Chapter 45 - The Piece Of Ashes : Part 3

You would never see a wise person except for those who already felt what it feels to lose something.

But there would always be a process to become wise. You would not be wise right when you lost that 'something'.

You had to learn how to grief first.

But some would hang on to this thing called 'hope'. They would determine that they had not lost that 'something' yet and tried to search for any clue to prove that the 'something' was still there.

The Vergessene did not learn anything nor hang on to any hope. They just denied and denied and denied.

Though Rune, Rune believed in this thing called 'hope'.

That was the reason why she was running like the time was going to blow. She was running like her life depended on it. She ran and ran, and the only thing that was in her mind was Axel.

Her red ponytail waved around as her breath tightened. Sweat started to run down from the side of her forehead. She gripped the silver arrow necklace in her hand tight, like she would die if she lost it.

A familiar house started to form around the corner, causing her hazel eyes to glimmer in hope and worry. Her feet were aching for how long she had run, yet she could not care less anyway.

When she arrived right below her best friend's window, Rune tried to form a shaky smile while trying to calm her fast heartbeat.

"Axel, did you overslept again? Wake up, you sleepyhead!" She shouted. A wavering smile was still on display.

"Axel! Wake up!" She yelled again, desperately this time.

"I'm going to throw a rock again if you didn't open your window!" She threatened. Her smile started to disappear slowly from her face when she received no answer.

Rune waited a little longer. Horizontal wrinkles appeared on her forehead as her mouth opened slightly in worry. Her breath was still ragged as the time passed slowly.

Noticing that there would be no answer from the boy, Rune brought her feet to the front door and rang the doorbell three times in a haze of panic.

"Excuse me! Is Axel home? I need to talk to him!" She shouted and started to spam the doorbell button.

"Excuse me, this is urgent! Please, anyone, answer me!" The girl started to bang the door with her hand, shouting at whoever was inside.

Whoever she hoped was inside.

She stepped back from the door when she received no answer again. In a wave of adrenaline rushing through her veins, her wide hazel eyes caught a garden knife that laid out on the bushes beside the house.

She quickly ran to it and snatched the garden knife. The girl brought the blade to the door with a determined face, tightening her grip on it.

She brought the knife up with all force before starting to bash the door violently. She repeated the movement a couple of times until the door cracked open, revealing an empty house with no one inside.

Rune took no time and began to dash onto the staircase in a hurry. The girl completely ignored her surrounding. The edge of her visions was white, eyes only focusing on finding Axel's room.

She did not notice how every mirror that she had passed by were broken. It was as if someone intentionally broke every single mirror from the inside.

She stopped right in front of Axel's door with trembling hands. She dropped the garden knife that she accidentally brought with her to the floor. It made a loud clank sound as the girl put her hand on the doorknob.

She could hear her heartbeat fastened again when she opened the door slowly, hoping that the boy was sleeping soundly on his bed, hoping that Axel was okay.

When she met with an empty room, all her hope crashed right then and there. Her shoulders started to shake a little. A trembling hand gripped the silver necklace even tighter and brought it to her chest.

Her eyes darted over to the broken mirror in Axel's room, causing her to frown in confusion. She was about to walk over to it when suddenly her phone rang, making the girl jump.

She quickly took the phone from her pocket and almost made it fall down from how shaky her hand was. Her eyes caught the 'father' name on display, causing her shoulders to fall down in relief a little.

Rune quickly pressed the answer button and brought the phone to her ear.

"Thank god. Where are you-" Alfred began in worry, though it quickly got cut off by his daughter.

"Father! Have you seen Axel?" She asked, hoping in some kind of miracle again.

There was no answer from the other line, and Rune decided to continue. "I am at his house right now, trying to find him, but no one's at home." She paused, hazel eyes darting over the necklace in her hand.

"I found his necklace in the middle of the field where the mercenary was, but there was no sight of him." She explained hurriedly. She was running out of time.

"I'm afraid I don't know where he is right now, Rune." Her father answered in a strange tone. "It's good that you're okay. I'm going to send some of my men-"

"I'm supposed- I'm supposed to be his white knight!" Rune shouted to her phone, cracking her voice a little. "Can't you send your men for him? His name is Axel Vergessene. He has a pair of blue eyes and-"

"Rune, we can't!" This time, the president was the one who cut her off. "We can't."

Her frown deepened. "Why?!"

"He's-" Alfred was about to say something, but someone was vaguely talking behind him and made him stop.

"I'm sorry, I have to go right now. I'm going to send my men to pick you up." Her father ended the call so sudden, leaving her no room to actually answer.

"Wait!" Exclaimed the red-haired girl as she tried to redial her father's number.

Rune tried to dial her father again and again as she began to get out of the house, only for Alfred not to pick up the call.

"There you are!" Someone exclaimed right when she got out of the Vergessene's household. Her hazel eyes met with two fearful green eyes, almost like a worry.

"Rune! You can't just run away like that! It's dangerous!" Aster ventured, gripping both of her shoulders tight.

Rune slowly let the phone fall from her hand as she stared at the blond.

"Aster," She looked at him with teary eyes. A sob came in between her breath as she threw herself at Aster who went still at the sudden contact.

"Axel's really gone."

✵✵✵✵✵✵

A brown-haired woman was locking a door tightly, securing her lab from a certain mercenary who liked to barge in. Usually, she would let him get in whenever he wanted to, but today was not the day.

When she ensured the door was secured, the scientist quickly turned around, blowing off her curtain bangs as her black eyes stared at her identical self across the room.

They were facing each other like a mirror, talking through their eyes with the same intention. The dim light was the only witness of the witch and the scientist that were there.

The witch was the first one to break eye contact with the scientist. Her red eyes looked over at one of the cursed arrows on the table and raised her eyebrows. She pointed a finger to the said arrow and made it fly to her face as she examined it.

"I wonder when we will stop using the secondborn Vergessene." The demon started, playing with the arrow with her power. "I'm getting tired of seeing that kid's face. He looks too much like his father. I hate it." She confessed, finally putting down the arrow as she stared at her counterpart again.

"I should be thankful mine is wearing a mask, then." The scientist sneered as she made her way to her. Her brown shag hair bounced a little when she walked.

"You're lucky, Alea." The witch curled her lips at the human, tucking her hair behind her ear as she tried to look at the scientist's work.

The human stopped what she was doing and stared at the red eyes. "You are the one with power, Alea." She deadpanned, stating the fact that she was just a mere human.

Demon Alea shrugged. "Well, you have these weird things called 'technology' in here." She pointed around before looking back at the human. "That's technically your power."

"Whatever you say." Human Alea sighed. Black eyes went back to look at her work again.

The witch was just looming behind her. Sometimes she would help her get what she wanted with her telekinesis power and helped her a little with spells.

"Are you sure this will work?" The demon asked sternly.

"Yes." The human answered back with a stern tone too, stopping whatever she was doing to turn and face her counterpart.

She faced the demon with two determined black eyes and gritting teeth and retold their plan. "We'll kill Cain and Alfred very soon."

The witch tilted her head as the scientist took something out of her pocket. Human Alea folded open a picture to reveal three girls in their high school uniform.

"And bring back our friends from ashes, whatever it takes." She continued, grazing her thumb over the girl with blonde hair and hazel eyes, and stopped right when she touched the girl with violet eyes.

The witch stared at the picture, remembering how she had the same painting of the identical people in the photo. She diverted her gaze over the scientist's young self. A bright smile was on display. Though, both of them knew the smile had disappeared right when their two friends disappeared from the world.

"Whatever it takes." The demon agreed. Red eyes showed an obvious dangerous glint.

You would never see a wise person except for those who already felt what it feels to lose something.

That did not mean everyone who lost something would always become wise.