Chapter 9

 "Good Morning Bud", I woke up to my dad sitting on my bedside, I was in my room again. I sat up slowly and looked around, breathing a sigh of relief, "You ok Aden?", my dad asked. "Yeah.. I had this really weird dream", I said while running my fingers through my hair. "What happened?", he asked sincerely while rubbing my hand gently. "Well.. I accidentally fell in a ditch and I think I hit my head pretty hard because I started..-", I freeze in horror. "What happened?", my dad asked again but his smile slowly became unsettling, his eyes and hands started turning black as white cracks formed along them like vines. He held a very firm grip on my hand and started leaning towards me, I tried to pull my hand away but he wouldn't let go. The darkness spread throughout his body with white cracks wrapping around every part of his body. He grabbed my arm and pulled me towards him, I was merely an inch away from his face, and while making eye contact with him, he let out a loud whaling scream, it was like a banshee screaming bloody murder. I suddenly awoke and sat up quickly, Brier was playing with flowers next to me while Daiki and Cephas were reading.

 As soon as I sat up they all looked at my panicked expression, "What matter Aden?", Brier said as she scooted closer to me.[7:22 AM]"It's nothing Brier.. It was just a bad dream~.", I said with a calm tone. "Oki..", she sat there with a sad look, I almost felt guilty. "You know I do when I get bad dreams?", she said while looking up at me, I looked at her curiously and with a smile. "What?~", I said while making sure my full attention was on her. "What I do is talks about it!~ It makes the scary dreams not so scary..", she said with a bright smile on her face. Her bright young smile filled my heart with such warmth, that I almost forgot about the nightmare for a brief second. "Well, my scary dream might be too scary for you Brier". I said while rubbing my eyes slowly. "Aww… oki..", Brier said, she went back to playing with the flowers and I stood up to stretch my back a bit. "What are you guys reading?", I asked Cephas and Daiki. "We were reading a bit about the story of Idie and Akuji, it's a well-known legend here", Cephas said and Daiki nodded in agreement. "What's Idie and Akuji?", I said while slowly approaching them. "Well, the legend goes as this, There were once two siblings born from nature, 1 being bright and full of joy, while the other was more timid and aloof. One day, the other sibling started going mad, due to the mutation, highlighting the worst parts of him. Instead of being timid and aloof, he became aggressive and hysterical. His skin started turning pick black and white cracks started forming all over his body, like his body was constantly breaking. The joyful sibling started becoming fearful for the sibling, she tried her best to save him from losing his identity, but it was too late. One day he went missing, and the mutation that affected the brother started affecting everyone else out of nowhere, as their eyes became black and white cracks formed around their iris. The sister, feeling a sense of remorse for her loss, and fear for the people around her, ended up sacrificing her life force to the planet.[7:22 AM]Keeping the mutation contained, as well as the darkness that lingered around where the skies and ground had turned dark, residing the people who she couldn't save.", Cephas said, he turned his attention to me where I stood in shock. "W-Wow.. That is a lot to unpack-", I said, scratching my head. "Yeah, we try not to dig too deep into it since it's just a legend.", Cephas said as he chuckled lightly. Cephas stared behind me and looked around, suddenly becoming nervous. "Where is Brier..?", Cephas said while getting off the floor. Daiki quickly got up and ran around the area, I helped look around below the trees but still to no avail, Brier was missing.