Yoh and Ren

Chapter 4

Ren laughed, and although it was a pleasant sound, it was a sad one.

Ren hugged Yoh and reaffirmed that he would keep his promise. And they both parted ways, for the last time it seemed.

When Ren made his way up the window of his sleeping quarters, he realized that his things were already packed and his mother awaited his arrival on the corner of his bed. He quietly but swiftly entered and said his greetings.

"Hello Stepmother, it's quite nice to see you here. How are you?" he spoke with a neutral tone. Not wanting to seem weak, or to begin crying just after he parted with his friend.

"Did you gift your friend any of the precious jewelry we own by chance?" his mother asked in a consistent tone. Almost like she already knew the answer, but just needed confirmation.

"It's been a year, and the jewelry belonged to me in the first place. Is it that I don't even have control over my rightful items now?"

"Your father hasn't noticed its disappearance. And I don't think he will, because it's just one piece of jewelry."

"It's been gone for a year, and no one has detected that it's been missing. As I said, it belongs to me. I have the rightful ownership of it. It does not concern you."

With a sigh, his stepmother gets up and leaves through the door. Eden locks it behind her and slumps down the door and he burst into tears. He couldn't see his best friend anymore, and all that was left was his memories and the necklace he gave him.

His tears turned to sobs and sobs turned into wails of pain. But this pain was nothing like the lashes he received, the pang in his chest was more painful than anything else he has ever experienced.

But his wails dialed down back to sobs, then tears, and then silence. He cried until he fell asleep. He wasn't woken up until around two hours later. Meaning that it was now six pm and they had to leave. Their bags were already packed and well-stored in a truck behind them. Then, they left.

He got out of the car they stayed in and entered the airport but unlike regular people, they immediately boarded the aircraft. But Ren didn't like it very much. But he went to his room and nodded off into a nightmarish slumber.

He awoke in a white space, and not knowing where he was, he started to walk. Ren saw something in the distance and began to run toward it. The familiar brown spikey hair and orange headphones were a relief to see but as the figure slowly turned around, Ren realized that it wasn't his friend, but a strange-looking creature.

"Who and what are you?" he cautiously asked, as if it would pounce on him at any time.

"Why, I am your friend, Yoh," the monster proclaimed as Ren moved a step back.

"No, you're not. Yoh doesn't look like you. And he doesn't talk like you!" Ren asserted with a slight falter. The monster began to laugh, and slowly morph into something sinister looking and hands soon appeared and began to choke Ren. But as he was being choked he could hear someone calling his name.

"-en!"

"Who's there?"

"Ren!"

"Hello?"

"Ren!"

He shot up, terrified with a cold sweat on his forehead. And his hands around his neck. He looked in horror at his hands. 'I tried to choke myself? But there was a monster and-' his thoughts were cut off as his older sister started to shake him.

"Ren! We're here, in China. What's up with you these days? You're always out of it." she spoke with worry as he had been choking himself in his sleep. And if she wasn't here who knows what could have happened?

"I'm fine," he stated with raspiness in his voice and he drank some water to get his voice back.

"Well, if you need anything, just know that I'm here for you. Okay?" she spoke with a reassuring tone,

He smiled and thanked her. They then got off the aircraft and left for the hotel they would stay in for a while. They all slept the night there except for Ren, as he was scared that he would choke in his sleep. So he stayed up.

But he didn't know that someone, somewhere else, would be doing the same thing as him.