Hey guys! I'm back from school. Let's move on to Chapter 2.
Tsubasa had an incredibly interesting conversation today with Yu, Gingka, Madoka, Kenta, Amber and Riku. He do not know what to make of it, but what he do know is that our foundation has cracked, whether they knows it or not. It was one of those conversations that make you question everything you think you know… about everything.
As he enjoyed a beautiful view after he and Yu had beyblade battle, they sat across from each other on the grass at the park when Riku started the following conversation:
"Did you know I used to live here many years ago?"
"Did you now?" Amber answered, with a smirk knowing she was about to hear some fantastical story.
"Yeah. I used to play with my brother in that park across the street. He loved to swing on the tire rope hanging from that huge tree."
"So you had a brother?" Gingka asked.
"Yeah. He's a lot older now but I saw him this morning for the first time in a very long time, right there in that park."
"I don't remember seeing you talk to anyone." Madoka said.
"You must have been talking to Kyoya. I would have let you say 'hi' but he is still very angry with me."
"Why would he be angry with you? You are the sweetest guy I know!" Amber said sweetly.
"Well the last time I saw him, he had a knife to my throat."
At this point Gingka stood up. "Riku, you had a brother you never told us about and the last time you saw Kyoya he had a knife to your throat? I've seen you almost every day for the last four years and you never mentioned this to me."
"I never thought I had to, but when I saw him today it reminded me."
"Reminded you of what exactly?" Amber curtly asked.
"Just that I saw him and that the last time I did, we were here in this room. It was many years ago."
"Wait, you lived here many years ago? What do you mean?" Gingka asked.
"Yeah, many years ago, when I was older. Me, Antonio, Nina and Stacey lived here. Nina read the book about the life and death of Carol Cohen."
"Who is Carol Cohen?" Tsubasa questioned, starting to get a bit uncomfortable with each parlay of the conversation.
"That kid from long ago is an urban legend! I haven't seen her since I last saw him. Always wished I'd see her again. Marianne Cohen and I actually met at the old creek right up Anderson Road."
That creek had not been around for over 40 years, there is no way he would have known about it had he not lived here. Utterly baffled at that point, Tsubasa pressed on with the talk since it was completely unexpected and compelling all the same, "Where is she?"
"Oh, I don't know. In heaven I guess."
"That poor little girl, she died?" Madoka asked sadly.
"Well yeah, The demon cut her and she was breathing quietly but I couldn't wake her up. He cut her right there where you guys are sitting."
Tsubasa's plastic cup of apple juice almost slipped out of his hand at the shock of the comment. It spilled slightly as he went to catch it, splattering across the striped carpet.
"Looked a lot like that actually," he noted, unaffected.
"I hate to admit it, but you're starting to scare us." Kenta said.
"Heh heh. Sorry. I wanted you guys to know, since I saw him again today and all. He is just so angry. I don't know why he is so angry. Didn't know why back then either. Last thing he said today was that he was coming back here tomorrow night." Riku laughed.
"Okay, you can stop making up this story now. It's not amusing anymore. You are really starting to scare us." Madoka said.
"It's okay, I'm scared too. I don't think he is coming to see you guys. He knows I'm here though so he will probably come see me again. Seeing him with the knife was the last thing I remember before showing up here with you guys and…"
Suddenly, Tsubasa closed his eyes slowly, but the darkness put its hand on his shoulders and he let out a scream in panic with his wide eyes opened. Gingka and the others looked at him, terrified. "Tsubasa, what's the matter? Why were you screaming!" Yu asked as he grabbed Tsubasa's shoulders to console him.
"Oh thank god it was just you!" Tsubasa sighed and laughed.
"You scared me half to death!" Gingka shouted.
As They sat up and Madoka tried putting the rest of the plastic plates and cups away, Amber picked the rubbish and taking it to the bin and Riku grabbed some paper towels to assist her. "We was having a very odd conversation with our Mr. Junior here. He was telling us about how, in a previous life, she was married once and had a child here in this house many years ago. And he was also telling us how the demon killed her daughter with a knife. Even Gingka's rival had a knife to his throat at one point."
"Oh is that so, Junior?" Riku asked half-heartedly, looking over to find Tsubasa staring at them with a blank, blink-less expression.
"He said he was coming tomorrow night," Tsubasa mumbled, almost in a whisper, as he pointed to the woods.
His neck whipped around so fast he thought it was going to rip right off my shoulders. As he peered, Gingka called out to Tsubasa exasperated but relieved, "But Tsubasa, there is no one there!"
Overall, the site was very remote, and the only things you could hear were the peeping frogs, and the sound of wind hitting the branches of trees. Madoka and Amber hopped out of the truck, set our things inside the lean-to, and hung our bear bag in a nearby tree. Clouds were coming into the sky, and the sun was now barely glowing through them.
"Dude, check this out," Riku said, having strayed off to the perimeter of the park.
"What is it?" Gingka asked.
"I think it's a trail or something," he replied, pointing to what appeared to be a narrow, seemingly forgotten stretch of trail that extended into the forest. An old sign with the paint chipping off of it was sitting in front of the trailhead. Gingka crouched down to see if he could read the sign, and Riku pointed the flashlight towards it. Tsubasa could barely make out the words "Thirteen" as he slowly deciphered the carved letters.
Curious, Riku and Gingka made our way down the thin trail, pushing through the brush. The ground soon became saturated with water, and Tsubasa could barely make out the extensive meadow of sedges through the trees and darkness. The evening wind seemed to be swaying them back and forth, a motion that he found almost hypnotic. "Look at that," Tsubasa said to Yu, noticing the sheer size of the bog. It seemed to extend far into the distance on all sides, creating a sort of aquatic prairie.
The trail ended at what appeared to be an old, rotting dock. It jutted out into a small pond, which paved through the center of the bog, getting narrower as it went deeper into the wetland. Madoka shined her flashlight around the area, trying to get some kind of perspective over the landscape.
"I don't think I've seen anything like this before," She told him,"It's huge."
"I know, "Tsubasa replied, staring out into the distance. He felt oddly drawn to this area. Something about it had struck him. The way the sedges moved with the wind, and how the black, calm waters sat stagnant in the dark created an interesting feeling inside of him. He didn't know if it was curiosity, fear, or even a sense of inner peace, but it felt as if the landscape was drawing him into itself. Tsubasa squinted his eyes, trying to take in every detail of his surroundings. As he turned his head, he noticed something odd in the distant sedges. Something was rustling around, and for a split second, he saw what appeared to be a black figure rise up from the grass. Immediately, he blinked, and the hazy figure disappeared. he attributed this only to the darkness playing tricks on him, not thinking much of it.
"Hey, Tsubasa, are you OK?" Gingka asked, noticing that Tsubasa was staring off into space.
"Yes, yes I'm fine," Tsubasa replied, waking up from his daze, brushing off the illusion he had just seen.
"You wanna walk out with us? The wood's pretty calm, and we'd like to explore a little bit." Kenta asked.
Tsubasa hesitated at first, the image of the dark figure briefly resurfacing in his mind, but he again dismissed it. "Sure," Tsubasa replied, a sense of excitement overtaking what had originally been more comparable to dread.
It was around six o'clock at night when Gingka, Kenta, Riku and Tsubasa set off into the stagnant, the woods of the bog. They had attached the flashlight to the bow of his bag with a lashing, and it illuminated a good chunk of the landscape as they began rowing. Tsubasa was walking slowly behind Kenta, steering, while Riku looked at the tall trees, leading the way through the darkening landscape. For a wetland, it was oddly silent as they walked deeper into the open, narrowing pond. The peeping frogs they had heard before now remained quiet, and the slight wind silently brushed over the sedges. The only audible sounds were their foot breaching the surface of the grass. An odd, uneasy feeling began to surge through his body, sending a shiver through his spine, but at the same time, Tsubasa couldn't help but admire his eerie surroundings. Kenta seemed unaffected, occasionally running his hand through the water.
Not much longer after they set off, they approached what at first appeared to be a wall of sedges. After getting closer with the flashlight, they soon realized that the woods separated into two, narrow paths, one to the left, and one to the right. "Which one do you want to take?" Tsubasa asked his friends.
"Are you sure we should go on?" Gingka replied, having taken on a more cautious approach to their excursion. "I mean, it's getting pretty dark, and we left Madoka, Amber and Yu alone in the park. I want to make sure they haven't been raided by anything."
Tsubasa took note of Gingka's concerns, but conflicting feelings in his mind began to surface once more. An unexplainable urge to keep going took hold, and he responded to my friend in a calm and collected fashion. "They're fine, Gingka. I made sure they were went back to the B-pit right way, and everything else is still locked in the car. And I just put new batteries in the flashlight, so there's no need to worry about anything."
He nodded considering what Tsubasa had to say. "Right, let's take the left," he responded after a bit of hesitation. His originally explorative nature seemed to be faltering somewhat, but not to the point where Tsubasa was concerned. As they began to paddle again, he looked back in the direction we came. A dense fog was swallowing the landscape, obscuring his vision. Tsubasa said nothing to his friends, even sensing himself smile at the mist, not understanding why.
They continued walking into the left passage, bumping into the wall of sedges as they entered. Our canoe had difficulty navigating through the constant twists and turns, their shoes ends constantly bumping into the grass and mud. Kenta would constantly stop walking and look around, his silence unnerving them even more. He hadn't spoken ever since Gingka and Riku stopped to decide which way to go. The fog was beginning to overtake them, and Gingka had taken notice.
"Tsubasa," Gingka said, turning around towards Tsubasa, "Tsubasa, we need to turn around, okay? I can't see anything, and it's going to be difficult getting back. Come on, let's go back. Madoka is getting worried about us. You take the bow end and I'll take the stern."
Tsubasa looked at him silently, the urge to move on now flaring in his body. It was as if the surreal bog landscape was getting to his head, to a point where his actions were becoming uncontrollable. Frustration took hold of his mind. "We're fine, alright?" Tsubasa said, trying to keep his agitation to a minimum. "Let's just keep going, okay?"
An angered look took over Riku's face. "Are you fucking kidding me right now?! Tsubasa, we can't see five feet in front of us, and we've been moving through this goddamn channel for over forty minutes now! We're going back, now!"
Tsubasa stared at them, a crooked smile forming over his face. They didn't understand. "We're fine," Tsubasa said, almost casually.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Riku yelled, the echo resounding over the bog. "You've haven't said a word for the entire time we've been out here! And why are you smiling?!" He looked somewhat concerned about me, but Tsubasa's concern for him had been decreasing as they progressed through the bog. His only goal now was to press deeper into the foggy wetland.
"Tsubasa, let's go back, okay? We need to get some rest for tomorrow." Gingka said.
"No," Tsubasa replied almost immediately, his calm detached tone still present. He continued to stare at Riku in his frustration. He felt himself superior to Riku in some unexplainable way.
"For Christ's sake, Tsubasa, we need to-"
"No!" Tsubasa screamed in a demonic voice from his own. He casual tone had now turned into a deep, almost monstrous roar. Kenta looked absolutely horrified. His body had completely frozen, his eyes and mouth wide open.
"What… what's going on?" Kenta asked, his voice trembling. "What… what was that?"
Anger took over him like an ancient instinct, and he forcefully made his way to the front of the canoe, almost tipping it in the process. Riku grabbed on to the side of the canoe, leaning backwards as Tsubasa got right into his face. "We will keeping going," Tsubasa said to him threatendly in an agitated, raspy whisper, "and you will not get in my way. No one fucks with me! Got it?"
"What's happening to you?" Gingka asked, almost in tears as fear took over. "We're explore the Allagash tomorrow, Tsubasa. That's why we're here, remember?"
Tsubasa could feel the wind blowing faster through the ominous trees, the sedges silently bending back and forth. His rage of darkness was growing, and it was dismissing his past friendship with Gingka and his friends. They didn't understand, yet, at the same time, he didn't understand either. The surreal movements of the trees made it seem as though it were one living, breathing organism. It was enticing him further into its own mind, through its own meandering, confusing channels of thought.
Angered, Tsubasa almost lunged at Riku. He tried to tackle him, but as a result, Gingka forced Tsubasa onto the grass. It was much deeper than he had originally thought, the darkness going over his head. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion, his own body being submerged. Tsubasa remained there for what seemed like minutes, far longer than He could resist the pain. Tsubasa opened his glowing red eyes as he screamed, looking into the darkness's pitch black and purple inner body. The surface and the bottom were invisible, and it felt like He was being suspended in a state of nothingness.
Suddenly, the darkness ambience began to reassemble itself. Gradually, the sounds of moving darkness became almost silent whispers. They gradually grew louder and louder, and Tsubasa began to understand their messages. "Leave me alone," he muttered in chaotic intervals. "Do NOT fuck with me! I want you out! Get out... Get out... Get out... GET OUT NOW!" Distraught, uncanny wails soon arose from the depths. At first, they seemed inhuman, but as they got louder, they appeared to resemble the desperate cries of an infant and an eagle meshed together. These sounds pierced his mind, and Tsubasa could feel his thoughts begin to tear apart, my mind beginning to split into a thousand pieces. He was oddly intrigued by this experience, rather than fearful. The subterranean landscape was showing him sights he had never seen before, its disturbed, surreal mind inserting itself into his own. Images began to flood his head, millions passing through by the minute Cold, dead hands sticking out of the meadow of sedges, a child's deceased body decaying at the bottom of the bog, a deer struggling to make its way out of a muddy demise, those were some of the images I witnessed. The landscape was revealing its twisted worship of death and decay to him, a new knowledge that he claimed without question. "I WILL DESTROY YOU!," He screamed at Gingka and his friends. "EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING SHOULD JUST DISAPPEAR! DISAPPEAR NOW!"
A burning pain surged through his lungs, and Gingka quickly made for the surface, emerging right next to Riku. The fog was now dense, and Kenta could only see about five feet in front of him. To make matters worse, their flashlight had been swallowed by the darkness, their only light being what little moonlight shone through the mist. Gingka and his friends ran quickly and stepped back through the bog, however. Tsubasa needed to reach his unconscious destination.
Abruptly, he heard thrashing in the water, which was followed by the sounds of heavy breathing and bloodcurdling screams. They belonged to Ryuga, and he simply watched as he struggled to grab onto the surrounding sedges, completely disregarding the canoe.
"Stop it! Stop it, please!" Kenta cried. "What do you want from me?! What do you want from me!?" He fearfully scurried onto the meadow of sedges, his body soaked and shaking, his head darting in all directions.
"Tsubasa..." Gingka shuddered. "Go Pegasus!" He launched his bey and unleashed The Pegasus Mentor Shower Attack to get rid off the darkness. Gingka caught Pegasus into his hand.
"What's going on!?" Riku asked as he blinked. And then the darkness was gone, leaving Tsubasa with the bog's silence.
Tsubasa started to faint. "Tsubasa!" Gingka yelled. "They ran towards him, who lying on the grass unconsciously
"Are you OK?" Gingka asked in a panic. Tsubasa opened his eyes slowly.
"Wha..."
"Phew! I'm glad you're OK, buddy." Gingka said as he patted on Tsubasa's back.
Riku and Kenta helped Tsubasa up.
"Now can we go back?" Riku asked.
"Yeah."
Tsubasa coldly spoke, "He was standing behind us when he came in and he's there now. He is looking right at me."
He walked away, he saw nothing but the night in the distance and yet he felt everything from today's conversation; relieved it's not tomorrow but petrified that it will be.
It's been several hours since Gingka and his friends went back to the B-pit. Madoka decided to do some research. She found this article online: [The End Of The Beginning]
Like the Cohen family, they live on Staten road and tomorrow, She think they all are going to die.
Woah! That's pretty freaky. Right? Up next: Chapter 3. If you like this chapter, please review.