An Eternity to Love
As the fire finally died down, the first snow of the season fell on the barren and scorched grounds, beginning to hide under her white layer the remainder of the ashes. Screams could still be heard behind the sealed gates, as the few people who managed to escape cried their hearts out towards their loved ones.
But nothing was loud enough to mask the slow whisper that followed the night's first darkness.
"An eternity is not enough…"
Present Day, Heiomachi
Eighteen-year-old Kanata Saionji woke up to the sound of the alarm, sweating and breathing fast. He breathed out even more as he slid both his hands from his forehead and into his handsome locks of brunet hair as the nightmare that woke him up still haunted his thoughts.
As he rested his face with one hand, the other stretched and stopped the still beeping alarm. The brunet closed his auburn orbs for a second to find peace, only for his nightmare to reminisce inside his head again. He opened his eyes again, fear evident in those auburn irises.
"Are you still asleep Kanata?" came his father's voice, a little muffled since the doors to his room was still closed, "you're going to miss your trip, you know…"
"I'm up," Kanata managed to say as he got to his feet and grabbing a towel, started making his way to the bathroom for a quick shower to ward off the nightmare.
But as the cold water splashed on his face from the shower, he couldn't help but think about his nightmare. It had been ages since he had had such nightmares. He could still remember how he'd go to his parents' room every time he had that nightmare.
His mother would always tell him that he's safe and sound and his old man would frantically run around the room chanting mantras to make him feel safe. But now, his mother was no longer alive to hold him and tell him that he was safe and since he is no longer eight, his old man would merely make fun of him being still afraid of nightmares.
But this was no ordinary nightmare. The weirdest thing about the nightmare is that it's simple.
What is this nightmare you ask?
Falling
He's merely falling.
Every time
Chapter 1
The Taiyama Kingdom
"Have a safe trip Kanata," waved his bald father as Kanata walked down the steps to their house, waving off-handedly to his father.
As his feet reached the road and he turned right and started to make his way to his University from where his class would be leaving for their educational trip for the year. He sighed as he pulled on the straps to his back-pack, his steps making the first noise for the day seeing as it hadn't even properly sunrise yet.
He was neither sleepy nor tired. He was merely irritated at the fact that their University was planning this trip right into the beginning of their first semester. He was doing his History Major at Heiomachi University and their current trip is to this ruined kingdom nobody had even heard of. He wasn't even sure why they were headed there.
As he caught sight of the University, he quickened his pace for he knew for sure that he was a little late and his History Teacher, Miss Mizuno is bound to be mad. She'll surely kill him if he were to reach them any later.
"Saionji! You're late!"
Kanata looked at his thirty-ish teacher and shrugging his shoulders said, "Tch! I know… Got held up…"
Miss Mizuno sighed.
The brunet gave her a nod and then turned towards their trip bus when, out of one of the windows to the bus, a blond peered out and he shouted at Kanata to come over, "Oye! Over here…! I saved you a seat!"
Kanata waved at him and climbed the bus only to be greeted by the entire female population in his class, who went in chorus, "Hey Saionji-kun! Good Morning!"
Kanata gave them all a weak smile and proceeded towards his blond friend at the back of the bus, away from the squealing girls all of whom leaned from their seats for a better look at him.
Kanata sighed as he sat down beside the blond.
"You shouldn't be so mean to them, you know," said the blond reasonably.
"Could you not do this now, Hikarigaoka?" said Kanata lightly, "I'm damn sure they would do something either stupid or embarrassing before this trip ends…"
"Or both", the blond smirked and then with a chuckle said, "C'mon dude… they wouldn't have signed up at all if it weren't for you coming…"
"I know," said Kanata through clenched teeth.
The blond sighed and said, "I feel for your future woman…"
Kanata chuckled at his friend's statement and said, "So do I…"
The blond chuckled as well.
"So…" started Kanata as Miss Mizuno started with some tips on safety and precaution, "did you get info on the place we're going to…?"
"I tried dude…" said the blond shaking his head somberly, "it was very hard… all I got were some articles on it and nothing big… it's all so weird…"
"Let me see them," said Kanata, frowning.
The blond sighed and then pulling his bag from the above compartment, opened the zipper and pulled out a file and handed it to the brunet.
"I did some research in the archives and this was all I got…" he said.
The engine to the bus started and they were taking off.
Kanata flipped open the cover to the file and in the first page was the name of the kingdom they were visiting:
TAIYAMA KINGDOM
25, December, 2000
Ruins of the unknown and ancient Taiyama Kingdom were discovered by the student archeologists of the Heiomachi University. What is amazing is that nothing in the burned up kingdom was brought back. Sources say that the kingdom is cursed and nothing in that kingdom can ever be brought from its original place…
Kanata read through the article and a few more and there was nothing interesting about this Taiyama Kingdom apart from the fact that people believe it's cursed.
And haunted.
"That's it…?" he asked the blond when he was finished with the article.
"That's all I could get," informed the blond.
"It says here that after that batch of students who went there," said Kanata, scanning the articles again, "not many batches were taken to that ruined old place apart from us…"
"Yeah…" said the blond, "that's because nobody could actually enter the kingdom… they could only stare at it from the outside…"
"How do you know that?" asked Kanata frowning, "there isn't any mention about that in the articles…"
The blonde smirked and said, "I have my resources…"
Kanata raised an eyebrow.
"Fine… Miss Mizuno told me…" he said off-handedly, "apparently she was in that team as well…"
"Then why are we going if we know we can't enter…?" asked Kanata.
"Beats me…" said the blond, shrugging.
Nearly two hours into the trip and with the bus showing no signs of slowing down, the entire class had settled down from their travel games and singing and were in a partial slumber.
Kanata looked out the window, his head against the glass, wondering what the old man was doing and if we had rushed out to his sermon without having his breakfast. He sighed and leaned back on his seat, and looked down at the file still in his hands.
He closed his eyes lightly and before he knew it, he was asleep.
He was dreaming again.
But this time he was not in his usual nightmare. But it was close enough to one.
He was all alone. As he turned and twisted, all he could see was complete darkness. He ran like a maniac, trying to find someone… anyone… But nothing… he was in a dark place with no end.
Then suddenly, he heard humming.
It was soft and soothing. He ran again, searching for the source of the voice humming the tune. He ran and he ran. Finally, he caught sight of a small glimpse of light at a farther distance. He started running towards it. The light began to size up. He was close enough. He extended his hands whilst sprinting to embrace the light.
"Kanata! Wake up dude! We're here!"
Kanata's eyes snapped open and he could make out blurred images of Nozomu trying to wake him up. He opened his eyes wide and noticed that the bus had come to a halt.
"We're here?" he asked, trying to get some senses back into his body as the dream was still vivid in his mind.
"Yeah…" said the blond as he swung his backpack over his shoulder and stood waiting for the brunet in the empty bus, "everybody's on their way to the hotel already…"
Kanata grabbed his backpack as well and the two teenagers made their way down the bus. Kanata looked around the place they had stopped. The bus was outside a small shack with a rickety old board with the sign—"Tai hoteru".
"Hmmm…" muttered the blond, "well, I'm guessing that's it's not going to be a good week…"
The brunet couldn't help but chuckle at that and together, the two made their way into the hotel and found the rest of their class at the reception, with Miss Mizuno talking with an old guy in his kimono.
"We called ahead…" said Miss Mizuno, "c'mon sir please… we need just eleven rooms…"
"Yes… yes…" nodded the old man gravely, "but as I mentioned on the telephone, you have to realize that it is not that easy to stay here madam".
He had an old Japanese accent and he spoke with great patience and perfection.
"I'm sorry madam," said the old man shaking his head, "I just cannot let you stay here… you should find yourself accommodation in a nearby town perhaps… away from here…"
Kanata who was standing at the very end of the crowd, finally lost his patience and pushed up front and approached the old man and snapped, "Look here old man… we've travelled a long way… we're not turning back now… whether we handle this or not is our problem, not yours… just give us the rooms… that's your job".
"Saionji!" snarled Miss Mizuno and said through the corner of her mouth, "do you want him to kick us out?"
Kanata merely rolled his eyes.
The man sighed and then said in a little more than a whisper, "I'll show you to your room sir," said the making the two, jump in surprise.
"Huh?" Miss Mizuno blinked.
"At least I warned you sir," said the old man and he toppled out of the reception carrying a bunch of keys and walked squarely towards the stairs.
"How did you do that?" asked a guy in his class amazed.
Kanata shrugged his shoulders.
"We'd better follow him before he changes his mind," said Miss Mizuno as she started to follow the old man, her students following closely.
"Good work dude…" nudged Nozomu as the two made their way, along with all the other students in the class.
Twenty minutes later, Kanata opened the curtains to the windows in their room and with it, opened the windows, letting the moonlight bathe the dim-lit room. He poked his head out in the chilly air and inhaled deeply, his eyes closed.
"Wow…" his roommate exclaimed as he came out of the bathroom drying his wet blond hair with a towel, "this room is so cool…"
"I think that's because we got the biggest room here," pointed out Kanata lightly, as he closed the windows and the curtains following.
"Hmm… but that old geyser insisted that you take this room," said Nozomu.
"As long as he doesn't put extra on the bill for this room, I have no problem," said Kanata as he sat down on one of the two beds, over which his bag was lying at the head.
"You have a point," said Nozomu sitting down, facing the brunet, on the other bed, wherein his bag was laying.
The brunet sighed inwardly and then dropped on the bed and closed his eyes lightly. After drying himself off, the blond slid through the blankets in his bed and turning off the single lamp at the side table, dozed off as well.
As the last of the lodgers in the hotel dozed off to their dreamland, the old man in the shack watched the grandfather clock in the reception as it ticked towards midnight. He closed his eyes, waiting. The longer hand in the clock slowly ticked away, making its way to the top to meet with the smaller hand.
Seconds passed and the two hands finally met.
"Ahhhhhhhhh…."
All through the shack, the Heiomachi students woke up to the distant shrieks of a woman. The cries continued and it got worse as the girls in the class started to cry in fear.
"What's happening?" shouted Kanata, his hands against his ears, as he jumped from his bed.
"Let's go down and see…!" shouted back Nozomu, his hands against his ears as well as the two tried to block out the earsplitting screams.
As the two boys ran to the lobby of the small shack, they came to face with the rest of their class, all in their pajamas and like them, with their hands to their ears.
"Miss Mizuno!" they all called their chaperone, and found her among the girls.
"What's happening?" the guys asked her, "Who's screaming?"
She, like everybody else, was also trying to block out the scream but of no avail. She was unable to answer them and a weird kind of fear was evident in her eyes.
Suddenly the screaming stopped.
Everybody looked at each other, scared and surprised.
What was happening…?
"What was that?" asked a guy in their class.
"That was the curse that the Taiyama Kingdom is bequeathed with".
Everybody turned surprised at the voice of the old man who owned the shack. The old man walked towards them, slowly going, "That is what you all have come searching for…"
The old man's voice sent shivers down Kanata's spine. So, the curse was really true.
But—
"It's just screaming… How could that be a curse…?" he asked the old man thoughtfully.
The old man turned and fixed Kanata's auburn orbs with his pale ones and replied lightly, "the curse is much more than that…"
"Then…?" asked Nozomu, "what is this curse…? What's so scary about this kingdom anyway?"
The old man relaxed and moving away from the crowd, sat down on a small cushion situated at one end of the reception, and heaved a sigh. The group neared him.
"Do you know anything about this kingdom that we don't?" asked Miss Mizuno cautiously.
"You all know nothing about this kingdom," said the old man, breathing out heavily, "You know that you are wasting time coming here… I remember when you came here fifteen years ago…"
Miss Mizuno stiffened at the old man's words. Everybody turned to look at their History teacher.
"You should've left it alone," said the old man shaking his head, "but you had to come and poke your noses in places where they don't belong…"
Nobody spoke a word.
The old man sighed again, "but no further damage is possible… the curse can never be detached…"
"What is this curse…?" piped a girl in a small voice.
"Yes, please tell us…" joined another.
But as the old man scanned everybody's face slowly, Kanata had a bad feeling inside of him. The old man's eyes stopped a minute longer at Kanata's face than everybody else and the brunet had to exercise his entire remaining valor to remain staring back into those pale eyes of the old man.
The old man sighed yet again.
"Ages and ages ago, this inn was built," he started slowly. All the teenagers and Miss Mizuno kept utmost silence to listen to the story that the old man was unfolding for them.
"Then it was my great-great-great-grandfather… I'm not very sure though…" he added with an afterthought and continued, "Anyway, it was my ancient ancestor who was taking care of this inn then…
"The Matsumoto Family, that is my ancestral family," the old man continued, "lived outside the Kingdom… we were assigned to take in travelers and provide with hospitality before they entered the kingdom… which is a few miles away…
"The Taiyama Kingdom is the most prosperous of the lot at that time," he said, nodding his head as the students began to sit down on the floor to listen to the old man, "…and the most peaceful…"
Kanata frowned.
"It was in the reign of the Great Emperor Keitai Taiyama…" the old man sighed, "His rule was marked as the most vigilant and prosperous of the lot… At the tender age of fifteen he was bestowed with the kingdom when his father passed away…
"He was married soon, to the Lady of the Southern Empire, and the kingdom was blessed with a Prince…" he said sadly, "he was named Takakura Taiyama after his great-grandfather… on the day of his birth, the kingdom's Wise Man was called upon to make a prediction as to the Prince's life…"
Everybody listened with bated breath.
"The Wise man predicted that the Prince will grow to be handsome both inside and out… filled with valor inherited from his father and kindness from his mother…" the old man related, "it was then a tradition to keep the Prince inside the walls of the Palace until he becomes a man… when he'd be crowned to be King… basically he has to be inside the Palace until he turned nineteen…"
"Was he a prince or a prisoner?" asked Kanata.
The old man chose to override his statement and continued, "but on the day of the Prince's Nineteenth Birthday, the day in which he'd be crowned King of the Taiyama Empire, a cursed fire destroyed the entire kingdom, and the prince with it, in the process…"
He stopped.
"My ancestors knew nothing about it until the break of dawn when screaming similar to what you have experienced broke through the morning air," the old man continued, "only a few women and children survived the awful fire… and everyone had only one thing to say…"
They all listened with bated breath.
"Witchcraft…" said the old man in barely more than a whisper, "They said that a witch had placed a curse upon the kingdom, destroying it to smithereens… not a grass to ever grow within miles of that ruin… for centuries…"
Some of the girls gasped.
"And the scream you heard tonight is that of the witch," the old man said, "who still roams the lands of the Taiyama Kingdom, searching for whatever she had lost in that fire she created…
"Why is it that we have never heard of this mysterious screaming before?" asked one of the girls, still shaky from the remembering the wild shriek
"This hotel is as far as you would be able to hear the scream. Nobody has ever entered the kingdom after the incident… and those who tried. Well, lost or returned empty handed.
"The huge gates to the kingdom still remain locked and they say it is her that keeps strangers out…" the old man said, "Nobody had managed to enter the kingdom… no matter how hard you try…"
"She'll get mad if you do… and will destroy everything…," the old man looked directly into Kanata's eyes as he finished, "even you…"
End Chapter 1