Chapter 6: Strange Whispers

As they approached the shore line of the Island, Eribos expertly pulled the oars of the small row boat while Aurora Serene sat dreamy-eyed and relaxed in front of him. Occasionally, she ran an absent minded hand through the water on the side of the boat. Just as she had said, it was virtually flat between the islands. However, even without a single cloud to be seen in the starry sky, it wasn't as warm as she must have perceived. An ocean wind began blowing as soon as they had rowed further out, and sea water sprayed their skin as the breeze grazed the water's surface.

As Eribos chatted casually with Aurora, he noticed her trying to conceal a shiver while pulling her gauzy lavender shawl tightly around her frame. As fuzzy as her slippers were, they did little to help shield her from the night air, considering how she was dressed at present. Goosebumps formed on her pale legs, since her pastel cotton shorts did little to cover past mid-thigh. The silver tank top under her shawl left her arms exposed. Aurora's way of dressing to suit her light, bubbly personality was seriously inconveniencing her at the moment.

Eribos shook his head with a sigh to indicate she should know better, and proceeded to take off his dark grey hoody.

"You should have dressed smartly Aurora," Eribos said, the chastising clear in his voice. "You were the one that wanted to come out here."

Aurora blushed with embarrassment, not choosing to argue with him as she normally might. Eribos proceeded to think that she was lucky Kunai wasn't here, since the ninja boy would have attempted to "innocently" warm her up with body heat contact from the vicinity of his arms. Eribos tried his best to avert his eyes from her pale legs as he shrugged the jacket off, but for the most part, he was accustomed to her style of dress. All of those flaring and flowy summer dresses and skirts, the lacy and pastel colored shorts and camisoles, the halter tops and the hemlines…he was mature enough to cope with it. At least more so than his brother and most ofthe island's teenage male population when they interacted with Aurora Serene.

He stopped rowing the boat long enough to hand her his jacket, but it just hung in front of her as her blush was replaced with a confused look, her head titled to one side.

"Here," he said, offering the hoody with a shake of his hand to get her to take it.

"Won't you be cold?" she said with realization, biting her lip guiltily.

"It'll be fine," he said, his dark hair swaying as he shook his head."Besides, Kunai and Altan would kill me if I let you catch a cold."

She smiled warmly and accepted the jacket without a fight, slipping it on. The thick cotton must have still held some of his previous warmth against her skin, since she snuggled subtly into the grey fabric, appreciating it.

They soon reached the Island and docked the boat, and Eribos had to help Aurora when she almost fell overboard from the slight sway of the wooden craft. Once she retrieved her footing, Eribos watched as she gazed up at the starry sky with amazement, the enchanting light in her eyes brightening. She dashed down the ancient wooden steps and ran straight to the water's edge, abandoning those pink slippers and pirouetting within the waves that rolled against the shore.

Eribos recalled when Aurora Serene had attempted taking ballet lessons when she was younger, with Terene and Lunara. Terene had quit the first week, since her ten year-old self would die before being caught in a frilly tutu and ribbon toe shoes. Aurora would follow a few months later, not because she detested the dancing, but because the rigorous discipline of ballet didn't really suit her attention span like it did Lunara's. Still, Aurora never forgot those basic moves, and every so often, one could find her spinning with haphazard grace or reaching up on her toes in thought, just because she wanted to. Even when it was inappropriate or obscure, Aurora didn't need form or precision or routine. She just danced right on through life, because to her, life was that simple.

The disbelief returned to Eribos' eyes as he studied her for a moment, and just like the drowsy vision of her outside his window, she seemed too dream-like to be real. Against the water, the moonlight gave her a glowing outline, and she was fairy-like as she moved in and out of the sand and water. She was an otherworldly being in tune with her surroundings, oblivious to an outside world full of passing time and hesitation. With no music to speak of, accept for her own melodic hums of unexplained giddiness, she danced. The ocean was her music. The sandy beach was her stage. The full moon and starry sky were her spotlights.

"How do you even have this much energy?" Eribos quipped quickly, to break himself out of his stupor. "Did you come here just to re-enact Swan Lake?"

She stopped her twirling to look at him, and instead of answering, just laughed and fell to her knees relishing the sand comfortably beneath her. Eribos went to join her, propping himself up casually by her side and as they both looked with curiosity at the sky.

"Aurora," Eribos said, never taking his eyes off the stars.

"Hmmm?" she murmured quietly, leaning back completely with her hands behind her head, un-fearful of getting sand in her hair.

"Why did you want to come to the island?" Eribos asked, feeling he might be able to elicit a real response from her this time.

Her gaze met his for a minute, and she lifted her head up slightly, looking as if she were thinking a bit too hard for comfort. Eribos waited for something with an arched brow.

"To be honest," she said in a low voice. "It's just like I told you. I felt like it, but…" she paused, scrunching up her nose, trying to find the right words. "It wasn't just one of those casual moments like, 'I just feel like going to the island' or 'I feel like a bar of ice cream.' It was different tonight. I really, truly felt like I had to be here."

She leaned back up and started to play with handfuls of sand, her eyes glued to the sky. Her voice took on an awe-filled whisper that made Eribos listen intently.

"I've always felt this place was pretty special," Aurora gushed, referring to the Island. "But for some reason, it was calling to me tonight. I was looking out my window, and up at the stars, and I got this craving to be under them. I don't know what it was, but I needed to be somewhere I could swim in a sea…just full of them. Then, I had noticed the island in the distance, and I couldn't think of any other place. It was perfect! I just had to come here…I guess that's what it comes down to." Aurora shrugged and giggled, smiling at Eribos. "Seems silly, doesn't it?"

"Then why did you need Kunai and I to come?" Eribos asked, his chin resting under his hand.

"Hmm, well…" Aurora said, tilting her head in thought. "I really don't know. I guess I could have come by myself. But, to be honest, I just really wanted you two to come with me. It just feels right, ya know?" she smiled again, and he felt her hand seemingly inch closer to his free one in the sand. "Anything I ever do, I've always felt better with you guys right there with me. Altan too. And Renie…and just everyone."

She turned to him with an eagerness in her eyes, like she was trying to get him to catch onto a discovery of hers.

"Don't you ever feel that way?" she insisted. "That we're all just supposed to be together?"

Eribos' thoughts drifted back to what she had said on the paopu tree with Altan and the others as they watched the sunset. The thoughts of their destinies intertwining through out their lives may be a bit farfetched, but everyone in their group got along so well it was like a second nature. Especially Eribos and his twin with Aurora Serene. Kunai always at her side…Eribos watching from the distance. A typical side effect, he assumed, of growing up as children of previous childhood friends.

Aurora smiled while Eribos was silently still thinking on the question, and as she played with more sand, her fingers barely brushed against his. The sensation of her skin caused his gaze to flick in her direction, and then he saw her eyes change colors.

They slowly lightened, becoming more of a sky blue instead of the midnight blue they had been previously. Her facial expressions were also empty, as if she were lost just by looking at all those stars.

"Do you ever look at the stars and wonder what else is on them?"

Eribos narrowed his eyes in curiosity at the words Aurora had suddenly mused in a strange tone. Her mind was random, but her statement just then…it seemed off. A bit too deep, like something he would pull out of the air.

"Sorry," she said immediately as she shook her head a little, her eye color darkening once again. "I don't even know where that came from." She laughed lightly, but then gave Eribos a pouting look with a raised brow when she realized she was being scrutinized. "Hey, why are you looking at me like that, Eri? It's not like you don't think about those kinds of things all the time."

Eribos sighed and relaxed more into the sand, writing off her strange demeanor as a reaction to the moonlight, or them both being up at unforgiving hours.

"Truthfully, I've been thinking about some pretty strange things lately," he said, moving a stray curl from his face. "Not more so than usual, but something a bit like what you just said."

He looked out in the distance, trying to find a way to explain, a bit like when Aurora couldn't quite put in to words why he had to accompany her tonight.

"There's this word…" he said slowly, as if trying to decipher every syllable coming out of his mouth for an explanation. "It keeps coming back, over and over again. It just appeared recently, and now I can't get it out of my head."

"What is it?" she asked softly, and Eribos felt her hand lightly touch his shoulder.

He hung his head is concentration, curls falling directly into his eyes.

"Twilight," he said simply, feeling a sudden chill that ran through the air soon after, as if he had just summoned something.

At the mention of the word, Aurora's soft touch on his shoulder grew into a grip.

"When you think of twilight, it's a straight, yet complex topic thematically," Eribos started.

"It's the world of in-between," Aurora said softly in reply, her voice taking on a strange tone again.

"Exactly," Eribos enthused, too busy philosophizing to take the time to turn around and inspect his friend's odd behavior. He was used to her having simplified, but insightful answers to most of his inquiries about the world. "Twilight is the time when the world is in-between the light of dawn and the dark of night. It's simple, because, it merely exists. The colors in the sky just hang there, a melting show of refractions of light that all portray the possibilities of the approaching day that may…or may not come. It makes me wonder…how? Twilight is nothing but colors, an illusion between the strength of light and darkness…forces that are too powerful in the universe as it turns in eternity. But can it…metaphorically…exist in things? Like in people, in their nature? Was it created to make man reflect that there is a middle ground before darkness and light. Or is it really just an illusion? Could it be, its own entity? A doorway where all the unseen possibilities of the world can be reached through its open frame? I…don't really know…it's just what I've-"

"Eribos," Aurora Serene suddenly whispered, cutting him off and finally catching his attention. "You think too much."

Her voice…it sounded so flat…so empty. He turned to look at her for the first time since his little rant, and his eyes widened as he saw that her own eyes had lightened again. Pale blue once more, her eyes were focused up to the sky and drowning in the stars above.

"If you want the answers to your endless questions, let's go see it for ourselves," Aurora added, making her rationale seem so plausible, so simple.

"Aurora," Eribos said, bracing concerned hands on the girl's shoulders softly. "What are you talking about?

Aurora Serene returned his hold by suddenly grasped his forearms with her own hands tightly.

"The Twilight," She said, as if the word he'd been musing about was a dark and well kept secret. "Let's go see the Twilight. The door to hidden things. To new stars. To a new era. Let's go see it, Eri."

The way she'd said that familiar nickname was off. It was her voice, but it wasn't. When Eribos gave her a look of doubt, she suddenly jumped to her feet and tore away from him, running wildly in a predetermined direction.

"Aurora? Aurora!" Eribos called hopelessly confused, scrambling upward from his lax position on the sand. "Where are you going?!"

Tearing after her, he tried to catch up. Even though he was extremely trained, tonight Aurora seemed to be supernaturally nimble with determination. It only took him a moment to recognize the direction of her destination as he watched her race over wooden walkways, past the waterfall on the main beach and into a dark,hidden opening in the wall of rock beside it.

She was going to the Secret Place.

This place had been one of mystery even in the adolescent days of their own parents. The walls were littered with cave drawing of past generations and a large wooden door stood dead center in the chamber. It had no handle and there was no way of opening it. When the children had asked their parents about it, they had merely been told the door was very special and that it had always been there. And that had been the most that was ever said on the subject.

Eribos had a hypothesis that Aurora was running to that door. What else could be the reason behind going somewhere so dark and closed off, especially after she had just raved about being under the stars? Her cryptic stupor matched up with the aura of that door, and he picked up his pace, a sense of dread encircling him.

He dove into the dark crawl space with no hesitation, but his eyes wandered cautiously as he went down the short cave corridor. The Secret Place was expectantly dark in the day, but at night it was pitch black, save for the faint glow of exotic fungi that would sometimes sprout in the damp corners of the unfavorable quarters. Eribos stopped short as he reached the main room of the chamber and saw Aurora on the floor by that door.

She was on her knees with a hand placed on its wooden frame. Her gaze was hard and intense, as if willing it to open for her.

"Aurora…?"

Eribos called for her carefully, but felt ridiculous for having to treat her like some scared forest animal who might scamper at the slightest motion. When she wouldn't move or speak, however, he came close enough to touch her shoulder, and then she began to mutter.

"It won't open yet," she said in a childish whisper, that hollow tone still clinging to her voice. Eribos was mentally chilled by the sound of it.

"Aurora, let's get you out of here," Eribos said, beginning to gingerly pull her to her feet. "I told you it was too late, and you must be-"

"It's still locked. The pieces are still missing."

Aurora kept rambling on, and she wouldn't budge, remaining in her slumped position and just glued to the mysterious door.

"Open it Eri," she beseeched with a siren request. She turned her head and Eribos stiffened at the glazed and glowing appearance Aurora's eyes were now taking in the darkness.

"You can unlock it," she continued, her hand gripping into a clawing fist on the door. "If she can't yet, you can. I know you can. I know you can feel it."

Eribos flinched at the sound Aurora's nails made as she slowly raked them down the wood paneling. The gesture was akin to a beast trying to beckon its way inside a household, rising fear in its prey for amusement.

"So much to do, so little time."

Aurora let a haunting giggle slip, and then a ghost of an image passed over her eyes while she was still looking at Eribos. It was a phantom he couldn't see for himself, and he was becoming increasingly more worried about her.

"Aurora, this is ludicrous," he said as he grabbed her shoulders gently, trying to shake some sense into her. "There is no way to open that door. We both know this."

For the first time in his life, Eribos felt all of his cryptically steeled nerves slowly becoming unhinged. There was something about being so close to that door. There was something about Aurora's current state. It was awakening something in him, and the feeling was incredibly disorienting.

He held Aurora Serene firmly by her shoulders and glanced toward the door. This unfamiliar sense kicked in, and he could feel something pulsating behind the wooden portal. The presence was strong and restless. Something unsettled within his chest and as an invisible wave of energy flew through the door's every crack.

Then, a strong scent came wafting within the Secret Place. It was rich and bitter, and attempted to seep itself into Eribos' very pores. He was disturbed as the awakening progressed, but then he took one gaze at glassy-eyed Aurora, and realized that now was not the time to lose himself.

"Come on Aurora," he said with determination, scooping her into his arms in an attempt to drag her out kicking and screaming if he must. "We're getting out of here. I'm getting you away from this door, and there's no way it's going to be opened."

The minute he cradled her catatonic form, she suddenly stiffened and whispered.

"She found it."

With renewed vigor, she struggled and tore herself away from Eribos' hold and raced off again, out of the Secret Place. Eribos chased after her, inwardly happy to be running away from the cryptic door and its strange phenomenon. He came out of the crawl space in just enough time to witness her running into the run-down shack that ventured to the other side of the island. It was the section littered with paopu trees and a large cliff on the side. Altan and Aurora would sometimes eat ice cream atop it, when the blonde boy craved a view higher than the bent paopu tree on the islet.

She finally stopped running, but it was dangerously close to the side of the cliff. Eribos sprinted furiously to her whereabouts, frantically hoping she wouldn't take one dazed step off the edge.

"Aurora! Come back here!" Eribos ordered, completely fed up and utterly exhausted with the strange turn of events the night was bringing. "We are leaving! Right now! Don't take one more step!"

Aurora Serene had her back turned to him, and instead of complying, she shook her head defiantly.

"I have to be by the stars, Eri," she said boldly, and though her voice was still haunting, it held a glimmer of her familiar determined tone. "We're connected. Every single one of us. I can feel it. It's like…"

Eribos watched her reach a dainty hand upwards, as if in attempt to leisurely pluck one of the stars out of the sky.

Meanwhile, his heart was pounding in his chest and he couldn't bring himself to take one step toward her, afraid she would do something rash.

"It's like a far off memory…" she said as her voice lost its strength and became surreal. "It's like…a shattered dream…"

Her outstretched fingers closed, as soon as they reached a particular star.

"I'm seeing all the pieces," she mused, still not turning around. "And I have to put them together. The door is about to be opened. By me. By you. By her. By him. It will open. Very, very soon…"

Eribos was done. Whatever Aurora was talking about, even to someone like him, was an enigma. Dark thoughts were alright for a person like him, most of them were just drabbles or philosophical rants. That's how he naturally was. However Aurora Serene, the shining light of Destiny Islands, was speaking words out of an abyss that even he couldn't contemplate.

He would never admit it, but she was scaring him. The pure, butterfly-like best friend of his childhood…was scaring him.

His muscles tensed with adrenaline so that he could grab her when the opportunity presented itself. They also clenched in fear however, and as if sensing this, Aurora Serene moved one step forward.

"Aurora!" Eribos cried out with no restraint, hand thrown out as anxiety welled up in him from how close she was to true danger.

Her head quickly turned over her shoulder and she looked at him. Her eye color now was unlike any shade it had ever been before. His breath froze in his throat.

Aurora's eyes normally carried in-between shades of blue. This would include night blue, violet blue, sky blue, cerulean…

But her eyes had lightened so dangerously now, that they were an icy silver. This was an unfamiliar color, one she was incapable of. These were the eyes of someone else.

"Don't be afraid…"

She spoke with a warped voice, her mirrored eyes turning Eribos' blood cold.

And then she fainted.

And fell.

She fell backward off the cliff, heading straight for the waves below.

"Aurora!" Eribos shrieked as he dove off the cliff after her.

He was able to grab her wrist and bring her into a hold mid-air, so he could control their fall. They both plunged into the newly rough waves. Before, the sea had been so warm and inviting. Now the water felt even colder than his veins, and he could only register his friend's slumped frame next to him in the dark depths.

He'd always been a strong swimmer, and was able to drag them both back to the shore, which thankfully wasn't too far off. The sea salt burned his eyes, but he shook it off as he laid Aurora's unconscious body out on the sand, inspecting her. She was deathly still for a moment, but then her chest began to slowly rise and fall, so he knew with extreme relief that he'd caught her in time.

They were both soaking wet, the soft cotton fabric of the jacket he'd let her borrow doing nothing to shield her the unforgivable chill that was bound to attack her. He knew he had to her home right now in order to get her help. Sora was the top registered nurse in the mainland's hospital, and Kairi was a pediatric psychologist. One of them had to know something. They had to be able to do something.

He was too exhausted to jump up immediately though, so for a few lingering seconds, he just looked over her desperately.

Eribos had rarely been afraid of anything, save for a slight discomfort he had with heights. One he'd abandoned without a second thought on her behalf just now. Because when Aurora's eyes had turned cold and she fell off that cliff, it was the singular most frightening moment in his entire life.

"Aurora," he whispered, hastily brushing away the chestnut brown waves that were now matted around her face. "What were you trying to tell me? What were you talking about? The door?"

His voice begged for answers that would not come as he raved in his unsettling weakness.

Meanwhile, the owner of the silver eyes began to fall into her own starry night, diving deeper and darker than Eribos had realized Aurora had been trying to go.

A/N:I'm not going say much, because nobody reads these anyway, but I hope you guys love this chapter because of HOOWWWWW LOONNNGGG it has been in existence. I came up with the idea for this story when I was a senior in high school. I finished this scene about two years after. I'm about to get my Bachelor's degree this spring. Let that sink in. The point is, guess what happens the next time I get around to updating? I'll give you a hint, it starts with "Dive to Heart."

;)

Many Dreams,

Tasia^^