RiverStone mansion, a mansion nested in the middle of nowhere and was supposedly a testing ground. The air around it was always thick, mysterious, especially in the night. Its dark windows, creepy compound and its interior that were decades old. It was absolutely no place for a picnic. Yet in its dark and scarry demeanor the place was sad. That's why it was a testing ground. The story behind though hidden to the normal man held a lesson for the Harmatia tested in it.
Currently the three's test was still continuing. Karin outside at the well, Kento in the library and Cilia in the master bedroom. Three of the four pieces needed to see the full story of the old mansion. But a sudden and unforeseen hiccup emerged. The old mansion's story was growing, pulling the three into it.
The scream from the mansion still struggled to out weigh the hymn in Karin's ears. She listened keenly and they became more vivid.
Cilia wasn't screaming. She was crying. Same thing but extremely different when it came to Cilia.
Karin shot a glance to the mansion. The old creaky windows were glowing in a bright white brilliance. Her heart raced. At first, she had brushed it of as one of Cilia's tantrums, but now she thought different.
"What did she do now?" she wondered as she picked up her pace, navigating every corner as fast as she could. Cilia's cries felt painful. She couldn't see her but her screams were more than enough to paint the picture. And this hymn in her head…
She was nearing the entrance to the maze when something else rose behind her. Just like the light from the house this too showered the night rendering the moon's glow meaningless.
The light shone behind her. A pillar of white with a jade greenish base. She stopped in her tracks and turned to it.
The light was coming from the well.
***
The mansion's library would forever be a scar in Kento's mind. The shame in it having only one paper that would then just go up in flames was something he could never forgive. It was irredeemable and could only be attributed to their cold teacher, Mr Kisharu. The state of the library was one of the two thing Kento was having a hard time with.
The other one was the note.
Its message trouble his mind. None like the others it didn't state what it he was to do next. It only left a vague clue and a clue that even he couldn't run on.
"Welcome treasure hunter. Here you stand is x and your journey is the treasure. Trace back and you'd have found your one piece."
Reading it back it was less vague than he had first imagined it. But still somethings didn't add up. What was he looking for in the first place? The book back at the fireplace said that the story had four pieces yet from the notes he had found none of them told him anything about what he was meant to be looking for.
"Treasure hunt in three steps…"
And the warning from the Loom. "Be careful because in a library information is all around you yet most come out with none."
Kento scratched his orange hair trying to understand what the clues meant. Of the three none of them gave him any information about the test… only a warning. He was currently standing near the door to the library. His hand ran through his chin as he thought more on the subject. Nothing came. 'How was this the easiest one?' he wondered.
…
The feeling that something is wrong is tuned deep into people. A gut feeling that something is about to go drastically haywire warns us to be ready for the unforeseen that's coming. Now scale that feeling enough and you've got yourself a sixth sense. And the higher you scale it the more devastating the warning is… especially if it catches you by surprise.
In flash Kento's heart sunk. The air became heavy and suddenly it became hard to breath. One by one goosebumps erupted from his muscular skin like tiny volcanoes popping like a zit. A chill rose with the goosebump all the way to his brain, carrying a message… a warning. In the warning someone dear to him was there—
"Cilia!" he said his eyes shooting to ceiling.
He inhaled and with one thrust he was midair flying to the second floor. In his flight, a rush of a bright light flooded the corridor and halls of both floors. Kento crashed through the ceiling flying into the second floor.
'Where is she?'
His eyes darted across the hall, ignoring the bright light currently painfully stinging his eyes. The doors of the floor were all open, letting out a pungent and vomit provoking smell. Inside bodies lay in their beds with a lamp lit to the side of the beds. He didn't have time to digest that… or ever. He only wished to find Cilia. He didn't know why but his sixth sense was flaring up. He needed to move fast.
The halls were long but he cleared them in seconds. The bright light currently whitening everything in the second floor didn't help in his search but his eyes were well adjusted by now. He just needed to find her. Where is—
A sudden cry shot from a corridor. Kento recognized that voice. It was in pain, crying as though subjected to the torrent fires of hell. Kento didn't think, he acted. One moment he took a turn, the other he stood at an open door of what looked like the master bedroom of the mansion. And there she was…
"Cilia?!"
Much like all the other rooms, the master bedroom was whitewashed in bright brilliance. Only this room had a faint jade glow humming in it. The greenish glow originated from the side of the king-sized bed next to the curtains. The room was dense like some unseen energy was flowing through it and ever so occasionally, Kento could hear something like a stone falling into a pool of water. He ignored it. He needed to tend to Cilia.
She was currently writhing on the ground, her cries loud as ever, pulling on her hair as she tried to cover her ears. It was not a tantrum rather a cry. A cry for help. A cry to make it stop! Something was hurting her enough to make her to try and pluck out her hair. Worse part is that she meant it, she seriously ached to rip it from their root if her or the pain was not stopped.
Kento entered and dropped to help her. Her body was tense. Her formerly smooth tender flesh, hard as a rock and stiff as a board. Kento could see her grit her teeth as she twisted and turned on the floor.
"Cilia… what's wrong? Cilia!!"He called. Nothing. Her response was nothing more than more cries.
"Don't worry I'll get you out of here." Kento said tying to pick her up.
As he picked her up Cilia lips quivered.
"N…"
Her lips shook again this time into a stammer.
"No…" a cry punctuating her sentence." There… her." She said… cried, who's to know.
Her hand trembled as she moved it away from her ears. She pointed to the source of the greenish light and stammered once more.
"H…elp er. Help… h…er!"
Kento eyes followed her hand.
Besides the bed lay an odd thing. It looked like a circular object made of layer smooth stones stacked onto each other. At the top of the layers two wooded pillars held up its roof with something like a rope tied to a bucket. The bucket was large. Large enough to fit a person in it. The structure's form finally fully formed in his mind.
Stationed in the master bedroom a large jade like well stood.
But there was more.
When Kento shot up into the second floor he immediately focused on protecting his eyes from the bright light and ignoring his other sense. This was reinforced by the dreadful smell that circulated the floor already. As he walked closer to the jade well the light slowly faded and his other senses subconsciously flared back on. In particular his sense of smell.
Spiky haired Kento stood at the jade well, the light it emitted slowly fading and resting on the wooden bucket. Kento picked up a hint of burning flesh. It wasn't him nor Cilia. The smell came from the bucket!