Hello everyone! So does anyone else read stories by Fafoo (Sugaru Miaki)? I'm very inspired by his works and ideas, and you'll see that influence come through with this story. He beautifully verbalizes the things we subconsciously know but never say aloud, especially from an introvert's more cynical perspective. His observations makes you think, "Hey, I've noticed that too," or "I've felt that way before as well. Glad to know I'm not the only one." In a way, it's like his main character (narrating in first person) is talking and thinking thoughts to himself; but that same narration also feels like the author is personally and indirectly speaking to his audience (like second person). In other words, when I write this story to share my ideas and interpretations, I'm also writing in regard to you readers. I love the abstract, ambiguous nature of it all. Also! I was able to relocate the one picture that inspired me to write the prologue of this story. The artwork is featured on the cover page of this story and the link to the full image is provided on my profile page! Thanks Eira1893 for your beautiful art!
So far I've only being using characters that were introduced in the original series (with more or less character development). So every character that has a name here was once mentioned in the show! And I plan to keep it that way unless something comes up. Just a reminder that I'd love to hear your thoughts on the story! Feel free to ask any questions if you have any as well! Or if you just want to talk about A:TLA. I'll reply back with an appropriate answer! *Throws sea prunes* Thanks for reading everyone!
~Roze
- Chapter 3 -
Do you breathe the name of your savior in your hour of need
And taste the blame if the flavor should remind you of greed,
Of implication, insinuation and ill will, 'til you cannot lie still
In all this turmoil, before red cape and foil come closing in for a kill
~ Carnival of Rust (Poets of the Fall)
The darkness welcomes travelers.
Greets them with a kiss of paralysis.
In the dead of night… whispers of hope float with the wind's currents, so light like the feathered seeds of an icy white dandelion.
Wishes are awakened, intertwining with each other. Silk ribbons are tangled. Screams are muted.
Sketched in messy black ink. The letters hurriedly scratch onto an unknown surface- onto the coffee stained canvas placed in front of her eyes.
Glitch. Static.
Retrace the sharp lines. Retrace the curves.
Once.
Twice.
Three times…
Zoom in.
Z
Blur. Pan out.
A full view of his name.
"-save you from the p…"
Abnormally warm hands wrap around her h-
-the mark of the b-
….
As the moon illuminates the small room through the open window…
"Ow!" Crashing to the floor.
Just one synchronized glance.
The gateways to the heart. Interlock.
A genuine and heartwarming smile is exchanged.
"…during the middle of the night to give me flowers?"
Fog emerges.
"-alive in this world-"
...
"-enough to keep me ha-"
Trapped inside the breath of a lifetime.
…
It's merging.
I'll see you one last time.
Raindrops paint my heartbeat. Brings me life.
Brings me to life.
…
"I promise."
What will it take?
Pain transcends her entity.
Your soul needs to be screaming.
…
"I'll hold to it that you do."
A realm beyond the distant constellations?
A glimmer of hope in her youthful diamond eyes.
My world.
…
"Do you think…?"
A world of white.
Standing so close yet-
Don't turn around.
"If we m-"
But I…
...
"-in a differ—"
s n i p
"-lifeti-"
Strands of woven fabric drift onto the clear, reflected pool of water where we stand.
It hurts.
Delicate fingers cling longingly.
"Do you think-"
You… us…we…
Start to fade away.
A mutual blink of our eyes.
And in the next instant, we've already dissipated into particles of glowing energy.
"-things would be differ-"
…
…
…
Kyanna's eyes shot wide open, meeting the sky blue ceiling. It hadn't been a horrific nightmare, but it definitely was by far the most abstract dream she had had in a long time. So cryptic and so real. She couldn't even differentiate that it was a dream while she was dreaming it. "It's a sign!" many people would claim, believing the dream to be something more, enticed by the thought that their lives were so interesting. But that same thought eventually withered when your loved one was forcefully stripped away from you.
Reality had struck her hard when she lost her mother.
Kyanna pulled open a side drawer next to her bed and brought out her diary. It was a thick decorative diary with a warm, navy blue cover personalized with stickers of glittering stars and the silver full moon. It wasn't her first diary, but it definitely wouldn't be her last either. Her mother had introduced her to writing in a journal since she was five years old. At the time, she was mainly drawing pictures and writing down the alphabet in a random order. Her mother would then date the journal entry and they would read it together. Her mother had been happy that she was practicing writing. Over time they moved to writing very short sentences about something Kyanna did on that specific day. Kyanna loved her journal time with her mother. The diary entries eventually became habitual, whether her mother intended for it to happen or not, and Kyanna found herself returning to write in it before the day was over.
The pages in her current diary were already quickly filling up with the amount of text she wrote in there every day. She wasn't the type of person to write one-sentence diary entries anymore. No, her movie-minded memory was too detailed to write everything she saw in just a couple sentences. Kyanna wanted to capture every important event and feeling she had throughout her day. If anything, those entries were her evidence from her perspective.
Recently, her diary had turned into more of a mission log, filling in meticulous details and updates about her search for the mysterious boy, Zanetan Agni.
It had been five days since she last saw him…
Three days since she discovered his name…
Two days since she started asking around the school for information…
Two whole days and there was still no information leaked out about what happened to Zanetan- Zane, as she learned that people called him by. Even the teachers had refused to give straight answers to her questions. Maybe they also had no idea what was going on. Or maybe they were sworn to keep that information a secret. Regardless, it wasn't long before all the students came to know Kyanna as "The Girl Obsessed with Zane", which wasn't too surprising for her since she was asking as many people as she could about what they knew of Zane. It wasn't because she had developed a crush on him, she convinced herself. The boy had greatly helped her out in a frightening situation and she just wanted to become friends with her savior and hang out with him like what normal people did. That was all. There was nothing wrong with that, right?
As Kyanna flipped through the pages of her diary, she was reminded of all the events she had written down. She turned to a new blank page and began to scribble down her abstract dream with a black ink pen. When she reached the end of describing her dream, she sank into her bed, releasing a lengthy sigh. This was going nowhere. She impatiently tapped the end of the pen against the open page of her diary, trying to think of possible ways to obtain more information about Zane. Only one possibility came to mind. Kyanna hesitated before writing her last thought for the morning's entry.
Maybe my only chance to getting close to him is by befriending the Demon Princess.
x - x - x
"Ahh!" Kyanna yelped as she fell face first onto the marbled floor of the crowded school hallway. Her eyes lifted ahead to see her textbooks and papers sprawled all over the floor; and walking past her was Asandra with her evil smirk on her evil little face.
"Careful there. I almost tripped on you," she said with a snarky voice, immediately leaving the scene with her two best friends. The students in the hallway simply walked around her and her mess of supplies, giving her pitied looks or giggling and whispering to nearby friends that she was that girl obsessed with Zane. Kyanna took back what she wrote about Asandra in her morning's diary entry. Being tripped once was receiving a warning. Being tripped twice was being threatened to give up. There was no way she would ever become friends with the Demon Princess. No way.
Kyanna pulled herself together, reaching for her fallen papers just as Suzie ran over to her to help collect her supplies.
"Ugh! I can't believe her!" Suzie scowled. "Tripping you like that two days in a row now?"
"I thought I was ready for her that time too!" Kyanna added with a grunt. She had prepared herself for any shoulder bumping, hallway tripping, locker slamming drama that she might have to encounter with Asandra ever since she stood up to the girl two days ago; but the girl was just too skilled compared to her. Her balance and agility was beyond what a normal eleven year old was capable of. Stupid prestige daughter of a rich family… Her parents probably provided her with lessons in martial arts as well!
Suzie picked up the last of Kyanna's papers, handing them to her carefully. "Where's Shaun when you need him? He's protective and great at being your bodyguard!"
"No, that's Zanetan!" Kyanna said under her breath, remembering again how his body-guarding skills had kept her out of trouble. Despite how quietly she had said that, she was sure that it was loud enough for her best friend to have heard her. But that wasn't what bother Kyanna. What bothered her was why Suzie had chosen to keep quiet instead of teasing her like she normally did, or even replying back to her at all in the first place.
"Are you okay?" Suzie finally asked helping Kyanna to her feet. The dark haired girl nodded solemnly. "All right. Let's head to class. I'll teach you how to make this awesome origami plane that you can throw at Asandra's face! It's called the Reaper!"
The girls' next hour class was given the last few minutes to get a start on their homework. Of course, they didn't work on homework for the remainder of the class period. Instead, Suzie was teaching Kyanna how to fold the Reaper out of scrap paper in attempts to cheer her up.
"Wait until you see it in action! This type of airplane is incredible when it flies! It doesn't just crash to the ground all stupidly," Suzie rapidly explained, her voice sounding higher than usual. Kyanna was happy that her friend was so passionate about the hobby, but a specific word in Suzie's sentence threw her off.
"Stupidly huh?" she repeated softly, dazed by the distant memory of him.
Her tone of voice did not go unnoticed by Suzie. The brunette caught on and waved her half-folded piece of paper in front of Kyanna's face. "Did he say that word in the hottest voice you've ever heard?" she teased. Kyanna was glad her friend was replying back in her usual way again.
"Nooo!" she protested dragging out the syllable, but then tilted her head down slightly, smiling to herself. "It was silly when he said it."
Suzie folded a corner of the paper she had in hand. "Oh boy, you've got it bad."
Kyanna kept silent she felt her cheeks warm up. She paid attention to the way Suzie was folding the paper and followed her actions closely. Thankfully, the folding steps were easy enough to keep up and within a few minutes, both girls finished their paper airplanes. Due to Suzie's experience with the craft, her folds, creases and edges were more defined in the finished product than Kyanna's, but that didn't disappoint the dark haired girl in the slightest. She was just glad to have created something fancy out of paper with her best friend.
Suzie gave a little cheer. "And that makes the Reaper! Now all it needs is a personalized name!" She grabbed a pink coloured marker from her pencil case and wrote her name on one side of her airplane's wings, dotting the "I" in her name with a heart instead of a dot. On the other side she wrote Shaun's name drawing a heart right after his name. "The Suzie-Shaun!" she exclaimed holding up the airplane high above her head.
This proclamation made Kyanna laugh. "The Suzie-Shaun?" she repeated in between laughter.
"I was never very good at coming up with nicknames… or names in general," the brunette confessed, lowering her plane onto the desk. "What about your airplane? What are you naming it?" She had that suggestive look in her eyes that made Kyanna a bit uneasy about saying her response aloud. But Kyanna knew that Suzie was only trying to cheer her up, so she decided to go through with it and give her origami airplane a dedicated name.
Grabbing a red marker from Suzie's pencil case, she carefully wrote out the seven letters that she had written in her diary so many times that week. The smooth motion of the pattered curves and lines were second nature to her now. A shy smile emerged as she finished the final letter of the precious name. Then she grabbed a blue marker and traced over the last two letters of the name she had written so that the colour became purple. She finished the name of the airplane by writing the last two letters of her own name with the blue marker. When it was finished, Kyanna set the marker down and flipped the airplane over so her friend could read the entire name.
"Zanetanna," Suzie read slowly and then grinned. "Okay, that's not bad, but you're missing all the lovey-dovey heart decorations."
"No way!" Kyanna refused, a more obvious blush appearing on the apples of her cheeks.
And then the bell rang.
"Time to test it out!" Suzie practically leapt out of her chair with the Suzie-Shaun in hand. She hurriedly shoved her supplies into her backpack and, without even zipping up the bag, threw it over her shoulder and ran for the door. Kyanna struggled to keep up with her best friend, eventually catching up with her in the hallway just outside the classroom.
"3-2-1-GO!" Suzie shouted, launching the airplane into the air and watching it glide in a straight path down the hallway.
"Hey! Wait up!" Kyanna yelled, trying to keep up. Not wanting to waste another second, she hastily jumped and threw her paper airplane into the air, chasing after it with Suzie as it flew down the hallway. Suzie was right, this particular way of folding the paper airplane allowed it to fly a lot smoother and farther than other origami planes she had folded before. Even better, watching the Zanetanna soar above the students' heads through the hallway was a beautiful sight for her. There was nothing obstructing its path so it was able to glide freely in the air. A few heads turned when they saw a white piece of folded paper fly past them. It gave Kyanna a sense of hope.
The two best friends ran to the end of the hallway where Suzie's plane curved in its path of direction and landed right before the stairwell. Unfortunately, Kyanna's airplane curved, hitting the side of the stairwell before tumbling down to the bottom of the stairs.
"Shoot! Now I have to go down there and find it!" Kyanna groaned, leaning over the railing.
Suzie let out a giggle, spinning the Suzie-Shaun in her hand. "Have fun! I'm going to go save our seats in the cafeteria!" She skipped off in the opposite direction while Kyanna quickly descended the winding flight of stairs until she reached the bottom.
Where did it go? she wondered as she searched for the plane.
Just then, she heard a faint sound coming from nearby. Or at least… it sounded like it was coming from nearby. There was actually no one in sight. Kyanna wandered the area close to the stairs, following the noise until it grew slightly louder. It almost sounded like muffled sniffling. Was someone hurt?
It took a couple seconds before Kyanna finally spotted the Zanetanna resting at the borderlines between sunlight and shadows from the stair's underside. She was aware of the huge empty space underneath those stairs and how she would sometimes see people hanging out there because it was out of view from anyone's field of vision when they passed by. Maybe someone was hiding there.
As Kyanna moved closer to retrieve her paper airplane, she made out a small shape curled up toward the back of the empty space underneath the stairs. Kyanna squinted to get a better look. It was difficult to determine who it was since the shadows shrouded everything underneath it. The small figure's head was buried beneath her arms which were wrapped around her knees, but two protruding pigtailed buns gave away the name of the person before her.
It was Mae.
Wait…
Mae?!
Mae never cried. Heck, Mae never showed any emotion! Why was she crying all by herself here? Where was Teri?
Where was Asandra?
Kyanna took a step forward, about to call out her name when a sudden thought made her hesitate. Should she call her Mae or Marissa? Sure everyone in school knew her as Mae ever since Asandra assigned her that nickname, but she found it a bit strange for herself to use that nickname. The professors still called her Marissa; and although Kyanna referred to the girl as Mae all the time, she had never personally addressed her face to face before. She knew such a thought was stupid to think about now of all times, but she didn't want to use a personal nickname that was shared between three best friends. She wanted to be… respectful.
"Marissa?" Kyanna finally called out.
Mae whipped her head up at the sound of her name and waved a hand out frantically. "Get away from me!" Her voice was cracked and distorted, and filled with the most emotion Kyanna had ever heard her use before. Even though her words were spoken with hatred, Kyanna ignored the rudeness of her tone. After all, it wasn't often that someone heard Mae without a monotonous voice. And besides, she was most likely embarrassed and ashamed to be seen in such a state. No one liked it when others saw them at their lowest and weakest point. Oddly enough, Kyanna was kind of amused to hear the other girl speaking with emotion for the first time ever.
But despite Mae's request, Kyanna still had to retrieve what she came down here in the first place for. She slowly took a step forward, bending over low enough to grab her origami plane. But before she could even touch it, Mae's voice rung out again.
"Did you not hear me, you stupid girl? I said go away!" her voice rose in fury. Kyanna had no idea she could even sound like that.
"I'm just grabbing my paper airplane," she stated carefully to reassure the girl that she wasn't being a threat.
The girl merely glared at her with burnt orange eyes gleaming through the darkness.
Another cheery voice faintly emerged from the connecting hallways. It was still too faint to make out words, but it sounded like whoever it was, was headed in their direction.
"-would've been possible if Mae was there. Speaking of Mae, you sure she went this way?" the light voice spoke.
Teri. And where there was Teri, there was Asandra. Even in the shadows, Kyanna saw Mae's eyes widen and her body froze like she had been turned into a statue- another rare thing for her to do.
Asandra's devilish voice pierced the silent air. "I know she did. She's probably hiding in a dark corner."
Kyanna recollected herself, picking up her paper airplane like it was the most natural thing for her to be doing at the moment. When she turned to leave, she found her path blocked by Asandra and Teri. They had stopped a few feet in front of her, staring at her like a strange animal.
"You look like you know something," the Demon Princess blatantly spoke with a hand on her hip.
"Nothing you don't already know," Kyanna shot back, trying not to sound suspicious.
"Feisty aren't we?" She eyed the paper plane. Kyanna made sure to keep the blank side (the side without the personalized name) of the airplane's wings facing the two girls. "So, you seen where Mae ran off to?"
Kyanna stared straight into Asandra's eyes, holding the intenseness of the heat and trying to block Asandra from reading past her expression. Quickly afterwards, her face wrinkled up. "She's capable of doing that?"
Asandra threw back her head and released a full-out burst of laughter. "Exactly. How would you know about that? She'll turn up, Teri. Let's grab lunch." The two girls didn't break their stare on Kyanna as they climbed the stairs to head to the cafeteria.
Kyanna stood still for a couple seconds, waiting until the two girls were out of sight and until she could safely confirm that they weren't around anymore. "They're gone," she said to Mae.
The gloomy girl scoffed loudly, still glaring at Kyanna from behind her knees. "Don't pretend to be nice."
That was it. Kyanna had tolerated her rudeness for too long. It wasn't amusing anymore. She refused to be treated that way for the generous act she did. She could have fed Mae off to the wolves, ratted her out to Asandra and Teri, but it was obvious that Mae didn't want to be discovered by the two girls in her current state. With a reflected facial expression of Mae, the dark haired girl carelessly threw her paper airplane in Mae's direction. The pointed nose of the plane struck Mae's forehead and she retaliated with a small yelp, not expecting the random plane strike.
"I did it because I wanted to. You're welcome." Kyanna left without another word.
x - x - x
The 6th grade lunch period was over when the Shaun bell rang. Yes the Shaun bell. The real one hadn't even rung yet but he was so blaringly loud that he could have substituted as the real bell declaring that it was time for the 7th graders to pour into the cafeteria.
"Kyanna! This has got to stop!" He marched right up to his sister with a paper sized poster tightened in his hand. His eyes locked with hers and he shoved the poster into her face. "Look at this!"
Kyanna ripped the piece of paper out of his hands when she realized that she was on the poster. The sheet was equally divided in half by the colours of royal red and ocean blue; and in the center of the paper was last year's yearbook photo of herself as well as a blown up yearbook photo of Zane. The two photos were side by side framed by a giant pink heart. Then at the top of it all was a digitally (and cheesy) cursive text that read: Please tell me everything you know about Zanetan! Kyanna is madly in love with Zane!
"What?!" Kyanna screeched. "Who did this?"
Shaun shrugged. "I don't know. Probably Asandra. You were practically asking for it when you kept asking everyone in the school about the guy."
"Oh no!" She angrily crumpled up the piece of paper. "Where did you find this?"
"It's everywhere," he said gravely.
"I don't believe this!"
"Hey, it's your fault for calling out so much attention to yourself." He snatched the crumbled paper from her hands. "We need to remove every last one of these posters. And then after that, no more Zane, okay?"
Kyanna's entire body drew back. "But I haven't even figured out what happened to him yet!"
This seemed to irritate Shaun as his eyebrows angled closer together. "Do you want to keep being mocked by the entire school?"
"Of course not! But I-"
"But what, Kyanna?" Shaun snapped, but then took a step back, the anger fleeting when he saw his sister's face fall into a broken expression: her glossy sapphire eyes growing huge as if she was recording the moment, silently hoping, praying, that this was not happening- that this wasn't real. The expression was all too similar to when she had discovered that their mother was gone forever.
And that scared him.
He looked off to the side apologetically. "Look, I'm just looking out for you, alright? I don't want my only little sister to be the laughing stock of Sozin Middle School."
Kyanna remained silent, allowing her own eyes to wander anywhere except for the person in front of her.
Suzie, sensing the awkwardness that had crept into the sibling's conversation, took the initiative to break the ice. "Okay you two, let's just focus on getting rid of all these posters for now," she said with a nervous smile as she moved in between the siblings.
"Yeah. We'll do that," Shaun replied, still in a serious tone. This worried Suzie, mostly because it was so unusual for him to be speaking this way. He was always a goofball even when he was pouting. A nerve had definitely been hit.
Shaun started walking towards the lunch tables.
"Where are you going?" Suzie shifted her posture to keep her gaze on him.
He didn't turn around to face the two girls as he responded. "It's my lunch period and I'm hungry. I'll take down posters after lunch."
The girls didn't move from their current spot for the next couple seconds. It took Suzie three tries to pull Kyanna's arm forward and get her to move to the hallways again.
When they reached the main hallway, they immediately noticed that the walls and lockers were excessively covered with the same posters that Shaun had shared with them. It was a horrifying transformation. Kyanna could only gape at the scene in front of her. It wasn't like this before her lunch period! How could all of this have happened in under forty-five minutes? Asandra went crazy with this!
"There's no way we'll be able to take all of it down with just a few minutes left!" Kyanna cried out.
"We'd better get started," a determined Suzie stated, already ripping off a collected bunch of overlapping posters from the nearest wall. The two friends made their way through the hallways, tearing every single poster in sight and throwing it in the closest trash can. They must have filled up at least three of the smaller sized trash bags.
Everywhere they went, students turned to snicker amongst their friends, having seen the poster of Kyanna's "obsession". As if it wasn't already bad enough. Kyanna could feel the heat of the students' gaze as their eyes followed her down the hallways; she could hear the whispers that were exchanged and knew they were talking about her. She couldn't go two steps without being looked at like a circus freak. But she was relieved that no one had bothered to say anything to her face. Kyanna didn't want to confront anyone at the moment, not when she still had to remove all the stupid posters.
A couple teachers who had decided to step out of their classrooms were bewildered by the vandalism. They probably would have stopped the two girls to question them, had Kyanna not shot them a menacing look that clearly implied that she didn't want to talk about the matter. It wasn't her fault. Why would she even think of advertising something so personal like that all over the school? Reprimand the person who did it instead of the person whom it was concerning. Besides, she and Suzie were at least taking care of the situation instead of complaining about it and leaving it be.
After long minutes of torturous stares and poster ripping, the two girls settled near the hallway where their next class was. The hallways were nearly empty as the students scurried off to their classrooms which was a great relief for Kyanna. She tore off another ridiculous poster and, for the first time since Shawn showed it to her, examined the photos poorly decorated on the piece of paper. Kyanna emitted a soft smile, bringing the poster to eye level. It had been five days since she last saw Zane's face, and being able to see it again (and with him holding a smile) gave her a sense of hope. He was still as good looking as she remembered him to be. Although the photo was taken a year ago, not much had changed in his facial features; maybe just some subtle things but it was still enough to make her want to drool all over him again. She lightly caressed the left side of his face with her pointer finger but immediately pulled away, feeling silly for doing such a thing. Her face flushed and she hurriedly glanced around her to make sure no one, especially Suzie, saw what she had just done.
Maybe it would be okay to keep just one poster. Just to keep his picture. She slipped the poster into one of her folders.
As Kyanna proceeded to turn the corner of the hallway, she caught sight of a familiar figure standing sideways from her towards a set of lockers plastered with the posters. Asandra.
The dark haired girl gasped, retreating behind the corner.
"What is it?" Suzie asked, throwing away a stack of posters before joining her behind the corner.
"Asandra," Kyanna responded with disgust. The two girls peeped out just enough to observe Asandra still standing before the set of lockers with a small stack of the posters clutched in one hand. "Ugh. I can't believe her! Putting up all those posters like that? I never thought she could be this evil."
"I know. Now you understand why I hate her so much."
Frustrated beyond words, Kyanna stepped a foot out, about to confront the Demon Princess, but Suzie firmly gripped her arm holding her back before she could take another step. "Wait. Study period is going to start any second now. Let's go for the attendance and then sneak back out to take down the rest of the posters." She meant every word but left out the thought that she didn't want her best friend to get into a fight with a person she had no chance against. Kyanna would've interpreted that statement as Suzie doubting her strength when she was only looking out for her friend with good intentions. So she decided to stick with logical reasons in attempt to persuade her.
Kyanna gritted her teeth and shut her eyes, repressing the urge to storm over to her opponent and giving her a piece of her mind. As much as she wanted to, she knew her friend was right. Taking that course of action was the smarter move. "Fine," she finally submitted.
With a silent sigh, Suzie pulled her best friend in for a warm hug. "Smile, girl. You've been letting all of this affect you way too much."
"It's all because Asandra's made it ten times worse," she muttered and then peered around the corner again. "I mean, look at her!"
They watched as Asandra cautiously glanced around her before gripping a single poster from her small stack in her other hand and holding it in front of her face. Kyanna and Suzie shared a confused look. What was Asandra doing just standing there examining her own poster? That's when they finally noticed that the girl wasn't wearing her signature evil smirk. Before either of them could comprehend what was happening, Asandra let out an infuriated cry, shoving the pile of posters into a nearby trash can. Without a moment of hesitation, she violently ripped off another poster and the next thing they knew, the paper was set to flames. It fluttered to the ground lifelessly. Asandra watched it burn and shrivel to black, her chest heaving heavily.
Their jaws dropped. Kyanna and Suzie didn't need to say anything to know they were both thinking the same thing. The stunned look on their faces said it all.
Before the Demon Princess left the scene, she carefully picked up the ashy remains and dumped it with the rest of the papers in the trash. She was gone before Kyanna had time to recollect herself. When she finally regained composure, she and Suzie ran up to spot where specks of ash still lingered behind. No one knew what to say. The scene was unlike anything the girls had ever witnessed before. That didn't look like someone who was scoring victory.
"Did Asandra just…?" Kyanna started, blankly staring down the hallway where the girl had disappeared to.
"I'm confused," Suzie said slowly.
"Me too."
The bell rang.
x - x - x
Saturday came, and on Saturdays Kyanna went to assist her grandmother at work. Her grandmother worked at a daycare which received a good amount of business. However, Saturdays were when her grandmother, Miss Kara as called by the children, was usually by herself since less children were being dropped off. But Kara always welcomed the extra help, especially when Kyanna loved playing with the children.
The eleven year old girl knelt down beside a two and a half year old girl who was scribbling wildly on the white sheet of paper in front of her. She admired the toddler's concentrated look as she coloured in the grass with a fat, green crayon. The little girl was so precious and so full of hope. That was probably why her name was Hope. Kyanna had first met the girl a year ago after her grandmother suggested that she should be the one to care for the toddler at the daycare; and during that time, the two had quickly bonded. It was always uplifting to see Hope's round, innocent face constantly smiling as if the world was always bright and beautiful. In a sense, being around the little girl brought out the hopeful, optimistic nature in Kyanna that often became lost when she treaded down a darker path.
"Kya! Kya! Lookie what I draw!" The toddler exclaimed happily, waving the piece of paper in Kyanna's face. Her words were slightly slurred as she was still learning to talk.
Kyanna drew her attention back to the little girl. A wide smile shone on her face. "Wow! That's a beautiful picture! Is that me?"
"Uh-huh!" she nodded and then pointed to a human-resembling figure in the middle of the page. "Dat's you and dis is me!" It was actually just a circle with two eyes and a curve for a smile with lines for the body parts. What distinguished this "person" was the fact that there was long, dark brown hair on the circled face. Hope had even went so far as to include Kyanna's hair loopies that consisted of two small strands of hair from either side of her head that was tied together by a thin, light blue hair tie and pulled to the back. It was a hairstyle that her mother had constantly styled on her hair when she was a little girl. She continued to use the style on a daily basis, keeping the rest of the hair loose in the back.
"I love it!" Kyanna replied, moving closer to the toddler.
The little girl held the paper up, pushing it towards her caretaker. "It's for you!" she said.
"For me? Thank you!" Kyanna took the drawing but set it on the table again when Hope plopped down on her lap with a giggle. On instinct, Kyanna wrapped her arms around the girl, keeping her securely in place.
"Kyanna!" An older toddler girl ran up to the dark haired girl. "Miss Kara said the yummy snacks are ready!"
"All right! Tell her that we'll be there in a couple minutes, okay?" she smiled and the toddler ran off again.
"Is Kawa your mommy?" Hope asked, tilting her head back so she could see Kyanna's face.
"No, she's my grandmother," Kyanna corrected.
"Where is your mommy?"
Her eyes drooped slightly, but tried to keep content for the sake of the child on her lap. "She's not here anymore. She went somewhere far away. And I'll never see her again."
Hope slapped her tiny hands onto the sides of the cheek with a gasp. "Never see her again?"
"Never," Kyanna repeated. "But you see this necklace?" She held out the pendant around her neck to reinforce her question. "This necklace here?"
"The pwetty necklace!" Hope's eyes lit up.
"It belonged to my mother. She used to wear it all the time. It's all I have left of her."
Hope reached out for the pendant, tugging on it with her small hands. Her lips were slightly apart as if she wanted to say something but no words came out. Kyanna could read her expression though.
"Do you want to wear it?" she asked. Hope nodded rapidly, her brown hair bouncing with each nod. Kyanna unclasped the hook on the back of the necklace and removed it. The little girl immediately pulled the necklace toward her, eager to try it on, but Kyanna kept a firm hold on it. "Hold on," she laughed. "I'll put it on you." Hope giggled all the while, bouncing around on her lap.
"Hold still," Kyanna kindly stated. She wrapped her memento around the little girl's neck as the girl kept both hands on the silver pendant. After she finally managed to clasp it back together, she scoped up the little girl and carried her over to a mirror on the other side of the daycare. "There you go. Now you're wearing the necklace."
Hope smiled widely at her reflection in the mirror, still keeping both hands on the pendant. Kyanna couldn't help but join in with that genuine smile as she knelt beside the girl.
Suddenly, the little girl turned to her caretaker, looking her in the eyes. "Now I'm your mommy!" she declared throwing her arms around Kyanna's neck. Kyanna's eyes widened. She hesitated from the unexpected action before pulling Hope in tighter. Kyanna almost wanted to cry at her sweet and thoughtful gesture.
"You can't be my mommy," she said lovingly. "You're too little."
Hope pulled back from the embrace. "How old is a mommy?"
Kyanna honestly had no idea how to answer to that. Some mothers were still teenagers while others were around twenty or thirty, and after that they became a mother for the rest of their lives. Why did little kids have to ask such simple yet difficult questions? It wasn't that it was difficult to answer, but rather it was difficult to explain it in a way they could understand. So Kyanna tried to use words that was easy to understand while remaining truthful.
"They're older than two," she finally replied, booping Hope's nose playfully. The little girl squinted as she did so and then giggled.
"Are you more dan two?"
"Yes, I'm more than two."
"You a mommy!" Hope shouted in joy and ran off, looking behind her to see if her caretaker was going to chase after her.
Kyanna grinned. "Hey! I'm not a mommy!" she said before giving in to what the little girl wanted. Hope screamed as she was being chased, not replying back to what Kyanna had said. It seemed that their little conversation was over. The eleven year old didn't seem to mind though. She knew how short a toddler's attention span was, and was happy that she was at least able to converse with her more and more every day.
x - x - x
"Incoming!"
Kyanna had no idea what was happening but ducked down anyways to avoid whatever it was that was incoming. She turned to face her older brother who jumped into the air to catch a boomerang.
"Aha!" he cried making a victory pose. "See, Suzie? Boomerang totally beats paper fans!"
"You almost hit your own sister!" Suzie argued.
"She's got a hard head. Besides, I gave her a warning." Shaun patted his boomerang delicately.
"Gee, thanks," Kyanna replied back sarcastically, taking cautious steps into the front yard. "What were you two doing?"
Suzie held out her fan, unreeling all of its folds. "I was out here practicing some tessenjutsu when, all of a sudden, Shaun appeared and called my fans weak! So I just had to show him what it was capable of!"
"Me and boomerang make the best team," he stated proudly. Kyanna raised her eyebrows and shook her head at his improper grammar.
"So you can throw a boomerang," Suzie countered, "Big deal."
"As if you can even throw a boomerang! It takes skill, precision and strength!"
"So does tessenjutsu!"
Kyanna could tell that this was going to go on for a while, so she took a seat on the top of the stairs leading to the front door, propping an arm on her knee so she could rest her head on it. Might as well enjoy the show and wait for the two to stop their bickering. Suzie and Shaun continued throwing comebacks at each other, trying to prove which weapon was better. She wished that Shaun would just accept that girls could fight too. After all, didn't she always fight him back when he said or did something she disagreed with?
It wasn't long before her thoughts began to wander, becoming bored with the silly-sounding comebacks that now began to sputter out of their mouths. They were obviously starting to run out of any good ones. Her eyes drifted to her surroundings until she wasn't really focused on any particular thing anymore. Fighting was unavoidable, wasn't it? Even over something as small as proving which weapon was better: paper fan or wooden boomerang? She recalled the small quarrel that she and Zane had had when they were together. They had only spent about five minutes together, and in that short amount of time, they had already managed to rile each other up. Was that bad?
"-isn't that right, Kyanna?" Shaun announced, snapping her out of her trance. His face softened for a split second before becoming redefined when he saw his sister's appearance. His changed expression made Suzie turn around to face the dark-haired girl sitting on the stairs.
"What?" Kyanna asked in confusion.
"You have that look on your face," Shaun noted.
"What look? This is just my face."
"No." He advanced toward his sister. "You have that look that says you're thinking of something- something that's been on your mind for a while now."
"We're humans, Shaun," she said annoyed. "We think about things all the time."
"You know what I'm talking about! You're thinking about Zane, aren't you?!"
Kyanna had to hold her whole body back from making any obvious nervous reactions. What was wrong with him? There was nothing wrong with thinking about Zane. She attempted to reply with a steady voice. "I'm thinking about a lot of things! Like how fans are better than boomerangs!" The words had spilled out of her mouth before she could think about what she was saying. At the very least she wanted to ensure the two that she was paying attention to their argument minutes ago. However, she didn't really prefer one weapon over the other and had only said that to get back at Shaun for constantly degrading women. What surprised her was that neither Shaun nor Suzie reacted appropriately to her sided response. It was because she had avoided the direct question and didn't deny that she was indeed thinking about him, wasn't it? Kyanna wanted to bury her face within her hands.
"Are you sure?" Shaun continued. He had only seen her in that state of deep pensiveness once before, and that was three years ago. "You seem really tense."
"So do you two!"
There was a moment of silence.
It was interrupted when a familiar voice entered.
"Hey guys!" the cheerful voice greeted. It was Aaron. He always came over on the weekends to hang out. Unfortunately, he entered at the wrong time. No one said anything back. They only faced each other with intense stares, trying to ignite some confessions.
Aaron was the one to break the silence, not being able to stand the awkwardness anymore. "Uhh, is it just me or did something bad happen over the week that's gotten you guys all… uhh I don't know…"
"Tense?" Kyanna finished for him, being sure to emphasize the word with distaste. "Yeah, Shaun would probably agree with you on that."
"Well, what happened? I'm sure we can find a way to work it out," the younger boy reassured.
"It's too complicated, Aaron," Shaun started. "All you need to know is that Kyanna's completely fallen head over heels for this random guy named Zanetan Agni and believes that he's the person she's going to marry-"
"I never said that-!"
"You were thinking it though!" He looked between his sister and Suzie while replying. "You two are only eleven years old!" he stressed that fact. "You should be playing with dolls!"
"Why? Because we're girls?" Kyanna stood up, appearing taller since she was standing on the stairs.
"Not just because you're girls!"
"Hey! Hey!" Aaron interfered, now understanding why Suzie was so quiet being in the middle of the sibling's argument. "Um, why don't we just go back to the fortuneteller and ask her for another reading? Maybe she could answer more of your questions."
"That's a great idea, Aaron," Kyanna said satisfied but still with a hint of anger in her voice. "See, at least one person can think of a solution."
"A possible solution! And there is no way I am ever going back to that silly fortunetelling place again! Once was already too much!"
"Free food," Suzie finally peeped, trying to remain indifferent.
That made Shaun go quiet as he considered the incentive. Free food was usually a determining factor, but this time was an exception. "I can't. You're not going to find anything new about Zanetan anyways. You're wasting your time."
"Fine. We didn't want you to come with us anyways. Let's go." Kyanna stomped down the steps to exit the front yard. Aaron and Suzie followed behind but hesitantly, not wanting to enrage Kyanna any more than she already was. They also didn't want to leave the two siblings off on a bad note like this.
"Suzie! Are you really going there too?" He spun around to face the brunette who appeared to be torn in between her two friends. "Suzie, we talked about this." It almost sounded like he was pleading to her.
Suzie lowered her eyes. "I know, Shaun. But… Kyanna's my best friend. I can't betray her. I'm sorry."
Kyanna flinched, pausing in her direction to glance at the two. They talked about it? Talked about what? About Kyanna? And when? Where was Kyanna during this "talk"? How come she wasn't there? In her mind, it was like they were keeping things from her and talking behind her back. She hated that.
"You guys were talking about me?" Kyanna cried out, the hurt in her voice prominently coming through. Suddenly, the world was feeling very, very distorted. The two friends realized their mistake. A little too late though. Kyanna looked at her best friend. "You were going to betray me?"
"I didn't betray you!" she claimed. "Didn't you just hear me say that?"
"And what about you?" she pointed an accusing finger at her brother. "What was so important that you couldn't tell me?"
It was his turn to look completely helpless and try to explain himself. But before he could utter out a single syllable, Kyanna turned her back to them. "Forget it. Aaron and I will go by ourselves to the fortuneteller."
"Kyanna!" Suzie shouted disheartened.
"I'm not mad at you, Suzie. I just want to be alone with Aaron right now. We'll be back." She didn't bother to look behind her as she marched down the road to the fortune teller's house. Shaun and Suzie gave Aaron a concerned look as if they were telling him to watch after the girl.
"Don't worry. We'll be fine," Aaron reassured but the forced smile on his face said otherwise.
The two friends moved in silence for the first few minutes with Aaron lingering a few paces behind Kyanna. She seemed a bit intimidating to approach at the moment.
"Sooo, how was the daycare today?" Aaron started out, trying to make conversation.
"It was fine. Hope drew me another picture today."
"That's great! I'm glad you two are getting so close!"
"Yeah. How about you and Garrett? Have you been getting better at Ba Gua?" Garrett Soh was Aaron's guardian and father figure since he was a baby. Being an expert on the martial arts of Ba Gua, he was able to teach Aaron everything he knew about the martial art since the day Aaron could walk. The boy had never mentioned his parents before. He was probably too young to have even remembered them. Kyanna could relate to that feeling of growing up without a parent, so she never pressed with that topic until he was ready.
"I'm getting really good at it! Garrett said I'm doing great for my age. I even came up with a fun new move the other day!" he said with a wide smile.
Kyanna's face seemed to lighten up. "Cool! You should show me sometime."
"Sure!"
"Hey, do you think Garrett would know anything about Tai Chi?"
"He might, but his specialty is Ba Gua, so he won't know everything about Tai Chi. Why? Were you thinking of taking Tai Chi classes?" he said, finally walking alongside Kyanna.
"I was, but I need to find a master first. I don't really know where to look."
"If you want, I could ask Garrett to see if he could teach you the basics of martial arts, like some basic forms and stances." Aaron's face brightened, delighted that he could provide some help. "Or I could ask him if he knows anyone who teaches Tai Chi. I mean, those masters must know other masters, right?" he quickly added.
Kyanna threw herself at Aaron, surprising him with a hug. Her head rested on his shoulder, not noticing the faint blush that appeared on his cheeks. "I would love that- all of that! Thank you, Aaron!"
The boy let out a goofy grin as he embraced her back. "What made you decide to take up Tai Chi classes?" he asked when they pulled away and start moving forward again.
"Oh, I… I had a couple of stalkers following me last week when I was walking home from school. I'm not sure if they were really following me or just going in the same direction, but it creeped me out. If Zane hadn't have been there…" her eyes drifted off into a daze again. "I don't even want to think about what could've happened."
Aaron nodded his head, not really sure what to say. The way she stared off into the distance made her feel distant. "Well, it's a good thing he was there then. You know, if I was there, you wouldn't have to worry about anything," he stated with a comforting smile.
Kyanna chuckled playfully. "I know how strong you are, Aaron, but you don't actually look that threatening from a distance."
"Is that a bad thing?" His face fell. Kyanna properly examined the boy's figure. He was slightly shorter than her, not surprising since he was still nine years old and hadn't hit puberty yet; and although he trained and worked on his martial arts daily, he naturally had a thinner figure. Meanwhile, 8th grade Zane was beginning to grow into his build. Zane's muscular arms were already growing bulkier and Kyanna wondered if he was also training in martial arts. Since his sister seemed to be exceptionally skillful, Zane probably was too. The world was growing dangerous. Knowing some self-defense would be beneficial.
The threatening vibes didn't all emanate from their build though. Since the day Kyanna had met Aaron, she had always seen him with a look of joy upon his face. The feeling you felt when you just looked at him made you feel at ease. He was a happy kid who loved to have fun. She rarely saw him distraught and enraged. His face said that he was a peacemaker, which also came through with his actions.
Zane, on the other hand, had a stern, defined face that could easily turn others away with a single glance. It was most likely why the two men had stopped following them after Zane shot them that menacing glare. She could remember how deeply the glare struck her core when their eyes me just before they parted. It was terrifying. But when his face softened, it was… heartwarming. Kyanna remembered the way he looked when he mentioned his mother, and the look of fury when he had mentioned his father. Behind his hardened walls, he appeared hurt and confused, just like her. Maybe Kyanna was reading too much into it, but she had also felt that sense of unity when she mentioned her mother afterwards and if he had also lost his mother, that was something they had in common.
"It's not a bad thing," she reassured. "I like that. Anyways, I don't want to end up in a situation like that again, so I'll need to learn how to defend myself!"
Aaron decided to drop the topic after that.
When the two friends reached the doorstep of the fortuneteller's place, they were disappointed to find that the assistant who opened the door a crack, had blocked the door to prevent anyone from entering.
"I'm sorry but Anne Woo is feeling sick and will not be able to do any readings for a while. Come back in a couple days. Sorry again," she explained with a guilty face and then shut the door before they could say anything.
Kyanna's rested her eyes on the closed door in front of her. "Shaun was right. We didn't find any more information about Zane."
"T-that's okay," Aaron said, not wanting her to think their journey was all for nothing. He had enjoyed just being with her. "We'll come back in a couple days and try again."
"All right."
They walked back to her house in silence.
x - x - x
That night, Kyanna, Shaun, Suzie and Aaron regrouped in the living room couch, making themselves comfortable with thick blankets, bowls of popcorn and party snacks, and cans of soda. They had decided to have a movie night to relax and have fun again. Thanks to Shaun's online movie subscription, the group of friends could watch an unlimited amount of movies to their heart's content and without any annoying advertisements.
Suzie and Kyanna were huddled together under a blanket sharing popcorn from the same bowl. They were still best friends despite the little dispute from before. No one mentioned anything when Kyanna and Aaron had returned from the fortuneteller's place. From the unchanged looks on their faces, Suzie and Shaun reasoned that the two probably didn't find what they were looking for. It was for the best not to bring anything up that could set one of them off anyways.
Beside Suzie was Shaun stuffing his face with his own bowl of buttered popcorn and sitting way too comfortably on the couch, his leg touching Suzie's. On Kyanna's other side was Aaron, occasionally popping in a bite-sized pretzel. "Too much junk food was bad for you," he often stated to the group. As a diligent student of Ba Gua, he was always trying to practice healthy lifestyles as guided by his guardian. For that reason, he was a vegetarian. If he was to maintain a strong figure, he couldn't slack off by losing control of his diet.
The group of friends had started watching a horror movie. The room lights were off- the only light was shining from the 36 inch television screen. Kyanna's grandmother had sternly informed the four friends not to watch anything with a rating of PG-13 or R because she didn't want them to be traumatized and scared to sleep at night. Shaun had quickly brushed her along saying that they would keep it PG. Then as soon as she left the room, he grabbed the remote and scrolled through the option of movies. "We're watching something PG-13! I'm old enough and the effects are hilarious, not scary!" The other under-aged friends stared at him like he was crazy but were also curious to watch something that wasn't childish for once.
Their eyes were glued to the screen. The suspense was building up with the ambient music starting to grow louder and the girl in the movie progressing deeper into the narrow, dark corridors of the abandoned building. All four friends anticipated something to jump out at any moment. When? They could only wait for it to happen. The girl took another painfully slow and careful step into the corridor… and then-
"PAUSE THE MOVIE!" Shaun screamed out of nowhere, making everyone in the room scream and jump into each other's arms. He paused the movie and ran to turn the lights on. Everyone squinted and shielded their eyes when the bright lights flickered on.
"Shaun!" Kyanna shouted. "What's your problem?!"
"Yeah! We were scared out of our wits!" Suzie joined in.
"And that wasn't even from the movie!" Aaron added loudly with a blanket wrapped around his head like a hood.
"My popcorn bowl is empty!" he shrieked, sticking his hand in the empty popcorn bowl to show his devastation. "I'm going to make some more for myself." He was out of the room before anyone could make another comment.
"Ugh that boy!" Suzie retorted. "I'm going to go show him what happens when you mess with Suzie!" She ran after Shaun without another hesitation, leaving Kyanna and Aaron behind to recover from their sudden state of shock.
"Leave it to Shaun to do something like that," Kyanna stated.
"I know!" the younger boy remarked. "I could've attacked him from my training reflexes!"
"But didn't you hide under the blanket instead?" she lightly laughed.
"I-I was preparing my defenses!"
His stammering made her giggle even more. "Maybe you should work on controlling yourself for Shaun's surprise sneak attacks."
"But this is Shaun we're talking about here! His sneak attacks are so random!"
"Zane could easily play along with my act when I randomly showed up," she grumbled to herself to the side.
There it was again. Aaron kept his eyes focused on her, noticing how that light in her eyes slipped away with the mention of Zane. He had talked with Suzie and Shaun when he and Kyanna had returned from the fortuneteller's place. At that time, Kyanna was helping her grandmother with dinner, so the three of them could talk without worrying that she would overhear. Suzie and Shaun had filled him in with the details of what had happened that week. The three of them discussed Kyanna's obsession with Zane and how it was affecting all of them, especially Kyanna herself. They wanted to help, but how to help was the difficult part they couldn't find a solution for.
"Kyanna?" he finally spoke out, unwrapping the blanket from his body.
"Yeah, Aaron?"
His eyes didn't meet hers as he proceeded with his next question- too anxious to see her full-fledged reaction. "Why are you so obsessed with Zanetan?"
As expected, Kyanna's eyebrows narrowed and she moved into a defensive position. "I'm not obsessed. I just want to see him again after he helped me out. Why does everyone keep thinking that I'm secretly in love with him?"
From the hardened tone of her voice, Aaron could conclude that she was fed up with all the questionings about her and Zane. But he had already thrown the topic out there in the open. There was no stopping now. "Well, because that's all you talk about now."
"What?" she sounded offended. "I talk about other things too! Like martial arts! And Hope! And how school is doing."
"Yeah, but you always somehow manage to bring up Zanetan again."
"Oh, is it annoying you now too?" she snapped.
"No! I didn't mean that at all!" His eyes lifted to meet hers and quickly diverted them when he caught her angry glare. "It's just that… it seems like you haven't been able to focus on anything else besides him now. And the fact that you're doing all this just to see some guy you've met for five minutes is… really unlike you. It's not healthy."
"I didn't realize you were the expert on deciding what's healthy for me."
"That's not what I-"
"And he's not just some guy! He's an 8th grader in our own school! I felt like I was already so connected to him even though that was our first time meeting each other!"
That was right. They had been pretending to be friends. She had been pretending. Then why did her "pretending" feel like she was being her natural self?
By then, Suzie and Shaun had reappeared by the door of the living room but stood frozen in shock when they encountered the two arguing. Aaron's face fell slightly. "See Kyanna, this is what we mean about you being obsessed with him-"
"No!" Kyanna objected, rising to her feet. "I knew you guys wouldn't understand. This is more than me being obsessed with him. Haven't you noticed that he's suddenly disappeared from school without any warning or reason? And that Asandra and the teachers keep avoiding the questions I ask? They're hiding something! Something is obviously going on! I was one of the last people to see him. I could've done something more! Now he could be hurt and no one's doing anything about it!"
Silence.
The other three friends exchanged a look.
"What?" Kyanna spun around so she could have a view of everyone in the room. "Now you have nothing to say?"
Suzie shuffled her feet before softly replying. "You just admitted that you were ob-"
"Okay, I admit it!" Kyanna yelled, her voice cracking at the end of her sentence. "There! Are you happy now?! Ever since we met he's been on my mind all the time and I can't help but like him! Is that what you wanted to hear me say?" Her eyes were welled with a pool of tears by now. Her face flushed and her fists clenched at her sides, trying so hard to keep herself from breaking down. No one knew where to go from here. Suzie tried to remain as gentle as possible, taking a careful step toward her.
"No, Kyanna, that's-"
"Well then what do you want from me?! To forget about him?! That's like asking me to forget about my mother!" Her voice rung out in the small living room, her breathing uneven and harsh like she was gasping for air.
That did it.
The three friends knew they had crossed the line.
She had just compared Zane's absence to her mother's death.
It was that severe. The guy meant that much to her.
They could only stare at her in shock as she lowered her head so her loose hair could hide her face.
After an excruciatingly long minute of silence, Shaun bit his lip and took a step toward his shivering sister. "Why Kyanna?" he asked gently. "I don't understand. Why do you like him so much?"
She wrapped her arms around herself, not daring to look up at her friends. "For reasons that others may never fathom."