^6thChapter: “the Letter”

Previously : 

“I came to warn you, the enemy made allies and they already killed three of our own. It’s only a matter of days until hell loses its control. They plan to get rid of anyone that might interfere with their plans, anyone that might represent a threat…” He pauses for a second to let her understand that this was no longer the story of a myth he’d tell her to scare her when they were kids, this was real and was happening. “As I said, they may not know it now but it’s only a matter of time until they find out that you are their primary obstacle”

He glances once more at the hoard of students present, and as soon as they freeze, Sana concludes that he already trafficked their memories and made them forget about this whole scene. 

In a flash, he disappears, leaving a chaos behind him, two unconscious and three injured teenagers, hundreds of confused students and teachers, and an indecisive Sana.

.

Sana doesn’t wait long before calmly walking to Jeongyeon’s side. Just when she lifts her over her shoulder, Momo snaps out of her previous state.

The best friend hastily looks around her and notices that it might’ve seemed that a storm passed by their cafeteria, a storm she couldn’t remember. She did however recall seeing the windows shatter, and hearing the students scream either in panic or pain.

“Jeong!” She screams once she sees her best friend on a girl’s shoulder, “What happened to her?!”

She was about to walk towards both girls when her eyes fell upon a body laying on the floor: Dylan Jackson was swimming in a pool of his own blood.

Next to him kneeled a petite girl. When Momo finally got to them (after almost tripping a thousand times), she saw no hesitation on Chaeyoung’s face as she pulled her shirt over  her head.

“! Someone get help!” Screams Momo once she gets a better look a Dylan’s state.

Chaeyoung was also trained all her life for these kind of situations: to save lives. She quickly pressed the fabric of her shirt on the boy’s wound to try to slow down the blood loss.

“! its Dylan!” She hears other students shout.

“Someone call 911!” Screams another one.

“What the hell happened to him?” Momo’s voice was trembling with fear. Was he going to make it? She could see his chest faintly heaving, which meant he was still breathing. That was good news.

“He got hurt…by the glass” Answers Chaeyoung.

She wasn’t convinced even though she recalled seeing a huge splinter of glass dug itself in Dylan’s sides. She remembered the windows shattering, but she didn’t remember why. She remembered walking over to Dylan and a crowd of teenagers just as when it happened, but found it odd how the blond boy was the only one injured. Everything else was blurry. Not to mention that hurt but she had no idea why.

Her curiosity got the best of her. She carefully lifted the boy’s shirt and quickly inspected the wound.  

There was no sign of glass, and it didn’t look like a splinter could’ve afflicted that kind of damage. The wound was deep, with four wholes, glued one to another.

Something else happened here, she was sure of it.

As if on cue, Jace Leroy, high school history teacher by day, professional hunter by night, kneels down next to his partner.

“Help is on its way. What happened here?” He asks calmly.

One second he was interrogating a student with the police officers, the next they get called by another teacher to the cafeteria and witness the mess. He wondered how come none of them has heard any shattering noise but didn’t question it further.

The man always knew how to act in every situation, and Chaeyoung has never seen his emotions get the best of him. His ability to control himself even in the most stressful of situations was one of the qualities she admired the most about him.

Chaeyoung mentioned for Momo to keep the shirt on the wound for her, then got up and stepped away in a corner with the teacher. She explained everything, from the most important parts to the small little insignificant details who could be not so insignificant after all. She finished off her story telling by sharing her doubts.

“Are you saying you think your memory was trafficked?”

The girl nods her head.

“Or replaced. I don’t know.”

Jace takes a deep breath. It looks like vampires were going to be the least of their troubles right now.

Paramedics arrived a while after. They of the took care of the few students that were injured due to the glass, whereas Dylan was transported to the hospital by ambulance. His injuries were far more severe, and he needed professional medical care.

“If a high class creature like that is really around then it might really cause trouble. From now on, we all need to be extra careful. You stick by my side at all times. If anything comes up just call me”

He doesn’t want to risk losing her. She was too important to him. She was his partner. She was his family.

“I can protect myself” She doesn’t want him to start treating her like a child. That was a long time ago. She was 16 now, she learned how to fight, and she almost killed as much monsters as him.

“Chae, you have marks on your neck. Strangling marks”

Her hand automatically lifts to touch her skin. She knew it. Deep down she knew it but she refused to admit it to herself. Whatever happened, whatever battle she fought in earlier, she lost it.

Jeongyeon’s face hurt. A lot.

The pain is what made her wake up. Her eyes slowly opened and the first thing she saw was a ceiling. She was laying down on her back on the most comfortable surface she’s probably laid on. The brunette was so tired she considered closing back her eyes and drifting back to sleep.

Ah sleep. It’s been so long since she rested like this.

Her peace doesn’t last long.

Scenes of the incident that happened in the cafeteria replayed in her head and it was enough to shake her up for good.

She woke up frightened and cursed under her breath at her brusque movement. It wasn’t just her face that hurt. Her whole body was aching, especially her head and back.

As she looked around, Jeongyeon realized she was in an unfamiliar room.

The curtains were closed, allowing just a faint ray of sunlight to illuminate the room. Her eyes explored the environment she was put in.

The room consisted of the bed she was sitting on, a desk on the far left, next to a library that held tons of books.

It was a typical bedroom, expect maybe the lack of colors and life made it look duller than it probably was.

Jeongyeon was alarmed when she saw a chair she failed to notice at first, in the right corner of the room. It was well hidden but it wasn’t the chair that troubled her.

Someone was asleep right there. A girl to be more exact, and our protagonist didn’t fail to recognize the person even though most of her face was hidden behind her blonde almost messy, for its usually almost always annoyingly perfect, hair. It was Sana.

Jeongyeon didn’t forget how her eyes turned black a few moments ago (she didn’t know how long she was in here, so she had no notion of time). She was evil, and Jeongyeon knew to stay away from evil.

So she slowly got up from the bed, even though she wanted to just run already. But she couldn’t risk waking up the creature staying in the same room as her. She had to be extra careful. And that’s how she made her way to the door, opened it, and got out, not bothering to close it behind her.

Hastily, she walked the hallway until she finally found the staircase that led downstairs. Taking one last glance behind her to make sure Sana wasn’t following, she quickly descended the stair steps, but was careful not to make her presence known.

Downstairs, she was faced with a big wooden door. Due to the differences it had with all the other doors she encountered in the hallway, she assumed it was the main one: her exit. She took one last breath, checked her surrounding once again before almost running towards it.

Her feet came to an abrupt stop when a certain girl left the room next to her exit, blocking her way.

“Oh you’re finally up!” She exclaims when she sees her.

Jeongyeon knew she was trapped. She quickly glanced at the door one last time and worked on creating a new escape plan.

The other girl noticed and looked over her shoulder to see the front door, and her guest’s odd behavior finally made sense to her: she was planning an escape.

“I’m sorry, I can’t let you go. Sana would kill me and I’m not even exaggerating.”

Tzuyu was thankful she had decided to get up and make a sandwich in the kitchen a minute ago. The timing was perfect. Who knows what would’ve happened if she decided against it and just stayed in the living room.

“Especially after what happened in the cafeteria” She continues, “I’m surprised you can still stand”

Yes. The cafeteria.

Jeongyeon’s thoughts immediately drifted to her friends.

She hoped nothing bad happened to Momo. She knew she’d never forgive herself if her best friend was found in any sort of predicament while she was too busy sleeping. 

Her head hurts, trying to remember memories she wasn’t sure she actually lived.

She remembered windows shattering. She remembered the cafeteria and all the students and teachers and personnals in it as it happened, screaming either in agony or fear. She remembered new faces, such as the one of the small girl, who’s cold eyes only hinted at a certainly much colder personality, or that of the ginger man who stepped into chaos or brought it with him. She remembered familiar faces as well.  First one was a concerned and scared Sana, a combination Jeongyeon didn’t ever think she’d get to see (for although she’s only known her for less than a few days, she already had a pretty good idea on who she was), as she held her hand, holding it tightly as she pulled her away. She remembered seeing Momo with Adrian, far from where she was with Sana, unharmed but panicking and most likely looking for her in the mass too. She even remembered Dylan.

Dylan launching straight at the ginger man, with not a care in the world but that to help the young girl getting strangled. Dylan getting hurt, letting out a groan in pain. Dylan falling to the ground. Dylan’s white shirt turning red, and Jeongyeon loses her cool just like she lost it at that moment.

Thousands of questions erupted in her head. Questions she didn’t have answers to because she wasn’t conscious long enough to witness the rest of the story.

“You look troubled. Come, I’ll explain to you what happened after you were knocked out”

Tzuyu mentioned for the room opposite the kitchen with her head. Jeongyeon knew she had no choice but to obey. Something inside her told her she wasn’t strong enough for a one to one fight against the girl, even though he looked injured. Her right forearm was completely bandaged and it may have been the dim light in the house, but it looked like it had a few dark stains. Was that blood?

The brunette walked to where Tzuyu mentioned, and the latter followed right behind her.

“You can stop spying on us now” She shouts, throwing herself on the couch.

Jeongyeon was already on the opposite seat when she heard someone slowly walk down the stairs. A blonde girl stepped in just a few seconds later.

“Just so you know, I let her leave my room just to test you” She tells Tzuyu.

“Wait weren’t you asleep?” Reacts Jeongyeon remembering how Sana was seated on the chair.

The blonde one finally lays eyes on her and Jeongyeon is immediately met with that familiar burning sensation. Sana scoffs as if the brunette just came up with the funniest joke alive.

“I don’t like sleeping” Answers Sana, taking a seat next to Tzuyu.

Jeongyeon knows she shouldn’t get too comfortable with the two of them, something deep inside her kept yelling at her to get the hell out of here as soon as the opportunity showed up, but she also couldn’t help the way her body melted into the cushions by her side and behind her, taking her upmost cosiness. She gets friendly even, asking questions that made her sound curious, made it seem like she was interested in knowing them better.

“Then why do you have a bed?”

She can see Sana’s tongue push against the inside of her cheeks, trying to suppress a smile as she crossed her arms and legs.

“That’s for other activities” Sana lets her grin take over as she remembers the best of her conquests.

“Okay enough” Interferes Tzuyu. She knew Sana too well, and she didn’t want to know how far this thing could go. Especially not now. “Do you want to hear about what happened or not?”

Far away from the chaos held at Alchemia’s high school, Im Nayeon was staying home alone at the Jones mansion. Her sister decided to stop skipping school which meant the place belonged to her for at least five more hours and the teenage girl chose to spend her free time walking around the house, with the letter in hand.

She couldn’t stop herself from reading it over and over again, word by word, detail by detail. From the handwriting to the style of formulation that strongly resembled that of her (apparently dead) grandfather. And all the clues hinted that it was all a truth she’d better up fast enough, yet she still couldn’t believe it and she wasn’t to blame. She even considered that all of it could be some stupid joke from her whole family. But then again, would everyone really go through that much trouble for some stupid joke?

Nayeon entered the kitchen for what seemed like the 10^thtime today. She made her way to the fridge and grabbed an orange juice out of it.

I died a long time ago with your grandmother in a bank robbery that went wrong.

Now that that’s out of the way, I will start off by apologizing.

I’m sorry that I had to leave you all like this, with no information or whatsoever, but the less you know, the safer you’ll be. 

She took a first sip of her juice and finally figured out that all the walking she’s been doing, tired her.

I had to run away. 

Nayeon walks over to one of the many stools and takes a seat, placing her elbows on the counter.

There are a lot of things going around in this world. Things that made me do what I did to you, and to our family. Things that you don’t know about, things that I hoped you would never get implicated in. 

That part always intrigued her. What was her grandfather talking about? She wanted to know. She had so many questions, but she guessed she’d have to look for answers by herself.

Unfortunately, that won’t possible. You’ll eventually find yourself in a world you would’ve wished never existed. I just hope that you’ll be able to enjoy your teenage life before that happens.

This part however, she wished she never read. It scared her. After all, the unknown scares everyone, and not just humans.

I had to run away. It was the only way to protect you. 

I’m buying time, for you to figure yourself out. To figure your true identity. To train to manipulate your abilities. To know your strength and your weakness. 

“Buying time for what? And what do you mean by abilities?” She asks herself out loud.

Her head had started to ache.

To find your allies and identify your enemies.

She wished she could talk about this to someone, anyone. She knew she couldn’t though. What if the ones she trusted the most were the ones she needed to fear?

The letter obviously made her paranoid.

Once again, I apologize. I wish I could explain everything. I’m sure you have thousands of questions but time is a luxury I can’t afford at the moment. 

She laughs. Of course she has many questions, and of course her grandfather wouldn’t answer them in the goddamn letter! Talk about being mysterious…

Don’t tell anyone about this. Once you finish reading this letter, burn it. Delete all evidence.

She got serious for second. Nayeon debated on whether she should burn it immediately like her grandfather had instructed, or just hide it like she did, in case she wanted to re-read it again.

Act normal. Anyone who’s ever been in contact with me before will forget about my existence. Anyone and everyone but you. Because I need you. We need you. Life as we know it is on the verge of extinction, and you could be its savior if you do as I said previously. 

That explained why Alix thought she was sick. She learned she should keep her tongue tied unless she wanted to attract the enemy.

I loved you from the moment your mother brought you on this earth, I loved you when your mother was struggling with the loss of your father, although you were too young to remember any of it, and I love you now and I always will, until after my last breath. 

All the love , please stay safe .

Your grandfather, Louis Martin .