What of hell was seconds ago turned into paradise as soon as the palace gates opened in front of them. The joy of the mammals presents in the courtyard, to a warm welcome. The song of the birds, to the ambient melody. The two large cherry trees, a stunning landscape.
"This is how I was raised. Every day, this happiness is what gives life to this palace."
Judy turned her attention to her reflection and couldn't help but be surprised. Aya was smiling, something that never happened in their encounters. The feeling of sadness and anguish was replaced by serenity.
" I also thought it was on my wedding day. But how very wrong I was!"
Suddenly, the warm atmosphere changed to a cold, somber space. They were in a hallway. On the walls, blood marks. The light in that place was given by candles on the floor, scattered along the long corridor. The wind was blowing hard, rattling the worn and torn curtains on the small windows that were on the left side.
"I'm sorry Judy! But from now on, the suffering will be real!"
Aya looked her in the eye. Serenity had given way to deep sadness. And without needing words, Judy knew that she was completely sorry for having to put her aide through all that. And, she was gone.
As opposed to hell, there is paradise. However, as soon as the doors closed behind him, Nick swallowed dryly.
"Ryo has a sufficient and prestigious family. So, you know well where you ended up first."
And indeed, the place was familiar. Too familiar for his taste.
"Your opinions have formed. Your truth can be twisted at any advance."
The energy of that place got in the way of Nick's energy. Fox felt like he just wanted to cry and not stop.
"Your pain is my pain."
A small wolf was leaning over a small table. In front, the fireplace kept the small room warm. But what should have been cozy was nothing, but a sea of wolves piled on top of each other. The wooden floor was soaked with blood.
"This is..." Nick could barely speak.
"Yae's work of art."
"It can't be. The three of you were already adults in what happened before."
"What I showed you, part was the truth, part was an illusion."
That means that Yae has already...
"Born possessed," Natsuhiko responded to Nick's thoughts. "Yae and Sae were both born healthy and raised in a quiet environment. Sae was always quieter, but Yae always maintained dubious tranquility." Natsuhiko looked at his small self and for the first time, Nick felt compassion for the wolf "Being from a prestigious family, my father always got along with Ryo's family as well as Aya's. So much so that, me, the twins, and they hung out a lot as kids. At that time, Ryo was nothing more than a prince just like many others. However, I had already been born with the responsibility of being promised to another prestigious wolf family to continue the royal bloodline."
"Pledged to Yae."
"Exactly!"
"But your great passion was always Sae. In that, you didn't lie." perplexed was Nick. It was then that the pieces of the puzzle finally began to fall into place. "So, you didn't lie in the most important parts of what we went through earlier. Does that mean that the only illusion was the death of the twins?" Nick looked at the ground and then something more frightening flashed through his thoughts. He faced the wolf again. "That means that you had to sacrifice Sae, but that Yae had died long ago."
"Yae's soul died the day she was born. All that was left was the body with the Soul of an entity that will torment you before this whole story."
"There is something here that is slipping away. So, this whole massacre was..."
"Yae who did it. Because of jealousy over Aya and Ryo. What I showed you before was not the truth. Yae was obsessed with me because of my economic power. Since I carried an important lineage to maintain a large estate. If I married Yae or the entity, she could have control of all the mammals. Once a queen, the power is different from a princess."
Natsuhiko shifted the scenery to a quieter place. There, the fivesome played in the large Japanese garden. Aya and Sae were picking flowers. Yae and Ryo were in a rush from one side to the other. Natsuhiko, on the other hand, kept to himself near the river.
"Here, the previous scene had already taken place. Small and without support, the only thing I had to do, is to keep quiet. Besides, any slip-up, Yae would kill me, just as she had warned me. And her big crush is..."
"Ryo." the name escaped Nick's lips. It seemed that scene was his memory. "Ryo thought of Yae as a sister, but she had other feelings."
"And there was nothing you could do about it. She could steal you away from Aya, but if she did, she would be killed. Since, at that time, intermarriage between different species was forbidden."
"And, only after what happened with the ritual..."
"Is that they decided to make the first lineage of different species."
If that was true, then Sae died in the ritual just like him. After that, Yae went missing. It was then that the elders decided to offer something different to the gods, in a way to harmonize things. But nothing went right either. But wait... there was something else that wasn't adding up.
"Aya is the daughter of a fox and a rabbit."
"Love forbidden and smothered by the family. Aya's mother did indeed get pregnant by a fox. However, the marriage was made to a male of her kind."
"But Judy told me that the marriage had been performed in front of everyone with the fox and not with a rabbit."
"That was what Alisha wanted to show. Not the truth."
"Alisha? Oh, I can't believe I forgot about her."
"I'm sorry for what I put you through. Lost among the souls, the entity took me in to show you what she wanted. Knowing that you came from an important lineage and for her benefit, she used me. If I did not agree with her, my soul would never be saved. Fooled I was, for I still stand here." Natsuhiko let out a sigh.
Fear would not invite her to take steady steps across the noisy floorboards as she tried to finish a hallway too long for her liking. If she had a sense of time, Judy could swear that hours had passed since she stepped onto that set. Also, the doors on her right side wanted to throw a tantrum, as out of twenty, ten did not open. Judy eventually gave up. Furious with the events, the rabbit did not notice Alisha's presence in front of her. The fox, standing hunched over in the middle of the hallway, her hair covering her eyes, leaving only a glimpse of the sinister smile on her lips, alerted her to what was about to happen. Two voices interchanged, differing words inaudible to the doe's sensitive ears.
White smoke billowed over Judy's lips. A timid pain began to gain intensity as the tattoo began to be drawn on her skin. Her knees gave way. Her paws went against her forearms in a vain attempt to relieve agony. Tears fell on his cheeks, instinctively.
"A single pain capable of breaking the purest soul in the world," Alisha spoke. Yet the tone was accusing. Moreover, it sounded like dozens of voices in one, holding a strange sense of fear and anger at the same time.
The intensity of the pain increased more and more. With one eye closed, the other half-open, and teeth clenched, Judy finally looked at Alisha. But she regretted it right away. The negativity hit her like arrows. Sorrow altered to sadness and vice versa. But the feeling that penetrated most into the doe's heart, was that of hate. Hatred for something.
"For whom..." Judy spoke aloud what she thought.
"For Ryo..."
Judy startled. She knew that Alisha had feelings for Nick, but to hear the name Ryo from her mouth...
"He was mine and will be again."
"Huh?" confused, the pain was forgotten for a moment and now the doe was staring at her through fox eyes. Black eyes like shining pearls. A mixture of beauty and terror at the same time.
"Let me show you who I am. Who the twins are, who Natsuhiko is, and what the importance of you here is."
The scene changed. Judy startled and dragged her ass as fast as possible away from where she was sitting, to no avail. The entire floor was crowded with wolf corpses. The blood was too much. However, the simmering of the fire over the wood in a fireplace gave the sight of another wolf. This small one, sitting on his knees on a small table. In his eyes, tears were flowing.
"Shown is what I asked for. Natsuhiko did a great job on that."
Judy did not take her eyes off the little cub. Natsuhiko shouldn't have been more than five years old. And, witnessing such a monstrosity was already too much for her, so for a child, it was traumatizing.
"Natsuhiko disobeyed me. I warned of the consequences, but he wouldn't listen."
"You're crazy!" the paws were closed in front of her mouth.
Tears filled his eyes. Seeing the poor child crying compulsively made the doe's heartbreak.
"You're not the first to call me that." The laughter sweated sinisterly. "None of this would have happened, though, if Natsuhiko wasn't rebellious. The decision had been made since he was born. But still, this idiot remembered that Sae was unique to his eyes."
And the scenery changed again. This time, the cool breeze made Judy's hair shiver. Soon, the scent of flowers drifted into her nostrils, creating a pleasant aroma. Judy's ears perked up inertly at the sounds of merry laughter coming from not far away from her. Her eyes went to two small children. At which, she recognized well who they were.
"Ryo and Aya, your ancestors." Alisha raised an open pawed, pointing at them. "So, in love. Both so happy." A change in tone of voice was felt.
Judy stared at the she-wolf beside her. That was not Alisha. That much she already knew. But neither was Aya or Yae. Of that, Judy had realized. The presences she had felt until then, emitted various energies. Alisha's died as soon as her soul had left her original body. Aya's, sorrow and sadness. Yae's, hatred and anger. But this one...this one was worse. The energy was tense. Evil. Fear had not reached Judy's emotions when she first felt that unknown soul. What she did feel, was that, after all, that entity would be the biggest headache for her and Nick. She would have to be cautious in her words and play with them, finding out more to find a way out of there once and for all.
To be continued…