Chapter 111: Aleskra
As Edward, Aurora, and Harry ran for their lives, glancing back every now and then, they came to one of the main streets, which was strangely deserted.
Aurora and Edward tried to keep running and cross to the other side, but Harry stopped them immediately and hid them in a corner.
"Are you crazy? That battle is right behind us, and by Sir Jerry’s might, I’m sure we wouldn’t survive if we stayed nearby..." Aurora said.
"Miss... look at the street," Harry said suddenly.
They both turned to look at the street. "What’s wrong with it?"
"We’re on Reunion Street! It’s the second busiest street at all hours! But there isn’t a single pedestrian!" Harry said. "I’m not that good of a spy because I trained more for assassination, but I’m sure this isn’t normal. Reunion Street has never been this deserted."
Finally, Aurora frowned, and Edward looked more closely down the street.
He was right.
This was the street that led to most of the city’s guilds. When he’d arrived, Edward had walked down here, and it had been teeming with all kinds of people.
As one of the streets with the most local shops and buildings open 24 hours a day, it didn’t make sense for it to be so deserted.
Something was going on.
Edward scanned the entire street with his gaze and soon stopped at a certain spot. "Is there something there?" he asked, staring intently at a section of the street.
That area, darkened by shadows and dim lighting, gave his eyes a strange sense of fullness. A human eye, with his capacity for perception, is no ordinary thing. He could sense when there were irregularities in a tone, even when he couldn’t quite make out what the irregularity was.
"I don’t see anything strange," Aurora replied.
"No. There is something strange," Edward insisted.
"Really?" Aurora looked at him.
"There’s something black standing there... Is that... a carriage? Completely black... it could be a box, too," Edward frowned.
"Huh? How could there be a carriage there?"
"It doesn’t have horses or anything..." Harry agreed with Aurora. There was nothing there.
’I don’t think I’m wrong.’ Edward frowned and tried to look away and then back at the area.
Once again, that strange feeling came over him.
"There has to be something there," he stated firmly. "Its camouflage is perfect, which means it’s not there by mistake. Although I don’t understand why it has no horses or..." His mind suddenly lit up, finding something in his memories.
"It could be..." He didn’t finish his sentence, but looked at the other two. "We’ll go take a look. Put on dark clothes and cover any part of your body that might reflect light," he said, and without a second thought, he slipped into a black suit.
"What’s going on, Ed?" Although she was confused, Aurora did as he said.
Only Harry took longer to accept it.
Finally, they began walking through the shadows and quickly approached the place.
"There’s a living being that can pull carriages like a horse, without ever revealing its presence. It’s called Aleskra," Edward said.
"Aleskra, the Black Ghost? That... is a children’s story, Ed." Aurora couldn’t help but mention it, finding the reference ridiculous.
But Edward laughed and didn’t answer.
’If I’ve learned anything from coming to a fantasy world, it’s that even children’s stories and tales have a real, verifiable basis in the real world,’ he thought.
In this world, there is the famous Headless Horseman, who was once a popular figure in certain regions of the Earth. In fact, according to the story and the adventurers who have seen him, he can be described in various ways. Some of them say he resembles the Wu Tou Gui of China.
Although Edward isn’t an expert on world folklore, he’d heard stories about these mythical ghosts more than once—ghosts that are a reality here, but on Earth were just a myth, often appearing in nursery rhymes to scare children.
That told him he couldn’t ignore these rhymes—especially when he was seeing something strange.
Harry almost laughed at what Edward said, but managed to hold it in.
But suddenly they reached the darkened area and peered out from one of the large shadows cast by the desolate buildings.
From there, everything became clear.
"Shit. There really is something." Harry shuddered. His heart raced, and he immediately ducked when he felt someone watching him.
"Shh..." Edward silenced him. "I sense a presence watching us from the front of the carriage," Edward said.
"It’s been watching us the whole way here, but it doesn’t seem to have alerted anyone."
"God... Is it really an Aleskra? The chant...!" Harry choked on his own words.
"Yes. It says it watches you constantly and never loses sight of you..." Edward didn’t remember the chant very well, and neither did Harry.
"It was a song for rebellious children who don’t listen to their parents. It says that if you walk in the dark and pass along roads that not even the sun can see, he’ll be watching you. If you turn back, nothing bad will happen to you... But if you keep going where your parents don’t want you to..."
"Since it’s a children’s song, it doesn’t say much. But I think it was referring to the end, that Aleskra will eat you. According to the song, Aleskra eats people." Aurora spoke just enough to make them both turn and look at her.
"You know a lot about that," Edward said, surprised.
Aurora wrinkled her nose. "My parents used to scare me when I was little, because I liked to go out at dawn to look at the streets."
Harry turned to look at her. "Look at the streets? Miss, no offense, but the streets around Ashford Manor aren’t exactly busy..."
"That’s why that chant was so important." She groaned; she still felt a little scared, even though it was a fear she’d already overcome.
’She’s brave.’ Harry had to admit it. Standing right there, his body was trembling.
There was an Aleskra nearby! He was going to be eaten by a creature he couldn’t even see!
Edward nodded and looked back at the carriage. "I’ll go over there."
"Wait, Young Master," Harry protested. "There’s an Aleskra out there, you know? Yeah, of course you know. You just told me it was watching us... Why...?"
"What’s the matter?" Edward asked. "You’re coming with me," he said with complete seriousness as he looked at Harry.
"Huh? Not in a million years!" he growled, clearly frightened. "I’d rather go back and face that terrifying vampire from earlier!"
Edward held back the urge to laugh and simply patted him on the back before moving.
"Don’t worry, it’s just the ghost of a children’s song. It won’t hurt you," he said, though he didn’t press him to follow. "I’ll be right back."
Harry could only watch helplessly as Edward walked away, and he took a deep breath. He closed his eyes and then opened them. "That bastard... What is he afraid of? Not even vampires, and now Aleskra and a mysterious carriage. In what world is it a good idea to approach a carriage that not even the sun knows the color of? Shit." He muttered under his breath, but they were in this together.
He would never let a brother die alone... well, if Aleskra shows up...
He shook his head and walked behind Edward; Aurora trailed behind them, her heart in her throat.
Edward wasn’t afraid of Aleskras or any such nonsense. If a being wasn’t capable of emerging with power and standing before him to devour him with its own true strength, then it wasn’t a being to be feared.
Although he clearly felt that someone had been staring at him for a while—a gaze that made the hairs on his body stand on end—it didn’t matter if they couldn’t materialize.
He reached the carriage in seconds.
It was a normal carriage. Except that its blackness didn’t come from a casual coat of paint. The material it was built from was completely black. It looked like a black hole, as light didn’t reflect off it.
All windows were the same.
Edward could still feel the gaze fixed on him. That stare was quite annoying. If some jerk had been staring at him like that for so long, he would have definitely slapped him in the face.
Unfortunately, you can’t slap ghosts.
As soon as he reached the carriage, he motioned for the other two to come closer, and at that very moment, they peered through the window.
Four figures were inside, holding a meeting. All four were dressed entirely in black from head to toe. Not even a strand of hair was visible.
Even so, the moment they looked inside, the light around them went out. They felt that not only was the street desolate—the entire city was!
It was as if they had fallen into a black hole, and the gaze from the darkness that only Edward had felt before could now be felt by Aurora and Harry.
They trembled... their bodies grew deathly cold.
Suddenly, the four figures moved in unison and looked toward the windows. Horrific faces they had never seen before pressed against the windows as if they wanted to devour them.
"AHHH!" Harry and Aurora fell backward with a scream of fear.
Meanwhile, Edward, though paralyzed, managed to command his four beasts to flee immediately.
He wanted to attack.
But his body was paralyzed.
And in an instant, light returned to the entire Reunion Street.
The carriage vanished. The entire feeling of being watched vanished... But the feeling the three of them had in the end did not.
Fear. Fear and... A strange uncertainty and confusion surrounded Edward’s heart and mind.