Ethereal Paradigm: Arcadia of Darkness 48 Nostalgic Nightmare

"Which is the true nightmare, the horrific dream that you have in your sleep or the dissatisfied reality that awaits you when you awake?"

-Justin Alcala

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They are both talking in an eerie way. No matter how I called out to one of them, I can't seem to get their attention. And there's this kind of unseen force that won't make me approach them, as if I lost control of my own feet and of my body. I just stood from a distance seeing them talk as if, they knew each other for a while now.

"Mother, Father, This is Shiro, Big brother Jaiden's new sister!" My sister, Jean, spoke with her usual mischievous-toned voice.

Then out of the thick mist, came two personas that I never expected to see standing again. My deceased father and mother, in a very healthy and young rejuvenated demeanor with clothes also the same as that of what they wore when they were killed.

"Oh, I see. What a beautiful child, right?" My father, as he approached Shiro also began to utter words under the same noble voice he always had.

"I agree with you. Welcome to the family, miss Shiro" Mother also joined the conversation with a pure smile and unselfish gestures the same as ever.

What is this? Mother. Father. Why are you here? Jean? My mind is still unable to comprehend what is happening right in front of me.

"Oh, so you're here my son!" Father looked in my direction. I can't seem to find any words to say, and my mouth is somewhat holding back. I just continued to drown myself in overly sensitive thoughts... R-right. I should just greet them with a simple 'Hello'.

"Hell-" Yet, I was interrupted. Father was not referring to me, he was referring it to his 'other' son.

A voice, so familiar came from behind me. A voice of a madman that I hastily recognized, to be... my brother's.

"Yes. Father. I'm here" he said, suddenly appearing in my back, interrupting my supposed impromptu greeting while ignoring me, like I am not there at that time. He then approached Shiro while wearing his favorite cloth of fine linen with a family crest on his collar, signifying his great influence as the 'next heir' of the aristocracy. His facade is the complete opposite of what he showed to me that night of his derangement. In this mode of his, he really is the brother and the heir that everyone looks up to.

Yet, I am unable to say or do anything. I still stood from afar while watching Shiro being surrounded and groomed by them. It is a picture of a family's perfect picnic, so to say.

Yet, in that perfect and soothing picnic imagery, something sinister is hidden beneath. I don't know why, but I'm feeling it. The blatant eerie and creepiness of the panorama.

And then, something went back on my bewildered mind...The basilisk which was dawdling on the giant tree's branches a moment ago. I then looked up to see where it went, but it's gone. Where is it?

And then, came the unprecedented gunshots...

"BANG! BANG! BANG!" As bullets escaped from the mouth of a gun, came loud noises in a consecutive suite. Noises, that ripped my entire family from their existence. Sounds, that had become the trademark of the murderer, some sort of desperate shouts for the prejudice.

"HELP!"

And then, from my business of locating the giant serpent, came a terrified voice of Shiro.

"SHIRO!" I quickly turn my gaze to where they are, and it's now a very different scene. A very great alteration of the picture-perfect picnic.

My brother has now killed them...again, in the same decadent manner and is now coming to take Shiro's life with the same gun he used on his once-failed endeavor to deem me lifeless.

I literally have no power to freeze time. I don't know why but my power is not working either.

My animalistic brother then took hold of Shiro from the back, facing in front of me while holding his gun, pointing it to the girl's head with a very deformed smile filled with the same insatiable hunger for insanity... The version of him that I can't withstand seeing.

Unable to do anything, as my feet are also severely and defiantly out of my own control, I just stood there...And my brother then killed Shiro without any forms of remorse and any hesitance.

"Welcome to the family... little sister." He said while holding Shiro's cold corpse.

He then points his finger on me, gazing with a confident yet crazed expression.

"Look back", he said.

I then did what he told, unable to say or contradict anything. And what I saw is the basilisk, upfront, and face to face.

In this perspective, it made the monstrosity even diaphanous without any obstruction. It then opens its mouth, enough to have ten people to fit inside and swallowed me whole like I am inconsequent plankton who accidentally came across with the megalodon of the vast pacific.

(...)

"Shiro!" With dizziness and headache, I hastily stood up, with the image of the nostalgic nightmare still redundant on my head, while looking around as I felt to have gained control of my body. I saw Shiro sleeping soundly on the bed while I gasped for breath...

It was all just an evocative nightmare. An unwanted one. Good thing I did not seem to awoke the girl up.

I sat down, heavy with sighs with sweat running down my face.

Why? Why won't the memory just leave me alone? It's been years now since that happened, but still, the ugly memory hunts me to no end...and now, it's including Shiro, without any censorship for the brutalities it grotesquely shows.

I then looked at the clock-like contract insignia I have had and it's still the same as ever. It's hand facing three, indicating that I had nullified just three of the 12 major emotions. Anger. Sadness. Fear. There's no way for me to feel those again. I just hope that my biography would not be that dull to read and that, it would not be a disadvantage for me here...

Well, it certainly is. Emotions are stimuli and not responding to them, would be denying life. At any rate, I must alleviate the cons it offers while aggrandizing the pros and still improving the extent of this ability that I've just recently received...

Chapter end