Spirits: Waking Up Alone

Kiara's Past

      "Let me out!" Hunter shouted, banging his fists against the walls of the oddly shaped crystalline room that contained him. "Let me out, Carnirus!" His fists ached with the continuous contact, and he finally had to stop. His soul was going to be traded in today. Traded with Carnirus so he could come back to life. The worst part of it was that Carnirus could influence the living in life, and would still have all the shadowbeasts at his command.

      Hunter sank to the floor, his back against the wall. Now what? All Hallow's Eve was swiftly approaching, and he was trapped in a cage. Kiara was probably dead now. Well, deader. But he hoped that may be by some miracle she had escaped the castle. 

     He had come here with the intention to save Kiara, but had only found himself too deep in a pool of trouble. "What does it feel like...." he muttered to himself, staring at the black, gnarled ground, "...to have your soul taken from you?"

     "Painful, to say the least," a voice said from beside him, and Hunter leapt to his feet, stumbling back in surprise.

     But what stood there was merely a whisp of a figure, like a faded ghost of a girl. She looked as if she'd been partly dissolved, and her face bore a hint of a sad smile, barely distinguishable.

     "It's you," Hunter realized, recognizing her after a moment.

       "Melody," her voice was soft and low, faded like the rest of her. "I am her to tell you something important. Something you mustn't tell anyone."

     "How did you get in here?" Hunter narrowed his eyes suspiciously, crouching in front of her hesitantly.

    "I am less than a spirit. I can fit into places people cannot," was her quiet reply. "But there is something you need to know."

     "Yeah? What's that?"

     "Tell me, Hunter... Do you know who I am?" Melody asked, her white eyes sliding back to look up at him.

     "No clue." He replied, a frown creasing across his face.

     "Would you like me... to tell you?"

     Hunter blinked, unsure why she would tell him of all people. But he nodded, not willing to pass up the chance to find out. Also, what else was he supposed to do?

        "It starts with Kiara as a human," Melody said softly, lowering her gaze to the ground. "Back when she was alive. She had a sister who was just learning how to drive, just got her license. But there was a problem, something they had recently discovered. Something was beginning to happen to Kiara. She was seeing things in the shadows, horrible, mangled bodies that looked as if some large beast had left its kill sitting there. It messed with her mind, drove her crazy. She told her sister what she was seeing, but her sister could never see these bodies."

   "Because Kiara was about to die," Hunter cut in, "Some people see the bodies shadowbeasts destroy when they're about to die."

    "Yes...." Melody turned away, continuing her tale in a whisper, "One night, a body appeared in Kiara's room, beside her bed. And she lost it, crying and freaking out at the horrible sight. She was panicking so badly, and her parents weren't home. She worried her sister as she began to call every paranormal investigator on the internet, and finally found one who seemed to know what she was talking about. Maybe you know what I'm talking about."

     Hunter stiffened, "Last year. I remember, a girl called me in tears saying she was seeing dead bodies. I told her to come to my place so I could talk to her."

     "Ever wonder why Kiara didn't want to leave you?" Melody turned again to face him, her eyes shining with pain, "She remembers your voice calming her, telling her you'd explain everything. She's attached because she vaguely remembers that."

    Hunter paused, thinking this over. Then he said in a low voice, "Then what?"

    "Her sister agreed to take her sister to the address you gave her, and they got in the car that night. It was dark and rainy, hard to see. " Melody was speaking in a hard voice that ached with pain and regret, "they were getting close to your house, then Kiara screamed suddenly and grabbed the wheel. They grazed past something the older sister couldn't see, and Kiara shouted something about a monster."

    "A shadowbeast," Hunter said, his face paled, "She's seeing more, she's about to die."

    Melody gave a sad nod, "They realized that as they had swerved, they had gone into the lane going the opposite way. But it was too late.... the car rolled and skidded to the side of the road, laying there upside down. The older sister looked to Kiara, and found her soaked in blood, her head bleeding horribly. She grabbed Kiara, saying to her, 'you have to wake up'. Kiara looked her in the eye, dazed and bloody. She asked who her sister was. Her sister told her, but she replied with 'who?'. She didn't remember her sister, the hit had taken her memories. Those were her last words before she died." Tears were streaming silently down Melody's face, "Then the sister heard sirens, saw the flash of red and blue. Then they just blurred together with her tears... and she died too."

    Hunter was pale faced and numb, staring at her. "That's why she doesn't remember... She got amnesia right as she died." He turned his dazed eyes towards Melody. "But... how did you know all of that?"

   Melody gave him a sad look, tears still falling from her face, "Isn't ...it obvious?"

    "No, tell me," Hunter urged, and she smiled sadly at him, saying through her tears:

     "Because I was her sister."