Chapter 1
Chapter 1
It was a beautiful day in Aerilon and as usual, Abigail, Christy, Ethan (my fraternal twin brother) and I were walking home from school. We saw a fortune teller setting up her stall on the sidewalk. “Hey Emma! Since it’s your 16th birthday tomorrow, why don’t you get your fortune told?” Christy pushed me towards the old granny. “I don’t want to. I don’t believe in this anyways.” I said giving a ‘I will kill you’ look to Christy. “Why don’t you give it a try?” insisted Ethan. I resigned as I can’t refuse my brother (sometimes I feel my brother knows this when making unnecessary requests) and took a sit opposite to the old granny. “Now then, Emma Ainsworth, I will now read your fortune with this crystal ball. Clear your mind and listen to what I am about to tell you” said the granny looking at a mystical ball kept in front of her. After the reading, we went to the nearest Mc W restaurant to grab a bite to eat before heading back home. “WHAT WAS WITH THAT FORTUNE TELLER!” I yelled, startling everyone. “Now, now, calm down Emma. What should we order?” Said Abigail, trying to change the subject. “What are you talking about? I am always calm.” I said trying not to think about the things told by that old hag. “That’s why I didn’t want my fortune read. I don’t know if those things are true or not, but she sure told me a lot of weird things.” I said thinking back.
“You will be dominated by a star of darkness. You will be surrounded with blood, anger and sadness. The falling of the balance of everything in the world will begin on the day when 16th star and moon come together. Whether it be light or darkness, the great power you hold in yourself will emerge.”
“To sum up….” Christy said looking at Abigail. “Her future is pitch black.” Added Abigail, after which both including Ethan started laughing. I stood up to go order as I couldn’t take all these teasing anymore and thought that the topic will change if I am gone. When I returned the topic was still the same. It was my brother’s turn to add salt to my wound. “But she also said you will meet your destined saviour, right? It’ll be good because as of tomorrow you’ll have gone 16 years without boyfriend.” Said Ethan with a grin on his face. “What’s with that Ethan! You don’t even have a girlfriend.” I retorted back. “I’m too busy looking after my sister to worry about girlfriends.” Said Ethan leaning back in his chair making a troubled face. “Could you please not blame it on me.” I angrily kicked him on his shin under the table. “Ow…” Ethan winced. Abigail intervened and said not to rely on those fortunes as anyone can change their future if they tried hard enough. As if on cue, our orders were ready. We quickly finished your meals, took a commemorative photo and left the restaurant.
We were crossing an overhead bridge, when Abigail told me that she and Christy found a great karaoke place near the station where they could celebrate our birthday tomorrow. As we were discussing our plans for tomorrow, we heard a loud shriek and saw a man running towards our direction after snatching a purse from a lady. Before anyone could stop me, I ran after that thief and body tackled him. “DAMMIT! LET GO!” The thief attempted to run but I kept holding on to him. “ETHAN, CALL THE POLICE!” I shouted as I tried to take the purse away from the thief. In all this struggle, the purse flew from the thief’s hand and I jumped to grab it. “Sa…fe.” I said holding the purse in my hands when I realized that I was too close to the ledge. “EMMA!” shouted Ethan who ran towards me but was too late as I lost my balance and fell from the bridge. As I was falling, a lot of mysterious images started flowing into my head. “What are these images?” I closed my eyes and braised myself for the impact. Just as I was about to hit the pavement, my body felt light as air. I summersaulted in mid-air and landed on my two feet. “Just now…. didn’t I…” I was bewildered, when I heard Ethan shouting from above. As I came to my senses, I saw that I was about to get hit by an oncoming car. When I suddenly felt someone grabbing me and the next thing I know, I was sitting on the sidewalk with a strange man kneeling in front of me. “MORON! DON’T JUMP OUT ONTO THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD!” shouted the driver as he passed by us. “Are you alright?” asked the strange man with concerned look on his face. I couldn’t answer that right away as he had a kind of face that stopped you in your tracks. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt?” he came closer and I realized that he was too close for my comfort. “Ah! N-No!” I blushed as I moved away from him. Before I could thank him for saving me, I heard my brother calling my name. “Oh Ethan! Yo!” I said as soon as Ethan came and hugged me. “WHAT DO YOU MEAN, YO!” he scolded after he finished checking me for any injuries. “YOU ALWAYS DO SUCH DANGEROUS THINGS WITHOUT THINKING IT THROUGH.” He kept scolding. “Sorry!” I acknowledged that I made a mistake with a look which I knew would calm my brother down. “Sorry Emma, we let the thief get away.” Christy said while she was helping me up. “No, that’s fine. At least that lady’s bag is safe.” I said and gave back the bag to the lady who apologised for her carelessness. As everyone was busy chattering away, I looked desperately for my saviour. But he was long gone. I was disappointed as I didn’t get to properly thank him or ask his name. At that time, I didn’t know that I will meet him again in an unforeseeable circumstance.
That evening, I was sitting in my room wondering whether I will ever see the man who saved me again. I remembered that the old granny told me that I will meet my destined one in near future. “No way.” I put my pillow over my face and thought about the images which entered my head while I was falling. I tried to recollect what I saw but could remember only two of those images, i.e., lots of dead bodies and a huge tree. And I also… “You floated? Didn’t you?” suddenly Ethan’s head popped up over mine. “Aaaaaaa!” I screamed and threw the pillow I was holding as hard as I could towards him. “What was that suddenly?” Ethan said as he rubbed the area where the pillow hit him hard. “Oh Ethan! It’s you.” I said with relieved look on my face. “What, are you trying to kill me? Geez! It’s amazing that you’re full of energy. You would have been in the other world by now.” Ethan said as he sat down next to me. “Ethan, I was just carried by the wind. Plus, I was saved by that guy. I guess I was really lucky today.” I laughed awkwardly as I tried to make sense of what happened today. “Bro, this may make you angry but today’s incident was such an adrenaline rush for me.” I said as I leaned on him. “Every day, doing the same things repeatedly, it’s boring. You wake up in the morning, go to school, come back, eat dinner, sleep and do the same next day. Whatever we are doing there is another person out there doing the exact same thing.” I said. “I sometimes feel that my life is missing something. I don’t know what I should do either. Ethan, where do you see yourself in ten years from now?” I asked as my mood became gloomier. “You think too much, stupid!” said Ethan flicking my forehead. “Ow! Why did you do that?” I asked rubbing my forehead and moved away from him frowning. “Today, my heart raced for a different reason. In a ‘so that’s how the balance of everyday life can fall apart’ way.” He said tenderly. “I just have this feeling that someday something will happen and everything will change. But if there’s still a future, I’m fine.” He continued. “Tomorrow, it’s finally our 16th birthday. I will be happily waiting for my gift, little sister.” Ethan said pulling my hair. “I as well, big bro!” I gave him a slap on his back which laid to his falling on the ground, head first. “EMMA, ETHAN! DINNER!” called our mom. “Sorry Ethan! It wasn’t on purpose.” I said entering the dining hall. “That’s enough! I’m never going to give you the present.” Ethan said angrily as he went to wash up before dinner. “Both of you, hurry up and sit down.” Said mom as she sat down near dad. “Geez, it’s because you’re so rough that you can’t get a boyfriend.” Ethan said as he dodged a punch from me. Before this fight could continue any further dad interrupted us saying that he needs to tell us something. We stopped and gave a curious look when he dropped the bomb by asking us to come straight home after school tomorrow. “WHAT! But tomorrow we will be celebrating our birthday with our friends.” I whined as I sat down to eat dinner. “We’re going to your grandfather’s house tomorrow. He is going to throw a celebration for both of you.” Said dad. “No, I promised Abigail and Christy that we will be going to karaoke for our birthday.” I argued looking desperately towards Ethan for support. “No, you can’t. Come straight home.” Said dad getting angrier by the minute. “Listen to your dad, you two.” said mom as she served food to me and Ethan.
The next day, all of us were having lunch at school when I informed Abigail and Christy about the change of plans. “And so, I’m really sorry!” I said regretfully. “It’s fine. There’s no choice.” Said Abigail as I got up to go to washroom. As soon as I was gone Abigail turned towards Ethan and gave him the photo that we took yesterday. “The picture we took yesterday, I got it developed. See, there is this weird stuff only around Emma.” She said worriedly. Ethan took the photo and was shocked to see a pinkish white aura surrounding me. “The fortune and the accident yesterday, I hope they don’t have anything to with this.” Said Christy as they looked at the photo. “Don’t tell Emma.” Ethan took the photo and kept it in his bag. Later that day, we arrived at our grandfather’s place. “No matter how many times I look at it, grandpa’s place is old…I mean big.” I said as I got out of the car. “Hey, look Ethan, it’s that lake! Remember when we were playing around it and I fell in it and almost drowned.” I said running towards it and kneeling, touching the water. “Who cares about that. Just hurry up!” Ethan said walking towards the main door. I felt as if Ethan is behaving oddly ever since we left the school. Is he still upset about our fight yesterday? Even though I worked so hard to get him such an expensive present. Did he prepare anything for me? “Fine then, I’ll take all the grandpa’s gifts and money for myself. You’re so inconsiderate.” I got annoyed by the thought that maybe Ethan didn’t prepare any gift for me. “Who’s the inconsiderate one?” Ethan said confused as we entered the house. “My gummy bears, I’m so glad you could make it.” grandpa greeted us. “Grandpa! How have you been?” I asked. “Now, now, save the greetings for later. Everyone is waiting.” He said leading us to the dining hall. “Huh! Everyone?” I quizzed. When we entered the dining hall I saw all our relatives were present wearing black and the atmosphere gave me a chill. Why the entire Ainsworth family here? And why are all of them wearing black? Is this really a birthday celebration or a funeral? Ethan and I were asked to sit down by our dad while he and mom took a sit at the far end of the table. We saw that two chairs were kept for us at the head of the table. “This is a weird birthday party with all our relatives.” Ethan said as he took the chair next to me and sat down. “Emma, Ethan, happy 16th birthday! I’ve got a present for both of you.” Grandpa said while a man placed a box in front of us. I looked at the man and was surprised to see that he was none other than the guy who saved me. “That guy…no way, why?” I thought but before I could ask grandpa about him, he asked us to open the box. As soon as I looked at it, all my senses were on high alert for some reason. “What’s this? Suddenly my heart beat…” I thought as I started to sweat profusely. It’s as if I knew what was in that box even before it was opened. “Emma! I’ll open it.” Ethan said opening the box. After opening the box, we saw that it contained a blood ruby encased in star shaped jewel. “Such a beautiful piece of jewellery. It must be for me. But where is Ethan’s gift?” I thought looking at Ethan who was having the same thought as me. As soon as I touched the ruby all the images from the time I was falling from the bridge started pouring in uncontrollably. “Again, just like last time. Blood? I can see lot of blood.” I thought as I collapsed on ground holding my head. “EMMA! EMMA!” Ethan shouted as he kneeled next to me. Suddenly a bright red light was emitted from the ruby which made me float in the air, while Ethan was thrown backwards. With sudden flash of pinkish white light from my body, I floated down. When I realized what happened, I searched for Ethan and found him lying on the ground unconscious. “ETHAN! ETHAN! WHAT IS THIS? HANG IN THERE, ETHAN.” I hurried to him and saw that he was not breathing. I tried to listen to his heart beat by placing my ears on his chest. “MOM! DAD! HURRY! CALL AN AMBULANCE. Hurry...! everyone.” As I looked around I saw no one got up from their place to help. “WHAT’S WRONG! WHY ARE YOU JUST STARING? WHY ARE YOU ACTING SO WEIRD TODAY? IF WE DON’T HURRY, ETHAN’LL DIE!” I yelled as I banged my hand on the table. “Ethan won’t die.” Grandpa said as he walked towards me. “We found out just now with this that Ethan is a precious child who will keep the Ainsworth family together. We can’t let him die.” He said. “Step away from Ethan.” He said with a threatening look. “The one who is going to die is you.”
“On the day, the 16th star and moon come together…the fated time will come.”
