Chapter 4: A special Gift
I awoke dazed and confused to see only the young boy and the woman staring at me. At a closer look, the old woman had a black veil covering her entire face, and she wore a dismal, long black gown. The boy, who stood holding her hand, looked only about 10 or so. He had long bleach blonde hair and wore a white suit. I couldn't see his eyes but I could feel him piercing my heart. He whispered into the old woman's ear. She began to speak in a croaky old voice, "My young master sees hope in you young one, and you have caught his eye. For this, I am to present you with a special gift."
As I blinked only momentarily they moved and were standing over me and the young boy was holding a bug like creature in his hand. "Please accept this powerful gift and use it wisely." The boy hung the bug only meters above my face. "This should only hurt for an instant." The moment she said that the boy dropped the creature onto my face. I jumped with shock but the woman restrained me. It crawled onto my eye and began to burrow. I could feel every movement with a series of agonizing rips and tears. It was almost as if a dagger was being shoved into my mind. "This is magatama," I heard her say, as she began to fade away into the darkness. "The essence of a demon, this will give you much strength." With that, the black light surrounded me until all was dark. I did not now whether I would wake or whether I would live to tell this tale. But there was no one there for the tale to be told to.
I awoke from my deep slumber dazed and confused. Many things rushed through my head; unanswered questions, unfamiliar faces and memories I'd rather forget. How I lost everyone I loved and cared about in only a matter of seconds. My emotions were all askew. I didn't know whether to be sad, angry or scared. In fact, all of these feelings were flowing through me. I looked at my hands and was utterly horrified by what I saw.
There were markings all up my arms, almost wrapped around my legs and my body, as if a huge snake had coiled around my body, into all of the little dents and crevices. They were glowing green, almost like the markings on the cylinder, and I sensed a similar power coming from them. It must have been the magatama's doing. My skirt still seemed to be intact, but my t-shirt was torn and ragged, barely conceiving my body. But that was the least of my worries at the time. I did not know whether to leave the safety of the empty room I was encased in. I got a strange feeling that I'd been in this room before, but the atmosphere felt different, it felt like there was great power surrounding me. I stood up and begin walking to the door, confused and distraught. As my trembling hand reached for the door, it hit me. I was in the school!
The room I was in was Ms. Yuko's classroom, but she was nowhere to be found. Then the thought sprung to mind that maybe my friends survived the chaos as they were in the school at the time. Only time would tell. I realized that while I was standing around, lost in my memories, everyone could be in terrible danger, and that maybe I was the only person to obtain the magatama from the boy and, that I was the only person destined to survive.
