Red Daisy

“Do not leave this room until you can see sunlight through the door gaps.” Was the last thing her father said to her as he shoved his daughter in their tiny and mostly hidden broom closet. The calmness in his tone and the gentle look in his eyes only made Daisy more afraid about what was the coming, the knocking on their door starting to sound louder as the knocks grew more urgent.

As she tried to focus on the sounds of her father’s footsteps, she clung onto the fabric at her chest, taking in deep breaths to calm her wildly beating heart. The intense pounding only continued to grow as she heard the front door slam open, a boisterous laughter making its entrance. 

“Finally! I thought you were never going to let me in, Richard.” The voice was a woman's, high pitched and in a dramatic tone. Daisy imagined her to be someone close to her father’s age, the voice holding a maturity that was prominent due to the intonation and depth it had. Straining her ears to continue listening to the conversation, she couldn’t help herself from pressing her head to the door to hear better. She could sense three others in the room, their scent smelling strongly of roses.

“Well technically, you still aren’t in. You still know nothing.” In her father’s voice, there was an unusual brightness in his tone that hid his fearful feelings, something that Daisy could feel in the air. The general atmosphere felt menacing and full of ill intent, and she didn’t know if it was her intuition or her abilities kicking in, the line blurring between the two. 

Silence ensued after her father said that, the air turning from menacing to villainous, a suffocating feeling seeming to hold her throat and at that, she took short and quick breaths. After more than ten seconds of silence, a piercing gunshot rang through the house and it echoed through the walls of their old brick house. 

Daisy brought her hands up to cover her mouth, a mix of nausea and extreme fear taking over her body. She couldn’t sense her father’s presence outside, unsure if he was brought out of the house or if he was gone for good. As she caught a whiff of his fresh blood from the outside, she felt like she was swallowing rocks as she felt a disgusting amount of joy in the air.

Unable to help herself, Daisy’s vision clouded with tears and she bit her tongue to contain any sobbing or yelling that might give away her location. Even in the most drastic situation, she didn’t want to disappoint her father’s wishes. Placing her hands beside her, she crossed her legs and shifted her body to go deeper into the small broom closet, somehow hoping to hide herself in the darkness.

“Search every inch of this house! I want the girl alive!” The lady sounded more vicious now, her presence heavy and her scent turning musty as she said in a sing-song voice, “First one to find her gets to have a fresh bottle of blood from the healthiest blood farm in the country.”

Instantly, Daisy’s fangs expanded upon hearing this. Her heart sped up as she simultaneously felt the hunger of the three other people in the room. It was at that moment that she realised that her natural scent was more or less the same as them. All her life she thought they would smell more pungent or like rotting flesh, but they just smelled like any other human except with a layer of roses on them. A panic rose within her then, the angry tears turning into tears of defeat. There was no way she was getting out of this situation if any of them had special abilities like her to assist in the search.

In that moment, the door of the broom closet opened, a brief look of surprise passing the stoic expression on the man’s face as he saw her crouched inside. Panicked, Daisy locked gazes with his cold eyes, an electrical feeling passing between them as she mustered much of her energy to share a memory with him. Something was wrong though, instead of showing him the image of an empty broom closet from her memories, she was seeing an unknown memory, the surroundings and people foreign to her. She didn’t know how but when she turned to her right, she knew that the little boy beside her was the man she had locked eyes with and she could feel his intense fear, tears spilling out of his eyes as he faced forward.

Everything sounded distorted and the lady who stood in front of them suddenly grabbed him by the collar, her piercing voice sounding much like the lady who had been threatening her father, her face pale and flawless, her smile the definition of cruel. She had no recollection of this memory but there was no way she was seeing his memory, knowing that there was a limit to her own abilities.

Quickly pushing herself out of his mind, the two stared at each other for a brief moment, unable to process what had happened. Before she knew it, he closed the door as quietly as he opened it, his face unchanged. Stunned, Daisy held her breath until she heard his footsteps get further and further away. 

"She might have gotten away with the amount of tunnels in this house,” A deep voice said as he convened with the others in the house. Daisy could tell that it was the man she had just encountered, his energy tense and emotions shaken from earlier. 

Soon enough, Daisy felt lightheaded, her body not used to using her talents on someone else after years of exclusively practicing with the nature around her. Her head spun and her senses became numb, the presence of the intruders seeming to feel like a blur, unable to concentrate on the emotions they felt. As her breathing got shallower, she brought her hand up to her mouth, hoping to hide any noises she might be making, the sound of her pounding heart loud and fast. White dots soon filled her vision and she tried to resist the lure of the darkness but to no avail.

With a thud, Daily jolted awake, the broom leaving a soft, throbbing pain on her forehead. Rubbing her neck, she realised that she fell asleep where she hid and before doing anything, she widened the reach of her powers to check if there were still anyone in her house and in the surrounding forest area. All she felt was the flora and fauna, the calmness in the air the same as any other day, uninterrupted and unconcerned for the doings of people.

She peaked from behind the hidden door as she pushed it open despite knowing full well that there wasn’t anyone around. Stepping out of the small room, Daisy tried to keep her breathing steady as she checked every corner of her rummaged house. Stopping at her father’s study, she could only stop and stare as she saw the pages of his research books ripped from their spines and the many framed photos of them together scattering the floor.

Taking a step inside, a shine at her feet caught her attention. Reaching for it, she picked up the creased black card, it’s red lettering bright and resembling fresh, rich blood. 

Kilia Kuromiya

Chief Operating Officer

Dreamland Farming Industries

Her fingers curled around the piece of paper, an anger rising within her as she recognised the name of the company. Their infamous reputation for creating human blood harvesting farms were only well known among their community, the humans mostly oblivious to such things. Even her father couldn’t hide it from her, Daisy discovering it by herself on accident while researching about her kind. Deciding that it might be useful information, she smoothened the card before stuffing it into her back pocket.

Scanning her father’s study once more, Daisy looked for anything that could help tell her what to do next, searching through the already rummaged cabinets and shelves in desperation. Remembering something, she reached for below his desk, running her hands over the smooth wood before feeling a small square and pushing in with her finger, a little click sound filling the air around her. Squatting down, she felt her hands tremble upon seeing the familiar secret compartment, the same one that she had tricked her father into believing she didn’t know the existence of. In the middle of it sat a small wooden box that had never been there before. Carefully, she brought it to the palm of her hand and at first, it felt as light as a feather, the smooth edges of the box eventually warming up at her touch before a sudden weight pushed down on her palm, Daisy guessing that her father had cast a protection spell on it.

Inside, she found a leaf shaped pendant necklace, the little sunlight that entered through the curtains reflecting off the muted green glass leaf. As she admired it in the sliver of sunlight, something white in the box caught her eye, Daisy quickly pulling out the small piece of paper from the bottom of the box. When she opened it, she felt her breath hitch upon seeing the familiar cursive of her father’s penmanship.

Happy 20th birthday my dear.

I know you’ve been waiting for this for a long time but finally, after two years of hard work, I’ve perfected the abilities of this pendant. When you eventually go on your own adventure, I hope that you remember the stories I’ve told you and learn from my successes and failures. Life can and will continue to hand you difficult situations but with all that I’ve taught you and with all the power within yourself, you fully have the capabilities to get through them. The existence of this pendant is proof of that.

With love,

Father

As always, her father’s words fit any situation she was in, Daisy instantly remembering a tale he told her as a child, one where he had to disguise himself as a worker at the rival company to gather information and plant a seed of distrust among the employees, eventually leading to their demise from within. Pulling the black card out from her pocket, she wondered if it was too obvious a route, as if it was too specific of a situation to fit her current circumstance. Despite the warning bells at the back of her mind, she felt slightly excited at the thought of embarking on a long journey from here on out.

“This is the new mage Ume Kurokawa, she’ll be working with you for the next few months.” Raising her hand slightly to get his attention, the head mage prompted the man staring at Daisy to introduce himself. It still felt weird to be introduced as Ume even after almost three years of going by that name in mage school.

Doing her best to hide any sort of discomfort, she looked up to meet his eyes, knowing full well that the protection from her pendant erased the smell of roses on her. Despite wanting to look away from his familiar indifferent gaze, she held her ground even as she felt his strong feelings of confusion and disbelief wrap around his whole being.

Letting out a forced cough, the head mage broke the silence that fell between them, “Have you two met before? You seem to be looking at each other rather… Intensely.”

“Ah, that’s not it,” Daisy refuted quickly, bringing her voice to a whisper as she turned to tell the taller lady, “He just looks a little scary so I was just worried.”

“Likewise, I was just concerned at how she looks so… inexperienced for this project,” he said immediately after, letting it be known that he could hear her loud and clear.

“In that case, let me introduce you to Mr Eric Hu. He’ll be your supervisor for Project Daisy.” Smiling from ear to ear, the head mage bid them farewell as soon as they acknowledged each other with a small bow, her oblivious exit filling the room with silence once more.

Putting on her best work smile, Daisy spoke up, “I haven’t been briefed on anything so please let me know how I can assist you.”

The intensity of his gaze filled her heart with some fear and as much as she hated it, she started to slightly doubt the effectiveness of her father’s pendant, wondering if its effects had limits like every magical item. 

Titling her heading in confusion she continued speaking, her voice a pitch higher as she said, “Mr Hu? Is there something wrong?”

“Sorry, you just look like someone I know,” he finally said with a sigh, his voice low. Bringing his hand up to rub his temples, Eric closed his eyes and saw the little girl in his mind’s eyes, her doe eyes looking up at him similarly to how his new colleague did upon entering his lab. 

Daisy gave a little convincing laugh, her voice light, “I’m sure we haven’t met before, I’ve been raised in a girl’s home my whole life.”

“Yeah, that makes sense. The person I know would never willingly enter this facility again anyway.” Although it was just empty words, he felt slightly better upon saying it aloud, opening his eyes to look at the human before him, her scent completely different from the girl he once knew. The closer he looked, the more he saw how their only similarities were her round eyes and with that, he let out a tired sigh, the mental strain finally catching up from the past week of overtime work.

Feeling the relief that suddenly filled his being, Daisy couldn't help but feel the opposite of that, her stomach dropping upon hearing his last words, curiosity eating at her mind at what he was talking about. Somehow, she knew it was about the memory that they seemed to share three years ago. Giving him a small, seemingly composed smile, she knew that it was only the beginning of her journey to find her father and to hopefully uncover her hidden past.