The Dark Memories Of The Past

"Where is my elder sister?"

A little girl asked as she opened the door of her house and stood face to face with a grown man, looking for her elder sister, who was supposed to come with him.

The little girl still wears a school uniform. She was melting sweat and the smell of sunlight inevitably wafting on her sweaty body. Her brown hair looks so messy, like she untied it roughly before.

Not finding any response from the man in front of her, the little girl immediately walked past him. Her blue eyes looked in different directions, looking for the whereabouts of the older sister who was supposed to come home with food for her.

She's hungry. She needs something to eat. Her little stomach growled because she hadn't eaten anything since morning.

She ran here and there, looking for her elder sister, who she thought was hiding somewhere to surprise her.

She believes that her elder sister brought a lot of food to eat together this afternoon. However, the sweet smile on her lips soon faded as she realized that her elder sister was nowhere. She can't find her.

Soon after, she ran towards her elder sister's friend, who was still standing in his place.

Her little hand gently pulled the hem of the man's jacket, trying to get his attention. "Where is my elder sister?" she asked for the same thing.

The man's body suddenly fell to the floor, and he hugged the little girl tightly. The tears he had been holding back had spilled on both sides of his cheeks, accompanied by discordant sobs that sounded so pitiful.

He's crying because he can't hold the pain smothering his chest, destroying all his hopes, happiness, joy, and world. His trembling body revealed how unstable and mentally shaken he was at the moment.

"Brother, why are you crying?" She was confused when the man hugged her little body so tightly. The man she thought of as her brother was also a man who was close friends with her elder sister.

"I'm sorry, Celine. I'm sorry." The whisper managed to shake the soul of the fifteen-year-old girl.

"Sorry? Brother, why are you apologizing? And also, why are you crying? Where's my elder sister? Why don't you go home with her?"

Hiller shook his head. His heart felt stabbed by thousands of knives simultaneously, making his chest bleed.

He wanted to remove his heart from his body so that this pain would no longer torment him. However, he couldn't do it because he didn't have some energy left. Tears that keep coming out imply deep sorrow as well as disappointment.

Celine rebelled, starting to feel uncomfortable in Hiller's arms. After she broke away from him, her gaze immediately fell on the white shirt that he was wearing under his jacket, filled with a red liquid, blood.

It was blood!

Celine spontaneously retreated in fear.

Since when?

Who's hurt?

What happened to Hiller?

Many questions began to form in Celine's head. And now, as she stood two meters away from Hiller, crying while covering his face with both hands, she finally realized that her front uniform full of blood.

Celine screamed in fear. Her tears fell on both sides of her cheeks after her phobia of blood was raised.

Her breathing became irregular. Her head shook impulsively as the blood began to spread to all parts of her school uniform.

At the end of the boundary of her consciousness, her tiny body was again hugged tightly by Hiller.

Celine was crying in between the dizziness that hit. She couldn't open her eyes because they were both filled with blood.

The thick, rancid red blood almost knocked Celine unconscious. Hiller's discordant crying voice also seemed to be a terrible song to her ears. Her body melted in his arms. And in the remnants of her strength, she forced herself to open her closed eyelids.

Hiller's tears mixed with blood. The tears fell to the floor, littering the terrace Celine had just mopped thirty minutes ago.

"Where ... where's my elder sister?"

Celine's heartbeat was unnatural like it wanted to jump out by tearing her chest brutally.

And just then, Hiller took Celine to lie on his lap. His thumb gently rubbed her cheek, and his face seemed to want to tell that his coming here brought terrible news.

"She ... she died. They killed her."

.

.

.

Gasp!

Celine was startled in her sleep and immediately sat down on the mattress while wiping the sweat dripping from her forehead.

Her heart was racing like a person running on a marathon track. Her hand couldn't lift the mobile phone she placed on the small table beside the bed due to shaking.

She rubbed her face roughly and breathed in to fill the entire space inside her lungs with oxygen, trying to calm herself down.

Her eyes stared at her dark room, which was not much different from the sky. Her habit was sleeping with the lights off without closing the window curtains.

After feeling relatively calm, she washed her face in the bathroom while staring at her reflection in the mirror.

The water in her face slid down to the tip of her chin before plunging freely. Seeing her slightly puffy eyes made her realize that she was crying in her sleep.

"That nightmare again," muttered Celine poignantly.

She washed her face once more to cool her mind. Her hands still hadn't stopped shaking, revealing how severe the effects of the nightmare had been.

After drying her face using a small towel hung not far from there, she returned to the room and turned on the light.

Her eyes glanced briefly at the wall clock above the TV, finding the time still showing at two o'clock in the morning, meaning that she had only slept for three hours.

For a few moments, she was silent in her place. Her forehead occasionally frowned as if she was considering something.

With a sudden movement, she grabbed her jacket and car keys. In less than two minutes, she's already in the car, intending to go somewhere.