Breaking the Shackles of the Past (Ren Tao) (ON HIATUS)

☯ Chapter One: The Ghost Whisperer ☯

Cram school is a necessary evil if I want to make it through high school and be accepted into college. Under normal circumstances, I didn't mind going. Studying was what I did in my free time. Tonight though, my concentration kept waning no matter how hard I tried to focus on the lesson.

I experienced a deep sense of relief when the bell rang.

"That'll be it for today," my teacher said as everyone began to gather up their things.

I was one of the last people to stand as the others began heading towards the door while resuming the conversations they'd started before class. Unlike many others my age, I tend to keep to myself and seldom speak unless someone asks me something. My aloof behavior doesn't earn me brownie points with my peers. They think of me as cold and unapproachable, someone not to waste their time with. A part of me prefers it that way. It's easier.

Most of the people in my class were already on their way home by the time I stepped out of the building. I took in a deep breath and enjoyed the fresh night air, which was impossible to get in the city during any other time of the day. The roads were always too congested with cars as people performed errands or rushed to and from work, polluting the air with their exhaust.

The feeling of being watched struck me moments later and made me glance around to try to find the source.

It was a familiar sensation, one that I had nearly become accustomed to over the last several years. Although, like any sensible person, I wasn't entirely sure what to make of it. I didn't get a sense of foreboding, as if something terrible might happen, but I could never figure out what was causing it. And tonight was no different. As always, I came out empty-handed in my search to discover who or what it might be.

Deciding there was nothing more I could do, I ignored it and started to make my way home with a sigh. I'd barely made it through two lights when a strange awareness of something tugging me towards it engulfed me, causing me to pause. It was calling out to me. Unable to dismiss the feeling in the pit of my stomach, I followed my instincts and allowed my feet to mechanically steer me forward. When my hand touched the cool metal of the small gate of a local cemetery, I regained my senses and let go of it as fast as I could.

Many headstones lined the ground, some worn with time and others appearing as if they'd been carved in the last year. A towering hill with a sharp cliff edge took up the right of the area that overlooked much of the cemetery and the surrounding businesses nearby. There was a Shinto shrine at its top that could be accessed by a long set of stone steps ascending from the base of the hill. A small piece of land, somehow separated from the rest of the cliffside, was connected by a wooden bridge.

A distinct frown appeared on my lips. "Why here of all places?"

This wasn't the first time I'd been led to some undisclosed location by instinct alone, but I'd never ended up at a place like this. I could only stand in front of the gate, wanting nothing more than to leave as a strong, warm breeze blew my waist-length red-brown hair forward. It was as if the wind itself desired to guide me into the cemetery. However, I kept my feet planted firmly onto the ground. The unstoppable feeling in my gut was the only thing preventing me from leaving as it tried luring me through the gate by its beguiling pull.

There was something here I was supposed to see, something trying to seduce me into taking those final steps forward to get inside the cemetery... But I didn't want to.

"Himiko?"

My purple eyes widened as I looked in the direction the voice came from.

A boy with clean-cut sandy-brown hair was standing next to me, staring up at me with confusion in his big, light brown eyes. He was short. The top of his head barely reached the middle of my thigh. And he was someone I would recognize anywhere.