Her Destiny

It was a Sunday afternoon and the sun was shining brightly in the sky above X-Zone.

Eloise Samejima, along with her brothers; Taiga Samejima and Gabu Samejima, was standing on the land of X-zone as she waited for Sho to arrive. It was a really stupid idea, and as Eloise liked to put it, the most pathetic attempt her twin, Gabu, had ever made in his life; Her best friend having a race with her twin brother over a piece of land.

Nobody knew that Eloise and Sho Yamato were best friends. If somebody knew, hell would have broken loose. Nobody, except Sho’s younger brother Ayumu knew about their friendship for he caught them once while talking to each other. Even Sho’s two other best friends, Kakeru and Makoto didn’t knew about them.

Eloise had always been a strong and independent girl. She never had many friends, Gabu used to scare all of them away. She never really knew what real friends meant until she met Sho. Even though both of them were poles apart, Eloise had a rare connection with Sho. His carelessness and stupid talks made her laugh and he was always there to cheer her up whenever she was upset. Nobody had ever done anything for her like Sho used to.

She knew that the race was worthless, but to Gabu, it seemed to matter a lot. He had spent hours practicing and preparing his bike for this race.

Eloise sighed as she noticed that Sho was running late. ‘Typical Sho’, she thought with a smile. He couldn’t be on time ever even if his life depended on it. Her eyes diverted slightly to Gabu who was practicing stunts on his bike; Bloody Fang. The bike had been a birthday gift from their dad. Eloise and Gabu both had bikes of similar structure and frame, just the colors and style were different.

“If Sho doesn’t come on time, it simply means that I won.” Gabu spoke, a dark smile making its way on his lips.

Kakeru stopped pacing around and Makoto slowly turned to face him, anger clearly visible on her face. X-zone had been created by Sho’s dad, Takeshi Yamato for practicing MTB skills. They didn’t use it much after his death, but recently Kakeru managed to redesign most of its features for them to use. It took them many weeks to make this ground worthy enough for use. And now, Gabu and his friends wanted to snatch it all away from them.

“If Sho doesn’t arrive on time today, then I will race against him.” Makoto said, breaking the tense silence between them.

Kakeru started at her in discomfort while Gabu’s smile widened. ‘It would be easier to defeat Makoto than defeating Sho’, Eloise thought. Although she knew it won’t come down to that. Sho might be stupid but the one thing in which he always seemed to get serious was MTB races. There was no way that he would miss a chance to race against Gabu.

‘Gabu...’, Eloise wondered, ‘I wish he wasn’t so cruel and harsh to others.’ She looked at him, he was still practicing his stunts. As she continued on staring, his head snapped up as if he could feel her gaze on him. His eyes connected with hers and he sent her a smile, a genuine and caring smile. She smiled sadly back at him, wondering if he could ever change.

Gabu had always been a commander, whether it be his team or at home. He was always the one who wanted to control the way things take place around him. And even though Eloise refused to believe that his brother was a bad person, she couldn’t deny the fact that he was cold-hearted. He never cared about anyone else much other than her.

He had always looked at her like a small kid, and maybe that’s the reason he always got a little soft when it came down to her. Her amber eyes, just like his own, always brought out the caring brother that hid inside him. Although for anybody who wasn’t her, he was a living nightmare. He never had friends but rather followers. He had never been kind to anybody else and that’s why no one dared to cross him.

Her trail of thoughts broke as she heard the screech of tyres coming from nearby. She smiled slightly, which she covered from her long, reddish hair so that nobody could see it, knowing Sho was going to be there any second. And a few moments later, they could all see the figure of Sho jumping from the high track on his MTB; Flame Kaiser. His bike shone in the sunlight as he landed onto the MTB ground.

Not a second later he was engulfed by Kakeru and Makoto who immediately began scolding him for being late.

‘Geez...they really don’t have any faith in him, do they?’ Eloise thought, her nose crinkling as Kakeru hugged Sho again and again. She shook her head slightly as Sho smiled sheepishly at his friends. But as if he could feel her stare, his eyes connected with hers. He sent her a heartwarming and friendly smile which made her smile back at him.

But immediately, her smile vanished as Gabu spoke with his sinister smile, “So finally! You came.”

Sho smiled politely to Gabu, his excitement clearly visible. Gabu, however, was more focused on assessing Sho’s bike; Flame Kaiser. His eyes narrowed as he took in all the features of Flame Kaiser. His smirk, however remained the same. Eloise could tell that Gabu was up to no good. But keeping faith in Sho, she moved aside for him to come forward.

“Let’s start the race!” Eloise spoke, bringing all of their attention towards her. Both of the parties nodded their head and reached the starting point. As they were getting ready, Taiga came and said something in a low voice to Gabu. Eloise couldn’t catch what he said, but she saw Gabu shaking his head in disapproval and telling Taiga to go back.

Finally, Eloise climbed up the rock from where the race was supposed to begin and started counting, “3...2...1...GO!”

The race began. Sho and Gabu both sprang forward on their MTBs, competing against each other closely. Sho got ahead of Gabu, as he knew the trail like the back of his hand. He learned to ride bikes at X-zone itself. But Gabu wasn’t far behind. his Bloody Fang leaving imprints on the muddy track as he rode forward.

Everyone watched in anticipation as they got closer to the finish line. Eloise was rooting for Sho as she didn’t want him to lose his father’s memories with this ground. Suddenly, a cloud of black smoke appeared out of nowhere in front of Sho and Gabu. Everybody watched in confusion as the back cloud of smoke grew bigger and bigger.

Without thinking twice, Eloise climbed on her bike; Falcon-X and sprang forward with full speed, not listening to Taiga shouting at her to stop. She flew past with the speed of wind towards Gabu, her only thought to save him.

“Gabu STOP!“, she screamed. But her screams were muffled as the smoke engulfed Gabu completely. Her eyes widened in horror and she went after him. Everything happened too fast. One moment she was shouting at Gabu to stop, another moment she could hear the terrified screams of Makoto, Kakeru and Taiga, and all of a sudden she couldn’t hear anything anymore.

The smoke surrounded her, blocking all the noise. Everything was quite as her heartbeat increased. She looked around in panic trying to find a way out but all she could see was that black smoke which surrounded her. She could hear the silence around her, along with her heavy breathing. Slowly her eyes started closing on their own accord. She tried her best to stay awake and kept on paddling fast, hoping to come out of that cloud of smoke. But it seemed endless.

Then, she couldn’t stay awake anymore. She fell off her bike. As she drifted into unconsciousness, she whispered one last time, “Gabu...”