Chapter 1:
It was a warm summer day. It was the last warm summer day before fall. The air was gentle as it flew over the hill. The sun was shining high. The warm sunlight stretched across the valley. The sound of laughter echoed through the hills behind the valley. Two young girls were playing in the fields. One blonde and the other was red haired. They were dancing. The red haired one held in her hand a string instrument. The blonde haired one was dancing along. And for brief moment, the world around them vanished and their problems melted away.
"Tell me. How can one dance so well?" said the red haired one.
"I don't know." Replied the blonde hair one. "How can one play so well?"
"Practice." Answered the red haired one.
The blonde hair girl slowly ceased dancing and sat on the grass.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes….I shall be…one day." The blonde haired one said as she took deep breaths.
"Does the Elders know? Of the young one you bear?" The red haired one said as she sat down with her friend.
"Goodness no. I wouldn't be a part of the upcoming ritual if I wasn't." The blonde haired one stood.
"Allea…" The red haired one as she sat on the grass.
"Ellipsis…. Why you stop playing?"
"It's just…." Ellipsis said as she adjusted her instrument. "Have you thought about running away? From here? From all of this?"
"What are you saying? That I dishonor the Tannin Clan and abandon everything? That I do not participate in the same ritual my mother did before me? To honor the Gods and ourselves is my purpose." Allea said as she picked up small stick on the ground. "Ellipsis…I know you care. But this is something I have to do. It's in my blood. I'm a poison." Allea said as the stick in her hand began to sprout leaves and grow. From the stick flowers bloomed in an instant and withered away.
"You're mother wasn't pregnant with you when she participated." Ellipsis said as she stood up.
"Perhaps…but still…I just can't leave."
"Yes you can. Think of the child. The child that sleeps inside of you. What kind of life would it not have? What kind of life would you deprive it of?" Allea turned away with sadness in her eyes.
"What kind of life would I have if I left?" Allea asked
"I don't know. Maybe a happier one. Better off alive than dead." Ellipsis said. "Look I know you've been having doubts. The whole thing has shaken you up. Please Allea. Don't participate."
"But who'll take my place. If the Elders were to discover…"
"You can leave that to me. I'll make sure they will not find out. Now what do you say?"
Allea turned her head away. She had been struggling with this decision for the past few nights already. She wanted to escape. But she was afraid.
"Where would I go?"
"What you be upset if I told I know of a small raft that would take you across the water and out there somewhere, you can escape."
Allea gave a slight smile. "So that's what you've been up to these past few moons."
Ellipsis smiled back.
"Ellipsis…."
"Yes?"
"Please do not do anything reckless. Please be safe."
Be safe…
Be Safe.
Do not do anything reckless.
Please.
Those words echoed in Ellipsis's head as she stared off into the distance. She remembered where she was. She was no longer in that field. It was defiantly not summer. The cold reminded her of that. She was inside a large building. She was sitting on a cushion that looked like it was mauled by a wild dog. Wrapped up in a long coat that smelled of dust, sweat and blood. How long has it been? She forgot. It's been too long. Regenerating was one thing. Regenerating and slowly regaining your memory is a different trip all together. It was like sobering up and suddenly realizing all the stuff you did the night before with pain and regret added into the mix. The headaches are a given. Cigarettes and coffee were Ellipsis go to cure for hangovers. It wasn't working for this trip. The cigarettes came from a bloody torn coat and the coffee was old and tasted like dirt. There were even some grounds in the bottom of the cup. Strange memories this evening. Old memories. Memories she didn't even think would return. Though something was itching at the back of her head. Something off about this scene. One… Two. Someone was missing. But she couldn't remember. Oh well. It'll come back sooner or later, she thought to herself. Everything seemed calm. There was her, sitting by herself. Over to her left was a lizard man sipping coffee too. Nothing bizarre there. Io was sitting on top of a rolled up carpet that had someone else stuffed into it. Okay…Maybe things are a little off.
"Hey…" a voice called out.
Ellipsis turned. It was the Lizard man, staring at her again.
"You okay there?"
Ellipsis nodded her head.
"You're too much like the other one. All quiet and silent." The lizard man smiled at her. "Names Ridley. And you would be?"
"Uh…" The name came to her head but she couldn't say it. "…" More silence as she stared into the empty cup she held in her hand.
"Ellipsis…. Her name is Ellipsis." Io said calmly.
"Cute name for a silent folk eh?" Ridley said.
Io gave a grunt as she glared at Ridley. Ridley saw this and gave a slight chuckle.
"What's so funny?" Io barked at Ridley.
"Question. How old are you?" Ridley said towards Ellipsis. Ellipsis gave no answer.
"Another question…"
"Ridley…." Io said with frustration in her voice. She had already put position herself to leap at him.
"Do you know the terms and condition of the contract you are in?"
"That's it!" Io shouted as she leaped across and tackled Ridley. Io started punching Ridley in the face. Ridley did nothing to stop her.
"Conditions….." Ellipsis said as she watched Io toss Ridley across the room.
"Yes. Terms and conditions of the contract you are in. It's written all over your skin." Ridley said as he sat up for a brief moment before flying pieces of debris came through the air and smashed him in his face.
"Leave her alone you creep!" Io yelled.
"Okay….ow…You win…." Ridley said as he crawled out from under the ruble that piled on top of him.
"No wait…What do you mean?" Ellipsis said as she got up from her seat, not realizing the coat had slipped off.
"Uhh…." Ridley paused for a moment at the scene. Ellipsis stood before him, naked. But she didn't seem to notice nor care.
"What do these mean?" Ellipsis said as she stared at the markings on her body.
"Uhh….." Ridley swallowed nervously. "It's a binding contract. The markings all over your body are….are…well it's a copy of the contract in a way."
"What does it say?" She said frantically.
"Umm…." Ridley glanced around for a bit then back at Ellipsis. "It's an exchange contract. One soul for another."
"One soul….for another? Well what in the blazes does that mean?"
"One soul for another. One soul for your own. Someone exchange their soul for yours."
"What!? Who?" Ellipsis snapped at Ridley.
Ridley's eyebrows rose. "Wow. You're pissed."
"Yeah I am! This is the first time I've heard of this."
"Wow….How old are you again?" Before Ellipsis could answer Io tossed a rock over her head and crashed right into Ridley's.
"Enough already!" Io shouted as she walked over to Ellipsis and wrapped Ridley's coat around her. Ridley laid on the ground, staring up at the ceiling. A bit of blood trickled down his nose but that didn't seem to bother him. It wasn't the first time someone has chuckled random objects at his head and deep down he knew it wouldn't be the last. Io led Ellipsis back to her seat and sat her down.
"What did that freak mean?" Io said as she sat down with Ellipsis. Ellipsis didn't say anything. She just stared at the ground.
"Long time." Ellipsis said.
"Huh?" Io said with confusion.
"It's been a very long time for me. It's been so long that I lost track of how old I actually am." Ellipsis gave a tiny smile.
"So what… like a thousand years?"
"More than that."
"Damn."
Deep inside the compound Nyssia was chasing something. This thing that she was tracking, was small and had pointed horns on its head. It ran from Nyssia in fright as she shot at it. The little creature was cornered. It tried scratching the walls. As a silhouette appeared in front of it, it coward in fear. Nyssia stared at the creature before her. Here it was. The one thing that scared her to death. All of those sleepless nights. Countless hours of fear induced panic. And yet, here it was. The cause of the nightmares themselves, cowering in the comer like a small animal. She could feel her heart race and her blood pumping through her veins. She quickly glanced around, no one else was to be seen. She looked at the revolver in her hand. That would be too easy for her. She walked up to the small black creature and grasp her hands around it throat. It started to squeal in pain. It tried to bite and scratch but failed at every attempted to free itself from Nyssia's grasp. She stared at the creature and began to slowly tighten her grip. With each scream she tighten it even more. A smile crept across her face. The creature suddenly went limp. "Was it dead?" She thought to herself. It didn't move. She dropped it to the floor. She kicked it around a few times. Was it truly dead? She didn't know. It appeared to be dead. She picked it up one more time and hurled it across the room. Black goo splattered on the concrete wall and the sound of bone snapping emitted from the lifeless corpus. It was dead. The nightmare was over. Nyssia let out a sigh of relief. It was over. Her shoulder's felt lighter, her hands trembled. "Oh what a day." She said to herself.
In front of her was a large metal door that looked somewhat familiar. She has seen lots of metal doors around this place but this one in particular rang a few bells. She slide the door open and dropped to her knees. Inside was a large room filled with metal storage shelves. And upon those shelves were wooden boxes with words like 'Danger' and 'Explosive' written on the side. Her jaw dropped and her hands trembled with anticipation. She then took off running to the nearest box and tearing the top off. Inside the first box she came across an assortment of high explosives. She ran around the room until she stopped dead in her tracks. This was one thing she didn't expect to see in a place like this. It was Busbus, all clean and shiny. Something was different about Busbus. Though the damages it had earlier were gone. It had some new additions. There was some strange metal plate on the side of the tires with thick metal tubes leading inside the bus. On the back looked like someone welding to mufflers with the tail end facing behind the bus. All of these rustled Nyssia's curiosity but something else crossed her mind in that moment. She paused and started to pat herself down. The goons took the key she had to Busbus, but luckily for her she had a second key hidden somewhere. She started to pat herself down more rapidly. A look of confusion was painted across her face. She then proceeded to take off her shirt and shake it. Then she took off the rest of her clothes until she was naked. Then she heard a cling. It was the key. She had it in her left pocket the entire time. She shrugged it off and ran over to Busbus and unlocked the door. Inside Busbus everything that Nyssia originally had scattered around was clean off. No more trinkets and no more random bullets rolling across the floor. This put her on edge. She hopped in the driver's seat hoping to find some sort of nostalgia. But there wasn't. It was all new. The control panel to her left didn't have wires sticking out that occasionally shocked her from time to time. This was truly something strange. She decided to turn Busbus on. It started. The dashboard lit up with new flashing lights. Strange noises erupted from the engine. Busbus rumbled and roared. Nyssia felt like she was in unknown territory.
"Oh my friend. What have they done to you?" She said with a sigh. She fiddled with some of the new buttons for bit until she came across the strange lever sticking out. Suddenly the bus roared even louder and smoke started rising from outside. Before Nyssia realized what had happened the bus started to levitate above the ground. Busbus swayed and swerved through the air, knocking over everything in its path. It was a thrill. Nyssia frantically started pushing every button that she had in front of her. The bus swayed even more towards the wall and crashed through.
At that exact moment, Ridley was pondering if anything else was going to happen to him today. Just then the wall suddenly comes crashing down next to him. "Fuck…" is all he said casually as he stared up at the floating bus.
Io was speechless as well as Ellipsis. Both were amazed at the sight. Busbus swing a bit and finally landed. Dust in the surrounding area flew into the sky and finally settled.
"Hey guys! Look who I found!" Nyssia said as she waved frantically.