Chapter 44: Vanished
Cold.
It was a cold and cruel world.
Red's eyes scanned for anything that would tell her otherwise. Her brain screamed at her what her heart fervently denies.
Blood.
This was blood. But whose blood it was she didn't want to know.
Ari understood immediately what happened inside Dorothy Cane's apartment but even he himself couldn't believe it. They had teleported safely into the apartment and the cat jumped out of Red's jacket immediately to inspect the anomaly of the place.
His hand curled into a fist of rage.
'This isn't real. Dear spirits please give us a sign that this isn't real.' He wished as hard as he could.
His brother ran immediately to inspect the vicinity. His eyes darted from corner to corner, hysterical and desperate.
"Granny Cane?" he called from the rooms that had been left unlocked.
"Dorothy, where are you?!" Ari shouted as well.
Nothing. There was no response at all.
There was not a single thing that could tell them their hunches weren't real. But still they searched for anything to counter the horrifying mess of Dorothy's favorite lounge.
Archer picked up her knitting needle behind the chair and noticed it had been caked with dry blood. Dorothy herself wasn't around and by this time of the day, she should have been busy in the kitchen.
Her body wasn't around as well. They can't cross out the possibility that she was still alive somewhere. He dashed to check the tiny space of the kitchen and noticed the disarray of the sink. Cups, dishes, kitchenware, and utensils were left submerged in greasy waters.
"That doesn't look like Dorothy's kitchen at all." He said under his breath. She had always been adamant on cleanliness and made sure the place was arranged in orderly fashion like the noble she had been.
Prim and proper.
As he inspected further, there it was, the stain of his left-over lunch on the dish at the topmost pile. It was as if Dorothy had never even touched them.
He heard something break from the living room and ran to see that Red had thrown a glass vase at the floor. The shards of the ceramic scattered everywhere and, on her cheek, a tiny trickle of blood dripped from a huge gash.
Pain.
Anger.
Fear.
Denial.
Red felt all of it and released those emotions without thinking twice. She screamed and toppled anything her little hands could reach. Chairs, figurines, glasses, even the lounge Dorothy loved. She didn't hold back her emotions and just went ballistic.
Ari tried to stop her as she destroyed more of what she could get hold of. But even a faey warrior like him couldn't stop her. Ari winced and let go as Red's body temperature soared above boiling point.
Just like when he first showed himself to Red on the night she awakened.
"Red please stop! Halta!" he chanted. Maybe just for a little while they could make her calm down.
The spell took a few long seconds before it had full effect on Red. She almost had grabbed and kneed Archer's head as he approached to stop her as well. Gravity worked itself against Red and this time neither of the brothers saved her from falling down.
She twitched and struggled to release herself from the spell. Just as she was about to, Archer went on and seconded the spell. This time around, he even added a new word to twist the impermanence so she wouldn't be able to move at all.
"Halta eterna!" he chanted as he pointed his finger at Red.
She laid on the floor stupefied and the brothers winced as they tried to pull her upright in turns. Her body temperature hasn't decreased at all. In fact, it actually rose much more as her anger now turned to the faey brothers who stopped her.
"Fuck you both. This wouldn't have happened if you hadn't come into my life!" she wanted to shriek at them. But the only sounds that came out of her mouth were inaudible whimpers and throaty gags.
She was angry and she wanted to vent on just about anyone really.
"Okay Red, we all know this is really bad. But you cannot go wild on us now." Ari faced her and stared straight into her eyes. She could see that he too was angry from the way his facial muscles contorted.
"We can't trample on anything here Red. We must look at this with our heads level and clear." He continued. "Surely there is something that could lead us to answer the thousand questions this fucked up situation that's thrown at us right now."
Red's eyes pooled and tears began to burst from her tear ducts. Endless waves of sadness, rage, agony, and dread escaped from her turquoise eyes and steam was slowly released from her body.
Archer couldn't bear to look at Red. This was the second time around that he saw her cry and the reason just got much worse. He bit the side of his cheek to suppress himself from shouting until he tasted a salty and metallic flavor mixed into his saliva.
'The darkling will rise again.' He couldn't help but remember what Morgianna had spoken back at the Crescent Moon Island.
'The darkling shall avenge us.'
But how could the darkling have done this? Surely there could be another explanation to the ominous words written on the floor. He couldn't have done this himself.
Ari sat in front of Red and talked to her in his calm and reassuring voice, "Red, believe in me when I say that I am furious and deeply saddened as well." He held her hand and squeezed it even if her skin was still so hot with the steam that escaped her pores.
"I know this will be hard for you, but please think. Does Granny Cane have anything of significance that we could use to track her?" he continued.
Red's sobs slowly stopped and she hiccupped from crying her heart out. She knitted her brows in concentration and tried to think of anything that they could use.
She suddenly remembered back when she was a child, grandmama used to write daily on her journal. She told Red that one day, she will come to know what was inside and Red's curiosity made her try to steal a glance at grandmama as she wrote on it.
Which was to no avail as she closed it immediately and stashed it inside her cabinet which Red couldn't reach.
She attempted to reply but she couldn't move her mouth to speak. Archer's spell had totally immobilized her that even speech was impossible.
Good thing she could still breath.
She glared at Archer and he quickly dispelled his restraint magic on Red. He realized she wanted to say something and that she had already calmed down enough and so he trusted her and dispelled the magic casted on her.
"Grandmama had a journal kept in her room. Perhaps it could be of some use to us." She spoke slowly. Her anger still evident by the way she scowled at both of Ari and Archer.
"I'll go get it then." Archer dashed to Dorothy's room and rummaged on her shelves and cabinets as he searched for the journal Granny Cane wrote on.
Red couldn't turn her head to watch at the lounge chair Dorothy loved and just sat at the floor and stared at the ceiling. She raised her head up and her body went limp.
"I think I got it." Archer announced at the back. "Dorothy's journal."
It was an old and worn-out notebook bound in leather that smelled of old library books forgotten for years. Ari opened it and the three of them craned their necks to read what was written.
"Dear spirits." Archer gasped in disbelief. "It can't be."
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