ALL NOVEL Book 3. Chapter 2. “Reencounters.”
Book 3. Chapter 2.
“Reencounters.”
An expensive, flashy black motorcycle parked near the third entrance to the abandoned Yerast Park seven minutes later.
“Kalysto?” A beautiful black-clad Japanese woman greeted her as she removed her motorcycle helmet from her head, releasing her long, silky, straight black hair. Her slanted honey eyes assessed her up and down, inspecting every part of her body as Kalysto approached her. “I thought you were dead!”
“I’m not! But I’m so glad to see you’re all right!” she greeted her while she hugged her. Taking the porcelain-skinned woman by surprise at the sudden show of affection from the fairy champion. “I’ve been calling several people but only you answered. I was so worried!”
“I’m fine. Scared and depressed, but fine.”
“Have you talked to Jessica? I tried to reach her but I couldn’t," Sakura grimaced when she heard her ex’s name.
“I doubt very much that she will.”
“What happened?”
“She cheated on me with her ex-husband. I found out two weeks ago, when I found a positive pregnancy test hidden in her things. So we are no longer together,” although Kalysto knew that Jessica was not in love with Sakura, she had never expected such a development in their relationship. She opened her mouth, wanting to console her friend, but she didn’t know what to say and ended up closing it again. “But let’s not talk about that now... Look at you! You look terrible, and you smell strange! Oh my God, I can’t believe they put you in chains!” she added as she saw the chains wrapped around Kalysto’s arm. “How on earth did you manage to escape?”
“Long story.”
“Do you want to go to the police to file a complaint?”
“No, for the moment I don’t want to go to the police, it would be a waste of time to file a report with everything that’s going on right now... By the way, I thought your motorcycle was red," muttered the saint as soon as she cut the hug, examining the new motorcycle and her friend at the same time.
“My brother bought it. He said it was much easier to get around the city and run away in case the monsters showed up," she replied. “Here, put the helmet on!” Despite the loneliness of the street they were on, Sakura did not want to stay longer than necessary.
“Thank you," commented Kalysto as she began to put it on. “I thought your brother lived in London.”
“He had to travel to New York at the end of May on business. And as soon as all this chaos happened, and I refused to return to Japan, my father sent him here to convince me. Do you want to go to a shelter or my house? Although I met a couple of police officers on the way, they hadn’t made any announcements in my area yet, so it should be safe to go to my house.”
“Is it possible for you to take me home? I’ve been trying to get in touch with Mrs. Tanner, but no one answers the phone.”
“Oh, my God! Don’t you know?” What little color there was in Sakura’s smooth skin disappeared from her face as her eyes widened. Kalysto’s heart sank as she watched her reaction, knowing beforehand that the next words the beautiful twenty-five-year-old woman would say would not bring good news. “...The building you lived in was one of the first to be destroyed during the first wave of monsters.”
****
Twenty minutes later, after bypassing a military post and being scolded by a couple of policemen for wandering the streets despite the alert status as they left the southern part of the city, they arrived at the destroyed building she had once lived in.
Tears glistened in her eyes as she got off the bike and surveyed the devastated street lined with almost completely destroyed apartment buildings. The entire left side of the block had been partially destroyed, while to her right there was nothing but rubble and heavy machinery finishing the removal.
Half of the building she had lived in no longer existed. In fact, the corner where her room was supposed to be was nothing but a pile of air.
Her knees shook as she realized how close she had come to dying.
“If Alice hadn’t stopped me from going home to sleep on the day of the invasion, I would have died," she muttered to herself, not realizing that Sakura had followed her.
“Better kidnapped than dead," assured the Japanese, but seeing the annoyed look that the young woman gave her, she shrugged her shoulders. “What? You know I’m right!” The black-haired girl defended herself.
Kalysto shook her head, not wanting to waste time arguing with the only friend who answered her call and came to her aid despite the danger she was in. So they spent the next ten minutes asking the few neighbors who still lived in the nearby buildings, trying to find out if anyone knew anything about the Tanners.
But no one knew anything about them.
Desperate, Kalysto continued calling until she had less than ten percent battery left.
“I think we’d better go to my place. You need to take a bath, change your clothes and get rid of those chains that are attracting everyone’s attention. Aren’t they too heavy?”
“What?” Kalysto was surprised and looked at the chains, ignoring the curious looks that the few people who were willing to give her some information had given her. You’re right, we’d better go.
“Here, put on my jacket” Sakura took off the expensive black leather jacket she was wearing and handed it to Kalysto, who felt self-conscious to receive her token of appreciation, knowing beforehand how low Sakura’s body temperature was.
“Thank you," she murmured with some discomfort.
“... I don’t want to sound like a fowl of ill will, but are you sure you can take on a monster?”
“As long as they don’t possess a level higher than sixty, yes, I can fight them.”
“Levels?” Sakura felt startled as they both walked back to the bike. “Do those things have levels? Like in a video game?”
“Yes. The monsters and the hunters, as you call them, also have levels. Why do you ask?”
“The area where I live is one of the few that is still considered safe, but to get there from here we must either go through an area that right now is not safe, or go back through where we came from, but there is the portal alert and they probably already closed the roads, so the only safe option left is to take a very long ride.”
“When you say we have to go through an area that is not safe at the moment, do you mean the center?”
“Yes. There’s a dungeon in the center of the city along with a tower about ten floors high that literally sprouted out of the ground one day in the middle of the university’s athletics track” Kalysto frowned as she listened. “No monsters have come out of there yet, but the military has both areas completely surrounded, fearing that the same thing will happen to us that already happened in Los Angeles.”
“And what happened in Los Angeles?” she asked as she put her hand on Sakura’s shoulder and lifted her leg to get on the motorcycle.
“A seven-floor tower sprouted out of the ground and two weeks later hundreds of monsters came out of it, and thousands of people died. After the military evacuated as many as they could before bombing it. The city suffered complete devastation... that happened over the weekend.”
“That’s why your father wants you to go back to Japan.”
“In times of crisis, the family must stay together," she added sadly, knowing that if she returned, she would lose the freedom she had fought so hard for over the years. But at the same time, she was afraid to stay. “My older brother and my father are pressuring me to return. My brother is leaving in three days, so I have until then to make a decision.”
“Sakura, what if I tell you that I can teach you how to fight them?”
“What? Are you sure of what you are talking about?” she questioned, hope shining in her eyes.
“... Let’s go to a place where we can talk quietly.”
If I can help her get the blue system, that would give her a chance of surviving no matter where she is. Kalysto thought, remembering that she had gotten such a system after killing three goblins.
“Then I’ll take you to a place where they can remove those chains, and then we’ll order something to eat. I’m surprised you haven’t complained yet that you’re hungry," she joked with a smile before putting on her helmet and handing the other to Kalysto to put on.
“And it’s because you remember things like that, that we are friends," muttered Kalysto, and just as she put on the helmet, her cell phone and Sakura’s rang almost at the same time.
Kalysto’s heart pounded like crazy in her chest as she saw Natasha’s name on the caller ID.
“Hello! Nat? Please tell me you’re okay!” She hurried to say.
“Kalysto? Oh my God, it’s really you! We all thought you might be dead!” The young teenager sobbed on the other end of the line and Kalysto’s heart filled with compassion as she listened to her cry. “Where the hell were you? You had us so worried! Why didn’t you answer the phone? I’ve been calling you like crazy to let you know that my mom is in the hospital! I thought I filled up your mailbox with messages...”
“How come your mom’s in the hospital? Which hospital is she in? What happened to her?” She asked, raising her voice without realizing it, but no one answered. “Natasha? Why aren’t you answering?” She pulled the phone away from her ear to check if she had hung up on her by accident but discovered that her phone’s battery was dead. “Shit! I ran out of battery at the worst time!”