The library
The wind rustled quietly through the trees. I heard the faint splashing of the water as I made my way down the road towards the lake. I was very tired but I could not sleep at all; it happened sometimes. Earlier that night, I had felt a bizarre power. Often when I would feel this, I couldn’t sleep. So would go to the lake; it’s soft lapping waters would comfort me.
However on that night, there seemed to be more than just an ordinary energy surge. It was more like the creation of something spectacular. The wind howled more fiercely, sending a shower of sakura petals over the path... No wait, that was wrong. Sakura are not out in the summer.
I knelt down to look closer at the petals. Indeed they were cherry blossoms. I picked a few up and held them near my nose. They smelled like cherry cough drops. I stood up and looked around myself. I felt an almost familiar wave of dizziness rush over me. I closed my eyes to feel more of what was coming. Nothing.
I opened my sea-green eyes once more and tried to see past the dense trees; somewhere a wolf howled. I should have noticed it but I was too worried about the petals and what I was feeling. Then I heard it: a woman crying.
I thought maybe she had been harmed by whatever the energy was. So I rushed towards the noise to try and help. I was at the entrance of the forest when the noise stopped and another gust of wind blew. This time there were no blossoms, only the scent of sweet cherries.
Glancing around, I could hear the babbling of a small brook, and... something else. Faint music played outside my range of hearing. I did not think much of it, though I wanted at to be either sitting on the dock of the lake, or at home in bed where the strange feeling was not so strong. I heard the crying again, and looked over at it. This time I saw something.
It was glowing brightly but one could almost say that it glowed the colour of darkness. It was shaped like a large orb. I stood there watching for a short time before I realized something odd. The glowing spot was where the crying came from.
It advanced towards me, flying faster and faster until I was sure it would slam into me. Yet when it reached an area about one foot away from my face, it stopped. I just stared at it wide eyed.
Then I did something rather foolish: I reached a hand out and touched it. The sensation was strange but not as strange as I had expected. My hand tingled slightly as it went through like a faint electrical buzz. I drew my hand away and backed away. The spot just hovered there for a few moments until I whispered very quietly under my breath, "go away," and it did.
It was odd how it happened. It did not just fly away as I had expected it to, rather it simply snuffed out like the flame of a dark candle. With it went the crying and the music.
Puzzled, I looked at the area where it once was. I was not so surprised that the spot had appeared. After all I was used to extraordinary occurrences, demons, and ghosts appearing. No, what startled me so was the fact that it had actually done as I said. All of the demons and spirits that I knew of would probably have been destroyed before they would have obeyed a single word I said.
Just then I felt something stir inside of me: a connection to something abstruse and old. Now that I think about it, the connection had always been there, even when I was a young boy. Now it was growing and I could feel it singing in my blood, calling something to me. I could tell that what it was calling was not good.
I turned and sprinted towards the road. The wind began to howl profoundly as if it tried to hold me back. I almost tripped over a small lump as I emerged from the trees. I looked down to see what it was.
What I saw there nearly made me cry. There was a dead cat lying there. It was orange and white, its face mangled as if a car at full speed had hit it.
At that moment I became very angry. I was no longer thinking about the strange happenings of the night. I was thinking about how I wanted to get my hands on the bastard who didn't even slow down and try to stop for the poor kitty. The only problem was that as I thought these things, the cat began to move. I stood up and jumped back as it let out a small meow, then it looked up at me. Its one good eye glimmered in the light of the full moon. I backed even further into the road then turned to run. By now I did not care about which direction I was headed. I just ran and ran until I finally came to the dock.
I was about seven years old when it happened. I had gotten a new pet goldfish and I was so happy. I had not been able to wait until I got home so I could put him in his shiny new fish bowl. When I finally did get home, I put the bag that he was inside of into the water. I was so very happy.
I had gone up to my room night, my thoughts on new goldfish the whole time. I even dreamt about him. In the middle of the night I went down the stairs to the kitchen to get a glass of water but when I passed the fishbowl on the table, I felt something strange in the pit of my stomach. Something was wrong. I looked very closely at the bowl and into the bag... then I saw it.
The fish was dead, floating upside down at the top. I began to cry and wail. I was so sad. I only wanted it to be alive again and then it was... I looked into the bag again, and the little fish was swimming around in a circle as fish tend to do. I was overjoyed to see this miracle. Afterwards I took such good care of that fish. That was, of course, until it rotted away.
I came back to the present with a start. I had not been asleep because I was only remembering. I had not thought about that fish for so long because it had simply not been important. A nonsensical memory such as a zombie fish is not a memory that you think of when you are fighting evil. Maybe it was important though. Maybe that memory made the rest of it make sense. I have heard of people who could control spirits and raise the dead. I nearly laughed at the thought. Me, raising zombies and holding seances... It seemed nearly impossible. Then again, many impossible things had happened to me in the past few years. More than I care to think about.
I sat on the dock for the longest time, thinking, trying to convince myself against what I know now to be true.
I, Mouri Shin, have the power to raise and control the dead. I am a Necromancer.