“You’ve been awaken, Arae.”

Chanyeol knew it would happen sooner or later.

A figure in front of Chanyeol smiled. Everything that was physical about that figure wasn’t hers, except for her unusually dark blue eyes. Whatever it was, it existed within Annisa’s body, swimming in the darkest realm of her unconscious waiting for a time to surface. When the time came, she took over the girl’s consciousness and seized the control over the body. She, the creature that took over Annisa’s body, was half floating, letting her body hanging in the air just few inches above the ground. She kept looking at the tall young guy in front of her with somehow a bemused smile.

“My my . . we meet again.“  She sounded entirely different from Annisa. Her voice was dark, sharp, it was like Chanyeol was listening to the voice of an old witch. “I believe I have met the Fire. Correct?”

Chanyeol stood still. He’d known this creature for so long, she was famous for her power, so he had to be careful. He was alone now, in the middle of a strange place outside his homeland, and far away from is hideout. He couldn’t act as he pleased.

“How long have you been here, Arae?” Chanyeol could feel the hot tingle in his finger started to spread right now, if needed, a fire could blast out of it in anytime.

“You’ve been looking for me, have you? You and your fellow guardians.” Arae, the creature within Annisa’s body, was now grounded, she started to walk toward Chanyeol the moment her feet touched the ground. The young guy stood undisturbed, letting Arae slowly closing the gap between them, until she stood only inches apart from him.

“How long have you been here?” Chanyeol repeated his question, looking straight into the dark blue eyes in front of him. It was beautiful, but unfortunately he despised the creature who owned it. Arae sneered at Chanyeol’s serious face and laughed.

“What’s with the serious face, guardian?” She finally stepped back and started to float again, this time she flew around Chanyeol, keeping a close eye to him, while Chanyeol kept showing his stiff face. “Is he awaken too?”

This time Chanyeol turned his head to a place where Arae was, floating low beside him. “We need your power, Arae.”

Suddenly, the nasty smile that was hanging on Arae’s face disappeared. The creature gave Chanyeol a cold look before she landed on the ground again. Chanyeol could see there was a little shock on the face in front of him. She was looking at Chanyeol for a couple seconds before finally threw her stare away.

“You know I don’t want to get involved again.” There was a tone of sadness when she said this. She walked towards the pool’s edge and stood there, staring at the calm surface of the water. “They took my sister away.”

“I know.” A flash of images played within Chanyeol’s head. It was still crystal clear even though the event happened milleniums away. He remembered the moment Arae was betrayed by her own comrades who then took her sister away. Because it turned out that they wanted Arae’s sister power more than they wanted hers. Since then, nobody ever saw Arae anymore. Until Sehun found her.

Sehun was the first person who actually noticed that there was something different in Annisa’s aura. Extrimely vague, but distinctive. He told Chanyeol about the weird purple color emitted from her body. Until one day, they both decided to check on it. They followed Annisa who back then, was walking alone to Jasmine’s apartment in the middle of cloudy evening. When the girl turned into the small alley, Sehun abruptly attacked Annisa who was walking closer to them, and Sehun’s prediction was true. Automatically, to defended herself, Arae was forced to surfaced from Annisa’s unconsciousness and took over her body. They fought and exchanged several fire shots and blowing winds before suddenly Arae decided to dive back in into Annisa’s body with a grin and disappeared once again.

 “It’s useless. Ask another spirit if you want power.” Arae was talking in a low voice before she turned to face Chanyeol.

“We can help you to take your sister back.” Chanyeol said with confidence. He expected a surprised face from Arae, but he was wrong, she kept showing a somber face, the once full of spark dark blue eyes turned dim.

“I’ve tried for  thousands of years, and she never returned.” Arae stepped away form the pool’s side, “I can see the ghosts is also looking for me too.”

Chanyeol frowned in confusion hearing Arae’s last statement, “How do you know?” 

“I’ve been smelling their underworld odor,” Arae stopped talking for a while and redirected her eyes to Chanyeol’s swollen eyes, “and from your face. You’ve been fighting with them, aren’t you?” Chanyeol didn’t answer the question, he knew that Arae must’ve seen his battered face, and she was true, all the scar was made by The Ghosts. Three days ago after his meeting with Annisa, he smelled the presence of that creature. A hooded figure he and his guardian friends called The Ghosts. Just like him, they were also sent to look for spirits like Arae and took their power. But the difference is, The Ghosts captured the spirits and forced them to give their power. At first he and Sehun fought one of them for a night, the one he was fighting was the strong one, it was using swords, and one of it’s blade had left a mark in his forehead, which was already bandaged. But during the fight he told Sehun to back away and return to their campus instead, so people wouldn’t be suspicious, while Chanyeol kept fighting and playing hide and seek with the creature until it finally ran away. He just couldn’t let it lay a single touch on Annisa, or on Arae.

“Think about it again, Arae. We really need your help.” Chanyeol said, sounded almost like begging. The spirit of curses was looking back to him, this time with a soft stare.

“I don’t know guardian, Im not sure.” Was Arae’s final sentence before she finally closed her eyes, and suddenly Annisa’s body went limp, it was about to hit the ground when Chanyeol responsively ran and catched her body. The girl fell unconscious in his arm. Arae had disappeared, return to it’s passive stage.

Chanyeol looked down, right then he knew, it was the real Annisa who was sleeping in his arm.

 

***

 

Annisa saw bodies in front of her, lying on the ground, pale and lifeless. The scream already reached , but it stopped right there when she couldn’t let it out. She could feel her heartbeat was drumming against her chest as she scanned the entire place. She stood inside a majestic rounded hall made of white marbles and supported by huge pilars, she looked up and there was a dome high above her. There was a voice, spoken in a language Annisa had never heard before, and when she looked, there was a bearded man with one of his arm twined around a young girl’s neck. The young girls somehow, looked peculiar, she was so white, pale, but she was very much alive. When she was looking at her dark blue eyes, a sudden pang hit her chest. There was a sudden tides of intense emotion within her. Annisa felt like she was witnessing someone was about to take something away from her, something that was precious to her, but Annisa didn’t know what. The strange thing was, the bearded man was looking at her with a nasty grin, it was like he knew her. Suddenly, the man ran away to the huge door behind him, dragging along the pale young girl in his arm.

There was a scream echoed within Annisa’s eardrum before suddenly consciousness pulled her away into reality.

This time there was three blurred figure. One was seating next to her, the other two was standing in front of her. After blinking for several times Annisa’s vision was starting to get clear. The first face she saw was Chanyeol’s, the second one was Sehun’s, and the last one was Jasmine’s. Her friend was sitting on the bed next to her, her face looked really worried.

“Cha?” Jasmine put her hand on Annisa’s shoulder. Annisa nodded slowly before she put her hands on her forehead. All these feelings, the haziness she felt, was exactly the same like the one she experienced after the small alley incident couple days ago, and in that moment her memories flooded in. She opened her eyes wide and gave Chanyeol a straight look.

She saw it. The blazing red eyes. Chanyeol’s blazing red eyes. And it wasn’t a dream.

The expression in Chanyeol’s face was unreadable. It was neither anger, shock, nor sadness. It was a stiff face. Annisa wonder if Chanyeol she saw now was even Chanyeol that she knew. Or even Chanyeol that she knew was never existed since the very beginning. What if all those smile was only a persona? Is he even . . . human?

There was a feeling of eeriness, and dissapointment with a tint of anger inside Annisa’s heart. She felt like she was being cheated.  

“God, what happened to you?”

“Who carried me here?” Without answeing Jasmine’s question first, Annisa added more question.

“Chanyeol. Why?” Answered Jasmine. With that Annisa redirected her stare back to Chanyeol, she was looking at him intensly, demanding answers and explanations.  

“What happened?”

Chanyeol didn’t answer right away, he exchanged look with Sehun who stood beside him before looking back to Annisa.

“He said you suddenly passed out.” When it was Jasmine who answered her question and not Chanyeol, Annisa closed her eyes and tried to calm herself down.

“Suddenly passed out?” Annisa asked again, in a sarcastic tone. She knew for sure even though she suddenly passed out, it was because something happened to her, something that involved stings that was suddenly hit her body, and Chanyeol’s red eyes. Especially those red eyes. Chanyeol was definitely the only one who could explain it.

“I can explain it to you later.” Chanyeol opened his mouth finally, “But not now. Not here.”

“Why?” With a piercing stare Annisa asked. She needed a freakin explanation for God’s sake, couldn’t he just tell?! 

“You know why.” Sehun suddenly opened his mouth too while throwing a look to the girl who was still half lying on the bed. Of course she knew why, they couldn’t tell their big and bizzare secrets in front of Jasmine, they couldn’t let more people knew that they were a freak.

“What is it? Is there something I missed here?” Jasmine, who obviously knew nothing asked three other person in front her.

“Then you both can get out,” Both Jasmine and Chanyeol was shocked when Annisa said this, “you know where the door is.”

Annisa could see Sehun already clenched his fingers, but Chanyeol restrained him by holding his hand. Everything that happened to her was more than her rational senses could handle, and she didn’t need Chanyeol and Sehun, the source of all these anomalies, to be there near her for any longer. If they couldn’t explain then Annisa didn’t need them, and she won’t look for it. She decided to just forget everything, forget that she ever liked a person named Chanyeol, that she was classmate with someone named Sehun, and she will forget whatever happened to her on the pool as if it was never happened.

“Cha. . .” Jasmine held her hand.

“Take care.” Was Chanyeol’s last words before walking out of Jasmine’s room, tailed by Sehun. Annisa didn’t say anything in reply, she didn’t even look at the two people who just walked out of there. Jasmine stood up and walked Chanyeol and Sehun to the door.

“Thank you.” Mumbled Jasmine. In front  her, Chanyeol who already stood outside the room only nodded. She might not uderstand what happened to Annisa and Chanyeol previously, but whatever it is Jasmine thanked Chanyeol for calling her and told her that Annisa fainted on the pool, he even carried Annisa all the way from the third floor.

“Sure. “ Chanyeol replied short.

“But by the way,” Before continuing her question Jasmine walked out of her room and closed th door so Annisa won’t her what was she going to ask, “Sehun told me earlier this day that you’re looking for Annisa. Why?”

Jasmine could see there was a little doubt on Chanyeol’s face, “I just want to talk to her.” He answered. But somehow Jasmine knew it wasn’t an honest answer. After that, Chanyeol and Sehun left right away, and Jasmine retreated back to her room with a confused look.

“What actually happened, cha? Seriously.” With a growing curiosity Jasmine asked her friend once she went inside.

Annisa sighed and answered, “I wish I knew, Jas.”

 

***

 

Annisa could tell that the next day when she came into the class, was actually the very first time she paid real attention to other things other than looking for Chanyeol’s figure the very first time in the morning. Like that morning, she saw Bara was reading newspaper inside the class, or  Adilla, who was eating her spaghetti breakfast on the back of the class while reading a comic book. Before this everytime Annisa walked inside her classroom the first thing she did was to wonder where Chanyeol would sit, but right then she wondered where was the seat where she didn’t have to be close to Chanyeol. These kind of things used to just passed away from attention. That morning when she came in, several people had already arrived and was waiting for the class to start.

“Morning, Cha.”  Adilla waved from inside the class. Annisa could see that the spaghetti’s sauce was all over the girl’s mouth.

“Hi.” Annisa replied, walking to where Adilla sat on the last row and she put her bag beside her.

“You’re sitting here?” Adilla asked.

“Yeah. Why?”

“Aren’t you like to sit in the front.” Adilla was right. Annisa used to sit in the front with Jasmine, first because her friend didn’t like to be disturbed by other people in front of her, and second, because they both a shortie, they couldn’t see anything unless they sat on the front. But Annisa thought today she would make an exception.

“I don’t know. I’m feeling like sitting in the back. This seat is empty, right?” Adilla nodded enthusiastically when Annisa asked this, and then she smiled.

Last night, not long after Annisa was awaken, she went home right away. Before that Jasmine asked about what really happened between her and Chanyeol. Jasmine was really confused because She even asked Annisa did Chanyeol tried to do ‘something funny’ on her, but it went wrong and Annisa fainted. She refuted the guess that instant and quickly made an explanation about the chronology. She told Jasmine that she met Chanyeol in the elevator, badly bruised, so she offered help. But when they got to the pool when Annisa was giving Chanyeol a first aid treatment, she passed out.  Of course Annisa didn’t tell the part where her skin suddenly stings, or the part where she saw Chanyeol’s eyes turned scarlet. For a time being she would keep all those weird experiences to herself.  

“Oh my God! Chanyeol!”

Hee-Young’s hysterical call made Annisa and the rest of the class raised their head automatically to the door. Where two tall young guys just walked in, one of them was wearing an eye cover.

“Chanyeol?!” Their class suddenly went boisterous the moment Chanyeol, with his bruised face and one covered eye, made an entrance. Of course they were shocked. He was absent for three days, and he came with bruises. The said guy could only smile when he suddenly became the center of attention and was being interrogated by his classmates. Annisa looked away from Chanyeol, uninterested. She wondwred what kind of lies that he would tell to her friends, what kind of fake alibi he would give.

“What happened to your face?!” Asked Hee-Young in a high tone Annisa thought it sounded almost like it was fake. She moved her attention to her phone right away.

“You fought with a gangster or something?” Asked Bara who already put his newspaper down. Even though Annisa’s eyes was not on Chanyeol, her ear was wide open. Let’s her what he was going to say. After Chanyeol took a sat almost everybody gathered around him. Even Adilla left her breakfast and comic book, she hurriedly wiped while walking towards the crowd. Of course Annisa chose to stay still.

“So what happened?” Hee-Young, who obviously had took the closest seat to Chanyeol asked.

“Me and Sehun was attacked by these guys when we were walking in the middle of the night” Chanyeol answered, tried to sound convincing.

“Where?” Asked Adilla.

“Near my apartment. We were walking to the convinience store . . .” Chanyeol continued to tell his story. Annisa did have no idea what actually happened to Chanyeol so he got badly bruised like that, but she trusted none of his words. She later remembered that yesterday, she refused to take the ‘free pass’ Chanyeol was giving him so that she could ask about what happened.

“Oh my God, look at the bruise.” Right when Annisa raised her head, she saw Hee-Young was caressing the bruise on Chanyeol’s right mouth corner, where Annisa put the ban aid on. The girl sighed, tried to press the inflating jealousy within her chest. She really wanted to walked away, but she musn’t. The girl texted Jasmine to come faster to the class, so she didn’t have to be totally alone.

“Yo, I’m here already.” Jasmine who suddenly appeared shocked Annisa. “So Chanyeol’s not missing today?” She asked, looking at the crowd in front of their class, surrounding both Chanyeol and Sehun.

“Hm. I’m sitting here by the way.” Annisa didn’t really answer the question, she put her phone down, leaned back to her seat and crossed her arms. She got a confused look from Jasmine.

“What? You know I can’t sit in the back.” Of course Jasmine protested. Annisa gave Jasmine answer by shifting her eyeball to Chanyeol’s direction. Jasmine turned her head to follow Annisa’s eyes, and when she saw Chanyeol, she nodded in understanding. “Fine then. I’ll sit in the front. See you at lunch.” Jasmine patted her friend’s shoulder before walked away and put her bag on the front seat.

“Morning, class.” All of the sudden, Ms. Tata walked into the classroom, and made the crowd who was gathered around Chanyeol shocked. They stood and moved to their seat right away when the firm-looking professor took her seat in her desk. Annisa was about to put her phone away when it vibrated. She looked at the screen and there was an unknown number. When she opened the message she didn’t have to wonder who it was.

The message said, “I’ll explain it all.”

And when she raised her head, her stare clashed with Chanyeol’s.   

 

***

 

It was a bright night. Of course, most people couldn’t tell because it was night, therefore it was dark. But the sky was bright, the new moon wasn’t there, but Annisa still could see the faint twinkling of starlights billions of light years away from earth. She never thought she’d be standing there, on her campus’ lakeside seating area. Well, the place was normal, but the person who was about to come was the one that Annisa considered not normal. Since she reached that place, her heart had been pounding faster and faster. She didn’t know whether she was nervous about the person who she’d been waiting, or about the truth that was going to be unveiled.

“So you’re going to accept your ‘free pass’ now?” Annisa didn’t turned her head right away when she heard the deep voice she knew all to well. Chanyeol alerady took a seat beside her when she was about to turn, they were both facing the dark lake ahead of them. After Chanyeol texted her, she thought that she had to know the truth, so she told him to meet her here.

 Both of them were silence at first. Annisa could see Chanyeol bought two soft drink with him, and as soon as he sat down, he pulled out his cigarette’s box and his lighter, but he didn’t use it, he just put it beside him. Chanyeol was still using the clothes he was wearing this morning when they had class, Annisa didn’t know why but the long plaided shirt suit him so damn well, she almost lost her concentration.

“Okay,” Chanyeol opened his mouth, his eyes were straight, “What do you want to know first?”

Annisa turned her head to face Chanyeol while the guy was still looking at the lake, “Look at me.”

The moment their eyes met, She saw it again. The crimson eyes.

Chanyeol was letting Annisa see one of the secrets he’d been hiding. So she knew that she wasn’t dreaming at all, those were real. Annisa could feel her heart skipped a beat. For a moment there she felt like she was encircled by fear, naturally. When she looked into the eye there was an uneasiness and worries like Chanyeol might attack her. But when she was looking at his whole face, the fear dimmed, somehow seeing Chanyeol’s face reminded her of his laugh, and his calming smiles. Soon, instead of fear, she was mesmerized more by the beautiful oddity that was revealed right before her eyes.

“Your eyes . . “ Annisa mumbled in awe, she couldn’t take her eyes away from those deep red iris. But then Chanyeol closed his eye and when he opened it, the red eye were gone, replaced by the normal dark brown iris Annisa knew Chanyeol had.

“Sehun has it too,” He said, looking at Annisa with only one eye because the other one was covered by bandage, “All of us does.”

All of us? Annisa thought. She frowned in confusion.

“Who . . .” Annisa quickly shook his head and corrected her question, “What are you?