(EPISODE II)

The hair on Asorotany’s neck rises. He sat up straighter and pressed his forehead against the cool, soothing window, skimming his eyes over sea of people that was getting smaller as the cruiser rolled through the packed gate. None seemed to be uncomfortable like him. In fact, none seemed to be aware of the inhuman voices. They all look cheerful, glad even, for a brief second of blessed coolness.

Asorotany shook the feeling away and sank back to his seat. But the crying grows stronger in his ears. Forming words. Stringing into a sentence. Long live the Queen. Long live the Queen.

The fire flickered, collapsing into itself.

Light blinks in a convulsing sequence as the strings swing, then simultaneously all bulbs flare and flash off. On the sky, a massive cloud rolls over, covering up the moon.

Gasps and curses burbling as blackness swept across the ground.

Ting-a-ling.

A tinkle. Light. Faint. Lost amidst the panic noises.

But enough to freeze every single body.

Gaido stopped the car, hissing unintelligibly into his radio, scramming out of the car. He stopped and reassured people that this was part of this year plan, no worry needed, although, inside the car, the intercom bleared a “All units on high alert. This can be a plot. Captain Gaido, what is your current location?”

Asorotany unbuckled his seatbelt and stumbled out. He craned his neck, trying to see through the fog, ears open, listening for the silvery bells again.

He knows it was there. He knew it.

He knew she was here.

This was it. This was his chance.

Gaido growls. “Roger. Captain speaking. I’m on the East gate. All units, stay put. Fushigina, get the fuck back inside.”

Kettei squinted at the blindfolded-dark surrounding, clambering to his feet.

From somewhere, smoke hissed, curling skyward, creating a fog that stung his eyes. Awkward laugh and grumbles cropping up people fumbling into one another in the darkness.

Kettei didn’t bother with his phone. He lurched forward, following his instinct. The fog blurs everything into murky shapes. He couldn’t see anything, yet somehow he knew he was going the right way.

“Fushigina!”

“I’m going to see her,” he replied. His hands were shaking uncontrollably—from excitement, from adrenaline, from being near death.

He couldn’t walk, he wanted to run. His knees were buckling.

Asorotany hit a supporting pole of a stand, causing the fabric roof to shudder.

“Watch your step, idiot,” The vendor yelled.

“My bad, uncle.” He slurred, shouldering a ring of teenage girls that gasped oh-so-angelic.

“Put some genuinity in your apology,” The old man snapped. “Jesus, kids these days.” Snickers and critics echoed.

Asorotany paid the vendor no mind. The mist was thinning out a bit, enough to return some clear-cut lines and a tint of colour to the world.

Ting-a-ling.

That silver bells sounded again. Resonated in the wind. Only, this time, people had started to notice.

No, she’s mine.

He could feel her presence. Close. Watching him. Watching over this madness the same way she gazes at a newly turned plot where the casket rested. He pushed another pair out of his way.

The central fire shoots up. Asorotany ducked. Sprays of hot sparks shower down the mass. Drums thundered from all sides. Above, the bulbs winked to rumbling rhyme. Another round of smoke fizzled.

“Sorry for the technical trouble, my friends. Welcome to Shinwa’s 145th Spring Festival, ladies and gentlemen,” The announcer bellowed. Red and green and yellow LED light swivels, then focused on the stage.

People raised their hands and roars. Deafening.

Out the corner of his eyes, Asorotany spotted the distinct ram skull, passing by the end of the vendor row. Unobtrusively. A shadow. Unnoticed. The same way she tried to do anything. Asorotany felt his shoulders tensed up as he realized he was nowhere closer to her, and that was when he started bashing through the moving mass, bloody waded through. His mind continued to track her movement, the alarm gonged with each passing second.

Adrenaline pumped in his bloodstream.

She’s here. Anticipation crushed his throat, She’s here.

Ting-a-ling.

“Fucking hell, Fushigina!” Gaido cried. From either sides of him, he can hear pounding footsteps. Yelling of Out of the way and Who do you think you are.

He couldn’t think of anything else. He didn’t think from running away from Gaido, he could only think of running toward her. The faint metallic melody clinking becoming clearer to him, piercing, beckoning. She’s here she’s here she’s here, he repeated, a sheer of cold sweat condenses on his skin.

A hand clamped around his neck, steering him back. He thrashed, screaming, clawing for her.

Blink. Blink. Ting-a-ling. Blink.

She was gone.

The bitter and sour taste of disappointment graced the tip of his tongue, choking him. He struggled to oppose the backward drag and the strong fists of Gaido, but he was failing.

Always failing.

She was right there, and he couldn’t even reach her.

Maybe he cried, or howled, or something equally mad. Because people were forming a circle around him, treading back as though he was an insane animal.

He could have die, but they took it away from him again.

Ting-a-ling.