I still can't believe everything that happened. My friends left me. They were killed by the Seven Councils. I saw it happen right in front of me. I was there, but I couldn't do anything.
I just stood there. I just stood there as their bodies slowly turned into ashes.
I'm not a good friend.
I remember the day they told me about what happens when a cursed gets possessed. "What do you do when a cursed gets possessed?" I asked them, and Salem answered, "We kill them. Because if we don't stop the merge of the cursed and their demon, it could destroy the whole world." I was still confused, so I asked again, "What happens when a possessed cursed is killed?" and Renz answered, "They turn into ashes."
It's true. I didn't even get to see their corpses. The wind carried away their bodies that turned into ashes.
I kept crying and crying. My tears wouldn't stop flowing. The moment I lost them, I think my time stopped... And I don't even know how to move forward.
"Get yourself together!" Ysabel shouted at me while pulling me by the arm.
"I'll take care of her," Kyle suddenly approached me and assisted me in walking.
I didn't know where they were taking me. I had lost all interest and no longer cared. I'm alive because I'm still breathing, but my heart and soul... They're shattered. It's broken into million of pieces, and I don't even know how to fix it.
"Ugh! It's so dirty here. Eew~" Ysabel complained when she saw the dirty surroundings. The fire stopped spreading because of her demon's control over it.
We just kept walking while Kyle supported me by the arm.
"Eww! There are so many insects!" Ysabel kept complaining until we reached the CURSED RIVER.
I remembered Renz... ("What?! I'm just testing their security.") He even grinned when he said that.
I already miss them terribly.
Even though Renz and I had our fights, I loved him. I loved them all so much. And now, I don't have anyone to fight with anymore. No more smell of Salem's cigarettes. No one to make me laugh when I'm sad because Vince is gone. No more kids stronger than me when eating. No one to take care of me and no more girl with a microphone in her mouth when she's angry because Wency is gone.
I really miss them. I can't bear being without them.
"Stop it! You've been crying nonstop since earlier! It's getting annoying!" Ysabel said, looking at me with irritation. I just gave her a cold stare.
That's because you don't understand! You'll all pay for what happened to my family. I will definitely avenge their death. Because vengeance is the only thing left for me now.
Storm whistled three times and suddenly, a bridge appeared over the cursed river. They immediately walked across the bridge to the other side of the river where the tall walls were located. Kyle walked with me on the bridge, and as we walked, I felt like someone was watching me from the river.
"Don't look down!" Kyle warned me, but it was too late. I was already looking at the water in the river. I could see my reflection clearly. My dark brown hair was as messy as a bird's nest. My dark brown eyes were very sad and as red as apples, probably because I had been crying nonstop. My nose had a mole on the left side. My lips were as pink as strawberries.
I was staring at my own reflection in the water when suddenly, I saw them - my friends. They were calling out to me from a place filled with fruit trees, inviting me to join them. Suddenly, my tears stopped flowing and a smile spread across my pale lips.
They reached out their hands to me, and I willingly accepted. They pulled me down into the cold water for a brief moment, and when I emerged, I found myself in a place filled with fruit trees. My wet clothes had somehow become dry, and I saw my friends waiting for me under a giant tree. They were laughing and calling out to me, and I ran as fast as I could to join them.
But my smile vanished when Storm arrived.
"Die! Die! Die!" he shouted at my friends, and suddenly, their bodies turned to ashes. I started crying again. They were all gone...
Suddenly, Storm grabbed my hand and started swimming upwards. Where are we? I looked around and realized we were under the CURSED RIVER. Storm was pulling me towards the surface.
When we reached the bridge, Kyle immediately reached out his hand to me. I didn't plan on accepting it because I didn't want to go with them. I just wanted to be with my friends. But then, Storm handed my other hand to Kyle to help me up to the surface. Kyle pulled me up from the cold water.
As soon as I emerged from the river, I felt the cold and hugged myself tightly.
Ysabel laughed, "Hahaha! How does it feel to almost drown, huh? Thank Master Storm for helping you. If it were me, I would have just let you drown," Ysabel said, laughing.
Dylan took off his shirt. "I'm feeling hot, so you can have this!"
He threw his shirt at me, but I returned it to him. "I don't need that. And Storm, don't worry, I'll definitely pay you back." I said without emotion.
I don't want to owe anything to the Seven Council. I will eliminate them all. I won't spare anyone. I will look for a good opportunity to kill them one by one.
"I can't stand your arrogance! Why did we even bring her here?" Ysabel complained.
"Can you just be quiet for a few minutes? My ears are already ringing from your voice!" Dylan said.
"Well, Shadow wants to see her. So we NEED to take her there," Cassandra answered Ysabel's question.
I am not interested in their conversation. It goes in one ear and out the other. All I'm thinking about now is how and when I will kill them. Because if I were to kill them now, I would certainly stand no chance. I'm sure each of their demons is strong, especially if they were to combine forces. That's why I need to take them out one by one.
But the question is, when will I see them again? If I miss this opportunity now, there might not be another chance. It's not easy to enter Keimusho Academy, so I really need to think things through.
I was snapped back to reality when we arrived at the towering wall, which seemed to reach the clouds. This was the wall where... KEIMUSHO ACADEMY was located.
I was surprised when the concrete wall suddenly retreated. It looked like an opening? After it retreated, it split into two, with one part moving to the right and the other to the left. It turned out to be a door...
"Why did you bring me here? Didn't I fail to pass your vote?" I asked without enthusiasm.
"Don't be too assuming. You'll never be a student here," Ysabel said with an eye roll.
"Mr. Shadow wants to see you," Lin said.
"And who the hell is that?" I asked coldly.
"He's the headmaster of the Academy," Cassandra answered boredly.
I was about to ask another question when Ysabel interrupted, "Don't ask too many questions. It's not like you're going to be a student here."
"Whatever! If you guys want to keep talking!" Dylan said and quickly went inside the door.
We followed Dylan inside. We entered a very large and wide hallway with a glass roof, so I could see the big, reddish moon.
Why is the moon like that? Does it have something to do with the deaths of my friends? Wait, I'm with the one who KILLED them right now.
I will never forgive them!
Life has no meaning, huh? Well, I'll show you what the meaning of 'PAINFUL DEATH' is.
When we reached the end of the long hallway, a large golden door was waiting for us. It sparkled in the light coming from the red moon.
Two figures wearing cloaks opened the golden door. I couldn't see their faces because they were covered.
"They're shadowmen," Kyle whispered in my ear. Maybe he noticed that I had been looking at the two cloaked figures for a while.
"Welcome back, councils," they greeted us as we entered. I turned to look at them, but they quickly closed the door.
Now we were in a carpeted hallway, and everything I saw was made of gold. It shone so brightly under the light of the chandeliers, which were huge and beautifully designed.
Is this really an academy? Or maybe a palace in the Seven Kingdoms?
"What does the headmaster want from me?" I asked irritably to Kyle, who was walking beside me.
"I don't know," he shrugged. "No one knows what he's thinking. We don't even know what he looks like."
"How did that happen? He doesn't show himself to you guys like that?"
"That's right, haha," he answered calmly.
As we walked along the long hallway, we passed by some pictures hanging on the walls.
"Who are those people?" I pointed to the pictures we passed by.
He gave me a look like I was the dumbest cursed person in the world. I frowned at his reaction. After a few seconds, he seemed to realize something. "Oh, right. You don't remember anything! Those are the Seven Rulers of the Seven Kingdoms. Some of them are still the Kings of their respective Kingdoms, while others are their children, like the Princes and Princesses."
How did he know that I have no memory? Besides my friends, no one else knows about it.
"Do you know something about me?" I asked him directly. His face suddenly turned pale.
"What? What do you mean?" Based on his reaction, it seemed like he knew something.
"Besides my friends, no one else knows that I have no memory of my past. So it's strange that you know something about it, especially since we just met. Unless you knew me when we were still in the world of humans."
"Oh? We're already here in Shadow's office. I'm going to sleep now, I'm feeling sleepy! You can take care of her. Bye!" That was Kyle, who suddenly ran away.
"Me too. I need to sleep. If you're done talking to him, you can go back to where we passed by earlier." Ysabel said before leaving.
The other council members also left, and I was only left in front of the double black doors surrounded by a dark aura. To be honest, it's scary to enter here. It feels like if I enter here alive, I might come out as a cold corpse. That's how I feel. So I'm hesitant whether to enter or run away from here.
I was just staring at the door, struggling to decide whether to enter or not, when suddenly the double doors opened and a force pushed me inside. I couldn't see anything inside. It was extremely dark, and the office door was locked. I fumbled around trying to find something to hold on to, but there was nothing. What is this? Where am I? Is this really an office?
I tried to calm myself down and closed my eyes to feel my surroundings. But I couldn't feel anything in the darkness. There was no chair, no desk, or anything else that you would normally find in an office. It was just an incredibly vast space.
Suddenly, someone spoke. "So, you're the girl they were talking about."
I knew he was a man, but he was trying to make his voice sound like a woman's.
I opened my eyes, but I still couldn't see anything. The room was still dark. Where is the voice coming from? Goodness, I can't see anything!
He cleared his throat. "You don't have to try, I know you're a man," I said irritably, feeling foolish.
"You're the woman who's wide awake and still controlling her demon even during the Red Hour," he said, still trying to make his voice sound feminine.
I rolled my eyes in frustration. "Can you please speak in a way that I can understand?"
"When you saw the moon earlier..." he started.
"Yeah? And what about it?" I interrupted.
"Didn't you feel that the clock suddenly stopped?" he asked in amazement.
I was getting really annoyed! If I could only see this man, I might have punched him by now! I couldn't understand most of what he was saying.
"What's your point?!!" I shouted at him. Gosh! Can't he understand?
"Red hour, that's the time when midnight strikes and the moon turns red and huge. The time stops... And all those who have a cursed demon that's awake during that time will be possessed. The councils and other students go to the towns to kill the possessed ones."
"Why is there a red hour?" I asked in bewilderment. What I really wanted to know was why I wasn't possessed during that time. He clearly stated that ALL THOSE WHO ARE AWAKE DURING THAT TIME WILL BE POSSESSED. So why wasn't I? I was wide awake during that time, so why wasn't I possessed?
"That's what we haven't discovered yet. We're not sure when the red hour will happen. We only know the signs of it."
"And what are the signs?"
"Too many stars at night but it has no moon. And when it strikes at twelve, the red moon rises and the time stops."
I pondered on it, why wasn't I possessed?
"Wait, I'm more curious about you. State your name and your demon's power."
It's frustrating, isn't it? Having a conversation with someone you can't even see.
"Eveline, and my demon's power is UNKNOWN."
I heard him laugh softly, "Unknown? So that only means you still don't know? Have you even made a pact?" 
"And what's a pact?" I asked, confused. See? He's using alien words. Ugh.
He suddenly stopped laughing, "You mean, YOU HAVEN'T MADE A DEMON PACT?" He shouted the last part, making me cover my ears.
"What's a demon pact? You're so annoying! I swear, I'm going to hit you! You're lucky I can't see you!"
"A demon pact is a formal agreement between you and your demon. It can build or break a connection between you and your demon."
Demon pact? Agreement? Is that even a thing? Grrr. My head is starting to hurt. First, the red hour, and now a demon pact? Come on, give me a break! My head is about to explode with all this information that I don't understand.
"Seriously, you haven't made a pact with your demon?" he asked again.
"Hey Emerald, did we make a demon pact?" I asked my sleeping demon. I can see him. He's inside a dark room, sleeping. He slowly opened his eyes and gave me an expression I couldn't even comprehend.
"What's a demon pact?" I rubbed my forehead. He doesn't know anything about it either.
"No, we haven't made a pact," I answered Shadow, bored.
"Hahahahaa." I frowned as he laughed again. "You are awake during the red hour, yet you haven't made a pact? Hmmm... That sounds interesting. You're just like Storm."
My expression changed when I heard the name of the person who killed Renz. "What's so special about having a pact?" I asked, a hint of anger in my voice.
"Having a pact means decreasing the probability of being possessed by your own demon."
I didn't make a pact, so why wasn't I possessed?
"Why do people get possessed?" I asked.
"A cursed person has two souls, a human soul and the demon's soul. And when it's the red hour, the demon's soul gains power from the full-blooded moon. When the demon's power is at full gauge, they lose control and will immediately find a possible host, which is the cursed body. And if the human body of the cursed is conscious, then the demon will be able to take over its body. But if the body is unconscious, then the demon's soul will only be wandering around the place until the red hour is over, and the cursed body will be saved from being possessed."
The demons that Emerald saw were the souls of my friends' demons. If I hadn't woken them up, their demon souls wouldn't have found their bodies. That's probably why they drank sleeping pills, so they wouldn't wake up while their demons' souls were out. I SHOULD HAVE TAKEN SLEEPING PILLS TOO, SO I COULD HAVE BEEN ASLEEP DURING THOSE HOURS! SO I WOULDN'T HAVE WOKEN THEM UP!!!
"Not everyone would be able to survive the red hour, especially if they haven't made a pact. Tell me, what makes you special?"
"I'm not special. I'm just not ordinary," I answered him, bored.
He just laughed. He's been laughing since earlier. It's becoming annoying! I'm not a clown here! I really want to punch him!
"Hahaha, woah I like you," he said as he cleared his throat to stop his laughing disease! Psh! Yeah, it's already a disease because it's not normal! Laughing even if there's nothing funny? Duuh~ that's also not ordinary.
"Now, I have an exclusive offer for you. Be one of my students."