The Dark Path : The Start of Darkness, The Beginning of True Struggles

Chapter Ten

- Chapter Ten -

I found myself a few days later in the Ayagaki family restaurant along with Miles, Sierra and Jaymie. Keiji was serving the four of us drinks as we sat around a table. He told us that Cathy and his sister, Kimiko, had left a day before. Whatever the reason was, Keiji seemed hesitant to tell us. There was a pained look in his eyes that had not seen before that gave away the tell-tale sign that he had seen something traumatic. No matter how much we pressed him, the explanation for Cathy and Kimiko’s departure never left his mouth. After a while, we gave up on prying the answer out of him. I just hoped that whatever it was, it won’t come and bite us out of the blue.

I was glad to see that Sierra was alright despite her looking rather tired. She was still able to smile even after getting kidnapped by SMART and then interrogated by Alessandro. Jaymie, on the other hand, had no luck in finding her family. She told me that her family had moved to another location and nobody she asked was able to give her a proper lead. The CIM still did not return with any updates on her family’s location. She gripped her mug and stared at her drink, obviously the whereabouts of her family in her head. The person that concerned the most at the table was Miles. He was able to talk warmly with everyone as usual. However, whenever I turned my gaze away, out of the corner of my eye, I caught him watching me with a dark look in his eyes more than once but I did not call him out for that. The look in his eyes indicated that he was observing me in a suspicious way as though you would stare at a crime suspect. Despite that, Miles never said anything beyond casual conversation. Did something happen to him when he went to rescue Sierra?

I was still distraught over the revelation that Syschela was Alexis. I thought I would be happy to see her again safe and sound but all I had in me were negative feelings. She watched as I lost control over my elemental powers. She watched as I took many lives. She watched as I turned into a monster. She did not nothing. She knew I was the elemental of darkness from the start and did not warn me of the demon I would become. Sierra was busy explaining what had happened to her from the moment SMART abducted her. She recalled how she then awoke tied to a chair with Alessandro and his elemental standing around her, questioning her. She looked at me as she recalled the incident but seemed hesitant to repeat the questions that were asked. Why is she reluctant to mention the questions? Is she hiding something from me? Is Sierra going to be another person that I couldn’t trust?

“…then Light brought in these winged girls whom he called angels. At first I thought it was a nickname for them but then I saw how they had actual wings that moved and born from their body like arms and legs. Light referred to them as his servants.”

Jaymie almost choked on her drink. She coughed as she wiped the mess she made. Sierra paused her story and all of us looked at Jaymie.

“Are you alright there?” Miles asked her and handed her a serviette. She accepted the serviette and soaked up her mess. I looked at Jaymie as she continued with her drink. Immediately, I began to suspect Jaymie of hiding something as well. Was she hiding a secret as well? My trust for Jaymie quietly eroded.

Sierra continued her story. “Apparently, these angels, these winged girls, were Alessandro’s servants.”

I looked at Sierra and raised a hand. “Wait, what did you say?”

“Hmm? Oh, the winged girls were Alessandro’s servants. Why do you ask? Wait, you’re the elemental of darkness. If the elemental of light has winged servants, what do you have?”

I immediately summoned Thavin and ordered him to bring Alexis to me. Several minutes later, the shadow people pulled Alexis from out of the shadow people. Everyone turned to look at Alexis as she appeared. Miles and Jaymie had wide eyes as they stared at her. Sierra, who had never seen Alexis prior to this, only watched in curiosity.