Chapter-8
When I opened the blue velvet box lying on my bed inside was a violet dress. It was a long silk and satin gown with black glitter work on its trail. The long sleeves were silk except for the embroidery borders. There was also a pair of shaded black and violet shoes to go with the dress and the mask was a master piece.
When I put it on it was exactly my size. Like it was made just for me. While I was looking at the mirror someone was at the door. When I opened it someone had sent a topaz necklace to go with my dress. It was Alex I could tell so I owed him a whole year worth of thank you. Inside the box there was also a note or should I say a clue “Look for me and there I shall be”. Honestly that made no sense to me but it was fun like playing hide and seek.
When I got to the ballroom everyone was hidden in masks. The party had just started and most of the guests were coming.
Admes and Crystal were welcoming everyone with a blue rose. And Adora and Saf were in charge of the guest list. They all looked beautiful. Seeing as it was against the rules to reveal ourselves I quietly sat in a chair with the best view of the whole room. I could see everything. Someone came from behind me and stood there. He said that it wasn’t good to come to a ball and not dance. I knew it was Alex.
‘But nobody’s interested in dancing with me’ I said pretending to be pitiful.
He continued with his teasing tone ‘Is that so’
I agreed ‘yes’
He offered still acting charming ‘Well I guess I’ll just have to do seeing as nobody else is asking you to dance’ and we both started laughing. We were about to go to the dance floor when one of the committee members came out of nowhere and asked for Alex’s help in something.
Before leaving he apologised and made me promise to save my last dance for him.
I kept standing there alone thought I knew where everyone was. Jen was wearing an orange ball gown and she was easy enough to spot because of her hair and plus Castial was hanging around here trying to summon up the courage to ask her to a dance.    
Raven was sitting beside the drinks bar with half a dozen girls in his arms. I could recognize everyone even with their masks on but I couldn’t just go there and start to talk to them because if I did Castial would be very mad.
A voice from behind me said ‘Would you like a drink’
I got irritated I mean who offers a highschooler a drink but when I looked behind there was a guy with short blonde hair and sea green eyes standing there. He had apple juice in his hands. I took his offer.
We talked and I found out that he was a biologist from MIT who came here to see the level of education.
He was fairly impressed by all the presentation seeing as it was solemnly done by students. It made me happy that people appreciated our hard work and I think I blushed a little.  He asked me to a dance and I gladly accepted.
After the song I kept talking about biology. Knowing my knowledge he mistook me for a science student. When I told him that I was an arts student his interest grew in me even more. He was surprised with my interest in biology what was I doing in the arts sector. He started telling me about an experiment they were carrying out at MIT but the party was getting very loud so it was getting hard to listen so we walked to the garden.
We kept talking till I heard Castial announced that the game was going start. I didn’t want to go back inside because I knew they’d force me to enter if I did.
But because I was the one who had the chits I had to go and hand them to Castial. Admes and Crystal had already started to supply others their number cards.
Everyone was excited about it. Castial announced that everyone had to participate. I was at the door now but lord knows how Castial was already standing behind me and said ‘Of Corse that also includes you’
I objected ‘Come on Castial I’m really tired from all the work we did the past three days can’t you cut me some slack’.
‘No can do’ Said Raven who also came from nowhere.
‘Fine’ I gave in because I knew if I didn’t they’d keep pestering me about it. My number was 216 and I had to find 436.
I didn’t pay much attention till someone came and asked me ‘are you number 216?’
When I turned it was the biologist from earlier. He was delighted that it was me. He said that we should continue from where we left off. The party was at its peak so we went to the garden. He continued to tell me all the amazing things about MIT.
The DJ announced that this was the last song. I remembered that I promised Alex my last dance and was about to return but before I could do that everyone was here. Castial, Raven, Jen, my Uncle and even Alex. They all looked worried and looking at that biologist they all looked like they were ready to spill some blood. 
Jen came to me and asked me to follow her. When I asked her what was wrong she ignored most of my questions. She dropped me off at my room and told me to stay there. I objected but she asked me to trust her so I did.
I sat there in my room waiting for someone to come and tell me what was going on. It was already past midnight and I was getting very anxious now and then finally someone was at the door.
When I opened the door it was Alex standing outside. He had blood stains all over his tux and he seemed drunk. I asked him what was the matter but he just vanished. That spooked me. I looked behind and Alex was already in his room.
He didn’t look ok and he was doing something beside the refrigerator. I walked up to him and asked if everything was alright. When he looked behind I saw the most fighting scene I’d ever seen in my life.
He was holding a blood bag and there was some blood stains on his fangs. Yes he had fangs, two long sharp fangs and his ears became pointy like that of an elf’s. And there was a tiny spark of light deep in his eyes.
‘Get away!’ his voice was filled with detests ‘your stench is bothering me’
I don’t know if it was because of what Alex said or how he looked like or my fear of seeing something that I couldn’t explain in anyway or what Castial said starting to make sense or maybe I just didn’t want to accept it but I ran. I didn’t know where I was going I just ran forward like my life depended on it.
All of the things Castial told me were going through my head.  I possibly couldn’t accept something like this. I tried to convince myself that it was all just in my head and that what I just saw in the room was just me being delusional.
Even when I convinced myself I still kept running. I was already outside the dorm and in the front yard. I finally stopped when I bumped in to someone. It was Jen.
I didn’t want to tell her why I was running like crazy because if I said something like that out loud it’d mean that I actually believed all that mumbo jumbo. But as usual in front of Jen I always said the things I didn’t want to.
I told her that Alex was drinking blood and had fangs and his ears were pointy and his eyes were glowing a little.
She just sighed.
I quickly regained my consciousness ‘May be it was just in my head what’s wrong with me?’ I said pretending to laugh.
She sighed again and said ‘You already understand what it means don’t you?’
I objected ‘I don’t’
She was saying it without any remorse ‘Alice, he’s a Phantom ‘
It sounded strange ‘Of Corse he’s a Phantom that’s his family name’
She tried to put some sense into her words ‘He’s THE Phantom. The one who fell in love with the oracle, the one that sold his soul to the devil and the one who waited a hundred years for her’
I was still not convinced ‘Jen you do know what you’re saying right? You guys read too many books, all of you.’
She said ‘I guess I have no choice I’ll just have to give you some proof’ and suddenly a string of white flames covered her and when the flames diminished Jen was a different person or should I say a different being.
She had fox ears on the top of her head instead of normal ears and white flames were surrounding her but what was even more frightening was that she had nine long tails behind her.
She presented ‘Nine-Tailed fox deity at you service’
I was still in denial ‘This isn’t happening right?  I mean all of this makes no sense. This is an illusion isn’t it?’
She didn’t want to but she had to ‘Are you that scared of the truth that you’re going to deny it even when I’m giving you proof?
But I was because if I accepted that all that she claimed and all that Castial told me and all that I saw then I’d also accept that my Uncle never actually cared about me and all my other friends they were just nice to me because I’m the reincarnation of ………. I couldn’t say that even in my head.
‘But I my parents are humans’ I said trying to sound sure of it.
She agreed ‘That is true but just because you were born to a human doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re a human’
‘So what you’re saying that I’m not a human?’ I demanded to know
She explained ‘No, you are a human but also the oracle.’
I didn’t want to hear it anymore ‘that’s enough I don’t want to hear anymore!’
She kept saying ignoring my feelings ‘you need a strong proof that all of this is real and that you’re the reincarnation of the oracle then come with me’ She spread out her arms.
I didn’t want to go but I couldn’t not go. When I went into her arms the white flames got closer till they covered us whole and when the white flames separated and we were in the forsaken place.
I had a feeling in my gut that something bad was going to happen. Jen slowly walked to the casket and removed the lid. Inside there laid a girl with long black hair, pale skin and dried lips and maybe that was the only thing that was different between us, our lips. It was like I was sleeping there in that casket but then I realized I was here standing beside Jen looking at it.
‘Isn't this proof enough?’ She asked
I denied it even more strongly now ‘But this isn’t normal. This makes no sense.’
She was amazed by how hardly I denied it ‘Of Corse this isn’t normal but nor are you. All of this is real and you know it just as well as I do’
‘But I don’t have any powers’ I informed her
She reminded me ‘Remember you once told me that you were a very strange kid when you were little so you use to be bullied a lot so we think that at that time you shut your oracle powers up.’
‘So that means that I’m a normal human now right’ I asked starting to sound relieved.
Her face turned blue ‘I’m afraid not we think that on your 17th birthday when your time will stop your oracle powers will re-emerge’
I protested ‘But I’m not an oracle or that girl Alex use to love. I’m me’
She agreed ‘Yes you are you but you are also her’
‘How do you even know her?’ I finally asked
‘She was my best friend’ she said it with a lot of pain.
I felt betrayed ‘So that’s it you all got close to me because of that’
She objected ‘Of Corse not! We know that you’re you and we don’t want you to be anyone besides you but we also want you to understand that she is you and you are her. You both may be different but are one and the same’
I was at the verge of tears ‘But still it was because I’m her that all of you Alex, Castial and you became friends  with me and even my Uncle…….’ I couldn’t finished my sentence
She tried to console me ‘Hey calm down your father’s love towards you is completely genuine’
‘But he only took me in because I’m her reincarnation’ I insisted
She couldn’t deny it ‘That may have been his intention but only before he met you. After meeting you he has loved you like his own daughter and will continue to do so’
I was not convinced ‘Alright even if I believed you then answer me this why did he bring me here’
She wasn’t sure whether to say it or not ‘The guy you met in the party, he was a pawn of the wicked witch. He only got close to you so that he could capture you and take you to his mistress where she’d sell you off to the highest bidder. Your father knew if the word got out that you are the oracle then many demons, deities, witches and even gods and goddesses would want to possess you so he brought you here to the Phantom Valley where none of them can enter without being invited. To keep you safe’
I calmed down a little. Jen again transported us to an old wooden house. There were two fox children there who served me a cup of tea. After drinking the tea my heart felt a lot lighter and I felt peaceful somehow. She told me that it was a tea made from the leafs of the tree of salvation and the water from the fountain of honesty. It had the power to give us inner peace.
‘So how many students are supernatural?’ I asked now that I calmed down I needed a few answers.
She answered ‘there aren’t that many supernatural students in the day class but all the night class students are supernatural beings’.
I asked ‘Do I know now anyone like that except for you and Alex?’    
She answered without changing her expression ‘Castial is a half vampire and a half angel and Raven is a half demon.’
I asked her ‘how could anyone one be a half angel and a half vampire?’
She slowly described it to me ‘Castial was originally an angel who then became the butt of a joke of a very cold vampire. After his transformation Castial did kill that vampire but he was rejected by haven and started living here in the land of rejections.’
That somehow made me sad and looking at my expression Jen assured me that Castial was a happy half-breed.  
After taking another sip of the tea a very painful question came in to my mind. Everyone accepted me as me, good but what about Alex did he expect me to be like her. I asked Jen unconsciously. She herself didn’t have an answer to it.
I told her that I had no desire to be the oracle or even learn how to be one. I was me and that’s all I would ever be.
She told me that if I understood the oracle more then maybe I’d finally accept her as me. She said that she was telling me this out of her own experience.
She began ‘I am a special deity, the nine–tailed fox so of Corse I have a secret. I turn into a boy during a specific time and when I found out about it I was only a little girl and I just felt like my whole life was a lie. I was crying in a meadow alone and that is when I met her. She was a kind yet sad girl rejected by her mother, taken in by the cruel elders. We soon became best of friends. She’d tell me all of the sadness in her heart which would make me cry but she never cried instead she would smile and you’d feel like she was going to fade any second’ Her eyes became blank ‘One day when I asked her why she didn’t cry she pitifully confessed that it was because she didn’t know how to. It was very sad. I fell in love with her…’ Looking at Jen was getting very painful now
She continued holding back her tears ‘But of Corse I never told her that I was part male for I thought if I did she’s hate me like everyone else. One day she brought Castial to meet me. Castial and I we hated each other from the start. Castial threatened to expose me if I bother their friendship but I didn’t care and just as he promised he did. It was the first time in my life that I’d seen her cry. She shed tears not because she felt betrayed but because she thought that I didn’t trust in our friendship enough to tell her. It was a dark day but it soon passed. Even though Castial and I didn’t get along too well the three of us would hang out together. We just wanted to see her happy and then the day came when she announced that she fell in love. We’d never seen her happier so we couldn’t go against it. I said I’d support her in all of her decisions but what she asked of me was too much.’ Jen looked very sad ‘She wanted me to help her kill herself for that Phantom. I was against it but she didn’t need me. Castial was an angel so he could do something as simple as remove the soul form the body but I thought he’d never agree but that fool couldn’t say no to her and took her life…..’ Her eyes filled with hatred ‘Where now the tree of salvation stands. It is her kind soul that grants everyone salvation to this day. I wanted to kill Castial as soon as I found out but then figured a life of being hated by the one he loves would be much more painful’.
She was right Castial did look tortured.
Jen came out of memory lane and asked me if it was still too hard for me to accept my past.
I answered her honestly ‘it isn’t but also now that I understood my past self it doesn’t mean that I am going to become her anytime soon. For me loosing myself is unacceptable’
She agreed ‘And that’s exactly why you have to regain your powers so that you can fight against those who opposed that idea’
She reminded me that what happened tonight would repeat itself multiple times. So I had to prepare. 
I knew what she was saying and I was accepting it but I told her that I didn’t want to return yet and she said I could stay at her shrine as long as I needed to recover and that she’d inform everyone else about it.
~END of Chapter 8~