Scarlet: prequel of Azure

‘Well, do you know about the haunted house?’

Alex had calmed down, yet I thought she still had a sugar rush. She should know I knew about that abandoned house, everybody did. Still, I gave her an answer.

‘Of course,’ I replied, ‘who doesn’t?’

There was an abandoned house up a hill not too far from my home, people in my neighborhood said that it was haunted by a ghost, who was once a beautiful lady. The legend said that she died in vain ages ago. She had haunted the mansion since then, cursing everyone who dared entered the house. There were some who were braved had entered the house before. Many of them had gone missing, few of them returned, but all of them had lost their memory, someone or something had brain-washed them.

‘Nobody. So, Alex suggested that we should go there for an adventure. I think it is not a bad idea. What do you say?’

Alex was grinning, even Gwen’s lips cured up a little into a small smile, which was rare. Alex was very eager about the ‘trip’, Gwen didn’t want to show it, but it was still obvious. I felt glad for them because they found something in common, and for myself having the twin sisters for my best friends, it was probably the greatest thing since the incident. I didn’t have anything else to do, so I agreed to pay a little visit to the house.

I got a feeling that it wouldn’t be a walk in the park.

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The weather was fine. It was a sunny afternoon, white fluffy clouds were flowing luxuriously in the blue velvet sky, the sun was shining joyously, like a child with discovered Christmas came early. I glared at the fire ball, cursing it. The reason I hated the sun was its light. No matter how many times the sky would rain, no matter how gloomy the sky could be, it would always shine again, not even the night could stop it from shining brightly. It would always climb up from the east, day after day. It was something that I could never do. What sort of mockery is this?

I was deep in thoughts, so deep that I didn’t notice the sky was slowly tainted by depressing gray. The scenery changed as we were walking closer to the ghost house. Cold winds were whispering among themselves, ancient trees were waving their long arms at us, dried leaves were dancing in their waltz.

I stared at the old abandoned house in front of us. Faded white paint was barely visible. The scene sort of reminded me of something from past horror movie. Alex was a bit scared, probably because of the spooky effect, but Gwen was at ease, she was not pretending for sure. Nope. It didn’t bother her. Amazing. I was crept out like Alex.

‘W-well, l-let’s go-o,’ Alex said.

‘Dude, you’re shaking,’ Gwen pointed out.

‘S-shut u-up!’

‘Maybe we should come back another day. You know, when the weather is better here?’I suggested.

‘NO!’ both of them objected.

‘Huh?’ What was wrong with coming back another day?

‘It’s your birthday, we can’t just go back now,’ Alex replied. Gwen nodded in support of her sister. Opposite twin sisters united against me, great. Alex wasn’t shaking anymore too.

‘Well then, be my guest and open the door.’

‘You don’t want to do the honor?’

‘Yup.’ ‘Yes,’ Alex’s and my answer were the same.

Gwen shrugged. I thought I heard she said ‘scardy cat’ under her breath. Alex didn’t seem to notice though. We approached the ghost house. The environment was eerily quiet, I bet it must have scared the living daylight out of Alex. I didn’t feel comfortable when we were walking on the stairs.

Alex cowered behind me as Gwen opened the old heavy oak door very slowly. The door creaked when it was moving. I couldn’t help to roll my eyes. Seriously, was it really that scary? And was the slow motion necessary? I got impatient and yelled. ‘Hurry up already!’

‘Aw…you’re ruining my fun.’

‘Fun? What do you mean by that? ...Um… What’s wrong with her? ...O…’ I finished my sentence in realization. Of course, that’s the only reason.

Alex.

She was hiding behind a pole, frightened. She didn’t dare to look at us, or to see was the door opened yet. Gwen smiled evilly. I believed she was amused by her sister antic, even if Alex was genuine scared. Was scaring people that interesting? I didn’t see what was so funny about it. Gwen placed her index finger on her lips, asking me to stay silence. I ignored her, and ignored the urge to hit her out of irritation.

Very mature…

She took inhaled deeply, and then she moaned, ‘Alexandra Moore…’

Alex jumped and let out a shrill scream. She ran to me, hugging me. ‘Save me Charlene! The ghost is gonna eat me!’ She looked like she was going to cry.

‘…That’s Gwen.’ I said . ‘Can we get into the house already? We’re wasting our time!’

‘Yeah, yeah.’

At last, we began our journey. The inside of the forsaken house was covered by dust, a lot of cobwebs at the corners…I hoped there wasn’t any piled up skulls, that would have scared the stuffing out of Alex. Poor her, she could get frightened easily. Why did she recommend this house in the first place? The house was dirty and dusty. There could be mice and cockroaches roaming around. Why did I ever agree in the first place?

‘Ouch!’ Alex suddenly exclaimed. She held her foot, hopping around saying ‘ouch’ continuously. She was clumsy.

‘Did you kick something?’ I asked. Again. I added silently.

‘Are you ok, sis?’ I gave her a look, she nodded. Gwen strolled towards Alex, giving her a whack on the head. ‘Be more careful you fool…Hey, look guys, what’s this?’ Gwen bended her knees to pick something from the ground, it appeared to be a book with a lock. Dust was all over its black leather, silver lock and the letter beside it. Time slowed down as my brain was processing this piece of information, trying to comprehend what I had just seen. Then, I was struck with recognition. These were the things I had been dreaming about for the month!

The book and the letter!

In Gwen's hands were a black-covered book with an old, broken silver lock and an old-fashioned, half covered in blood letter. Shocked, I stared at those things.

B-but…isn’t that just a dream?!

‘Hm…interesting. Don’t cha think?’

‘No it’s not! It hurt my poor little foot!’ Alex lifted her leg and pointed at the top of her right shoe.

‘L-let me see that…’ I hesitated, wondering was I in a dream.

‘…Sure.’ I extended my hands. They were slightly shaking. My heart bumped rapidly against my chest. I held onto the letter tightly as if they were not real, or they might disappear if I let go. I opened the letter gently, instead of ripping it apart. The paper was a bit yellow on the edges. It seemed that it was written a long time- decades¬- ago. Words written by ink filled the paper.

‘So, what does it says?’ Alex inquired. I stared at the paper, reading it loudly.

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Dear reader,

I am Cyranda Silvermist. I am writing this letter because I want you to know you can do magic. Surprised? I am not kidding. This very letter and the book are locked by magic. Only people who have magical ability can see them, touch them, let alone open them.

There is a seal behind this letter. Please put your hand onto it, and it shall sort what rank are you in handling magic. You must follow this step. Every spell has its own risk. If you are not careful, the cost would be your life, or worst, your soul…

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The bottom half of the letter was stained in blood. It was unreadable. I frowned.

Magic? This must be a joke! People nowadays… I fumed at the thought. Ridiculous!

I paused.

My thoughts were even more ridiculous. The name Cyranda Silvermist-the name was in my dreams for nearly a month-couldn’t be merely a coincidence, right? Right, it couldn’t. It was real. Besides, no one would dare to enter this house.

‘Really?! That’s awesome! Gimme the letter,’ Alex shouted excitedly. She grabbed the paper out of my hands before I could answer her. (‘Be gentle!’ I shouted) She flipped over the paper. There was a circle with different signs in it (which reminded me of alchemy circle) just above the blood stain.

Alex stood a few steps away, facing us. She took a bow, grinning like an idiot.

‘Here I go!’ Alex announced.

She placed her right palm on the circle…

And she dropped it the next second, screaming bloody murder, pointing behind us.