Mya did not run.
She tried to, but her body would not comply.
When she attempted to move forward again, the space past the gate changed. The air compressed violently, crushing down on her chest as though the world had inhaled a breath and forgotten to let it out again. Mya's legs gave out.
"What… is this…?" she gasped.
It was not just the physical force of the compressed air; it seeped into her mind as well, pressing down on her thoughts and filling her head with a low, distant hum.
"Mya…"
Mya's heart almost stopped; the suffering voice of her older sister was calling to her.
"No...wait!" "Onee-chan! Where are you?!" she cried, trying to reach out blindly.
Mya turned around, her breathing catching as she looked at the sealed entrance. No matter how hard she pushed, it would not open, not even an inch, her chest tightened.
"Nui…?" she said, her voice barely above a whisper.
Mya, still desperate to locate her sister, continued her search, her fear disappearing because her love was for her sisters, contributing, with each step she took forward, becoming more difficult than the last, as though the ground was fighting her.
"Mya…?" the voice said again, this time weaker.
"Please, just tell me where you are."
"…I'm sorry."
The voice went quiet and the moment went awkward. Mya, still shaken, yelled out for her sister but there was no response. Assad and Taura heard her yell and looked at her direction confused on why she was suddenly yelling out a name. Mya did not care the slightest and kept on calling out for Nui's name but it was still silent.
Mya shed a tear and what she saw next made her question her life choices. She heard Nui's voice again call out to her, she kept on telling Mya to run away. But Mya did not listen.
Mya then saw something, hanging from a single rusted hook was a head.
A young woman's head, her hair long and tangled, streaked with dried blood, her eyes frozen wide open. The same sea-blue eyes as Mya's. Her once beautiful ear-fins were gone, ripped away, leaving only raw, scarred stubs. Her lips were pale, slightly parted, as if she had been calling out to someone in her final moments. Nothing else remained, no body , no voice , just a head, swaying faintly in the still air.
Mya's eyes widened in shock and terror,her lips quivered and she could not speak a single word anymore. It was almost like her soul was taken out of her because of how pale she was from the shock of seeing Nui's head hanging and swinging normally.
Small amounts of sweat started to appear on her face, slowly losing herself from seeing her dead sister. Mya could not hold her emotions and screamed out of the top of her lungs. Her eyes filled with tears, memories of her time with Nui slowly came back.
Those happy days were when she was the little sister and Nui was the older. Everything was normal. Along with Ano and Molly they were a happy sibling family, taken in by the man. Everything was nice, she did not want to see that life over.
Or so that was what she told herself, one by one she lost the people she loved. First was the man who they saw as a father figure. Only for him to sell them off, then it was Molly who was killed by Assad accidentally and now it's Nui whose head was hanging off a rope, her body nowhere to be seen.
Assad and Taura heard Mya who was crying her balls out and quickly went to comfort her. They were confused as to why she was crying all of a sudden. Is there something inside the yard of the mansion that made her scared? But that could not be the case as there was nothing inside besides the monster that they just killed.
Mya could not answer the questions and only cried.
Assad and Taura stayed with Mya, trying to comfort her, but nothing they said was getting through to her. She was shaking uncontrollably, sobs wracking her body as she clutched at herself as if she was about to fall apart.
Taura looked up towards the mansion, a sense of unease settling in the pit of his stomach.
"...What's going on in there?" she muttered.
The world seemed to be the same as before—simply the same old abandoned mansion standing silently over them. But as they looked closer, that illusion began to break apart.
Cracks began to appear in the stone walls, as if they were a network of veins.
The walls began to fade, showing what had been hidden beneath.
Taura stepped back outside the mansion, breathing in sharply as shapes began to appear. There were too many of them.
"...Those are...merfolk." Assad said in a barely audible tone.
Bodies were stacked and scattered inside, and they did not move, nor did they show signs of life from where they were. The sight made Assad's stomach drop, and his eyes widened with shock.
"So that's why she's crying…" Taura stated.
"Yea you might be right but...I don't think that's the sole reason she is crying."
"What do you mean?" Taura asked.
Assad did not respond and just pointed somewhere. The reason why Mya had been crying the entire time. She had been screaming a name. Both of them looked higher towards the center of the exposed space and something hung there.
Swaying gently.
There was a head hanging in the air, moving from side to side as if it had been caught by an invisible current. Taura shivered at the sight, and Assad looked at the hanging head... and then at Mya. The resemblance between the two was uncanny, from the same face shape, to the same sea-blue eyes. There was no doubt that the head that was tied and swinging was her sister.
Mya's crying got louder, and her body shook violently as she realized the truth. Neither Assad nor Taura said a word; they did not know what to say.
"What is going on?"