His story was one of the most bizarre tales I had heard in my entire life.
“Did you tell my parents and sisters this story?” I asked.
“No. The both of you are the only ones I feel comfortable telling,” he replied.
“Who’s the other person?” I asked curiously.
He smiled. “My girlfriend.”
‘Oh, he even has a girlfriend?’
“You can’t tell anyone about what I’ve just told you Henry,” he warned, putting on his mask.
It wasn’t a story anyone wouldn’t constantly think about, but if it came down to keeping secrets, I was his best man.
“You don’t have to worry about that,” I assured him.
“Thank you”.
***************
After his story, we talked about the discussable parts of our lives. He told me about his lover, Rias. Coincidentally, his relationship with her began the previous day. I told him what I could about Freya and my friends. And finally, after hours of talking and disturbances from my sisters, Gin finally left for Draconia.
Since that day, no matter what happened, my mind would never be free from the bizarre tale that was Gin Walker.
********
Later that night, when mom arrived;
“Henry, go to my room and wait for me there.”
She sounded worried as her tone was really low.
I went to her room, thinking about what she could possibly want to tell me. I hoped from the bottom of my heart that nothing happened to Gin.
“Is something wrong mom?” I asked.
She quietly closed the door and walked slowly to her bed. She sat on her bed and took in a deep breath.
“On my way home, I received a call from Daiwi.”
On hearing that name, my eyes widened and my heart pounded even faster that I could feel it in my chest.
Daiwi Noya was a Taioui practitioner of the Saint-level, the level right after the ninth rank. His lineage goes way back to the time when Taioui first started. Everyone in his lineage was a Taioui practitioner of the Saint-level(the highest rank in Taioui practices) and every member of his lineage was treated with respect.
He never taught those who were unworthy in his eyes. He left Mystery Falls when the rivalry between Mystery Falls and Starling City began, which was about five years back. I was beyond lucky to be trained by him till the ninth rank.
Just before my family and I left Central City, he told me that anytime he called, he won’t say much, but it would mean trouble was coming for me.
“The only word he said was ‘meditate’,” she added.
‘I haven’t done that in a while,’ I thought.
“Promise me you’ll be fine Henry,” she pleaded, holding my two hands tightly.
In her eyes, I could see fear clearly. Many times in the past, she debated against my learning Taioui, but my late old man didn’t budge. He made sure I learned and she had to deal with it even after his death.
“I promise”.
**********************
That evening I left the house to find a quiet place in the city to meditate. Daiwi never raised false alarms, so I knew something was coming. I searched every place I could, but I couldn’t find any place in Mystery Falls quiet enough to meditate.
I stood at the Sanhuwe Bridge close to the park, thinking about how unfruitful my search had been. I solemnly hummed an ancient song I was taught by Daiwi when he first started training me.
“What exactly could he be warning me about?” I asked myself.
I continued humming. And that was when it hit me.
“....Deep within Yokai’s heart was peace.”
I couldn’t explain the feeling, but it directed me towards Statue of Yokai close to the Riuph Center, where people of Mystery Falls celebrated the Spirit’s festival, which was not far from the park at all.
I hurried towards the center and held on tightly on to the feeling that pushed me to Riuph. As soon as I got there, I headed for the statue that stood at the center.
The statue with a cat-like mask on its face sat in a Zen-like meditative state with a dog lying asleep next to Yokai.
“Deep in Yokai’s heart was peace,” I said, hoping to find something in those words that could help.
As I stared at the statue, something with a faint red coloration caught my eye in its chest region. I walked closer to it to know what it was. It was transparent. There, it was like I forgotten my main mission.
I stretched out my hand to feel it. A slight touch and it fell into my palm, causinng me to jerk backwards a little bit. As I stared at the circular glass item, a small piece of paper fell out of the chest of the statue.
I picked it up curiosly, spread it open and read what it contained.
It read;
“Thou seeks that which is hidden, the dark is not where thou should start. The peace that thou seeketh lies deep in the light of the heart.”
“What an annoying man.”
The clue was written in my master’s handwriting in ancient Iyes.
I took the piece of paper and analyzed each sentence.
“Thou seeks that which is hidden, the dark is not where thou should start,” I read aloud.
‘Daiwi knew I would be in search of this.’
“The peace that thou seeketh lies deep in the light of the heart,” I read again.
I didn’t have to think too much. I had seen loads of movies that involved this solution.
I placed the red, circular glass-like object back into the chest of the statue, turned on my phone’s flashlight, took steps back and held my phone above my head to simulate sunlight until the light fell directly on the the glass piece.
The light that fell onto the glass was reflected towards a distance on my right side. I turned my hair to see where it led.
‘North-East it is,’ I said to myself.
*******
The light pointed in the direction of the trees that closed up the Riuph Center. It was odd, but I kept going. I kept walking amongst tall trees under the dark night sky. I wasn’t alone. I had the sound of crickets to accompany me.
After about four minutes of walking, I made it to a small, wooden dock.
In front of the wooden dock was a wide and long body of water. Fireflies flew around in mid-air, beautifying the space with their bright colors. The wind that blew against my entire body was different from any wind I had ever exerienced.
“Wow!”
I was before the most beautiful scenery I had ever come across in my entire life.
After basking in the beauty of the scenery, it was time to meditate.
I took off my T-shirt, socks, shoes and belt to free myself a bit, so I could meditate, and assumed a Zen-like meditation state. I hadn’t meditated in a while, so I needed to feel the wind penetrate every pore of my skin.
***************
I was in the meditation state for two hours straight. I didn’t see anything pertaining any danger, but I was unbothered. I knew that even if I didn’t receive any sort of vision, I would feel something soon.
And that night, I did. That night, I had a dream. A really scary one.
In the dream, there was an explosion. One that claimed the life of everyone in Mystery Falls. I heard screams of pain and agony. Some voices were ones I knew, and some I didn’t. It was very troubling.
I woke up sweating and breathing heavily. It was indded a horrifying nightmare as going back to sleep was a very hard task.
************
The next day, I spent my afternoon at the park with Freya. As a couple, we had to know each other for the relationship to work. Freya wasn’t that much of a complicated person. Rather easy to read. We were direct opposites.
After our date that afternoon, we took a walk. We had no idea where we were headed. We just moved as our feet led.
“We should head back,” I suggested.
“Not yet. I still wanna walk,” she groaned, glueing herself to my right arm.
“Do you even have any idea where we are?”
She stopped for a moment.
“From the looks of things, we’re on Coach’s street,” she replied.
She had her eyes on something in front of us. A wrecked car.
“The vandal hit Coach’s car on Friday.”
She took me by the hand and ran towards the car.
“What are you doing?” I asked, stopping her few steps away from the car.
“I wanna get a closer look,” she replied, letting go of my hand and running towards the car.
I sighed heavily.
“Let’s go Freya.”
“Wait. This is really intriguing.”
There was no controlling her actions. Once her mind was dead set on doing something, she was going to do it without fail.
I walked towards Freya and the car wreck. Then, my eyes caught on to something.
There were no flowers closeby, yet, something white was in the bushes, really close to Coach’s house. I slowly reached for the white rose-like flower among the green bushes.
‘A corsage?’
I immediately slipped it into my pocket so Freya wouldn’t see it as I promised Blake I wouldn’t involve anyone in the search for the vandal.
“Alright, I have satisfied my curiosity. We can go now,” said Freya, skipping towards where I stood.
“You okay?” she asked.
“Yeah.” I replied sharply.
I held her hand, interlocked our fingers and began to walk in the direction we came. At least that romantic gesture would get any suspicion off her mind.
We hit my street first as we headed home. We kissed ourselves goodbyes and headed for our homes.
**************
After dinner, before going to bed, I put some clues concerning the vandalism together. The corsage I found helped me narrow donw the vandal to being a student of either Mystery Falls High and Mystery Falls Middle, as those were the only two schools that had a dance on Friday.
‘But why?’ I asked myself.
I put together all the paperwork I got from Blake to see if I could find anything that could help. There was no pattern to the victims of the vandalism. They were all very random.
I began to watch the footage that street cameras caught of the vandal. Her face wasn’t visible, so I was drawn to the way the person destroyed mail boxes with a baseball bat and how the person skipped away with the bat after the damage had been done.
I wanted to believe that the person held no grudge, but was disturbed mentally. With the absence of a destruction pattern, it was all I could believe at that point.
The following morning, I left the house before anyone else as I needed to turn in Hickery’s homework early. It was something he started after the Parent-Teachher conference. It was one of his ways of making us more disciplined.
I got to school by 7:25 and I was in his office by 7:28. He sat at his desk with a novel in his hand, and about three paperwork, stacked on his desk.
“I expected you to arrive earlier Mr.Collins,” he said, not lifting his eyes from the book he was reading.
I didn’t respond. I dropped my assignment and left.
*********
After turning in my assignment, I sat alone in the basketball court with my earphones plugged in and my attention on an e-book as that was the only quiet place that morning.
After a few minutes, I took off my earphones and decided to get ready for the first class of the day. Just as I was about to leave the bleachers where I sat, I heard something. Sniffles. Someone was crying.It came from the back.
I walked slowly to the back. A girl was crying with her head down.
“Are you alright?” I asked softly.
She swiftly raised her face. Misty. She said nothing. It was like as she saw me, she got sadder and began to cry the more.
I sat next to her and pulled her into the warmth of my right side.
“What’s wrong?” I asked softly.
She raised her head from my shoulders and wiped her teary eyes. Her make up was smeared and her eyes were red with tears.
“Two things actually,” she began.
“I cry every morning at school. This is my spot.”
“Why?”
With her voice breaking, she said; “Cos I don’t have any friends”.
“What about Dexter and the others?” I asked. She always sat with Dexter and some of his friends at lunch and even at basketball games.
“Oh please Henry. You of all people should know that just because some people do things together, it doesn’t make them friends. Dexter and his friends are simply an outcome of circumstance. A circumstance I hate talking about”
Hearing her say she had no friends put me in a state of sadness. It as there I knew what Freya felt like the night she slapped me.
“If you don’t have any friends, then what am i?” I asked.
She slowly turned her head to face me with her eyes widened.
‘So all this time, she assumed that I wasn’t her friend?’
“You see me as a friend?”
“Yeah.”
At that point in time, she already stopped crying.
“What about Freya?” she asked.
“I’m not Freya. I didn’t choose her friends and she definitely choose mine.”
She fell silent and her eyes widened. “Thank you.”
I smiled in response.
“What’s the second thing?” I asked.
She stared at the floor again.
“My parents want me to go to a new school in Starling City starting next term. I don’t wanna go. I like things here in Mystery Falls. Besides school though.”
It seemed rather depressing for her. But there was only so little that a fourteen year old could do to avert something like parents agreeing to change schools.
“There’s only so little you can do to change that. Take it from someone who’s lived in Central City, Briarwood, Star Falls, and now Mystery Falls. It’s annoying, sometimes saddening. But you’ll be fine.”
“You promise I’ll be okay?” she asked in a whisper.
“I guarantee it.”
She went silent again.
“Thank you Henry,” she said, wiping the tears off her cheeks
She got up and handed me a small mirror to hold in front of her so she could adjust her make up. She rounded it up in seconds.
“We should get going before class starts,” I said, turning towards the door.
“Wait,” she said, grabbing my hand.
“Is something wrong?” I asked.
She had her face down again.
“If I’m in any form of trouble, will you be there to save me?”
It wasn’t a question anyone would be asked on a regular Monday morning. She was my friend and I was her only friend. Not being there for her whenever she needs me would shatter her heart.
“That’s what friends are for right?”
“Right.”
Misty was a very vulnerable soul. No matter how much of a hot-house flower she was, she was very delicate and needed to be handled with care.
When we left the basketball court, we went separate ways to avoid Freya seeing us together. In the end I would have to make her deal with me being friends with Misty.
*************
YOU ARE READING
A Different Descendant: Freshman Year 1
Teen FictionStep into Mystery Falls via the eyes of Henry L. Collins and witness the life of the last male of the Collins lineage as he uncovers secrets necessary to maintain the safety of his family, friends and city while living through highschool.
