by Con Template
“And how did you get here?” Eclipse went on to ask, doing a wonderful job at getting my younger self to sing like a little baby bird to him.
Confusion filled her gaze. She looked like she was having trouble finding the right name for the mode of transportation she took. “It’s not a plane. It’s smaller . . .”
“A helicopter?” I supplied.
Her eyes grew excited. She nodded earnestly as confirmation.
“Why did they take you in a helicopter?” I asked, crouching beside them. I may have recalled every single thing that took place in that interrogation room, but for the most part, the other aspects of the night were nothing but blurred visions to me. I understood now why Eclipse needed to see the physical manifestation of my memory. Nothing could be more accurate than speaking to the soul’s memory. Everything was fresher for her and a thousand times more accurate. “Why not just a car?”
“It was dark everywhere,” she whispered quietly.
Her response caused Eclipse to furrow his brows quizzically. Getting up, he left me with her while he went to the office table and consulted through the manila folder on it.
While he did this, I continued to ask her questions.
“Was it dark at your house too?”
She blinked in confirmation. “Everywhere. Everywhere was dark. It was dark in my house, it was dark outside my house, and it was dark in the sky.” She smiled restlessly. Though she still appeared sweet, I knew the look in her eyes. She didn’t want to answer any more redundant questions. She liked us, but she was also getting tired of us asking such tedious questions.
“I’m bored and it’s my birthday today,” she announced, confirming my suspicions. She held my hands with her own, our gold bangles making soft clinking sounds. I could feel the dried blood on her hands transfer onto mine. She smiled sheepishly at me, looking just like a picture of innocence. “Can you take me home so I can have my cake? I’m hungry and I want to open my presents.”
“I—”
“They will take you home, Gracie,” Eclipse told her, placing the file back on the table. He stepped closer to us, placing his hands in his pockets with regret in his eyes. Whatever it was that he found in the folder was enough for him. From the expression on his face, I knew that we were done with little Gracie. It was time to send her back. “As much as we’d like to, we can’t take you home.”
Little Gracie’s face fell as sadness brimmed in her eyes. I stood up as she peered at Eclipse with disappointment. “Why can’t you guys take me home?”
“Because we have to go soon,” Eclipse said in a low voice, standing close to me. He smiled expectantly at her, appeasing her disappointment with his charisma. “You understand that, don’t you?”
Gracie smiled, more than affected by his charms. She looked at both of us, her eyes approving. She abruptly frowned when she noticed how stiff I appeared next to him. She stared at him quizzically. It seemed that she had finally put everything together and realized that perhaps Eclipse and I weren’t as romantically involved as she initially thought.
“Why aren’t you my boyfriend?”
Eclipse laughed while I turned a million shades of red.
He crouched down in front of her. “Because that Gracie doesn’t like me,” he told her in an entertained voice.
She scowled at me, her eyes chastising me for daring to ruin a potential future mate for her. She turned back to him. “Really? Because I really like you.”
He laughed again. “Well, I can be pretty exhausting to be around.” A mischievous glint appeared in his eyes. “Do you have any tips for me on how to get on that Gracie’s good side?”
I shook my head, urging her to not say anything. To my dismay, much like the fate of any girl who was utterly smitten with a guy, little Gracie showed no loyalty to me and followed her silly young heart instead. Leaning in, she whispered God knows what into his ear, and with a big smile, Eclipse nodded at her in gratefulness.
“Thank you for the tip, Gracie. I had no idea it was that simple.” He touched one of her curly pigtails before regrettably saying, “Thank you for taking the time to talk to us today. As wonderful as it has been, we have to let you go back in now.”
She looked at us sadly. “Do I really have to go back in?”
I nodded, wishing with all my might that I could keep her here with me, so that I could spare us both the nightmare to come. She may be corrupted, but she didn’t know that she was corrupted. I, on the other hand, knew that I was a terrible person. Despite knowing this, I continued to live with my sadistic tendencies because I was too weak-willed to suffer through to be a good person. However much she disturbed me, in the end, she was better than me because her ignorance was forgivable—mine wasn’t.
I was torn with wanting to keep my younger self with me, to protect her from everything to come. However, I knew there was no use. She was merely a memory. No matter how much I wanted to, I couldn’t turn back time and change the past. Little Gracie would suffer under the hands of Officer Joo in just a couple of minutes and there was nothing I could do but relive it with her.
Little Gracie waved at Eclipse and I, unknowing of what would lie ahead for her.
With one final smile, Eclipse said, “Goodbye, Gracie. I’ll see you again in fifteen years.”
Her eyes smiled at him, its gaze expectant. “Make me happy.”
“I’ll do my best.”
Though she only addressed him, from the look in her eyes, I knew she was stating those words to me as well.
“Bye, Gracie,” I said quietly, dreading what was to come.
She gave us one final wave and then, like a ghost, she disappeared and returned to the interrogation room.
The scene on the other side of the glass fell into motion again.
Unbeknownst to her that she had just spoken to us, the scene continued as the video recording did: Gracie utterly oblivious to having met us or being privy to our existence.
She was merely a memory again . . .
“The night that you were brought here,” Eclipse began to read from the hand-written police notes in the folder he was looking at earlier, “there was a massive thunderstorm that knocked out most of the electricity in the country. It was said to be one of the biggest storms in the country. There were many floods during that week, and on that particular night, the majority of the country had their electricity knocked out. That was why the police officers from Serenity had to come all the way here. They settled upon Seoul because almost every other city was out of power. Seoul was one of the only convenient and viable candidates to house you for the interrogation.”
“Basically everywhere I went, the lights went out,” I summarized, casting a gaze at the battery-powered lamp while little Gracie’s voice played in the background. She was reciting her side of the story to Officer Joo, who was already beginning to look impatient and aggravated.
I smiled dryly to myself, staring at her with irony in my eyes. I now understood why Eclipse wanted to meet little Gracie. The piece of information she gave to us was invaluable.
“You don’t even have to believe in the existence of the paranormal to deduct that something isn’t right about this whole thing,” I muttered out loud.
“Nothing is right about it,” Eclipse agreed in a low voice. He stood close to me as we stared through the two-way mirror.
Officer Joo was beginning to raise his voice. I could remember this scene like it was yesterday. Though I was on the outside looking in, I also experienced in my mind what it was like to be in that room. I felt the chills run over me when I realized what was coming.
“Then who, Grace?!” Officer Joo began to scream, his voice thundering through the two-way glass. “Who else could’ve been in that house? It was you! Just you, Grace!”
“Officer Joo! Can’t you see that you’re scaring her? Calm down!”
The nightmare that had haunted me for years began to manifest right before my eyes. I wanted to turn away, but I couldn’t. I just kept staring, watchi
ng as fear began to entrench my counterpart’s eyes.
I wish I could save her; I wish I could protect her.
Breathing sharply, I could feel Eclipse next to me, his body stiffening in anger. I was aware that he was only controlling himself because he knew it was only a memory—a live videotape. I knew that if he could help it, he would rip Officer Joo apart before he could even touch me. Despite the fact that neither of us could stomach watching little Gracie go through something that would haunt her for the years to come, we knew that our interference would amount to nothing. This memory’s time had passed. There was nothing left to change.
“Do you have no soul? How could you murder your own family and sit there with such indifference?”
“Ahhhhhhh!”
Boom!
We silently watched as he lunged for her, the desk between them barreling into Gracie at full force. The air was knocked out of her, leaving her to cradle her chest in pain. She tumbled into the air as her chair fell backwards. I could feel my own chest constrict while Eclipse’s jaw clenched when Officer Joo grabbed her tiny neck mid-fall. His iron grip was merciless as he held her prisoner in the air.
It was a painful sight to watch myself in this state.
Little Gracie was struggling in the air, kicking her small legs in desperation. She helplessly clawed at his hands, doing her best to get him to let go of her. I bit my lips when I saw tears glisten in her eyes. My heart tightened in agony. I remembered that this was the very second when I thought I was going to die.
Whoosh!
Officer Joo was a single pressure away from snapping her neck apart when a sudden big gush of air flew past them. My eyes, along with Eclipse’s, widened in horror at the sight of Officer Joo being pulled away from me . . . without anyone doing the pulling.
Oh my God.
My heart froze mid-beat once I processed that the police officers that I thought had saved me that night weren’t even inside yet.
Bam!
They came running in a split second later.
By this time, my stunned mind was already running in circles from disbelief. If anyone else were watching this video, they would not have thought much of Officer Joo being pulled away from me because it could easily be viewed as him losing his footing. However, because I was in his very grip and because I could feel a force pull him away from me, I knew that I had seen something invaluable in this scene.
Equally as taken aback by this, Eclipse raised his left hand up and, in swift obedience, the live scene on the other side of the glass paused in mid-action, just like a video clip would. He slowly moved his hand to the left as if to rewind it. The scene before us swam in reverse before pausing and then replaying itself when Eclipse brought his hand back down. The live memory played again with Officer Joo choking me, nearly breaking my neck apart when a sudden force pulled him away from me, confirming to both myself and Eclipse that our eyes weren’t playing tricks on us.
“Something pulled him away from you,” Eclipse whispered disbelievingly. He was gobsmacked. The scene continued to move along, but for Eclipse and I, we had already seen all that we needed to see.
Eclipse faced me, his eyes illuming with dawning realization. Carefully, he asked, “How cold was that room?”
Though I was taken aback by his query, I knew that Eclipse wouldn’t ask unless it was crucial to the puzzle piece he was putting together in his mind.
“Like we were in the middle of Antarctica,” I told him, remembering just how cold my six-year-old self was in my memories. I could also clearly recall the steam rising from our mouths, indicating to everyone how icy cold it was that night. I peered back into the interrogation room. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t see any indication of condensation emitting from our mouths. We were freezing in there, so why didn’t it come out in the video?
As if reading my thoughts, Eclipse whispered something, an incantation of sorts. Akin to a veil being lifted away, the interrogation room changed at once. Instantaneously, you could now see the warm breath permeating from everyone’s lips, indicating to us how cold the room actually was. From the looks of it, it was freezing in there.
“Whenever a human first encounters an evil entity,” Eclipse explained as newfound chills began to eat at me, “the very human fibers that makes up your existence are more than aware of this, hence the chills it gives you—the warning it provides you.”
I observed the steam emitting from little Gracie’s lips, my lawyer’s lips, Officer Joo’s lips, and the rest of the officers’ lips. My body shook when I realized an inexplicable and terrifying truth.
“The chills escaping from all of us means that whatever it was that stole a part of my soul, the first time it came into my life . . . was that night. So while I was being questioned, it means that it was with me all along in that interrogation room.” Fear crept up my spine when I recalled it saving me from Officer Joo. “It came to me that night. It became the direct or indirect reason why I killed my own family, it stole a piece of my soul, and it stayed to . . . protect me?”
“It would seem like it, yes,” Eclipse answered, though his tone sounded uncertain. If anything, he sounded unconvinced.
I turned to him. I caught on to the uncertain inflection in his voice. “What does all of this mean?”
“Logically, it would mean that your soul was stolen that very night, basically around the time you killed your family. When the cops came and took you away, the electricity went off all over the country. Only something incredibly powerful could have that type of impact. So with this in mind, it means that whatever it was that stole a part of your soul that night, it ultimately never left you. It followed you into the interrogation room and as it would seem, it was protecting you.”
I assessed his skeptical face. “You don’t seem convinced.”
A frustrated muscle worked in his jaw.
“There’s something not right about this entire scenario,” he finally said, his eyes following after mine. Together, we watched as they picked up my counterpart’s body and took her out of the room. In the background, the rest of the police officers continued to pin Officer Joo down. “A powerful entity stole a piece of your soul, yet instead of leaving after the deed was performed, it decided to follow you all the way to the police station where it proceeded to protect you?” His voice grew grimmer. “There’s something about this whole thing that doesn’t sit well with me. This scenario appears so conflicting and very messy, yet simultaneously cohesive and well-thought out. ” He sighed, looking at me with frustration. He pointed at the interrogation room. “We can’t be rash about trying to make sense of what happened in there. There are too many puzzle pieces, and none of them seem to fit together. Jumping to the wrong conclusions could lead us into a completely wrong direction. At this point, we can’t judge anything until we have all the solid facts in place first.”
“Is there anything you can conclude then?” I asked, seeing Eclipse’s point.
“Yes,” he replied, giving me a tired expression, “we really need to find out what happened that night in your family home because this entire thing is getting more complicated by the second.”
I gave him a blank, unimpressed look. “Anything less obvious?”
“We are more screwed than before,” he told me bluntly.
I frowned, bestowing him with another critical look. “Can you conclude anything more concrete?”
“Whatever it was that was with you, it followed you that night. It protected you from death, which means that it still wanted you alive. It isn’t done with you. Unfortunately for both of us, it can almost be guaranteed that whatever it needs you alive for, there is a more sinister and catastrophic motive behind that purpose.”
I blinked at Eclipse, knowing that he was right. We were definitely more screwed than before.
“When you guys placed the veil over me, it kept that entity away from me as well, right?”
He nodded, knowing where I was headed with this question.
“If
we’re working under the assumption that this entity isn’t done with me, then with the veil covering me, it must mean that it’s looking for me, right? That it’s looking to finish what it started that night?”
Slowly, Eclipse nodded and I could feel the chills form on my body while uneasiness ate at the core of my soul.
All along, we had been wondering what it was that stole a piece of my soul. We wondered why it only stole a piece and why it took away a specific memory from that night.
In actuality, the important question that we should have been asking was what haunted me for the rest of the night: If this powerful entity was protecting me, then what did it want to keep me alive for?
"The Anointed will rise from the depths of the earth . . ."
29: The Anointed
After we left the police station, Eclipse took me home before returning to his Kingdom to further research on what or who could have possibly stolen a piece of my soul. Before he left, he told me not to worry about anything coming after me because the veil was still intact. With that assurance, he left me alone with an overly excited OinkOink who was begging me to play with him.
While I rested in bed and hugged OinkOink against my chest, I reflected upon all the evil that had surrounded my life. I thought over everything I saw tonight and I couldn’t believe that even at that young age, I had some other powerful malevolent entity stalking after me. To make matters worse, it not only owned a piece of my soul, but after the revelations at the police station, Eclipse and I had also come to conclude that there was a good chance this powerful entity was looking for me to finish what it started that night—whatever that may be.
It would be the understatement of the year to say that I was overwhelmed by all of this. How on earth did my life change so drastically? How was it possible that one human could be surrounded by so much evil?
Despite these dark musings, a sudden thought illumed in my mind, giving my life hope.
