A Different Descendant: Freshman Year 1

Chapter 23

Chapter 23
     That evening, I had one of the hardest assignments ever. We were to write a paper on a thrilling family history for Hickery’s class. As much as I knew about history, I had no idea what interesting history ran in my family.
      My maternal grandmother lived in Central City, and mom grew up without a dad. My paternal grandfather died before I was born, and my paternal grandmother lived with my cousins in New York. I had no idea what to write.
     The only history that our grandparents ever told me and my siblings was that Collins have been doctors for a very long time.
As I pondered on what to do, I received a phone call from my half brother, Clyde.
     “Having trouble with your assignment?” he asked.
    “Yes. How’d you--”
     “Get to Lian library right now. There’s something you really have to see,” he said and hung up.
    Knowing Clyde, he wouldn’t call me out for no good reason. I hurried down to the library where he waited for me outside.
“You are not going to believe what I found!”
********
    I followed Clyde to a table, overpopulated by books.
    “Alright, so I was trying to search for something related to your history.”
    “Why were you looking for something pertaining my history?” I asked.
    “I already have my history to write on,” he replied.
    ‘That doesn’t answer the question,’ I sighed.
     “Anyway, I was only able to trace things to as far back as the man who helped in founding small health centres here in Mystery Falls. I stared at your last name for a while, and then it came to me,” He opened another book.
     “The name ‘Collins’ is actually an anagram for the ancient name Nikolls.”
I stared at him for a few seconds, and the crickets made it seem like minutes.
     “That’s insane. I have no relation to the Nikoll generation. They’re even extinct. Plus, Nikolls has an K not--”.
And then, I remembered a rather small but important detail.
“There’s no ‘C’ in ancient Iyes,” I said in a whisper.
“Exactly!”
    That opened my eyes to many things. The history of Nikolls and how it became Collins.
    Before Yokai passed, he had an apprentice, Riur Hiden he took in as a child. He taught him martial arts known as Taioui. He was to pass on the Yokai’s techniques and teachings to his families. Specifically the ones chosen by the hand of Yokai’s spirit.
     He abided by this and passed it on from generation to generation. They were dedicated to protecting what’s now known as Mystery Falls and Star Falls.
    Then in one generation, the one chosen to carry on Taioui was a girl. During that time, The Land of Wonder, now known as Mystery Falls didn’t entertain visitors from neighboring towns or cities. But one fateful day, the female successor went on a training journey and met someone she fell in love with him.
    He resided in an arid region between Star Falls and Mystery Falls after he was banished for helping an outsider escape from his city. She brought him back home and normally, he was not accepted, and was told to leave their city immediately.
    Out of disgust towards the act of discrimination, she hid im in the city. She made sure he got food and with time, she started to teach hin Taioui. Like every other stories of hidden romance, they were outed and both of them were banished.
    The elders selected her younger brother as a replacement and he was trained in the ways of Taioui.
    And then one day, the banished couple were ambushed by enemies of Yokai’s city. In the ambush, his muse was killed as a Taioui practitioner of the eight rank. In rage, he took out a hundred men on his own.
    He returned to her homeland with her body and she was given a befitting funeral. Her lover, Grice Nikolls, was allowed to stay in the city, under the family that practiced Taioui.
     For reasons unknown, he couldn’t cross over from the ninth rank to the Saint-level no matter how hard he tried.
     A few years later, he got married and had two children of his own.
    The name Nikolls is ancient Iyes for ‘The Dynamic.’ Nikolls were said to be people that differed. Some were fighters, lazy, deceitful, and so on. Grice was tagged as ‘A Protector.’ He was a man who would do anything and everything to safe-guard whatever he was attached to. He stood in the way of anyone or anything that threatened the things he cherished.
     Before Grice passed, he received a vision. It was recorded that in is vision that there would come a member of the Nikolls lineage that would be unlike any other Nikolls.
     He would hold a lot of qualities that it would be impossible to tell the kind of person he was. But it was certain that he would be one that would change a whole lot of things.
    Grice recorded his Taioui and medical practices and handed it over to the Hiden family. They were to hand it over to the person he described in his vision.
    Generations passed and no one was as the vision described. Until a man named Luwa appeared.
    He was a greedy individual commited loads of atrocities including ritual sacrifices all aimed at gaining power far beyond the Hiden Family’s.
    It’s recorded that in an attempt to summon a great evil, he killed off members of his family at an altar. Only te body of his last son wasn’t found
    But before he could carry out his summoning, he was stopped by one of my master’s ancestors.
     I was told that the last name Collins was an orphan who aimed to become a distinguished medical practitioner.
     While I gathered and edited information for my assignment, I was able to somehow link the first ever Collins to the boy whose body was never found. He indeed a Nikoll. A Medical-type Nikoll.
      I filled my family in on the details and they were pretty excited to know that we came from such a highly respected family.
     The Nikoll’s were also celebrated during the Spirit’s festival, so naturally I was beyond proud to be one.
     In the past, the Nikoll family even had their very own graveyard where every Nikoll was buried after death. Only the Hiden family knew of its location.
The knowledge I gained that night also made me wonder;
    “Why did Daiwi hide such important information from me?”

     *******************
    The next day after school, I hurried over to Misty’s house to see her. Unfortunately, she wasn’t home. Her parents had her admitted to a mental hospital in Mystery Falls where she would recuperate and be monitored. I could go to visit her anytime, but I chose Fridays.
    Freya wasn’t one to agree to me going to visit Misty, the one girl she hated. But did I care if she hated Misty? All I had to tell Freya, was that I had to meet my dad at work.
    I kept some things secret from Freya and the others. Neither my friends nor my classmates knew about my training in Taioui. For my history project, I left out such detail.
      That Friday, I gave Freya a believable excuse of going to help my dad with some things at work and headed for Misty. ‘Nothing stays unknown forever,’ was a saying that came to my head whenever I hid something. I knew Freya would eventually be mad about me going to see Misty without telling her.
    After signing some paper work, I was finally allowed to see Misty.
Beyond her room door was a blonde girl in baggy pants and a slightly big T-shirt. When we entered, she was sitting on a stool, facing her bed. She was playing a board game.
    “Misty Carpelle, you have a visitor,” said the nurse.
    “Mom I told you I’m fine. You don’t have to check on me every hour,” she whined, not taking her eyes off what was in front of her.
    “Misty.”
She swiftly turned her head to see my face.
    “One hour Mr. Collins.”
The nurse left me in the hospital room with Misty. We stared at each other for an awkward amount of time.
    “What are you playing?” I asked, trying to see what was behind her.
    “Oh, it’s just chess,” she repliped, moving out of her way to see the chess set on her bed.
    “Can I play?” I asked.
    “Yeah sure.” She rearranged the chess pieces and we started a new game.
    As we played, the words needed to start and continue a conversation came out on their own. Talking with someone who shared my beliefs in almost everything was one hell of a feeling. A way better experience than conversations with Freya and the others.
    Whenever I talked with them, it was usually loud. It’s enjoyable, but sometimes, things just need to be chill. And for someone like Henry Collins, peaceful conversations are way better than loud ones.
    Our chess and convo led to talking about her condition. I asked how it felt whenever she woke up the next morning after she had destroyed a mail box or two.
    She dropped her knight and got up from the stool and walked towards the window.
    “I knew I was the one vandalizing properties about a week before you found me,” she began.
I stared at her from the bed and listened to her take a pause after each sentence.
    “I knew there was going to be effects of not taking my medecine like I was supposed too. I wanted to tell you, but you’d see me as some weird sick girl.”
    I got off the bed and moved closer to her at the window.
    “Freya hates you, I know. And the others are not exactly the nicest people towards you. But do I care? No.”
She shifted her gaze from the window to me.
    “I didn’t choose Freya’s friends, so she can’t choose mine.”
Her eyes swelled with tears after my little words. She rushed in for a tight embrace. The warmth and emotion that came with the hug melted me. I wrapped my arms around her and she made herself more comfortable.
      “Don’t leave me alone ever,” she sobbed.
      “I won’t.”
     That was the first promise I ever gave to anyone that wasn’t family. And it was one I was definitely going to keep to her.
      We stayed in that position for a little long. I hadn’t hugged anyone for that long before, but I needed my best friend to be okay before I broke the hug.
    When she stopped crying, she pulled herself out of the embrace and the nurse came in.
    “Mr. Collins, she has to go for a therapy session right now.”
    “Okay.”