The flashing red lights twirl around and illuminate the dark room. The loud screeching of the siren, almost burning my ears, breaks the dead silence. The man from the speaker box starts talking. I wonder who he is, why is he here? I’ve never met him, I’ve never seen his face, and no one has. We’re trapped, forced to live like this until the day we die… this moment is the first one, since that day… the day we were taken.
The tall men dressed all in black hold Hiriku back as she begs and cries for them to let her go. “Mother! Mother! Let me go!” she struggles and strains to get out of their grasp, to reach her mother, who cries as she watches her child taken away into the dark room with the rest of us. The worst day of my life, seeing Hiriku hurt so much. I made a vow to myself that day, although I didn’t even know Hiriku, I vowed to never let her cry like that again, and to never let to suffer again, the way I did that day. I promised to protect and comfort her. We are the spirits.
“Why?! Why must they do this?! Why can’t I leave?! Why are we even in here?!” Hiriku is yelling at the man in the speaker box again. Even when I try to comfort her, the pain remains, I can feel it pulsing through her body. Today the man in the speaker box told us we are, one by one, going to be taken out of the dark room for evaluations. “Mabyo Takara.” The men in black appear at my sides and grab my arms; they take me into a completely white room, where there is nothing but four walls and a mirror. I assume that the mirror is not only that, but a window, a window where they are watching my every move.
A man with goggles and a clipboard walks out and starts asking questions, questions about things I don’t understand. “Mabyo? Would you please drink this?” the man in goggles then hands me a small container with some sort of liquid in it. I then hesitate to ask, “Why? What do you want with me, Hiriku, and everyone else?!” the man with goggles only gave a small smile, and then everything went black. By the time I had awoken, I was strapped to a large chair, with wires attached all over my body. The man in the goggles then said to another man in a fine, blue suit with medals on the pocket. “The tests are almost complete; soon we will know what spirit it has.” It? I couldn’t understand why any of this was happening, but I knew for sure that it couldn’t be anything good.
A loud beeping noise came from the machine my wires were connected to, I then felt a sudden rush of energy, surge through my body, it was so powerful that it had knocked the wind right out of me. Then once again the darkness covered my eyes and I fell into slumber. This time when my eyes opened, it was hazy and blurry; I could barely make out the people and items around me. But I could understand the sounds quite well. I recognized a voice; it was the man with the goggles. He was speaking with another man; he had a very deep voice. I searched for the two figures and when I got a hold of the blurry sight, I could see that the man with the goggles was looking at his clipboard. He looked rather satisfied, “the tests are all complete sir, it has been confirmed that his spirit is the spirit of the four elements. Without a doubt, he has one of the most powerful, we had better watch over this one carefully.” The man next to him was the same man from before, the man with the medals and the blue suit.
I was then released and the man with the goggles called in the men in black to bring me back to the dark room. Once I had gotten back, Hiriku and everyone was all over me with questions and worries. “What happened mabyo?! Did they try to steal your brain?!” I only laughed and responded “they did some kind of test on me. They were also talking about something called a spirit, I’m one of those, and I’m guessing all of you are too. They said I have the spirit of the four elements.” Hiriku and everyone had an amazed face, “wow mabyo! That’s so cool! But I wonder what the heck a spirit is.” Everyone was talking amongst themselves in wonder. While I watched as the man in the speaker called for Hiriku. Before the men in black appeared, I pulled Hiriku close and said, “Don’t be frightened by them, no matter what, don’t show your weak side.” She nodded her head and walked off with the men in a confident strut.
I waited and waited for Hiriku to come back, it had been many hours since she had left with the men. At that moment Hiriku was thrown into the dark room by the men in black, she fell and landed on all fours. I rushed to her side, when she looked up at me I saw bruises on her face and arms, along with a tear-stained face. She looked in such pain, I could hardly bare it. I asked her what happened but she remained silent. She completely ignored my demand to know. I looked up at the giant metal door closing as the men in black walked out. Something had happened that time while Hiriku was in there. To this day, I don’t know. The only thing I do know is that something had changed inside her. She no longer shows emotion. Nothing ever comes out. Without Hiriku, something inside me broke as well. I was angry at the men for doing this to her, I wanted to know what happened. I turned into a very different person, expressing my emotions through my spirit. I wasn’t the same, no one was.
