Vanishing Crimson

Unexpected Turn

"It was the hut! There." I shouted pointing to it.

"Oh, It really is. I thought it was nonexistent." she was surprised too. I felt that hope was in touch. We sprinted to the house as quick as we can.

Alex knocked on the door but there was no reply. She knocked again. Louder and louder, but nothing happened.

Wait, this thing happened three years ago. I whispered to myself.

So I recalled what my dad did that opened the door. Then I shouted,

“Hello? Anybody there? Please?” 

Then I pretended to knock again. I positioned my hand. Believe it or not, the door slowly opened with a creaking sound. The old man appeared from the back of the door. We were shocked. He swayed his hands backwards, doing the welcome sign. He smiled but said nothing. Everything happened again from the previous three years.

We entered the hut. Alex was so speechless. She was gripping my hand tightly. She was looking from side to side. I noticed, so I comforted her.

"Relax, I'm here. I know what to do." I said. She said nothing, so we continued following the old man. We can only see the old man's eyes and a little of his scar. His body is covered with weird clothes.

"It was the first time I saw a man with strange eyes." Alex whispered. I gave her a smile. The old man was walking silently.

The house is so quiet. Still the same, the corners have spider's webs. Dusty furniture and vintage kitchen utensils were present. You can only hear the tapping of the water from the sink. The old man brought us to his dark dining room.

Alex was busy asking questions to him, but he didn't answer. Alex got annoyed.

"What the?! Why can't you answer even just a single question? Even just to nod, Are you deaf?"

"Chill, he’s really like that at first." I told her. I then saw something familiar beside him. I didn't saw that last three years. It's just like; I saw it, just a while ago.

"Is that your purse?" I asked.

"You're an observant person. You consider unnoticed things important." He answered. So he was the person beside me in the bus. Wow. 

"Huh?" Alex was so curious.

"Okay, so about our parents. Do you know where they went that midnight?" she asked instead.

"Yes. They went to the ghost town." He replied as he removes the cover on his face. 

He was not the old man. They only had the same eyes and scar. He was younger, and had a fair complexion. Around 20 years old and I had to admit it, he was good-looking. A well-created man for me. 

"You're not the old man! Who are you?" I yelled.

"I am him. This is my real appearance."

"How?!" I lost control and was acting weird because I was so shocked. After some words that came out from our lips, Alex fainted.

Yes, she did. O no, I didn't know what to do by that time. I even forgot to ask more things about our parents. He brought her to an old sofa.

"Oh my gosh, what happened to her? Do anything! Please! Don't let anything bad happen to her. Help her recover!"

But he did something that looked very stupid in my point of view.

 He sprinkled sparkling golden dust on my face.

 And I became calm. I didn't know how it was possible. I wanted to shake his shoulder and to make him recover her faster. But I couldn’t do anything I wanted. These golden dusts were in control of my body. I couldn't move my fingers, legs, arms, and even my eyeballs and lips.

"Sit." He said with a soothing voice. I didn't want to sit, but my body did. I can only control my mind. Not my body.

What's with the golden dust? What happened to me? Why does the old man have golden dust? These questions repeated in my head. 

He said some weird and chant-like words and placed his palm on my sister's forehead. What kind of language was that? Did that even exist? Hell I care; I just needed information to find my parents. Nothing more like my sister fainting out of the blue and my body being paralyzed by some weirdo’s freaking weird golden dust.

After the treatment or whatsoever,

"Okay, I know you may be acting and thinking weird in your mind. I'll release the magic if you promise you'll ask questions, one, by, one." He said. One... by. One... It repeated in my mind for three times and I said in my mind "Yes". As if he can read it. Then, after three long seconds, my eye blinked. But I fell. I lost my balance. I couldn't stand.

"Hey what happened to me?" He carried me like how husbands carry their wives. It was my first time being carried that way. He placed me near my sister. I looked at his green and black eyes. He stared at me for a minute.

"I can see that you lost your balance. You will recover soon. I'll just apply some golden dust on your leg." he said with a poker face.

Not that freaking dusts again. "I'm allergic to your golden dust!"

"No. I'll apply a different spell on the golden dust." The hairs in my hand stood. That sounded so creepy.

"What? Spell? What are you saying? I can't understand you!" I forgot that he said I would only ask questions, one by one.

"Uh oh. Peace." I said while his about to glare at me. "Okay. I'll ask you. What are you?" I asked patiently and calmly.

At first, he refused to answer. But he answered after a short moment. "Don't over react. Okay?"

"Okay." I said.

"I am an immortal, in a human form."

Silence filled the room. I stopped my eyes from widening.

"No, seriously, what are you?" I was in an annoyed look.

"I am what I said I am. Immortal."

I rolled my eyes and looked at Alex.

"Fine. Let's say you're an immortal. So where did you come from?"

"From the dark side, but chose to quit. We are from the ghost town."

"So you killed people?" I thought twice before asking him.

"No. I didn't. I can't do it. I have no guts. Our family was cursed to have a killing conscience because my grandparents were great killers." he smiled sadly.

"So why are there people still disappearing in the ghost town?"

"They are the second family. They are not affected by the curse because they got away earlier. They lived in the forest for decades, and came back to the ghost town and continued killing people."

"Why are you killing people?"

"For power."

The thunder sounded loudly. I gripped the arm of the sofa because of the great shock. The cold feeling was running through my body then to my heart.

I covered my mouth and held my breath for seconds. I looked in his eyes sadly. His answers were shocking. It was amazing, but still, very creepy. I stopped asking questions because I was too astonished to speak. For a moment, I was really talking to an immortal. But I knew I couldn't trust him yet. I felt that there were more things I had to know from this man before trusting his words.

The rain started to pour. There was a storm. The place became colder. The fear was going up to my brain. He seemed to be so sad. I saw it in his face. That was Alex’ face after losing our parents.

Killing people for power? If this whole thing was true, I wish, the other family didn't escape the curse. My parents could had been with us even until now.