Chapter 1: Introductions
I stood on the deck, feeling the nice breeze blowing my face. Well, boat rides weren't that bad to me, but to someone else-they were unpleasant. I looked over at my brother, whom was clinging onto the railing. His hands were turning white.
" Um, Daiki, do you need help over there?" I asked.
He shook his head timidly. " Ah, no sister. I can't take care of myself just fine." Once the boat started to hit high waves, all that was heard through the trip was Daiki's screams.
As the boat docked in Rockkenjima, I jumped off the boat. I stretched from the long, but well worth it trip.
" Man, I hate riding on boats for too long!" I complained. My name is Isabella Ushiromiya, my friends call me Isabel for short. Almost every year, my family and I have to go to this family conference all the way to Rockkenjima. It's a pain sometimes if you ask me.
" You're always so noisy." I turned to see my twin brother, Daiki. While Daiki inherited my dad's red hair, I gotten my mother's golden hair.
" What do you mean by noisy? If I remember correctly, you were the one who was holding onto me crying ' I'm gonna fall!' I mocked him. Everyone always wondered which one of us was older. When they would ask, they would have a shocked look on their face when they find out that I'm older than Daiki. We're so different, even though we're twins.
" Shut up!" Daiki shouted.
" Are you teasing Daiki?" From the boat, my cousins, Angela, Jimmy, and their younger brother, Adam, joined us on the deck.
Unlike me, who had long straight golden hair, Angela had curly light brown hair, that went to her neck only and dull blue eyes. To top if off, she had worn a snowy dress. Both Jimmy and Adam had dark brown hair, but black eyes.
" I can tease him if I want to! He's my younger brother after all!" Angela giggled.
" You may be older, but you must be kind Isabel," Angela scowled.
I huffed.
" You're too mature for your age, Angela."Out of all of us, Jimmy was oldest, being nineteen years old. Daiki and I came next, and after is my other cousins.
" Isabel onee-chan! Daiki onii-chan!" I heard two voices chorus. I turned to see my other younger cousins, Mari and Hana.
Mari is seven years old while Hana was nine. Hana has two older siblings named Ana and Hibiki, who aren't really my cousins. My Aunt Ange had adopted them at a young age and Mari belonged to my Aunt Maria.
While Mari had the same light hair and violet eyes as her mother, Hana, along with her older sister looked like Aunt Ange, even though they're not blood related. Hana had auburn hair and blue eyes. She wore her hair in an odango style while she wore a white blouse and a long light blue skirt. Mari wore a western pink and black dress, which she had gotten from Aunt Maria. Her hair was in a small ponytail with a beautiful pink ribbon.
" I love your outfit Mari," Angela said. Mari looked down at the ground, her face getting slightly red.
" Thank you," she muttered. I had heard stories about how Aunt Maria was always talking nonstop. But, that wasn't the same for Mari. She would always cling onto her mother's skirt whenever she was forced to talk to us.
Angela smiled and patted her head.
" Good job on saying thank you. As a reward, you get some candy." I then saw Angela take out the candy from her dress pocket. Mari gladly took the candy, unwrapped it, and put it in her mouth.
" Did you get it from the airport?" I asked. Angela nodded.
" My grandmother had given me a couple of yen to get something."
" Your grandmother is really kind," I said while she smiled nervously.
" Hey Isabel!" Dad shouted, following behind him was Mom, Aunt Ange, along with Ana and Hibiki.
" What's up Dad?"
" Don't leave the boat like that, you two Daiki."
" Sorry," We both said. Honestly, even though we're eighteen,he still treats us like were ten again. Everyone else then joined us on the dock, preparing to go to the mansion.
I then heard running footsteps coming towards us. I looked in the distance to see a girl who was about five years old. She wore a white collar shirt with a red tie, a purple vest, and a purple skirt. She had her black hair in two pigtails, bouncing with every step she took.
" Who's that?" I looked closely at her and identified her as the same little girl from two years ago. I remember her!
" Ami? Are you Ami?!" She stopped in front of me, giving me a confused look. I keeled down to her height.
" Who are you?" she asked.
" I'm Isabel. I remember you when you were at least three years old." Her expression still didn't change. She backed away a little bit. It's been a while since I have seen her, she must have been five by now.
I patted her head, which made her flinch a bit.
" Don't worry, I'm a friend."
" Ami-sama!" I looked behind her to see a girl who had dark blue hair and violet eyes.
" Sayuri-chan," Ami said while turning around.
" Ami-sama... you can't run off like that," She said quite sternly, but I could tell she was worried about Ami's safety.
" Sorry."
" Sayuri-chan?" I repeated.
" That's right, you guys didn't come last year," Angela said and I nodded.
" We were busy last year," I explained.
" This is Sayuri-chan. She started working here last year," Angela explained. Sayuri bowed.
" It's nice to meet you. I'm the servant, Sayuri."
" I see you're great friends with Ami," Daiki said. She nodded.
" Ami-sama and I are good friends. Now please follow me, the others are waiting for you.'' We all then followed her into the forest.
The forest, it was dark and meekly, but it was probably just me. I remember when us cousins would walk through the forest, in order to find some witch. Of course, we would get scolded by our parents afterward, but it was worth it.
" I remember you used to scare me, by saying that the witch Bernkastel lived here," Daiki said interrupting my thoughts. " Did she really exist?"
" Ask Jason or Jamie. They saw her."
" They're younger than us," he reminded me. " Are you sure that they actually saw her? And why would a witch appear in front of two younger kids?"
I shrugged. " To scare them? I don't know, I'm not even sure that they're story is correct. Jamie was the one who went into the forest by herself one time, and then Jason went." I turned to Daiki. " The question is: do you believe them, up til this day?" I asked. Daiki bit his lip.
" I don't know," he muttered. " You're making good points here."
I rolled my eyes, and turned my attention back to the trail
Once we arrived at the mansion, we were greeted by the beautiful roses that were continuing to bloom.
" I forgot that they had these roses," I said.
Angela smiled.
" It's the only thing you can't forget here."
Ami, Mari, Ana, Hibiki, and Hana ran ahead to look at the roses. I couldn't help but chuckle at them being excited. I was about to run and join them, but then I noticed that Daiki didn't pay attention to such a thing.
" Daiki? What's wrong?"
" The seagulls."
" Seagulls? You mean the bird?" He nodded.
" Where are they?" I looked up to see that he was right. There wasn't a single seagull in sight. I felt my stomach turned.
" I have a bad feeling about this," I thought. I put my hand on my stomach. " What's this horrible feeling?" I then felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked to see my Aunt Rosa, Mari's grandmother.
" Is something wrong Isabella?" Are you not feeling well?"
" That's not it. I'll be fine Aunt Rosa."
" We should still tell Battler." I got out of her grasp, which surprised her.
" I'll be fine." As I continued to walk through the rose garden, I heard my Aunt Sayo call someone.
" Jamie!" I looked to see Jamie, with a solemn look on her face, walking with her usual book bag. She turned to face us. From the last time I saw her, her hair was lighter and shorter, probably around her neck area. Now her hair was darker and her excited blue eyes, now have become dull. She wore something similar to Ami, wearing a white collar shirt and a red tie. She wore a turquoise vest instead of purple and her skirt was lilac.
" Long time no see, Jamie!" Angela called. All Jamie did was nod. No wonder I didn't get along with this girl, she was too hard to understand. Daiki probably could tell that I was getting mad, because he then started to talk to Jamie.
" Jamie, what's up! You look tired." Angela nudged him for being too blunt about this situation. Jamie nodded her head and walked in the opposite direction of us.
Once we got inside, us kids were taken to the guesthouse to put our belongings away. Inside, I saw a boy with dirty blond hair. He wore a white smart shirt with a red tie, along with tan pants. The boy was sitting at the desk, with his back turned.
" Excuse me? Who are you?" He turned around to face me, with his electric blue eyes.
" Jason?!"
" Isabel?!" We both jumped at each other's appearances. Jason and I always had a friendly rivalry. Not seeing each other after one year really changes things doesn't it? As he front up from the chair, I stepped closer to him to compare our heights. His was getting closer to my height now.
" How tall are you?!" My face was struck of horror.
" About 5'10. What about you?"
" I'm about 5'11! Don't you dare grow past me! Even you voice got deeper!" Jason backed away a bit.
" I can't help it! It's a way of life!"
" Well then stop growing!" I shouted. I then heard a light knock on the door. I turned to see Uncle Yoshiya, Ami, Jamie, and Jason's dad. When you look at Jamie and Jason together, you'd think that they were twins, like Daiki and I. Though, Jason was a couple of inches taller than Jamie.
" Uncle Yoshiya!" Angela squealed before she hugged him tightly. He was taken back a bit, but then he hugged her back.
" Angela, how are you doing?"
" Good. I'm happy that I get to see my uncle again." Uncle Yoshiya and I hardly talk to each other. With him being so quiet, you can't take him seriously you know. When we were alone together, I would try and make a conversation with him, but it always ended with him nodding, before silence.
Uncle Yoshiya then noticed me and smiled.
" Isabella, it's been a while." I couldn't tell if he was happy to see me or he was just being nice. I waved shyly to him.
" Nice to see you again, Uncle Yoshiya."
I never felt so uncomfortable in my entire life. When you're sitting with your whole family, your body would tense up when someone in talking to you, or about you. But...when it comes to grades, everything goes downhill from there. I have to admit, I wasn't the smartest student in my classes, but I always did well, according to the scores on my tests. Even though I would get in trouble quite often with the teachers. After lunch, us kids decided to go to the beach. As we walked through the corridor, I stopped and noticed the same portrait that's been sitting there for years. The witch, Bernkastel.
" Hey. Has this always been there?" I asked, pointing to the portrait. Everyone turned around and looked. Jason nodded.
" Remember what Jamie and I told you when we were younger? And you totally ignored us," that last part had anger in his voice. I nodded.
" That's been in here for as long as I can remember," he said with a sigh. " Of course, you know we never knew our great grandfather-Kinzo, I think his name was. But, I have heard lots of stuff about him."
" And how sick he was," I added. That part I had heard from my Dad himself. He had talked about the good things about Kinzo, but being attracted to a witch for ages, and wanting to bring her back to life-was foolish. Dad had never explained what else happened to Kinzo, but it seemed like he had a bad end.
" Kinzo," Jason muttered. " I'm glad I never got to see his face."
" That's not nice Jason," Ami scolded. " Mommy and Daddy had said that you have to talk about the dead without being mean, unless it would upset them."
Jason gave her a small smile. " Alright, I know. They would kick my ass, but more likely Mom would do such a thing."
Ami gasped. " You said a bad word!"
" I don't think ass is such a bad word," Jason said. " Besides, when you're older you would have one heck of a time cursing, since Jessica is our Mother."
" Come on," Jimmy said. " Our parents said they would be meeting us there."
As the others walked away, I took one last glance at the portrait.
I chuckled. " Witch? What a load of crap."
But whatever happened that day, was something that I could never forget.
