Damien rubbed his eyes, blinking like a madman at the empty lawn.
"What just happened?" He asked himself, poking his head out the window to look for Ahara, but she had vanished.
This time he couldn't use the 'gym instructor' excuse again.
She was too fast for him to notice even though he prides himself in his sharp eyesight. Where others complain about not seeing clearly—like a needle pore—his eyes can. They're literal binoculars and can even catch up with the movements of a flying bee, and yet, they couldn't spot Ahara's movement or where she went.
With a pacing heartbeat that threatened to crack his chest open, Damien closed the window and sat back on his bed wondering what the hell he just witnessed. He couldn't wrap his head around it all, so he decided to vent on a question-and-answer website he found a few years ago when he wanted to know how to shave his puberty hair but couldn't ask Ahara because he felt embarrassed.
Ever since then, the website had become his encyclopedia on topics he couldn't bring himself to ask his sister because of their different genders—or because she had magically vanished before he could ask anything.
Taking out his phone, he opened Google and logged into his account, pressing the small pen icon on the far corner and typing:
My sister just left the house now. It's 11pm where we live and I was afraid she'll be attacked by rapists etc, but now I'm wondering if I should be scared for the rapists instead. She jumped from the fourth floor down to the ground in mere seconds, and when I went to look for her outside my bedroom window, I saw her, but she suddenly vanished from sight! Should I ask her about what I saw when she comes back or should I just leave her be? What should I do?
Ps: She's a gym instructor
Pressing the send button, Damien threw his phone on the bed and looked out the window again.
Maybe he had imagined it all and was just sleepy. Yes, that had to be it. He was way past his normal bedtime; it was probably his eyes playing tricks on him because they were tired. Deciding to ignore the little annoying voice in his head telling him his eyes were okay, he picked up the duvet he had thrown on the floor a while ago and tucked himself to sleep.
But when he closed his eyes, the noise in his head only worsened.
Ahara had indeed vanished before his eyes. There was no denying it. No amount of sleep or therapy could make him unsee it. There was only one way to end the dilemma he was facing, which was confronting Ahara—again.
"Ugh, isn't there a better way?" Damien cried to no one but himself, kicking his feet in the air as if that would make his problems disappear.
DING!
Just then, a message popped up on his screen and he immediately sat up, unlocked his phone, and headed to the website to check the answers he had received so far. However, all of them weren't exactly helpful to his current predicament. Instead, they seemed to mock him.
[Go to sleep!]
[Bro, you've watched too many anime. Tone it down a little.]
[Hahaha. Kids and their imagination. Are you sure you weren't dreaming?]
[How is that even humanly possible?]
[Maybe she's a magical cultivator from another dimension *laughing emoji*]
Sighing, Damien pressed the delete button. He should have known better than to ask such a childish-sounding question online. The majority of the people on the website were older than him by age—it showed on their bio's. But he still thought they'd at least help him with this question like they always do every time he needs their help.
"Now what?" Damien asked himself loudly, gnawing at his bottom lip and peeking out the window.
Ahara had said she'd be back by dawn. It was barely even ten minutes since she vanished, and yet, it seemed like an entire hour had passed. Damien wasn't sure he'd be able to handle all this pressure alone whilst waiting for Ahara to return. He needed someone to talk to—now.
DING!
Another notification rang. Clicking his tongue, he checked the source of the message and noticed that it was the website's inbox. Someone had sent him a private message.
Bullies.
With a strong resolve to block the stranger who had messaged him, Damien opened the message but was shocked to see what was written in it.
You should be afraid for her, it's not a safe place out there. I heard there have been recent sitings of strange animal-like people who eat humans and 11PM is exactly the time when they start patrolling around for prey. Your sister shouldn't be roaming around at night...unless she's one of them. I mean, you did say she moves at super-fast speeds.
Black dots covered Damien's vision as he tried to comprehend what the stranger had just sent him. Animal-like people they said. And Ahara had left home in time for their hunt?
Great! Just great!
Do you think I should go after her? Damien frantically typed back, biting his nails as he waited impatiently for a reply.
Three small dots showed at the bottom of the chat, hinting that his phone pal was typing which made him stare anxiously at the screen. Lemony—as the username suggested—was a slow poke at typing. Damien clicked on the profile to check their bio and wasn't shocked to see that she was a fifty-year-old woman with far too many degrees in her hands.
It took a lot of waiting before a message finally came from her.
I wouldn't advise you to do that. What if you end up being killed and she returns to an empty home?
Right. He couldn't die too. That would kill Ahara before the beastly things got to her.
Then what do you suggest I do?
Damien stood from his bed and paced around his room, waiting for Lemony's reply. It came faster this time.
Wait for her return. If she doesn't return before the afternoon, call the police.
"Ha! I can't believe this," Damien hit the top of his bed stand, clenching his jaw. Why did Ahara never tell him such important things like what she was planning on doing tonight after he had gone to sleep? Is that why she kept reminding him to wear noise blockers? Because she doesn't want him to know she goes for jogs late in the night?
"Your sister shouldn't be roaming around at night...unless she's one of them."
Lemony's words from earlier came to haunt his mind, but Damien shook his head, laughing. He was indeed sixteen, but he wasn't stupid enough to believe in such gibberish.
Ahara was a man-eating beast?
Never! She would have attacked him a long time ago if that were true.
But even as he tried to shake the thoughts out of his head, Damien kept remembering the scar he had seen on Ahara's back, not to mention how she had vanished in plain sight before his very eyes. Lemony's theories kept cementing every time the images flashed in his mind—no matter how hard he tried to deny it.
Another notification rang on his phone and he checked it out, to see a message from Lemony, again:
When your sister returns, check to see if she has any scars. It could be a sign that she fought. That'll help you know whether she is indeed killing humans and devouring them, or if she met one of those animal-like people and fought them. Who knows? She might be the hero saving innocent victims every night whilst the entire city is sleeping. Exposing her identity to you wouldn't exactly be a good choice on her part if that's the case.
Damien watched as the green dot that showed that Lemony was online vanished. She too decided to leave him alone with his thoughts, and if that wasn't enough reason to make him mad, the chats she had with him immediately vanished from sight the moment she logged out.
Gripping his phone with shaking hands, Damien threw it on the bed with enough force to send it bouncing off the bed into an anime character's sticker plastered on the wall right below his window.
He didn't care if it was cracked, he needed to know Ahara was safe at all costs, but not when his life could become part of the expenses if he followed after her.
He had no choice but to wait for her return just as Lemony had suggested, even if it meant getting puffy eyes tomorrow. Ahara was far too important to him than looking good at a parent-teacher conference that would only remind him he didn't have any parents to begin with.
She was his only family, his support system, and his reason for trying so hard in life. She had to be safe. For both their sakes.