Red River: Kira Ishtar
Our story begins with Kira Woods-the beautiful sixteen-year old American girl and our heroine of this tale. After starting her new year at New York University, Kira is more than excited to begin her studies in Medicine. However, her luck soon runs dry after Kira begins to notice that water becomes aggressive whenever she is close by! Then-one night, hands appear and capture the American girl! Dragging her to an unknown location! Find out what happens in the first chapter of this magical tale!
Chapter 1 - New York City
"Yahoo!" said Kira-our happy protagonist! Today couldn't have been anymore perfect. At six in the morning, Kira woke up to an email that detailed her acceptance into the NYU School of Medicine! Oh, how happy she was! Dancing around in her pajamas all morning, completely forgetting that she had school in an hour!
Then-of course, her day had to get ruined during lunch period when one of the cutest boys at Hillcrest High School formally asked her out in front of her peers in the cafeteria. Getting asked out by the hottest guy in school was already a bad omen and being humiliated throughout the day for not accepting his proposal was even worse.
Kira never understood the purpose of dating. Her philosophy was: 'if you truly love someone, then marry them. Spend the rest of your life with them.' And while others deemed that notion as idiotic, Kira pushed their negativity to the side and held steadfast to her ideals. Also, Kira didn't date much for her own reasons.
And because of her strong ideals, Kira never let those comments about her mess with her psyche. People have said far worse things to her in her short life.
After school, Kira immediately rode her bike all the way home to alert her older sister Nia and her parents about the good news!
"That's wonderful, baby!" said Payton, her mother-who then leaned over to embrace her youngest child. "I'm so proud of you."
"We all are, sweetie." said Hamilton, her father. "There wasn't a doubt in my mind that you wouldn't get accepted. And to have a full scholarship backing you up is even better." He grinned. Kira rolled her eyes playfully and then rose to change out of her clothes and into something more comfortable before dinner. And that's when she decided on telling Nia of her humiliation at school today.
"What?!" exclaimed her sister. "Who laughed at you? Show me their social media accounts and I'll make sure to-"
"Nia, relax." Kira said soothingly. "I'm not upset. I just told you because I thought you'd get a kick out of it like me."
"How can you laugh about this?" Nia asked appalled. "Those assholes mocked you and called you-"
"All sorts of names that I've already heard of before." Kira finished, while taking off her sweater and warm shirt that left her in her bra and jeans. Even though it was autumn weather, that didn't stop the sticky heat that always built up inside whenever she wore a sweater.
"You shouldn't have to be used to that much verbal abuse, Kira." said Nia sadly. "It's not right."
"Don't worry, Nia. The school year is almost over and by next Fall, I'll be a college girl. Away from all that high school crap and studying to become a doctor." She winked.
"Girls! Dinner's ready!" Their mother called from downstairs. The two sisters immediately raced down to the dining room where a table loaded with rotisserie chicken, baked macaroni and cheese, a huge bowl of caesar salad, stir-fried vegetables and stuffed pasta shells laid out waiting to be devoured.
"Wow, Mom. This is … like a feast!" Kira said amazed.
"Oh stop, it's nothing fancy. I just thought I'd make some extra dishes tonight for you guys since we've been eating take-out for the last couple of nights. And now after receiving the good news about your college acceptance, I'm so glad I did." Her mother smiled warmly. Kira went to hug her tight.
Soon after, the family sat down and began to feast on everything at the table whilst talking about Kira's future, Nia's new job, Hamilton's upcoming retirement party and Payton's promotion at work. Luck was being bestowed upon the Woods family and each of them were excited for everything that was to come their way.
"Ahh," said a refreshed Hamilton, "This food is spectacular, baby." He said pressing a sweet kiss to his wife's cheek, followed by the collective 'oooh!' from their daughters. Payton blushed and continued to eat her chicken pieces.
"Is there anymore beer in the fridge, baby?" He asked.
"There should be. I'll go get it for you." His wife said standing up.
"No, Mom. You sit. I'll get the beer. You and Nia want anything while I'm up?" Kira asked.
"Just some water, dear." Her mother replied.
"And a can of ginger ale, please!" said Nia. Kira nodded and headed into the kitchen, grasping the pure water pitcher to pour a cup for her mother and then going into the fridge to grab that can of ginger ale and a bottle of beer. Then, she went to grab a serving tray from the cabinet and placed all three drinks on it.
"Kira! Hurry back! Aunty Rose is calling to congratulate you!" said Nia. Kira silently groaned. Aunty Rose was her father's sister and though her intentions were always sincere and good-Aunty Rose was relentless in voicing her opinion about Kira opting to become a teacher instead of a doctor. She always had this belief that black women-or even women in general, should opt for jobs where they won't get sexually harassed or ridiculed for being in mostly male dominated positions. But the world was changing and more and more women were choosing to study something other than cosmetics and teaching like law, medicine, business, and politics.
Which is why she knew that her aunt's 'congratulations' was just a ploy to dissuade her niece from going to med school.
"Kira, c'mon! I'm thirsty!" whined Nia.
"Will you relax?" She shot back. "It's not so simple to carry-" her sentence was cut off short when from the corner of her eye, Kira caught notice of the water in her mother's glass … bubbling and then … floating upwards to her face?!
She whipped her head around and her heart sank seeing that the water was still.
Did I just … imagine that? She thought to herself. God, I must be tired.
With a shake of her head and one last look at the still glass of water, Kira re-entered the dining room.
That night leading into the morning of school, Kira couldn't stop thinking about what she had seen.
Well, technically I didn't see it clearly, but I know that water moved! Then, after a few more minutes of replaying the event in her head, Kira sighed and dropped the thought. Water doesn't move. It had to be her imagination or exhaustion.
The bell rang, finally after a long forty-five minutes of United States History and Kira was moving down the halls and up the stairs to her least favorite class-Chemistry. Yuck.
"Kira!" said a male voice from afar. When she turned to face it, her body tensed seeing the boy who asked her out-Nick Grayson running up to her and looking out of breath at the same time.
"Hey, I'm … I'm glad I … caught up with you." He panted. Kira smield uneasily as she watched him take deep breaths before fixing his composure and stood at his normal height of 5'10. Only three inches taller than she.
"So um … about yesterday," he began to fumble. Clearly, it was obvious that the boy liked her and that he was equally embarrassed about the harassment she endured from his friends and admirers yesterday. Still, he did nothing about it.
"I'm sorry I didn't stick up for you." He said quietly. "I should've said something to them all, but I-"
"You don't need to apologize, Nick." She assured. "Really, I'm fine." She then smiled politely and began to walk away. The shy boy followed quickly, much to her disappointment.
"Wait! I um … I thought it over last night and thought that … maybe asking you like that in front of everyone was … kind of a bit-"
"Too much?" She finished with a nod. "Yeah, it was."
He scratched the back of his nervously. "Sorry about that. I thought that girls liked that extra romantic stuff like the ones guys do in those chick flicks."
"Not this girl." Kira said, walking into the Chemistry lab which-sadly, she had to endure with Nick.
"Well, that's why I wanted to talk to you quick-you know, before class starts so that I can ask you a-"
"Um … Nick. I'm sorry, but … I'm not actually looking to date anyone right now." Kira admitted sadly. He was a pretty decent guy-more than the ones she's seen in this school and in general and yet she couldn't bring herself to say yes to even one tiny date.
"Oh ..," He said sadly as well, his hopeful demeanor now diminishing before her eyes.
"I'm really sorry, Nick." She said quietly and turned to take her seat at next the left side of the room where the class fish tank stood across from her. From her peripherals, she watched Nick dump his backpack on the examination table just before Mr. Martin came in with his briefcase and a hand full of marked exam papers.
"Oh Nicholas! Excellent! Can you come with me to my office down the hall? I need help carrying the atom models and posters for class today." The older man asked. Nick nodded sullenly and followed their teacher out the door. Kira sighed and placed her head in her hands.
This is going to be one awkward class, she thought. The sound of bubbling water interrupted her thoughts and made Kira look up and slowly turn towards the fish tank. Then-SWOOP! Two arms emerged from the water and went to grab at her. One hand tried to cover her mouth while the other went for her eyes. Panic filled her heart instantly.
"AAAHHHH!" She screamed in fright and thrashed against the hands that held her, unintentionally thrusting her elbow against the fish tank that fell opposite of her with a loud CRASH! and broke with water and the small fish pooling on the clean marble floors. Kira gasped wildly and held her throat just as Nick and Mr. Martin ran back inside to see the mess.
"What in God's Name happened?!" screeched Mr. Martin. Nick immediately ran to Kira's aide and grabbed her arms while trying to peer into her tightly shut eyes.
"Kira, what happened? Why'd you scream?" He asked frantically. The girl opened her eyes and blinked rapidly, seeing the shocked expressions of Mr. Martin and Nick as well as the surprised looks from her incoming classmates that were witnessing the after effects of the incident.
"There was-I saw … I," she fumbled with her words, but ultimately decided to keep quiet and allow Mr. Martin to scold her for breaking his expensive fish tank. The class watched his entire rant while she trembled in the arms of Nick, wondering what was happening.
"I'm completely losing my mind." She mumbled to herself. After school, Kira rushed home and practically locked herself up in the comfort of her room, quietly and furiously debating the events that have happened thus far. She paced around her room for three minutes straight until her legs grew tired and fell against the soft plushiness of her bed.
"The only one home right now was Nia who was still taking a shower. Their parents had gone out to dinner for a date night which made both of their daughters happy to see, but Kira's happiness for them was too busy being muddled with this water crisis. The whole school had heard of the incident today in Chemistry which sparked rumours that Kira had viciously broke Mr. Martin's fish tank out of madness.
"Great. Not only does everyone at school think I'm a weirdo. Know they all can think I'm psycho as well." She muttered bitterly. Nia knocked upon her door.
"Kira! I'm done in the shower. You can go in now!" She said. Fear crawled up her spine thinking about taking a bath. Then, something snapped inside of her. Breaking the small fear she now developed. She was absolutely losing her mind!
Water can't grow arms and attack people! It's just not possible!
With renewed vigor, Kira grabbed her towel and marched into the bathroom, fearlessly turning on the hot water and drawing her bath. When it was ready, she carefully stepped in allowed herself to relax into the hot/warm temperature and ease her thoughts.
Maybe this whole college acceptance is getting to me." She said breathlessly, "I mean-if someone told me that they saw hands popping out of a fish tank, I wouldn't believe them." She sighed. "I really need to get a grip on myself-especially if I'm going to college soon. There's no way I can be screwing around, not with a scholarship on the line." Just as she was about to close her eyes, a small whirlpool of twirled in the water, catching her attention for a few seconds before it ceased altogether.
Kira stared at the water tensely and then-once again, two hands emerged and grabbed her wet body, clutching her torso and legs. Her eyes widened to see that she was now descending into the depths of the water, with her body no longer touching the bottom of the tub. How was that possible!
It's not my imagination! I'm being sucked down!
Her head was now submerged underwater and sinking deeper into the unknown abyss. Her arms thrashed and struggled to grab anything that she could hold onto to pull herself up until landing on the ceramic decoration that fell to the marble floor and the waterproof curtains that resisted and then ultimately came falling down as well. Nia, hearing the commotion, quickly ran to the bathroom and shouted, "Kira! What's going on?!"
Thankfully, the two arms released the girl-allowing her to emerge out of the tub, trembling and gasping for breath just as Nia opened the door. Water pooled all over the floors from her thrashing and the sight of the fallen curtain and decoration made Nia look at her sister with confusion and worry.
"What the hell were you doing? Drowning in the bathtub?" She asked incredulously. Kira couldn't answer and instead waved her off while she caught her breath.
The hands were REAL! The water … it's trying … to capture me! But why?!
And for the following weeks, Kira couldn't come up with a legitimate answer. So, to protect herself from water-she avoided it at all costs. Showers and bath were conducted with Nia inside the bathroom with her. She'd use the excuse of saving water and fear of drowning again, but that could only last for so long. Rainfalls meant a sick day for Kira and any activities that involved water was not an option. Even grabbing a cup of water frightened Kira while also worrying her family as well.
By the second week of her 'no water' tirade, both her family and Nick had seen enough.
"What's wrong with you, Kira?" He suddenly asked on their way out of school. Both teens lived not too far away from each other and took the same path through the park to get to their homes. Normally, they wouldn't talk-especially after the whole cafeteria thing, but now-after seeing Kira for two weeks shy away from anything that had water. From the fountains to the bottled water in the vending machines to the new fish tank in Chemistry class, it was getting too weird to just sit and watch anymore for Nick.
"What do you mean?" She asked quietly.
"You know exactly what I mean." He said firmly, causing the eyes of a few students passing by to lock onto their interaction. Without thinking it through, Kira grabbed Nick's arm and pulled him towards the park where hardly no one was present and which gave them a little privacy from the prying eyes of their peers.
"Tell me what's going on. Why are acting so weird lately everytime you see water?" He asked , shoving his hands into his pants pockets. Kira bit her lower lip and looked down.
"It's nothing." She mumbled. "I just … have a fear of water."
"Bullshit." He replied. "Since I first met you, you've always sat near that damn fish tank in Chem class. Now, ever since that incident-you sit in the back row."
"So?" She muttered.
"So? Well, what about when you were talking to Mrs. Petrova near the water fountains and I saw you looking at it like … like you were scared of it or something." He added.
"Great. So now you're stalking me?" She muttered under her breath, but Nick still heard it. His brows furrowed at her comment.
"Look, I don't know what's going on … but I'm worried about you, Kira." He said softly.
"Why? It's not like I'm your girlfriend or anything so why should you care?" She snapped and then instantly regretted the words that came out. She looked away in shame. "I'm so sorry, Nick. I didn't mean to-" and then without warning, he grabbed Kira into his arms, holding her against his warm lean body breathing in the cherry blossom scent in her pink and brown hair. Kira froze in his arms.
"I like you, Kira. I like you a lot. And it worries me to see you all frightened and on edge. You always have such a positive attitude about everything and … and to see you so … so not like yourself is hard for me to watch." He then pulled away to gaze into her eyes.
"I know you don't have feelings for me the way I do for you and … that's okay, Kira. I just … I just want you to know that no matter what you're going through, everything will be okay. And that even if you don't consider me a romantic interest … maybe we could be, you know … friends. Because-I'd really like to be your friend, Kira." He admitted. There were no words that could describe the emotions running through her body and mind at that very moment.
He wants to be … my friend?, she thought. The last time Kira had a real friend was in elementary school. Her name was Maddison and they were the closest pair of friends who have ever lived … until Maddison and her family moved away and since then-Kira never met anyone who understood her or wanted to genuinely befriend her.
Sure, the boy had a HUGE crush on her and it was probably against her better judgment to let this happen, but after already breaking his heart-Kira couldn't bear to deny him a friendship.
Nick continued to wait for her answer and his patience was rewarded with a small smile and a soft, "alright, Nick." Relief poured through his veins as he let go of his beautiful crush and then guided them towards the direction of their neighborhoods.
"So now that we're friends," he began rambling about something happening in school the next week coming, but Kira was unable to respond. Why? Because out from a small puddle that she had stepped on, came a long arm winding around her entire body and muffling her protests before dragging the poor girl down into the puddle, disappearing from the world she once knew.
"So what do you say, Kira?" Nick asked, turning around to see her expression but to his shock-she vanished!
"Kira?" He said, turning back and forth frantically. "Kira, where'd you go?!" He yelled before running off to search for her with her name on his lips.
Peace & Love
xGhostReaderx