***
About 45 minutes later, a series of high-pitched noises, followed by a series of clicks wakes Kitsune up from his slumber. Surrounded by the posters, the books, the figures, and other trinkets that he wondered how he couldn't live without when he was 15, the nostalgic trip left him uneasy, so waking up wasn't too hard for him.
He walks over to his bedroom door and opens it, expecting to see his father, sister, or one of his new friends making the noises. "What is going on?" he asks down the hallway as he tries to blink himself awake.
As his eyesight focuses, he sees a person with orange hair walking down the hallway. "Sis, you're being too noisy!" he says as he approaches the person.
The person turns to go down the staircase, and Kitsune can see their face through the banister poles. "Chisai?" Her eyes are blank.
He expects the sound of feet landing on the steps to be heard, but a closer look at Chisai showed her floating down the steps. "Chisai! What are you doing?" He tries reaching out for her, but is repealed by a barrier. "What the hell?"
Jumping down the stairs as Chisai floats down them, Kitsune turns the corner as she approaches the bottom. The front door opens inward as she approaches and floats through.
"NIKO! WAKE UP!" Kitsune says as he slams his father's bedroom door wide open.
Niko sits up in the bed. "What? What?" he looks around trying to assess the situation.
"Chisai is...." Kitsune has to think about how to describe what he just saw.
"What about her?" Niko asks as he gets out of the bed.
"She...."
"What?"
Frustrated at the lack of adverbs to describe the situation he just witnessed, he grabs Niko's arm and rushes to the front door. "Look!" He points to Chisai, who has floated down the front staircase and is now floating through the front gate. "See?"
"Chisai!" Niko calls out.
Chisai doesn't respond, but instead turns left and floats down the street, increasing in speed.
Running through the front door and down the large staircase, Niko yells back to Kitsune. "Get to the car. We'll chase her down!"
Feeling like he had no other option, Kitsune jumps down the large staircase as well and heads over to Niko's car.
They both jump in, Niko presses the start button, backs the car up, and starts speeding down the road, chasing after Chisai.
As they travel down the road, following Chisai at increasing speeds, Kitsune asks, "What happened to her?"
"I have no idea. I knew she could fly, but I never thought she could fly this fast." Niko says as he sees his speedometer needle rise quickly.
After about twenty minutes of chasing Chisai, Niko and Kitsune are driving on a car path through the forest, near the location they were earlier in the day. "Boy, this all looks familiar." Kitsune says as he looks at the surrounding trees.
"Where the hell is she going?" Niko asks.
"I don't know, but there's A CLIFF!" Kitsune says with increasing volume as he points in front of the car.
So focused on following Chisai, Niko didn't see the approaching cliff edge. He slams on the brake, hoping to stop the car...again.
As Chisai approaches the cliff edge, a large black oval appears in front of her, off the edge of the cliff. The edge of the black oval is fuzzy, as if it is unstable and has to be held in place. Chisai approaches the black oval, passes through, and both her and the oval disappear.
Approaching the cliff edge, Niko and Kitsune hold on to the door handles for support. "Hang on!" Niko calls out as he spins the wheel.
The car slides sideways, then comes to a stop at before the cliff edge, with enough room for Kitsune to get out and walk around.
As Niko and Kitsune step out, they both are breathing heavily. "What... the... hell... just happened?" Kitsune asks.
"And where'd she go?" Niko asks as well.
A white oval appears and grows on the Niko's side of the car, opposite of the cliff face. The sound of sparks and electricity come from the oval.
"Niko, what's happening?" Kitsune calls from the other side of the car as he looks down the cliff side, wondering where Chisai went.
As a figure materializes from the white oval, Niko recognizes the person and calls out, "You're the last person I'd expect to be here!"
To be continued...
About the Author
When he's not writing story lines or scripts for upcoming novels or mangas, Kyle M. Perkins usually designs, develops, and hand-codes web-based services using a mixture of multiple web languages, including PHP, MySQL, HTML, CSS, jQuery, and more, as he has been doing since 2001.
Although this is his first official novel, Kyle is also working on story lines for various mangas titles, including such titles as Crystal Blaze, All Souls Crescent, Phoenix Eye, and Omega Noir, all produced by Lunar Productions, a small studio run by him and Keat Cahoon.
As a 2nd Degree Black Belt in Taekwondo, Kyle has many years of experience in the martial art, including becoming State Champ in Weapons for 2 consecutive years, and a Level 1 Instructor for the American Taekwondo Association.
Kyle thoroughly enjoys watching sci-fi and anime series, with his favorites being "Star Trek: The Next Generation", "Doctor Who", and "Sword Art Online."
Kyle lives in Waynesville, NC, with his fiancée, Martha "Keat" Cahoon, and their three cats, Niko (yes, the name is the same), Chi, and Maru.
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