Chapter 2- Choice

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My mind couldn’t believe it. This woman is obviously insane to think I would believe that all this had happened for my own good. Yet there she was, the same tall, thin woman that had offered me the house. She lifted the teacup back up to her thin lips and smiled. After a moment of silence and a few sips of tea, I spoke up.

“So you’re saying this Yuu guy thought it would be a good idea to snuff my parents and my mentor because it would… how did you say… ‘refine me?’ ” I half-whispered “that is utter bull. How does death refine someone?”

The woman answered “You do not understand what you have until you lose it, just like you do not understand what is happening unless you see it from an outer perspective. Face it Ren, you’re a wuss, a coward. And if that man has decided your… composition… is right for the job, I have to refine you. Just look at me as your new… mentor. You can even call me by my first name, Janette” Her voice just annoyed me. Such a smug voice.

“Mentor?? Oh, now you want to mentor me??” I exclaimed “Oh this is rich. Wonderful. I am supposed to listen to the woman that killed my-”

Janette stood up and put her hand on her hip, her heels and broad shoulders making her look more imposing “Oh shut up, little girl. I did no such thing. Wyran killed your ties to this world so you can easily pass on to the next, no regrets. You should thank him. You know you hated them anyways”

“I didn’t hate anyone! I may have had my share of issues, but I always loved them!” I yelled, enraged that she would suggest such a thing. The woman seemed pleased with my answer, and she dropped a card on the table. “Midnight. The gazebo in the garden. Feel free to stay here until then, the fridge is full.” She said, and walked out of the room. Wait, she wanted me to stay here??





After a while I decided to pick up the card. I always wondered to what lengths my curiosity would take me if I let it. And despite all that’s happened, I just wanted to know where this could take me. She was right, I wasn’t tied back by anything anymore. I took the locket out of my pocket and opened it again. Kazuki, she said his name was Kazuki. The man that would be my path from world to world. He looked so familiar…

I took a walk around the house, going beyond the few rooms Janette had shown me in last week’s tour. It had been 3 days since the incident. I had stayed in a friend’s house, but I had gotten a call from Janette telling me to come see her. I came and we talked, and she told me the story of how I was to spend some time going to alternate worlds, other parallel universes, to find a key. She refused to tell me what the key was, or where it was. But she said I would find out in time. Well, it was 11 right now, so all I had to do was wait an hour.

I sat down in the back porch and looked out over the beautiful garden, my dark brown hair blowing about in the slight wind. After the incident I had cut it short for reasons unknown to me, so I had no choice but to let it blow about. Traveling through to parallel universes, huh? I would actually love that. I mulled over the situation and before I knew it, it was 12.
I got up and walked towards the gazebo, enjoying the spring breeze. But the closer I got, the slower the breeze became, until I could feel it no longer. I shrugged off the bad feeling and stepped onto the gazebo, which instantly became blurry and changed. I was now inside a room. It was a dark room with a single light in the center. I walked closer and saw a table and two chairs.

One was empty and on the other one, Kazuki was sitting down. He was a tall and slender handsome man, roughly 6 foot 10, long dark red hair gathered in a long braid and green eyes. He was wearing a dark brown suede coat and a dark blue three piece suit, which seemed odd for the warm weather. He smiled at me and motioned me to sit down. I sat across from him, just then noticing how chilly it was in here.

Kazuki opened a box on the table and showed me a silver chain with a small silver key on it. “Hand me the locket and I’ll attach it” he said, and I complied. He slipped the chain through the top of the locket and stood up. He placed the chain around my neck and clipped it on. For some reason I felt comfortable with this, and it didn’t bother me.

He sat back down and moved the box away from the center of the table, revealing a small painting of a wolf howling at the moon painted directly on the table’s wood. It had a small pool of light shining on it, and it took me a while to realize it was emanating from my locket.

I looked up at Kazuki and he looked back and said “You have a choice to make. We will not force anything on you. We can leave you this house and a good sum of money to make up for what we have done. Your life will be a simple one. But you will never know what would have been had you started the journey, or what you may find. Now you make your choice. You can open the locket and continue on this journey, or you can stand up and walk away, and you will never see or hear from us again”

I looked at him bewildered. I had a choice? This was something I was sure wasn’t given much, and if I chose to, I could live a happy, quiet life. Living out my dream. My dream, huh? What was my dream now? To live in this quiet house? No, I knew now, I wanted to go. I needed to go. This was an opportunity I could not miss. I reached up to my locket, examined the cover closely, and opened it.

I immediately felt the tug, a feeling that was both amazing and painful. My body felt like it was being pushed to the limit, I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t see. My heart beat faster and I felt the sensation of flight, but everything was dark. I knew I was leaving this world, and I may never see it again. Before I completely left, though, I heard his voice



“Thank you”…


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