Chapter 13: Barnania
Walter
Walter woke up with a start. His head is in a state of a very excruciating pain at the moment that he stirred in his bed, writhing and processing a memory that has been hidden from him— the memories that are deprived from him by his own mom.
He stood up out from his king-sized bed and walked into the bathroom to hastily take a cold bath without minding his fear of the waters. He changed into his less favorite black top and wore his black jeans.
While he is fixing his hair, he heard cluttering sounds coming from the other room, the raising of voices and the what seemed like flashes of light streaks. He hastily put the golden shard in his jean's pocket and quickly went outside.
"Tonight would be the waxing of the crimson moon, we must bring Walter to Samdiperove by then." The voice of Ariadne Mae bombarded his sense of hearing.
"We still have plenty of time to bring him there." Maricar countered.
"And you must get out of that body already." He heard Ariadne Mae's demanding voice.
"I won't let you!" That voice, that bold and familiar voice, Fatima's faltering yet strong voice.
"Bringing Walter there would only bring another twisting." She added.
"Who cares about what's to happen? And yet necromancers have no right to interrupt what we need to achieve."
He wonders again, what are these women talking about? He continues eavesdropping and tries peeping through the door.
"How much time do we have?" He heard Maricar asking.
"We still have thirteen unenlightened hours and twenty-six Samdiperove hours." Ariadne Mae replied.
Walter rolled his eyes at the hanging clock on the wall, the shorthand of the clock is pointed at nine while the longer hand is pointed between eleven and twelve.
"8:58." He whispered and did a mathematical thinking.
"Thirteen unenlightened hours and twenty-six Samdiperove's. That would be this ten in the evening in here and eleven o'clock tomorrow in Samdiperove." Walter calculated through his thought.
"But, when I first met the fairy, that was at nine o'clock in the morning, in there, and it is five o'clock in here." He thinks logically.
"So, logically speaking, Samdiperove's day consumes 48 unenlightened hours. If it is 9 o'clock here, the time there now would be 11 o'clock."
"What if Walter wouldn't go with us?" Maricar asked.
"Then we'll get him by force."
"Die!" He hears Fatima's voice cursing, which made him peeked at the door more eagerly.
He heard the laughter of the fairy.
"That wouldn't do anything my poor necromancer, your death curses aren't capable of inflicting the likes of us."
Walter managed to take a look of what is inside. Their guest room is in a bloody mess, black furs and pools of blood are on the floor. He staggered from the horror he has seen. He looked at Fatima who was bound in white ropes, her face and body have been bruised and blackened, her hair lays a mess.
"How was the show?" His spine tingled, his heart thumped a thousand faster than a normal heart beating. He twisted his head and saw Ariadne Mae grinning grimly behind his back.
"You're a murderer!" His voice quivered. Ariadne Mae moved near him. And the last thing he knew is that he fell on the floor with an excruciating pang on the head after being knocked out by magic.
***
"Walter, Walter! Wake up!" A heavy shaking from Maricar woke Walter up, his head spun around causing him to feel dizzy.
"What happened?" He asked in a muffled voice.
"What happened? Are you seriously asking me?! I don't have any idea why I'm here, in your house! And you're asking me what happened?! You shitty head, why am I here?!" Maricar replied compulsively.
"You're Maricar again?" Walter asked innocently.
Maricar gripped his shirt's collar tightly.
"Now you tell me what happened or I'll crush your head off!"
"Okay, okay fine, now let go of me."
Maricar gets her hand off, putting it on her hip.
"Now what idiot?"
"You were possessed."
She chuckled.
"Possessed? Are you kidding me?!"
"Do I look like I'm kidding?" Walter looked at her sincerely, his surrounding was in utter chaos. Maricar didn't budge, she merely stood there and paced a little, biting her lower lip which made her looked like a female Chinese gangster.
"Is that so?" She began tapping her foot on the blood-tainted floor.
"Yeah." Walter managed to stand up and ended up staggering, Maricar aided him, keeping his stance. Walter looked at her. Her heavy arms on his suddenly look so wrong.
"What?"
"I'm fine, thanks." Walter walked towards the oak door and twisted the silver doorknob. It opened.
"How long are we here?" He looked at Maricar's awed expression. There was a silence for a moment.
"Hey!" Walter snapped.
She quickly shook herself and reacted repulsively.
"How did you open that? I was trying to open that door a couple of times and it wouldn't just budge a bit, then you simply just twisted the knob and SNAP!"
Walter makes a dumb facial expression and sighed.
"Let's just go!" He said, a bit exasperated.
Walter stepped outside from their guest room and found himself on their unlit living room, past on his left direction is his room and two other rooms with the exact replica of their guest room. He turned on the switch, a cozy lighting from the fluorescents ignited, making the room look slightly eerie. He looked at the clock on the wall, it's quarter to five already.
Maricar pushed him aside.
"Oops, you're blocking my way." She let out a silly giggle while Walter shot her a deadly glare at her.
"What? Are you picking up a fight?" Maricar poised. He lets out a sigh and a heavy thumping sound comes knocking on the door.
He quickly but cautiously walked towards the door and peeked at the tiny hole on it. He was shocked to see his mother, he opened the door without further ado and asked in a slightly quivering voice.
"Mom, why haven't you told me you're coming home."
She didn't respond. She pushed him back inside instead, closing the oak door in the process.
"They're here." His mother's voice sounded worried and exhausted.
"What? Who are here?"
"You don't mean the witches?" Maricar butted in.
"How do you know that? Who are you?"
Walter coughed, grabbing their attention.
"Oh, sorry. Mom, she's a classmate of mine, Maricar Stein. Maricar, she's my mom." Walter introduced.
"I foresaw it, in my vision, it looks vague but I was certain about what I see." Maricar ignored the amicable self introduction as she suddenly sounded serious which shocked Walter, though he has had just a vague idea on why his mother knows what's happening.
"Are you?" She was about to continue what she's saying when clashes of sounds boomed from the outside.
"That's them. Come on let's hurry." They are about to leave the place from where they are standing when a waft of white mists pushed them back. A brown shaggy dog appeared, waggling its tail, it was accompanied by a black cat. The creatures materialized into Fatima, the cat and the dog shifted into a fearless-looking chocolate-skinned small gal, her black her and black eyes are opposing how she looked so cute in her brown shaggy dog morph.
"Fatima! Rhea!" Walter's mother bombarded them with a hug. Walter interrupted their touching reunion when he raised a question.
"You aren't dead?" He asked more to himself than to Fatima.
"Felines have nine lives, now I only have three lives left, all thanks to the stupid fairy." She said boldly, her red lips are shining admiringly.
She wore a white cloak, with an emblem of an eight-rayed sun knitted into the colors of blue threads, the cool-looking girl wore the same.
"The cats only, not all felines." Maricar butted.
"Traitor, d-d. . ." Fatima was about to curse the oblivious Maricar when Walter suddenly sealed her mouth with his hands, throwing the hugging long lost best friends aside, they staggered.
"Get off me!" Fatima pushed him hard that he lost his balance and made him sat on the sofa.
"Who knows where you have put those filthy hands of yours. Just thinking disgusted me." She wiped her mouth with her hand dramatically and motioned towards Maricar.
"She isn't Aishah anymore, don't just simply kill her!" Walter raised his voice.
"What's going on here?" Walter's mother looked a bit bothered, so was the girl beside her.
"Nothing!" He stood up, thumping the floor as he walked into the kitchen, his thick brows furrowed into exasperation.
"Hey! When have you learned to do such indecency!" Walter's mother called. He ignored her and stayed in the kitchen for a moment, thinking. He then got a bottle of cold water inside the fridge and came back with a bottled water in his mouth, gulping the content.
"Angel, I missed you so much." He looked at his mother and the chocolate-skinned chick chatting intimately on the sofa.
"You aren't Aishah anymore? But why do I still feel some residue of Aishah's presence inside you?" Fatima confronted, scanning the baffled Maricar.
"Hey?! Are we just going to sit back and relax here? I'm pretty worn out already. I have missed my breakfast and lunch and now my dinner." He complained and rubbed his toned but ab-less belly.
"He's right, we need to hurry." Rhea agreed.
A supersonic sound boomed outside.
"What a strong mana clashing together." Rhea configured, bolting up straight.
"Come on!"
They quickly moved and prepared themselves.
"To the lands of the dead." A horrifyingly cold voice from a girl stopped them from moving. A laser sound followed and it was stopped by a popping sound. The voice spoke again. This time with a warming confidence.
"Even though you dispel spells, attacks can be slackened,"
"I just suck it out, which makes my barrier stronger."
Rhea quickly shifted into a huge greyhound and readied. The beast looked like a typical greyhound you saw on TVs, it looked disgusting and deadly. Fatima shifted into a black cat and disappeared.
"Hey!" Walter called. Maricar stands from behind his back.
The door opened, Rhea jumped into the intruder, knocking the girl on the ground.
"Stupid beast!" The girl shouted as red lights entered the holes of Rhea's hound body, in its mouth, ears, nose, and eyes and she popped, her body parts disintegrating in the process.
Sticky maroon goos covered the red-haired gal's gown and all over the house while another girl stood from the outside, she was enclosed inside a prismatic bubble.
"Rhea!" Angel shouted, Walter stands behind her back and Maricar who seemed unwitting stood behind Walter's back, she looks petrified.
The girl stands up and vaporized the goos in her body by wrapping herself with a spell. She walks inside, the whole house is in a mess. The curly-haired followed, she looks cautious and keeps looking from behind her back.
The red-haired gal walked near them.
"Get away from my son. Please don't. . ." Angel begs, the girl simply gets nearer, she was now inches away from them.
"Who are you?!" Walter moved in front of his mother, Maricar clung on his arms.
"The writer." She speaks eerily that it made Walter tensed. She then moved near him and knocked him with a spell.
Angel tried retaliating but was knocked off afterward. Maricar looks at her eyes pleadingly and ran to the room.
"The Babe." Maricar faltered as the spell hit her before she can even get to open the door to the room.
"Mission complete." The girl enveloped Walter and Maricar inside the bubbles and they float in the air, like balloons filled with helium. She then sashayed outside.
***
"Walter, Walter, wake up." A muffled voice called for his name, he smiled sinisterly as if he was into a deep trance.
Falling, falling, he is falling into a chasm. Dark so dark and there's light, he sees it, a blinding white light that comes from the hole above, he smiled again, this time he smiles sadly.
"I was happy to see you, welcome home." A deep voice from a man spoke to someone nearby, he can't see them.
"You've grown into such a fine young man." An older voice from a woman added.
"We're glad to see you here." The voices are faltering but they still sound distinct.
"Father? Grandma?" A boy's voice called back.
"Am I dead?" The boy asked.
"Of course you are not." The old woman's voice spoke back.
"I'm glad you found the way to Barnania. . .help it out. Undo the twisting before everything gets all messed up."
"Don't put such a heavy burden to your son's shoulder, Chronotaurus." The old woman scolded.
"I'm not pushing him hard, that's why I brought him company."
"What's the meaning of all this?! Is this planned in the first place? Why is this happening to me!" Walter's mind screamed. He was startled as he opened his eyes. He's sweating— sweating too much that it drenched his shirt. He looks at his surrounding, lying on the bed on his right side slept Maricar. She looks so peaceful when she sleeps. On the bed on his left side slept a scrawny with an average height emo looking boy, next to that boy slept the calm looking auburn-haired gal that knocked him out.
"Where am I?" He hissed to himself.
They were in a room that more of likely looked like a cabin or an infirmary with lots of beds arrayed like hospital beds. The room looks cozy, the only lighting from above was a small luminous bulb that radiates translucent light, the brown flourished made of plain wood walls emit a soothing radiance. The place is a suitable place to rest.
The curtains that cover the other side next to the auburn-haired gal flaps continuously. The air seems like blowing them, they are waving gracefully, their sea green colors emit tranquilizing breeze that they calm Walter. He slowly closed his eyes and drifted to sleep, this time he slept without odd dreams to dream anymore.