemed to suffer incredible pain whenever she shouted.
"Why?" I asked her.
"It's all your fault; if you only didn't exist, my father wouldn't have saved you, we wouldn't have had to get involved with those mobsters, and he wouldn't be dead!" She kept yelling from her hiding spot.
N-no, I, I was just… I didn't mean it; we were…
Her words felt like a sharp dagger that stabbed through my heart repeatedly. I wanted to come up with an answer, to defend myself, but I couldn't; I barely remembered what happened in those days; everything felt like a vague dream.
"Get out, please." She said one more time in tears, sobbing for her loss.
I remained still, I didn't know what to do, I didn't want to leave Elena in that state, I felt heartbroken because she blamed me, and I felt guilty because I believed her words.
I felt an invisible wall slowly pressing against me; I felt like I was being slowly crushed by the atmosphere, all the while her cries and screams were echoing in my head constantly as memories of that were flashing in my mind once more.
A city crumbling to ruins as a large fight was reshaping it, vehicles flying around, lasers being shot, and a haunting laugh echoing in my ears.
N-no, w-what is this… How could I have forgotten this? No, I didn't cause this. It wasn't my fault. I didn't do it!
Suddenly I felt disgusted at myself for having had such a happy reunion the very next day; I felt the food piled in my stomach rapidly rising.
I-I, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it.
"I didn't mean it. I'm sorry." Was all I could say, over and over again like a broken machine.
I tried to run away, but my legs felt too weak to carry my weight, so I tried to slowly crawl away from there.
"I won't do it again, please forgive me." After I uttered those words, Elena seemed to only get more violent.
"Disappear from my sight!" She shouted as she grabbed a plate full of risotto from the night prior and threw it at my head.
When she came out of my bed, her face had changed; it was unlike anything I had ever seen before, contorted with rage as tears streamed down her face, grinding her teeth, making bone-chilling sounds with them.
It was as if she had turned into a demon; my first instinct when I saw her in that state was to run away. I dragged my body away. She chased me away holding the glass bottle in her hands. Slamming the door closed in front of her and using my body to hold the door closed, crying my heart out.
"Get out!" I heard her scream desperately.
Her voice seemed to echo louder than usual in that empty hallway.
"Or I'll tear you to pieces myself!" She screamed as she slammed the glass bottle against the door, shattering it.
Then everything stopped, and I could hear only silence. I didn't know what was happening, nor why Mother hadn't reacted yet, when suddenly something struck the door. This time it was much more durable than the bottle, as I didn't hear the sound of shattering glass.
This went on for at least a while until I heard a loud thud.
Silence had returned, and it felt even worse than before; I didn't know what to expect. Was she trying to get something to break the wooden door? Had she truly given up?.
My heart was racing in my mouth; it was beating so fast it was making me feel dizzy.
What do I do? Why is Dad not here yet? Why haven't I noticed her screams? Please come here. I'm sorry for not following the rules; I promise I won't do it again. Please come here. I swear I won't ever disobey you.
After some time had passed, I slightly opened the door to check one last time and saw Elena on the ground, bleeding from her thighs, feet, and belly because of some glass shard stuck on her body.
"MOM!" I shouted, calling for immediate help.
"No, no, I—I, MOM! PLEASE!"
Elena was still conscious; her strength was rapidly fading as she kept losing more and more blood.
What to do? How do I save her? What should I do here? She's bleeding. I need a band-aid. I need some band-aids, but where are they?
I flipped the light switch to turn on the lights in her room, and as I did, I heard the sound of glass shattering all around me.
"MOM! Please help me!" I shouted as I tried to look around the room in search of band-aids or anything that could've helped me in the situation.
This time my mother reacted almost immediately, rushing over to check out what had happened.
She didn't utter a word to me; she clicked her tongue and took Elena away, carrying her over her shoulders.