Chapter Eight Amusement park

Narrator: WILLIAM 

           I opened my eyes; I woke up from total wary darkness of a faraway dimension that no other man can fully understand. It was just like drowning in a deep blue sea and someone gave you air to breathe and you are forced to come back to life. I wasn’t prepared but I wandered into a place where I sat in an elegant seat of moving Ferris wheel, surrounded by confusing flashes of lights blinded my eyes and I was about to face the Shinigami. He sat next to mine. I was in shock to see him again but I am not excited much to talk to him.

            The Ferris wheel comes from a fast breath-taking speed like we are spinning off ahead bumping experiences. My mind whirling in an awkward situation.

            It feels like I am at the top of the sundae. Swirling and swirling until I fall into the ground.

            “How are you?” He asks me in a hollow cold baritone voice.

            “Overwhelmed” I can’t find the words to say. It is the most simple and safe thing to reveal.

            “ Very well said.” He smirked.

            “Where are the others?” I felt a little dizzy but I tried to peep through the window but I couldn’t see anything except the dark clouds circling the full moon. I guess we're on top of the world and we are located at a very high altitude where no one can witness when the Shinigami decided to kill me.

            He never answered my question instead, he asks me another question.

            “Do you know why you are here?”

            “What???” Then he caught my attention but it’s too late. With one snap of fingertip, I was shifted from another corner like I am in magical tricks.

            We are on the verge of mystery. I was surrounded by my five fellow passengers hypnotize and amused by some kind of powerful force. We are located at the top of the mountain, with no animals around. Silence echoed the forest, in front of us was a big tall tree where an arrow carved a big hole sign as a bull-eyes.

            “Circumstances choose you that is why you are here. From the day you were born and until you’re dead. You cannot escape the fact that you have certain qualities similar to each other. You are the same species.”  The Shinigami uprooted the arrow from the tree; we stared at each other for one good reason, CURIOSITY. We collected his riddle but I couldn’t make it into pieces, I thought he would stab us by the arrow but I was wrong he is just simply put it in his hand like a needle in deep inside a skin all the way to its flesh, but there’s no blood. No sign of a wound.

            “IGNORANCE can kill you. You were aware of something but you simply walked out of it. You’re such pathetic. Hahaha!” His laughter vibrated and it makes the ground shake I thought there was an earthquake but when I blinked my eyes, nothing happened. I looked upon the faces of my fellow passengers until I saw something…. The innocence of gray eyes, the fresh almond smell of hair, I recognized those memories…memories of my first encounter in the amusement park and that’s it!!!

            “I already put the puzzle into pieces to create a pattern.”

           

I was back in my memories.

             My mother spends time with me and went to the amusement park.

           I saw different kinds of light, huge rollercoasters, and a lot of people shrieking every time it swirled around. I was amazed and entertained with the rides, board games, toys, and delicious foods like cotton candies, ice cream, hotdogs. I heard the laughter of some kids nearby. Everyone is happy and everything was perfect. The typical classical fun-house for kids. This is the time I realized that I’ve already met my fellow passengers in the amusement park back in my childhood memories, I saw a little girl licking her strawberry ice cream with her mother. She looks pale and sick but her lively gray eyes built a more remarkable innocence of her existence. She rode in a carousel next to mine and I figure out that she is Stefanie back then when I was a kid. The second and third were the boys, the first one wore a jumper and very big rubber shoes and then a boy with a blue cap and ripped jeans. They rode on a rollercoaster and I’m pretty sure that he is Professor Brendan and Paris from the resemblance of their faces and posture. There were times that my mother left me to buy ice cream in a nearby store. I was afraid that night and run to seek my mother but then someone bang in front of me, a tall creepy man with beefy hands and blazing eyes who wore a black hooded jacket. I thought he was an entertainer who wore masks but I was wrong, he grinned in a devilish look I cried hard without knowing what is his intention. It feels I’m one of the characters of the horror bedtime stories my mother told me every rainy night to fall asleep. I was terrorized by an unknown fear but to my surprise, my mother shouted out calling my name. She found me crying in a corner and the man disappeared into the shadow. He leaves me and I was left alone.

            I didn’t know what to do. I’m just 7 years old back then.

            I was totally devastated that night before I hugged my mother so tight.

            She kissed my forehead and take my hands before we left the amusement park.

            I thought he would kill me but I am grateful that my mother saves the day and she protected me from whatever happened. After my sister dies, no one was left for me but my mother.  She is the only person who gave me a lot of strength and care after my father left to work in another country.

Follow by the event located in the forest; I have a premonition that I have been gone here. This is the place where our cousins decided to have a summer camp. But the result was unexpected when one of my cousins falls from a narrow alley and broke his leg. Now I knew why I sense déjà vu, we are seeing each other again because it is fate. But why? Is it because of our fears? Is it really important that makes us special that’s why he chooses us to become his victim?” I don’t understand a thing until I heard those words that still give me a chill in my whole body.

            It is not by chance, it is a fate that we met in a particular circumstance that threatens our lives.

            The shinigami whispers something in our minds.

            “SPECIEM TIMORIS”

            I heard those words again.

            I believed it in my childhood and I believed it again right now.

           I will never forget it as long as I live. This is the remarkable curse that will never be erasing inside my mind. It lingers and ate my whole system back in my hopeless day when she was about to die.

          My despair, anguish, hatred comes back into life. The shadow of a monster revives in my heart when I remembered that one summer day; she will never come back again. I remorse her death until now especially when I saw the hardship of my mother. If only I can save her if only I was strong enough but it is not the way it should be. She was gone and the pain is still wounded inside of me. My little sister.

          Maybe I was afraid of something because of my incapability, my innocence as a child but it doesn’t mean to measure the correct answer on why we are here and struggle to fight to survive.

            I was pretty sure it was much bigger to the picture.

            And we have to find it to have a good plan to destroy the Shinigami.

            As long as he was talking, the more I got a lot of questions in my head. I was about to draw my attention but I looked upon the eyes of Professor Brendan and I assume based on the body language that he senses something in me. That I was thinking about something in the corner of my mind. We met our eyes and I comprehended what’s he wants to explain.

            “The Shinigami fooled us. He tested our abilities in a logical pattern and he toyed with the arrow to pointed out a big topic surrounded us. FEAR, we assumed fear will hurt us but it’s a mere imagination. Yes, it’s true. There are a lot of circumstances in our lives that we choose to be afraid of rather than fighting so that we are in the same direction with different fates. And if we choose to be afraid we are doomed.”