Chapter 9

"Welcome to Mac Donald's!" the employee spoke into the mic, "How can I help you?" I stayed silent. I was busy noticing those eyes of his. They were golden. Like Father's, I think to myself. Those stern golden eyes staring intently at me. They were just like Father's eyes.

Just then, the employee grinned at me. No, that couldn't be Father. Father had the same grin too. But there was something different about this man in front of me. This man didn't look like the same man that murdered my mother. He was just to happy to be my father.

Father. Scenes flashed through my mind. Father holding the dagger at Brother's neck. Mother pulling my hand. The wave of water. Father killed my mother. He took my brother away. He ruined my whole life!

Unncontrollably, my hand shot up to punch the employee. "Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry…" The employee rubbed is bleeding nose. He cracked his neck and continued grinning. Then he turned his head to stare at me. Those eyes. They were blinding. They were…

I'm on the Empire state building. The employee must've transported me to another dimension or something. I saw a door. It was made of wood and looked just like the janitor's closet. But there was light glowing from beneath the door. There was something weird about this door.

The door creaked open. A well-built man walked out. He was in a T-shirt and shorts as if he were going surfing. He marched towards me, he smelled strangely like seaweed. He sneered at me and groaned, "You, you made my son the way he is now!" After that, he gave me a hard push. I fell off the side.

I was falling and falling as if it would never end. I was about to die. But I planned to stop that. I felt my pockets. There it was. The gift from Mother.

I yanked the precious gift from Mother out of my pocket. There it was, ruby studded and fitting to my palm. I grabbed it with both hands and stretched out my arms. Right on cue, the dagger gripped into the cement, leaving long claw marks on the wall. However, I knew the dagger wouldn't hold. Every second I rested my weight on the dagger, every step I was closer to death.

I made a mistake of looking down. Down at the very bottom was a darkness so scary it felt like my soul was being consumed. Suddenly, two glowing red eyes seemed to widen. Slowly, a mouth seemed to emerge. "Oh, oh…" I mutttered to myself.

Frantically, looked for a window to climb onto. I had two options: Let my dagger go and hope I fall into the level below which was approximately five metres away. If I failed, I would be falling to my death. Or I could climb slowly, using the dagger as a handhold to climb to five levels above. Doing that meant, I was risking getting eaten by whatever that darkness was.

I was going to get to the lower level. Summoning all my courage and taking my deepest breath, I let go. Once again, I was falling, this time I was without the dagger. So my life depended on my timing. I still had three metres to fall. I started leaning towards the windows. I counted to three. I shut my eyes. Then I tried to mid-air jump to the left.

I caught it. I caught the ledge. Half of the glass was broken. But the danger wasn't over. I still had to climb over the ledge to get indoors. With my strength all used up by the jump, I was weary. Maybe I should've gone up. Maybe I made the wrong decision. I wanted to give up. I wanted to end this.

Out of the blue, I felt someone grab my arm. I looked up. There he was. Brother was holding my arm. He hauled me up and we both sat on the ledge safely. I smiled and looked up at his face. "Thank you, Ethan."