Ash-boss
A Thousand Stories: Me and My Shadow

The new barrel would knock on Rein's room door, but the girl was no longer in his room. The bed was tidy and Rein was no longer inside with his bag of pride.

Barrel shrugged his shoulders. Closing the door to Rein's room, he went downstairs to prepare for breakfast with Rein.

Once downstairs, Rein was not at the dinner table. He looked at all the other rooms that were left. Reading room and guest bathroom, Rein was not in one of those rooms.

Baras kept on taking a relaxed step. He opened the front door and found the car had disappeared from the garage next to the main building. Baras was silent for a moment.

"Why did he leave so early in the morning?" mumbles Baras.

As soon as he would lock the gate of his house, Laras was surprised by the sound of car horns from the street.

"Need a ride?" the sound made the heart beat fast.

Turning quickly, he found the figure that caught his attention yesterday afternoon around the corner of the hospital entrance.

"I just moved in yesterday, and I've seen you on campus a couple of times!" he said again after getting out of his car and approached Laras who had just turned his body facing the direction of the road.

"I didn't know we were a housing complex?"

"Thank you." replied Laras smiling knot.

He looked at the young man casually and was replied with a faint smile by the young man before him.

"How are you?" He plays his car keys while weighing something to say.

"Do I know you?" Laras looked at the figure.

In his memory there is a shadow of a winged figure that looks blurred whether it is a woman or a man so met face to face with the figure of a young man who is now smiling knots at him.

"It seems.." he replied unconcernedly with the strange look Laras had shown. "Not this time did you show your weirdness!"

Stretching out a handshake, the young man introduced himself.

"Dren!"

The young man and Laras exchanged glances. While the young man who took the introduction's handshake sign, smiled casually and was quite indifferent to the circumstances he created.

The other two figures on each young man's back showed his identity. Give the color of the smoke different on each gaze given to each other.

"Aksara!" the first young man pulled out his hand but still spoke his name reluctantly.

"Have you always been like this?" Laras mediated the strange gazes of the two youths before him.

"Sometimes." replied Aksara.

"If you want to." replied the young man who introduced himself as Eren to Laras. Also the one who snatched Aksara's handshake at Laras.

Laras turned his body, felt dizzy instantly, Laras clung tightly to the fence of his house.

"Come with me!" Eren drew Laras' hand, and at once Eren felt something strong was sucking a part of him.

The same thing was felt by Baras. One powerful heartbeat casts a shadow of the true Laras self. A long-haired barrel with bangs covered his forehead. Wearing a ragged black ash-robed dress to the knee-high legs and darkness that seeped from all over his body.

Although for a moment, it was noticed by Eren and Aksara in considerable detail. The two exchanged glances then looked at Laras with a slightly curious look at what the girl might be feeling.

"I can walk alone." Laras replied and then approached the car parked beside Aksara. "Let's go!"

The barrel opened the car door and went inside. Choosing to sit beside the wheel, Laras created a different atmosphere of silence for himself and Eren.

Laras looked at his reflection on the windshield next to him. Featuring a different figure again from the one seen by Eren and Aksara in front of the fence of the house. It was a veiled shadow with a darkness enveloping. The shadow displays a bunch of eyes that are alert and active but with a calm expression with minimal movement.

"What's wrong?" Eren scattered his gaze.

"Nothing" answered Laras.

"Didn't you remember me?" Eren asked once more.

After the afternoon of the evening yesterday, Eren realized something strange had happened to Laras. He's Laras, but not really a Laras figure. Only that body and soul did indeed belong to Laras whom he longed for.

"I can't remember anyone." The shadow on the windshield reappeared.

Whispering quietly like the voice of an evil old witch. A voice with a hissing hoarse. The hissing and vague whispers continued to disturb Laras throughout his journey with Eren.

"What mistake made you get to the point now!"

That raucous and whispering voice broke the calmness that Laras showed. The barrel flipped his body quickly facing Eren who was still calmly facing in front of him.

"Where are we going?" tanya Laras was suspicious. "This isn't the direction to campus?!"

Slightly panicked, Laras then looked at the relaxed gaze that to him was so soothing to his heart at this moment. Especially after noon yesterday where another shadow figure Laras had risen from his sleep. Seized every shadow that Laras showed on some of the glass that he passed.

"It's so dope!" Eren replied casually. "I want to be with you for a longer time!"

Hearing that coming out of Eren's mouth, Laras felt a familiar beat towards the young man who was now staring leisurely in front of him.

"Trust me?" ask Eren again.

Laras nodded. Not as hypnotized, more obedient which is because Laras has a great sense of trust and security towards Eren.

"Sit down quietly!"

Not answering, Laras just followed what Eren told him. Along the way, they were silent. A pretty long journey. Where they pass through a tunnel illuminated with some tamarind lights. Out of the tunnel, the speed of the car entered the forest area that Laras was vaguely able to remember.

"I often dream of this place." murmured Laras.

"Is that so?"

"Yes! Whether it's a dream or reality." Laras replied again more and more down the street.

It was a few meters of red brick walkway that sang a golden red-leafed rainforest with a stretch of valley lilies along the edge of that path.

"The truth." replied Eren smiling knot. Then continue the pace of his car entered the settlement of houses across the hill which is quite far from the reach of the city. And stopped the car as soon as it reached the parking lot of a hill.

Baras turned his gaze in confusion. He looked around him surrounded only by protected forests and green meadows. Laras turned to Eren to ask, but found the young man closing his eyes by leaning quietly on the back of his car seat.

Laras finally chose silence and leaned on the back of his chair. A few moments later, he showed a slightly confused face. The wind carried a swamp that made Laras want to go out to enjoy the natural beauty that the place presented.

"You coming down?!" eren asked as his eyes closed.

"Hmm." answered Laras. He nodded his head and prepared to open the car door like a child who was eager to play outside the house.

Eren unlocks the car door, and allows Laras to enjoy the beauty of the backyard behind his school first.

"Thank you." Laras replied, turning to Eren for a moment.

As soon as one of his feet hit the ground of the hills, a strong whir of longing struck the soul of Laras. That heartbeat made Laras shed his tears.

That strong and warm feeling brought Laras to the feeling of longing for a pair of soft smiling souls from under one of the shade trees on the hill. Before the shadows of the two souls completely disappeared, Laras had caught the two white-haired figures.

"Who?!"

The shadow of darkness instantly ambushed Laras. Binding the Barrel in the darkness that continued to cover and swallow every memory that Laras had.

...***...