THE MISSING PUZZLE PIECES

Leira crouched as she heard screams. She needed to cover her ear, to stop the dread that she felt like a reaction to those screams.

It was eerie, echoing, just like the sound of death. Scary deaths…

Yet, it seemed that it wouldn't stop. It seemed that it would never stop. She can't be hiding with her palm forever. For, however she covered her ears, the horrendous sound would still be hunting her.

She had to open her eyes, once and for all. It seemed it would need her attention. She felt the urge to check and know the origin of it all. However, there seemed to be no use. All she could see was still darkness. The dread she felt went even deeper into her consciousness.

How can she open her eyes, and there was nothing to see? Like she was in an abyss. She didn't know what to do and where to go. Yet the voice was still there, the screams.

There was fear in it and pain. It came from a girl or girls, the way she was quite unsure and no idea who.

Leira was feeling stagnant and pointless. She didn't even know where she was and where to go next or what to do.

She wants to feel her surroundings without looking at them when she knows there's nothing for her to see too.

So...

She tried to stand straight, and with a deep breath, she made the first step, and next, then next. She just has to let her intuition take her anywhere she is supposed to.

As she was doing it.

She also realized that the dreadful cries and screams she heard were getting louder and louder, nearer and nearer, as if she was going her way to them.

Until,

It was too loud that she felt, the voices were just in front of her. The screams are reverberating that created wild reactions inside her.

Her heart seemed to be screaming in fear with them. It was hammering so hard that she felt she needed to gasp, or her lungs would be losing air. She wanted to cry. Part of her was curious, and she wanted to open her eyes to see what was happening in front of her.

Yet, part of her was scared enough to let her eyes open.

But she has to be strong. She knew what she needed to do. She had to see the dreadful truth or would be blind forever.

It might be scary.

Yes.

But it's the truth.

She would choose nothing more but face the truth than being innocent.

Or would she?

Even choosing what's best for her to do was quite a dilemma she needed to face.

Blind and be happier in a moment while hiding the dreadful truth.

Yet where's the peacefulness in there?

Would she really be peaceful with it? Or, what if she will open her eyes and be ready to embrace the truth, however terrifying it would be.

Yet, could she handle it?

But she had to.

She knew.

So, she counted down and prepared herself.

'Here it goes. Five… four… three… two… one….'

Leira opened her eyes and gasped with the image in front of her.

A pale body of naked girls was lying down around her feet. Their skin is now the color of ash, like they were out of blood, dried out, and dead.

The screaming voices of those girls were gone. They were no longer screaming since they were already just a cadaver and lying on the floor cold and colorless.

But, another scream stings under Liera's ear, which was...

her own voice.

*****

Leira's father was forced to open Leira's locked bedroom door with the spare key after hearing Leira's voice screaming non-stop for several minutes.

Leira was found frozen in her bed,

eyes shut

yet mouth open

with barely a voice coming out from it.

Her voice was starting to fade.

Her mom and dad were worried sick. They shook her to wake her up from that nightmare.

She woke up.

But it took them several minutes for that. She was gasping for air and catching her breath while trying to drink the water her helper took for her.

"Leira, are you okay, dear?" Her mom asked. Her voice was soft and coarse, just like the usual bedroom voice people have.

Leira didn't actually know if she was fine or not. Since technically she is, she was not harmed. It was just a dream. It can't harm her; she was so strong for that. But, at the same time, something she knew changed in her life or had changed. Some gaps were needed for her to fill. Information,

Warning

She didn't know if her dream was actually a warning. If it was, she hoped it was more vivid.

She can simply shrug it off; she just simply wants to forget that feeling. Like there was some piece of the puzzle missing. Feeling like some piece in her mind was taken and hidden by someone.

And the feeling like that information was so important for her and her friends' life and she needed to get a hold of that information. She didn't have it, needed to find it, and didn't know how or where?

"Mom, do I have some illness that you didn't tell me about? Had I been in amnesia?" Leira blurted out her thoughts. She needed some answer, even to the extent of considering the weirdest thing.

"What?" her mom and dad, as well as their maid, spouted in unison and surprise. They all tried to hide it, but they obviously looked like they're about to crack a burst of laughter.

But her dad was able to control his laughter and change back his serious demeanor.

"No, you never had an illness, any illness. Because your mom and I made sure to take care of you with all the best that we can. By the way, why on earth have you asked something like that? What's in your mind?" Her dad raised his brows as he asked.

"Nothing really, dad just forget it," she didn't know if she was feeling happy for her dad's answer or disappointed since she still didn't find the answer to the question she needed.