Memories Of The Past

Blinking awake, Emi let out a tiny groan and slowly sat up from her bed, hearing silence throughout the area. She knew that no one was awake, since she would always wake up the earliest among everyone after all, her body only needed less than six hours of sleep every day. She decided to freshen herself up by heading to the river to wash up and this time, she was glad that no one was peeking on her, unlike that time.

Once she neared the house, she began to hear the sounds of swords clanging against one another and she curiously glanced around, noticing two men dueling against each other. She furrowed her eyebrows, a thought occurring in her mind.

Why don’t they use guns at all?

Guns are much more efficient.

“I’m sure they don’t mind if you decide to join them.” Someone said beside Emi, making her jump in shock. She quickly glanced warily to the person beside her, taking on a defensive position.

“Relax, Shadow Rogue, I mean no harm at all.” The person said and Emi relaxed her tense form a little, her eyes lighting up in recognition.

“It’s you…” Emi muttered and the person grinned, revealing it to be the person she helped yesterday.

“Yes, you saved my life.”

Emi didn’t respond with anything, only looking away once he said those words.

“I’m Zak, what’s your name?” Zak stuck his hand out towards her, gesturing for her to shake his hand and she just narrowed her eyes at him.

“Look, I only helped you to dress your wounds and I don’t expect anything in return, neither am I expecting you to be my friend.” Emi explained, taking a step further away from him and not shaking his hand.

He continued grinning, groaning a little as he took a step closer to Emi since the injury was on one of his legs, causing Emi to narrow her eyes further.

“You shouldn’t be moving around like this, your wound might reopen and I’m not going to help you this time.”

Zak chuckled and she gave him a puzzled look, wondering what was so amusing to him.

“You don’t have to be so cautious, I only want to know your name, that’s all.” Zak said, extending his hand out to her again.

“I’m Zak and you are…?”

Don’t any of them here have surnames?

Emi let out a resigned sigh, knowing that he wasn’t going to leave her alone until she said her name. Gingerly placing her palm on his, she shook his hand stiffly. “Emi, Emi Winters.”

“That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

Emi let out a scoff, pulling her hand away.

“And we don’t have surnames here.”

“What?” Emi was confused by his words.

“We don’t introduce our surnames here, since it isn’t needed.” Zak answered her, the grin plastered back on his face again as he slowly walked off.

What a strange tradition.

She watched him go, resting against the tree and she continued observing them train, however, her mind started to wander off.

Three days.

It’s been three days since I stopped stealing.

Eventually, more and more people started to exit the house, beginning their training in the yard while Emi continued resting against the tree, sitting down on the grass. She looked up, the sunlight in the clear blue sky blinding her slightly and she raised her hand, blocking the sunlight.

The feeling of not stealing anymore is odd.

I feel like a part of me is gone and yet, I don’t seem to miss that feeling.

It’s as if a heavy burden has been lifted off my shoulders.

A small smile covered Emi’s face as she closed her eyes, withdrawing her hand back and she inhaled in a deep breath, relaxing herself.

It’s so amusing.

I’m in an unknown territory that I desperately want to escape from, but I feel more at ease here.

“I must be going mad.” Emi whispered to herself and yet, the tiny smile never disappeared from her face.

Kris watched her from afar, his eyes widening a little when he spotted a small smile on Emi’s face.

“She’s capable of smiling?” Kris murmured out loud, not noticing that Yun was behind him, hearing his words.

“Who is?”

Startled, Kris’ body twitched as he quickly recovered, hastily giving an answer. “Nobody.”

Yun stared at Kris as he walked away, probably to check if there was any pigeons at the back of the house. After which, he directed his eyes towards where Kris was looking at before, raising his eyebrow when he realised that Kris was watching the woman he hated.

“Nobody, huh…” Yun muttered to himself, a tiny smirk on his face as he started approaching Emi.

Emi’s smile disappeared when she heard someone walking towards her, making her look up and she recognized the person to be Yun.

“What is it? What do you want?” She asked curtly and Yun only gave her a silent response, sticking out his hand.

She stared at it, raising an eyebrow as she looked back at Yun who rolled his eyes in return. Without warning, he grabbed her wrist and started pulling her, making her stand up abruptly, stumbling after him.

“He-hey! What are you doing? Let go of me!”

“Just follow me.”

Irked, Emi twisted her hand around and forcing Yun to let go of her wrist. The commotion attracted everyone’s attention, since Emi’s voice was the only feminine voice around here.

“Just tell me what you want.” She hissed at Yun, rubbing at her wrist.

Without hesitation, Yun grinned and threw a punch at her, making her widen her eyes as she ducked.

“Are you-“

“Spar with me.” Yun interrupted her and she paused, glaring at Yun.

“Why?”

“Aren’t you bored, sitting around the whole day and observing us, you must be itching to do something.”

Emi let out a long sigh, the annoyed look on her face dissipating as a stony look covered her face. “Alright, fine.”

Yun nodded, starting to circle around her and she did the same, until after a moment, Emi made the first move. Charging towards Yun, she tried to punch Yun in the face, only for him to block it with his arm and countering her with a punch. Unfortunately, Emi couldn’t dodge it and it landed on her abdomen, making her fly back as she knelt to the ground.

I can’t beat him, he should know that.

I run more than I fight.

“I know you are strong, but not strong enough to beat any of us.” Yun said, his words irritating her as she pressed a hand to her abdomen.

“If you know that, why are you sparring with me?” She questioned, slowly standing up and she winced slightly.

“Why aren’t you walking away from me then?” He asked her, rushing towards her and jumping into the air, using his leg to kick her, which she barely managed to avoid.

He’s fast.

“To kill my boredom.” Emi answered nonchalantly and Yun smirked, spinning around to block another punch from Emi.

Soon enough, they started to attract a crowd as everyone observed their fight. Zak was among them, along with Aman, who disliked Emi ever since he got beaten by her due to his injuries. Kris, who was held a piece of paper in his hands, heard the loud commotion at the front of the house, making him frown as he quicken his pace, slamming the door open.

His eyes widened in surprise when he noticed Yun and the Shadow Rogue sparring with one another, but he immediately knew that the Shadow Rogue wasn’t strong enough to beat Yun.

Emi spun around, swiftly landing a kick on Yun who used both of his arms to block her kick, wincing a little as he stumbled back.

“Nice kick.” Yun complimented Emi, who didn’t react to his compliment and dashed towards him, aiming for his side with another kick only for him to avoid it easily. He took this opportunity to attack her at the lower part of leg, making her yelp in pain as she knelt to the ground. Before she could get up, she caught sight of a fist out of the corner of her eyes and she tensed up, bracing for the attack however, it came to a stop.

“If this was a real fight, you’ll be knocked out.” Yun remarked, drawing his fist back and Emi squeezed her eyes close, knowing that she lost.

How can I expect to defeat the leader’s right-hand man?

Opening her eyes, Emi saw a hand stretched out to her and she lifted her head up, seeing Zak grinning at her. “Don’t worry, we all started out like this too.”

Staring at his hand, Emi just remained on the ground, hesitaten in accepting his help. Eyeing it with a blank look, she glanced up to Zak who waited expectantly, not moving an inch.

It was strange for somebody to help her or even care about her. She has been independent for almost her entire life after all, an absolute lone wolf.

Emi sighed before smirking wryly, taking his hand and standing up, trying not to put too much pressure on him. “Thanks.” She muttered out and Zak winked at her, before walking back to the crowd.

“Alright, alright. Back to training, everybody, the fight is over.” Zak said, gesturing his hands to everyone to get back to their training and a few of them stepped forward, patting Emi on the shoulder.

“It’s okay, I was like you too.”

“Don’t worry, we don’t expect a cute girl like you to beat any of us.”

“It’ll get better with training.” Emi avoided the third person trying to pat her shoulders, narrowing her eyes at him and he just held an amused expression on his face, walking off. Frowning at all of their comments, she dusted her shoulders since she didn’t like people touching any part of her.

“Zak is right, we all started out like this too.” Yun spoke and she directed her glance towards him.

“I don’t really care, Yun. I still have no idea why you are doing this.”

“That’s it, I’ve decided! I’m going to spar with you every day from now on.” Yun declared, ignoring her words and she let out an annoyed huff.

“Yun, I’m asking you this seriously, why are you doing this?” Emi asked, gritting her teeth.

“Because I want to, besides, it’s not like you have anything much to do here.” Yun shrugged his shoulders and she ran a hand through her hair, shaking her head.

“Do you really think your leader will allow this?”

“Ye-“

“She’s right, I won’t allow this.” Kris said, cutting off Yun as he marched towards them, narrowing his eyes at Emi.

“I appreciate it that you helped my comrade but I don’t want you getting involved with any of them, or with any of our activities.” Kris warned her and Emi clenched her fists, taking a step forward towards Kris, opening to retort back when Yun stepped in to defend her.

“Whoa, whoa, Kris. I dragged her into this, I told her to spar with me.”

Kris glared at Emi, before directing his glare towards Yun. “Don’t get involved with her, Yun. She’s a criminal, and nothing good comes from associating with criminals, they are devious, don’t you understand that?”

Emi scoffed at Kris, clenching her fists even tighter now.

“He’s right, Yun, don’t get yourself involved with me.” Emi growled, glaring angrily at Kris before storming away and Yun watched her go, frowning at her.

“Kris, aren’t you a bit too harsh? You don’t even know her enough to claim that she’s evil, don’t you think she might have a reason for turning out this way?” Yun argued with Kris, his words making Kris recall a few things he disliked. He recalled the day he found Emi sleeping, calling out to her mother, asking not to abandon her; also recalling the scars on her back when he accidently saw her washing herself up, followed by yesterday when she helped Zak.

A reason?

However, before he could think any further, a sudden memory of his smiling father and it slowly turned into a miserable one where his father was laying on a hospital bed, a wretched expression on his face.

“Please, this is my dying wish.”

Kris shook his head, trying to erase thoughts of Emi, a melancholic expression on his face. “I was just stating the truth, Yun. Now, let’s go, we have more requests.”

Yun let out a resigned sigh, glancing back at the direction where Emi went off to before following Kris back into the house.

************************************************

It was nighttime and Emi was in the attic, hurriedly packing up her belongings. She eavesdropped on Yun and Kris’ conversation, knowing that they were still not back from their requests that were assigned to them. Hence, she knew that the amount of mercenaries in the area has decreased significantly, meaning it was her only chance to escape.

They probably don’t expect me to escape from here this quickly.

Emi smirked to herself, carrying the satchel around her as she finally packed everything she needed. Quickly checking her hidden pocket, she was relieved to find that the Timeless Necklace was still in her possession.

He hasn’t found it yet.

Thank goodness.

She sneaked out of the attic, down the hallway and out of the house, scouring around for any patrols. Hurriedly making her way to the secret entrance, she searched around the spot for anything, since it was dark and she couldn’t see clearly, only remembering where the secret entrance was.

Crap.

I should have thought about this more and find out where the lever to the door was at.

Her face brightened up in relief when she felt her fingers brushing over something hard and she immediately grabbed onto it, pulling on it. She realised it was a metal hoop and the more she pulled it, the bigger the entrance was, however, upon looking inside the secret entrance, she noticed it was completely dark.

“I can’t see anything…” She muttered out and she hesitated, not knowing whether to plunge into that darkness or wait another day.

“Hey, Shadow Rogue! What are you doing over there?” One of the patrols exclaimed, making Emi panic as she panicked, dropping down into the hole without hesitation. Nevertheless, doing that, she completely closed the entrance and she sealed herself in the manmade hole.

I wish they would stop calling me that.

Emi frowned, starting to get annoyed at everyone in the area calling her Shadow Rogue, since she was more used to people calling her by her real name back at her previous base. Opening her eyes, Emi realised she was trapped in complete darkness and she widened her eyes, not expecting the whole place to be consumed in darkness.

Oh no…

She started to feel insecure, hugging her body to herself as she started recalling unpleasant memories when she was younger. There was hardly any oxygen down here and the darkness started to make her panic as she squeezed her hands tightly around her arms, her breathing quickening.

Soon enough, she started to see things in the darkness and she could feel herself starting to hyperventilate, crouching down in fright as she hugged her knees to herself, trying to take in big gulps of air, only to realise that she couldn’t breathe properly.

I can’t breathe!

Gasping for air, she started to whimper to herself when she remembered her younger self in the dark alleyway, hiding in the garbage cans and dumpsters to hide herself from the men who tried to find her.

Step.

Step, step.

A younger Emi squeezed her eyes shut, holding her breath so as to not breathe in the disgusting stench of the waste.

Step.

She heard the footsteps coming closer and closer, along with the creepy voices of the men trying to beckon her to them.

Step.

Emi’s eyes snapped open as she heard the footsteps were near her now and without warning, her breathing started to quicken by itself and she could hardly hold her breath.

Step, step, step.

Step.

Emi whimpered to herself, shivering with fright as she started to gasp for air, hoping that they couldn’t hear her at all.

Stay away!

Go away!

Please, don’t find me…

I’m scared.

I’m so scared, please…stay away!

Emi’s vision started blur and she knew she wasn’t getting enough oxygen into her system. A hazy look covered her eyes as tears unknowingly started to prickle at her eyes, however, she was too consumed by her memories of the past that she started to mumble incoherently to herself, not hearing the rumbling sound behind her as light streamed into the manmade tunnel.

I'm so sorrrry guys, I've been binge watching alot of shows ;x