Chapter 14: Toya's Brother

Here I am, standing in front of the warehouse door. According to Toya, there's a ghost appeared in this warehouse long ago. Well, it's not that long though. I just want to make it more dramatically. I touch the door knob, an icing cold pierces tip of my fingers. I immediately draw my hand off.

'I can do it. I can do it.' I keep repeating it in my heart. But I admit in the deep of my heart, I can hear someone tells me to go back and pushes Toya to go with me. Toya's story about the warehouse ghost keeps floating in my mind.

I shake my head very fast, to make those voices and ghost figure inside my head disappear. Instead another voice rings in my head. Apparently, only I that can hear this voice.

'Proceed…'

Please! Again? I can't understand what is your meaning by 'proceed'.

'Proceed… forward…'

Damn! That voice is really annoying. It's Toya's fault for teaching me the enchantment the other days. The voice keeps tell me nonsense. I need to find a way to make this stupid voice gone forever or else, I am definitely going insane.

I touch the knob again, the cold still stick on my fingers. It crosses my mind to draw my hand back again, but I press that thought deep inside my mind. So I turn the knob to the right, but I don't push it yet. I stand in there, freezing like a stone. I'm preparing myself to enter this door. I take a deep breath and push the door. It's dark; of course know it's going to be dark. I need to find the switch in order to turn on the light. I touch the wall, hoping I can find the switch soon. The wall made out from brick, like other walls in this house. The colors are also the same, white. I've heard it from Chitose, it is her favorite color. Perhaps, it's the reason for her to live in this snowy place. It's white all over place.

I feel like touching some switch so I press it. I hear a soft click sound, it's clear enough for me to hear it since this place seems death, meaning there's no other sounds at all. There's no light comes out. I press the switch several times; still the light won't turn on. Although I hear a lot of clicking sounds come from nowhere.

I give up. I want go back to the fireplace and tease Toya till he gets mad. I turn around and startle. Very startle.

"What are you doing?" says that gloomy voice, like a person who just woke up.

As that person talk, I scream uncontrollably. The ghastly face makes my heart's beating so fast, my feet are trembling. I want to run yet my feet won't move.

The pale face pulls my left hand. I try to hit it, instead it says, "Atsuma! Stop it! Your screaming is hurting my ears!

I stop my screaming as I recognize whose voice is it. I look at him clearly now.

"Damn it, Toya! You startled me!" I complain.

"I know." He holds his chuckles.

"It's not funny. I almost got heart attack!"

"Yeah, you're right." He's chuckling louder now.

I'm pouting. My feet still won't stop shaking. I hold them with my hands. It makes the shaking reduce a bit. I pretend everything is cool, so Toya won't mock me.

"You don't have to pretend everything's cool. I know your feet are still shaking. I can see it very clearly."

I feel my face is twitching a lot. He and his victory smile.

"So…" he says, "what are you doing here?"

"I want to look inside again." I point to the room. His eyes follow my finger.

"Oh…" he's narrowing his eyes. His eyes are telling me, why didn't you tell me? I want to go to, you know?

Before he could say any word, I immediately say, "I've asked you before but you fell asleep instead."

"Ah…" a small voice comes from his mouth, "Now I get it. That's explained why you hit me that time."

I roll my eyes. Whatever, I don't want to spend my time for this argument.

"Hey, wanna go in?" Toya asks.

My eyes shine brightly. He knows what exactly I would say. I give him a wide smile, but my smile is become smaller when I realize we can't go in because it was too dark inside and the light is broken. I try to grab him, to stop him from getting inside. As my hand try to grab his arm, the light comes out from inside the room.

"Eh?" I'm pointing at the room.

"What?" he says, "hurry up, before Chitose comes back." He then enters the room.

Unbelievable, why he can turn on the light? It doesn't need any enchantment, does it? I follow him inside. I look around and it looks like before the accident, nothing changes at all. Same as always, boxes everywhere.

Toya chooses a box, he picks number 23. As usual, he slams the box. I can't stand it, but I just close my eyes, I don't want to see it.

The box smashes into pieces. We search for something that will take our attention. Books, perhaps, are the most valuable for Toya. But this time, Toya takes photos instead of books.

"Whose photos are those?" I took a look at those photos. To my shock; I yell, "I've seen this guy!"

"Wha…?", says Toya with wide open mouth.

The black hair, the bright blue eyes, I know him! I saw him on that strange dream of mine. His name is…

"Seiji! His name is Seiji!"

"Se…i…ji…?" Toya surprises. He pauses for a while and stares at me with strange look. "How did you know him?"

"I didn't. It was a dream. I don't even know him."

"Liar! You know him!"

"I don't know him. But I've seen him in my dream."

"How come your dream was so accurate?"

"Well, I don't know… But I've seen him talking to Chitose at this house. Seems they're happy."

Toya keeps staring at the photos; I don't know what he's thinking, but his eyes looks sad.

"Toya?" he turns around, he closes his teary eyes tightly. It makes me panic when stubborn Toya is crying. "What's wrong? Hey, Toya?"

"He's my brother…"