Part 8

Inside Yuna’s wrinkled apron, her phone rang loudly. The two girls were finishing stacking pallets in the storage room. Yuna Nakama had no idea what answering that call would mean for her. The ringtone, “Raise My Flag” by Ill Factor and Graham Cochrane, ironically, heralded the chaotic and bloody fate that lay ahead for her.

“What happened to my sister?” Yuna screamed hysterically as she answered the call. “Carol, I’m leaving early! My sister fainted again!” she shouted to her coworker as she bolted out the door, still in her uniform, tossing her apron aside and leaving everything behind.

“I knew it,” Yuna kept repeating to herself as she burst through the door of Café et Sucre and into the dark alleys of Elise.

She knew something was wrong. It had been strange that her sister hadn’t shown any symptoms for months. She suspected Nasai had been hiding her condition to ease her burden. "Why hadn’t I spoken to her sooner? Why…?” Yuna asked herself as she sprinted frantically, through alley after alley, unaware that as she moved, the streetlights behind her were going out one by one.

She was almost out of the Elise district and close to catching the bus to the intermodal station. She just had to turn right and—

“Wait a minute,” Yuna stopped, noticing something completely different on the path she usually took home. “This wasn’t a dead-end street… How is this possible?”

The young woman had been so lost in thought that she believed she had taken a wrong turn. But then, as she looked back, she noticed all the lights behind her were off. Only one lamppost remained on, right above her.

“What’s happening?” she asked, now worried.

“So this is where you were hiding,” a raspy voice echoed from behind her.

Yuna spun around, startled and even more scared. At the end of the dead-end street, standing against the wall, was a shadow in human form. “Am I dreaming? Has what happened to my sister affected me this much?” Yuna wondered, now deeply disturbed, as she swore no one had been there a moment ago. She took two steps back when, out of the darkness, two intense yellow eyes began to glow. A chill suddenly ran through Yuna’s body.

“Who are you?” she asked, her body feeling as if it had been weighed down by twenty extra pounds, leaving her unable to move her feet.

“So many years searching… finally, we’ve found you,” the shadow continued.

“What the hell are you talking about?” she shot back, her voice trembling.

The darkness made it impossible for Yuna to see the figure fully as it transformed into a human man, burly and menacing. He took two steps toward her, letting the lamplight reveal his silhouette.

“Stay away from me!” Yuna screamed in terror as he approached.

Her nerves must have been playing tricks on her. There was no way this man had just appeared out of nowhere. No way that this man, who had just met her, was speaking to her as if they had known each other before.

Yuna felt strange; two mysterious strangers had appeared in her life, but unlike the one from this morning, this one radiated a different energy. Like the snake tattoo that stretched across his neck, reaching the back of his right ear, he emitted an animalistic, savage, aggressive instinct that made her feel she was in danger.

“Don’t be afraid,” the man said, with a malicious tone and a disdainful smile.

“Afraid? You don’t exactly look like someone I can trust,” Yuna shot back with an uncontrollable smile. In moments of extreme stress, Yuna Nakama couldn’t control the muscles in her face. She couldn’t help but smile nervously, even as her body tensed up.

“That’s true…” the burly man replied, now moving even closer to her, his golden eyes glowing more intensely as he approached.

“Don’t come near me! Go away! Stay back!” Yuna screamed desperately, hitting her legs, hoping they would move so she could escape.

Tears started streaming down her twisted face. All she could think about was that she wouldn’t see her sister again. If this night were to be her last, would her sister be able to find her body buried in the snow? How would Nasai live without her? And most of all—why? Why now? She wasn’t ready to die, or rather, she didn’t want to die here, alone, with her body lying in the snow, in a dead-end alley.

“I WOULDN’T DO THAT!” a deep voice echoed behind Yuna, shaking the ground and causing her to collapse to her knees.

Both Yuna and the man with the snake tattoo turned their gaze toward the source of the booming voice.

“Don’t interfere!” the man shouted furiously when he saw who it was.

“Do you know who you’re talking to?” the hidden figure asked, slightly more irritated. Slowly, a red glow emanated from his earring, growing more intense. “You have three seconds to leave. Three… Two…” the young man began to count, his earring radiating an even brighter light with each number.

The tattooed man hesitated for a moment before vanishing into particles, his face twisted with rage, right before Yuna’s eyes.

“You’ll have to answer to Devon,” he whispered as he disappeared into the last speck of dust.

Yuna couldn’t believe what she had just witnessed. She thought she must have eaten something bad, causing her to hallucinate. As she remained on the ground, staring in disbelief at the spot where the man had disappeared, the lights, one by one, began to flicker back on, illuminating the street.

“Are you alright?” the figure behind her asked, his voice gentle with concern.

Now that everything had calmed down and her body felt lighter, she recognized that gentle, soft voice. The voice that made her entire body tremble, that shook every part of her senses but made her feel safe. That voice, that elegant way of speaking... it couldn’t be... Suddenly, still on the ground, she turned to face him and froze.

“You... you... Aren’t you the director?” she stammered, leaving several seconds of silence. And as if fate had willed it, once she made eye contact with him, she couldn’t tear her gaze away from his intense hazel-green eyes. “Who are you really?”