The Haunting Veil of Shadows

✦❘༻CHAPTER 2༺❘✦

I shook my head, trying to reject the reality unfolding before me.

So I wasn't dreaming this whole time?

My head swirled as a haze veiled my sight, causing the images in front of me to blur into indistinct shapes.
While flashbacks from earlier
replayed persistently, as if unwilling to let me go.

In the midst of this sudden hush, Airis's face appeared, bearing traces of concern. His lips moved, shaping words that seemed to drift beyond the reach of my comprehension.

"Ari? What happened? Are you well?" His words taper off, a fading echo. He clings to my arm, striving to uphold me.

His touch embraces my face, an attempt to lead me back to my senses,yet my return remains a struggle. Each breath I draw grows more shallow, slipping through my grasp.

The child, a near-perfect reflection of me my four-year-old self.

The voices and their hushed murmurs that grew louder.

The lingering silhouette, its gaze piercing into the depths of my soul.

None of it was a dream ?

As I struggle to reclaim my senses and composure, my body betrays me, causing me to slip off the tall stool I had been perched on. At that moment, Airis reacts swiftly, bending down to catch me, his presence a stabilizing force.

"Ari! Ari! Take a breath!" His voice becomes a steady cadence, piercing through the fog like a lifeline tossed to a struggling spirit.

Time turned into a fleeting idea, slipping away just like sand through an hourglass. Past memories faded away, leaving me lost in a confusing void of uncertainty. It was as if the capacity to hear and comprehend had been stripped away, leaving me in a state of profound mental isolation.

As awareness gradually returned, the haze that had clouded my vision gradually lifted, revealing a broad smile forming on Airis's features. I attempt to discern his emotions through his facial expression.

The tranquility in his eyes, paired with that smile, awakens something within me. An eerie sensation, accompanied by a sudden chill, courses through me, leaving me grappling to understand the unfolding moment.

What's the reason behind that peculiar smile on his lips?

Uncertainty gnaws at me as I cast a wary glance at Airis, who remains silent. It's as if his grin is stretching wider and sinking deeper, and I can't shake off the discomfort that settles in the pit of my stomach.

"Airis?" I manage to utter, my voice strained with a mixture of concern and anticipation. However, he continues to gaze at me, that strange smile still lingering on his face.

"My dear sister Arabelle, you must be utterly bewildered, aren't you?" An unsettling sensation washes over me, intensifying my sense that something isn't right. The words emanating from Airis carry an uncanny chill, striking an unusual and disconcerting note.

A frigid shiver coursed down my spine, as I witnessed the figure before me undergo a disconcerting transformation, Its once-familiar visage warps into an unsettling and sinister form, yet still bearing uncanny resemblances to Airis's features.

My face drains of color. My heart seems to falter for a moment, caught in the grip of terror. It takes only an instant for my mind to process the horrifying revelation that the entity standing before me is not my brother; it is something vastly more sinister, a grotesque distortion of familiarity.

Panic seizes me, and I scramble to free myself from his grasp, crawling away from him. He rises to his feet, his movements agonizingly deliberate, closing the distance between us with an unsettling slowness.