¿* Pinked * Memories *?
¿* Chapter Six * Hello Innocence *?
Seravi couldn't believe his eyes.
"S-Serafid..." he said, acknowledging him.
"How now! You still remember my name..." he said sarcastically. "You, on the other hand, are one part of my life that I would give anything to forget,.." he advanced a little, walking towards Seravi.
Seravi frowned, recovering immediately. He composed himself and stared fiercely at Serafid. "Still blaming me for your shortcomings brother? Is your brain still suspended in your childhood?!" he remarked.
"You are the one with shortcomings. " he said, reflecting his attack. "You who turned your back on your obligations to your family." He waved his hand. "I am not the one who disgraced our parents... Did you know what happened to Mother, Seravi? No, of course you don't, you never looked back after you ran away..."
Seravi stiffened. He lowered his eyes.
"But why should I do you a favor and tell you what happened to her? Why should I put up with seeing you?" He looked behind him, where there were a lot of black-suited scary looking fellows were. "Take him away!" he ordered.
They immediately ran towards him,
in a second, he was caught.
He didn't resist. He was still looking at Serafid. "Where is Dorothy?"
he asked once again.
"I assure you," he said with a straight face, "she has already forgotten about you,".
The guards started to take Seravi away, when Cha-cha intervened.
"Hey! I'm not going to let you take my Teacher away!" she cried outloud.
"Ulp! Gow Sha-Sha!" Riya cheered from the buffet table, his mouth filled with food.
"I'm the greatest magician in the world! I'll show you what he has taught me!" she flexed her hand to the side. "Dragon, appear!!" she cried out.
A little dragon fly appeared tried attacking one of the guards at the nose, the guard flicked his fingers and hit the fly away from sight, leaving a red-faced Cha-cha.
"Oh dear, I do not think we should interfere," Cha-cha's mother said. "This is a family problem after all, they need to settle it themselves. Come, Cha-cha, let's just join in the party..."
"B-but, but--" Cha-cha said, when she was interrupted by a thousand buzzing noises.
They looked above to see the little dragon fly leading a battalion of bees.
"Uh-oh..." Shiine said as the black cloud of bees above grew.
The little dragon fly did a bee dance and signed for them to attack the black-suited guards who were now taking Seravi away.
After their little insect talk, the battalion of bees started darting down from the sky, attacking everyone on sight.
"Aaaaahhhh!!!!!"
"AAIIIIYYYYYEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!"
"RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!"
Everyone started running, looking for shelter on the rain of bees.
Cha-cha was left crying stunnedly. Shiine had to fish her out from the attack and they fled inside the house.
All except for Seravi who darted into the hedgemaze. He was panting and was leaning across one of the green hedges there, tired from running from the bees.
"You can never expect what Cha-cha's magic would bring, right Seravi?" Elizabeth asked.
"Yes Elizabeth, she even scares me sometimes..." he said wiping a stray hair from his brow.
"Do you know where we are?" Elizabeth asked.
A small smile formed on Seravi's lips. "Of course Elizabeth, I have a lot of fond memories of this place back when I was still a child..." he went into a trance of childhood.
After a moment of silent recollection, Elizabeth broke in, "Is Serafid really your brother?".
Seravi paused, a shady look came over his eyes. "Yes Elizabeth, he is the only sibling that I have, he's older than me by two years... He...." he stopped. He looked up to the blue sky and all around the green walls around him. He could hear the birds happily chirping somewhere, and also, there was a faint sound of rushing water.
"When we were very young, I was about 4 or so, Serafid and I were brought by our parents for the first time to this mansion," He leaned dusted his robe and smoothed its edges. He began to walk forward, turning expertly turning every now and then, manipulating his way around the hedgemaze.
"We went here because my parents and Dorothy's parents came to an arrangement." He shook his head, as if remembering something foolish. "In order to tie our family's relationship closer, they had decided to have one of my parent's sons to marry their daughter..."
"Dorothy?" Elizabeth asked.
He paused for a while, then weakly answered, "Yes..." a small smile formed on his lips. "I was younger than her by about a year, so the natural choice would be my brother who was older than me. When we were told of the news, Serafid refused violently. He didn't come out of his room and nor ate. He refused to talk to anyone except... to me..." he smiled again bitterly.
"We were very close then... He used to talk to me all about his dreams... What he wanted to be one day, how he was going to do it... I was very jealous of him... He was an achiever and I had to live under his shadow the whole time we were together..."
"I guess it runs in the family..." Elizabeth commented.
"And it was so ironic, that all of his dreams always had something about him running away..."
"He wanted to leave the life that he had... I didn't understand it then... And when he was told of being bethroted to some complete stranger, I guess he snapped. He was like that way for a long, long time,... And then one summer, our parents had told us that we were going on a vacation somewhere..."
"Serafid thought that it was his chance to escape, so he planned to go to whatever place we were going to and just disappear there. We were very suprised when they took us to a mansion, and were introduced to Dorothy's parents... but there was a problem..." Seravi smiled openly at the memory.
"They couldn't find their daughter. Apparently, she was just as opposed to the whole arrangement just as he was. So in all of the commotion, my brother took his chance and tried to escape... I followed him because I didn't want to get left behind. We ended up going inside the hedgemaze." He paused.
"We're almost near the center, Elizabeth,"
Elizabeth was still smiling.
"We went in here, I followed Serafid for the longest time as we went in circles around this place. And then we came at a fork in the hedges that lead to two different directions. Serafid, then acknowledging my presence, instructed me to pick one path and yell if I find the exit..."
"So did you find the exit?" Elizabeth asked.
"No, Elizabeth, he found the exit, I picked the path on the right and ended up in the center..." They were standing before the fork in the road of his memory. He turned to the right path again and went there. " I turned right into this corner and---" Seravi lifted his eyes and gasped.
Elizabeth was dropped to the floor.
There was someone there ahead of him. She was in the center of the opening in the middle of the hedgemaze, her back was turned to him.
She was standing before the fountain-statue of Phoebe, the goddess of the moon, who was leaning down and had her arms widespread as if to take her away.
The flowers around were blooming, there was a sweet minty scent in the air. The sound of the rushing water teased his ears.
That single moment seemed to last forever.
"I-I find you here again..." Seravi said.
Then, as if she heard, the woman moved and slowly turned around. On her left hand, she held a clear opal mask, further up her hand, was a big diamond stone on her ring finger.
Her eyes met his. There was no mistake.
Seravi's eyes watered.
He staggered forward, his legs heavy. He took one step
time stood still
after another
he cannot be dreaming
one step
you're here
after another
where I first saw you so long ago...
.....................
Dorothy...........
.....................
and then finally stood face in face with her.
He raised one hand and tried to touch her. But then he chose to take all of her in his arms.
His hands ran up and down her blonde hair.
"I finally found you... I almost, almost gave up..." he whispered in her ear.
Her grey eyes were wide with shock. She opened her small pink mouth to speak.
"Who are you?"
Seravi snapped out of his trance. He let go of her and backed down. "Wha-what?" he asked, searching her eyes deeply.
She was also frowning, her features were creased but she was still very beautiful. She examined his face and remained detached.
"You look amazingly like someone I know, yet I know you're not him..." she backed down, still unaware of what was happening. "So who are you? Are you one of the guests?"
"Wha--what do you mean...?" Seravi asked. "Its me, Seravi! I lo---" he was suddenly locked in a tight embrace.
"SISTER!!!!" Doris squealed. "How dare you flirt with my Seravi, MY fiancé?!?!"
"Is that right?" Dorothy asked her. She paused and looked away, as if thinking long and hard.
Seravi couldn't believe his ears. He was about to say something when she opened her mouth again and spoke.
"Oh, you must have mistaken me for my twin," she exclaimed in a very demure manner and smiled a bit.
She stared at him, her eyes smiling. He couldn't place what she was thinking. Are you mocking me Dorothy? What kind of game are you playing? he wanted to scream, but the expression on her face stopped him.
She was completely innocent. She wasn't lying... the Dorothy of his dreams, of his childhood... has returned. No more of the vulgar, insecure, UGLY pink-haired woman that had possesed his beautiful Dorothy and had defiled her, transforming her into an unbearable monster that he had to endure all these years.
Finally, she was just like how he wanted her to be...
"I see... I think I remember you now. Forgive me Mr. Seravi, I had an accident recently..." she shook her head. Her eyes were shining. She stepped forward.
"You are the younger brother of my future husband, you are family...." she smiled sweetly.
Seravi was going to protest, but Dorothy's golden smile paralyzed him, he stood in awe at the afterglow of her wondrous smile.
Doris held Seravi tighter than an anaconda to its prey. Its eyes were sharp and and she looked ready to bite.
She moved in closer to him. "I hope you accept my apologies. It is wonderful to meet you," she said, she stepped up to him and kissed him in the cheek.
Seravi froze... somewhere between seeing Dorothy's blonde hair, the shimmer of it, her exquisite white gown, her shining gray eyes, her small pink lips, the kiss that she had given him, the way she had been behaving...
He lost all reason.
"Oh my god!! SISTER how dare you?!?!?!" Doris exclaimed. It immediately took a handkerchief and started rubbing Seravi's cheek clean. Seravi's face was pulled to and fro and the flesh in his cheek sagged, but he didn't mind. He was still in shock.
Dorothy was bewildered. "But sister, it meant nothing, please, it was all for pleasantry..." she tried to explain.
"Ahhh don't come near us!!!" Doris told her. Since Seravi's knees turned into jelly and he wasn't even concious anymore, Doris lifted him up and carried him on its back. They started to walk away.
"Oh my, sister you're so strong!" Dorothy said, more appalled than shocked but she tried to hide it.
"Keep away from us, you hear?!?!?!?!?!" Doris said just before they turned down the corner.
"But sister, say that you forgive me first," Dorothy said, chasing after them.
Doris ran away carrying the still-jelly-brained Seravi, and disappeared behind the hedges.
Dorothy tried to follow them but she was interrupted by something that was smiling up to her from the ground. She leaned down and picked up the doll that Seravi had left behind.
"Well hello there," she said, picking up the doll and cradling it in her arms.
A blank look fell over her eyes... A smile escaped her lips...
"E...li...za...beth...uhhh!!!" her hands lifted up to her temples, where a throbbing headache had began. Her frown deepened, she began to breathe deeply, tears edged on her eyes. She had to lean on to a wall for support. It was as if her head was going to explode.
And then, just as quickly as it came, it stopped. Her eyes became clear again.
She turned innocently back to the doll again. "I wonder who this belongs to? She looks so familiar..." turning the doll over from one side to the other.
She smiled sweetly down to the doll and held it up with one arm.
"Come on doll, I think we should follow my sister and see what's taking Serafid so long..."
They walked together and disappeared in the hedgemaze.
Dorothy was back
¿¿*!*??
¿¿***?? I read the complaints. Alright, I won't demand for reviews anymore. But here's the glitch: the period between my updates will now be indefinite.