ã€ŠThe Colour Chroniclesã€‹


 Chapter 1 - Reaching Out

    Four kids walk in a dark alley. Two girls, two boys. All six years old. Advancing without a plan, they all have no clue what to do.

    One of the girls is leading them forward, rushing towards who knows where.

    ¡°Come on, we can¡¯t stay here. We started this and we have to go through with it!¡±

    A boy with dark blood red eyes abruptly stops walking, looking mildly annoyed.

    ¡°Lilianne, are you listening to yourself? You decided this, running away in the middle of the night.¡±

    Seeing the boy halt, the others come to a stop as well.

    Lilianne goes to face the boy, she stands in front of him. You can see he¡¯s slightly taller.

    ¡°Thomas, you either come with us or stay here.¡±

    Thomas has short ink black hair covering half of his left eye. Even at such a young age, he has clear masculine features. His posture in combination with his face makes him look aggressive, losing all the innocence you would¡¯ve thought he would have with a single glance.

    He wears a simple white shirt tucked into brown pants, a really basic outfit you could find anywhere for a cheap price. At least that¡¯s what you would think if you didn¡¯t know your clothes, but the fabric of the shirt has to be some rich fancy fabric that only people with a lot of money buy to show off. Hidden away in a simple outfit for reasons unknown.

    Thomas doesn¡¯t back down and looks Lilianne in her big, lavender eyes.

    She has a face that you wouldn¡¯t call ladylike. With short hair everyone would think she¡¯s a boy. She has waist length, ink black hair in a twin tail. The twin tail makes her look childish but her face gives off a cold and serious aura letting you know that you shouldn¡¯t mess with her.

    She wears a simple white but elegant dress. Unlike Thomas¡¯s clothes, this gives off a rich vibe right away. There isn¡¯t a single speck of dirt on the dress, which is surprising for children.

    He starts talking a bit louder than usual, probably to show aggression.

    ¡°Look at them!¡± He points at the two other children. ¡°Which part of you decided it would be smart to bring them with us?¡±

    Following Thomas¡¯s finger with her eyes, Lilianne looks at the two children.

    The girl has big azure eyes. Her face looks exactly the same as Lilianne, but unlike Lilianne everything about her says she¡¯s scared and definitely not cold and serious. Her hair is as long as that of Lilianne, only it¡¯s loose. She wears the same outfit as Lilianne, her outfit has a few spots which look like she tripped and fell recently.

    What finished the scared look is the fact that she¡¯s standing behind the other boy holding his shirt.

    The other boy has golden eyes, the colour you would see in necklaces and bracelets. His face and clothes are exactly the same as Thomas. Only his right eye is half covered by hair instead of the left one, mirroring Thomas.

    Instead of scared, the boy looks confused as if he doesn¡¯t understand what''s happening. Although he has the face of Thomas he makes it look naive and not aggressive.

    Lilianne sighs before looking back at Thomas. She calmly starts talking.

    ¡°There¡¯s no way we¡¯re leaving them behind. We¡¯re siblings, and even though they¡¯re obviously different it just means we need to protect them. They didn¡¯t choose to be different and we could¡¯ve been just like them.¡±

    Suddenly loud footsteps approach, breaking the silence between them.

    The corners of Thomas¡¯s mouth are raised slightly, giving him a weird smiling look.

    ¡°I guess we have visitors. It¡¯s your choice now, are you going to take them with you or not?¡±

    Not waiting for an answer Thomas runs away into another dark alley.

    Looking at Thomas running away and then at the two other children, Lilianne bites her lip and grabs their hands to run after Thomas.

    "We know you''re here, don''t try to hide." A man''s voice echoes across the alley like a creepy monster.

    Thomas slows his steps to get next to Lilianne.

    "He said ¡°we¡±. There¡¯s only one pair of footsteps following behind us. If I were you, I''d be worried about the whereabouts of the other part of the ¡°we¡±.¡±The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    Lilianne coldly responds. ¡°I know and you aren¡¯t helping.¡±

    Thomas reacts to that with a smirk.

    ¡°I gave you enough advice already, you just aren¡¯t taking it.¡±

    The footsteps come closer and closer. The whole situation doesn¡¯t help the other girl, who now has slight tears in her eyes.

    ¡°Come on Sam, just a bit more okay?¡± Lilianne says slightly out of breath.

    Thomas looks disgusted at Lilianne, not agreeing with anything she does.

    ¡°Just so you know, if anything happens to us, I¡¯ll blame you. Oh and Samantha of course, she¡¯s the one holding us back.¡±

    ¡°I think I can handle that. Aren¡¯t you skipping Nick with your blame game now? Or is he not to blame?¡± Lilianne sarcastically remarks.

    Before Thomas can respond, he bumps into someone.

    ¡°Found you,¡± a voice says, coming from the front of him.

    Thomas steps back quickly as he looks up angrily towards the owner of the voice - an adult dressed in black, partially hidden by the night. Though masked, the creepy laugh from the masked man sent shivers crawling up Thomas¡¯ spine.

    It wasn¡¯t like you could see his face, but Thomas felt the creepy laugh behind the mask.

    There is a full moon right in the middle of the sky providing an eerie atmosphere. It is all the light they have.

    Trying to turn around they are met with the adult following them who quickly grabs the arm of Sam and drags her away from the rest.

    Scaring Sam with his abrupt moves, she goes limp and allows herself to be taken away.

    He takes a knife out of his pocket and pushes it against her neck, soft enough to not injure her and hard enough to get a line of blood.

    ¡°Don''t you dare move!¡± one of them shouts at the other three. ¡°We have your sister here and should you resist she wouldn''t survive this¡±

    ¡°What do you need from us?¡± Coldy glancing at the situation, Lilianne looks emotionless. With her lavender eyes and black long twintails, the contrast made her a bit scary.

    ¡°What do we need from you? As if that wasn''t obvious, the four demon children, well known quadruplets with four different eye colours.¡±

    The adult that is speaking looked at all the children one by one starting with Lilianne.

    Her eyes are cold and empty. As if what is happening doesn¡¯t matter to her.

    A hint of fear appears in her eyes, but it quickly disappears making the adult question if he really saw it.

    Hiding behind her, Nick looks as confused as always. He doesn¡¯t look afraid at all though, making the adult question his humanity.

    On the side Thomas stands quietly. It looks like he¡¯s trying to kill someone with his gaze, only he wasn¡¯t looking at the adults but at Sam.

    Sam, who is being held with a knife, has fear in her big eyes. Complete terror which makes her unable to move. She¡¯s staring at Lilianne hoping to get help.

    Lilianne growls and runs towards her sister.

    This time the adults are startled by the movement, the one holding Sam throws her to the side so he can use his knife against Lilianne.

    Sam lands head first into a wall, blurring her vision and sound. The last thing she sees is the adults laughing while cutting off Lilianne¡¯s fingers. Screams fill the air before everything turns dark.

    <hr>

    Waking up with a headache, Sam tries to move her head. Looking around the alley there aren''t any signs of the adults, or her brothers.

    The only thing left is the body of her sister. All her body parts were cut off. Piece by piece, her fingers gone from her hands, her hands cut off from her wrists and so on.

    Not even her face was spared. Her eyes were pulled out, her tongue laying next to her head, her nose missing together with her ears.

    Sam gets nauseous and looks away. Throwing up pretty quickly after that.

    Trying to stand up she leans against the wall. She slowly walks towards her sister before kneeling down next to her face and touching her hair.

    Picking the hair ties out of her sister''s hair, she puts them into her own hair, giving her the twin tails her sister used to have.

    She then stands up and turns her back to her sister. Then she starts running as far as she could to escape the smell of the blood and the horrifying scene behind her.

    Which, if you noticed her being thrown against a wall, isn''t far.

    A few alleys down, her shoe catches wrong on the pavement and she trips and falls.

    Crawling on her hands and knees to the nearest wall, she rests her back against it. She pulls her knees up to her chest and rests her face as she begins weeping.

    After an unknown amount of time passes footsteps approach her. She didn''t notice them being too busy crying.

    Feeling something on her knee she looks up and stares into the face of a chocolate brown eyed girl that looks to be around her age.

    ¡°Hey what is your name?¡± The brown eyed girl curiously looks at Sam.

    ¡°I don''t have a name.¡± Sam kept staring at the brown eyes as if something was pulling her in. Distracting her from her sadness.

    ¡°Why not?¡± The brown eyed girl clearly looks happy now. It is unknown what made her happy but with a big smile on her face, there is no denying it.

    ¡°Because I don''t like it.¡± After staring for a while, Sam decides to look at the girl herself instead of just her eyes.

    She has light butterscotch brown hair at shoulder length. There is a little braid going from the top of her head to behind her left ear. ¡®It looks really cute,¡¯ decides Sam.

    She wears a light brown shirt, it''s noticeably cheap with holes here and there. As for the bottom she has a black skirt, in which, unlike the shirt, there aren''t any holes in it and it looks new.

    ¡®She should belong to the poorer group that couldn''t always get new clothes.¡¯

    The brown eyed girl sees Sam looking at her and her smile changes from a happy one into a gentle one.

    ¡°Then can I give you a name?¡±

    Sam tilts her head in confusion. A moment of silence slips by before she responds.

    ¡°I guess.¡±

    ¡°Then I''ll name you Blue, because you have pretty blue eyes!¡± Clearly excited, the brown eyed girl makes a fist and holds it above her head as a little victory pose.

    ¡°Wait aren''t you scared of my eyes? All the adults are scared of me and they don''t want me anywhere near them.¡±

    ¡°Scared? Why would anyone be scared of pretty eyes?¡±

    The brown eyed girl went silent while thinking before continuing.

    ¡°Clearly adults are stupid for thinking that. How about you come with me and we go make our own home away from the stupid adults! We can even gather more friends and take them away from the adults!¡±

    Hearing that surprises Sam, now named Blue.

    ¡°Are you sure we can do that?¡±

    ¡°100% sure, if it''s you then nothing can go wrong.¡±

    ¡°We can try, I guess. What is your name?¡±

    The brown eyed girl jumps in the air and stretches her hand towards Blue after.

    ¡°My name is April, I''ll follow you anywhere so let''s go!¡±

    Blue hesitates before grabbing April''s hand. April then helps Blue stand up and they walk off together.

 Chapter 2 - The Promise

    ¡°So where are we going then?¡± Blue asks while following April.

    ¡°To look for shelter of course! Haven¡¯t you read that humans can only go three hours without shelter? So that¡¯s the most important thing to do!¡±

    ¡°Wait, you don¡¯t have a shelter yet? And you can read? Never heard the three hours before..¡±

    Scratching the back of her head April mutters. ¡°Ah well, ehm I haven¡¯t been on the streets for quite long. Actually, today is my first day.¡±

    Blue notices that April avoids the other questions. ¡®Guess she doesn¡¯t want to talk about it¡¯

    Deciding to change the subject Blue starts asking other questions. ¡°So where can we find shelter?¡±

    April listens to what Blue asks before her face turns into one full of concentration.

    ¡°Where can we find shelter? If I had internet I could¡¯ve googled it, but noo this has to be the 1600¡¯s, where people didn¡¯t invent that yet. Maybe there¡¯s some empty houses? Nah that won¡¯t work we would be noticed there, and how would we get food and water? That¡¯s also important, we need to be near a food and water source. Maybe out the city? Near a river or something, that¡¯s what people did right? Then we can build a hut, with, eh, sticks? Wait how do you build a hut? Can we even build it with just the two of us?¡±

    Muttering to herself she¡¯s soon lost in thought.

    Blue doesn¡¯t understand anything of what April said and has a lot of confusion in her eyes.

    ¡°Ehm, how about we just find a spot to rest for the night?¡±

    Just thinking about sleep is enough to make her yawn. Trying to hide the memories of what happened before costs a lot of energy. Still somewhere inside her is the hope that she¡¯ll wake up and it turns out to be just a nightmare.

    As if a bucket of cold water just got dropped onto her, April is taken out of her thoughts. ¡°Ah yeah, we can do that, I guess. How about you go sleep here against a wall and I¡¯ll stay awake to make sure we¡¯re safe?¡±

    Taking a look at a wall Blue notices things she never paid attention to before.

    The wall is made of wood, the kind of material almost every building uses. There¡¯s a little mold here and there showing that it hasn¡¯t been maintained in a while.

    All that doesn¡¯t matter though. She realises this wall is part of a building, presumingly a house. The thought that there are people sleeping behind those walls scares her. And now instead of having a soft warm bed all she gets is a wall.

    April stares with a sigh. ¡°Yeah it¡¯s not the best bed, we don¡¯t have anything else though. Tomorrow will be better.¡±

    And thus, having no other options, Blue drags her body towards the wall and sits down against it.

    ¡®It¡¯s cold. It¡¯s really cold. It¡¯s really really cold. Wait, don¡¯t think that, distract yourself with something. But with what?¡¯

    With closed eyes Blue tries hard to think about other things to make her fall asleep. Suddenly she feels something warm on her shoulder. Opening her eyes she sees April sitting next to her. April¡¯s arm over her shoulder pulling her closer.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I didn¡¯t realise that just wearing a dress is cold. I hope this provides you at least a little warmth.¡± April looks away with a slight red tint on her cheeks.

    ¡°Thank you.¡± Blue closes her eyes again and lays her head on April¡¯s shoulder, a lot comfier than the wall. After a few moments she falls asleep as if she wasn¡¯t wide awake just now.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    ¡°...m¡±

    ¡°...am!¡±

    The noise wakes up Sam. She tries to understand what the noise says.

    ¡°SAM! Come on this is the fifth time already, get out of bed, will you.¡±

    The shout got to Sam and made her sit up and look at what called her.

    Two purple eyes look back at her.

    ¡°Finally. There¡¯s life in you after all.¡±

    Tears start flowing out of Sam¡¯s eyes before she jumps to hug Lilianne, surprising Lilianne as she tries hard not to fall.

    ¡°Good morning to you too? Wait are you crying?¡±

    Lilianne softly touches Sam¡¯s chin before pushing it up.

    ¡°You are crying, what¡¯s wrong?¡±

    Before responding Sam hides her face in Lilianne¡¯s dress again.

    ¡°I had a bad dream! Really bad, you died in there!¡±

    Lilianne¡¯s mouth turns into a gentle smile while she pets Sam on her head.

    ¡°They call a bad dream a nightmare you know. Don¡¯t use the word dream for it, dreams are great things and should not be put on the level of a nightmare.

    As you can see, I¡¯m still here and alive. No nightmare can ever kill me, I can promise you that.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡±

    ¡°Really, now if you ever have a nightmare again just come call me and I¡¯ll get rid of it.¡±

    ¡°How will you get rid of it?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll turn all the bad and scary things in good things! I¡¯ll give you something great to dream about instead!¡±

    ¡°You promise?¡±

    ¡°I promise.¡±

    With that the world fades into white.

    <hr>

    Opening her eyes she¡¯s greeted by the bright Sun.

    ¡®Of course it¡¯s just a dream.¡¯

    ¡®Maybe I was supposed to have a nightmare instead and my sister kept her promise¡¯

    ¡®Dreaming about her just makes me feel lonely. I miss her.¡¯

    With that thought a reminder of the corpse flashes into Blue¡¯s mind, making her feel nauseous instantly. ¡®No no, bury that thought. I got April here now, I¡¯m not alone!¡¯

    Looking at April next to her she noticed the girl was still asleep. ¡®So she fell asleep instead of staying awake like she said¡¯

    She taps April¡¯s shoulder to wake her up.

    When April sleepily looks at Blue it makes Blue laugh.

    ¡°Good morning princess.¡± Blue smirks.

    ¡°Ah no, I didn¡¯t sleep, I just closed my eyes for a second!¡±

    ¡°I believe you.¡± Blue is still laughing obviously not believing it.

    ¡°Ah come on!¡± April lightly pushes Blue away.

    ¡°What? I said that I believe you!¡± Blue pouts

    ¡°Obviously you don¡¯t!¡±

    With a fake sad smile Blue says. ¡°So you don¡¯t believe me?¡±

    ¡°Maybe if you stop laughing¡± April rolls her eyes before standing up. ¡°Well we got a lot to do, so how about we start right now!¡±

    ¡°Alright¡± Blue¡¯s stomach starts to growl. ¡°Maybe food is the first step.¡±

    ¡°Not even shelter?¡± April tilts her head.

    ¡°No looking on an empty stomach!¡± Blue defends herself.

    ¡°Okay.¡± April sighs. She is silent for a bit, thinking about her options. ¡°Okay, so there¡¯s a bread seller nearby, we might be able to steal some.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s a bread seller?¡± Blue asks.

    ¡°Ehm someone who decided to set up a shop to sell the bread they make..? How would you not know this?¡± April raises one eyebrow.

    Blue¡¯s gaze drops to her feet while playing with her hair. ¡°I.. uh.. haven¡¯t been outside my house before.¡±

    ¡°Really? Not even once?¡± April¡¯s eyes widen.

    ¡°Not even once.¡±

    April falls silent with that.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go to this bread seller.¡± Breaking the awkward silence Blue decides to move on.

    ¡°Okay..¡±

    <hr>

    Arriving in an alley near the shop, Blue stops moving. ¡°I don¡¯t think I should go out in the big street, everyone will surely notice my eyes.¡±

    April looks back over her shoulder. ¡°Hmm? Okay then, wait here and be ready to run when I come back.¡±

    Blue nods and April swiftly moved into the big street.

    Suddenly Blue is all alone. In a dark alley hidden from the people.

    ¡®What if they find me now.¡¯

    ¡®What if they get here and and..¡¯

    ¡®No one would hear me scream, would they?¡¯

    ¡®And even if they did, would they care?¡¯

    She starts to shiver. She has a hard time standing and breathing became difficult.

    ¡®And what about April?¡¯

    ¡®What if something happens to her?¡¯

    ¡®Would I even know?¡¯

    ¡®Would I be waiting here forever?¡¯

    ¡®Why isn¡¯t she back yet?¡¯

    ''How long would it even take¡¯

    ¡®Should I come out to look?¡¯

    ¡®But what if people see me?¡¯

    Her vision starts becoming darker till she can¡¯t see anything anymore.

    Something grabs her hand and pulls her away. Her legs automatically start to run the direction she¡¯s pulled in.

    The hand isn¡¯t letting go and keeps pulling.

    Till it stops.

    ¡°Blue, we did it! Look at all this what I got!¡±

    A familiar voice calls out to her. Gradually her vision returns as she sees April carrying a bag of bread in her free hand.

    ¡°And look at what I found while trying to get bread!¡± April happily announces

    ¡°Could you not call me a ¡®what¡¯ ¡± An unfamiliar girly voice speaks.

    Following the sound Blue finds a girl who is shorter than them. She has black hair like Blue, and her hair ends a little before her neck. She has a braid in her hair forming a little crown. The rest is loose. To end it with she wears a girly yellow dress.

    ¡°Hey, I¡¯m Julie. Nice to meet you¡±

 Chapter 3 - Hideout

    Blue stares at the newcomer in confusion.

    ¡°I found her while I was looking for a way to steal bread! She was distracting the guy and I had all the time I needed to grab all this!¡± After saying this April shows off the bag of bread.

    ¡°Well I do expect to get a share for my distracting work. You basically used me without asking first!¡± Julie responds with laughter, the way they talk to each other makes them look like they have known each other for a while.

    Blue stays silent, she looks a bit scared. There¡¯s even a slight amount of tears visible in her eyes.

    ¡°Hey, are you alright?¡± April notices the silence of Blue and looks at her with a worried face.

    Blue slowly walks towards April before stopping to hug her. ¡°Please don¡¯t leave me.¡±

    ¡°Hmm? I already told you I would follow you everywhere and I¡¯m not planning on changing that. Wh- ehm -Julie isn¡¯t gonna steal me away or anything so don¡¯t worry about that.¡± April has a slightly confused face with a blush but still hugs Blue back.

    Julie holds her hand in front of her mouth trying to hold back her laugh before responding. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t expect anything else from Yellow eh, already won her over just like that.¡±

    ¡°Hey don¡¯t say that.¡± April shouts while turning her face away. From what Blue can see her face is completely red.

    ¡°Yeah yeah, whatever you say, we both know it¡¯s true¡± Julie smirks and walks off. ¡°Come you two, we don¡¯t have the whole day to just stand here and hug now, do we? I got a place where we can at least be out of the wind and not catch a cold.¡±

    ¡°So have you been on the streets for long?¡± April gets some distance between her and Blue to grab her hand and follow Julie.

    Julie¡¯s straightens her back proudly. ¡°Yeah, for around a year now. It hasn¡¯t been easy but at least I know all the streets here.¡±

    ¡°Oh wow that¡¯s amazing. You survived until now, how did you do that with food and water?¡± April curiously questions Julie, seems like she¡¯s really interested in her ways.

    ¡°Well, you know that guy we just stole bread from? His name is Nicolas and I go there twice a day. And even though I go there twice a day the guy isn¡¯t willing to give me free bread, like how dare he. So twice a day I make my way there and sneak off with some bread, sometimes he notices me sometimes he doesn¡¯t. He¡¯s definitely gonna miss me though, since I have no reason to come back for a while now.¡± Julie explains in a teasing tone.

    April¡¯s eyebrow rises a bit in surprise. ¡°For real? You managed to steal some bread and go unnoticed alone? Even though he probably expects you to come by now?¡±

    ¡°Hey what can I say? I¡¯m just amazing at not being noticed. Maybe it¡¯s my lack of presence, or maybe I actually have skills.¡± Julie jokingly boasts.

    April sighs. ¡°I guess I should¡¯ve expected that from you. I know your role and still get surprised that you can actually complete your job.¡±

    ¡°I know your role and still can¡¯t believe you do that. You don¡¯t look like the serious type at all.¡± Julie teasingly points out.

    ¡°Hold up I don¡¯t even know my role, and I can¡¯t believe I¡¯m supposed to be serious.¡± April shouts slightly annoyed.

    ¡°That¡¯s what I said, I can¡¯t believe it, but I know it¡¯s real. Oh and well I don¡¯t know my role for the same reason as you. Glad mine has to do with my lack of existence, makes it easier.¡± Julie sarcastically remarks.

    Julie comes to a halt in front of a door. It¡¯s a small hidden door and there¡¯s wooden planks hammered on it to keep it closed.

    ¡°So this is it.¡± Julie proudly shows off the door.

    ¡°And how do we open it?¡± April questions with confusion.

    Julie poses as if she¡¯s giving a show. ¡°Easy, we¡¯re small enough to fit underneath the planks if we remove the bottom one. I¡¯ve been living here for a while and it works every time.¡±

    Julie removes the bottom one easily, as if it wasn¡¯t really stuck. She then pushes the door open from that little opening and crawls under it.

    ¡°See, there we go.¡± Julie shouts from the other side, in a tone that says it was never to be questioned at all.

    April looks at Blue and motions her to go first before letting go of her hand.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

    Seeing that there¡¯s no other option Blue decides to just crawl and hope for the best.

    She arrives at the other side and sees a dark dusty room. There is a fireplace that isn¡¯t lit up and near it lies a blanket and a pillow.

    ¡°I know it isn¡¯t a lot yet, but there¡¯s lots of room to improve on. We can make this our own palace you know?¡± Julie states with slight excitement. Probably thinking of ways to make the place better.

    April arrives shortly after and looks around. ¡°Well first of all, can that fireplace be lit? That would make it really cozy. And do you have more blankets?¡±

    ¡°Yeah there¡¯s some sticks and dry grass near the fireplace, do you know how to start a fire? And no there¡¯s no other blankets yet.¡± Julie patiently responds to the questions.

    April scratches her chin before responding ¡°Ehm no, I don¡¯t kno-¡±

    ¡°I know¡± Blue interrupts April.

    ¡°Great, means less time wasted on teaching people how to. Go ahead.¡± Julie points towards a pile of sticks.

    ¡°But how do you know?¡± April looks confused at Blue.

    ¡°My old house has a fireplace, I had the task of getting it on and keeping it on.¡± Blue casually responds.

    April¡¯s confused face turned into a pissed one as she mutters to herself. ¡°Who the hell leaves a 6 year old in charge, that¡¯s extremely unsafe..¡±

    Blue shrugs and heads towards the fireplace. She grabs some grass and makes a little nest out of it. Then picking a larger stick and a smaller one she continues her work.

    Blue looks around and finds a stone. She takes it back and starts rubbing the stone on the larger stick to make one side flat. After finishing that she puts the larger stick down and places one foot on it to hold it still. Then she starts rubbing the smaller stick on the flat side of the larger stick, over and over.

    April comes over and looks at what Blue is doing. ¡°So how do you create fire with that?¡±

    ¡°With time.¡± Blue shortly responds to keep her focus on the sticks.

    After a little while the larger stick starts smoking. Blue grabs the nest of grass and empties the larger stick in it. She closes the nest around the tinder she just created and starts waving the nest.

    It soon catches fire as the flames engulf the nest. Blue throws the nest into the fireplace and adds some sticks around it.

    ¡°Okay that looks extremely dangerous, how about you don¡¯t wave around with fire in your hands the next time?¡± April looks worried at Blue.

    ¡°Then how do you want to get fire?¡± Blue asks with annoyance.

    ¡°Ehm let¡¯s figure that out next time.¡± April replies unsure.

    Julie casually walks over and sits in front of the fire. ¡°See, just a fire makes the place a lot better. Now what¡¯s next?¡±

    April looks at Julie and with a judging tone starts questioning her.¡°Are you not worried about the whole building and Blue catching fire?¡±

    ¡°Not really? Come on it¡¯s Blue we¡¯re talking about. Why would I be worried for her safety?¡± Julie crosses her hands in front of her waiting for April to give her one reason to care.

    April is now clearly confused. ¡°What? Why would that make a difference?¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t know?¡± Julie asks as if April should¡¯ve known.

    Blue looks up at Julie. ¡°Fire doesn¡¯t hurt me. How do you know?¡±

    ¡°Ah I don''t know specifics, just heard some things here and there.¡± Julie bites her lip as if she¡¯s hiding the rest of the story.

    ¡°Ehm, doesn¡¯t hurt you? How? And Julie why aren¡¯t you surprised?¡± April questions the abnormal situation.

    ¡°We¡¯re here and yet you¡¯re surprised about the little things? I¡¯m thinking you didn¡¯t see a lot before jumping in.¡± Julie points out annoyed.

    ¡°What are you talking about? Why is you two being here special?¡± Blue wonders while staring at Julie with a confused gaze.

    ¡°Nothing¡±

    ¡°Nothing¡±

    The two of them speak at the same time. They said it so fast it¡¯s clear there¡¯s more they don¡¯t want Blue to know.

    Blue sarcastically responds. ¡°Am I supposed to believe that?¡±

    ¡°No, but we can¡¯t tell you.¡± Julie states in a way there¡¯s nothing you can do to change it.

    ¡°I still want a blanket, oh and another one to lie on since the floor is hard.¡± April quickly changes the subject.

    ¡°I see the princess requires quality.¡± Julie again teases April.

    The two continued the conversation as if nothing happened.

    Blue sighs and accepts the change of subject. ¡°So where do we find blankets?¡±

    ¡°Maybe we can get one from a house when they hang them outside to dry?¡± Julie thinks out loud.

    ¡°Julie, do you always directly take the steal option? Can¡¯t we make one?¡± April tries to tease back Julie.

    ¡°Of course, I always go for a steal, April. Making one is like a lot of work, and I¡¯m betting you don¡¯t know how to.¡± Julie says in an ¡®obviously¡¯ tone. She only misses the hair flip to complete the picture.

    Blue suggests something else: ¡°My old house has blankets, and I know no one¡¯s home at this time.¡±

    ¡°So where is this house of yours?¡± Julie curiously asks.

    Staring at the roof Blue quietly says. ¡°I don¡¯t know. It¡¯s big though, way bigger than this place.¡±

    ¡°Well since I know every street, let¡¯s go to the street with big houses and see if you recognize something.¡± Julie stands up and walks towards the door.

    ¡°Is it safe to leave the fire on while we¡¯re out?¡± April asks.

    ¡°Eh, we¡¯re gonna be real quick about this so don¡¯t worry.¡± Julie waits for the others to come while opening the door. When everyone is through she closes the door again and puts the plank back up.

    Everyone follows Julie, taking lefts and rights almost randomly.

    ¡°Here we are, you recognize anything?¡± Julie points at the houses.

    Blue looks around at all houses as her gaze stops at a specific house.

    Julie follows her gaze to the house.

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s even bigger than this isn¡¯t it? Let¡¯s go.¡± Julie casually walks to the house as if she owns the place.

    The house looks like a small mansion and stands proudly on a hilltop.

    <hr>

    They arrive at the house and stand in front of the door.

    ¡°So how are we going to get in?¡± April looks at Julie expecting her to answer, instead Blue answers.

    ¡°My window. My sister always left a piece of cloth between the window so that it could be opened no matter what.¡±

    ¡°Well that makes things easier, where¡¯s your window.¡± Julie looks around to see if she could spot it.

    ¡°Right there.¡±

    Blue points at a window on the left side of the mansion.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go in then shall we?¡±

    Julie walks towards the window, and indeed there¡¯s a piece of cloth between it. She opens it without a problem.

    Julie climbs in right away, not even waiting for the others.

    ¡°Let¡¯s get those blankets.¡±

 Chapter 4 - Blanket Heist

    Blue follows Julie through the window and ends up in a familiar room.

    The room has two beds in it, one on each side, and a desk near the window. There¡¯s a closet near one of the beds.

    April comes in through the window and looks around curiously. ¡°So, is this your room?¡±

    ¡°Yes it is.¡± Blue softly mutters.

    ¡°Why would you ever leave this place?¡± Julie looks at the room and then at Blue.

    Blue speaks with a firm tone. ¡°I ran away for a reason, I''m not going back ever again.¡±

    Julie frowns ¡°Alright I guess.¡°

    ¡°So who''d you share the room with¡± April jumps on one of the beds and lies down on it.

    ¡°My sister.¡± Blue doesn''t want to be reminded of her and uncomfortably starts playing with her hair.

    ¡°You have a sister? Then where is she?¡± April asks unknowingly.

    Blue stares at the ground and doesn''t respond.

    For a while it remains silent.

    ¡°Hey Sam, are you alright?¡± A voice asks. It''s not Julie or April.

    Sam looks up to see who is talking to her.

    In front of her Lilianne stands with a concerned face.

    "Still thinking about the nightmare?¡± Lilianne puts her hand on Sam¡¯s shoulder.

    ¡°I don''t know what''s real anymore. Are you dead? Are you a ghost or my imagination?¡± Sam says frustrated.

    Lilianne looks at Sam confused. ¡°What do you mean? I''m alive, and certainly not something you made up. They say you have to pinch yourself if you want to know if it''s real. If you feel pain it''s real.¡±

    Sam pinches her skin right away. ¡°It hurts.¡±

    Lilianne smiles. ¡°Then I''m real right?¡±

    ¡°I guess so.¡± Sam still doesn''t believe it.

    ¡°Sam, please get dressed before we become too late.¡± Lilianne removes her hand from Sam¡¯s shoulder and walks towards the door.

    Sam quickly dresses herself and joins her sister at the door.

    ¡°There we go. Come let''s get to the dining room.¡± Lilianne opens the door and leads Sam out.

    Together they hurriedly walk towards the dining room.

    They arrive at a big door. Lilianne sighs and makes sure her outfit is okay. Then she opens the door and walks in.

    Sam follows behind her. Walking into the room she first notices her brothers waiting in a line.

    ¡°Lilianne, you''re late.¡± An adult voice says.

    ¡°Yes, Mother, I''m sorry, Mother.¡± Lilianne hurriedly says while bowing.

    ¡°You know what we said about being late. No breakfast for you.¡± The mother says strictly.

    Lilianne sighs. ¡°I understand, Mother, I won''t do it again.¡±

    ¡°Did I just hear you sigh?¡± The mother walks towards Lilianne and raises her hand.

    ¡°No, Mother.¡±

    The mother slaps Lilianne¡¯s face and raises her voice. ¡°Did we raise a liar? I know what I heard!¡±

    Lilianne just stands there, accepting whatever is thrown her way. ¡°I am sorry, Mother.¡±

    ¡°You better be sorry. Now go sit at the table all of you.¡± The mother steps towards the table.

    The four of them quietly sit down on their chairs and wait.

    The mother hands a plate to everyone but Lilianne and then walks out of the room.

    On the plate is a single slice of bread. Nothing more.

    There''s a complete silence between them and nobody grabs their plate.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    Nick grabs his slice and gives it to Lilianne, but before he can reach her Thomas grabs his hand.

    ¡°Don¡¯t.¡± Thomas says coldly.

    Lilianne sighs. ¡°It¡¯s fine, don¡¯t worry about me.¡±

    Sam looks at Lilianne with guilt. ¡°Do you need a piece of mine?¡±

    ¡°No, it¡¯s fine. Just eat it already and be done with it.¡± Lilianne impatiently replies.

    Like that time quickly passes until they¡¯re finished.

    Thomas stretches his arms. ¡°Free time, finally.¡±

    Lilianne strolls to the door and looks back over her shoulder to Thomas. ¡°I need to talk to you, let¡¯s go.¡±

    ¡°But my free time!¡± Thomas complains as he follows Lilianne.

    Sam and Nick are left alone in the dining room.

    Nick taps Sam on the shoulder and runs out of the room. ¡°Tag! You¡¯re it!¡±

    ¡°Hey, that¡¯s cheating! I wasn¡¯t prepared!¡± Sam shouts as she chases Nick.

    Hall after hall Sam chases Nick, not catching up to him. Suddenly she loses sight of him.

    ¡°Nick, where are you?¡± Sam calls out, but nothing responds.

    She carefully moves into the next hall. But still nothing.

    ¡°...an¡¯t¡­ .lis.. ..onc..¡± A voice shouts.

    Following the voice Sam arrives near a room. She stays silent while trying to eavesdrop.

    ¡°Don¡¯t you dare order me!¡± The voice clearly belongs to Thomas.

    ¡®So this is where they went? What room is it?¡¯ Sam still doesn¡¯t move, curious as to what they are talking about.

    ¡°Oh come on, you see it too right? There¡¯s no way you don¡¯t see it!¡± Lilianne snarls at Thomas.

    Thomas argues back. ¡°So what if I see it? We talked about this before, I¡¯m not gonna agree with your methods and you know it.¡±

    ¡°I will make sure you follow my orders. You don¡¯t have a choice in it.¡± Lilianne firmly states.

    ¡°Oh? So you¡¯re using that? The power of your blood to make me follow your orders? What a joke, you know you¡¯re not powerful enough to use it yet.¡± Thomas laughs.

    ¡°Wanna bet on it?¡± Lilianne speaks with confidence.

    ¡°No way? You figured out a way to use it without enough power?¡± Thomas replies shocked.

    ¡°My method is standing outside the door.¡± Lilianne says while opening the door.

    Suddenly Sam stands eye to eye with Lilianne. Lilianne¡¯s face has a smirk on it, it looks creepy.

    Lilianne grabs Sam¡¯s hand and pulls her into the room. The room has no windows and all the walls are black. Thomas is sitting on the floor in the middle of the room.

    ¡°You¡¯re gonna combine your powers? Just for this? You know how dangerous that is!¡± Thomas shouts, he looks worried.

    ¡°That¡¯s so unlike you, to care about danger.¡± Lilianne sarcastically remarks.

    ¡°I don¡¯t care what happens to any of you. But don¡¯t involve me in it, I don¡¯t care that you¡¯re suicidal, but I¡¯m not.¡± Thomas snarls.

    Lilianne laughs at Thomas. ¡°All you gotta do is follow my orders and there won¡¯t be any risk. Easy right?¡±

    ¡°Well, fuck you too. I¡¯ll follow your orders for now but you better know that I¡¯m gonna complain about it the whole time.¡± Thomas sighs dejectedly.

    ¡°See, told you you would follow my orders.¡± Lilianne smiles at Thomas and lets go of Sam¡¯s hand.

    Blue¡¯s vision fades again. When it returns she¡¯s back in her room with April and Julie.

    ¡°Are there more rooms with blankets here? Our little princess feels like two aren¡¯t enough¡± Julie changes the subject with a tease to April.

    ¡°Hmm? Oh ehm yeah there¡¯s one in front of this one.¡± Blue responds distracted.

    ¡°Great, let¡¯s make the blankets into a bag so we can carry more stuff.¡± Julie happily grabs the blanket in front of her and carries it on her shoulder like a bag.

    ¡°More stuff? What else are you planning on taking?¡± April replies shocked.

    Julie opens the closet searching for things to take with her. ¡°This whole place is deserted, we better take the chance to take whatever we need now. Like for example clothing, or are you planning on wearing the same outfit everyday?¡±

    April thinks a bit before responding. ¡°That¡¯s¡­ A great idea actually?¡±

    ¡°Of course it is, why would I come with stupid ideas?¡± Julie says pridefully while looking at the clothes in the closet. ¡°Let¡¯s grab everything here, we¡¯re gonna need it, probably.¡±

    Blue looks at her clothes with a bit of sadness. ¡°At least they are guaranteed to fit me.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s the positivity we need!¡± Julie happily says while putting the clothes in the blanket bag.

    April gets off the bed and grabs the blanket, putting it as a bag like Julie did. ¡°Can we take the pillows as well? Cause those are very comfy!¡±

    ¡°Of course, we need enough pillows for our palace or it won¡¯t be good enough for the princess.¡± Julie teasingly says.

    ¡°There¡¯s nothing wrong with wanting comfort!¡± April says to defend herself.

    ¡°Of course not princess, you require royal comfort.¡± Julie opens the door and strolls to the other door opposite of the room they just came from. ¡°Is this the other room?¡±

    ¡°Yes, it is.¡± Blue follows Julie and opens the door. The room is exactly like the previous one but mirrored.

    ¡°Four blankets as loot isn¡¯t so bad. Maybe we should come here more often!¡± Julie happily hums while gathering loot. She hands over a blanket to Blue. ¡°Here carry one too, can¡¯t have us do all the work, eh?¡±

    Blue grabs the blanket and puts a pillow in it. ¡°So what now?¡±

    Julie opens the closet once again to grab all the clothes. ¡°Well what other rooms do you know? Something like a kitchen? Or any special storehouses?¡±

    Blue thinks and says. ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡±

    ¡°Oh well, let¡¯s find out.¡± Julie walks out the door again and looks around the hallway. She points to the right side. ¡°Let¡¯s go that way.¡± And then walks to the right side.

    ¡°Hey Julie, don¡¯t just leave us behind!¡± April shouts and runs after Julie.

    Julie abruptly stops, making April bump into her.

    ¡°Hey watch out, don¡¯t just stop!¡± April complains.

    Julie ignores April while staring at the left side. ¡°I thought you said there weren¡¯t any people at this time of the day?¡±

    ¡°There shouldn¡¯t be any?¡± Blue runs towards Julie with confusion.

    Now April stares at the left side. ¡°...¡±

    Blue arrives next to Julie and follows her gaze. Her gaze leads to a window that has vision on a garden.

    ¡°There¡¯s someone in the garden.¡± Julie warns.

    ¡°Where?¡± Blue asks while looking.

    Before someone can answer that Blue sees the answer herself. A little boy runs around from one tree to another.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know him.¡± Blue says confused.

    ¡°Well, let¡¯s go meet him then.¡± Julie walks towards the garden entrance.

    April hurriedly walks towards Julie and whispers something to her. ¡°..s...th...g¡­. green....ri..¡±

    Julie simply responds. ¡°Yes.¡± She opens the door. The little boy notices the door opening and runs towards them.

    The boy has auburn red hair, in a spiky hair style. He looks to be around 4 years old and his face still has the cute baby face. With bright green eyes he definitely stands out.

    He looks at the trio and ends his gaze on Blue. ¡°Sis!¡± he shouts as he runs at Blue and hugs her.

    ¡°Ehm what?¡± Blue just stands there and doesn¡¯t know what to do.

    ¡°I¡¯m Vincent, but everyone calls me Vince. Nice to meet you, sis!¡± The boy declared.

 Chapter 5 - Flowers

    Blue stares at Vince. ¡°....Sis?¡± She sounds like she doesn¡¯t believe it.

    ¡°Yeah, sis! Or is sister better? But sis is way easier to say!¡± Vince excitedly says. He jumps up and down like a ball of energy. If he had a tail it would be wagging real quick.

    Julie pokes at April and whispers to her. ¡°Let me call you sis too.¡±

    ¡°Absolutely not.¡± April firmly says.

    ¡°Big sis then?¡± Julie continues to tease April.

    ¡°Don¡¯t make me feel old, it¡¯s just four months okay! Four months!.¡± April states slightly annoyed.

    Blue suppresses a giggle before focussing on Vince again. ¡°I don¡¯t know you? Since when am I your sis?¡±

    Julie pouts. ¡°So close to making her laugh. April, we need to improve the quality of our show!¡±

    April turns her back to Julie. ¡°I¡¯m not part of your show!¡±

    Vince happily laughs and grabs the arm of Julie. ¡°I wanna stay with all of you! Take me with you!¡±

    Julie shakes her arm while looking at Vince. ¡°Blue, there¡¯s something on my arm. I don¡¯t know what to do with it.¡±

    ¡°Why are you telling me? I don¡¯t know what to do with him either!¡± Blue looks confused at Julie.

    ¡°Can you be my sis too? And take me with you please! I don¡¯t wanna stay here!¡± Vince begs to Julie.

    April giggles in response to what Vince is doing.

    Julie looks at April with a smirk and then points at her. ¡°Sure, but that¡¯s your big sis then.¡±

    April stops giggling and stares like a deer in headlights. ¡°Wait no. Don¡¯t do this to me!¡±

    Vince runs to April and hugs her. ¡°I love you big sis!¡±

    April awkwardly stands still while being hugged and looks away embarrassed.

    ¡°We¡¯re definitely taking this with us, for April of course.¡± Julie states in a teasing tone.

    At that moment the sound of a door opening echoes through the halls.

    ¡°That¡¯s our sign to go.¡± Julie says calmly while running back to the way they entered.

    The rest quickly follows.

    They arrive at the window and go through. It looks quite comical, four little kids with blankets as bags over their shoulders leaving through a window.

    Julie closes the window and leads everybody through the alleys till they get to their hideout.

    ¡°So Julie, I¡¯ve been wondering for a while now. But how come the house is empty? I don¡¯t usually see houses with planks over the doors and windows making sure no one can enter.¡± April asks while thinking about it.

    Julie responds seriously. ¡°I don¡¯t know if you¡¯ve noticed, but this whole area is abandoned. I don¡¯t know the exact details but it seems like there was a big fire a long time ago. This house wasn¡¯t affected a single bit and thus people began to say it was possessed by demons or something. The whole area is in ruins and nobody dares to come to repair it, so they just closed off the house and left the area.¡±

    ¡°You mean you picked a cursed house as your hideout?¡± April replies shocked.

    ¡°I¡¯ve been living here for a while now and nothing ever happened, who cares about some rumors when this is a perfectly good house to live in, for free even.¡± Julie casually remarks.

    ¡°Nothing? No unexplainable doors opening or things that went missing?¡± April asks carefully.

    Julie gets her usual smirk on before responding. ¡°Hmm, there have been unexplainable noises at night, knocking on doors and windows.¡±

    Blue quickly responds in a scared tone. ¡°Can we not sleep there?¡±

    April chimes in. ¡°I agree.¡±

    ¡°Oh come on, I¡¯m still alive and nothing is wrong with me. At least they made sure I wasn¡¯t alone.¡± Julie teases.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    ¡°We¡¯re here now so you don¡¯t need anything else.¡± Blue says in a weak voice.

    Julie smiles at what Blue said. ¡°Hmm, I guess. I¡¯ll tell them to pack their bags and leave then.¡±

    ¡°Sounds like a plan to me.¡± April agrees.

    Julie opens the door and crawls through, the rest follows as well.

    ¡°Sorry guys, I¡¯m replacing you with actual people. So please gather your stuff quickly and find another house to hound!¡± Julie shouts at the air.

    There is no response back.

    ¡°I said leave, just do it and make it easier for all of us, okay?¡± Julie keeps shouting.

    The door slams shut with a loud bang.

    ¡°Ugh what a childish act, slamming the door when they leave.¡± Julie grunts.

    Blue and April however are standing close to each other with goose bumps. Vince just stands there curiously looking around.

    Blue whispers to April. ¡°Please don¡¯t leave me.¡±

    ¡°Of course I won¡¯t leave you.¡± April pats Blue¡¯s head.

    Julie throws her blanket bag down and sorts the stuff. ¡°Let¡¯s give this place a little makeover.¡±

    ¡°With just a blanket and a pillow?¡± April asks sarcastically.

    ¡°You¡¯d be surprised how much that changes the place.¡± Julie happily responds while making a bed out of a blanket and pillow.

    April rolls her eyes. ¡°Can we at least gather some grass? That is softer than the ground..¡±

    ¡°Have fun collecting grass then.¡± Julie opens the door for April.

    ¡°Ooh can I come with you? We can get flowers! And maybe there¡¯s pretty animals!¡± Vince jumps up and down with excitement.

    April sighs. ¡°Alright then, come on let¡¯s collect some flowers.¡± She crawls through the little opening and Vince follows her.

    Julie is busy folding all the clothes they got. With only two of them left there¡¯s a silence between them.

    Blue decides to sit next to Julie and look at what she¡¯s doing. It¡¯s relaxing and gets rid of the goose bumps she had before.

    Julie breaks the silence and questions Blue. ¡°So, did you have any siblings before Vince came? I guess you at least got a sister.¡±

    ¡°Ah, yeah one older sister and two younger brothers. Although we¡¯re a quadruplet so we¡¯re all born on the same day.¡± Somehow Julie manages to soothe Blue enough to make Blue able to talk about this a bit more.

    ¡°That¡¯s amazing, did you like them?¡± Julie exclaims.

    ¡°I guess. I didn¡¯t get to see them a lot. Even though I shared a room with my sister, I''d only see her in the morning and evening. I don¡¯t know where she spent her time.¡±

    ¡°Do you miss them?¡± Julie stops folding to look Blue in her eyes.

    Blue looks sad. ¡°It¡¯s as if a part of me is missing. But it can never get complete again.¡±

    ¡°I get you.¡± Julie says nostalgic.

    Blue reacts surprised. ¡°You have siblings?¡±

    Julie gives a sad laugh. ¡°Had, just one, a younger brother. We used to roam the streets together, but one winter he got sick. I begged to everyone for help but they all ignored us. He ended up freezing to death next to me.¡±

    ¡°Why would they ignore you? That makes no sense!¡± Blue blurts out.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, maybe it¡¯s easier. Our lives mean nothing to them, that¡¯s the rule on the streets. You better get used to it now since you¡¯ll get to experience it first hand soon enough.¡± Julie explains.

    Blue doesn¡¯t understand. ¡°Why would we mean nothing to them? That makes no sense!¡±

    ¡°Ha, you¡¯re so innocent, aren¡¯t you? It¡¯s not their problem and thus they ignore it so it doesn¡¯t become their problem. We¡¯re like rats to them, if they notice us they¡¯ll look at us with disgust.¡± Julie says with a small smile.

    ¡°Even kids?¡± Blue wonders.

    Julie thinks for a bit. ¡°Kids most of the time want to play with us or look at us. Their parents always hold them back, though.¡±

    ¡°So adults are the mean ones?¡± Blue asks.

    ¡°I guess you can see it like that. They just use what they learned from their parents.¡± Julie states.

    The door opens and April crawls in with lots of grass in her arms. ¡°Missed me?¡±

    ¡°Obviously¡± Julie teases back.

    Vince follows with a flower crown on his head and all kinds of flowers in his hands. ¡°Look at what I found! So many pretty flowers!¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s great, now this place can change into a flower palace!¡± Julie smiles at Vince.

    ¡°Let¡¯s gather kids off the streets and give them a home!¡± Blue firmly says.

    Julie laughs ¡°Fine by me.¡±

    ¡°Hmm? Okay then.¡± April says confused.

    Vince excitedly says ¡°Does that mean more friends?¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s eat breakfast first, can¡¯t start doing your great plan on an empty stomach.¡± Julie walks towards the bag full of bread and hands everyone one.

    Together they sit at the fireplace and eat.

    ¡°So does anyone know how to get to places here?¡± Julie asks the others.

    She gets a bunch of stares and silence as a response back.

    ¡°Okay so today we¡¯ll walk around and get you guys familiar with everything. It helps not getting lost when trying to get here.¡± Julie announces.

    ¡°Awh, do we have to?¡± April complains.

    ¡°You¡¯re free to go out on your own, I¡¯m not gonna search for you to get you back here though.¡± Julie sarcastically says.

    ¡°No search parties for me then?¡± April says with a laugh.

    ¡°I¡¯ll search for you if you get lost!¡± Vince happily says.

    ¡°Thanks buddy, at least someone''s got my back here.¡± April smiles.

    ¡°If I searched for you I would get lost myself, without even finding you..¡± Blue mutters.

    April laughs. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll stand still to wait for you then, just check every possible place and you¡¯ll find me after a while.¡±

    Julie sighs. ¡°Very useful. I still think knowing how to get anywhere helps more.¡±

    ¡°We got you for that.¡± April remarks.

    ¡°In that case I¡¯ll be staying inside from now on, have fun out there.¡± Julie teases.

    ¡°Okay okay I get it. Just know it¡¯s gonna take a while for me to memorize anything.¡± April mutters.

    ¡°We can make a map for that, so there¡¯s something to help you remember.¡± Julie assures.

    ¡°If we have a map why would we need to find it ourselves?¡± Blue questions.

    Julie rolls her eyes. ¡°Cause it¡¯s really handy to actually know what the place looks like and thus know where you are on the map and where your end destination is.¡±

    ¡°Can we get more flowers? Or maybe bunnies! Let¡¯s get bunnies in here!¡± Vince proclaims full of excitement.

    ¡°No bunnies. Flowers are alright though.¡± Julie smiles at Vince.

    They finish their meal and are ready to walk around the streets.

    ¡°Let¡¯s get this over with.¡± April mutters.

    ¡°Be happy I¡¯m wasting my precious time on making sure you won¡¯t waste more of it!¡± Julie jokes.

    And so their adventure starts. With the end goal to not get lost.

 Chapter 6 - Tour

    Julie stands outside looking at the rest to see if they are paying attention to her. ¡°So this area here, I call it the Ruined Zone. All the houses here are empty, and probably for the better. At this point if you¡¯d enter one it might fall down on you. There¡¯s a very low chance of finding people here, since they all tend to avoid the area. Even the ¡®main road¡¯ is deserted.¡±

    Julie takes a few steps forward until she reaches an intersection. ¡°Since this path where we came from is a dead end we¡¯re not gonna stick there. If you go to the left here you¡¯ll end up on the main road, can¡¯t be missed since it literally doesn¡¯t lead anywhere else. The main road is pretty straightforward and in a square goes around the town. So we¡¯re not gonna go there either. To the right we¡¯ll get to the heart of the town, it leads to multiple alleys and pretty much gets you anywhere faster than the main road.¡±

    She then leads everyone to the right, again stopping at the first intersection. ¡°This road continues onto the main alleyway, that starts at the left main road and ends before the right main road. If it weren¡¯t for the rich people wanting a garden it would probably have reached the right main road. If we head to the right we¡¯ll enter the zone I call the Broke Zone. It¡¯s the smallest houses all built right next to each other. And even though the houses are the smallest you¡¯ll find a lot more people crammed inside. For now however we aren¡¯t going there, there¡¯s so many little paths made by people just wanting to reach something that it¡¯s gonna take a while to memorize.¡±

    They all continue following the road. They walk by a path that goes right. ¡°This is also a dead end that just leads to a few houses, we¡¯ll only go to the most important things for now.¡±

    They reach the main alleyway and there¡¯s a few people hastily walking by. Blue hides behind April as soon as she sees them. ¡°Why are there people here?¡±

    ¡°Well that¡¯s what it¡¯s a main alleyway for, from this point you can reach the rest. We left the Ruined Zone now, although no one ever heads this way. That¡¯s why we didn¡¯t meet anyone before, they all just skip this route and use one of the other alleys to reach their destination.¡± Julie explains.

    "I see, so we basically have the whole Ruined Zone for ourselves?¡± April asks, more to herself than to anyone.

    Julie responds with a laugh before continuing her tour. ¡°If we go to the left here we¡¯ll find Nicolas and his apparently not so free bread. He¡¯s located on the main road, but he chose the nearest spot to the main alleyway since that¡¯s where most of his customers live. He didn¡¯t want to exclude the richer people though and thus took that spot.

    Also, he¡¯s the only one who decided he wanted a shop and actually set one up. Most average people buy from the Church since they decided to teach their priests how to make stuff. Now the Church makes clothes, all kinds of cooked food and raw vegetables from their garden. They even make beer, they get quite the profit because of it.

    The richer people hire people to make it for them, of course not just anybody but the best they can afford. They¡¯ll have their own people fishing and hunting for food and they keep it all to themselves. If they need something they don¡¯t have they¡¯ll trade with the other rich people nearby or go to the ¡®Little Market¡¯. Which is called little but it¡¯s more like a black market. We¡¯re headed there actually, so you can see for yourself.¡±

    Julie easily passes through the people and gets on the other side of the road. The rest of them have a little more trouble and bump into people quite a few times.

    ¡°How can you walk by them so fast?¡± April asks surprised.

    ¡°I¡¯ve been doing it everyday so at one point it just gets easier. People move predictably so it¡¯s easy once you get the hang of it.¡± Julie proudly boasts.

    They head into an alleyway that¡¯s a lot busier than the ones they had before. At the end of it there¡¯s a big guy guarding the road. People wait in a line until he lets them through.

    Julie however ignores the line and walks straight past. She stops in front of the big guy and waves. ¡°Hey Fred, long time no see. Let us through alright?¡±

    The people behind her in line complain and throw all kinds of slurs towards her. She ignores them all however.

    ¡°Julie, what brings you here? You even brought a group of friends, I thought you would forever stay a lone wolf?¡± The guard seriously says. It definitely isn¡¯t serious talk but he keeps his work persona on.

    Julie smirks. ¡°Oh Fred, you know how it is. Some poor kids came by and needed a home. Of course I can only offer what I have. Now I¡¯m showing them around so they won¡¯t need me anymore.¡±

    ¡°I see, well enjoy your stay then.¡± He hands Julie something and Julie signs for the others to come.

    Blue stays close to April and hides her face behind April. She doesn¡¯t want people to see her and carefully they walk to Julie. Vince runs after them and looks around with big eyes.

    They walk a bit further before Julie stops them and shows what Fred gave her. Blue curiously looks at what Julie is holding and sees that it¡¯s four masks.

    ¡°I doubt anyone looks enough like us to make us anonymous but hey, it¡¯s a start.¡± Julie jokingly says while putting one of the masks on. It¡¯s a mask that only covers the top of her head and doesn¡¯t show the eyes. It¡¯s simply black with no design on it at all and a little fabric that hides the eyes but doesn¡¯t prevent the wearer from seeing. It¡¯s kept in place by a little wire that people tie themselves.

    April takes one and puts it on, she then helps Vince put one on. Blue looks at the mask for a little while before putting it on.

    April looks at her. ¡°Do you need help tying that?¡±

    ¡°No, I¡¯m fine.¡± Blue stubbornly says while struggling to tie the wire behind her head. She hears Julie laughing, which only makes her try harder.

    Suddenly there¡¯s two hands on her own hands. ¡°Here follow my lead, I¡¯ll show you.¡± April says gently.Stolen novel; please report.

    Together they manage to finally tie it. ¡°See, that¡¯s how you do it. Easy right?¡± April smiles at Blue.

    Blue pouts and looks away from April. ¡°I could¡¯ve done that myself.¡±

    ¡°Uh-huh¡± April laughs.

    Blue blushes and walks off in the direction of the market.

    Julie casually follows her together with April and Vince. ¡°Let¡¯s find things she can¡¯t do, she¡¯s cute when she¡¯s being stubborn.¡± Julie teases to April.

    ¡°I heard that!¡± Blue shouts at Julie. She quickly quiets down after realizing people are staring at her.

    Julie laughs and quickly catches up to Blue. She throws her arm around Blue¡¯s neck. ¡°Look at you running off like that, aren¡¯t you afraid you¡¯ll lose sight of us?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t need you!¡± Blue argues.

    ¡°Alright then.¡± Julie removes her arm. ¡°Go ahead, find your way yourself.¡± She says seriously.

    Blue suddenly gets scared and runs back to Julie to hug her. ¡°I¡¯m sorry! I still need you, don¡¯t leave me!¡± She says with tears in her eyes.

    ¡°Good, now don¡¯t you ever says things like that again. You can¡¯t just throw around things you don¡¯t mean like that. You might not realize it but you can hurt other people''s feelings with it. Do you understand?¡± Julie says.

    Blue looks to the others and sees April and Vince looking coldy at her. She realizes she doesn¡¯t want to hurt them or lose them. What would she do if they left her side? ¡°I understand.¡± She sadly says.

    ¡°Now apologize to the others.¡± Julie coldy says.

    Blue turns to the others. ¡°I¡¯m sorry!¡± She sincerely says.

    ¡°Apology accepted.¡± April says with a smile.

    ¡°Now then, stay close to us. This isn¡¯t a place you want to get lost in. If anyone finds you here alone they will take you and get you into slavery.¡± Julie states.

    ¡°Okay.¡± Blue says with a weak voice. She grabs April¡¯s hand and then with her other hand grabs Julie¡¯s hand. Vince quickly follows and grabs April¡¯s hand too.

    Julie moves on and together they arrive at an open area. ¡°Now this is the Little Market. If you ever need anything you can¡¯t find anywhere else, you can definitely get it here. Even if they don¡¯t have it in stock, just ask the merchant for it and poof.

    They got all kinds of weapons here, including flintlocks and swords. They are terribly overpriced, but what can you do when they don¡¯t sell them anywhere else. That building over there sells the weapons.¡± Julie points at a little house to the right.

    ¡°The building next to it is where they sell slaves. Because we¡¯re such a small town there¡¯s no official slave shops and we can only do with some illegal ones. So you don¡¯t question how they got the slaves and they won¡¯t question you on what you need them for. They probably got them by kidnapping some people from other towns, who knows.¡±

    Julie points to another building in a right corner. ¡°That over there is where the traveling merchant comes with exotic goods. His wares are never set in stone so it¡¯s a surprise every time you visit. The rich people usually crowd his place whenever he arrives into town, to be the first to get their hands on whatever he brings them. Seeing that it¡¯s not crowded at the moment he should be out.¡±

    Julie goes to the building that¡¯s right in front of them. ¡°This building is also a favorite among the rich people. It sells jewelry and all kinds of expensive accessories. There¡¯s a 99% chance that it¡¯s stolen though, so they are a bit cheaper than if you would go to an actual Jewelry store in the city.¡±

    She continues onto the building left of the jewelry shop. ¡°Here you can bet on fights. They get two volunteers to fight it out and people love to see that. I¡¯m sure it¡¯s rigged, they just tell the one where most people bet on to lose and give them a share of the money.¡±

    She then points to the building on the left. ¡°That¡¯s where you can hire people to do things for you. And with things I mean either breaking in, kidnapping, attacking or even killing people. It¡¯s expensive though, so only the rich can afford to ruin people.¡±

    There¡¯s two people nearby the building talking to each other. Blue recognizes the clothes and hair on one of them, it¡¯s her father.

    ¡°Can we move a bit closer to them? I want to hear what they¡¯re saying.¡± Blue asks Julie.

    ¡°Hmm? Sure, just follow me.¡± Julie stealthily leads them to the building and hides nearby.

    ¡°I want my money, 200 luns as I said.¡± A male whispers with anger.

    ¡°You can¡¯t prove that you¡¯ve completed my request. Why would I pay you then?¡± Blue¡¯s father says with a noble air.

    ¡®What are they talking about? What request could my father have?¡¯ Blue stares at the duo surprised.

    ¡°Prove it? You cleaned up the proof and you know it. Don¡¯t play with me, I have enough connections to make your life miserable!¡± The male says.

    ¡°I see you resorted to empty threats. You can¡¯t prove that I cleaned up the evidence either, you¡¯re just making up things here.¡± Blue¡¯s father calmly says, as if the threats mean nothing to him.

    ¡°I KILLED ALL OF THEM! WHAT MORE DO YOU NEED?! JUST GIVE ME MY MONEY ALREADY!¡± The man shouts.

    ¡®Killed? Killed who? Father wouldn¡¯t kill people right?¡¯ Blue gets confused and slightly nervous. ¡®The guy that screamed, he¡¯s a murderer? Walking free?¡¯

    ¡°And that¡¯s where you are wrong. My men have spotted three of the four alive and walking around. This is exactly why I need proof, which you can¡¯t give. So I think we are done here.¡± Blue¡¯s father turns around to leave.

    ¡®Three of four..¡¯ Blue thinks quietly.

    ¡°What? How could that be? I personally threw the girl against the wall, she wouldn¡¯t survive that.¡± The man asks confused.

    ¡®No way.. It can¡¯t be.. He wouldn¡¯t..¡¯ Blue holds on to April¡¯s arm, as her world falls apart. Blue feels something touching her back and patting her, she doesn¡¯t look up for it.

    ¡°And that¡¯s another thing where you¡¯re wrong. They are monsters and I told you they wouldn¡¯t die of any simple injury. We¡¯ve tested that before already. What about the boys, you seem to skip their part.¡± Blue¡¯s father looks back at the man.

    ¡®Monsters he says.¡¯ Blue holds back tears. ¡®Is that how he thought about us the whole time?¡¯

    The man nervously stands there silent. It takes a while for him to respond. ¡°They eh¡­ They ran away when we focussed on the other girl.¡±

    ¡®Was it pure luck that I¡¯m still here? Against my...that man¡¯s wishes?¡¯ Blue¡¯s eyes look completely empty as she tries to figure it out.

    ¡°You were with two men and still let them escape? Weren¡¯t you the professionals that always completed all jobs? This is exactly why I¡¯m not going to pay you.¡± Blue¡¯s father remarks and walks away, not waiting on another response.

    ¡®He¡¯s the monster.¡¯ Blue lets go of April¡¯s arm and stands up, hesitant to do anything else.

    The man slams the wall before heading off.

    Blue justs looks at the ground. ¡°No way.¡±

    April looks worried at Blue. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡±

    Blue looks up without any emotion visible in her eyes. The temperature surrounding her turns cold. ¡°That man...¡± There¡¯s a hesitation in her voice as she nervously plays with her dress. ¡®No, he¡¯s not my father anymore. He probably didn¡¯t want me anyway and that¡¯s why he tried to get rid of us¡¯ Blue tries to gather her resolve to end all ties with that man.

    ¡°He¡­ He used to call himself my father.¡± Blue closes her hands in fists, hard enough to leave imprints. ¡°He obviously isn¡¯t much of a father and I¡¯m not related to him in any possible way from this point on.¡±

    Julie looks mad. ¡°What a dick. Did that guy actually hire people to get rid of you?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re your family, no one else. We¡¯ll keep you safe from that guy.¡± April hugs Blue.

    Vince joins the hug. ¡°Sis, you got me right! I¡¯m not leaving you! And I¡¯ll kick all the bad people away!¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s go back home, we¡¯ll continue this tour on another day.¡± Julie states as she walks away.

    The others stop the group hug and hurriedly follow her. Blue doesn¡¯t say anything and there¡¯s still a freezing temperature around her.

    They quickly get back to Fred. ¡°Hey there Julie, had a fun time showing off?¡±

    Julie ignores his question. ¡°We¡¯ll keep the masks, Fred.¡± And like that they soon reach their so called home.

    They get in and Julie closes the door. ¡°Let¡¯s at least get the beds ready so we don¡¯t have to do that when we want to sleep.¡± She grabs a bit of grass and spreads it over the ground.

    April helps Julie and together they get four beds near the fireplace.

    April looks at Blue. ¡°So hey, the good news is that your brothers are still alive!¡±

 Chapter 7 - Connection

    ¡°That wasn¡¯t really news though.¡± Julie remarks.

    April thinks for a bit. ¡°I guess, but we need to see the positive things in life.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s nothing positive about any of this.¡± Blue says with empty eyes.

    Julie looks at Blue with a pained smile. ¡°You still got us?¡±

    Blue suddenly gets hit by dizziness. Everything turns black before the scenery changes.

    <hr>

    Lilianne stands in front of her, yet again. ¡°Are you alright? You look pale.¡±

    ¡°After everything that just happened I would be pale too, you were planning on using her!¡± Thomas snarks.

    Lilianne ignores him and stares at Sam. ¡°Your eyes? Why are they glowing?¡±

    Thomas jumps up and looks at Sam as well. ¡°Glowing? No way, that shouldn¡¯t be happening!¡±

    ¡°I know it shouldn¡¯t, but that doesn¡¯t change this. She¡¯s awakening, but why now?¡± Lilianne says panicked.

    ¡°She¡¯s not ready yet though, it¡¯s going to be unstable.. Can we stop this?¡± Thomas questions.

    ¡°How would I know? This isn¡¯t supposed to happen! All we can do is share our power a bit so it stabilizes..¡± Lilianne hastily says.

    Thomas¡¯s face turns dark. ¡°No, I already said no to that before and I won¡¯t agree with it now!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll do it without you then!¡± Lilianne shouts.

    ¡°Alone? That would cost you all your power!¡± Thomas gets confused.

    ¡°I rather have that, she¡¯ll die without it. And without her my power would become unstable. We would just be going downhill from that point on, there¡¯s no other way.¡± Lilianne looks determined.

    Thomas sighs. ¡°That¡¯s not my problem, is it now?¡±

    Lilianne rolls her eyes. ¡°Nick would weaken without Sam, and guess who¡¯s after that..¡±

    ¡°And what would weaken him? It¡¯s you two who are linked, not Nick.¡± Thomas sarcastically says.

    ¡°They¡¯re the good side of us and we¡¯re the bad side of them. How can they not be linked?¡± Lilianne is annoyed with Thomas. She instead turns to Sam. ¡°Now open your mouth alright? Also close your eyes.¡±

    Sam obediently listens to Lilianne. She feels a strange liquid being placed in her mouth.

    ¡®It tastes really good, like some kind of fruit.¡¯

    The liquid is soon gone, although Sam wants more of it. Sam opens her eyes and Lilianne¡¯s face is right in front of her.

    Lilianne bumps her forehead against Sam¡¯s forehead. ¡°It should be alright for now.¡±

    ¡°Now are you gonna give her the talk or not?¡± Thomas murmurs.

    ¡°Guess I¡¯ll have to.¡± She turns around and sighs ¡°Ok look, all four of us are basically the same person. We¡¯re all linked together, it keeps us in balance. It wasn¡¯t like this before though, we used to be just one person, we just got split. Thomas and I were first. Then you guys came as clones of us, splitting the personality we had yet again.

    The basic split is between the good sides of our personality and the bad sides. Thomas and I are the ¡®bad¡¯ sides while you and Nick are the good ones. More specifically, Nick got the naive, innocent one. You got the kind but fearful one. Thomas got the bloodthirsty and antisocial one, and I got the cold reckless one.

    Nick¡¯s innocence blocks the bloodthirsty part of Thomas, part of it that is. Your fear blocks part of my recklessness. Like that we work together. If one of us dies it changes though, mostly in the bad way. Without you I¡¯d become some cold hot headed person who¡¯d die pretty soon, without me your fear would take control of you, making part of your kindness cold.

    The same goes for Thomas and Nick, and I¡¯m not looking forward to Thomas becoming a serial killer.

    But it¡¯s not just that link. Nick needs you to balance him as the good side. Thomas needs me to balance him as the bad side. One less of either side makes the other side stronger.

    So that¡¯s one of the reasons why it¡¯s terrible to lose any of us. The other reason is just for now, we¡¯re not yet fully awakened to our powers. We need each other¡¯s power to keep it stable, we grow together but once one part is missing the growth will go wrong. I don¡¯t exactly know why, but I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll get that figured out soon.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    We get our power from each other, but only from those below you. I as the oldest get it from all of you, making me the strongest as well. You being the second oldest makes you the second strongest.

    Now here¡¯s the most important part, followers count as those below us. Gather lots of followers and you¡¯ll gain part of their strength, and maybe once you¡¯re fully stabilized you¡¯ll even get their full power. Once you recognize them as followers they¡¯ll grow with you and get the same rules of gaining part of the power of the ones below them. Like that you¡¯ll get stronger than everyone purely by having more followers.

    And obviously we need to get stronger, otherwise we¡¯re stuck here. Anyways, it¡¯s a lot to take in so I¡¯ll end it here for now.¡± Lilianne explains as good as she can.

    Thomas quickly adds in. ¡°Add a layer onto that memory, make sure no one can reach it ever and she¡¯ll delete the memory of getting the info but she¡¯ll be able to remember it at all times. We don¡¯t need anyone prying it out of her.¡±

    Lilianne rolls her eyes. ¡°With what power am I supposed to do that?¡±

    Thomas sighs. ¡°Alright alright, I¡¯ll do it.¡± He takes a step closer to Sam, slightly pushing Lilianne away, before bumping his forehead against Sam¡¯s forehead.

    A warmth comes through and it burns inside Sam¡¯s head. Her vision turns white again.

    <hr>

    ¡°We¡¯re not enough?¡± A voice asks sadly.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think we¡¯re any help at all for her now.¡± Another voice responds.

    Blue blinks a bit and her vision returns, the burning pain still in her head.

    She¡¯s back in Julie¡¯s hideout, again as if nothing ever happened. The burning pain is the only evidence that something did happen.

    ¡®I should get more followers to get stronger, but how do I recognize followers?¡¯ Blue thinks.

    Blue looks at April. ¡®Maybe I should do that trick, the one with touching her forehead¡¯

    She makes her way towards April and bumps their foreheads. She closes her eyes and starts concentrating. ¡®Let me recognize you as a follower!¡¯

    [I accept.] April¡¯s voice appears in her head.

    Blue feels like there¡¯s a line reaching out from April, she grabs the line mentally. She feels the connection between them, she feels a slight pain in her forehead coming from April, telling her where April is hurt.

    ¡®There¡¯s probably more to it than just this, maybe there¡¯s a way to test it?¡¯

    Blue steps back from April and opens her eyes. April is looking at her with a happy smile.

    ¡°Next time don¡¯t charge at me like that, okay?¡± April laughs.

    ¡°You¡¯re going to give her a headache like that, we still need her, so don¡¯t break her please.¡± Julie teases.

    Blue turns her face around to look at Julie. ¡®I feel like my energy is drained, I don¡¯t think I can try it on her just yet.¡¯

    ¡°So, I¡¯ll go to the well near the church, April come help me out so we can carry a bit more and don¡¯t need to go back.¡± Julie states.

    ¡°You¡¯re a slave driver, why are you doing this to me!¡± April complains with a sigh. Even though she says this she still moves towards the entrance.

    ¡°Just go and work without complaining, makes it easier for the both of us.¡± Julie remarks. They both get out after, leaving Blue with Vince.

    ¡°Want a flower crown?¡± Vince asks Blue with bright eyes.

    ¡°Ah, sure.¡± Blue responds, her thoughts somewhere else.

    Vince happily goes to work with his flowers to get another crown.

    ¡®I miss them, why are they leaving me behind yet again!¡¯ Blue thinks.

    [Hey, don¡¯t miss us! We¡¯re gonna be back real soon.] April¡¯s voice appears in Blue¡¯s thoughts yet again.

    ¡®Is she really talking? Or is it me making up things?¡¯ Blue wonders.

    There¡¯s no other response back, leaving Blue alone again.

    ¡®So what should I do now? Look around the hideout maybe?¡¯

    Blue walks around trying to find anything in this hideout.

    Starting from the entrance, the fireplace is on the opposite wall a bit to the right. The door has a wall directly on one side and an open room on the other.

    There are four beds made out of grass and blankets surrounding the fireplace. That¡¯s all the furniture they have.

    Blue notices a door on the other end of the room. ¡®Should I go check? No way! I¡¯m all alone! I¡¯m not going into a dark scary place alone! What if there¡¯s someone hiding in there! Wait but if there¡¯s someone hiding there what if they come out now?¡¯

    [Why are you panicking?] April¡¯s voice comes in with a worried emotion attached.

    ¡®Is it really her? Am I sending my emotions to her and making her worried?¡¯ Blue asks herself.

    [It¡¯s me yes, and I felt you panicking so here I am. Are you okay? Are you in danger?] April¡¯s worried voice rings through her head. It sounds confusing but comforting at the same time.

    ¡®I found this door, I don¡¯t know what¡¯s behind it. What if there¡¯s someone there?¡¯ Blue confesses.

    [You mean that door at the end of the room? The place behind it is rotten and fell, so it¡¯s unreachable. There¡¯s not gonna be anyone there. Julie checked it right away when she first came here. You didn¡¯t notice it before?] April explains.

    ¡®Really? How sure are you of that? And maybe I didn¡¯t see a door hidden beneath all this dust.¡¯ Blue snarks.

    [If you¡¯re that worried about it we¡¯ll go open the door after we return, just wait patiently alright?] April mentally sighs.

    Blue doesn¡¯t respond and instead goes to Vince and sits down next to him. He¡¯s still busy making a flower crown and didn¡¯t seem to notice Blue coming.

    Blue just stares at Vince making the crown, and like that time passes slowly.

    Vince finishes his crown and turns to face Blue. He stands up and puts the crown on her head. ¡°Look! Look! I finished it! It¡¯s pretty right?¡±

    ¡°Yes, it¡¯s very pretty.¡± Blue replies distracted.

    Vince grabs Blue¡¯s dress and starts pulling on it. ¡°Come, come! Let¡¯s make two more! For the other sis and big sis! I¡¯ll teach you how!¡±

    ¡°Ah.. Sure?¡± Blue replies confused.

    Vince grabs more flowers and gives a few to Blue. ¡°Look first you do this part over that part, and then you add another flower and do that part over the other one.¡± Vince patiently explains.

    ¡®He seems very patient and focused on things he likes.¡¯

    Vince helps Blue start her crown before returning to his own work, he starts humming some notes in no particular order.

    Blue relaxes with the constant braiding of flowers and the calming humming in the background. Before she knows it April and Julie return.

    ¡°Having fun there?¡± Julie teases.

    Blue reacts surprised. ¡°How long have you been there?¡±

    ¡°Not long enough.¡± April complains.

    ¡°Just wait a bit it¡¯s almost done!¡± Vince happily continues on his flower crown.

    April and Julie just stand there watching them with a gentle smile on their faces.

 Chapter 8 - Spectator

    A few minutes pass by. Vince finishes his flower crown already and runs towards Julie. ¡°Here! You can have this!¡±

    Julie laughs while kneeling. ¡°It is a great honor to receive your hand made flower crown!¡±

    As a response Vince puts the flower crown on Julie¡¯s head. ¡°I hereby crown you to my knight!¡± Vince says in a deep dramatic voice.

    Julie stands up and salutes. ¡°I won¡¯t let you down, my king!¡±

    Vince proudly poses as a great king. Afterwards he looks expectantly at Blue. ¡°Go on, give it to big sis!¡±

    Blue looks a bit awkward. ¡°Ah, ehm okay.¡± She slowly shuffles to April and holds out the flower crown in front of her. There¡¯s quite a difference in the quality of the flower crown made by Blue and the one made by Vince, with the one made by Vince being obviously better.

    April¡¯s face has a blush as she slightly lowers her head towards Blue. Blue quickly puts the crown on and steps back.

    ¡°Thanks.¡± April quietly says. ¡°I will follow you till the end of time, leader.¡± She continues with a small determined voice.

    ¡°Now let¡¯s get to work, we gotta clean this place as a step one to getting a great place.¡± Julie says in a commanding voice.

    ¡°Clean? How?¡± Blue thinks out loud.

    Julie points to four buckets of water they just gathered. ¡°We didn¡¯t carry this for no reason. Also I grabbed some pieces of cloth from some houses that had them outside. So we grab the cloth, dip it into the water and then scrub it on the floor. Easy right?¡±

    ¡°Another round of slave driving it is.¡± April sighs as she does as she is told.

    Together they clean the place for a few hours, the outside world turning dark.

    ¡°Alright look at it now, it¡¯s great isn¡¯t it!¡± Julie happily says.

    ¡°I¡¯m hungry, can we eat?¡± April says while wiping her sweat away.

    ¡°Alright alright, can¡¯t even do a bit of hard work?¡± Julie teases as she grabs the bag with bread.

    ¡°Not on an empty stomach!¡± April defends herself.

    They surround the fireplace and all grab some bread.

    ¡°So, what¡¯s the suggestions on what we do next? Besides surviving that is.¡± Julie questions.

    ¡°We go look for people who need a place to call home.¡± Blue states calm but determined.

    Julie quietly thinks before responding. ¡°There¡¯s not a lot of people on the streets here, and the ones that are wouldn¡¯t go here. They just build a house near the river and start fishing for money.¡±

    ¡°Why aren¡¯t we fishing for money then?¡± April wonders.

    ¡°You can try, but it¡¯s usually impossible for kids to even get near the river let alone fish.¡± Julie responds. ¡°Besides, they would steal everything we caught. No one would buy from a kid, they don¡¯t have any respect for us or belief that we shouldn¡¯t own stuff.¡± Julie adds quickly.

    ¡°We can still check, maybe there¡¯s someone our age walking around hungry.¡± Blue says.

    Julie shakes her head. ¡°Not today, you don¡¯t want to be outside here if it¡¯s dark. We can try tomorrow maybe, but it means we¡¯ll have to get more food as well.¡±

    ¡°Then we¡¯ll get more food everyday.¡± Blue easily says.

    Julie sighs. ¡°That¡¯s not going to be easy unless we have a steady source for food. What other plans are we going to do though? Want to stay here or find a better spot for example?¡±

    Blue hesitates. ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡±

    ¡°And that¡¯s what we¡¯re going to figure out. There¡¯s not a lot we can do now though. I¡¯ll go out for some scouting though, see you guys later.¡± Julie states while walking towards the door.

    ¡°I thought you said you don¡¯t want to be outside here if it¡¯s dark? Then why are you going?¡± April questions with a slight worried tone.

    ¡°I¡¯m part of the reason why people don¡¯t want to be outside when it¡¯s dark.¡± Julie heads out right after, not waiting for a response.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

    Blue heads to one of the beds to lie on it. ¡°I, uh, need some rest.¡±

    ¡°Hmm? That¡¯s okay. Don¡¯t push yourself too hard you know?¡± April answers.

    Blue closes her eyes and quickly the world disappeared.

    <hr>

    She sees a street she hasn¡¯t seen before. ¡®Where am I?¡¯

    Blue tries to move her head but it won¡¯t move. ¡®Why can¡¯t I move anything?¡¯

    ¡°Thomas, where are we going?¡± A young voice asks.

    ¡°Away from here, maybe a forest or something.¡± A voice that wasn¡¯t Blue voice comes out of her mouth. ¡®I¡¯m not saying anything? What is happening?¡¯

    Her vision turns and Nick is now in front of her.

    ¡°But why? Can¡¯t we ask some people here for food?¡± Nick wonders.

    ¡°Sure go ahead, just be prepared for pitchforks and torches.¡± Thomas sarcastically remarks.

    ¡®Why is Thomas¡¯s voice coming from me?¡¯ Blue thinks.

    Her body starts walking, away from Nick.

    ¡°Wait for me! Lily always said we had to stay together!¡± Nick runs after Thomas.

    Thomas sighs. ¡°I don¡¯t care what Lilianne told you. Keep up or I¡¯ll leave you behind.¡±

    ¡°Okay. By the way if you don¡¯t want people to see us how are we going to the forest then?¡± Nick curiously asks.

    ¡°Through the Ruined Zone. There¡¯s no people there to see us, even the main road is deserted.¡± Thomas quickly explains while walking faster and faster.

    Nick hurriedly follows behind.

    ¡°Ah, Red.¡± A girly voice says.

    Thomas follows the voice and sees a young girl with short black hair.

    ¡®That¡¯s Julie? What is she doing here?¡¯

    ¡°And who might you be?¡± Thomas asks annoyed.

    Julie laughs. ¡°I¡¯m White, you don¡¯t know me yet but don¡¯t worry about that. I¡¯m with your sister, Blue.¡±

    ¡°In that case I don¡¯t need to talk to you. Blue is my enemy and that makes you my enemy as well.¡± Thomas snarks.

    ¡°I guess I don¡¯t have to invite you then. What makes her your enemy though?¡± Julie questions.

    ¡°And why should I tell you that?¡± Thomas dryly says.

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t hurt you to let me know, it just helps you get rid of me a bit sooner, don¡¯t you think?¡± Julie teases.

    ¡°Ugh you¡¯re one of those. She¡¯ll always be stronger than me while I should be the stronger one. And as long as she¡¯s stronger she can have full control of me and I don¡¯t want that. Now will you leave?¡± Thomas replies impatient.

    Julie gets confused. ¡°Full control? How does that even work?¡±

    Thomas rolls his eyes. ¡°She has awakened. From that moment on she¡¯ll get access to her powers. We¡¯re also basically the same person, same soul bla bla bla. Her soul is my soul and my soul is hers. Awakened her with full powers has no problem to control something considered hers.

    Her part of the soul is stronger than mine, so I can¡¯t control her no matter what. Unless I awaken I¡¯ll lose full control of my body by just being near her, no thanks.¡±

    Julie is silent for a while. ¡°I see.¡±

    ¡°Now are you done?¡± Thomas snarks.

    ¡°Make me your follower.¡± Julie declares.

    Thomas gets surprised. ¡°What?! Are you betraying my sister or what?¡±

    Julie laughs. ¡°I would never betray her, I¡¯ll give her my life if needed. I¡¯m just here to help you, not to pick sides.¡±

    Thomas looks disgusted at Julie. ¡°Help? What makes you think I need your help?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t you want to awaken faster? Or isn¡¯t that enough for you and you rather want a soul contract?¡± Julie smirks.

    ¡°You¡¯re willing to do a soul contract just to help me?¡± Thomas stares at her not believing his ears.

    ¡°You said it¡¯s the same as Blue, so what¡¯s the difference anyway?¡± Julie remarks.

    ¡°You¡¯re not giving up are you?¡± Thomas sighs.

    ¡°Nope, let¡¯s do this.¡± Julie happily responds.

    Thomas holds his hands in front of him, Julie does the same so their hands touch.

    They close their eyes and bump their heads. Shortly after they open their eyes. They¡¯re surrounded by empty space.

    ¡°Well you gotta work a bit more on this place, maybe get some land in here.¡± Julie teases.

    ¡°Pfft, as if yours is any better.¡± Thomas remarks.

    Julie laughs. ¡°Well, you¡¯re gonna find out soon enough.¡± The space distorts and slowly turns into a grassfield.

    ¡°Just grass? Very impressive...¡± Thomas sarcastically remarks.

    ¡°I¡¯m still thinking of what to do with the place you know. Maybe I want a castle, maybe I want a forest, who knows. And now that I have you, I can at least show you off.¡± Julie teases.

    Thomas quickly responds ¡°Don¡¯t make part of my soul do crazy stuff, okay?!¡±

    Julie smirks. ¡°Hmm, let me think about that.¡±

    The space around them breaks apart and they return to the real world.

    ¡°So, are you finally gonna go?¡± Thomas asks impatiently.

    ¡°Sure, see you later!¡± Julie waves and runs off.

    The world turns black and Blue loses her connection to Thomas.

    ¡®Ah I¡¯m tired.¡¯

    She slowly falls asleep.

    <hr>

    Opening her eyes she realises she¡¯s back at the hideout. She looks around and sees everyone else sleeping.

    ¡®Can I connect to April the way I connected to Thomas? Would I see her dreams then?¡¯ Blue wondered.

    As she thinks about it the world around her changes.

    <hr>

    She¡¯s in a room with a bed. It¡¯s a luxurious room and the bed is king sized.

    Like before she can¡¯t move her head or anything else.

    ¡®Is this April¡¯s vision then?¡¯

    Her head turns left to look at a person.

    The person is a woman with long ink black hair and azure blue eyes. She wears a simple white dress and is barefooted.

    ¡®This looks exactly like me?¡¯

    A loud voice speaks behind her. ¡°She hasn¡¯t been talking since we found her. You can try speaking to her but nothing gets through.¡±

    Her head turned around to look at the person speaking. A man with short blonde hair stands in the entrance of the room. He has a silver suit on and a red royal like cape behind him. It makes him feel like something like a king.

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter.¡± Her voice which wasn¡¯t her voice says.

    ¡°Alright then, just knock on the door if you¡¯re done. We¡¯re keeping the door locked for her safety and ours.¡± The man says as he walks out and closes the door.

    Her body walks towards the woman. Her current height feels small compared to the woman, barely reaching her waist.

    ¡°Uhm hi there.¡± Blue assumes the voice comes from April.

    The woman looks at her and stays silent.

    ¡°Can I call you Blue? Because of your eyes?¡± April asks.

    The woman doesn¡¯t respond, not even a nod. Just an empty stare.

    ¡°I¡¯ll take that as a yes then.¡± April declares.

    April reaches out to ¡®Blue¡¯, taking her hand. ¡®Blue¡¯ flinches as a response but does nothing else.

    There¡¯s a bang nearby and April turns her head to look at it. It comes from the window, a figure is standing there opening the window.

    The window quickly opens and the figure jumps in. ¡°Well hello there.¡±

    ¡®That¡¯s Julie?!¡¯

 Chapter 9 - Morals

    ¡®Julie¡¯ bows at ¡®Blue¡¯ and then turns to April. ¡°Can you let go of my leader? Still need her for now, maybe I¡¯ll give her back later.¡± It¡¯s the same teasing Julie always does.

    This ¡®Julie¡¯ looks like a grown up version of her Julie, she still wears the same hairstyle. Her eye colour has changed to white though.

    April blushes and quickly lets go of ¡®Blue¡¯. ¡°Ah, ehm sorry.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine, leader is very touchable and squishy, isn¡¯t she?¡± ¡®Julie¡¯ laughs.

    In return April just blushes more.

    ¡°Huh, you¡¯re a cutie too, I see. Anyways gotta go, see you later.¡± ¡®Julie¡¯ waves as she grabs ¡®Blue¡¯ and leads her towards the window.

    ¡°Wait! I wanna go with you!¡± April says as she reaches out with her hand. Before she can reach anything the world disappears.

    <hr>

    Blue opens her eyes and sees that she has returned to her own body. She sees that Julie, April and Vince are sitting around the fireplace and already eating.

    ¡°Good morning, sunshine.¡± Julie teases as she looks at Blue.

    ¡°I thought you needed some rest, you end up sleeping the whole night.¡± April laughs.

    ¡®So looking through them drains my energy?¡¯ Blue thinks

    Vince heads over to Blue and hands her some bread. ¡°Here, have some bread!¡±

    Blue looks at Vince and takes it. ¡°Thanks.¡±

    ¡°So, what are we going to do today?¡± Julie asks no one in particular.

    ¡°Now that we have those masks we can go outside easier. Blue and me can try to get some food at the church maybe. Or at least look around to see what works, since we want more people and all.¡± April answers.

    ¡°I see, you can try near the river too. There might be some fishers drying their fish outside, and if not there¡¯s always berries.¡± Julie mentions.

    ¡°Hmm that¡¯s a good point. What are you going to do?¡± April asks.

    Julie smirks. ¡°I¡¯m going out to scout some more. There¡¯s something I want to find out so I¡¯ll be working on that for a while.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s very mysterious, what are you hiding?¡± April stares at Julie.

    Julie shrugs. ¡°Who knows, it¡¯s just a personal issue though so don¡¯t worry about it.¡±

    ¡°Hmm alright, Vince what are you going to do?¡± April drops it and moves on to Vince.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to get more flowers and put them around here!¡± Vince hops around excited.

    ¡°Okay, stay safe though. I recommend wearing your mask, you don¡¯t know who is walking around here.¡± Julie says as she stands up and marches towards the door.

    April grabs a mask and throws it at Blue. ¡°Let¡¯s go, alright?¡±

    Blue catches the mask and tries to put it on.

    ¡°Oh, let me help.¡± April stands behind Blue to tie the mask.

    Blue looks away. ¡°Thanks.¡±

    April laughs and heads out.

    Blue quickly follows and together they walk off.

    ¡°So let¡¯s visit Nicolas first, that¡¯s always gonna be a nice and easy way for food.¡± April leads the way to Nicolas.

    Right before they reach it April stops Blue. ¡°So do you want to distract him or steal the bread?¡±

    ¡°Ah, I ..uh..I¡¯ll steal.¡± Blue mutters.

    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll go out there and keep him busy. When you see that he¡¯s distracted casually walk to the bread, don¡¯t make it look too obvious. There are bags right beside the bread, so just grab one or two and fill them¡± April explains.

    ¡°Got it.¡± Blue declares.

    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll go now. Don¡¯t just go right away, he might look around first since last time.¡± April quickly moves away.

    Blue follows her with her gaze, April stops near a guy who looks to be around his twenties.

    ¡°Hey there Nicolas, I¡¯m here to thank you for the bread!¡± April happily says.

    ¡°One of these days I¡¯m going to hire guards against you thieves.¡± Nicolas sighs.

    ¡°Come on, you¡¯re letting us take it cause you¡¯re kind right?¡± April teases.

    ¡°I don¡¯t get enough money to just let you take it. I¡¯m just trying to get by myself and you have to ruin that!¡± Nicolas snarls.

    ¡°Hey, we¡¯re also trying to get by. We just have different methods, besides we can¡¯t even use your method and this is all we can do.¡± April remarks.

    ¡°Are you trying to distract me? Cause why else would you hold this pointless conversation with me?¡± Nicolas looks around to see if he can see anyone busy stealing. When he can¡¯t see anyone he shakes his head.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    ¡°No? I¡¯m actually here to thank you for helping us survive, is that a bad thing?¡± April says in an innocent tone.

    ¡°You¡¯re trying to make it seem like what you¡¯re doing isn¡¯t bad.¡± Nicolas sighs.

    Blue decides to casually walk towards the bread.

    ¡°Don¡¯t think so black and white. No one is completely good or bad, and we¡¯re all just doing what we can to survive.¡± April claims.

    Blue gets a bag and shoves bread into it. She realizes it¡¯s easier than she had thought and gets another bag.

    ¡°You don¡¯t have to steal for that, why not take an actual job? There¡¯s tons of people out there looking for extra hands, you know?¡± Nicolas suggests.

    Blue fills the last bag and walks back to the alley. It is a successful trip.

    ¡°I know, but I can¡¯t just do that. I have my reasons which make it impossible.¡± April sadly laughs. ¡°It was nice talking to you, but I¡¯ll have to go now. I¡¯ll try begging at the church, I guess.¡±

    April runs off to the alley.

    Nicolas lets out a heavy sigh and goes back to work.

    April pats Blue¡¯s back. ¡°Great job, let¡¯s quickly head back to drop this off before continuing.¡±

    They head back and drop the bags in the hideout.

    ¡°No one¡¯s here, guess everyone else is still busy.¡± April mutters. ¡°Well anyway, let¡¯s go to the church. I know the way, since Julie took me there before.¡± April quickly adds.

    <hr>

    The church is one of the biggest buildings in town. They obviously spent a lot of time on the church to get it where it¡¯s at now. It has one big tower with a bell in it and a large clock below it.

    Blue can¡¯t read the time, she doesn¡¯t feel like it¡¯s needed either. She just does things when she wants to.

    April makes dramatic motions to the church. ¡°And here is the great church, the only one in town.¡±

    ¡°So what now?¡± Blue questions.

    ¡°Maybe we can get some meat from them. Just thinking about it makes me hungry.¡± April dreamily stares at the church.

    ¡°Get? Are they going to give it to us?¡± Blue wonders.

    ¡°That would never happen, they decided to start this whole business plan for money and they aren¡¯t just going to give it away.¡± April laughs.

    They follow a crowd to get inside the church. Blue holds onto April to make sure they don¡¯t lose each other. ¡°I don¡¯t like so many people in one place.¡± Blue states.

    The church is quite busy, with people happily looking around for anything they need.

    ¡°Sorry, it¡¯s just the best time to not get noticed.¡± April gives Blue a sad smile.

    April gets a bag from one of the stalls. ¡°Now let¡¯s see what we can get.¡±

    A nearby stall has a woman complaining to the priest. ¡°These prices are terrible! Aren¡¯t you supposed to be kind and give all of us food in the name of God?¡±

    April taps Blue¡¯s shoulder and whispers. ¡°See that, it¡¯s a great distraction, let¡¯s go.¡±

    ¡°Miss that¡¯s not how it works! If we give it away for free we wouldn¡¯t have the money to stay here, that would be disrespecting God. Not being able to have enough money to be sure we give the right image of God to everyone!¡± The priest is quite loyal and fights hard for God.

    ¡°You¡¯re just giving everyone the image that God is greedy and only wants to look great!¡± The woman shouts.

    Everyone circles around to watch the fight. April and Blue sneak through the crowd to get near the stall.

    ¡°We¡¯re working hard here in the name of God! We didn¡¯t have to make sure everyone has access to food without having to gather it themselves, even the people who can¡¯t hunt or don¡¯t have a garden can have the nice food now! We also learned how to make clothes and grow our own cotton here, do you even know how much time and work goes into that? We don¡¯t get all that for free!¡± The priest won¡¯t let the woman insult his church.

    Blue whispers to April. ¡°The priest has a point, are you sure we should take from them?¡±

    ¡°We can¡¯t just ruin Nicolas¡¯s life forever, we¡¯re doing this for our good. That woman complaining? She has enough money for fancy clothing, I wouldn¡¯t worry about her lacking food. Those are the fakers that act as if they have nothing to get it for free, they are bad. We¡¯re actually needing this, and they won¡¯t miss what we take.

    If we¡¯re ever getting rich you can donate whatever you want to them to pay them back for now, alright?¡± April calmly explains.

    ¡°I guess.¡± Blue hesitates.

    ¡®Should we ruin things in order for us to live? Is that worth it?¡¯ Blue thinks.

    April swipes some stuff from the stall unnoticed and heads back.

    The woman is still shouting at the priest. ¡°Then get volunteers to do it! Get people to donate it to you!¡±

    ¡°We are volunteers miss! And nobody is going to donate that to us, and the few people who do aren¡¯t enough for everyone!¡± The priest keeps coming with facts to fight the woman, but she isn¡¯t taking it.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go, this should be enough for now or it will just get rotten.¡± April whispers to Blue and leads her out. ¡°Maybe we¡¯ll check out the river tomorrow, today has been quite enough.¡±

    One priest stand near the entrance, April waits near him to get a chance to leave.

    Another priest arrives and waves at him. ¡°Hey Brother, are you free tomorrow morning?¡±

    The priest sighs. ¡°Nah, I¡¯m on dock duty tomorrow. You can¡¯t even guess what people try to smuggle in¡­¡±

    ¡°Really? What do they bring in then?¡± The second priest asks curiously.

    The first priest thinks silently. ¡°Hmm, there¡¯s this one merchant, I think he¡¯s known as the traveling merchant. He once tried to bring in a living animal, a weird bird or something. He said it was a job from some noble, so we couldn¡¯t stop him.¡±

    The second priest stares at the first, his mouth open to show his surprise. He quickly closes his mouth once he realizes it¡¯s open. ¡°Uhm what? A bird? Nobles sure throw their money away, what do you even need that for? That merchant sure has it easy, the nobles throwing their money at them.¡±

    The first priest sighs out of frustration. ¡°I¡¯d like to catch him red handed for once. I¡¯m sure he¡¯s smuggling some other shady goods for the nobles. Actually, I think he¡¯s supposed to arrive tomorrow morning¡­ What excuse can I use to search his ship?¡± He ends with his fists closed in determination.

    The second priest leans close to whisper to the first priest. Blue is close enough to still listen in. ¡°You know, I heard these rumours about the traveling merchant. They say he made a deal with the Little Market, and he¡¯s supposed to deliver ¡®The Meat¡¯ or something. I¡¯m thinking they¡¯re not talking about actual meat¡­¡±

    ¡°Wow, that actually explains a lot. I was wondering how the Little Market gets their goods, since if they leave the place we can actually arrest them. But to think he actively participates in black market deals, how shady can this guy get.. We can¡¯t touch the Little Market, since the nobles protect it. But he¡¯s outside of that, just need to find a reason to search him..¡± The first priest looks slightly angry.

    The second priest sighs. ¡°Well, tell me everything tomorrow. Good luck with your work.¡± He waves and walks off.

    April quickly moves while the priest is looking at the other priest walking away. Blue runs after her as she tries to keep up.

    The sun is close to setting. Soon it¡¯ll be dark again.

    ¡®Today sure passed fast, although I started late I guess.¡¯ Blue thinks.

    <hr>

    They get back to their hideout.

    ¡°Welcome back!¡± Vince happily announces.

    Blue looks around and see there¡¯s flowers everywhere. There¡¯s garlands and banners made of them on every wall.

    ¡°I see you worked quite hard on this.¡± April remarks.

    ¡°Of course big sis! It has to be pretty!¡±

    April laughs. ¡°Well done.¡±

    ¡°Yeah great job!¡± Blue smiles at Vince.

    Vince laughs embarrassed. "He he, thanks sis!¡±

    ¡°Now look at what we got!¡± April shows off the bread and meat she has.

    ¡°Oooh, that¡¯s delicious.¡± Vince is already drooling.

    ¡°We¡¯re definitely eating this when Julie gets back.¡± April declares.

    They all patiently wait for Julie to come back.

    Finally there¡¯s a sound. Julie slowly walks in.

    ¡°Welcome back!¡± Vince says again.

    Julie doesn¡¯t respond at all. She takes two more steps and falls over.

    ¡°Julie?!¡± April shouts and runs towards her. Blue quickly follows.

    April desperately looks at Blue. ¡°She¡¯s bleeding, what do we do?!¡±

 Chapter 10 - Makeshift Doc

    ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t know¡± Blue panics.

    ¡°Ah! The church! Maybe they know what to do there!¡± April desperately tries to come up with ideas.

    ¡°Then we¡¯re going there!¡± Blue declares. She still wears the mask so she doesn¡¯t have to put it on, she just lifts Julie up and tries to get her under the door.

    ¡®I thought it would be harder to carry, but somehow she doesn¡¯t feel that heavy.¡¯ Blue thinks.

    April helps her quickly. ¡°Vince you just stay here, okay?¡±

    ¡°Oh, okay.¡± His usual energetic self has disappeared.

    They stand outside with Julie still being unconscious. The sun started to set as the surroundings turned dark.

    April looks at Blue. ¡°Can you carry her?¡±

    ¡°Of course.¡± Blue confidently says. April helps getting Julie on Blue¡¯s back. They hurry to the church.

    <hr>

    The church doors are already closed when they arrive. April knocks on the door and gets no response.

    ¡°Ugh.. Let us in!¡± April shouts as she continues knocking.

    After a while the doors open and a priest comes to look. ¡°What are you doing? Disturbing the peace here!¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s an emergency! Please help our friend!¡± April pleads.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry but we don¡¯t just help. It¡¯s almost night time, there¡¯s no one here.¡± The priest says as he closes the door on them.

    ¡°What now?¡± Blue questions.

    ¡°Fuck, I don¡¯t know.¡± April looks frustrated.

    They just stand there, no clue what to do.

    The door carefully opens with a creak. This time there¡¯s a small figure peeking out the gap.

    ¡°Come in, quickly.¡± The figure whispers.

    ¡°Who are you?¡± April asks, wary of the stranger.

    ¡°I can help, I¡¯ve been watching the doc work since I was born. Now come in before anyone notices!¡± The figure answers.

    With no other choice they head in and follow the figure. The figure leads them to a dark room. ¡°Stay here, I¡¯ll light the candles.¡± The figure heads out.

    ¡°This better work.¡± April says worried.

    ¡°What else can we do...¡± Blue sadly says.

    The figure returns with a lit candle, the flame reveals the person holding the candle.

    The figure is a little girl, a bit shorter than April. She has auburn red hair in a ponytail reaching her shoulders. Her shirt and skirt are both black and look to be made specifically for her size. She wears black kneesocks with no shoes, probably because they¡¯re inside.

    The girl quickly lits the candles in the room, making it visible. There¡¯s one table in the middle of the room and a few bookshelves full of books. On the right side there is a desk with a chair. On the desks are some jars probably full of herbs.

    ¡°Okay so step 1, eh. Let me get the book.¡± The girl says while walking around seemingly aimless. She grabs a book from the desk and starts reading it.

    ¡®Grete Herball? What kind of book is that?¡¯ Blue thinks.

    ¡°Okay, now then let¡¯s look at what the problem is and find the fitting herb.¡± The girl talks to herself, probably to double check herself.

    ¡°Can you put her down on the table?¡± The girl looks at Blue and asks.

    ¡°Oh, sure.¡± Blue quickly does as she says, leaving her with blood stains on her dress.

    The girl searches Julie for the cause of the bleeding. She quickly finds the cause, a big slash on Julie¡¯s upper body. ¡°But how?.. She should¡¯ve been dead already¡­¡± The girl mutters to herself. ¡°Oh well doesn¡¯t matter, where¡¯s slash wounds in the book.¡±This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

    ¡°Hmm, how about we first clean it?¡± The girl grabs a cloth and a bottle. She puts some of the liquid from the bottle on the cloth and rubs it on the wound, softly of course.

    ¡°Okay and now the sewing part. Where did they leave the needles?¡± The girl rummages through the items on the desk. She finds a needle and a string of unknown material.

    ¡°Calm down, it¡¯s just like in practice, where we sew two pieces of cloth together!¡± The girl nervously stands next to the table.

    April and Blue aren¡¯t standing close enough to see the exact movements, but it looks like the girl is very steady in her movement. Also slow.

    The girl is working hard on focusing, which is visible on her face. There¡¯s sweat beads appearing on her forehead. After what feels like a few hours she¡¯s finally done. She wipes the sweat of her forehead and moves on. ¡°Okay now to end it with we put honey on the wound and then eh.. wrap a cloth around it maybe?¡± The girl starts talking to herself again.

    The girl grabs a jar and gets yellowish liquid out of it. She puts some of it on the wound before grabbing a white cloth to wrap around the wound. ¡°Can you help lifting her back up? So I can wrap this around her.¡± She asks.

    Blue moves to the table and takes one side, April takes the other, and together they get Julie into a sitting position.

    The wrapping goes a bit clumsy since both Blue and April were standing in the way, but there is no other option.

    ¡°This is all I can do to help, I think.¡± The girl says a bit unsure.

    ¡°Then what now?¡± April worriedly asks.

    ¡°We wait. That¡¯s all we can do.¡± The girl sighs.

    Blue curiously asks the girl. ¡°So what¡¯s your name?¡±

    ¡°Ah, it¡¯s Katherine, but everyone calls me Kate.¡± Kate says.

    ¡°Well nice to meet you, Kate¡± April smiles. ¡°And thanks for the hard work.¡±

    Kate hesitates a bit. ¡°So.. Eh.. I think you¡¯re better off taking her back. The priests won¡¯t be happy if they see you here.¡±

    ¡°Alright then, we¡¯ll head to the well first to clean up.¡± April states.

    ¡°Oh yeah cleaning, I¡¯ll go with you.¡± Kate opens the door to walk out, but instead walks into a priest.

    ¡°And what is the meaning of this?¡± The priest asks in a stern voice.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I can explain! It¡¯s not what it looks like!¡± Kate panics.

    The priest ignores Kate¡¯s panicking. ¡°I thought we rejected them, so why are you helping them?¡±

    ¡°I.. Uh.. I couldn¡¯t just leave them like that.¡± Kate says unsure.

    The priest sighs. ¡°Look, we don¡¯t reject people because we¡¯re heartless or anything. If the doctor isn¡¯t here there are dangers in taking every sick and injured person in. We don¡¯t know if they¡¯re infected with anything, and like that could make everyone sick by letting them in. Now go get some water to clean everyone up, we¡¯ll keep her here until the doctor checks her tomorrow.¡±

    ¡°Then why aren¡¯t you kicking them out? If she possibly can infect people shouldn¡¯t you kick her out?¡± Kate asks confused.

    ¡°They can leave, the girl on the table has to stay. The doctor can check her tomorrow if she carries an illness or infection with her and in case she does which one. If we just let her leave here we don¡¯t know that and just get sick, if we do know we can try to prevent it or treat everyone on it.¡± The priest explains.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry for troubling you, Father!¡± Kate bows and quickly runs out.

    The priest sighs. ¡°Troublesome girl, helping others at the cost of herself.¡± He mutters to himself. ¡°So, I think you two need new clothes. Most people don¡¯t think blood fits an outfit.¡± He jokingly says.

    ¡°That would help a lot, Father.¡± April respectfully says to the priest.

    The priest takes his leave, leaving behind Blue, April, and Julie who¡¯s still unconscious.

    ¡°Let¡¯s hope she¡¯ll get through this.¡± April says with a worried tone and a gaze to Julie.

    ¡°Of course she will.¡± Blue says confidently. ¡°It¡¯s Julie, she never loses her confidence.¡±

    ¡°Haha, let¡¯s hope she thinks the same way.¡± April laughs.

    The door opens and the priest walks in with some clothes. ¡°Here, change into this after Kate returned with the water. Leave your old clothes here, we¡¯ll burn them tomorrow.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, Father.¡± April bows, and pushes Blue to do the same.

    ¡°Oh, thank you, Father?¡± Blue hesitates.

    ¡°No problem, my children. Come back tomorrow to see how your friend is doing.¡± The priest leaves the clothes at the desk and leaves.

    Shortly after Kate returns with a two buckets of water and some cloths. ¡°Here, wash yourself with this.¡±

    Kate herself seems to already have cleaned herself, there¡¯s no blood anywhere. ¡°Do you know the way out?¡± Kate asks.

    ¡°Yeah, we¡¯ll be fine.¡± April assures. Kate takes her leave and they¡¯re left alone again.

    April gets a cloth and walks to the bucket. ¡°Here, let me help you with your back.¡±

    ¡°Uh. Okay?¡± Blue replies unsure.

    They wash themselves and change into the church outfits. The same outfit that Kate wears, but this time with black shoes attached.

    ¡°Come, let¡¯s go back to Vince.¡± April says, taking Blue¡¯s hand and leading her out. They both take one more glance at Julie before leaving.

    ¡°He didn¡¯t say anything about my mask.¡± Blue states.

    ¡°The church priests don¡¯t want to judge, since that¡¯s something only God can do. I think they just mentally judge us and don¡¯t say anything about it.¡± April shrugs.

    ¡°I see.¡± Blue thinks about it.

    <hr>

    The hideout is finally in sight. They open the door and get in.

    ¡°Welcome back!¡± Vince welcomes them again.

    ¡°Hey, we¡¯ll go check on Julie tomorrow alright?¡± April says.

    ¡°Sure!¡± Vince replies. ¡°Can we eat now?¡±

    ¡°Yeah of course.¡± April sighs. She grabs some bread and some meat to share with everyone.

    ¡°Julie will get this tomorrow.¡± Blue states.

    ¡°When she gets back we¡¯ll force feed it to her?¡± April teases.

    Blue laughs. ¡°She can do that herself.¡±

    ¡°Of course she can. It¡¯s Julie.¡± April laughs too.

    ¡°Do you think we can get Kate on our side? So we¡¯ll always have someone who knows what to do in case someone is sick?¡± Blue wonders.

    ¡°You¡¯d have to ask her if she wants to leave her life at the church behind and move in here.¡± April shrugs. ¡°I don¡¯t know if she¡¯s willing to do that.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s ask her tomorrow.¡± Blue declares.

    ¡°Sure thing.¡± April replies.

    They finish their meal together and head to bed.

    ¡°Let¡¯s wake up early so Julie doesn¡¯t have to miss us.¡± April suggests.

    ¡°Okay.¡± Blue responds.

    ¡°Okay!!¡± Vince happily shouts.

    ¡°You don¡¯t have to shout, we¡¯re here.¡± April laughs. ¡°Come, we need our energy tomorrow.¡±

 Chapter 11 - Julies Return

    They wake up somewhere in the morning, and all jump up ready to go.

    ¡°Blue, got your mask?¡± April asks.

    Blue manages to tie it herself, it¡¯s not perfect but it works. ¡°Yeah!¡±

    April gives a thumbs up to Blue and moves on to Vince. ¡°Great, Vince you put one on as well, alright?¡±

    ¡°Okay!¡± Vince gets a mask and gives it to April so she can tie it for him.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± April marches to the door, impatient to see Julie again.

    <hr>

    They reach the church as soon as they can, but the doors are closed.

    ¡°Why haven¡¯t they opened the doors yet? They¡¯re supposed to be open right when morning starts!¡± April is confused.

    ¡°Let¡¯s knock on the door! Then it opens, right!¡± Vince runs towards the door.

    ¡°Oh well.¡± April sighs and runs after Vince.

    Vince slams his fists against the door multiple times.

    April stops him. ¡°Not so loud, just a simple knock is enough.¡±

    The door quickly opens, and Kate stands in the door opening. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s you again.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re here to see our friend, can you let us in?¡± April smiles.

    Kate avoids April¡¯s gaze.

    ¡°Did.. Did she die?¡± April stammers.

    Kate sighs. ¡°That¡¯s not it. She¡¯s eh.. Suspected of forming a contract with demons. The watchmen will come later to help with the judging.¡±

    ¡°No way! They won¡¯t judge her at all, they¡¯ll just murder her!¡± April shouts.

    ¡°There¡¯s nothing we can do about it!¡± Kate desperately responds.

    ¡°Just let us take her away then!¡± April declares.

    ¡°They would kill us, for colluding with demons!¡± Kate reasons.

    Blue jumps in the conversation. ¡°Not if we don¡¯t get spotted.¡±

    April thinks about it. ¡°Just because the watchmen aren¡¯t here yet doesn¡¯t mean no one is in there.¡±

    ¡°The priests are all discussing something in their meeting room.. If you¡¯re fast enough you can get in and out before they are done.¡± Kate gazes down at her feet.

    ¡°That¡¯s enough then, lead us to where they keep her.¡± Blue orders.

    ¡°Are you sure? You can still walk away to not risk your life...¡± Kate suggests.

    ¡°At the cost of her life? No thanks.¡± Blue answers determined.

    ¡°Vince, you wait outside. Make sure no one spots you, alright?¡± April says.

    ¡°Ooh, like playing hide and seek?¡± Vince asks.

    April nods. ¡°Sure, just come out if we ask you to.¡±

    Vince runs off to hide somewhere. The others head inside.

    Kate nervously stumbles around, looking around every so often. ¡°Should I really help them? I don¡¯t even know them! Risking my whole life and everything I did for some strangers? I¡¯m stupid, right..¡± She mutters to herself.

    ¡°Look, we¡¯ll be gone here before anyone even notices. Like that no one will know you helped us.¡± April tries to reassure Kate.

    Kate murmurs something, clearly not listening to April.

    Kate turns to the right and stands in front of a door. She takes a key and puts it in, unlocking the door. ¡°Here, get her and get out.¡± She sternly says.

    ¡°Took you long enough.¡± Julie teases from inside the room.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    ¡°Come out then, unless you want to stay here.¡± April remarks.

    Julie strolls out with her hands behind her head. ¡°So, decided you regret dumping me and now come to take me back?¡±

    Kate interrupts. ¡°Just go already. Before they realize that you¡¯re gone.¡± Kate locks the door again and runs off.

    Julie looks annoyed. ¡°Impatient girl, now let¡¯s go, my blanket is waiting on me.¡±

    They hurry to get back to the entrance. ¡°Are you alright though?¡± April worriedly asks.

    ¡°I¡¯m fine, see.¡± Julie spins around without any problems.

    ¡°Just don¡¯t ever do that again, okay.¡± April sighs.

    ¡°Do what?¡± Julie teases.

    ¡°You know what.¡± April rolls her eyes.

    Blue stops them and looks around a corner. ¡°They¡¯re blocking the entrance.¡±

    Julie sighs. ¡°Of course they do. Can¡¯t they just let us leave in peace?¡±

    One of the priests runs towards the guard at the entrance. ¡°Report, did anyone leave?¡±

    The guard replies. ¡°No, Father.¡±

    ¡°Argh. How could she leave the locked room.¡± The priest sighs.

    Another priest joins in. ¡°It just proves she formed a contract with a demon, she just used one of those tricks to get out.¡±

    The first priest reacts worried. ¡°Get word out in the town, they should lock all their windows and doors, and not leave their house unless needed. We need to capture her.¡±

    The guard responds. ¡°Of course, Father.¡± He runs outside to complete his task.

    The first priest talks again. ¡°Let¡¯s get an emergency meeting, dark times are coming with demons on the loose.¡± Both the priests hurry off into some other direction.

    ¡°Is this a game or something? It feels like some cutscene happened just to give us a chance to leave.¡± Julie laughs.

    April laughs as well. ¡°I know what you mean, they¡¯re just coincidentally leaving the door open.¡±

    ¡°Eh.. What?¡± Blue responds confused.

    Julie runs towards the door. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it.¡±

    They quickly follow and get out. The guard is nowhere to be seen.

    ¡°Vince, let¡¯s go.¡± April calls out.

    ¡°Alright!¡± Vince jumps up from a bush and runs towards them. ¡°Sis! You¡¯re back!¡± He hugs Julie.

    Julie flinches a bit in pain. ¡°Yeah I¡¯m here, now let go of me so we can get out of here.¡±

    Vince lets go of Julie and they head back to the hideout.

    ¡°We¡¯re not going to the hideout.¡± Julie declares.

    ¡°Why not?¡± Blue asks.

    Julie sighs. ¡°They¡¯ll follow us, even if they don¡¯t follow us we¡¯re extremely visible on empty streets.¡±

    April ponders. ¡°Then where are we going?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m guessing not everyone can swim, so we¡¯ll just head towards the river and stay somewhere around it.¡± Julie replies.

    Blue stares at Julie, not knowing what to do. ¡°And then?¡±

    Julie shrugs. ¡°We¡¯ll wait till the lockdown is over?¡±

    ¡°Or you use one of those demon tricks you got.¡± April pokes Julie.

    ¡°Hmm, let me think about that.¡± Julie jokingly responds.

    <hr>

    A lot of noise comes from the river, and a ship is visible in the distance.

    ¡°That could be our way out. Let¡¯s hide so they don¡¯t spot us.¡± Julie ponders.

    The four of them hide in some bushes and watch the ship get closer and closer. A small boat comes from their right side, opposite of the ship. It carries some guards and heads towards the ship. When it reaches the ship it stops and waits for a rope to get up. The guards quickly climb aboard to speak with the captain.

    After some time passes the guards get out and the ship heads to the shore to stop there. Some big brawny guys get a plank out the ship to get off. Everyone gets off the ship and start setting up camp. The captain and a man in a rich looking outfit head to the guards.

    ¡°Sir, the town is closed for now. No one is allowed to enter it, not even merchants.¡± One of the guards declares firmly.

    ¡°Ugh, then what am I supposed to do? I came here to sell my wares and I can¡¯t even get in.¡± The man responds annoyed.

    ¡°Sir, please cooperate with us. We¡¯ll have to check your goods to make sure that there¡¯s no demons hiding there. What are you carrying?¡± The guard asks.

    ¡°Some silver and gold, some hides from exotic animals, some special foreign dishes, the usual you know?¡± The man replies.

    Something makes a noise in the ship, as if something fell.

    ¡°Sir, I thought everyone left the ship?¡± The guards look at him with a threatening gaze.

    The man starts sweating. ¡°Uh, we¡¯re carrying some kids for the church. They have a high chance of being a demon so we of course decided to take them here for the safety of the country.¡±

    ¡°And why didn¡¯t you say that before, Sir?¡± The guard questions.

    ¡°I.. uh.. thought you just needed the trading goods, and not the goods for the church.¡± The man stammers.

    ¡°I see. We¡¯ll be taking them to the church then, please lead the way.¡± The guard states.

    With no other option the man leads the guards on board. A while passes before they come off with around 10 children. The guards confiscate them and leave the scene.

    The man kicks a stone away with a lot of force. ¡°Ugh, stupid church. Confiscating my goods like that, could¡¯ve made a lot of profit from it. But between this or getting arrested for carrying illegal slaves, I guess this is the better option.¡± The man mutters to himself.

    The captain gathers his crew together and orders them around. ¡°Alright you lads. Since we can¡¯t buy any food in the town for now it¡¯s hunting time. Finish up camp and hunt away.¡±

    The crew excitedly responds with a shout. ¡°AYE, CAPTAIN!¡± They then head off to complete their tasks.

    The captain steps towards the man and starts discussing something.

    Julie peeks around, making sure no one is near before talking. ¡°We¡¯re gonna wait till it¡¯s dark to move. We can take that ship and hop off at the next location.¡±

    April seems unsure. ¡°Is it safe though?¡±

    ¡°You have me, what more safety do you need.¡± Julie teases.

    ¡°Uh-huh..¡± April responds.

    <hr>

    They wait until it gets dark before slowly moving towards the ship. There¡¯s a few patrols walking around with torches, but with Julie¡¯s guidance they all stay in the dark unnoticed.

    ¡°When we get up that plank we¡¯re going to need to find a room immediately, otherwise we¡¯ll get noticed.¡± Julie advices.

    ¡°How do we know which room?¡± Blue asks.

    ¡°We¡¯ll see when we¡¯re up there.¡± Julie hurriedly says. ¡°Now, come let¡¯s head up.¡±

    They slowly make their way up the plank unnoticed. Julie glances around and rushes to the first door she sees to open it.

    A voice comes from nearby, shouting at them. ¡°And who do you think you are?!¡±

 Chapter 12 - Soul Contract

    ¡°Now is the time to run away.¡± Julie states with a forced smile. She glances around, looking for a way out. ¡°Or not, I guess.¡± She sighs as they are surrounded by the crew.

    The man from before appears in front of them. ¡°This must be fate, lost my goods to the damned church and new goods show up.¡± He has this creepy smile on his face, they can guess what he¡¯s thinking about.

    Julie steps in front of the others, opening her arms wide with the same forced smile. ¡°This must be a misunderstanding, we¡¯re just here to get a ride out of here. Can we make a deal?¡±

    The man laughs, the crew quickly following him. ¡°Haha, can you believe it. I just can¡¯t stop laughing.¡± He looks at Julie with contempt in his eyes. ¡°Little girl, I¡¯m sure you have nothing I need, besides yourself that is. There¡¯s no deal to be made here.¡± He looks at the crew with a smile and shouts. ¡°Drag them into the cages!¡±

    Some bulky men step forward and take them by their arms. Julie doesn¡¯t take too kindly to that. ¡°Let me go, you idiots!¡± She starts struggling, kicking her legs wherever she can.

    The man holding her laughs at her struggles. ¡°What a tough lass, aren¡¯t ya.¡±

    Another man comes and punches her in her stomach. ¡°That should stop the moving.¡±

    ¡°Argh.¡± Julie screams out. Being the example for the rest, they don¡¯t dare to move.

    <hr>

    And thus, they end up locked in cages. The cages are small, only one person can fit in, and placed at a distance from each other.

    ¡°Are you alright, Julie?¡± April worriedly asks.

    ¡°The.. Wound.. Reopened..¡± Julie slowly speaks.

    ¡°Fuck. Maybe we should call out to someone!¡± April mutters to herself.

    An unknown amount of time passes before someone comes in. A guy whistles to himself while throwing some meat in each cage. ¡°Here¡¯s your share of the food for today.¡± He quickly says before heading back.

    ¡°Wait!¡± April calls out desperately.

    ¡°Hmm? Did the goods just start talking? That¡¯s the problem when they don¡¯t train them beforehand.¡± The guy mutters to himself, annoyed. He keeps walking out without looking back.

    ¡°What now..¡± April sighs dejectedly.

    Blue sighs and closes her eyes. Suddenly she¡¯s outside. ¡®Is this Thomas again?¡¯ She¡¯s in a place with trees around, it looks like a forest.

    Her vision moves forward hurriedly. It glances back to see a town, a portion of it is on fire. ¡®That¡¯s.. That¡¯s the Ruined Zone?¡¯ Her vision turns back and it rushes on. There¡¯s a figure ahead standing still, her vision heads towards it. A hand grabs the figures arm and drags it forward. ¡°Come, don¡¯t just stand there. They¡¯re gonna come for us, we need to get away!¡± A stern voice says.

    <hr>

    Everything fades to black. Blue opens her eyes and sees the familiar cages. There¡¯s a few more cages filled now, apparently they caught some others. From the way everything is moving it¡¯s clear that the ship is moving. ¡®So they set off?¡¯ Blue wonders.

    [Good morning, how are you?] April¡¯s voice appears in her head.

    ¡®I¡¯m fine I guess, how¡¯s Julie?¡¯ Blue mentally responds back.

    [She¡¯s asleep again, I hope her wound doesn¡¯t get infected.] April explains.

    ¡®So how come there¡¯s more people now?¡¯ Blue questions.

    [They followed the river to some other town, they probably tried to get their losses back..] April states.

    Blue looks around and finds Vince asleep, probably for the best. On her left there¡¯s a new girl, currently staring into nothing. ¡°Hey, nice to meet you.¡± Blue tries to get her attention.

    The girl turns around to look at Blue. She has copper brown hair reaching her waist. Her clothes simple, a white shirt and brown shorts. Her deep brown eyes are full of anger. ¡°Oh, hello.¡± When she sees that it¡¯s just Blue talking to her she leans her head against the cage with a sigh.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

    ¡°So how did you get here?¡± Blue questions, trying to find even a little distraction by talking to the girl.

    The girl rolls her eyes. ¡°Just playing hide and seek, and didn¡¯t realize these idiots were the seekers.¡±

    ¡°Oh I see.¡± Blue says. It gets silent again and Blue doesn¡¯t know what to say.

    Time passes painfully slow. Like every minute is a hour.

    <hr>

    The ship stops moving. Shortly thereafter people come to the cages to get them out. Someone gets a rope and ties everyone together at the wrists. Julie has trouble standing straight, there¡¯s a blood stain on her clothes. There¡¯s a force on the rope and it pulls them forward, leading them off the boat.

    The sun shines brightly on them as they shuffle along. After a while they finally reach a building. ¡°Get in, we don¡¯t have all day.¡± Someone shouts to them, pushing them inside.

    There is one big cage in the room, standing in the middle. All the sides have chairs and tables, as if the middle cage is a stage. A man standing near the cage opens it and shoves them in, removing the rope along the way. He closes the cage after and sits in a nearby chair, clearly bored by this job.

    Julie sits down, she¡¯s sweating a lot. April worriedly runs to her. ¡°Hey, are you alright?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m.. Fine..¡± Julie stutters.

    ¡°You know you¡¯re not supposed to die! You can¡¯t die here!¡± April declares in a heavy voice.

    ¡°I.. Ain¡¯t.. Dying..¡± Julie confidently says. ¡°Blue¡­ Come.. Over.. ..Here..¡±

    Blue hurries over to Julie. ¡°What is it?¡± She sits down next to Julie.

    ¡°Let¡¯s.. ..Make.. A.. ..Contract.¡± Julie suggests.

    ¡°... A contract?¡± Blue asks with a raised eyebrow.

    ¡°.. A¡­ Soul.. Contract..¡± Julie smiles at Blue as she takes Blue¡¯s hands into hers.

    Blue sighs. She leans her face into Julie¡¯s direction and Julie does the same. Their foreheads touch and the world around them disappears.

    Julie looks around with a smile. ¡°You gotta fill this place, you know?¡±

    Blue reacts surprised. ¡°You¡¯re alright?¡±

    Julie shrugs. ¡°I didn¡¯t get any soul damage, so yeah.¡±

    The world around them changes into a grassfield. This time Blue looks around, she finds Thomas standing near a lake. ¡°What is he doing there?¡± She asks.

    ¡°It¡¯s not actually him, just a piece of his soul he left behind here. It¡¯s nice decoration you know.¡± Julie explains.

    ¡°What?¡± Blue sits there speechless and confused.

    Julie laughs. ¡°Worry about it later.¡±

    The world changes back into the cage.

    ¡°Thanks..¡± Julie says, she still has trouble speaking, but it clearly is better now than before.

    April stares confused at the two. ¡°What..?¡±

    ¡°You wanna.. Get a.. Contract too?¡± Julie teases.

    ¡°Should I be worried?¡± April questions.

    Julie laughs. ¡°Nah..¡± She lets go of Blue¡¯s hands and takes April¡¯s hands instead. ¡°Come on..¡±

    They both lean in to let their foreheads touch. This time nothing happens for Blue. April and Julie are just sitting there, foreheads touching and eyes closed. A few moments pass by and they open their eyes again.

    ¡°Wow.¡± April mutters. She lets go of Julie and just sits there.

    ¡°Like that, I¡¯ll get better. What a cheat right?¡± Julie laughs.

    ¡°How does that even work?¡± April stares at Julie, waiting for an explanation.

    ¡°Easy, your endurance and regeneration is added to mine. Vice versa as well. Just one person won¡¯t be a lot, but it means the same injury isn¡¯t enough to kill me anymore. It still hurts like hell though..¡± Julie explains happily.

    ¡°But that means we can get stronger easily!¡± April exclaims.

    ¡°Well, you don¡¯t want to form a contract with just anyone. A contract is forever, it can¡¯t get removed. And with forever I mean until your soul is destroyed, so dying isn¡¯t enough. And a contract means leaving a piece of your soul behind and receiving one. Gives you an easy way to mentally attack someone, you know. Also a way to easily get secrets, everything is open to you. Including memories.¡± Julie seriously warns.

    ¡°How do you know all that?¡± Blue wonders.

    ¡°I have my reasons, and I¡¯d appreciate it if you don¡¯t just go and check all my memories to find the reason.¡± Julie declares.

    ¡°So it¡¯s all about trust..¡± April mutters.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I trust you enough for the both of us.¡± Julie teases.

    April ignores Julie¡¯s teasing and looks at Blue. ¡°Let¡¯s get a contract then!¡±

    Julie interrupts. ¡°A soul contract is heavy for the soul, make sure you feel alright enough for it.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m fine.¡± Blue states.

    ¡°In that case let¡¯s do it!¡± April declares.

    Blue takes April¡¯s hands and repeats the process.

    Again the world disappears. It¡¯s still empty around, since neither April or Blue made any changes. The only difference is that Julie¡¯s piece of her soul is standing there.

    ¡°I guess we¡¯re going to be together forever now.¡± April mutters to herself. ¡°Not the forever in your heart kind but apparently in my soul.¡±

    Blue giggles as a response.

    April looks up surprised. ¡°Oh, you heard that.¡± She looks away embarrassed.

    The world around them changes back. April let¡¯s go of Blue¡¯s hands and moves back quickly, hiding in embarrassment.

    Julie looks at April, then at Blue, and keeps switching. ¡°Did she do something stupid?¡±

    Blue just shakes her head as a response.

    ¡°See, you¡¯re fine, you didn¡¯t ruin anything just yet.¡± Julie teases.

    ¡°Leave me alone.¡± April mutters.

    ¡°Alright, alright. Have fun hiding there!¡± Julie continues teasing regardless.

    Blue searches for Vince, since she hasn¡¯t seen him in a while. She easily spots him playing around with the new people. ¡®He made new friends quickly.¡¯ Blue thinks.

    Blue leaves Julie and April to their teasing as she heads to Vince. ¡°Hey there, you alright?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, sis! This here is Eve.¡± The girl from before waves. ¡°And that guy over there is Ray.¡± A guy with strawberry blonde hair waves. ¡°The girl over there is Natasha!.¡± A girl with strawberry blonde hair nods. Vince looks at Blue and continues. ¡°And this here is sis!¡± Vince excitedly explains while hugging Blue.

    ¡°I¡¯m Blue, nice to meet you.¡± Blue nods to all of them.

    Natasha rolls her eyes. ¡°Blue? Really? That¡¯s not a name you know..¡±

    Blue didn¡¯t expect someone to throw hate at her. ¡°Well, sorry for having that as my name, I guess?¡±

    Before Natasha can respond again the doors are thrown open. The man from the ship strides in. ¡°Time to check the goods.¡±

 Chapter 13 - Secret

    Two guards follow the man, stopping right behind him.

    The man strides to the cage and looks around in it. ¡°Now then, who should we start with.¡± He silently gazes at every one of them, for at most a second each. His gaze makes Blue uncomfortable and she looks down as a response.

    The man laughs. ¡°It¡¯s gonna be you.¡± Blue hastily looks up and sees the man look at someone else. She sighs in relief, it¡¯s not her. Following his gaze it leads to Natasha, who stares back extremely annoyed. ¡°Get over here.¡± The man mutters in a clear tone that he won¡¯t take a no.

    Natasha stands firm and keeps staring back. ¡°No.¡±

    The man chuckles. ¡°I see how it is. Guards, drag her out.¡± The two guards wait for the cage guard to open it. They step in, pushing aside Blue, Vince, Eve and Ray as they grab Natasha and drag her out.

    The guards throw her out of the cage, she lands right in front of the man. ¡°You can try to resist, but I¡¯ll still get you right where I want you.¡± The man smirks. ¡°Now stand.¡± He says in a heavy voice.

    Again, Natasha refuses to comply.

    ¡°My patience is running dry. Are you sure you want to go on?¡± The man suggests.

    No movements come from Natasha.

    The man grabs Natasha¡¯s neck in a choke hold. He lifts her up in the air and smiles at her. ¡°I guess you need a lesson on who¡¯s in charge here.¡±

    Natasha grabs the hands around her neck and tries to get them off. Unsuccessful obviously. Her legs flail around as she struggles to breathe. She tries to hit the man, but the man just holds her a bit farther, so she can¡¯t reach him.

    The struggle last for a few seconds more before she stops moving. The man lets go of her and she falls to the ground. She reaches for her neck as she starts coughing and wheezing.

    The man looks at her with a smile. ¡°Now then, shall we continue?¡±

    Struggling to speak, Natasha instead retorts to a nod.

    ¡°There we go. Wasn¡¯t that hard now, was it?¡± The man questions in a creepy tone. ¡°Now stand.¡± His tone changes back to the serious one.

    Natasha tries to stand up, but she just falls down.

    The man clicks his tongue annoyed. ¡°Throw her back.¡± He orders his guards. They swiftly do as he said and Natasha is back in the cage.

    ¡°Now then, who should I try next.¡± The man opens his arms wide to show how welcoming he is.

    [Whatever you do, just don¡¯t annoy him.] Julie¡¯s voice resounds in Blue¡¯s head. [I¡¯m thinking next time he won¡¯t just stop in time.]

    [Understood.] April¡¯s voice responded.

    [Blue, make sure Vince gets it.] Julie continues. [I don¡¯t want to wait and see what would happen.]

    ¡®Okay¡­¡¯ Blue thinks. She leans towards Vince to whisper to him. ¡°Just do everything he says, okay?¡±

    ¡°Okay.¡± Vince quietly whispers back.

    This time the man picks Eve. Eve shuffles towards him while looking at her feet.

    ¡°Hurry up, I don¡¯t have all day.¡± The man impatiently orders her.

    Eve hurries up and stands before the man.

    ¡°Good. Now open your mouth.¡± The man orders. Eve just does what he says without any struggle.

    [Hmm, she realized it as well. Might be a good addition to our team.] Julie ponders.

    [Pretty sure she¡¯s already part of it.] April teases.

    [The Apple doesn¡¯t fall far from the tree, eh.] Julie laughs.

    [You know it.] April winks at Julie in real.

    The mental talks distract Blue, and before she realizes Eve is back in the cage.

    ¡°Now you.¡± The man stares at Blue. Blue sighs and heads towards the man.

    [Good luck.] April sighs.

    [It¡¯ll be over quickly.] Julie mentions.

    She stands in front of the man. Up close he¡¯s a lot bigger and scarier. She gets uneasy from being near him.

    ¡°Now then, let¡¯s see what¡¯s behind that mask. Get it off.¡± The man smiles.

    Blue gets her hands on the back of the mask to untie it. Removing it reveals her azure blue eyes.

    ¡°Hmm, I see. That¡¯s gonna give me more luns.¡± The man grins. ¡°Open your mouth.¡±

    Blue opens her mouth as she is told. The man looks around it and pulls on some of her teeth. ¡°Hmm, this one is loose. Guess you gonna switch them soon, eh?¡± The man remarks. ¡°Jump.¡± He continues ordering.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    With a confused gaze Blue casually jumps. ¡®What is this? Why is he doing all this?¡¯ Blue thinks.

    [He wants to see if you¡¯re injured or weak. Any disabilities could bring the price down.] April explains.

    [Hey, don¡¯t explain things before I do!] Julie teases.

    ¡°I said sit. Don¡¯t make me repeat it again.¡± The man glares at Blue. Blue hurriedly sits, not letting him wait any second longer.

    ¡°I see.¡± He declares to himself. He starts feeling up on Blue¡¯s arms and stretches them. He starts doing the same thing to her legs as he finishes her arms.

    He shakes his head and with a wave of his hand orders her to return. ¡°You, get over here.¡± He points at Ray this time.

    Blue finds an empty spot and lies down on it. The man¡¯s orders as some background noise. They slowly fade away as the noise is replaced.

    <hr>

    ¡°You can open your eyes now.¡± A voice says.

    Blue does as the voice says. She sees Lilianne and Thomas in front of her, in the same room they ended last time.

    Lilianne gazes at her. ¡°So anything else you want to know?¡±

    Blue thinks before asking. ¡°How do you get followers then?¡± ¡®It might be better to learn more about the process, even Julie knows more than me¡­¡¯

    Lilianne chuckles. ¡°Straight to the point eh? You seem to have changed from before. But well, there are two different methods to gain followers.

    The easiest one is to get mentally acknowledged by the follower. Anything will do for that really, simply getting them to bow down for example. The connection is really weak though, because all the follower needs is a reason to not see themselves as your follower anymore and it disappears. It gives you the ability to order them though, and makes yourself the higher one.

    For strength it¡¯s a lot worse, since the connection is weak. You can expect about 5% of their total power, if that power isn¡¯t more than 5% for yourself that is. Otherwise the connection gets overloaded.

    It costs nothing for you and depends fully on the follower, so it¡¯s easier to gain a lot in a shorter time. Sadly ordering them around and the 5% power is all you¡¯re getting from them, which can end the moment they are done.

    Now the second method is something that creates them as followers on equal terms. To get yourself to have the upper hand you would either do it halfway or be way stronger than them. It¡¯s called the soul contract. To do this you hold your hands out and touch their forehead with yours. It connects the two by leaving part of themselves behind. This connection is permanent and can¡¯t be deleted until one of the two souls breaks.

    For power you¡¯ll get access to their power, any other soul contracts they have aren¡¯t counted by this and it¡¯s just their raw power. For things like endurance it¡¯s automatically added to yours. Don¡¯t get confused by this though, most people aren¡¯t perfect and their endurance isn¡¯t a lot. You won¡¯t suddenly get insta regeneration from getting one follower.¡±

    Thomas quickly interrupts. ¡°Regeneration is a turn on and off thing though. It¡¯s taking their natural regeneration and adding it on yours temporarily. But as I said, it takes it away. Just like mana, energy and all that extra stuff. If you can choose to use a bit of it, it¡¯s a turn on or off. Turn it off on them, to turn it on for you.¡±

    Lilianne rolls her eyes. ¡°Thanks for the interruption, I was getting to that part...¡±

    ¡°Uh-huh, definitely wasn¡¯t forgetting that part, hmm?¡± Thomas teases.

    Lilianne sighs and ignores him. ¡°Well anyways, where was I? Oh yeah the power part. The power grows with them, so if they suddenly decide to train you¡¯ll gain from that too. If the contract is on equal terms, it means both sides get everything. If you want to turn one of those things Thomas mentioned on you¡¯ll first need permission.

    Permission is also needed to go through their soul, watch through them, see their memories, etc. The moment one side has the upper hand it means that side doesn¡¯t need to ask permission anymore. The amount shared is decided by the side having the upper hand.

    For memories though, if you¡¯re ever interested in looking through them you probably have one chance before you get noticed. Just one short fragment is enough to leave evidence that you¡¯ve been there if you¡¯re not careful enough.

    Soul contract allows people to communicate through their souls. It sounds like it¡¯s in your mind, but it¡¯s the part of the soul left behind that¡¯s talking. Actually if you would look inside your soul at that time you¡¯d see their mouth moving. If you see their eyes open it means they¡¯re looking through you.

    Sadly listening isn¡¯t visible since ears don¡¯t exactly close if you don¡¯t use them. Also, thoughts are never ever visible to others, unless you let your soul part speak. Any questions?¡± Lilianne finally ended her explanation.She expectantly stares at Blue.

    Blue hesitates. ¡°Well ehm¡­ I got a follower, or I think I do, with a different method?¡±

    Lilianne grabs both of Blue¡¯s shoulders and stares blankly at her. ¡°A¡­ Different method? What do you mean?¡±

    Blue looks at the hands on her shoulders confused before looking back at Lilianne. ¡°I, uh, just did the forehead touching stuff?¡±

    ¡°But just that shouldn¡¯t do anything at all? What else did you do?¡± Lilianne tries to get an explanation out of Blue.

    Blue thinks about it. ¡°I, eh said something about wanting to make her a follower. I think? And she accepted. Then there was this line..? I grabbed it and then there was this connection with her, I could feel her pain, her emotions I think and she could talk to me like with a soul contract. Also she contacted me saying she felt my emotion and what was wrong so I think it¡¯s the same for her¡­¡±

    Thomas looks at Lilianne with a thoughtful face. ¡°If she didn¡¯t add the hands part, that means there wasn¡¯t a shield to push the other away. That might mean they opened up to each other, and send everything they got over. What if that ¡®line¡¯ is actually their souls merging at that point?¡±

    Lilianne taps her chin in silence. ¡°I don¡¯t know at all. With a line between you, can you follow the line towards her?¡± Lilianne curiously asks Blue.

    Blue raises her eyebrow. ¡°Follow? How would that work?¡±

    ¡°Hmm, try to feel the line and see where it goes?¡± Lilianne suggests.

    ¡°We can¡¯t leave this place, so what use does it have? Also don¡¯t ever do something like that again, it¡¯s dangerous.¡± Thomas declares.

    ¡®Try to feel the line? Would April even be here?¡¯ Blue ponders. ¡®Well, can always try it right? Wait..¡¯ ¡°How would you feel the line?¡± Blue scratches her head with a sheepish smile.

    ¡°Eh, I don¡¯t know. Maybe think about the line, the person or the connection..?¡± Lilianne suggests yet again.

    ¡®Connection? Is that the same as sending her a thought? Could she hear me here?¡¯ Blue thinks.

    ¡°How did you even get a follower, without going outside?¡± Thomas suspiciously eyes Blue.

    ¡°That¡¯s a good question for once.¡± Lilianne agrees.

    ¡®How should I even answer this?!¡¯ Blue gets worried.

    ¡°You know, you somehow changed a lot in these few days.¡± Lilianne remarks. ¡°From that timid little girl who didn¡¯t fight for anything at all to someone trying to get answers out of us. You even awakened before us, what happened? Did you perhaps find a reason to fight? Find someone you want to protect?¡± Lilianne smirks. ¡°Or is it love? Are you blindly chasing your first love?¡± She teases.

    ¡°Love? Lilianne, you¡¯re starting with something way above her age. Besides, where would she even find someone like that?¡± Thomas spits out the word as if he doesn¡¯t like love.

    ¡°Oh come on, did you ever read any of those stories? The heroes always magically gain power out of love you know? Or friendship, the magic of friendship.¡± Lilianne jokes, as she forms a little imaginary rainbow with her hands.

    Thomas rolls his eyes. ¡°How clich¨¦, all you need for fast growth is hard work and determination. You get that by having a reason to fight, like being powerless and needing power to survive!¡±

    ¡°As if that isn¡¯t clich¨¦¡­¡± Lilianne turns to ignore Thomas again. ¡°So, Little Blue, what is your secret?¡±

 Chapter 14 - Im Blue

    ¡°I.. Uh¡­ Don¡¯t know?¡± Blue hesitates in answering.

    ¡°Do you think I believe that?¡± Lilianne smiles at Blue, the meaning of it unknown.

    ¡°I actually don¡¯t know.¡± Blue looks away. ¡®Would she leave it now?¡¯

    Lilianne grins. ¡°In that case, share all your memories with me and I¡¯ll help you find out. You have nothing to hide, right?¡±

    ¡°... What?¡± Blue does a double take to make sure she hears it right.

    Thomas shakes his head at Blue¡¯s response. Lilianne just continues grinning. ¡°Share your memories, come here and give them to me. Easy right? I can help you if you need it.¡±

    ¡®Ugh, I can¡¯t get her to stop. Seeing that she asks me to share, it should be something that she can¡¯t do if I don¡¯t want to. But, not allowing her would set her up against me, wouldn¡¯t it? Maybe I should ask for something and say I¡¯ll do it after she does that?¡¯ Blue carefully thinks.

    Lilianne impatiently taps her leg. ¡°What are you waiting for?¡±

    Thomas smirks. ¡°She¡¯s crafting a masterplan, can¡¯t you see that?¡±

    ¡°Oh come on.¡± Lilianne rolls her eyes with a sigh.

    Blue considers her words and starts talking. ¡°Then, tell me who we were, who we are and why we¡¯re here. If you do that, I¡¯ll share my memories.¡±

    It goes completely silent. Thomas and Lilianne both stare at her in disbelief.

    It takes a while before the silence gets broken by Thomas. He starts laughing. ¡°I like this new girl, going against your orders just like that.¡±

    Lilianne annoyedly coughs. ¡°No one goes against my orders.¡± She sighs and stares at Blue. ¡°Why would you think I¡¯d give you what you want?¡±

    ¡°Because I won¡¯t give you what you want without.¡± Blue confidently says.

    ¡°I¡¯ll take it if needed.¡± Lilianne easily says. Her face unreadable.

    ¡°If you could, wouldn¡¯t you have done so from the start? I remember you saying that unless one of us is a lot stronger than the other, we¡¯d need permission from the other.¡± Blue smiles.

    Thomas starts laughing again. ¡°Ha, she got you there.¡± He gives a thumb up to Blue.

    Lilianne bites her lip. ¡°Who the hell are you?¡± She stares at Blue like she¡¯s a total stranger.

    ¡°I¡¯m Blue, nice to meet you, sister.¡± With a big smile Blue clenches her fists. She¡¯s standing confidently against her sister.

    Lilianne¡¯s face becomes unreadable as she stares in silence.

    Thomas chuckles. ¡°Should¡¯ve expected that. She¡¯s not you anymore.¡±

    ¡°You better watch Nick then, apparently they grow up way too fast.¡± Lilianne sighs.

    ¡°I have more control over him than you got on Blue. That much is obvious, isn¡¯t it? Besides, he¡¯s naive, easy to change him exactly how I want him.¡± Thomas smirks.

    Lilianne rolls her eyes. ¡°Here I thought fear would¡¯ve been an easy one..¡±

    ¡°Ha, as if you make use of that. You just aren¡¯t skilled enough and you don¡¯t want to admit it!¡± Thomas declares with a smirk.

    ¡°Shut it, I¡¯ll make you bow to me if needed.¡± Lilianne coldy stares at Thomas, then moves on to Blue. ¡°Fine. We have a deal then. But you better do it or who knows what will happen.¡± Lilianne threatens Blue.

    ¡°I promise.¡± Blue quickly answers.

    Lilianne lets out a deep sigh. ¡°As I said, we used to be one person. This person¡­ I¡¯m not really sure, but I think they were some important person. The memories are hazy though, the first split left behind damage.

    This person tried to do a magic ritual. For power maybe..¡± Lilianne has a thoughtful look on her face, it looks like she¡¯s working hard to recall. ¡°Or maybe to revive someone¡­ Hmm, I don¡¯t know.¡± She lets out a frustrated sigh. ¡°The ritual, it went wrong. The soul broke into two parts and those parts were thrown out.

    That created us two.¡± Lilianne nods at Thomas. ¡°We got little pieces of the existence of that person, but we¡¯re not them. The memories would help us grow and learn things faster from previous experiences.

    We decided to try and finish what that person started. The ritual is fully imprinted in our minds, as the last thing the person saw. We did our research on it, fixed what was wrong and improved on it. And it worked. Or so we thought.¡± Lilianne bitterly smiles.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    ¡°The magic ritual merged with our souls. Our souls couldn¡¯t take it and it cracked, from that you and Nick were created. You two didn¡¯t get the memories from us though, just experiences. Because we might have done something before, your soul remembers how to do it.

    The crack damaged our souls yet again, but this time in a personality split. It also threw us into this place, forcing us to restart. Now however, our souls are the ritual. The magic is inside us and not outside. Since Thomas and I researched the ritual we know some of the things it does. The merging did add some new effects, which we¡¯ve been researching ever since.

    The gathering of followers is basically getting them in on the ritual, thus giving them the powers of the ritual and what it normally would do. Soul contracts mean they permanently are involved in the ritual. But it also bounds them to you, since you¡¯re the ritual.

    So we¡¯re walking magic in a world without magic or mana. We¡¯re here because our souls got dragged into this place. That¡¯s all.¡± Lilianne ends her speech. She looks nostalgic. She sighs another time before looking Blue in her eyes. ¡°Now your end of the deal.¡±

    ¡°Thanks for telling me.¡± Blue tries to digest the info she just received. ¡°So what do I do?¡± She asks Lilianne.

    Lilianne lightly taps her chin.¡°Hmm, for now the easiest way is to let our foreheads touch. You think about what you want to show me and I¡¯ll receive it.¡±

    ¡°So that means I control what you see, doesn¡¯t it?¡± Blue tilts her head slightly to the side and frowns.

    ¡°With normal people maybe, but I¡¯ll take control from there. Don¡¯t think just because you got a little independance you¡¯re free.¡± Lilianne grins as she bumps her forehead against Blue¡¯s.

    ¡®Okay think about what I want to show her.. The start maybe?¡¯ Blue ponders. As she thinks about it the scenery changes. Suddenly she¡¯s taken back to the start of the story. She experiences running away, seeing her sister die and meeting April again. It all happens really fast, and in less than a minute Lilianne steps away.

    Lilianne has this brooding face and taps on her chin. She stays silent the whole time while she¡¯s thinking. Thomas stares curiously at Lilianne, but doesn¡¯t break the silence this time.

    ¡®I wonder what she¡¯s going to do now.¡¯ Blue thinks. She doesn¡¯t have to wait long, Lilianne turns her face to stare at Blue.

    ¡°So, either this world is fake or the other one is fake. But that world has things you never met before and shouldn¡¯t know. Also you made contracts with them, meaning those people have souls. This world could¡¯ve been made just from your memories and the part of our souls.

    That would explain how we know stuff you don¡¯t. It¡¯s still us, but not the real one¡­¡± Lilianne hits the wall. ¡°Why would I die?!¡±

    Thomas frowns. ¡°What are you talking about?¡±

    Lilianne leans against the wall and looks at Thomas. ¡°This place is fake. It¡¯s the only explanation.¡±

    Blue sheepishly smiles. ¡°You¡¯ve been very helpful, you know?¡± She awkwardly scratches her head.

    ¡°Helpful to you doesn¡¯t help me.¡± Lilianne sighs.

    ¡°Then, how can I help you?¡± Blue questions.

    ¡°You can¡¯t, I¡¯m dead. There is a way to revive people, but by the time you¡¯re strong enough to do that it¡¯s too late. It probably already is too late since it¡¯s longer than 24 hours ago.¡± Lilianne answers while thinking.

    ¡°Can you teach me how to revive people? That sounds like something useful.¡± Blue curiously looks at Lilianne.

    Thomas gets annoyed by Blue¡¯s questioning. ¡°Are you trying to work us to death for your own benefit now?¡±

    Lilianne shrugs. ¡°You can¡¯t use it yet, it would kill you. But if you ever get strong enough, it¡¯s basically a cliche kiss. You breathe your life into them and give them part of your soul to fill the empty spaces. It also changes whoever you revived to be part you at that point. Gives you an easy way to order them around.¡±

    ¡°Even if I had enough power, I wouldn¡¯t revive you ever. Just the thought of it-¡± Thomas makes gagging noises.

    ¡°I don¡¯t even want you to revive me, become part you? No thanks.¡± Lilianne snarls. ¡°But anyways, if you¡¯d do that now you wouldn¡¯t have enough life to fill them up. Thus them staying dead and you dying with it. So don¡¯t do it.¡± She warns.

    ¡°Thanks for helping me.¡± Blue smiles.

    <hr>

    The world around them changes. Blue opens her eyes and sees the familiar cage.

    ¡®Well that returned me, I guess?¡¯ Blue wonders.

    ¡°Oh, you¡¯re awake!¡± A voice calls out, Blue looks around and sees it belongs to April.

    ¡°Awake? What do you mean?¡± Blue asks, tilting her head slightly. ¡®I always came back right at the moment I left, right?¡¯ She questions.

    Julie joins them and pats Blue on her back. ¡°You¡¯ve been out for like 10 hours. Just out, like we couldn¡¯t get you to wake up.¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s becoming a sloth¡­¡± April teases.

    ¡°No! I am not! I don¡¯t know what happened though, I didn¡¯t fall asleep¡­¡± Blue defends herself.

    Julie and April both laugh. Julie quickly teases Blue. ¡°That¡¯s what they all say, especially little kids. Those would say I don¡¯t need to sleep yet, then fall asleep anyway.¡±

    ¡°Haha, that¡¯s cute.¡± April remarks.

    ¡°Oh, come on¡­ Just let me be.¡± Blue starts laughing herself.

    ¡°Well then, did you have a nice rest?¡± April smiles while asking.

    ¡°Hmm, I guess. What did I miss?¡± Blue avoids the question.

    Julie sits down next to Blue. ¡°Ehm¡­ We had our checks done. Natasha has been crying in a corner. Also they brought food, there¡¯s nothing left sadly. We tried to, but they came to get whatever was left over. Just go sleep some more, so you don¡¯t have to wait.¡± She has an apologetic face.

    Blue¡¯s stomach growls as a response.

    ¡°It shouldn¡¯t be long, unless they actually want to starve us. That doesn¡¯t get the price up though.¡± April estimates.

    ¡°Until that time, just focus on us. We¡¯re amazing and you should know that.¡± Julie teases.

    April rolls her eyes. ¡°Could¡¯ve just said you¡¯re gonna keep her busy.¡±

    ¡°No, we¡¯re gonna keep her busy. I said we before, you know?¡± Julie grasps her hands together and stretches it. ¡°So let¡¯s go, what can we do?¡±

    ¡°Wasn¡¯t this your plan? You say what we¡¯re going to do!¡± April sits down on the other side of Blue. She sticks out her tongue to Julie from behind Blue¡¯s back.

    ¡°Nah, April, become my right hand.¡± Julie declares.

    ¡°Not gonna happen.¡± April hides behind Blue.

    Blue laughs about their silliness.

    Julie proudly smiles. ¡°See, it works!¡±

    ¡°Whatever you say.¡± April looks the other way.

    ¡°Anyways, I wanted to do a suggestion.¡± Julie starts talking seriously.

    ¡°Hmm? What is it?¡± Blue curiously asks. ¡®Julie doesn¡¯t get serious easily?¡¯

    ¡°How about you try to get a soul contract, with everyone here? Mentally plotting won¡¯t get spotted as easily you know.¡± Julie suggests.

    ¡°Ooh, so that¡¯s why you wanted to act silly. It¡¯d get the guard bored and not interested, right?¡± April shares her conclusion.

    ¡°Indeed, and staying silent here isn¡¯t going to help ease suspicions. If we don¡¯t talk at all we¡¯ll stand out. Anyways what do you think about that, Blue?¡± Julie explains.

 Chapter 15 - Following the Line

    ¡°Wasn¡¯t it all about trust?¡± Blue questions

    ¡°If you ask them right now, Natasha wouldn¡¯t agree. Ray would follow her, he¡¯s like her personal slave. That leaves Vince and Eve. Trust me on this, they¡¯re both fine.¡± Julie states.

    ¡°How do you know that?¡± Blue wonders.

    ¡°Hmm? Which part?¡± Julie smirks.

    ¡°Everything of course!¡± Blue rolls her eyes.

    ¡°Well, Natasha doesn¡¯t like you. So obviously she wouldn¡¯t want to be bound to you. As I said, Ray is like her personal slave so would follow her in that. And the last part, just trust me.¡± Julie explains with a smile.

    April joins in. ¡°I¡¯m with her, you can trust them.¡± She says with a gentle smile.

    Blue carefully looks at the both of them. They both have a smile on their face, but not the extreme fake one. Just the nice kind of smile, as if they are trying hard not to scare a little animal. ¡®It¡¯s the same smile my sister always uses when she needs me. She also once used it when there was an animal at our window.¡¯ Blue thinks, she gets a little flashback to when her sister tried to lure in an animal.

    Something had been scratching the windows in the middle of the night, it woke up the both of them. Lilianne was the one checking the window, and when she saw a little animal she opened the window. She tried to be as approachable as possible, nice smile, soft words and one arm a bit in front. In the end the little animal came in, it had greyish fur and black fur on its face like a mask. Blue had never seen one before.

    Lilianne closed the window behind the animal and started talking. ¡°You see this little guy? It¡¯s a raccoon. They don¡¯t usually live here, but one of the richer families might have bought it.¡± The raccoon quickly jumped on Lilianne¡¯s bed, climbing under the blanket. Lilianne had no choice but to give away her bed, she jumped into Blue¡¯s bed and stayed there instead.

    ¡®I don¡¯t remember what happened the next morning...¡¯ Blue tries hard to recall, but to no avail.

    April and Julie are still waiting for her answer. ¡®Lilianne said a soul contract still needed permission for anything, so maybe it¡¯s fine?¡¯ Blue ponders. ¡°Alright then¡­¡± She slowly responds.

    ¡®Let¡¯s start with Natasha, to see if Julie is right.¡¯ Blue decides. She walks towards the girl who¡¯s sitting alone. ¡°Hey, do you want to form a soul contract?¡± Blue directly asks.

    Natasha looks up at Blue. Her snobby face replaced by a quiet and scared one. Her eyes are red and puffy. ¡°Go away.¡± She says as she looks down again.

    ¡®Well, I tried.¡¯ Blue sighs. ¡®Now Ray?¡¯ She looks around and finds Ray standing near Eve. ¡®Then where is Vince?¡¯ Turning her head she sees Vince, jumping to try to get the attention of the guard. The guard annoyedly looks away. ¡®I guess that helps¡­¡¯

    She heads to Ray and asks him the same question. He looks confused and walks towards Natasha. A few seconds later he comes back and shakes his head. ¡®I guess Julie was right¡­ I hope she¡¯s right about the rest too.¡¯ Blue sighs.

    Since Blue¡¯s standing near Eve as well she just turns her head and repeats the question. To her surprise Natasha just nods. ¡®She didn¡¯t even ask anything?¡¯

    Eve quickly grabs Blue¡¯s hands and bumps her forehead. The process finishes after the usual, and Eve goes back to talking with Ray.

    ¡®Uh what?¡¯ Blue finds it hard to follow. She has trouble walking as she returns to Julie and April.

    ¡°Go rest, you did a lot already.¡± Julie pats Blue on her back.

    Blue lies down against the cage and closes her eyes.

    <hr>

    An unknown amount of time passed as Blue opens her eyes. Looking around she sees that she isn¡¯t in the cage anymore. ¡®I don¡¯t know this place?¡¯ Blue thinks. She¡¯s in a small room, with just a couch, a window and a door. The walls are white and the floor is made of wooden planks. She¡¯s currently sitting on the couch, as if someone had put her on it.

    Blue gets off the couch and walks towards the window. The window shows a forest, it¡¯s dark with only the moon as a light source. Some shadows are moving around and Blue quickly moves away from the window. ¡®It¡¯s fine... It¡¯s fine¡­ It¡¯s just your imagination, nothing is actually moving¡­¡¯ Blue slightly freaks out. She moves back towards the couch and stares at the wall.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

    ¡®Let¡¯s not look at anything. That¡¯s a great idea.¡¯ Blue shuts her eyes, but she can¡¯t keep them closed. Every so often her eyes open again, to only be closed right after.

    There¡¯s a sound behind the door. ¡®Someone¡¯s there?!¡¯ Blue carefully looks at the door.

    The door opens and two people walk in. Blue stares at their faces and realizes that they¡¯re Lilianne and Thomas.

    ¡°Oh, you woke up...¡± Lilianne remarks.

    Blue nods. ¡°How much time has passed?¡±

    Thomas looks at the roof and closes his eyes. ¡°Should be around 10 hours?¡±

    ¡°I think that¡¯s it yeah.¡± Lilianne agrees.

    ¡°You just fell down and didn¡¯t wake up until now.¡± Thomas explains.

    ¡°Then why am I here?¡± Blue wonders.

    ¡°We thought we would go explore the world a bit. We¡¯re trying to get clues as to what this is.¡± Lilianne says.

    ¡°Yeah, I just thought it¡¯s odd how some rooms would exist if you made it. Like the black room, only Lilianne and me know of its existence. So maybe this place is made from our memories as well.¡± Thomas adds.

    Lilianne nods ¡°So we went outside, trying to find a place we don¡¯t know about. See if it exists or not.¡±

    ¡°And? Did you find it?¡± Blue questions.

    ¡°Well. Do you see this room? We randomly found it in the forest¡­¡± Thomas answers.

    ¡°And now we¡¯re absolutely clueless and wandering around.¡± Lilianne ends the story.

    ¡°... Then what?¡± Blue raises her eyebrow.

    ¡°Well as I said, we¡¯re clueless. So, tell us more about it.¡± Lilianne says.

    ¡°Tell what?¡± Blue stares at Lilianne.

    ¡°Obviously about the effects or any clues you got.¡± Thomas sighs.

    Blue silently thinks.

    Thomas interrupts her. ¡°Since when do you tap your chin? That¡¯s something Lilianne does, you know..¡± He rolls his eyes.

    ¡®What?¡¯ Blue stares down and realizes she¡¯s indeed tapping her chin. ¡®How did that happen?¡¯

    Lilianne glances at Thomas before looking at Blue. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. Just talk, will you.¡± She returns her gaze to Thomas. ¡°Don¡¯t interrupt her.¡± She states coldly.

    ¡°I... Uh¡­ once had a headache after returning from here? And 10 hours passed in both worlds?¡± Blue slowly answers.

    ¡°A headache could be a result of being mentally tired. 10 hours might as well be that too.¡± Thomas sighs.

    ¡°So we¡¯re no further than we were before¡­¡± Lilianne sighs together with Thomas.

    ¡°So did you check that line thingie yet?¡± Thomas faces Blue and asks.

    ¡®Line thingie? Wait.. The line with April?¡¯ Blue thinks. ¡°No...¡± She responds

    ¡°Try it now.¡± Lilianne orders.

    ¡°Not in the other place first?¡± Blue raises her eyebrow.

    ¡°Might as well see if it works here. If it doesn¡¯t go ahead and try it there.¡± Lilianne explains.

    ¡°That reminds me, didn¡¯t you say that you couldn¡¯t leave? Then how did you leave?¡± Blue wonders.

    Lilianne raises her eyebrow. ¡°Since when do you care about details?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m just wondering what changed.¡± Blue stares at Lilianne.

    ¡°Well, what changed is that this world might be fake. Lilianne gave up on caring and we went out through the window.¡± Thomas rolls his eyes.

    ¡°So easy? Why didn¡¯t you do it earlier then?¡± Blue reacts surprised.

    ¡°Hmm. I don¡¯t know, maybe it didn¡¯t work out before? It¡¯s like you had an experience beforehand that pointed that out?¡± Lilianne remarks sarcastically.

    Blue falls silent with that.

    ¡°Now will you start trying?¡± Lilianne sighs.

    ¡®So how should I do this? Think about April?¡¯ Blue ponders.

    ¡°How about you start with thinking about where the person is.¡± Thomas points out.

    ¡®I didn¡¯t say that, did I?¡¯ Blue stares at Thomas.

    ¡°You¡¯re like an open book...¡± Thomas sighs.

    Blue shakes her head and ignores Thomas. ¡®Okay. Where are you, April?¡¯

    A familiar feeling goes through her. ¡®How is it familiar?¡¯ Blue wonders. The feeling pulls her towards the door. ¡®So does that mean April is that way?¡¯

    Blue heads towards the door.

    ¡°Hold up, where are you going?¡± Lilianne stops her.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Blue answers distracted.

    ¡°Useful¡­¡± Lilianne sighs.

    Blue opens the door, ignoring Lilianne. The feeling tells her exactly where to go. Disregarding her surroundings Blue just focuses on the feeling.

    Blue walks and walks, sometimes narrowly avoiding obstacles. But she doesn¡¯t care, she just keeps going.

    After a while Blue comes to a stop. She looks around and sees she¡¯s in a town. It¡¯s still dark, and nobody is on the streets.

    Lilianne ends next to Blue. ¡°So, found something?¡±

    Blue nods and points at a house.

    ¡°We¡¯re not breaking into a house, alright?¡± Lilianne sighs.

    ¡°Then what?¡± Blue sighs.

    Thomas finally arrives in a relaxed pace. ¡°It¡¯s almost morning, we can just wait you know.¡±

    ¡°We could. But I don¡¯t like being here at daylight.¡± Lilianne states.

    Thomas rolls his eyes. ¡°In that case.¡± He bends down to grab a stone and aims at a window. ¡°We¡¯ll get them out now.¡± He throws the stone at the window and the window breaks. Before anyone can look, he pulls Lilianne and Blue away to hide at a distant.

    There¡¯s some screaming inside, all kind of slurs being thrown out. Soon after a man in his pyjamas runs out with a slipper in his hand.

    ¡°See, it works.¡± Thomas smirks.

    ¡°And you just woke up the whole neighbourhood.¡± Lilianne points to all the people standing in front of their windows.

    ¡°So?¡± Thomas shrugs.

    ¡°Let¡¯s get out of here before they find us¡­¡± Lilianne suggests.

    ¡°Just a bit longer?¡± Blue asks.

    ¡°Now.¡± Lilianne says in a way that she¡¯s not taking no for an answer. She pulls both Thomas and Blue away from the scene.

    Blue takes one last glance over her shoulder. A little kid with brown hair comes out and heads towards the man. Blue tries to focus to see better but instead gets pulled away. ¡®Was that April or not?¡¯ Blue wonders.

 Chapter 16 - Dreams

    Lilianne leads them through the streets and back to their home. ''She seems to know the way.. Has she been here before.'' Blue wonders.

    Blue gathers the courage to ask. "So, have you been outside before?"

    "I prefer not to answer that." Lilianne remarks. She continues as if nothing happened.

    Thomas laughs. "You''re really curious to all our secrets. It''s none of your business."

    "Exactly." Lilianne agrees.

    No one talks for the rest of the trip. They reach Lilianne''s window and Lilianne opens it. "They''ll never notice we''ve gone out." She adds

    Thomas jumps in and runs off to his own room.

    Blue follows them in and Lilianne closes the window after her. "Now, it''s bedtime." Lilianne orders.

    Sighing, Blue slowly heads to her closet to get her pyjama. She changes and jumps into her bed. ''It''s my first time going to bed, does that mean that no day has passed here?'' She falls asleep with that thought.

    <hr>

    "WAKE UP YOU LAZY BRATS!" A voice shouts.

    It startles Blue, and she''s awake right away.

    She checks on the others and sees she''s not the only one. Somehow Eve didn''t get startled. Julie seems to be fine as well. ''How did they do it?'' Blue wonders.

    Blue decides to look at the source of the sound. A guard stands in front of the gate. He has a simple outfit, no armor or anything. His outfit does have a sword and a flintlock attached to it.

    The guard glances around and sees everyone pays attention to him. He steps back and coughs. With that the man who caught them steps in.

    The man smiles at every one of them. "Your first days of work will start now. Isn''t that exciting? I''m definitely excited."

    He looks around to see the response. He''s met with a lot of hostility from most of the kids. "I can see that all of you can''t wait. I won''t hold you back any longer. Guards, get them out and lead the way.

    The single guard on duty raises an eyebrow at the guards comment. He doesn''t dare to complain however and just does what he''s told.

    The kids get tied up again as he leads them outside.

    Blue follows outside as they follow some narrow road. The road isn''t anything special, it''s probably made by people walking over it.

    It goes up some hill, or maybe it''s a mountain? Blue can''t really see what it is. ''It''s a waste of time to even try.'' Thinking that, she changes to staring at the ground.

    <hr>

    As they stop, Blue almost bumps into Ray, the person in front of her. She looks up and sees some sort of cave. ''Why would they bring us here?''

    The guard unties them and points at a box. "Grab the tools and head in."

    Blue tries to find the man from before, but he doesn''t seem to be there. Instead another guard joined them.

    "Mining? Really?" Julie complains.

    The first guard hits her with the hilt of his sword. "You are a slave, you do as we say. Now get to work, I don''t want to hear any complaining!"

    "Fine¡­" Julie sighs.

    The guard hits her again. "I said no complaining!"

    Julie quickly grabs a pickaxe and heads in. Blue can see Julie roll her eyes with her back to the guard.

    Blue gets pushed by something and stumbles to regain her balance. She looks behind her and sees the other guard looking pissed. "What are you standing around for?" The guard snarls.

    Blue quickly runs towards the box and grabs a pickaxe. She enters the cave and sees a tunnel heading down. There''s torches on the wall, but they stop pretty much right after the entrance.

    Blue turns back to check on the others. Everyone, except the guards, has already arrived.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

    "So, now what?" Natasha complains.

    "We follow the tunnels. They won''t let us stand here all day." Julie sighs. She''s the first one that enters the tunnel.

    The rest head in after her. It''s silent as the tunnel goes darker and darker, until they can''t even see their own hands.

    "I can''t see anything!" Natasha is the first to complain.

    "Just wait for your eyes to adjust¡­" Julie remarks. She stops the group to give them time.

    Vince is hopping around, he doesn''t look troubled by the darkness. "This is a great place for hide and seek!"

    "Vince, where is your pickaxe?" Julie tilts her head. ''How can she even see that?'' Blue wonders.

    "Oh, I left it cause it was heavy! It''s bad for hide and seek!" Vince happily says.

    "Of course you did." Julie sighs. "Now don''t run off, this place is dangerous."

    "Okay, can we play hide and seek now?" Vince asks.

    Julie ignores his question. Instead she looks around the tunnel.

    Eve stands near something. "I''m guessing this is what they need us for." Blue can''t see what she''s referring to.

    Julie walks over to Eve and curiously looks. She''s silent for a bit. "It''s a coal mine¡­ We better get started, I don''t want to find out what they''ll do if we don''t."

    Eve nods and starts hitting the wall with her pickaxe.

    "Since Vince threw away his pickaxe, how about we let him carry this?" April suggests.

    Julie laughs. "One by one, huh? Vince you better get started." She grabs something of the floor and hands it to Vince.

    Vince curiously accepts it. Then he stares at Julie. "What am I supposed to do with this¡­?"

    "Run towards the entrance and drop this in the box." Julie explains.

    "Why?" Vince tilts his head.

    "Just try to get as many in the box as you can. I''m sure you can''t get to 100 pieces." Julie answers.

    "Of course I can! Just wait and see!" Vince excitedly runs off.

    Julie stares at his back as he runs. "That was easy¡­" She looks back at the rest of the group. "Now what are you waiting for? Get to work, it won''t happen by doing nothing."

    "I''m not doing this! It''s disgusting!" Natasha shouts.

    "Remember what the merchant did to you, back when you didn''t listen? He''ll finish it if you continue this." Julie snarls.

    Natasha turns pale and quietly starts working. Blue also starts hitting the wall with a pickaxe, not sure what else to do.

    <hr>

    Vince runs in and starts shouting. "The men outside, they told me to tell you to go outside!"

    They quietly grab the remaining coal ores before heading out. At this point almost everyone is breathing loudly. Eve however is fine.

    ''I can''t ask her, it''s none of my business'' Blue thinks.

    Soon they get to the entrance. The guards stand there impatiently. "Drop all that in the box." One of them coldy says.

    Blue quickly dumps everything in. She looks around and sees the sun setting. Vince excitedly counts. "One, two, three, four, wait what comes after four? Is it 100 yet?"

    The guards tie them together and then tie the box to them.

    "This box doesn''t even have wheels, how are we supposed to pull that?" Julie sighs.

    "No complaining." The guard says. They aren''t bothering with actions or longer sentences anymore.

    The kids movement has slowed down a lot with the box attached to them. It becomes dark soon and they haven''t even made it halfway.

    One of the guards starts shouting. "What? How?"

    The other guard follows. "It''s snowing? It hasn''t been snowing in like six years?!"

    White specks fall out of the sky. ''Snow? What''s that?'' Blue wonders.

    "Stop standing still! You still have to get back." One of the guards shouts.

    Blue looks around and sees that everyone has indeed stopped to look. Julie has a bittersweet smile while staring at the snow.

    "I said stop standing still!" The guard repeats. This time they actually respond by moving.

    It starts snowing harder and harder. Soon everything is covered in a layer of white. It''s cold enough to see everyone have breathing clouds.

    ''My hands are going to freeze off like this.'' Blue thinks. They continue moving through the cold snow.

    <hr>

    Finally arriving at the building, they let out a small smile. The coal gets taken away by some other guards and they are taken inside.

    A guard unties them and puts them back in the cage. Another one gives them a bowl of porridge.

    "Finally, I''m starving." Julie says.

    Blue isn''t as hungry as she was before. She ignored the feeling for a long time so she doesn''t feel it anymore. But the moment she takes a sip the feeling comes back.

    They finish their meal and lie down to sleep. "It''s sad they don''t have any blankets here. It''s cold here." April murmurs.

    Vince jumps on top of April. "I can be your blanket!"

    "At least lie still then, blankets don''t move!" April jokes.

    Exhausted from working, sleep quickly takes Blue.

    <hr>

    Blue wakes up in the middle of the night. Everyone else is still asleep. ''Maybe I can try and see Julie''s dream too!'' Blue gets eager to try it out.

    She closes her eyes, and when she opens them she''s in a street.

    There''s a white layer around her. Footsteps are the only thing preventing it from being completely white.

    Blue is surprised by some extreme high buildings around her. ''These are so high, how do they manage to get there? It reaches the clouds!''

    "Sis, I''m cold." A voice quietly says next to her.

    "I know. Just keep going, we''ll have to wait until spring comes." A voice, probably Julie''s, says.

    She looks at the person next to her, a little boy with black hair. He''s shivering quite a lot.

    The dream fast forwards to another day. This time the boy isn''t shivering anymore. "Sis, can we get something to eat?" The boy says.

    "You just had something to eat." ''Julie'' says.

    "Really? But I''m still hungry!" The boy says while frowning.

    "There''s nothing else." Julie states.

    Again the dream fast forwards.

    "Sis, I can feel that spring is here!" The boy happily says.

    "But it isn''t here yet?" ''Julie'' says with clear confusion in her voice.

    "Really? But it isn''t cold anymore! That means spring is here, right?" The boy insists.

    "I''m glad you''re doing fine, but it isn''t spring yet." Julie sighs.

    "Hey there, are you two okay?" A female voice says.

    ''Julie'' looks at the newcomer. It''s a woman with long, black hair in a twin tail. She''s wearing a white blouse over a simple pair of jeans.

    Surprised, Blue thinks ''That''s me again?''

 Chapter 17 - Magic

    "We''re fine." ''Julie'' responds coldly.

    "You both seem to be quite cold." ''Blue'' remarks.

    "I''m not cold at all, I''m actually sweating!" The boy answers.

    ''Blue'' frowns upon hearing that. "Why don''t you two come with me? I''ll get you some food and warm clothes." She offers.

    "We''re fine. Do you really think I''d fall for that? Will you kidnap us and sell us to some black market after?" ''Julie'' snarls.

    "It''s fine if you don''t trust me. How about a blanket? Or some food? I can bring it here." ''Blue'' continue her offers.

    "We don''t need blankets. Will you carry our bodies in there after you poison us with food?" ''Julie'' rolls her eyes.

    ''Blue'' raises her eyebrow. "You have quite the imagination. Did anyone ever poison you before?"

    "That''s none of your business. Leave us alone." ''Julie'' turns away from ''Blue''.

    Blue responds with a painful smile. She shakes her head and leaves.

    The dream fast forwards.

    "August, come on! Answer me!" ''Julie'' shakes the boy.

    He isn''t responding to anything. His body feels ice cold.

    "He''s dead." The same female voice from before declares.

    "That''s none of your business! " ''Julie'' shouts through her tears. She didn''t notice she was crying until trying to shout.

    "I can revive him." ''Blue'' offers.

    "Just go die already, you monster!" ''Julie'' hits ''Blue'' with a fist.

    ''Blue'' sighs and leaves.

    The dream fast forwards. This time ''Julie'' is walking to some place. ''She''s a lot taller now?'' Blue notices that her field of view is a lot higher than it used to be.

    ''Julie'' keeps marching forward. It looks aimlessly.

    ''Julie'' bumps into somebody. She looks up and sees ''Blue'' again. "Please, please. Revive my brother, like you said before!" ''Julie'' shouts.

    "It''s too late for that." ''Blue'' says.

    "Then¡­ Then¡­ Just¡­ Kill me." ''Julie'' cries.

    <hr>

    Blue opens her eyes again. It''s still dark, but this time Julie is awake. "Are you alright?" Blue asks.

    "I''m fine, just a bad dream." Julie smiles. Blue can easily see its fake.

    "My sister said we call that a nightmare. Dreams are great, and shouldn''t be put on the same level as a nightmare." Blue recalls.

    "That''s true. I had a nightmare then." Julie sofly laughs.

    "If you ever have a nightmare again, call me and I''ll get rid of it!" Blue repeats the promise Lilianne made.

    "I''ll remember that." Julie smiles at Blue. This time it doesn''t seem to be fake. "Now go back to sleep, we need all the energy we can have."

    Blue nods and lies down. ''Did Julie dream about her past because of the snow? Would I be able to affect what they dream with that? Let''s try on April.''

    Blue closes her eyes again. She opens them and sees the sky. The sun shines brightly and there''s clouds in the shapes of animals. ''Is she dreaming about cloud gazing?'' Blue wonders. ''So I got reminded of my memories back when Lilianne checked them. What if I quickly go in and out to see if that gets her to remember?''Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

    Blue thinks about getting April''s memories. She arrives in a room full of flying videos. She quickly taps one of them and leaves.

    She heads back to the dream and sees the dream changing. The background changes to an alley. April is standing behind a corner, peeking into the alley. Her visions is a lot lower than the one Julie had in her dreams.

    Two people stand in the alley talking. "So, the final game is going to start." One of the voices says.

    "It was about time, let''s get this over with." The other person says.

    Something appears in the alley, like the air is getting ripped apart. Slowly a landscape is visible in the air. "Let''s go." One of them says. The person jumps into the landscape and disappears. The other follows in and the alley is silent again. The landscape slowly disappears.

    Before it can fully disappear ''April'' sprints towards it and jumps in. The vision fades and the scenery changes.

    This time Blue finds herself sitting at a desk. The desk is full of papers, she doesn''t recognize the language used on it.

    ¡®April¡¯ lies on the desk, not interested in working.

    "I''m sorry, the babysitter canceled last moment¡­" A heavy voice says

    ''April'' looks at the source and a man in a weird suit stands in the door opening. Behind him a little kid hides. The kid has blonde hair and brown eyes.

    "If you don''t mind, I can watch him while you work. I got a bit of free time anyway." A voice says. ''April switched over to the voice and there sits ''Blue'' yet again. In the same outfit as with Julie. ''How can I be everywhere?'' Blue wonders.

    "You wouldn''t mind babysitting? That would be great, I was worried on how to keep him busy. They won''t allow him at the meeting¡­" The man says.

    "Haha it''s fine, I''ll take care of him." ''Blue'' laughs.

    ¡®April¡¯ spins a pen with her fingers while looking at the event going on.

    "Thanks a lot. Ben, come out. Meet this nice lady over here. Stay near her for now, okay?"

    "Okay dad." The boy walks over to ''Blue'' and the man hurries to his meeting.

    "Miss, do you believe in magic?" The boy asks.

    ''April'' lazily lies her head on her desk. "I should be doing work instead, let''s just see her explain magic for now." ''April'' quietly mutters to herself.

    "And why do you ask that?" ''Blue'' smiles.

    "My dad doesn''t believe in magic, he says it''s stupid. But magic has to be real right?" The boy explains.

    "Well you know, magic does exist. But it hides from you, maybe even your whole life. Only some people are exposed to magic, and your dad isn''t one of them."

    "So how do you know that?" The boy curiously asks.

    "Can you keep a secret?" ''Blue'' asks.

    "Pinky swear!" The boy holds out his pinky. ''Blue'' shakes her pinky with his to confirm the deal.

    She lifts her index finger in the air and lets a little flame appear.

    ''April'' almost falls out of her chair after seeing it. She quickly looks around to see if anyone else notices, but everyone stares at their work. "Wow." ''April'' stammers.

    The boy watches in amazement. "How did you do that?" He tries to reach out for it but ''Blue'' moves her finger away.

    "Don''t touch it, it''s dangerous. It will hurt your hand. It''s magic,that''s how I did that." ¡®Blue¡¯ happily says.

    "Ooh, show me more!" The boy excitedly requests.

    The flame disappears. Instead ''Blue'' reaches for the boy''s ear. "Look what I found here." She shows him a coin from behind his ear.

    "How did you do that? Can I get a chocolate coin?" The boy asks.

    "Sure." ''Blue¡¯ shows her open and empty hand. Then she closes it and tosses a chocolate coin his way. He clumsily catches it. "Wow, magic is great!" The boy smiles.

    ¡®Blue¡¯ nods. "Yep, it is."

    ¡®April¡¯ stands up, heading towards ¡®Blue¡¯. Before that happens the scenery changes.

    This time she''s in a dining hall. It looks majestic, with a chandelier providing light. Chairs all have a cushion and the table has wood carvings in it.

    "So, you really are a king." ''April'' says.

    "I told you that before." A man with short blond hair responds, he has a silver suit on and a red cape. ''That''s the same guy as in her first dream!'' Blue recognizes him.

    "It''s not every day you see someone call himself a king." ''April'' shrugs.

    "It''s not every day a kid falls from the sky." The king smiles.

    "Wasn''t my fault." ''April'' crosses her arms.

    "Be happy we got a witch here who caught you. You wouldn''t survive a fall like that." The king laughs.

    "Are you laughing about me almost dying?" ''April'' accuses him.

    "Nah, your attitude about it is laugh worthy." The king points out.

    Someone opens the door. "Your Majesty, we tried everything, but she hasn''t been talking yet."

    "Update me when she does." The king waves away the servant.

    "Someone isn''t talking?" ''April'' tilts her head.

    "We found someone else before you. I think she might not understand the language." The king explains.

    "Can I meet her?" ''April'' asks.

    "Hmm? If you want to." The king answers.

    The scenery changes.

    Blue finds herself back at the office.

    "Everyone, I would like your attention please." A voice shouts. ''April'' turns to the owner of the voice, a small woman with brown hair in a knot. She also wears a weird suit, but with a skirt.

    "Okay, thank you. I''m pleased to announce that we''re getting a new co worker!" The woman announced. "Come in!" She waves someone in.

    Everyone stares at the door. A woman with long, black hair in a twin tail walks in and waves. "Hey there, I''m Blue."

 Chapter 18 - Cave Exploration

    The woman with a knot in her hair points at someone. ¡°Andr¨¦, you will be in charge of her now. Be sure to guide her well.¡±

    A man with a grey shirt and shorts strolls towards them. He looks very casual compared to the rest. ¡°Well hello there, I¡¯m Andr¨¦. Nice to meet you.¡± Andr¨¦ holds his hand out.

    ¡°I¡¯ll be in your care then, Andr¨¦.¡± ¡®Blue¡¯ grabs his hand and shakes it. Andr¨¦ leads her off, presumably for a tour.

    The woman with a knot leaves with that. ¡®April¡¯ goes back to lying on her desk.

    Someone taps her shoulder, disturbing her peace. ¡®April¡¯ sighs and looks up. ¡°What now?¡± Three women stand behind her.

    ¡°That new girl, what a weirdo. Who has a colour as name?¡± One of them says.

    ¡°Exactly. And she went off with Andr¨¦, I hope he won¡¯t fall for her tricks.¡± The other says.

    ¡®April¡¯ sighs again. ¡°Sara, ever heard of Pink? Scarlett? Or Violet even? There¡¯s enough. Also why would she use tricks?¡±

    Sara raises an eyebrow. ¡°Jess, you do know that Andr¨¦ is the hottest guy in this place? Everyone has a crush on him, everyone. Right Lola?¡±

    Lola nods her head like a good follower. ¡°Did you see the way he walked to her? He¡¯s so cool.¡± She almost drools.

    ¡°And the way he holds out his hand. I wish I could¡¯ve taken it¡± The last woman says.

    ¡°As if he would take your hand, Ria.¡± Sara spits out.

    ¡°He wouldn¡¯t take yours either.¡± Ria responds.

    ¡°Take this conversation elsewhere, I¡¯m not interested.¡± ¡®April¡¯ responds.

    ¡°Are you not interested in Andr¨¦? Are you gay or something?¡± Lola utters.

    ¡®April¡¯ rolls her eyes. ¡°Not everyone has the same tastes.¡±

    Sara takes a step back. ¡°I knew it, you¡¯re actually gay!¡± She shouts.

    ¡°Wait what? Not liking the same guy you all do, like some idiots, makes me gay? How does that work?¡± ¡®April¡¯ responds surprised.

    ¡°How could anyone not like a hot guy? You should at least find him hot!¡± Ria adds.

    ¡®April¡¯ frowns. ¡°Not at all? I don¡¯t like guys that act like they¡¯re too cool for this place. This is a business, not his home. He should wear a suit, or at least a bow tie.¡±

    Lola smirks. ¡°So, is that Blue girl your type then?¡±

    ¡®April¡¯ almost falls out of her chair again. ¡°Uhh¡­ What?¡±

    ¡°Why aren¡¯t you working? Get back to work before I¡¯ll hold it back on your check!¡± A voice shouts.

    ¡°Yes boss!¡± Sara answers and heads back to her own desk. The rest quickly does the same.

    ¡®April¡¯ falls back down on her desk like nothing happened.

    The vision fades as Blue wakes up.

    ¡®That was chaotic. Didn¡¯t seem to follow a timeline, maybe that¡¯s what dreams do?¡¯ Blue thinks.

    She looks around and sees Julie awake. ¡°Did you get some sleep after your nightmare?¡±

    ¡°Hmm? Sure.¡± Julie shortly answers.

    ¡®She seems tired, did she actually sleep?¡¯ Blue wonders.

    ¡°I¡¯m hungry.¡± April randomly says.

    ¡°Get used to it.¡± Julie sighs.

    April rolls her eyes. ¡°These people have food, yet they don¡¯t give it to us. When we were on our own we at least got food.¡±

    ¡°We thought ourselves as humans, living beings. Can''t say the same for them.¡± Julie mutters.

    ¡°What if we¡¯re not humans?¡± Blue wonders out loud.

    ¡°Then we will still think of ourselves as living beings, not as items.¡± Julie frowns.

    A voice interrupts them. "Get up, there''s work to do!"

    "And another day of work starts. Fun time." Julie rolls her eyes.

    Once again they are brought to the mine, going through same points as yesterday.

    <hr>

    "Why are we still doing this?! It''s useless, we''re too weak for this!" Natasha complains.

    "Speak for yourself. I''m not interested in dying though, so don''t ruin it for us." Julie remarks.

    "So you rather stay here your whole life? Come on! Dying is better at this point." Natasha sighs.

    "Unlike you, we''re trying instead of complaining." Eve adds in.

    ''We''re? Is she planning something with someone?'' Blue wonders.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

    Natasha turns around to face Eve. "I don''t see you trying anything. Aren''t you all muscle and no brain?"

    Eve raises an eyebrow. "Wow, you don''t have muscles or a brain. If the trying is obvious enough for you to see, I can guarantee you the enemies would too."

    "Ugh, are you trying to insult me?" Natasha stares pissed at Eve.

    "Just playing the game you''re so familiar with. It''s always nice to beat someone at their own game." Eve grins.

    "I''m so done with you. Ray, let''s go." Natasha shrugs.

    Julie jumps in front of Natasha. "Haha, where do you think you''re going." She frowns.

    "None of your business." Natasha tries to push Julie away.

    Julie easily dodges the push and grabs Natasha''s arms. "If you want to live, stay here. If not, you''re free to go wherever you want, to the guards or deeper in the cave. I don''t care."

    "What if this cave has an opening on the other side? And you''re just missing out on an easy escape?" Natasha points out.

    Eve rolls her eyes. She looks to the roof and sighs, before tilting her head in Natasha¡¯s direction. ¡°There¡¯s so many flaws in there. Do I really need to point all of them out so you realise it?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t act smart, you clearly don¡¯t know anything. If you did, you would''ve said it already.¡± Natasha remarks.

    Eve takes a deep breath. ¡°First of all. We got no rations. You head in deeper, you¡¯ll die of hunger. We don¡¯t know how big this cave is, but it isn¡¯t small. If it was we would¡¯ve felt the wind, that usually leads to an exit. This cave goes down, for an exit you need to get up.

    Assuming there is an exit nearby, the people here would¡¯ve found it already and blocked it off. And if they didn¡¯t, then you can assume that finding an exit is hard. We can''t do it if they didn¡¯t manage it. They have rations and adults who are trained and thus stronger than us, how would we do it?

    Another point that ruins exploring, we¡¯re not dressed to stay warm. Caves get cold, really cold. We have nothing to stay warm with.¡± Blue noticed that Julie shivered at that part.

    Eve continues her explanation. ¡°Even if we find an exit, what then? We¡¯ll be hungry, cold and tired. We don¡¯t know what¡¯s on the other side, and what if we¡¯re on an island? We would be stuck here then. At least here we get some food and have a place to stay warm.

    But if you still want to go, follow the footsteps. If you don¡¯t see marks that anyone has been there before, don¡¯t go there. It means it¡¯s a new unexplored path, and that¡¯s not what you¡¯re looking for. Follow the deepest marks, that means a lot of people use that route.

    Good luck finding them without a light though, caves have no light at all. There¡¯s nothing to adjust to, so you won¡¯t see anything at all. Don¡¯t let us stop you from your suicidal trip though.¡± Eve ends with a smirk.

    Natasha just stands there with her mouth wide open. ¡°Uh.. What?¡±

    ¡°Oh sorry, let me say it in idiot terms. If you go in there, you¡¯ll get lost, can¡¯t see anything and either die of hunger or freeze to death. Whatever comes earlier. Eve rolls her eyes.

    ¡°Still want to go?¡± Julie smiles, stepping back to let Natasha leave.

    Natasha¡¯s face turns red. She stomps off, disregarding any warnings. ¡°Ray, come with me.¡± She orders.

    ¡°....¡± Ray just stands there, not moving.

    ¡°Ray!¡± Natasha shouts.

    ¡°Don¡¯t shout, what if you cause a cave in?¡± Julie remarks with a sigh.

    ¡°I DON¡¯T CARE!¡± Natasha runs away.

    ¡°A cave in can happen just by us working here, it¡¯s not exactly safe.¡± Eve points out.

    ¡°I know, I just wanted her to shout, which worked.¡± Julie laughs.

    April waves at the empty cave. ¡°So, would we see her again?¡±

    ¡°Depends on if she decides to return early or late. The further she goes the less likely she¡¯ll make it back.¡± Julie answers.

    ¡°She¡¯s not like us, she¡¯ll run out of energy soon enough. She won''t be able to make it. And when she realises that, it''s too late for regrets.¡± Eve shrugs.

    <hr>

    A few hours pass by. Natasha hasn¡¯t returned yet.

    ¡°Should we go look for her?¡± Blue asks worried.

    April frowns. ¡°You¡¯d risk your life to save someone who doesn¡¯t care about you?¡±

    ¡°Every life matters! Even if someone doesn¡¯t care about me, it doesn¡¯t mean I should ignore them when they need me. If I can help, I should.¡± Blue declares. Clenching her fist she stands strong, not planning on backing down.

    Julie shakes her head and laughs. ¡°I admire your stance on this. I¡¯ll help.¡±

    ¡°I already said I would follow you anywhere, this still counts.¡± April adds in with a gentle smile.

    Eve sighs. ¡°You¡¯re way too innocent. But do it your way. I¡¯ll stay here or else we won¡¯t have enough coal to deliver.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s follow the footsteps.¡± Julie suggests.

    April laughs. ¡°Not much else we can do.¡±

    <hr>

    After a while of tracking footsteps the cave gets too dark to find anything.

    ¡°I can''t believe she still went further in. I can''t even see my fingers with this darkness.¡± April points out.

    ¡°Stubborn girl.¡± Julie sighs.

    ¡°So now what?¡± Blue asks.

    Julie stands still to think. ¡°I can try something. Both of you close your eyes, please.¡±

    ¡°Usually closing your eyes doesn¡¯t lead to us being able to see.¡± April says.

    ¡°That isn¡¯t the point, I just want to try something.¡± Julie sighs.

    ¡°Alright then.¡± April mutters.

    Blue closes her eyes. Maybe April did too, but she can¡¯t see that.

    ¡°Keep them closed, until I tell you to open them.¡± Julie adds.

    ¡°Yes, boss.¡± April sighs.

    ¡®The silence, it¡¯s weird. It¡¯s¡­ Just silent? All I can hear is the breathing of us, with a slight echo?¡¯ Blue thinks. ¡®If I was here alone, it would drive me crazy. It¡¯s scary, but with them it¡¯s.. Relaxing? Also the smell. It¡¯s kinda earthly, with another smell I can¡¯t place.¡¯

    Julie breaks the silence. ¡°Okay, now don¡¯t get scared or anything.¡± She says.

    ¡®Scared? Of what?¡¯ Blue wonders. She doesn¡¯t have to wait long as something grabs her hand. ¡°Don¡¯t open your eyes, it¡¯s fine.¡± Julie orders.

    ¡®It¡¯s hard to not open them.. What does she want?¡¯ Blue wonders.

    Blue doesn¡¯t have to wonder for long. The hand starts leading her forward. It¡¯s not too fast, but a gentle guiding so that she isn¡¯t going to trip.

    ¡°Okay, it¡¯s a bit narrow here, so you¡¯ll have to crawl a bit. Just feel the walls, you¡¯ll be fine.¡± Julie calmly says.

    ¡°Why would she go through a narrow part? Also why are we going through?¡± April questions.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know why, but I do know she did. That means we are too.¡± Julie sighs.

    Blue kneels down, Julie guides her hand towards the wall. ¡°There it is, now hold on and let me go first.¡± Julie says.

    ¡°Okay.¡± Blue answers.

    Blue sits there and waits. Still holding onto the wall, she would lose it otherwise.

    ¡°Are you there yet?¡± April¡¯s voice sounds from behind her.

    ¡®It¡¯s weird, to hear her voice come from nearby, yet I can¡¯t see her. I know she¡¯s there, I can feel that she¡¯s there. But also I know where Julie is, somehow. Like I can sense her.¡¯ Blue thinks.

    ¡°Stop thinking and start moving. Or do you want to live in these caves?¡± Julie teases. Her voice echoes through the tunnel.

    ¡°Do you even want us to come?¡± April responds.

    ¡°Gotta think about that one. Come back to me in a day to ask again.¡± Julie laughs.

    Blue carefully crawls forward, using her hands to feel the course walls. ¡®It hurts, why is it sharp..¡¯ Blue complains in her head.

    ¡°You¡¯re here. Come, stand up again.¡± Julie¡¯s voice comes from in front of her.

    Julie helps her up. ¡°Can I open my eyes?¡± Blue asks.

    ¡°Uh, sure.¡± Julie casually answers.

    Blue opens her eyes. It¡¯s really bright, and she needs a moment to adjust.

    ¡°Surprising, right?¡± Julie asks.

    ¡°Wow, that¡¯s amazing.¡± April¡¯s voice comes out behind Blue.

 Chapter 19 - To the Rescue

    Blue looks around and sees a big open space. ¡®I can see again!¡¯ She thinks.

    There¡¯s a pile of snow in the middle of the open space. Above it there¡¯s a hole. It¡¯s too high for them to reach, but it provides the light they currently have. It seems like the sun is setting, and the whole cave has an orange glow. The walls have a slight brown color in the middle, some white and maybe dark blue stripes make up the rest. Together it forms quite a nice scenery.

    ¡°Caves are so pretty.¡± April states with her mouth agape.

    ¡°And also dangerous.¡± Julie shakes her head.

    After staring for a while Blue gets back to the point.¡°We still need to find Natasha!¡±

    ¡°No need for that. Natasha, come out.¡± Julie shrugs.

    A figure comes out from behind a rock. ¡°How did you know?¡±

    ¡°The tracks show exactly where you went. Besides, there¡¯s an open hole here. Big chance you would try to find a way to get out of it.¡± Julie sighs.

    ¡°So, who¡¯s the idiot now? I found an exit, unlike you guys.¡± Natasha boasts.

    ¡°Not an exit. A hole in the roof. Do you know why roofs have holes? Because it breaks. This cave is unstable, and that hole is the proof of it. Maybe the snow piled up on it and it became too heavy, who knows.¡± Julie rolls her eyes.

    ¡°We just need to find a way up. Maybe we can get a pile of rocks to climb on..¡± Natasha ignores Julie.

    ¡°How about no. Moving anything in an unstable cave is risky. You never know what keeps the place together. I suggest getting out of here.¡± Julie shrugs.

    ¡°You know, all your suggestions sound like orders to me.¡± April says.

    ¡°It¡¯s just very friendly advice.¡± Julie glares.

    ¡°Very friendly indeed.¡± April laughs. She walks towards Natasha. ¡°So, are you alright?¡±

    Natasha frowns. ¡°Why would you ask that?¡±

    ¡°Because you¡¯ve been out here, alone and cold, for quite a while. And last but not least. You can try to hide it, but you¡¯re not putting any weight on your right leg.¡± April smiles.

    ¡°And why do you care?¡± Natasha rolls her eyes.

    ¡°Today someone told me that every life matters, even if they don¡¯t care about me.¡± April gazes at Blue.

    ¡°All fun and cozy, but we need to get back, before they leave us.¡± Julie remarks.

    ¡°How about her leg then?¡± April questions.

    ¡°She just needs to get through the tunnel and we can support her after.¡± Julie shrugs, not bothering to stay any longer.

    April looks at Julie disappearing through the tunnel and sighs. ¡°Just lean on my shoulder for now, alright?¡±

    Blue steps in. ¡°Here, let me help.¡±

    ¡°....Thanks.¡± Natasha mutters. They slowly help her to the tunnel.

    ¡°Hmm, so a tunnel will be hard if you can¡¯t push yourself with both legs.¡± April thinks out loud.

    ¡°Crawl with your arms, I¡¯ll pull you out when I can reach you.¡± Julie¡¯s voice comes from the other side.

    ¡°And here I thought you didn¡¯t care.¡± April teases.

    ¡°Hmm? I do care, that¡¯s why I¡¯m on this side and waiting on you.. Not just gonna leave people behind like that.¡± Julie mutters.

    April simply laughs as a response.

    Natasha does as Julie told her to, carefully crawling with just her arms.

    ¡°Just a bit more.¡± Julie says. ¡°Got you.¡±

    ¡°Can we go now?¡± April asks.

    ¡°Yeah, hurry up though. We still need to get through the darkness.¡± Julie impatiently says.Stolen novel; please report.

    Both April and Blue get through the tunnel, getting back to the dark cave.

    ¡°Julie, how can you even see in this darkness?¡± April mutters.

    ¡°I can¡¯t.¡± Julie laughs.

    ¡°How did you get us here then?¡± April says surprised.

    ¡°That¡¯s a secret.¡± Julie says. ¡°Now Natasha, lean on theirs shoulders, alright?¡±

    ¡°I can carry her, that¡¯s easier right?¡± Blue asks.

    ¡°We still have a lot to walk after leaving the cave, don¡¯t waste your energy.¡± Julie replies.

    ¡°Ehm, it¡¯s too dark to see. How would I know where they are?¡± Natasha mutters.

    ¡°Just close your eyes. Blue, April, close your eyes too.¡± Julie says.

    ¡°Here, now just follow me.¡± Julie leads Natasha towards Blue and April.

    Blue feels someone grab her shoulder, probably Natasha. A hand grabs her hand and pulls her forwards, Blue assumes Julie owns that hand.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± Natasha mutters.

    ¡°Sorry? For what?¡± April asks.

    ¡°For¡­ For¡­. For troubling you!¡± Natasha shouts.

    ¡°Just don¡¯t do it again.¡± Julie sighs.

    ¡°I guess I¡¯m just running away from fate. I¡­ I just want to live my life, in my way. Fate just doesn¡¯t want to give me my freedom..¡± Natasha says with a sniffle.

    ¡®Is she crying?¡¯ Blue wonders. ¡®I can¡¯t see it now, maybe later if we reach the lighter parts.¡¯

    ¡°Most people want to be in charge of their own life. You aren¡¯t wrong to feel that way, you just need to know when running away is helpful or not. You need to fight for your freedom, but you don¡¯t have the power for that.¡± Julie says.

    ¡°That¡¯s like that novel genre, weak to strong right? We get to be our own isekai, weak to strong mc now?¡± April laughs.

    ¡°Well, better start working out then. Before you know it you¡¯ll have your own reverse harem, or harem, I don¡¯t judge.¡± Julie teases.

    ¡°As if that¡¯s the important thing from isekai!¡± April shouts. ¡°I don¡¯t need any harem, reverse or not...¡± She softly adds.

    ¡°Ehm, what?¡± Blue questions. ¡®They keep using those weird words, but they both understand what it means. Did they make a language together?¡¯ She wonders.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. It¡¯s just an inside joke.¡± Julie says in a cold tone.

    ¡°Okay then¡­¡± Blue mutters.

    ¡°So how do I get stronger? I want the power to get my own life¡­¡± Natasha asks.

    ¡°Join us.¡± April laughs.

    ¡°That¡¯s a start. Doesn¡¯t mean it¡¯s enough. For example, let¡¯s say we¡¯re strong enough to escape. We won¡¯t be strong enough to handle the church and all their pitchforks. Also a what next? Where will we be going? We¡¯re still just a bunch of kids with the limitations that come with it.¡± Julie adds.

    ¡°But how would that work? How would I get stronger like that?¡± Natasha asks confused.

    ¡°We share our strength, I think.¡± Blue answers.

    ¡°Was it the soul contract? The one you asked before?¡± Natasha says.

    Blue nods, more to herself since no one can see it. ¡°Yep.¡±

    ¡°Then let¡¯s do that.¡± Natasha sighs.

    ¡°Before you get disappointed, most adults can handle a lot of kids at once. In strength and in experience. The first people we would have to defeat are guards, people trained to fight. They have the weapons, the strength, and the experience. They wear armour too, meaning we need to get through that without breaking our fist. We¡¯re just a few kids, we can¡¯t handle them without dying. Especially not when they are trying to starve us and tire us.¡± Julie states coldy.

    ¡°It¡¯s more than nothing¡­¡± Natasha remarks.

    ¡°Can¡¯t we just start training to get better at fighting?¡± April questions.

    ¡°If we would do that where they can see us, expect us to get kicked. That just leaves this place to practice, but even then. We don¡¯t have any weapons or protection. Against one adult with a sword, he takes one swing and we¡¯re all dead. We just need to wait for the right time.¡± Julie clicks her tongue. ¡°You can open your eyes now.¡±

    Blue does exactly that. It¡¯s still dark, but at least she can see her hands again. Julie quickly lets go of them.

    ¡°Want to join us or not? If so do it here, before they can see it.¡± Julie orders.

    Natasha takes a deep breath. ¡°Okay then.¡±

    ¡°Not even asking what a contract means?¡± April frowns.

    ¡°I¡¯ll take every chance I get to get out.¡± Natasha stands unwavering. Even in the darkness, there¡¯s a sparkle in her eyes.

    ¡°Remind me to never leave you in charge. You need to know what¡¯s what before signing up for it.¡± Julie reprimands.

    ¡°Do you think I¡¯m in a position to be picky like that? I¡¯m willing to give everything to get my freedom back.¡± Natasha stares at Julie.

    ¡°Even your freedom?¡± Julie sighs. ¡°Just get it done with then, not gonna waste my time here.¡±

    ¡°Then what do I do?¡± Natasha tilts her head.

    ¡°Okay so you put your hands like this.¡± Blue moves her hands in front of her. ¡°And then touch my hands with them.¡± Blue waits a bit for Natasha to follow her movements. ¡°Okay now close your eyes.¡± Natasha quickly follows Blue¡¯s orders. Blue then bumps her forehead against Natasha.

    Natasha¡¯s space is like expected, empty.

    Blue¡¯s space is the same empty space, but a few kids fill the emptiness.

    Blue just awkwardly stands there, waiting to get back to the real world.

    The world fades and the cave comes back. ¡°Okay now let¡¯s go, the rest can be done next time.¡± Julie pulls them into the direction of the exit.

    <hr>

    ¡°Finally back hmm? Almost thought we wouldn¡¯t get to see you again.¡± Eve says.

    Vince jumps towards them and hugs them. ¡°Hello! I missed you!¡±

    ¡°Yes yes, missed you too.¡± April pats Vince¡¯s head.

    ¡°Did they tell us to get out yet¡± Julie asks Eve.

    ¡°Yep, but I¡¯m stalling by getting Vince to hand deliver each piece on his own.¡± Eve shrugs.

    ¡°Great, now let¡¯s get out of here.¡± Julie pats Eve¡¯s shoulder.

 Chapter 20 - No Escape

    Natasha looks around, seemingly searching for something. ¡°Where¡¯s Ray?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, he ran outside a little bit after it was just us.¡± Eve shrugs.

    ¡°So we might find him by going outside.¡± Julie sighs.

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you worried?!¡± Natasha shouts.

    ¡°He¡¯s your toy, not mine.¡± Julie rolls her eyes.

    ¡°He¡¯s not a toy? He¡¯s a person!¡± Natasha says.

    ¡°Then go find him.¡± Julie gets her stuff and heads off.

    Eve shrugs and follows Julie.

    ¡°Where are you going?¡± Natasha asks.

    ¡°To the exit. Ray headed this way, so it¡¯s not like we¡¯ll find him if we go back.¡± Eve shrugs once again.

    Natasha wants to follow, but her leg is holding her back.

    ¡°Ah yeah, how¡¯s your leg?¡± April kneels near Natasha to check on her leg.

    ¡°It¡¯s fine¡­¡± Natasha sighs.

    ¡°Did you sprain it?¡± April questions.

    Natasha doesn¡¯t answer April.

    ¡°Okay let¡¯s assume you did, I think a sprain takes two weeks to heal if it¡¯s light, and maybe ten weeks for a severe injury? You¡¯re trying to prevent weight on your right leg, for a light injury that wouldn¡¯t be the case. But also not severe or you wouldn¡¯t even be able to use it. So maybe five weeks? I don¡¯t think they are going to like that.¡± April thinks out loud.

    [Say, can we like help her?] April¡¯s voice appears in Blue¡¯s mind.

    [We can, by giving her our healing. Let¡¯s see. If we take six weeks, that¡¯s 42 days. Assuming all of us would take the same time to heal that, we would all do one day per day. If we give her that she would get five days per day? That would mean it still takes her eight and a half days to heal.

    That¡¯s eight days of us not being able to heal even a scratch. Do you know what happens with wounds that stay open? They get infected, and that causes even more problems. If you want to help her, I¡¯d say only get one person to do it and then switch every day. That way our body won¡¯t just completely stop for eight days, that just doesn¡¯t seem healthy.

    So we get three days of healing for every day we don¡¯t get. That should be enough, and doubles her healing rate regardless.] Julie calculates fast and precise.

    [Wow, how can you count that fast? So that means two a day right? That halves 42. That gives us¡­..] April wonders

    It¡¯s silent for a few seconds.

    [Twenty ehh.] April hesitates.

    [Twenty one yes.] Julie shakes her head. [You¡¯re terrible with numbers.]

    [No, you¡¯re amazing with numbers.] April sighs. [I¡¯ll take the first day. Blue, you take the last. I saw that scratch on your hand, you need your healing.]

    ¡®Oh yeah, from the tunnel before.¡¯ Blue thinks as she looks at her hand. There¡¯s a red line on the outside of her left hand. Just looking at it gets it to hurt a bit.

    [You¡¯re quite clumsy. But that¡¯s besides the point, how many times do I need to tell you to hurry up? You guys are like those moms, that just keep chattering on and on for hours.] Julie sighs.

    [Let me just finish this. You¡¯re too impatient.] April says.

    [Yeah sure, we have all the time.] Julie sarcastically remarks.

    April ignores what Julie is saying. She rips a piece of her skirt off and wraps it around Natasha¡¯s ankle. ¡°This should help a bit. Come, let¡¯s go.¡± She provides her shoulder to Natasha, who smiles as she uses April¡¯s assistance.

    <hr>

    ¡°What took you so long?¡± One of the guards shouts.

    ¡°We¡¯re looking for a boy, this tall.¡± Julie makes a movement with her hand to show how tall he is. ¡°With strawberry blonde hair. Did you see him, Sir?¡±

    The guards stare at Julie. ¡°Uh, what?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m assuming that¡¯s a no.¡± Julie glances around here. ¡°Then where is he¡­¡±

    Natasha fidgets with her hands. ¡°Why isn¡¯t he here?¡±

    ¡°Get moving, you brats wasted enough time already.¡± A guard sighs.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    <hr>

    Ray isn¡¯t in the cage either. None of the guards seem to notice him missing.

    For months they work, without ever seeing Ray again.

    <hr>

    ¡°It¡¯s all your fault!¡± Natasha pushes Eve. Eve doesn¡¯t even take a step back.

    ¡°You ran away. How is that my mistake?¡± Eve rolls her eyes.

    ¡°How hard is it to prevent him from leaving?¡± Natasha says.

    ¡°It didn¡¯t work on you, why would it work on him?¡± Eve sighs.

    ¡°Brats, get out.¡± The usual guard calls out to them.

    ¡°How creative, never heard brat before.¡± Julie sighs.

    <hr>

    They arrive at the cave, for another day of work. Since they have been mining for a while they need to get a bit further than usual, making it way darker.

    ¡°Can¡¯t they at least give us a torch?¡± Natasha complains.

    ¡°Fire and coal don¡¯t usually work together. If you want to lit this place on fire go ahead, but let us leave first.¡± Julie teases.

    ¡°Why not?¡± Natasha raises her eyebrow.

    ¡°Didn¡¯t you hear me? Coal is flammable, bring it in contact with a lit torch and it will catch fire.¡± Julie sighs.

    ¡°There must be a way, I can¡¯t see anything he-¡± Natasha comes to a stand still. ¡°Ray?¡±

    ¡°Hey.¡± A figure waves. It¡¯s too dark to see anything more than an outline.

    ¡°Where have you been?!¡± Natasha punches the figure in front of her.

    ¡°Augh. What a greeting. I just went ahead and tried to find ways out, like you wanted.¡± Ray rubs the place hit by Natasha¡¯s punch.

    Natasha¡¯s eyes light up. ¡°You did? What did you find?!¡±

    ¡°Well, we¡¯re on an island, I guess around 5000 km big. Can¡¯t be too sure without measuring it, but I followed the edge to figure it out. Took me around 200 days just to complete that, this body isn¡¯t meant for walking. After that spent 30 days walking around the island and getting info about it. There¡¯s no way out, unless we steal a boat. I don¡¯t know how to sail, and I presume none of you do.¡± Ray says.

    ¡°How did you even survive that long?¡± Julie asks with wide eyes.

    ¡°Just had to find a water source, which is easy considering the people working here have to get their water from somewhere. So had to find a way to carry some water. I decided on using some leaves, not perfect but what can I do? After that ran out I made a campfire to boil lake water.

    For food I foraged some berries. Also hunted some coney with sticks, and those coney like to run away. So annoying.¡± Ray casually explains.

    ¡°I just miss the beard. After all those days living like a castaway I¡¯d expect you to have a beard reaching your toes.¡± April jokes.

    ¡°At least no beard means less hair to take care of.¡± Ray smiles.

    ¡°We still have to do our work, remember? I rather have my food than none at all.¡± Eve complains.

    <hr>

    They get back to their cage. Blue notices Ray has changed a lot. All the walking must have made him stronger, his legs look quite ripped.

    ¡°Ray, do the soul contract.¡± Natasha orders.

    ¡°Hmm? Okay.¡±

    And thus Ray and Blue established a soul contract. A day later Blue finally gets to Vince, finishing a soul contract with everyone in the cage.

    <hr>

    A month passes.

    The doors open and a girl is lead into the cage.

    ¡®That¡¯s Kate?¡¯ Blue thinks surprised.

    After throwing Kate in the guards close the doors and head out again.

    ¡°Kate, what are you doing here?¡± April asks.

    ¡°They kicked me out, they found out that I helped with escaping.¡± Kate sighs.

    ¡°You still have us!¡± Blue pats Kate¡¯s back.

    ¡°Everything I¡¯ve worked for is gone, what use do you have.¡± Kate coldly stares.

    ¡°We can help you take it back.¡± Julie smiles.

    ¡°Haha, as if.¡± Kate says.

    ¡°You can get the power to survive.¡± Julie advertises.

    Kate rolls her eyes. ¡°That would only cause more people to hate me.¡±

    ¡°It won¡¯t cause more people to hate you, you¡¯ll just be able to protect yourself from those that already hate you.¡± Julie says.

    ¡°It¡¯s still a no from me.¡± Kate sighs and distances herself.

    ¡°Brats, get to work.¡± A guard simply states.

    ¡°Still the same old brats¡­¡± Julie rolls her eyes.

    <hr>

    ¡°How am I supposed to do this..?¡± Kate stares at the pickaxe in her hands.

    ¡°You start hitting the walls with it and hope the walls don¡¯t collapse.¡± Eve replies.

    ¡°Very helpful, thanks.¡± Kate sighs.

    ¡°Kate, come with me.¡± Julie waves.

    Kate raises an eyebrow. ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°Ugh, just come.¡± Julie doesn¡¯t take a no and pushes Kate further into the cave.

    Blue tilts her head. ¡°Where are they going?¡±

    The rest simply shrugs.

    ¡°Just wait for them to get back, they¡¯re not gonna stay there forever.¡± Eve sighs.

    ¡°I hope so.¡± Blue shakes her head and starts her work.

    Time passes by, it feels super long to Blue. But Julie finally returns with Kate.

    ¡°Welcome back!¡± Vince excitedly waves.

    ¡°Hey there, buddy.¡± Julie pats Vince¡¯s head.

    Kate has her fists clenched and looks down. ¡°Just get this over with.¡±

    ¡°Quite impatient, eh?¡± Julie laughs.

    ¡°Why did you take Kate and leave?¡± Blue asks.

    Julie shrugs. ¡°None of your business.¡± She stares at Blue and sighs. ¡°I know that it¡¯s hard, but you can¡¯t know everything. Just accept it.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m still waiting¡­¡± Kate remarks. An odd sound comes from near Kate.

    ¡°Stop tapping your foot on the ground, I already know you¡¯re impatient.¡± Julie shrugs. ¡°Blue get over here.¡±

    Blue heads towards Julie. ¡®Why would she need me?¡¯

    Kate grabs Blue¡¯s hand out of nowhere. ¡°Now what?¡±

    ¡°You put your hands like this.¡± Julie shows Kate. ¡°And then bump your head.¡±

    Kate quickly follows the steps, leaving Blue confused. She doesn¡¯t have the time to get her thoughts together as the world around her disappears.

    ¡®Ah, my soul space. I still need to change it into something nice.¡¯ Blue thinks.

    Kate looks around with wide eyes. ¡°Again¡­¡± She mutters.

    The scenery changes, this time into Kate¡¯s soul space. It¡¯s completely empty, at least Blue thought it would be. Instead a familiar figure stands there.

    Blue wonders. ¡®Julie made a contract with her already?¡¯

 Chapter 21 - Sandbox

    The scenery changes back to the cave. Blue tilts her head at Julie. ¡°Did you make a contract with her before?¡± Blue is surprised to see April standing next to Julie. ¡®Did she head there while I was busy with the contract?¡¯

    ¡°Just now yeah, why?¡± Julie says.

    ¡°Isn¡¯t another contract today too much then?¡± Blue wonders.

    ¡°Nah, I took the costs on me before, and you¡¯re doing this one. She could get a lot more contracts this way.¡± Julie laughs.

    Only then did Blue notice how unstable Julie seems. ¡®She¡¯s leaning on April, does that mean April noticed before? Why didn¡¯t I see it? Am I that bad? I should try to watch them more, so I¡¯ll be the first to notice if anything is wrong with them!¡¯ Blue clenches her fists.

    ¡°Let¡¯s get out of here, otherwise they might think we¡¯re missing.¡± Eve sighs.

    Blue tries to move forward, but her limbs are sluggish. ¡®Is this because of the contract just now? Will I ever be able to make a contract without getting tired?¡¯

    Blue feels something touch her back, grabbing her side. She looks up and sees Eve.

    ¡°Are you just gonna stand there and wait?¡± Eve smiles at her.

    Blue laughs. ¡°Thanks.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it.¡± Eve waves her other hand.

    <hr>

    Blue is sitting in the corner of the cage as the door opens.

    A voice follows the opening of the door. ¡°This way, Sir.¡±

    ¡°This is all?¡± A man with a moustache says. He¡¯s touching his moustache while looking around.

    ¡°Yes, Sir. We ran into a little problem with the Church.¡± It¡¯s the man that brought them here.

    ¡°I see.¡± Moustache man walks around the cage.

    He finishes a round. ¡°Well, I think I¡¯ve seen enough.¡±

    ¡°Sir, please follow me out.¡± And as quick as they appeared, they disappeared.

    ¡°That guy must have been a great noble or something, the merchant doesn¡¯t easily bow to people¡­¡± Julie sighs.

    ¡°How do you know that?¡± April tilts her head.

    Julie laughs. ¡°Just think about it, the merchant is a successful guy. All the rich and noble people come to his store to buy whatever he has. He¡¯s probably richer than all those rich families, and seeing that every noble comes to beg for discounts, he has quite the status. The fact that even the Merchant acts like a low servant really says a lot about the status of that guy.¡±

    ¡°What was he here for?¡± Blue asks.

    ¡°That, it doesn¡¯t matter.¡± Julie quickly says.

    <hr>

    ¡°Brats, get out.¡± The same voice as always.

    ¡°You two, come with me.¡± Another voice joins in and points at April and Blue.

    Blue stares at April. April just shrugs and heads towards the voice calling them.

    [Come, you know what happens if you disobey.] April warns her.

    Blue sighs and follows April.

    ¡°Took a while. If we need you then you come right away, dropping everything you were doing before. Understood?¡± The guard says.

    ¡°Understood.¡± April murmurs.

    The guard snarls. ¡°What is that? I can¡¯t hear you.¡±

    ¡°Understood!¡± April says a little louder.

    ¡°Understood¡­¡± Blue follows.

    ¡°...¡± The guard shakes his head ¡°Now come, hurry up.¡±

    The guard leads them to a mansion.

    [This might be where the merchant lives if he¡¯s on this island.] April curiously looks at the mansion.

    ¡®But, why are we here?¡¯ Blue asks.

    [Who knows what the merchant needs.] April sighs.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

    ¡°Stay here.¡± The guard orders. He doesn¡¯t wait for a response and heads towards the entrance. He knocks on the door and starts shouting. ¡°I brought them, Sir.¡± Like a soldier responding to their commander.

    A short while later the door opens. ¡°Great job.¡± A voice from inside says.

    ¡°Thank you, Sir.¡± The guard bows. ¡°Now get in, brats.¡±

    The guard pushes them and walks off.

    ¡®Wouldn¡¯t this be the best time to escape?¡¯ Blue wonders.

    [And then what? We can¡¯t get off the island, and it would mean we leave everyone behind.] April explains.

    ¡®Oh, yeah.¡¯ Blue sighs.

    They follow the man that opened the door. It¡¯s not the merchant, he wouldn¡¯t open the door for some guard.

    There¡¯s a grand staircase in the middle of the room, making it look amazing. ¡°Follow.¡± The man doesn¡¯t waste any time and starts walking up the stairs.

    April looks around with an open mouth. [This place, it¡¯s so fancy¡­]

    Blue tilts her head. ¡®It¡¯s just like my ho- my old home.¡¯

    [Later, let¡¯s get a place like this. Or no, like a castle, with a throne room and a garden. Castles have big towers too, I want a room in one of those towers! The room should have a king sized bed, with satin blankets. A carpet would be nice too¡­] April excitedly thinks.

    ¡®If you want just a throne room, a garden and a bedroom, where do you need the castle for?¡¯

    [For the rest of you guys of course! I don¡¯t want a giant place just to myself. We need a giant kitchen, with people who mastered cooking,and a bathroom attached to every single room. A shower and a bathtub, combined to make sure it doesn¡¯t take too much space. We can¡¯t forget the sink, where else do we brush our teeth. Do you think two person bunk beds exist? Then we can even share the room and always have sleep overs. We¡¯d never be lonely like that! Ah, we also need a toilet. But not in the bathroom, I just want a little room for just the toilet.] April smiles thinking about it.

    Blue scratches her chin. ¡®Then, let¡¯s do that when we get out of here.¡¯ She has no clue what most of the things mentioned mean, but it doesn¡¯t matter. She¡¯ll figure that out later. ¡®April¡¯s eyes sparkle¡­¡¯ Blue thinks to herself with a smile.

    ¡°Get in.¡± The man holds a door open and pushes them in.

    In the room stand two familiar figures. The merchant and the man with the moustache. They give each other a big handshake.

    ¡°I¡¯m glad to be working with you.¡± The moustache man says.

    ¡°The pleasure is all mine, Sir.¡± The merchant smiles. He looks to his side and sees the open door. ¡°There they are Sir, all yours.¡± He waves.

    ¡°Great, the deal is done, right?¡± The moustache man asks.

    ¡°Yes, there¡¯s nothing Sir needs to worry about.¡± The merchant keeps his smile. It¡¯s obviously a fake smile.

    ¡°I¡¯ll be taking my leave then.¡± He looks at the man at the door. ¡°Call my guards.¡±

    ¡°Of course, Sir.¡± He quickly walks off.

    ¡°Come.¡± Moustache man glances at Blue and April while ordering them.

    Four guards quickly join in as they leave the mansion.

    <hr>

    [Ugh another ship. I¡¯m gonna be bored out of my mind.] April rolls her eyes.

    ¡®Can you show me what the castle you describe looks like?¡¯ Blue asks.

    [Show? How?] April wonders.

    ¡®I don¡¯t know what a castle looks like, so maybe if you share a memory of you seeing a castle?¡¯ Blue thinks.

    [I see. You probably don¡¯t know how anything I mentioned looks.] April laughs.

    ¡®Not really¡­¡¯ Blue smiles.

    April quickly sends over images.

    ¡®You know, with my sister to share a memory we did the same thing as for a soul contract. You just send it to me without any of that.¡¯ Blue points out.

    [Like a mobile phone.] April smirks.

    ¡®A what?¡¯ Blue raises her eyebrow.

    [Don¡¯t worry about it. I¡¯m just sending images of my memory, it happened when I thought about sending them. So not sure how it works¡­] April shrugs.

    ¡®Okay then. You know, we got a soul space, Julie told me that I have to fill it. Maybe we can build a castle there?¡¯ Blue asks.

    [That¡¯s a great idea, we can do something without getting bored on a ship. Let¡¯s go!] April happily says.

    Blue thinks of wanting to go to her soul space, and that¡¯s enough for the world around her to disappear. There¡¯s seven people around her now, making the place crowded. She looks at the April standing there, and just as she meets the closed eyes of April, April opens them.

    ¡°Hello!¡± April waves.

    ¡°Hi.¡¯ Blue smiles.

    ¡°Okay, so let¡¯s start with a terrain. A grassfield with a sky should be fine.¡± April scratches the back of her head.

    Blue nods and starts thinking about the grassfield she wants here. Around her grass starts to sprout, making the place a lot better already.

    ¡°Awh, you added flowers.¡± April laughs.

    ¡°Vince really seems to like them.¡± Blue scratches her chin with a slight blush.

    ¡°Yeah.¡± April smiles. ¡°Now a sky, if you want you can try a day and night cycle, if not pick one.¡±

    ¡°Do you like the sun or the moon more?¡± Blue asks.

    ¡°I like the sun.¡± April easily decides.

    ¡°Then we¡¯ll get a sun.¡± Blue quickly thinks of the sun. The place lits up quickly with the addition of the sun.

    ¡°I think you forgot the sky part, now we got a black space with a white dot. You need the atmosphere added as a layer between the sun and the sky.¡± April laughs.

    ¡°Atmo what?¡± Blue hesitates and doesn¡¯t know what to do.

    ¡°Yeah I know, it¡¯s really complicated. I only realized it when the sun turned white. Here, let me do it.¡±

    ¡°Okay then¡­¡± Blue allows April to make changes.

    The sky turns blue and clouds appear.

    ¡°We¡¯re lucky enough that we don¡¯t need to understand what we make. I really don¡¯t know anything about the atmosphere besides that it¡¯s a layer that makes the sun yellow.¡± April scratches the back of her head yet again.

    ¡®She seems to do that when she¡¯s unsure¡­¡¯ Blue notices.

    ¡°Next up, trees!¡± April waves and a few trees appear. ¡°Which one do you like better?¡±

    Blue looks at all the trees. There¡¯s small trees, really big trees, brown trees, white trees, even a few without leaves. ¡°I want that one!¡± Blue points at a white tree.

    ¡°A birch tree, good choice.¡± April waves again and there¡¯s a few birch trees around the field. ¡°Let¡¯s start the castle now!¡±

 Chapter 22 - Finishing the Castle

    ¡°What¡¯s the first step?¡± Blue asks.

    ¡°What colour do you want the walls? Grey is the usual colour.¡± April says.

    ¡°Ah, let¡¯s go grey then.¡± Blue answers.

    A grey wall appears out of nowhere. ¡°This okay? We should have a big entrance hall as first room.¡± April states.

    ¡°Okay, we can do that.¡± Blue smiles.

    A few hours later there¡¯s a complete outline of a castle.

    ¡°Now we should furniture it.¡± April claps her hands. ¡°A couch here, a painting there and maybe a plant there.¡±

    ¡°All the bedrooms can be the same, right?¡± Blue wonders.

    ¡°Yeah sure. You wanna do the bedrooms then?¡± April asks.

    ¡°Yep.¡± Blue gives a big smile.

    ¡°I¡¯ll do the common room and the kitchen then. Oh and the throne room.¡± April laughs.

    Blue heads off to a hall with lots of doors and opens one. The room is completely empty, with two doors on the wall opposite of the entrance.

    ¡®Okay, a bed, a desk and a closet? What else should a room have?¡¯ Blue ponders.

    [Don¡¯t forget a lamp and a night stand.] April answers her. She sends some images of how they look.

    Blue quickly works on the rooms, making all of them the same. ¡®Alright, time to go to the tower room.¡¯ She quickly walks towards one of the towers.

    ¡®April wanted a carpet and a big bed with satin blankets¡­¡¯ Blue starts creating the room. ¡®How about yellow walls, and a sky blue carpet.¡¯

    <hr>

    After another few hours of work they meet at the throne room. The room has one big azure blue throne at one end. The whole floor is black, besides an azure blue carpet leading from the entrance towards the throne.

    The walls are black as well, some flags decorate the wall. To end it, a big chandelier hangs in the middle of the room.

    ¡°Wow, it¡¯s amazing!¡± Blue stares with an open mouth.

    ¡°Thanks.¡± April smiles. ¡°There¡¯s an entrance hidden under the throne, so we can have a secret room. Also behind the throne room is the courtyard.¡±

    ¡°Secret room? For what?¡± Blue asks.

    April scratches the back of her head. ¡°Secret stuff? Like a research lab? Or a weapon room? I don¡¯t know, just things you don¡¯t want others to know.¡±

    ¡°I see.¡± Blue laughs.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go, see if the real world still exists.¡± April smiles.

    <hr>

    The trip took around seven days before they finally arrived. Most of the time they spent building the castle.

    Moustache man¡¯s guards arrive and lead April and Blue off the ship.

    [Finally, I can¡¯t live to survive another ship.] April sighs.

    ¡®Seasick?¡¯ Blue asks.

    [I just don¡¯t like standing on something that keeps moving. I¡¯ll keep both my feet on the ground.] April smiles.

    ¡®Why didn¡¯t we hear anything from Julie and the others?¡¯ Blue wonders.

    [I think we¡¯re too far, we need stronger souls to be able to reach them.] April says.

    ¡°Get in the cage.¡± A guard points at a cage in the back of a carriage.

    [More traveling¡­ I just want to walk.] April sighs as she hops onto the carriage.

    Blue shakes her head as she follows.

    <hr>

    An hour passes. The carriage comes to a stop.

    [Is this it? Can we get off?] April smiles.

    Guards come and open the cages. ¡°Follow.¡± One of them says as he points his sword at April¡¯s back.

    [They sure are impatient.] April rolls her eyes.

    ¡®Weren¡¯t you impatient before?¡¯ Blue tilts her head.

    [That¡­ That doesn¡¯t count!] April shakes her head.

    A big mansion stands in front of them. It¡¯s quite lively, with people walking around everywhere. They can¡¯t see a lot of it before they are thrown inside. The guards lead them to a staircase, which goes down.

    It goes to a long hall with prison cells on both side. You could look through the bars, giving none of the prison cells any privacy.

    One of the guards open one of the cells, another one throws them in. Just like that they¡¯re left alone.

    [Well at least the side walls are actual walls.] April sighs.

    ¡®So what now?¡¯ Blue walks around her cell, looking around for things to do. The cell is empty, not even a bed. On the walls are some chains, luckily they aren¡¯t chained to them.

    [We wait.] April shrugs.

    <hr>

    The moustache man stands behind the bars with a guard. ¡°Sorry for not visiting sooner.¡± He smiles.

    The guard opens the door to let the moustache man in and closes it right after.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    April tenses up, cautiously watching every movement of moustache man.

    Moustache man just smiles and stands in front of April. ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡± He starts touching her head, stroking her hair. ¡°I don¡¯t have much time, but I¡¯ll read the both of you a bedtime story later.¡± He stops stroking her hair, caressing her face instead. April looks disgusted.

    Moustache man shakes his head. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t use expressions like that, they¡¯ll ruin your pretty face.¡± He moves his hands behind his back and leaves the room.

    [What a creep.] April stares pissed at moustache man.

    <hr>

    Twelve years pass, every day the same. Moustache man would visit them three times a day.

    Blue stares at the bars with empty eyes. She grew out of her clothes a long time ago, they didn¡¯t replace it. A scraping sound comes from next to her, she turns around to see where it comes from.

    ¡®Ah, April is scraping the ground with something, I wonder where she got it from.¡¯ Blue thinks.

    Moustache man appears in front of the bars. He doesn¡¯t have a guard with him, he stopped bringing them after the first time. He opens the door but doesn¡¯t close it. Probably making it easier for himself to get out.

    April gives off a deadly vibe while looking at moustache man. Moustache man just grins and starts removing his pants. April stands up and starts running towards moustache man catching him off guard.

    Moustache man¡¯s eyes widen in surprise as he stares at April. April pushes her hand against his neck, and he falls shortly after.

    ¡®What did you do?¡¯ They haven¡¯t talked in real ever since they got locked up.

    April twists her hand a bit more before pulling it back. She turns around with a grin. In her hand she holds a bloody icicle, and moustache man has a big hole in his throat. [I got rid of this trash.] Her eyes are a glowing yellow colour.

    ¡®What now?¡¯ Blue stares in confusion.

    [Here, you use his robe, I¡¯ll get his shirt.] April removes the clothing from moustache man, putting on his shirt. She hands the robe to Blue. Blue hesitates. The shirt looks like a short night gown on her and seems tight around her chest. The robe however reaches the ground, and isn¡¯t tight anywhere. It¡¯s clear April put Blue first.

    April sees Blue stare at her. [Just take it, we¡¯re gonna find something better soon.]

    Blue sighs and puts the robe on. April smiles at her. [Great, now hold on a second.] She rips the chains of the wall and ties it around the neck of Moustache man. [Let¡¯s go.] She leaves the cell, dragging the body of moustache man behind her. She still has the bloody icicle in her hand, people would think twice before attacking her.

    Blue quietly follows April. They walk past all the guards, the guards just stand still with an open mouth. Some of them whisper to each other.

    The entrance comes closer and closer. April opens the doors and drops moustache man. She stretches her arms. [Finally, freedom.]

    Blue smiles, together they head out. The people in the street make way from them, acting just like the guards. ¡®I guess it¡¯s because April¡¯s eyes are glowing¡­¡¯ Blue thinks.

    They arrive at an open space. It seems to be a gathering spot of some sort.

    A man stops in front of them. ¡°Halt! We won¡¯t allow you demons to live any longer!¡±

    April tilts her head. ¡°We?¡±

    A horde of people marches towards them, carrying pitchforks. ¡°In the name of God, we will exterminate the demons!¡±

    April steps in front of Blue, arms wide, to protect Blue.

    ¡®What¡­ What¡¯s happening?¡¯ Blue stands there confused.

    The horde doesn¡¯t wait for Blue. They start poking April with their pitchforks, staining her new shirt with blood. Everything blurs as April falls down. ¡°APRIL!¡± Blue shouts. Something pushes the horde a few steps away.

    Blue puts her hands on her head. Everything spins.

    ¡°We know that you went out.¡± A stern voice says.

    Another voice comes in. ¡°I thought the rules were clear.

    A younger voice shouts. ¡°We didn¡¯t do anything!¡±

    ¡°I told you it was a bad idea.¡± A boyish voice says.

    Something pulls Blue¡¯s hand.

    ¡°Think you can run?¡± The stern voice laughs.

    A door closes loudly.

    ¡°We need to leave.¡± The younger voice says.

    ¡°And then what?¡± The boyish voice says.

    ¡°We¡¯ll figure it out later.¡±

    ¡°Really? Later?¡±

    ¡°We don¡¯t have time for this, Thomas.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s your mistake in the first place.¡± Thomas sighs.

    ¡°Sam, are you alright?¡± The younger voice asks.

    Blue tries concentrating on the voice and sees Lilianne.

    ¡°I thought you said we don¡¯t have time for this.¡± Thomas laughs.

    Lilianne shakes her head and opens the window. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± She pulls Blue towards the window and climbs out. Even Thomas follows.

    And thus Blue, Lilianne, Thomas and Nick run out.

    ¡°Just keep running okay.¡± Lilianne says to Nick and Blue.

    A full moon stands proud in the sky. ¡®No¡­. Not this... ¡® Blue wants to shout to stop them, but nothing comes out.

    ¡°Look at that, Sam is already overcome by fear. How useless.¡± Thomas snarls.

    Lilianne ignores Thomas and leads them further.

    ¡°I¡­ I¡­ Can¡¯t run¡­ Anymore¡­¡± Nick says after a while.

    Lilianne sighs. ¡°Let¡¯s slow down then.¡±

    ¡°Oh sure, let¡¯s start walking.¡± Thomas sighs.

    They walk at a fast pace. Lilianne leads them forward, rushing towards who knows where.

    ¡°Come on, we can¡¯t stay here. We started this and we have to go through with it!¡± Lilianne grinds her teeth.

    Thomas abruptly stops walking, looking mildly annoyed. ¡°Lilianne, are you listening to yourself? You decided this, running away in the middle of the night.¡±

    Seeing Thomas halt, the others come to a stop as well.

    Lilianne goes to face the boy, she stands in front of him. ¡°Thomas, you either come with us or stay here.¡±

    Thomas doesn¡¯t back down and looks Lilianne in her eyes.

    He starts talking a bit louder than usual. ¡®He¡¯s getting aggressive..¡¯ Blue thinks.

    ¡°Look at them!¡± He points at Nick and Blue. ¡°Which part of you decided it would be smart to bring them with us?¡±

    Following Thomas¡¯s finger with her eyes, Lilianne looks at Nick and Blue. She sighs before staring back at Thomas. Clearing her voice she calmly starts talking.

    ¡°There¡¯s no way we¡¯re leaving them behind. We¡¯re siblings, and even though they¡¯re obviously different it just means we need to protect them. They didn¡¯t choose to be different and we could¡¯ve been just like them.¡±

    Suddenly loud footsteps approach, breaking the silence between them.

    The corners of Thomas¡¯s mouth are raised slightly, giving him a weird smiling look. ¡°I guess we have visitors. It¡¯s your choice now, are you going to take them with you or not?¡±

    Not waiting for an answer Thomas runs away into another dark alley.

    Looking at Thomas running away and then at Nick and Blue, Lilianne bites her lip and grabs their hands to run after Thomas.

    "We know you''re here, don''t try to hide." A man''s voice echoes across the alley like a creepy monster.

    Thomas slows his steps to get next to Lilianne. ¡°He said ¡°we¡±. There¡¯s only one pair of footsteps following behind us. If I were you, I''d be worried about the whereabouts of the other part of the ¡°we¡±.¡±

    Lilianne coldly responds. ¡°I know and you aren¡¯t helping.¡±

    Thomas reacts to that with a smirk. ¡°I gave you enough advice already, you just aren¡¯t taking it¡±

    The footsteps come closer and closer. ¡®No¡­ Don¡¯t come closer¡­ I don¡¯t want to see this again¡­ Please¡­ Stay away¡­¡¯ Blue panics.

    The voices blur. Blue doesn¡¯t focus on them at all, lost in thought. Something grabs her arm. ¡®There they are¡­ I want to go¡­ Why can¡¯t I move¡­ Let me out!¡¯ Blue shouts in her head.

    Something cold touches her neck, it stings her and brings her out of her thoughts. She stares at Lilianne full of fear. ¡®Don¡¯t come closer¡­ Don¡¯t do it!¡¯ It doesn¡¯t help at all.

    Lilianne growls and runs towards Blue. [Take my soul.] Lilianne¡¯s voice appears in Blue¡¯s head.

    Blue feels herself fly in the air and lands head first against the wall. She tries to look up and sees Lilianne smile at her. Lilianne softly starts talking. ¡°Seal¡­ Memories¡­¡± The adults ignore it and laugh. Soon screams fill the air and everything turns black.

 Chapter 23 - And so it Begins

    The whole world around her is black. Just black.

    ¡°Hey.¡± Lilianne appears in front of her.

    ¡°What are you doing here?¡± Blue asks.

    ¡°I¡¯m merging our souls. You¡¯ll get all my memories.¡± Lilianne smiles.

    ¡°All? I don¡¯t remember any of that¡­¡± Blue says, tilting her head.

    Lilianne laughs. ¡°That would overload you, I¡¯ll seal your memories from before this, you¡¯ll get them back with time.¡±

    Lilianne fades, and the world around Blue changes.

    <hr>

    A voice shouts. ¡°Your majesty, that¡¯s a terrible idea!¡±

    ¡°I have no choice.¡± I say with a sigh.

    <hr>

    ¡°Are these all the items needed for the ritual?¡± I ask. The room around me is empty, we emptied it out just before. Three people stand besides me.

    ¡°Yes, your majesty.¡± My loyal servant says.

    I let out a small smile. After all, it¡¯s finally time. I¡¯ve been working for this for five years, ever since my wife died. The world just went down, kingdoms attacked me in this moment of weakness. I¡¯ve got nothing left, besides my three loyal servants. They still say your majesty, but I¡¯m a ruler of nothing.

    ¡°Let¡¯s start the ritual.¡± I say in my stern voice. I can¡¯t let my emotions take control of me.

    <hr>

    Of course, should¡¯ve expected that it went wrong. But, lucky for me, I¡¯ve gotten a second chance. I guess people call this reincarnation, never heard of one where there¡¯s a clone of you coming with you. It¡¯s a different gender than me even. I don¡¯t remember which gender I used to be, maybe I¡¯m the one with a gender change? My memories seem to be broken, guess half of it went to my clone. Or am I the clone? I don¡¯t know. Maybe I¡¯m not even myself, just someone who has gotten some broken memories of a distant person.

    <hr>

    We decided that we¡¯re siblings. Or well, fate decided that for us, since we have the same parents. It¡¯s odd, my memories seem to be disappearing. We decided to focus on remembering the ritual, so that we can try again. Starting again feels weird with memories. We just need to wait enough years so we can walk on our own and get our own stuff.

    Oh, forgot to say, I can somehow communicate with my sibling. I just feel what they want to say. Quite handy, I might have gone crazy if I didn¡¯t have anyone to talk to for years.

    <hr>

    Through the years my sibling and I talked about the memories each of us has. It seems like I received parts of the end, and my sibling parts of the beginning. They were talking about grand adventures and all the fighting. They seem to be the better fighter because of those memories. I know more about the ritual, so at least I¡¯m not useless.

    We decided to work on fixing the ritual, everything is so much easier with another person, I wonder why the original didn¡¯t do that. Ingredients have different names here, so we¡¯re working hard on finding out what the names are.

    <hr>

    20 years passed just like that. We didn¡¯t do any of the normal things in life, we just focussed on the ritual. I just feel like we owe that to the original, to complete their incomplete wish. Maybe we shouldn¡¯t, maybe we should¡¯ve been happy with a head start. It¡¯s too late for regret now.

    We did find flaws in the original ritual, it all depends on one person. It drains the power out of them, to give a different power back. Our original might have been arrogant in believing they could do it on their own, but they didn¡¯t have enough power to supply, let alone having enough room to store what you get back.

    We¡¯re not sure what the ritual was meant for. It enhances power, that¡¯s for sure. But it seems to be something that changes whoever made it into a conductor of it. You¡¯d be a breathing magic conductor. I¡¯d say alive, but I¡¯m not sure if you are. Maybe you sacrifice yourself to it. Since like that we can¡¯t actually get the benefits, I wonder who the original was doing this for.

    It doesn¡¯t matter though, even if we¡¯re a sacrifice to it. We¡¯ve been living our whole life for this. My sibling doesn¡¯t think the same of it, and wants to change it into something we can use as well.

    I guess since we have no clue what we¡¯re doing it for it¡¯s for the best. It¡¯s completely useless without a goal.

    <hr>

    We did some changes and little tests, everything seems to be working now. We¡¯re ready for the complete ritual now, I wonder what it does. We¡¯ll find out soon enough though.

    <hr>

    It looks like it works, we¡¯re still alive. The whole room lights up. We manage to pass the first stage, where the original failed. Since we trained our whole life for this, to get enough power for the ritual, it¡¯s a great thing. We¡¯re both relieved with the progress.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

    The second stage is unknown to us, let¡¯s hope we can do that too.

    <hr>

    Well, that didn¡¯t work out. The second stage is the ritual merging with the person, so the person becomes the ritual. I wonder who made this ritual, because it¡¯s impossible for any person to carry so much power. Was it actually made with humans in mind? Or is it made for people from the legends?

    Anyway, the ritual is implanted on our soul. It damaged it yet again, the memories of before are almost completely gone. I wouldn¡¯t be able to make the ritual again with what¡¯s left.

    It split our souls in half, now we got two clones. They look exactly like us, but their eye colour is different. Our eye colour changed as well, I noticed that when looking at my sibling.

    The two new clones, or siblings, seem to carry most of the ritual. Great for us, to leech of their power. For them I don¡¯t know, it could have unknown side effects that we need to research.

    I feel different, the original feels like a stranger, not like I ever used to be that person, or maybe I never was.

    Half of my personality was given to the soul that split from me, I guess it¡¯s the same for my sibling. They don¡¯t seem to have the memories at all, they act like their age. Maybe it will change through the years, carrying a magic ritual isn¡¯t normal.

    <hr>

    Merging complete.

    Okay, thanks for telling me, whatever that was.

    Am I still myself? With all those memories I sure don¡¯t feel like it. Merging with Lilianne, does that mean I¡¯m more like her now?

    Oh fuck. Doesn¡¯t it explain why I would take out her hair ties? Why else would I do that? Am I slowly changing into her?

    Wait, I can¡¯t worry about that now. I open my eyes, and stand face to face with the ones who murdered April. I¡¯d cry, but it feels so distant now. My face still has the tears from before, as if not even a single second has passed. Am I colder to everything now? Is that because of Lilianne?

    The people try to poke me. The pitchfork breaks, that¡¯s surprising I guess. I recall that I can call out to a soul linked sword or something like that. It seems to be part of my soul, but in a sword. That definitely comes from Lilianne, why would she hide something like that though?

    I change part of my soul into a sword, and a sword appears in front of me. It¡¯s a pretty sword, with azure blue lines over the silver colour. I grab it and everything comes naturally to me. A practice swing feels perfectly fine. If I recall the sword I get the part of my soul back, like it never happened. I wonder what else I can change or make with my soul.

    Oh. The practice swing slashed the people in front of me in half. Oops? I don¡¯t care though, they¡¯re annoying.

    I slash them some more, it just is so easy. They stare at me with fear in their eyes. Yes, fear me. It¡¯s payback, I won¡¯t let any of you escape! I smile at them, that seems to be enough reason for them to drop their pitchforks and run away. I¡¯ve gotten familiar with a few of the things the ritual does. One of those things is teleporting, I¡¯m not strong enough yet to go far away, but this small amount is easy enough, it¡¯s really just working with the elements outside, changing them a bit and then poof. I appear to the place where they are running towards.

    Their faces, it¡¯s laugh worthy. Where¡¯s their God? They were doing this for their God right? What an useless guy, it¡¯s not helping them at all.

    If I knew I was this strong I would¡¯ve escaped earlier. But we didn¡¯t have any combat experience, April shouldn¡¯t have been that far behind me, yet she died. Now that we¡¯re eighteen we got the power of eight adults. That¡¯s quite a lot, compared to these people that probably didn¡¯t train one single day in their life.

    It¡¯s so easy to hunt them down, even while thinking. It just happens naturally. Did Lilianne kill a lot of people? She probably did before, in three life times a lot can happen. I can probably see through all her memories, although it seems to be a bit broken. Her soul took damage when she forcefully merged with mine.

    But well, I don¡¯t feel like watching a lifetime worth of memories, I think I grasped the most important ones already.

    Ah, there¡¯s no one left. The place is drenched in blood, so am I. I¡¯m a monster now I guess. Time to recall my sword.

    I head towards April, she lies there peacefully. I can revive her, I know I can. I got two souls in me, that means I¡¯m able to afford the cost.

    It¡¯s a simple kiss to blow in a bit of your life or something, I don¡¯t really care how it works. As long as it does it¡¯s great.

    I kneel down next to her and lean in. Isn¡¯t this exactly like that one story? Or all of them? Where a prince kisses a princess and wakes her up, although I¡¯m not waking anyone up. Reviving seems to be different from that.

    I breathe my life into her, doing that feels strange. I feel part of my soul leave, and I feel it inside her. It¡¯s like a soul contract, but instead of leaving a part in a soul space I¡¯m merging a bit of my soul with her own soul. I wonder if it gives her a few of my memories, or would it change her personality?

    April opens her eyes. It takes a moment for her to register everything, and then her face turns red. I break the kiss, it should¡¯ve been enough, then I smile at her. ¡°Welcome back!¡±

    I thought I was cold enough to not care about her death, but I guess I didn¡¯t care because I knew I could fix it. Seeing her blush makes me happy, I don¡¯t know if I could go without her.

    She puts her hand in front of her mouth and looks away. Oh, the corpses are still there. Her blush disappears and she turns pale. [What¡­. What happened?] Her voice stutters inside my mind.

    Ah, yeah, mind talking still is a thing. ¡®I took care of it. No one will ever hurt you again.¡¯

    She looks me in the eyes with fear. Is she scared of me? [They clearly were running away, why would you do that?]

    I guess she¡¯s not used to death. ¡®I¡¯m sorry¡¯ I can¡¯t get anything else out, it would just be excuses on top of excuses.

    I don¡¯t get a response back, she might not forgive me. She shouldn¡¯t, I¡¯m the one that scared her. Next time I might need to hold back.

    She sits up and starts hugging me, crying on my shoulder. Ah, she¡¯s touching me. I don¡¯t want that, it just reminds me of that moustache man. I shiver. But April needs it, just this once then. I feel disgusted, but manage to get myself together.

    I wonder how long she¡¯ll hug me for, I don¡¯t know how long I can hold on.

    Wait, why is the world disappearing again? April disappears out of my arms, I don¡¯t want to lose her again!

    You have sinned and will be punished accordingly.

    Welcome to the Sin System.

 Liliannes Memories (1)

    Lilianne''s Memories

    <hr>

    When I first woke up in this life, I realised something. My parents here were afraid of us. The horrified expression I saw on their face was burned into my eyes.

    My mother had her mouth open, and her eyes told me she was afraid. Shortly after she broke down crying.

    My father had a bit more tact, he kept his stern face, but I felt the disgust coming from his gaze.

    They closed down their house, fired all of the staff they had, and I''m pretty sure they took care of everyone who saw us.

    I would''ve thought they would get rid of us right away, but they kept us.

    Later on I learned the reason, if they did it too early people would talk about it. A miscarriage would ruin their reputation, just like letting us be known to the world.

    Apparently father owned the town, or specifically the land it was built on. Every building paid him, every deal had a tax for him, it wouldn''t be a surprise if he were richer than most. I think he owned more land somewhere else, leading to yet another source of money.

    When we were born he came to the town to tell them that he would keep us in until we were old enough. That as a protective father he realised his position gave us risks, and he wouldn''t want anyone near us.

    He had the manipulation skills and managed to wrap everyone around his finger.

    The next step in his plan was to get rid of us. He didn''t want to leave anything up to chance, and thought of the consequences every possible action could have.

    If it was too early, he would''ve been blamed. Like bad security for a break in.

    He decided to wait, so he could blame it on us no matter what happened. After that he could say that he''s heartbroken about the loss and doesn''t want to start again.

    Even though he didn''t tell mother, I heard him complain about her. Since she gave birth to ''demons'' he wouldn''t want any other kid with her. I think she''s next in the accidentally dead list.

    She must have noticed something, purely from the fact that he started ignoring her. Her emotions blamed us for it, and she took it out on us.

    Specifically, she took it out on Thomas and me. She ignored the other two for some reason. If Nick or Sam did something, mother would punish us for it.

    It might have been her trying to make us feel responsible for them. That we would raise them for her, so she didn''t need to work.

    She might have thought it worked, but since they were made from us, we already tried to raise them our way.

    We did want to get out, but with the risks involved even Thomas, the hot-headed one, didn''t want to try it. So just like father, we decided to wait for the best time.

    We researched our powers, what we''ve gained and how to use them. Then worked out ways to make them even better. All was going well, until Sam started to change.

    Sam woke up with a nightmare that day, she seemed extremely scared of losing me.

    For anyone it might be a normal thing, but Sam and I weren''t close enough for her to suddenly be afraid of losing me. I spent most of my days with Thomas, and whenever he did his annoying usual self I would get grumpy. So I wasn''t exactly nice to her at all times.

    After that, her manners and habits changed. Even her personality felt different. Other people might not have noticed, but I spent six years living with her in one room. She used to be simple, doing the same monotonous routine everyday.

    Like that, it was really easy to figure out what she liked and didn''t like. For example, she was afraid of Thomas, everything he did was intimidating to her. She didn''t see that he just has a big mouth but no bite.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    This day she just seemed out of it, confused. But mostly afraid. She has two usual responses to being afraid, either she blanks out and stands there without knowing what to do, or she''ll have a mental breakdown by overthinking. The last one will cause her to panic, and the only way of getting her out is by calming her.

    The difference seems to be between whether something is happening or something can happen. If something is happening she just stops functioning, like someone switched her off.

    If something can happen she will absolutely panic and think of all that can happen. Not even a solution on how to prevent it, just thinking about things that make her emotional state even worse.

    Since usually nothing is happening I''m used to the latter. This time she had the former, and that made me worried. What is happening right now to make you afraid? I don''t see anything, so why aren''t you having a panic attack?

    She held onto me as long as she could, just silently staring. It almost became creepy.

    So after breakfast I immediately made Thomas follow me, to share my findings.

    We went to the usual room, it''s a room without any windows and in a hall where not a lot of people pass by. I''m not sure why my parents made it, but it sure came in handy.

    "There''s something wrong with Sam, I think we need to hurry up with our plan before this can change the situation." I seriously explained to him, but Thomas being Thomas, he didn''t care.

    "That just sounds like your problem, who knows, maybe she''s having her bad phase. If we hurry our plan just for this it would make all of the preparations we did useless." The plan we were talking about was our escape. I once went outside to check our surroundings.

    Because you can''t do that in one trip, I went outside multiple times until I was sure I couldn''t get lost.

    Thomas sneaked around inside, trying to find where they hide their food and where we could hide it for ourselves. He always checked our parents'' schedules before his search mission, so he knew exactly when they were out.

    The only thing holding us back was the fact that we were six.

    "You don''t get it, this change is getting bigger faster. I managed to make her happy with some talk for a moment. The next moment, not even a second later, she''s out of it. As if we did not just talk, she just stared down and I had to speak to get her out of it.

    Then the stare she gave me, it was a completely empty stare. Then she started talking about not knowing what''s real or not. We need to get her out of here, as soon as we can."

    "So what if she''s going crazy, do you think I care?"

    "I said we need to get her out of here." I said with a straight face. He knew I was ordering him, he didn''t have a say in this.

    "No."

    "Can''t you listen for once!" He was always there to make me pissed.

    "Don''t you dare order me!" Thomas shouted back at me. I felt someone standing at the door outside, and realised it was Sam. How she managed to get here I didn''t know, what I did know was how I could use that.

    I managed to steer the conversation and pulled Sam in, it surprised Thomas.

    It did work, since he realised how serious I was. Combining powers was a big risk, you can lose yourself to the other. And when that happens, there''s no one to control your side of the power, letting it run wild.

    Since Sam is a beginner, any power combining with her would 99% go wrong. She just doesn''t know how to control her power, and when I have to jump in on her side to help, I''ll just take her over.

    I thought everything was going well, so I stopped holding Sam. The next moment she changes yet again. She went white as a sheet out of nowhere.

    Even though she''s pale, looking sad and terrified, she seemed to have gained resolution. I don''t know what for and how.

    Then she looked at me, and I saw her eyes glow. The one signal she''s awakening to her powers, and it''s way too early. She was just six, she wasn''t ready both physically and mentally.

    It showed Thomas that we did have to hurry up, but of course he wasn''t willing to help.

    I had to do it all by myself, and I hadn¡¯t even awakened yet. Then I noticed something odd.

    All our souls gave a different feeling, it was the only difference we had. For me it''s like ice, it''s just cold. But there''s a fire somewhere, recklessly burning in the middle of ice.

    With Thomas felt like pushing against a wall and there''s just a terrible bloody smell coming from behind it.

    Nick had this calming field, nothing else.

    And for Sam it was a tunnel, a dark tunnel. But you could see the light at the end.

    I didn''t see the light at the end of the tunnel anymore, I saw ice. It''s extremely unsettling, and made even me slightly afraid. A soul couldn''t just change like that.

    I tried ignoring it and just helped her. After that we had to fill her in on some details, so she knew what happened.

    Once I saw the oddity, I couldn''t shake this feeling that something was wrong. I felt like Thomas''s suggestion that we seal her memories of this occurrence was a great idea to keep us safe.

    After he finished the seal she looked absolutely fine. As if the seal didn''t give her a headache or something. Even worse was that she didn''t look like she just received a lot of new info.

    I asked her if she had any questions, to see if she understood what I said. She actually had a question, showing that she¡¯s really interested in getting stronger. Why is she caring about strength now?

 Liliannes Memories (2)

    Lilianne''s Memories

    <hr>

    I poked at her changing a bit, she didn¡¯t give any response to it, just waiting for me to answer her question.

    Seeing she didn''t respond I internally sighed and told her the basic methods, like what the pros and cons are.

    After the long explanation I stared at her, I wanted to see if she still had the interest in it or if she became bored, instead she looked down at her hands, hesitating about something.

    When she told me she already had a follower I was shocked, how could she already have a follower? Just mere seconds before when she awakened she had nothing, no one. She didn¡¯t leave the room, so how is it possible?

    And not even in the correct way, she did it without her hands. That shouldn¡¯t work, the hands are the part that give and take. They¡¯re also there to have a distance, so that it¡¯s just a piece and not who knows how much.

    Did she just push her whole soul into the other person? I didn¡¯t know, it hasn¡¯t been done before and probably wouldn¡¯t be done after.

    She talked about a line between them, it made me wonder. Did it lead to the other person? Would they feel it pulling if they walk away from each other?

    Thomas asked her how, and she had this look as if she was a deer in headlights.

    I started listing a few of her changes, and possible reasons, to see if she would react to it. I did it in a joke manner to make sure it didn¡¯t feel too odd, or else she would¡¯ve panicked instead of responding to something.

    Thomas made a response that gave me a great way of joking about it even more, Sam just looked down, calculating things in her head. She never hid anything from us before, and now she clearly has something to hide.

    I made one last poke at her by calling her Blue instead of Sam, she wasn¡¯t Sam anymore. She didn¡¯t seem to notice however, too busy thinking about what to do.

    In the end she decided on acting as if she didn¡¯t know. Did she think I was stupid? I give her a mocking smile.

    She kept her answer even then, so I decided to figure it out myself. If she had nothing to hide she wouldn¡¯t mind me checking her memories.

    As expected, she responded confused. Thomas shook his head, knowing exactly how she fell into my trap.

    It was so easy, I started grinning. She might have had a change, but she was still just a kid.

    I pushed her once more, and she responded annoyed. Things just went silent while she was thinking of how to respond to it.

    I acted as if I was impatient, to get her to hurry. It would be easier if she cracked under the stress and gave in.

    Thomas did a poke showing that we knew what she was doing, I responded as if I didn¡¯t believe it. The act seemed to work, since she opened her mouth. I just didn¡¯t expect what came out of it.

    She asked me to give her something first, before she would give in. The who we were, who we are and why we were here. Did she have an identity crisis?

    She even surprised Thomas, you could hear a pin drop as we stared at her.

    Thomas started laughing, he attacked me about her not listening to me.

    I¡¯ll get her to listen to me, just you wait¡­

    I used my poker face and bluffs came out of my mouth. All her responses were as if she saw right through my bluffs, pointing out the flaws in it.

    It was frustrating, why couldn¡¯t she just do as I said. I didn¡¯t need a Thomas two point oh.

    She absolutely wasn¡¯t Sam anymore, and it scared me. Who the hell was this stranger in front of me and where is Sam? What made her change so much?

    I realised my lip started bleeding, I didn¡¯t need this frustration.

    She introduced herself as Blue, with this big smile on her face. She stood confident against me, unlike Sam who wouldn¡¯t have looked me into my eyes.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    There was nothing else I could try on her, she wouldn¡¯t give in. Thomas became happy just because I didn¡¯t have Sam anymore.

    If Sam could change, why wouldn¡¯t Nick change, I warned Thomas that he could lose Nick just like that.

    He just acted as if he was the stronger one, I would have to put him back in his place later.

    I made a deal with Blue and tried to intimidate her, so she wouldn¡¯t back down on her part. That seemed to work for now.

    After yet another explanation I would finally get my answer. She pointed out that she could control what I saw, and I bluffed my way out of that. She didn¡¯t realise I used all my power on her awakening and thus wouldn¡¯t have anything to control her anyway.

    Everything flooded in, I saw myself die, saw Blue awakening independently, saw her meet new people, everything. Did that make this fake?

    What other things could it be? Did she have a dream world? But seeing she actually had a follower, that would make this the dream world. But, she wouldn¡¯t know any of this so she couldn¡¯t dream about it¡­

    What if she made this world, using a bit of our souls? That would explain how we knew things she couldn¡¯t know. It left the part about things we didn¡¯t know, we would have to check that later.

    The first thing she did was thanking us, of course she would. The second thing was asking if she could help me. Since I was dead it¡¯s impossible, it had been longer than 24 hours. She didn¡¯t have the strength to revive me anyway.

    She still wanted to know how to revive people, so I just left the part that if you did the opposite you could kill someone and break their soul. She wouldn¡¯t need that, and if she ever did she¡¯d figure it out herself.

    She thanked me again, and then fell asleep. I wouldn¡¯t expect anything else of six year olds.

    Thomas didn¡¯t want to leave it at that, and wanted to go outside to a place we¡¯d never been before right away.

    Secretly, I felt the same way, I didn¡¯t tell him though and just acted as if we did it because of him.

    Our parents were out that evening, to some kind of party. They wouldn¡¯t be back until the next day, so we went right away and brought Blue with us. Later we left her inside a hut we found so we could go around the forest a bit, and we still saw the world even though we¡¯d never been here before.

    This trip confused us even more. We kept wandering around to see if we could find anything that would tell us what¡¯s wrong.

    In the end we came back to the hut, even worse than how we started. Blue looked at me with wide eyes, I shouldn¡¯t have left her here in this unknown place. She might not be Sam, but she still has the exact fear. It was too late for regret though, so I skipped it.

    We started questioning her, if anything stood out to her. She started tapping her chin, and it reminded me of the ice I saw in her. Thomas pointed it out to her, because he couldn¡¯t keep his mouth shut and leave it.

    I told her to start talking. She knew nothing this time, and she wasn¡¯t lying. The headache and time passing is because this still hurts her mentally.

    Thomas mentioned the line she had talked about before, it was a good point. If the person would be here then maybe we could¡¯ve figured things out more.

    After some back and forth Blue walked away, just like that. She looked really out of it, so I asked her where she was going. She didn¡¯t give me a useful response and walked past me.

    I gazed at Thomas and he nodded, so off we went, following Blue to who knows where.

    She walked through the town, not stopping for even a single second.

    When she finally arrived at her destination I asked her what she found. She pointed at this house, we couldn¡¯t just enter a house.

    I did feel something near that house, and Thomas must have felt it too. It came from one of the windows, and Thomas, being the idiot he is, threw a rock at it.

    It gave us the info we needed, even if Blue didn¡¯t realise it. Whoever was behind that window woke up, and we sensed the soul in there. It felt odd, Blue is definitely connected to this person, but it seems one sided, as if it didn¡¯t happen for that person.

    The rock woke up the whole place, and I took Blue and Thomas away.

    We went back to our house, I brought them through all the streets I was so familiar with and we returned quickly. Thomas went back to his own room, and I made sure Blue went to sleep. After she fell asleep I went to Thomas, and we discussed what had happened.

    We didn¡¯t get a lot further, and our parents returned shortly after. I went ahead and spied on their conversation again.

    I realised we made a big mistake by going out. Of course they would¡¯ve had sources who would tell them we went on a long trip. Father decided that would be the best time to get rid of us, saying we sneaked out and then had an ¡®accident¡¯. We had to get out of there, before he did that.

    They came to us in the evening, saying it was against the rules to go outside and all. I tried one last plead and realised it wasn¡¯t going anywhere, so I took Blue¡¯s hand and ran away.

    Something about Blue changed, and she wasn¡¯t Blue, but Sam again somehow. I didn¡¯t know how it happened, and we didn¡¯t have the time to find out.

    When we reached a certain point I came to the realisation that I saw this before. I was going to die here.

    I went on with the route, we didn¡¯t have a lot of choice in there. And as expected, the two adults were surrounding us again.

    They took Sam, who just went limp for them. She stared at me, there was so much fear in her eyes, it was unbelievable.

    If I died here, the two adults would be distracted long enough and all the would get a chance at surviving. That¡¯s a small sacrifice to make. I had Blue anyway, I wouldn¡¯t have to worry about finding a replacement. If I merged my soul with her, then maybe the balance wouldn¡¯t be broken. She¡¯d have to carry two sides of the balance, which made her neutral instead of good. Maybe that¡¯s for the best anyway. I would have to seal the memories and let her unlock it in time, otherwise it would be too much for her.

    I give one final growl, letting out all my frustrations, and clench my fists. Let¡¯s do this. I run towards Sam and with one final smile I give her my soul. ¡°Seal¡­ Memories¡­¡±

 Chapter 24 - Missions

    Uh what. I have sinned? What did I do?

    You slaughtered a town.

    I didn''t? Just the few that were there.

    You killed everything that was alive in that town.

    The surroundings change and I see the town from a bird eyes position. There''s corpses everywhere, and I mean everywhere.

    Did I do that? I don''t remember doing that.

    The Sin System decided on a mission based punishment.

    What? Missions?

    The Sin System has the following rules:

    <ul>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Don''t tell anyone about the Sin System. </li>

    </ul>

    <ul>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Don''t lie. </li>

    </ul>

    <ul>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Follow the missions. </li>

    </ul>

    <ul>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">If the Sin System doesn''t like your actions, redo them.</li>

    </ul>

    <ul>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Don''t kill anyone unless the Sin System tells you to. </li>

    </ul>

    <ul>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">The rules can and will be changed if the Sin System thinks it''s necessary.</li>

    </ul>

    Break any of these rules and punishment will be given.

    That takes away my free will? Am I now a slave to the system?

    Loading in people connected to you.

    Do they mean April and the rest? Will they be punished because of me now?

    No, no outsider will be punished.

    I guess that''s a good thing.

    Loading first mission.

    I wonder what will happen. Oh, the world changes.

    Current missions:

    <ul>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Graduate. </li>

    </ul>

    <ul>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Don''t talk or communicate in any other way.</li>

    </ul>

    Wait, no talking at all?

    Yes.

    But why?

    Because the system says so.

    This is entertainment for you, huh?

    The Sin System will only contact you to inform you of the starting missions.

    World fully loaded.

    The world that was changing around me finally finished. I think I''m lying down, staring at a white roof. I can''t move my head or anything. Off to a great start.

    There''s really nothing to do but stare at the white roof. I''ll head into my soul space instead.

    It''s still the same castle as before. I liked making it, and I was proud when we finished it. I''ve never gotten the chance to show April the room I made for her, I couldn''t ask her somehow. I wonder if she saw it or not.

    I walk to the common room, April made this place with bookshelves on one corner, something she calls a tv in the second corner and a couch with a table in the third corner. She gave the fourth corner to me if I ever wanted to add something.

    Are the books real? Let''s find out. I head to the bookshelves and pick up a random book.

    ''Snow White'' It has a title, now, can I read it? I open the book and see there''s indeed text on the pages.

    Are these all the books April has read before?A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

    Time passes quickly, who knew reading could be so fun. I should thank my ex parents for forcing me to learn how to read.

    Maybe not, I rather kill them.

    I''ll head out the soul space for now, maybe I can move something now.

    I open my eyes and see someone''s face. What a scary thing to wake up to.

    The face notices that I''m awake. A hand appears and touches my face. Why is everyone so touchy? I can''t move away, so let''s just stare until the face dies. I fight the urge to throw up, how else can I stare.

    It doesn''t get the hint. Instead another hand appears to pick me up. I have this feeling that tells me I''m a baby. That makes it the fourth time for my soul, or maybe more that I don''t know of.

    Then it holds me up in front of them. You know, this is the perfect time to stop fighting the urge to throw up. And that''s exactly what I do.

    Ha, the face doesn''t look happy anymore, and luckily for me, puts me down.

    My soul space is way better than this place. I can''t fulfill the missions in there sadly.

    <hr>

    It¡¯s boring, I have nothing to do and no one to talk to. This system thing is trying to make me go crazy. I wonder at what point the missions are considered done, and what after?

    I haven¡¯t seen any familiar faces around, even though the system said that it loaded in people connected to me, right?

    I¡¯m all alone here, it feels horrible. I can¡¯t protect myself, I can¡¯t do anything actually. It¡¯s terrifying, anything could come to hurt me and all I can do is watch.

    I¡¯d go to my soul space, but it¡¯s still empty. I feel like there¡¯s a monster in every corner, waiting to come out. I¡¯m happy it¡¯s always day though, if it¡¯s dark I.. I don¡¯t even want to know.

    <hr>

    Apparently I¡¯m old enough for something called school now. Not communicating to anyone, I¡¯m going to be lonely. I wonder what falls under communicating, like do I have to avoid gazing at someone?

    I step outside with my ¡®parents¡¯ and sigh. If they just disappear then everything would be great.

    Ah, the world is changing again. Those ¡®parents¡¯ did disappear with that.

    The whole place is empty, just dark and empty, like a soul space. A big circle appears, just flying in the air. There¡¯s words written between lines and an arrow at the top pointing towards one of the words.

    It starts spinning, I wonder what for.

    Punishment chosen. Falling for 1 hour.

    What?

    The empty space changes into a sky, and I fall through what used to be a floor. The sudden change of speed makes my stomach drop, it feels awful. Wind comes from everywhere, and there¡¯s nothing but blue around. There¡¯s nothing to grab onto or to stop myself. I start spinning, making things even worse. It¡¯s nauseating, I¡¯m getting a headache from all this.

    How long is one hour even? Am I near the end yet?

    <hr>

    It took a while to finish, and now I¡¯m back at the point before I leave the house. What part of the rules did I break? Who made this system so it doesn¡¯t tell what they punish me for?

    I¡¯m absolutely going crazy, what am I supposed to do here? These missions are unreasonable.

    Can I go out or not, that¡¯s the question. I don¡¯t want another punishment while not knowing what for.

    I don''t get a chance to find out as my ''parents'' pull me out. When will they stop touching me?

    They lead me towards some weird thing, it has wheels like a carriage and that''s where the similarities end.

    Oh, it can open, guess it has another thing in common. ''Dad'', the bastard that he is, lifts me up and into whatever it is. Through the years I''ve managed to hold back on throwing up every time. Lucky for them, since they find every possible excuse to hold me.

    ''Dad'' ties me down to this weird seat, then closes the door.

    A door in front of me opens as ''mom'' steps in, and a bit later ''dad'' does the same on the other side.

    Some shuffling and whatever later, this whole thing starts growling and shaking. Is it a monster? Is this thing actually alive?

    I start looking at my ''parents'' to see any sign that things went wrong. They, however, didn''t seem to care.

    Since apparently nothing is wrong, let me take this time to describe my ''parents''.

    ''Dad'' has black hair, like mine, in a weird knot on his head. Another thing that''s the same is our eye colour, although his seems to be a lot lighter.

    He has a stubble as beard. At first I thought he was growing it into a full beard, but after four years it hasn''t grown a single time. Poor guy can''t grow a beard.

    ''Mom'' doesn''t look like me at all with her dark brown hair and hazel eyes. Her hair is slightly wavy as well, is this really my ''mom''?

    This thing comes to a stop, no more growling. I saw ''dad'' untie himself by clicking a weird red thing, probably a button. I quickly mimic him to avoid being touched again.

    Luckily the red button does exactly what I want it to do and I''m free. ''Dad'' opens my door and I hop out, avoiding him.

    He lets out a confused murmur. "What..?"

    So, where do we go now? Around me are things like the thing that brought us here. Different colors and shapes for some, but very much alike anyway.

    Surprisingly behind all that are really tall buildings, like with Julie''s dream.

    How does it stand like that? Shouldn''t it fall?

    "Come, honey." Ugh, no. I''m not responding to that, no communication limits my options.

    I stand there and look around for a bit longer, then turn around to follow my ''parents''. They seem to have expected that, probably because I''ve always done it this way.

    We get to these big open doors, and apparently that''s an invite in since they just walk through.

    There''s little kids everywhere, or well, I guess they''re my age now.

    ''Dad'' walks off to who knows where, ''mom'' stands still, happily looking around.

    So eh, what now?

 Chapter 25 - First Day of School

    All the kids around curiously look at me. I don¡¯t like this attention, can we just go?

    ¡®Dad¡¯ comes back with some other adult following him. The adult is an old man with glasses, his hair totally white.

    ¡°Honey, this is the headmaster. Can you introduce yourself?¡± ¡®Dad¡¯ asks me, but nope, not gonna happen.

    This building is quite big, I can see five big rooms full of chairs and tables around. All the rooms lead to this room, a big open space with more tables and chairs. There¡¯s also bookshelves around, with stickers on every shelf. The language here is different, so I don¡¯t know what the stickers say.

    It was hard to learn the language without talking, but luckily my ¡®parents¡¯ kept trying even if I said nothing.

    ¡®Dad¡¯ has this smile that says sorry. Whatever works for him, I¡¯m not gonna apologize.

    ¡°Sorry for that, she hasn¡¯t said anything to us either.¡± ¡®Dad¡¯ explains.

    ¡°Haha, kids, huh? We¡¯ll get her out of her shell here, don¡¯t worry.¡± The old man says. As if, don¡¯t even bother.

    ¡°Well then, have fun, honey.¡± ¡®Dad¡¯ waves and walks off, taking ¡®mom¡¯ with him.

    A hand pushes my back, into the direction of one of the rooms. I can walk myself, but of course they don¡¯t care about that. Every touch, it just feels disgusting and reminds me of moustache man.

    You can do this, ignore the hand. It¡¯s all fine, it¡¯s over soon.

    This old man, he¡¯s still pushing me even though we¡¯re already in the room. What else do you want? I step forward to get rid of his hand.

    There¡¯s like twenty or thirty kids sitting in front of me. That¡¯s more kids than I¡¯ve ever seen in my life.

    ¡°Class!¡± A woman with long blonde hair claps her hands. ¡°Attention please!¡± She looks around to see if everyone looks at her. With a shake of her head she continues. ¡°You too, Kevin¡­¡±

    It takes a while for everyone to sit still and pay attention to the woman. When it¡¯s finally quiet the woman sighs. ¡°Alright, class, we have a new kid joining us today! What do we do when we have new kids?¡± She says with a smile, I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a real smile.

    One kid enthusiastically raises her hand. ¡°Me! Me! I know the answer!¡±

    ¡°Yes, Christina?¡± The woman nods.

    ¡°The name circle!¡± Christina proudly announces.

    The woman claps. ¡°That¡¯s it! Everyone, come sit in a circle!¡±

    All the children grab their chairs and put them in a circle, fighting about who can sit next to someone.

    I spot a hand coming towards me and I side step it. Guess who¡¯s the pro dodger now? The woman looks at me with a tilted head. ¡°You can grab a chair from over there.¡± Well thanks for the info but no.

    What else can I do but stand there. Awkward, will minutes just pass with me standing here?

    A boy stands up, grabbing a chair and putting it next to his chair. ¡°Here, you can sit next to me!¡± Did he think I didn¡¯t know where to sit? I guess he tried. The boy, instead of sitting down again, heads towards me. Why? I don¡¯t know.

    He grabs my hand and pulls me towards the chair. I thought I would be disgusted by him pulling my hand, but surprisingly it does me nothing.

    ¡°How kind of you, Evan.¡± The woman says with a smile. I guess he prevented me awkwardly standing around for hours. With that I sit down, sitting is so much better than standing anyway.

    ¡°Well then, let¡¯s go clockwise, all of you do know what clockwise is, right?¡± The woman says overly happy and fake.

    ¡°That means I start!¡± A kid to the left of the teacher says.

    ¡°Indeed! Go ahead!¡± The woman smiles.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°I¡¯m Brian!¡± Brian has short black hair with a lot of curls. I can see a sparkle in his brown eyes, does he like new people? Or does he like the attention?

    ¡°I¡¯m Stacy.¡± The next kid says. Stacy has long blonde hair in a braid. Her amber eyes look bored.

    And that¡¯s all that I got attention for. All the kids look almost the same anyway, brown eyes with brown hair seems to be really common here.

    I know they all do this for me, but I¡¯m not gonna call them by their name anyway. I¡¯m not gonna call them at all.

    So this room, the tables seem to be in groups of four. Since everyone is sitting here there¡¯s no chairs at the tables. There¡¯s a little container in the middle of every table group, it has some weird sticks in them.

    There¡¯s a doll house in one of the corners, with all kinds of dolls that don¡¯t seem to fit. Another bigger house is made in the wall, a ladder reaching into it.

    Now that I think about it, this whole place seems to be filled with toys. Nothing else.

    Someone taps my shoulder, I¡¯ll ignore them. So on the opposite side of the entrance there¡¯s big windows. They reach the outside and have this little space to sit in. I guess you could sit there and look at the clouds or something.

    There¡¯s also a door leading out, to a field or something. From what I can see it¡¯s fenced off.

    I hear someone calling out to me, but that¡¯s not my problem. Ignoring might be hard when they try to catch your attention, but I got four years of experience on this. Those ¡®parents¡¯ kept trying to make me talk or laugh, they looked like idiots.

    While I¡¯m ¡®saying¡¯ all of this and acting like I don¡¯t care, it¡¯s embarrassing and awkward. I know everyone is looking at me and waiting. I feel terrible, can I cry? Or maybe they can skip this part and let me leave in peace.

    No, don¡¯t cry. Think about cute things, like Vince jumping around.

    Or Julie whenever she teases someone, with April trying to tease her back.

    Natasha in when she was in the cave, standing there in the light.

    And Ray seriously explaining all kinds of details.

    Eve secretly caring by using her knowledge.

    Kate when she tried following a book on how to be a doctor.

    Or that moment after I revived April, she looked so cute with her hand in front of her mouth and a blush. But I made her scared, and now I feel awful again. That look full of fear, I don¡¯t want to scare her. I don¡¯t want to scare anyone.

    What if I run away, would they stop me? Not that I can get far, I can¡¯t do a lot without talking.

    How am I supposed to spend my days here? That¡¯s also a valid question. Just staring maybe.

    Okay that didn¡¯t work. I could go to my soul space, but I don¡¯t know how that looks for outsiders. What if I wake up in a hospital because they thought I died?

    Something pulls my hand, I look up and see Evan pulling me to a table. I guess at least it gave me a way out.

    I¡¯m absolutely not interested at what happened and what will happen, can this day just fast forward?

    Evan hands me a paper, who knows why. I stare at the paper, I¡¯m not gonna take it. He sure tries though, what does he want from me? After a while of me not taking the paper he puts it on the table.

    ¡°This is my favourite hobby! Here, have a pencil!¡± He picks up a stick from the small container and again tries to give it to me.

    I, of course, don¡¯t accept. He gives up and lays down the pencil near me. ¡°Go ahead, draw something!¡± Evan says. I don¡¯t need your permission to do anything, and I¡¯m not gonna listen to you.

    He leaves to grab another paper, this time for himself. So he just wanted to draw all along? Then just do it and leave me alone.

    This place is boring. I want to go, but where? Since I have nothing to do, I might as well try drawing. Evan is using the weird stick he called a pencil. It seems way easier than the quill my old place used to have.

    I pick up the pencil and try to make a line on the paper. It¡¯s really easy to use, like really easy. I¡¯ll make a flower out of that line, and then add a sun. Maybe a flower field?

    Ah, my paper is full. I glance around and find the spot where Evan had taken a paper from before. It¡¯s just a single trip to grab a paper and head back, don¡¯t make a big deal out of it. I clench my fists and stand up.

    And I quickly and quietly pick up some paper, so that I can go on for a while. Alright back to the table.

    I arrive at my table and see that Evan took my drawings. Oh well, I don¡¯t need it anyway. Let¡¯s draw a bird now, and a bunny.

    ¡°You like drawing too?¡± Evan shows me a big smile. Not my problem buddy, let me work on my own things.

    I could draw the church, and my old house. Maybe the bread seller from Nicolas. Or the Little Market. There¡¯s so much I can draw, but not enough time and paper.

    ¡°You can add colour to it, with these pencils! Look, this one is yellow, like the sun.¡± Evan jumps in to start a conversation again.

    I take a look at the pencils he¡¯s talking about and see all kinds of bright colours. Do you use them like this pencil? How did they even get it in the colours? Ink is black right? It¡¯s magic. I pick up a random pencil and see if it actually makes a coloured line or not.

    It does, wow. It¡¯s just as easy as the other pencil, how did they even make this? This place feels so magical with the impossible high buildings and the sticks that doesn¡¯t need ink to be used.

    I spent the rest of the day trying to draw things. At least it keeps me busy.

    ¡®Mom¡¯ and ¡®dad¡¯ came to pick me up after so that¡¯s happy news. Finally out of this place.

    We use the same weird thing as on the way here, I quickly hop in and tie myself so that no one else has to do it.

    I hope I won¡¯t ever need to go there again. It¡¯s awful.

 Chapter 26 - Visitors

    ¡®Dad¡¯ woke me up early today. Don¡¯t tell me we¡¯re going back to that place from yesterday? Once was enough.

    Not that I can tell that to them, or that they would listen. This time ¡®dad¡¯ is alone, ¡®mom¡¯ seems to be out.

    We¡¯re going into the same thing as yesterday. Now that it¡¯s not that new anymore I can focus on what happens outside of it.

    It actually is way faster than a carriage, those buildings just pass by within a second. But it doesn¡¯t use horses or anything else, so how does it move forward? Is it magic? That has to be the only explanation.

    We arrive once again. The building is close to empty now, not like before. I don¡¯t see any kids around, just adults.

    ¡®Dad¡¯ drops me at the same room I was in yesterday, then he leaves the room. ¡°Honey, stay here, daddy will be back soon.¡±

    I don¡¯t care if you come back or not. Let¡¯s see what we can find in this room, no one else is around so I can do whatever I want.

    There¡¯s a lot of toys around, or I assume that it¡¯s toys. All of them seem to use bright colours, is this place rich? Since only merchants or nobles used colours, the rest just wasn¡¯t rich enough to buy it.

    Anyway, l don¡¯t know how any of it works. I grab some weird plank that has little planks that are coloured on it. There¡¯s something on those little planks but I can¡¯t read it.

    The big plank has two sticks on it, what¡¯s that for? I put it on my table to further inspect it. It makes a weird noise, but what made the noise?

    I tap on one of the little planks and it makes a noise, it sounds like the previous one but a bit higher.

    Am I supposed to tap the little planks with the sticks? Maybe that¡¯s why they added it.

    I guess it can¡¯t hurt to try.

    Okay so the bigger the little plank is the heavier the tone is. It sounds really nice, I haven¡¯t heard anything like this before. I wonder how they got the sound in there, hitting any other plank won¡¯t create this specific sound.

    ¡°Honey, come say bye.¡± ¡®Dad¡¯ comes in to get me to talk, once again.

    Back to the weird plank, if you hit multiple at the same time or within a short time it sounds amazing. Almost like it¡¯s made to fit with each other.

    Let¡¯s do something else now, like drawing. I pick up some paper and head back to the table. Maybe I can try to draw faces this time.

    I¡¯ll start with Evan, since I saw him yesterday. So he has brown curly hair, brown eyes and a slightly darker skin. Should be easy enough.

    A little while later I realised faces aren¡¯t easy at all. Make the eyes too big and it looks odd, too small and you have some creepy face. And how do you even draw eyes? Or depth that is, everything is just on one layer. Ugh, I give up for now.

    I look around and see the same kids as yesterday, sitting in a circle. They seem to ignore me, guess they learned from yesterday.

    ¡°Now then children, how many planets are there in the Flame Star System?¡± The same woman as before comes in with her fake happiness.

    ¡°Six!¡± The kids shout at the same time.

    ¡°Great, and what are their names?¡±

    The kids happily show off their knowledge. ¡°Ealia, Aliv, Inzoth, Ouvis, Thalia and Odilles!¡±

    ¡°And who named the planets?¡± The woman smiles, asking the basic questions.

    ¡°The Collilon Dynasty!¡±

    ¡°Indeed, the Collilon Dynasty were the first people to figure out we¡¯re living on a globe that circles around a star, which they named Kena. Their dynasty was full of stargazers, people who dreamed bigger than all the others. So children, dream big and you¡¯ll will manage to do great things.¡± The woman claps.

    Is this a motivational speech? Dreams won¡¯t always come true, unless you work hard for it. And even then, life can decide to ruin your dreams in just a snap. It¡¯s not just dream big and you will fulfill all those dreams right away.

    I don¡¯t even have something I want to reach in the future, if I can even reach that far.

    ¡°So kids, what are your dreams?¡± The woman asks.

    ¡°I want to be an astronaut! Flying in spaceships and reaching new planets!¡± A random kid shouts.

    ¡°I want to be a policeman! Like a superhero!¡± Another kid follows.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    ¡°I want to be a pilot!¡± More kids join in.

    ¡°I want to be an artist! To make people happy with my drawings!¡± Evan shouts. That¡¯s a job? Drawing for other people? How odd.

    ¡°I want to be a comedian! So I can bring a smile to everyone!¡± A kid decides.

    After all the kids had their turn to shout the woman continued. ¡°All of you have great dreams, and the first step towards them is right here! Work hard and your dreams will be within your reach.¡±

    I still don¡¯t think she gets how life works. Oh well, I can¡¯t teach her or anything.

    ¡°Break time, I have some great news afterwards!¡± The woman claps in her hands again. What¡¯s with all the clapping? What¡¯s the point?

    I continue with drawing, trying to find out the best way to draw a face. Who cares about break time, it¡¯s not like this whole place isn¡¯t a constant break.

    Something is placed on the corner of my table, apparently Evan gave me a cookie. I guess this works, I don¡¯t have to grab one from the woman now. I nibble on my cookie, this has a way better taste as the cookies I had before. Even this is magic, how do they do all that?

    The woman opens the door to the fenced area and all the kids jump out. Not me obviously, I¡¯m still nibbling on my cookie. I might head out later, see what¡¯s out there.

    The woman glances annoyed at me. She should go out and leave me, that makes it easier for the both of us. I focus on my cookie and she leaves with a shaking head.

    Oh, now my cookie is gone. Time to go outside I guess. I hop out the door and see a big fenced area, like expected.

    Most of the ground seems to be stone, but some parts are grass or even things that look like sticks. Seems painful to me, but I¡¯m not the one doing idiotic stuff and running around.

    There¡¯s multiple adults standing near each other, and one is walking around the field like a guard. A lot of kids seem unknown to me, guess every room has a break now.

    On the right side of the area there seems to be another fenced off place. The kids playing there are way taller than us, so they split the ages?

    I head towards that fence, to see what they¡¯re doing there. They seem to be kicking a black and white ball towards who knows where.

    When it crosses a certain line half the kids cheer and the rest looks down. Apparently the line is where the ball needs to go, and the other kids don¡¯t want it there.

    Someone pushes me and expected me to fall with it. I¡¯m still stronger than all of these kids, what can they do to me?

    ¡°What are you doing weirdo.¡± Oh now he speaks, how nice of him.

    I plan on walking away, but the guy tries to push me again. Can I push him back? I¡¯m thinking that has a big chance of punishment... I shiver with the thought.

    Another voice joins in. ¡°Hey kid, what do you think you¡¯re doing.¡± The voice belongs to a boy on the other side of the fence. Next to him stands a girl around the same age as him, which seems to be around seven.

    ¡°Don¡¯t you see how weird she is?¡± The kid points at me. Seeing the kid isn¡¯t bothering me anymore I lose interest in it. Ooh a flower, I kneel down next to it. It¡¯s a small white flower growing between the stones. It must have been hard for a little flower to grow here.

    Vince would like this, thinking about him makes me smile. Anyway, let¡¯s head inside. The outside seems boring.

    I¡¯m surprised to find Evan inside, drawing. Guess he also thought it was boring outside. This is my chance to draw him, since I can see the details now.

    With my paper and pencil ready I sit down. Let¡¯s do this!

    ¡°Break time is over!¡± The woman announces. ¡°Now, the great news! Is everyone ready?¡±

    ¡°Yes, teacher!¡± All the kids shout. Still not including me.

    ¡°We¡¯re having visitors! Kids from high school will come to read you stories, isn¡¯t that great!¡± The woman says. Somehow she always seems excited, but I don¡¯t believe it a single bit.

    After finishing her announcement she opens the door to the even bigger room. A bunch of tall people walk in, I think it¡¯s the same amount of kids that we have here. I¡¯m not sure how all of them fit in, but they do.

    Their ages vary, some of them are really tall and look like adults while the others look like kids.

    ¡°Now choose one of them and head to the hall.¡± With that the woman sits down and starts reading something. I guess she¡¯s happy with the break.

    Evan happily jumps up, just like the other kids. There goes my chance of drawing him. I managed to draw a terrible outline, nothing else yet.

    I lay my head on my table, maybe I can take a nap to skip time. With most of the kids gone it¡¯s quiet now, perfect for a nap.

    A voice disturbs my peace. ¡°Hey.¡±

    I put in effort to get my head up and look at a girl from the visitors. She has red, firelike, hair with brown eyes. With hair like that she definitely stands out.

    After staring at her I lay my head down on the table. No one is disturbing my nap, just ignore everyone.

    I hear a sigh behind me, I guess it¡¯s working.

    My chair is pulled back, is napping so bad? She steps in between me and the table, before I can even reach it.

    She squats down to reach my eye level probably. ¡°I¡¯m Sophie, what¡¯s your name?¡±

    What now? She has me cornered, I can¡¯t lay down on the table anymore.

    Maybe I should stare at her, until she leaves. It might give her the hint she needs.

    So I stare, and she stares back. I won¡¯t lose this staring competition.

    Now that I¡¯m awkwardly studying her face in a competition, I¡¯ve noticed she has slight freckles. It¡¯s hard to spot though, and I guess in the wrong light it¡¯s invisible.

    She just seems to stare at my eyes, so she should have seen me studying her face. I hope that makes her awkward enough. But seeing how confident she stares, I don¡¯t think she cares.

    I want to look away, I can¡¯t win this fight. But that would mean she won, I can¡¯t let that happen.

    ¡°Interesting name. Never heard of anyone else with that name.¡± She shakes her head. I won, also did she just make fun of me?

    It doesn¡¯t matter, she just needs to leave.

    She reaches out to me. Why? I don¡¯t have a single clue.

    Why is she holding me, this makes no sense. What is she trying to reach by holding me at both sides?

    Oh, I¡¯m flying. That¡¯s cheating! Lifting me off my chair like that, she just uses my size against me!

    She carries me like parents do with their children, and I know that because mine tried that a lot of times. I wonder if she has younger siblings.

    Also, unlike with my ¡®parents¡¯, she doesn¡¯t make me feel disgusted or anything. Just like Evan, and that kid that pushed me. I wonder if it¡¯s the age that matters.

 Chapter 27 - Story Time

    I wonder if Sophie realises I can walk myself. Although there¡¯s a big chance I wouldn¡¯t, guess that¡¯s why.

    If I really want to get away, I probably could, but that causes problems I don¡¯t want.

    She brings me to a bookshelf. Since I can¡¯t read anything on the books, it¡¯s just me looking at pictures.

    ¡°So, which book do you like?¡± She picks up one to show me. ¡°This one? Or do you like that one more?¡± I can¡¯t read them, so no, I don¡¯t like any of them.

    ¡°I see, you¡¯re great at making decisions.¡± She¡¯s making fun of me again, doesn¡¯t she have anything else to do. ¡°Well then, I¡¯ll pick this one. If it¡¯s terrible you can¡¯t blame me, you had a chance.¡± I¡¯ll still blame you, you can¡¯t stop me.

    She carries me and the book to who knows where and puts me down. What now? I¡¯ll just sit on this pillow, that¡¯s better than sitting on the ground. Sophie sits down next to me and opens the book.

    ¡°In a time far into the future. A time where everyone has a rocket ship.¡± The picture shows a big pointy thing in a backyard, I guess it¡¯s a rocket ship as she called it.

    She turns the page, this time it shows two little kids with one begging to the other. ¡°Mia really wants to go and see Thalia. But they aren¡¯t allowed to use the rocket without a grown-up. Mia begs Emily to let her use it. ¡®Please¡¯ says Mia. ¡®Just once!¡¯¡± Sophie really goes all in with different voices for the characters.

    The next page shows them in the rocket ship. ¡°¡®No Mia. My parents won¡¯t allow it.¡¯ Emily protests.

    ¡®Your parents are out for the weekend. We¡¯ll be back before they notice.¡¯ Mia promises.

    Emily reluctantly agrees. They soar off from Aliv on a hot summer night. Mia excitedly jumps around in the rocket.

    ¡®Did you know that the Kena will die one day?¡¯ Mia asks.

    ¡®As if, how can it die? Stars shine forever.¡¯ Emily shakes her head in disbelief.

    ¡®Stars get their energy by burning hydrogen to produce helium.¡¯¡± Sophie widens her eyes. ¡°Really, they use words like hydrogen in a child story?¡± She flips around the pages. ¡°They don¡¯t even explain what it is¡­¡± Sophie shakes her head. ¡°Hydrogen is a chemical element, it¡¯s almost everywhere. It doesn¡¯t have a smell, a colour, and taste. So you can¡¯t see it even though it¡¯s really common.¡±

    Sophie silently thinks for a bit before continuing. ¡°It¡¯s really flammable, meaning it it catches fire easily. Hydrogen is the simplest atom possible, and the first element on the periodic table. If two hydrogen combine with oxygen, the air we breathe in, it creates water.

    Stars are mostly made of hot gas. The gas is made of hydrogen and helium. It¡¯s probably too complicated anyway, you¡¯ll get this later in school.¡± She smiles.

    Sounds like more magic to me, all this didn¡¯t exist in my previous world. I wonder if they have books on it, but I can¡¯t read yet. Step one, learn how to read the letters here. Step two, find books about all the magic here. Seems like a plan to me.

    ¡°Anyway, let¡¯s get back to the story. ¡®Slowly, all it¡¯s hydrogen will get used up. Probably in more than five billion years.¡¯ Mia explains. ¡®When a star the size of the Kena dies, it becomes a white dwarf. When a star bigger than the Kena dies, it becomes a black hole.¡¯¡±

    Sophie sighs disappointed. ¡°They had such a great chance to explain the info¡­ When a star dies, it expands. The Kena would swallow all the nearby planets, including ours. So that¡¯d be the end for us, but there¡¯s a big chance we would be long gone before that happens.

    After a star finishes expanding, it will collapse. All that is left then is a very dense white core. After millions of years it will cool down and slowly become invisible.

    A bigger star dies very suddenly. They try to stay alive, but when their fuel runs out they expand like the Kena. But with their size, it¡¯s a red supergiant instead of a red giant.

    Their survival tactic is to burn whatever is left, which only works for a few million years. When they have nothing left to burn, they blow apart in a supernova explosion. For around a week the supernova is the brightest thing in the galaxy, then it fades. All that is left is a neutron star, or a black hole.

    New stars are created from the elements the supergiant made.¡± I wonder if it¡¯s common knowledge here, or that Sophie really likes space.

    ¡°Wait, I can show you a video on it.¡± A what? She grabs a weird rectangle shaped object. After pressing a weird button on the side the front lights up. I stare with big eyes, that¡¯s definitely magic.

    She presses the front with multiple fingers, really quick. The front seems to respond to her fingers, how? The object is right in front of me, showing a picture. Like a piece of art, but it moves and changes. Art doesn¡¯t do that¡­The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    A voice comes out of the object, is someone trapped in there? The voice doesn¡¯t seem scared or anything, just explaining what the object shows.

    After the ¡®video¡¯ ends I shiver. Black holes are a no go, not going anywhere near there.

    Sophie puts the object away and picks up the book. ¡°This time they better be clear with their text¡­¡± She sighs. After turning the page there¡¯s a picture with a lot of weird circles and colours. The rocket is in the middle of it all.

    ¡°Suddenly there¡¯s a loud beeping. ¡®ALERT! ALERT! HEAVY OBJECT PULLING SHIP OFF COURSE.¡¯ The computer says.

    ¡®But I can¡¯t see anything!¡¯ Emily panics.

    ¡®No, look¡¯ Mia says. ¡®The stars in Veira¡¯s Knife are no longer in a straight line.¡¯¡± Sophie sighs. ¡°Veira¡¯s Knife is an asterism, a group of stars that can be seen in the night sky. Veira¡¯s Knife is known to be a straight line, pointy like a knife. If you see four stars in a straight line, it¡¯s Veira¡¯s Knife.¡± So people named a line? Why?

    ¡°Mia gulps. ¡®I¡­ I¡­ I think we¡¯re near a black hole.¡¯¡± That¡¯s a big yikes. Will they die now?

    ¡°¡®The gravitational field of the black hole is bending the light of the stars near it, like a lens bends light that passes through it.¡¯¡± The ¡®video¡¯ from before told me about the light problems a black hole has, Sophie prepared me well.

    ¡°¡®Confirmation. BLACK HOLE TWICE AS HEAVY AS THE KENA. MOVING AT SPEED OF THE SHIP. BLACK HOLE EVENT HORIZON FIVE KILOMETRES AWAY.¡¯

    ¡®Black hole?¡¯ Emily asks.

    ¡®W¡­ w.... we need to move away NOW.¡± Mia stammers. ¡®If we reach the black hole, we will be sucked in forever!¡¯

    ¡®Why?¡¯ Emily demands an answer.

    ¡®First, let¡¯s get away!¡¯ Mia says panicked, on the verge of tears.

    Emily is shaking with fear. She yells commands at the computer.

    ¡®Full power, double power. Accelerate away from the black hole. Put everything you have.¡¯

    ¡®FIRING EMERGENCY BOOSTERS.¡¯

    But the pull is too strong.

    ¡®APPROACHING BLACK HOLE. FOUR KILOMETRES TO EVENT HORIZON. THREE KILOMETRES. TWO KILOMETRES.¡¯

    ¡®We¡¯re being pulled towards it!¡¯ Emily says.

    Suddenly, the computer announces. ¡®HOLDING AT ONE KILOMETRE. FIVE HUNDRED METRES AWAY FROM EVENT HORIZON. MAXIMUM POWER. HOLDING. HOLDING. HOLDING. HOLDING¡­¡¯

    The rocket remains motionless. A silent fight is taking place.

    On one side is the terrible gravitational pull of the black hole. On the other side is the power of the super new-generation rocket.

    The computer announces. ¡®PULLING AWAY. ONE KILOMETRE. TWO KILOMETRES. THREE KILOMETRES AWAY FROM EVENT HORIZON. MOVING AWAY FROM BLACK HOLE.¡¯

    Mia and Emily sigh in relief. They let go of each other and drop into their seats.

    ¡®Let¡¯s go home.¡¯ Emily says.

    ¡®A black hole, when a star larger than the Kena dies. It collapses into itself, it squeezes into nothing and becomes like a hole in space.¡¯ Mia sighs. ¡®Even time behaves funnily inside and near a black hole. It runs at a different rate than everywhere else.¡¯

    ¡®What happens when something like a rocket ship falls into a black hole?¡¯ Emily asks.

    ¡®It¡¯s sucked into the centre of the black hole, torn into nothing.¡¯ Mia says.

    ¡®Seriously?!¡¯ Emily squeals.

    She realised that they were lucky. Really lucky.

    ¡®Can anything escape a black hole?¡¯ Emily asks.

    Mia shakes her head. ¡®Not even light comes out of a black hole. The event horizon of a black hole is the point of no return. Anything that falls into it is forever lost to the outside world.¡¯

    ¡®Then, how many black holes are there?¡¯ Emily continues asking with a shudder.

    ¡®We don¡¯t know, scientists guess that there might be one black hole for every thousand stars in the universe. If that¡¯s true, then there¡¯s more than a billion billion black holes.¡¯

    Mia explains that there¡¯s black holes even bigger than this one in the universe.

    ¡®There¡¯s a huge black hole right in the middle of our galaxy, with the mass of more than a million Kenas.¡¯ Mia says.

    Emily becomes nervous from that. Mia assures her that it¡¯s really far away, about 50 million billion kilometres away.

    The rocket zooms towards Aliv. ¡®Are we close to home yet?¡¯ Mia asks.

    ¡®I think we¡¯re very close.¡¯ Emily answers.

    The computer announces. ¡®LANDING. WELCOME BACK TO ALIV.¡¯

    They quickly rush out, into Emily¡¯s backyard. Snowflakes hit their face. ¡®But it was summer when we left?¡¯ Emily asks confused.

    ¡®Time runs at a different rate near black holes¡­¡¯ Ava sighs.

    In the time they had spent fighting the black hole, six months had passed. Emily¡¯s parents had returned from their trip months ago.

    They are in big trouble now.¡± Sophie skips a few pages and reads something. ¡°So to get to Thalia within a day, the rocket would need to go really fast, almost at the speed of light. Anyone in a rocket ship that goes so fast would die. I guess space traveling just isn¡¯t reachable for us right now.¡± Sophie sighs.

    Sophie closes the book. ¡°Well, that was the end of the story. Did you like it?¡± No, of course not. Why would I be interested in childish stories.

    She pats my head. ¡°I guess you did, huh? Otherwise you wouldn¡¯t have climbed on top of me to see the pictures better.¡± What? I didn¡¯t climb anyone. She¡¯s lying. I look up and see her face above me. She¡¯s smiling, ugh okay you win. I might have been slightly interested in all the magic mentioned.

    I must say, she works way better as a seat than that pillow. Even with a pillow it felt like I was sitting on the ground.

    ¡°Well, it¡¯s time for me to go.¡± Sophie picks me up so she can stand up. She makes me stand next to her and pats my head again. ¡°Bye!¡± She waves and walks off.

    No. Don¡¯t leave me. I don¡¯t want to be left alone. You have to stay, or take me with you! My cheeks start feeling warm. I reach out my hand towards her. ¡°Please¡­ Don¡¯t... leave... me!¡± She turns around surprised. And that¡¯s the last thing I saw before the world faded.

 Chapter 28 - Trip

    It¡¯s the same as last time, a circle with words. It starts spinning, making a ticking sound every time it passes a word.

    After a few minutes it stops, it certainly felt like hours. The part where it ended doesn¡¯t have any words on it, I wonder what that means.

    Punishment chosen.

    Not even the system names it. Does this mean the punishment is nothing?

    The circle disappears, nothing else seems to happen.

    Hmm, maybe I should look around to see what changed. I try to take a step forward, but something stops me.

    I can¡¯t move anywhere, it¡¯s as if I¡¯m surrounded by walls.

    Footsteps approach, I can hear them, can¡¯t see them though. It¡¯s a real soft sound, so it should be far away.

    Just a tap tap, every second. Getting louder and louder. It¡¯s a creepy sound, ugh. I shiver, every tap increases the speed of my heartbeat. My heartbeat raises its volume, as if it¡¯s trying to compete with the footsteps.

    The worst thing about this is that I don¡¯t know what the punishment is and when it¡¯s over. I guess that¡¯s why it didn¡¯t show which punishment it is.

    My mind just blanks out trying to block out everything.

    <hr>

    I¡¯m not sure how much time passed, it feels like hours. The footsteps are really close now, and I hear rough breathing outside the ¡®wall¡¯. My back feels sweaty and goosebumps fill my arms.

    Suddenly the steps stop. The breathing is still there, so whoever is there hasn¡¯t left.

    I hear a loud crack, not sure where it comes from. A line of light appears on the left side of the wall, as it becomes bigger a hand slides in. Nope, I¡¯m not doing this. I shut my eyes close and wish whatever that thing is disappears.

    I feel something touch my shoulder. My knees just give up and I fall.

    ¡°Hey, are you alright?¡± A surprisingly sweet voice asks, it sounds familiar.

    It¡¯s a trick, don¡¯t look.

    The thing on my shoulder moves towards my back, pushing me forward into something warm and soft.

    <hr>

    I¡¯m not sure what happened, I might have passed out. When I opened my eyes I was back in my bedroom, it was dark as well. Is it night already? Who knows.

    Did something just move? Or am I making things up? I¡¯m getting goosebumps from this, I don¡¯t like night time. That shadow clearly moved, look, it¡¯s moving again. It¡¯s waving around, not even hiding its movement.

    It¡¯s probably a tree. Doesn¡¯t make it better, it should stop moving. These are things that don¡¯t happen at day time.

    Just keep your eyes closed, you¡¯ll be fine. Oh who am I kidding, I can¡¯t close my eyes.

    The rest of the night passes with me being tense about everything. Daylight comes through my window, making the whole room visible again. No monsters anywhere, great. I¡¯m extremely tired now, should¡¯ve gone to sleep instead.

    <hr>

    I fell asleep, and now ¡®dad¡¯ woke me up again.

    It¡¯s a terrible life, I don¡¯t want any of this. But back in the weird growling monster we go.

    Wait, this isn¡¯t that school place? Where are we going? I¡¯m never getting in this monster again, can¡¯t trust ¡®dad¡¯ with anything.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    <hr>

    This place, it¡¯s big. Really big. Bigger than anything I¡¯ve seen before. It¡¯s also tall, and it doesn¡¯t fall.

    Every wall around me is white, they didn¡¯t skip the floor either. It looks odd, it¡¯s not the yellowish white, but pure white. ¡®Dad¡¯ leads me through some halls, everything looks the same here. How does he even know the way?

    At some point the white walls were replaced with light blue, the floor with light yellow.

    This world has some weird places, is this normal?

    Anyway, ¡®dad¡¯ sits down on a chair and does nothing after. We¡¯re waiting? For what?

    Oh well, there¡¯s a dollhouse near the chairs. I guess they dump a lot of kids here to keep them busy.

    There¡¯s a mirror on a wall nearby, it¡¯s a lot better than the ones I saw in the other world. The weird growling monster that brought us here has three of those mirrors. The only odd thing about this mirror is that it¡¯s curved, everything looks wider in the mirror. Why would they make something like that? Isn¡¯t that a waste of a perfectly good mirror?

    A woman walks in and calls out to ¡®dad¡¯. If I listened I might have heard what my ¡®dad¡¯ is called, but I don¡¯t want to listen to anyone.

    ¡®Dad¡¯ pushes my back into a room, he doesn¡¯t go in himself. He should stop pushing me, I have my own legs.

    The woman heads into the room and closes the door, ¡®dad¡¯ apparently stays out.

    She sits on a chair behind a table. There¡¯s a weird flat square standing on the table, it looks like that weird thing Sophie had, but bigger.

    There¡¯s a flat rectangle on the table, in front of the flat square. All kinds of symbols are on little squares in the flat rectangle.

    ¡°You tell me everything, you don¡¯t need to hide it from me.¡± The woman says.

    As if it¡¯s that easy, who do you think would trust you like that?

    ¡°Did anyone hurt you? Did they touch you on places you don¡¯t like?¡± Ugh, any touch is something I don¡¯t like. You know what, I¡¯m not even going to listen to her. It¡¯s a waste of time, let¡¯s stare at clouds.

    I need a way to stop my ears so they won¡¯t work. That would make this easier. Well, you know what. I¡¯m done with this. I¡¯m leaving, good luck weird woman. Back to the door it is.

    ¡®Dad¡¯ looks quite surprised to see me walk out. Oh well, not my problem. The only problem I had was that it¡¯s hard to open a door with my height, but a little jump does wonders.

    We came from the left, right? Then that¡¯s where I¡¯m going. ¡®Dad¡¯ quickly stands up and stops me. No, I¡¯m done. I do a dodge and run past him.

    Somehow I manage to find the exit. I followed the crowd, and luckily they were headed the same way as I was.

    Now then, where should I go. Nothing here is familiar, so that makes it hard. Let¡¯s go right this time, there¡¯s nowhere to go anyway.

    I think I¡¯m far enough now, so I stop running. This whole place is surrounded by tall buildings and weird monsters. The monsters growl past me on black road, the people seem to walk on grey road.

    No one would want to walk in front of a monster anyway, that would hurt a lot.

    This place is busier than the main road on my previous world, it¡¯s not even close. My town could only be reached by either walking in the forest or by boat or ship. Carriages thus weren¡¯t used a lot. Compared to the monster carriages here, they are everywhere. Thousands line up, waiting for who knows what.

    It¡¯s really interesting, there¡¯s glass walls around. You can see everything inside, all the people doing whatever people do.

    This building has a lot of clothes on racks, and many people are touching the clothes. They do things like holding a shirt in front of themselves, I wonder what that¡¯s good for.

    A voice starts talking behind me. ¡°What are you doing here? Are you alone?¡± This voice sounds familiar.

    No, I¡¯m ignoring it, I don¡¯t want more punishment. Two hands grab me below my arms, up I go¡­ Why are people set on making me fly?

    I can guess who it is¡­ I¡¯m being hold in an awkward way, flying in the air with hands underneath my arms.

    Oh, now we¡¯re moving. The hands go back, taking me with them. After some weird movements and shuffles she turns me around. Of course it¡¯s Sophie. Who else would lift me like that.

    I¡¯ll look away, back to whatever those people were doing. I did notice that Sophie isn¡¯t alone, she seems to be with two other girls her age.

    ¡°Meanie, don¡¯t ignore me.¡± Sophie turns me around again. I¡¯m not going to change my mind on this, you were the reason I was punished.

    ¡°What are you looking at?¡± You know what, I¡¯ll put my hands in front of my ears. I somehow can¡¯t ignore her voice. While I¡¯m at it, let¡¯s close my eyes too.

    Something pulls one of my hands away. ¡°Running away from your problems won¡¯t work.¡±

    Am I running away? I¡¯m just preventing bad stuff.

    ¡°So, why are you out here alone?¡±

    Don¡¯t do this. I don¡¯t want you near me, let me go.

    ¡°Wanna do something fun?¡±

    I¡¯m not listening. I¡¯m not¡­ Please¡­

    ¡°Let¡¯s go then.¡±

    Why¡­ Why are you doing this...

 Chapter 29 - Shopping

    "Ah, before I forget." Sophie takes something out of her pocket. It''s the weird rectangle again, she showed a ''video'' on it yesterday.

    The front of it lights up, showing Sophie hugging a guy. Sophie swipes on the front and the front changes into a weird thing with little squares on it. Those little squares have even smaller squares in them.

    Behind the squares is a young boy cheering at a cake with candles. I wonder who that is, and how they have really realistic art on the rectangles.

    Sophie taps something, turning the front completely white. After that everything she does is so fast I can''t follow it. This rectangle doesn''t just show ''videos'' apparently, what else can it do?

    "And done, let''s go." Sophie puts the rectangle back into her pocket.

    "Are you sure about this? Kidnapping a child in broad daylight?" One of the girls behind her asks.

    "It''s fine, I know her." Sophie laughs.

    "How can you even carry her? I know from experience that even newborn babies are heavier than they seem." The other girl says.

    "No way, babies can''t be heavy!" The first girl reacts surprised.

    The second girl sighs. "As an only child, you wouldn''t know."

    "You were an only child for fourteen years, don''t act as if you had siblings right away." The first girl points out while rolling her eyes.

    Sophie laughs again. "They are heavy, and it''s practice. You know I have a younger brother, he loves to be carried every time he sees me."

    "I still don''t believe they can be heavy. They are so small, it just won''t work." The first girl says.

    "You want to try?" Sophie holds me out to the first girl. Ehm, don''t use me like that¡­

    The second girl smiles. "Yeah, just try it, Kiera."

    So her name is Kiera. Well nice to meet you and bye.

    "How do you carry someone?" Kiera tilts her head.

    "Just grab her under her arms for now, that''s enough to see how heavy it is." Sophie guides her. Did I give permissions for this? You didn''t even ask me before lifting me off the ground¡­

    Kiera moves her long brown hair behind her ear, she seems hesitant.

    "I''m here to prevent you dropping her, don''t worry." Sophie smiles. Dropping me? That sounds painful, can we not?

    Slowly two hands reach out to me, holding me below my arms.

    Let me run away, I don''t want this. I might not react to it like I usually do, but that doesn''t mean I like to be carried around.

    "I''m going to let go now." Sophie announces. With that said, I abruptly drop down. Before I reach the ground Sophie already catches me.

    "That''s heavy, how?" Kiera stares with wide eyes.

    "Four year olds, on average, weigh 20kg. You carry your 6kg school bag and complain about how heavy it is. You really should''ve expected this." Sophie laughs.

    ¡°Kids don¡¯t look as heavy as bags¡­¡± Kiera sighs.

    ¡°I¡¯m still wondering where you got that super power, are you going to break your back with that?¡± The second girl asks.

    ¡°I¡¯ll be fine, I don¡¯t have much choice anyway. If I¡¯ll put her down she¡¯ll run away, I¡¯m sure of it.¡± Sophie moves me around, changing my position. ¡°There we go, let¡¯s go to the clothing store, she seems interested in that.¡±

    ¡°Oh yeah! We can buy a new summer outfit while we¡¯re at it!¡± The second girl claps her hands.

    ¡°The summer is almost over, and you want a new outfit?¡± Kiera rolls her eyes.

    Sophie smiles. ¡°You know how Jessie is. How about you just look then? Be our judge.¡±

    With a big sigh Kiera responds. ¡°Fine. I expect payment.¡±

    Sophie leads them towards the entrance. ¡°They better have end of summer sales.¡±

    ¡°Oh, so you¡¯re here for the sales?¡± Kiera laughs.

    ¡°Obviously, we¡¯re broke students.¡± Jessie taps Kiera¡¯s shoulder.

    It¡¯s hard to ignore them when I¡¯m so close to them, Sophie won¡¯t let go of me. I could try to escape, but that means she won¡¯t be unharmed. April wouldn¡¯t like that, and I might get punished for that. I just need one second where she¡¯s distracted to get away.

    Ugh. This is hard. I crash my head into Sophie¡¯s neck, that way I can¡¯t see anything even if I can¡¯t keep my eyes closed. She smells sweet, is she wearing perfume? Not my problem, act as if she doesn¡¯t exist.

    If she wasn¡¯t here I could look around myself, instead of being bored. Maybe I can look around just a bit, to entertain myself. No, no looking. Focus on your tasks. Do I have any right now? Not getting punished probably.

    A peek won¡¯t hurt, right? It¡¯ll be fine. I see some shirts, that¡¯s it. Some of them have nice images on them, but nothing else. How boring, back to not looking.

    And just like that I fall asleep out of boredom.

    <hr>

    After an unknown amount of time passed, I wake up. It¡¯s uncomfortable, I think I¡¯m sitting, and leaning against something hard.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    I carefully open my eyes, no monsters for now. Sophie is standing in front of me, looking at some outfits hanging next to her.

    ¡°Good morning sunshine, had a nice nap?¡± Sophie smiles as she notices my movements. She doesn¡¯t expect an answer back, which is clear from the fact she moved on after her smile.

    It seems that we¡¯re in a really small room, the door is behind Sophie. Behind me there¡¯s a mirror, it makes the room look bigger than it is. If I were to stand up I would be way too close to Sophie, since there¡¯s no room for two people at all.

    So how can I reach that door? Although Sophie is in between me and the door, she isn¡¯t defending it.

    ¡°I can see you staring. The door is locked, don¡¯t bother.¡± Sophie doesn¡¯t even look up from the clothes, how did she see me?

    She finally picks something out, I don¡¯t know how it can take so long. It¡¯s a small dark blue dress, with white dots on it. On the back there¡¯s something that looks like a bow tie, big and blue just like the dress.

    It¡¯s way too small for her, she should know that too. Why is she looking at me? I don¡¯t trust this, can I break the door?

    She puts the dress in front of all the other clothes, then turns around to face me. ¡°Can you put your hands in the air?¡± No, why would I?

    I think she expected that answer, since she smiles and grabs my arms with one hand. With the other hand she lifts my shirt off me. It¡¯s the same thing my ¡®parents¡¯ did whenever they wanted to change my outfit, only with Sophie I don¡¯t get disgusted or reminded of moustache man.

    Sophie doesn¡¯t look like moustache man at all, so that might be one of the reasons.

    Since I don¡¯t have a choice here, I¡¯ll just let it happen. I know she won¡¯t give up, so the fight is only going to be a waste of time.

    After a bit of work Sophie changed me into the blue dress. With the conveniently placed mirror, I can see how it looks right away. I guess it looks cute, and it¡¯s comfy. Clothes here are softer than what I¡¯m used to, it always surprises me.

    ¡°You look amazing in that, isn¡¯t it great?¡± Sophie proudly looks at me. Why are you proud?

    She goes back to the clothes, searching for something else. I¡¯m not here to play dress up, so please leave me alone.

    Now that she isn¡¯t looking and a bit more to the side, I have some room to stand. I can see the dress better now, sitting just shows my back.

    I guess it makes sense now, why the people tried so hard to see if the clothes look great. The outfits here have way more detail than my old world, where only the rich could afford some extras on clothes. Here it seems everyone can have nice looking clothes.

    My problem now is that I can¡¯t see my back, it¡¯s hard to see everything at once. Well, I guess I¡¯ll have to turn around to see my back. With a slight turn my dress swings along, even that looks nice.

    That turn bumps me into Sophie. Still got no room to move, that¡¯s for sure. Luckily she doesn¡¯t seem to care, where I came from people lost their heads if they bumped into someone. Or actually, that¡¯s Lilianne¡¯s memory, since I didn¡¯t get to see the outside world.

    Sophie picks another blue dress with white dots, this time it¡¯s bigger than mine. It doesn¡¯t have any sleeves, and no bow tie on the back either. The only extra is some wrinkles on the top of the dress.

    Again she puts the dress in front of the rest, then takes off her own shirt and pants. Since I¡¯m really close to her I can¡¯t help but notice how pretty she is. And how awkward it is right now, I tried looking away, only to be greeted by the mirror.

    Luckily, or sadly, depending on how you see it, she got her dress on quite fast.

    ¡°We¡¯re matching now!¡± Sophie smiles. I guess she¡¯s not aware of how I feel, and how aware I am about the little space in between us.

    I never responded to her before, so she doesn¡¯t expect any response now. That makes it easier for me, I don¡¯t think I would be able to get a normal answer out right now.

    She picks me up and unlocks the door. Or I think it¡¯s unlocking, I don¡¯t know how the locks work here. The locks I know are giant and visible, besides, unlocking them needs a key.

    Once outside, we¡¯re greeted by Kiera and Jessie. ¡°Took you long enough.¡± Kiera sighs.

    Sophie ignores her and spins around. ¡°How do we look?¡±

    ¡°Amazing, just like every outfit before this.¡± Kiera rolls her eyes.

    ¡°Don¡¯t listen to her, she has no style.¡± Jessie laughs. ¡°Matching dresses, very cute. I¡¯d give it a nine out of ten.¡±

    ¡°Because the ten out of ten is reserved for just you¡­¡± Kiera sighs.

    Jessie smiles. ¡°Exactly.¡±

    ¡°Great, let¡¯s buy everything.¡± Sophie heads back to the small room. Here we go again.

    Sophie closes the door and puts me down, keeping my arms up to take the dress off. She helps me put on my own clothes, although I don¡¯t really need help with that. Not that I get a chance to prove that.

    I know what¡¯s going to happen, I just don¡¯t know what to do. Apparently Lilianne always hated things like this, since looking at people while they are changing is awkward, but looking away makes it even more so. And apparently looking away causes them to be aware of it as well. I have to agree with her, but that doesn¡¯t give me a solution.

    What if I look at all the clothes hanging on the wall? Then it seems like I¡¯m busy and not looking away or anything, right?

    So, she has a red short skirt, a black big shirt, a white sleeveless shirt, a yellow dress and really short pants. The big shirt seems really warm and out of place for summer.

    My eyes wander to her, I can¡¯t control it. I mean, I saw her in the corner of my eye while looking at the clothes, it¡¯s impossible to avoid. My mind goes blank as I stare at her.

    It feels like time slows down, although I know that it didn¡¯t take long. She grabs me and all the clothes before heading out.

    ¡°No, you¡¯re not buying that black sweater. You got enough sweaters, stop hiding your figure in easy clothes like that.¡± Jessie snatches a black sweater from Sophie.

    ¡°I need comfy clothes like that, don¡¯t you know how amazing sweaters are?¡± Sophie takes the sweater back.

    Jessie rolls her eyes.

    ¡°Kiera, please buy this for me.¡± Sophie ignores the eye roll.

    ¡°Do it yourself.¡± Kiera shakes her head.

    ¡°My hands are full!¡± Sophie lifts me a bit higher as if she¡¯s trying to show off.

    ¡°What an excuse¡­ Where¡¯s your card?¡± Kiera sighs.

    Sophie smiles. ¡°Thanks! It¡¯s in my phone, which is in my back pocket.¡±

    Kiera grabs the weird rectangle from behind Sophie, so I guess that¡¯s a phone. I learn more everyday. After that she takes the clothes from Sophie and heads to a line of people. It¡¯s a lot of people, why would they be standing there? Jessie follows her into the line, while Sophie stays here.

    ¡°That¡¯s a lot of people there, right? Are you scared of them?¡± Sophie whispers in my ear. Is she expecting me to answer if she whispers to me? You won¡¯t get anything from me, not even a nod.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m here. Those people won¡¯t get anywhere near you, I¡¯ll make sure of that.¡± Ehm thanks, if you would let me down I wouldn¡¯t have that problem anyway.

    ¡°So, do you think Jessie and Kiera are scary?¡± Scary? No. Annoying? Yes.

    ¡°Am I scary?¡± What about you is supposed to be scary? You¡¯re annoying, won¡¯t let me run off or nap. Also you talk about a lot of magic, and talk a lot to me, knowing that I won¡¯t answer. I guess you¡¯re pretty too¡­ I can¡¯t get that out of my head.

    She laughs at me. ¡°Sorry for being annoying.¡± Is she a mind reader? I hope not. This place is weird enough with all their magic. If people can mind read, am I supposed to not have any thoughts or else it counts as communication?

    While I¡¯m distracted by thoughts, she pats my head, then brings her forehead to touch mine. I¡¯m expecting her to start a soul contract or anything, but she doesn¡¯t. All she does is stare at my face and pet my hair. ¡°It¡¯s alright, I¡¯m here for you.¡±

    I wanted to comment on what she said, but I¡¯m too distracted by how close her face is.

    ¡°Sophie!¡± A voice makes her look up, I guess the other two are done with whatever they wanted to do.

    She glances back at me, putting one hand on top of my hair. Then she comes even closer with her face, kissing my forehead. Her hand pets my hair one last time and then she heads towards her friends.

 Chapter 30 - History

    ¡°Are you adopting her?¡± Jessie laughs.

    Sophie smiles. ¡°She just reminds me of my brother. This world might be big and scary for her, one where no one understands her. It can be very lonely, and I don¡¯t want her to be lonely.¡±

    ¡°You know, step one to not being lonely, it¡¯s talking.¡± Kiera sighs.

    ¡°That¡¯s not always easy, my brother didn¡¯t start talking until he was five, and now that he¡¯s seven it¡¯s just small words at a time.¡± Sophie says.

    ¡°Your brother has trouble understanding words, she seems to understand every single thing we say without a problem.¡± Jessie points out. How do they even know what I understand? It¡¯s not like I¡¯m responding to anything¡­

    Sophie shrugs. ¡°That means hearing isn¡¯t the problem. It doesn¡¯t matter what her reason is, we can¡¯t force her. All we can do is make it easier for her, which means involving her in what we¡¯re doing.¡± I don¡¯t want it to be easier to make a mistake, so please stop.

    ¡°Well, good luck with that. Let¡¯s go to the cafe nearby.¡± Kiera changes the topic.

    ¡°Oh yeah, the one where Matthew works. Isn¡¯t that great, Sophie?¡± Jessie pokes Sophie.

    Sophie rolls her eyes. ¡°Duck off, he¡¯s mine anyway.¡± Mine? Is it like a slave? This place doesn¡¯t seem to have slavery, or maybe it¡¯s just not visible here.

    ¡°Duck off? Being around kids isn¡¯t good for your health.¡± Kiera laughs.

    Their conversations are becoming boring to me, mostly because I don¡¯t know what they¡¯re talking about. With a yawn I lie my head down, again on Sophie¡¯s neck. I don¡¯t have any other options, with the way she carries me.

    I¡¯ll catch up on the sleep I didn¡¯t get at night.

    <hr>

    ¡°I wanna go to some fancy vacation resort.¡± A voice says.

    ¡°Jessie, vacation is over, when would you go? And with what money?¡± Another voice replies.

    What a way to wake up. I still don¡¯t know what they¡¯re talking about, but that makes it easier for me.

    ¡°After we graduate of course! My parents told me they would gift me money if I manage to graduate with an average score of 8.¡± I recognize the voice as Jessie. So they are close to graduating? That means it takes a long time, right? Or are they taking longer than expected?

    ¡°How lucky, mine would disown me with an average of 8.¡± The voice I recognize as Kiera responds.

    A familiar laugh comes from above me. ¡°Lucky? I bet they were talking about 100 creds at most. You wouldn¡¯t even make it to the resort with that amount, let alone get a room there.¡±

    ¡°They better not, I¡¯m not a child anymore. As an adult I can earn 100 creds easily with some work.¡± Jessie sighs.

    ¡°Go work then, you¡¯ll get to that resort in no time. Or maybe ten months, actually, make it twenty for you.¡± Kiera laughs.

    ¡°That takes way too long.¡± Jessie says dramatically.

    Something pokes my nose. I suspiciously open my eyes and see Jessie staring at me. She¡¯s lying on the table with her head, and one arm reaching out to me.

    ¡°I knew it, she¡¯s awake.¡± Jessie laughs.

    ¡°As if I didn¡¯t notice.¡± Sophie leans her head on mine, her arms hold me at my belly. ¡°I know you never open your eyes when you wake up, just like you never get on time for the first lessons.¡±

    ¡°Because beds are amazing and comfy, why would anyone want to get out there?¡± Jessie sighs.

    ¡°If I was using Sophie as a pillow, I wouldn¡¯t get up either.¡± Kiera laughs.

    Jessie starts laughing too. ¡°That¡¯s a good point, Sophie let me use you as a pillow.¡±

    ¡°Hell no, get a boyfriend for that.¡± Sophie laughs.

    ¡°You¡¯re the only one with a boyfriend here, you have to share with your not so lucky best friends.¡± Jessie pleads.

    ¡°Just because I found my luck doesn¡¯t mean I have to give it away.¡± Sophie smiles. ¡°Matthew, get over here.¡± She calls out to someone.

    A man quickly appears next to her. ¡°What do you need, babe? Oh, I see, the little lady woke up.¡± He kneels down, looking me into my eyes. ¡°Anything I can get you?¡± What are you talking about? Don¡¯t come so close, what part about me says people should get near me?

    ¡°Give her some chocolate milk, that should be fine.¡± Sophie says. I wonder what chocolate is.

    Matthew stands up. ¡°Got any child safe cups?¡±

    ¡°Oh, I knew we forgot something.¡± Sophie sighs.

    ¡°We have plastic cups and straws, if you hold it then it might work.¡± Matthew laughs.

    ¡°Just do that then, if you trust my cup holding skills.¡± Sophie smiles.

    After a bit of waiting Matthew returns with a white almost see through cup, you could see the part where the chocolate milk is. He gives the cup to Sophie, who holds it in front of me.

    There¡¯s this bright pink tube inside the brown liquid. Sophie points the tube at me, what am I supposed to do with it?

    ¡°Drink through it.¡± Sophie says. I suspiciously stare up at her. Is she actually a mind reader?

    But that¡¯s besides the point, how do you drink through it? Why can¡¯t I drink directly from the cup?

    ¡°By the way, Sophie. What are you going to do with her? You can¡¯t keep her here forever.¡± Kiera asks.

    I carefully put the tube in my mouth. Sophie said drink through, so I guess I¡¯ll try that. After some struggle I finally get the chocolate milk. It¡¯s amazing, who made this? Why didn¡¯t they have that before?

    ¡°Her father will come pick her up here.¡± What? No? I¡¯m not going to that man, I¡¯ll just run away again.

    ¡°Do you have her father¡¯s phone number? How did you even do that?¡± Jessie reacts surprised.

    ¡°Nah, I just contacted the teacher in charge of the project, and he did the rest.¡± Sophie sighs.

    ¡°Speaking of teachers, my history teacher gave us a side project on the lesser known parts of our country¡¯s history.¡± Kiera sighs.Stolen story; please report.

    ¡°The lesser known parts? Why would he give you extra work?¡± Jessie makes an extra dramatic sigh.

    ¡°Because he felt like a certain time period was very interesting, where people almost would believe in magic by what happened.¡± Kiera explains.

    ¡°Magic? History is full of people who believe in magic, then are later proved wrong by science.¡± Sophie laughs.

    ¡°Usually yes, but for this¡­ There just hasn¡¯t been any reasonable explanation for it. Do you know what happened in 1670, 21th of August?¡± Kiera says.

    ¡°That¡¯s easy, that day all the snow disappeared. It just melted away, and didn¡¯t come back for six years. Other effects were that there weren¡¯t any reported droughts, so there weren¡¯t any dark periods of hunger in it.¡± Jessie lazily says.

    ¡°And that while the whole place had been in snow for years. Historians explained it by them having a minor ice age, and it just ended that day.¡± Sophie adds.

    ¡°Layers of ice, collected over multiple years. They don¡¯t disappear in one hour. That takes time, years even.¡± Kiera points out.

    ¡°Maybe they exaggerated the minor ice age, people in the past always liked doing that.¡± Jessie says.

    Kiera laughs. ¡°The minor ice age was thought to be 600 years long, most people in the past didn¡¯t know that snow was abnormal, since they grew up with it. The cold brought all kinds of diseases to people, killing a lot of them. If they weren¡¯t killed by a disease then they would die by the lack of food. Crops didn¡¯t do well in the cold.

    Then starting in 1666 summer disappeared completely, probably by volcanic activities. It¡¯s the reason why people see the number 666 as bad.

    So for four years people didn¡¯t have summer, most water sources were frozen. Then in 1670 it just disappeared, not even worldwide. Just here, in Espia.¡± She explains.

    ¡°I guess that is odd. But what about it is magic?¡± Sophie asks.

    ¡°Because of the cold period, people started blaming each other. Whoever they could blame for the cold was burned alive. It¡¯s known as the witch hunting period, since suddenly every old widowed woman was declared a witch.¡± Kiera says.

    ¡°And we all know none of them were actual witches, since they didn¡¯t survive the test of being burned alive.¡± Jessie points out.

    ¡°Yeah, that didn¡¯t stop them though. In 1670 there were rumours of demons being born, exactly on 21th of August, since it was believed the fires of hell melted the snow.¡± Kiera says.

    ¡°That¡¯s weird, they get a miracle and blame it on the devil? I¡¯ll never understand those people.¡± Sophie sighs.

    ¡°It¡¯s because it¡¯s scary and new. They even had specific people who were believed to be those demons, since a town lord had quite the reaction to it. His wife gave birth on that date, and he killed all his staff. He even locked down his mansion, and then gave some explanation on wanting to keep the kids safe. No one even knew how many kids he had.

    It¡¯s hard to know exactly what made him do that, since the rumours ranged quite a bit. Some said the children had big claws and pointy teeth. Others said they were born with a red skin, some even said their blood was black.¡± Kiera explains.

    ¡°What if they were perfectly normal? And the town lord was just scared because they were born on that day?¡± Jessie asks.

    ¡°If they were normal, he wouldn¡¯t have done any of that. There were a lot of children born on that day, even the king had a son born on that day. None of them were seen as demons, not a single one.

    So something about the kids must have been unusual enough, historians believe they might have had a genetic mutation. Such as an extra finger or anything really. The combination of the date with the genetic mutation got them the demon title.

    Of course, nothing can stay a secret forever. The biggest rumours were about a quadruplet with different eye colours, gold, red, blue and purple. It¡¯s not sure how true they were, but historians believe the quadruplet part.

    Somewhere in December 1676 one of them was murdered. Soon after, snow returned.¡± Kiera says.

    ¡°That¡¯s a big coincidence, although the situation is unexplainable, I still don¡¯t believe in magic.¡± Sophie smiles.

    ¡°Four years later, 1680, it was believed the one with golden eyes died. Starting from that point, drought came to the country.¡± Kiera adds. This story, it¡¯s mine, isn¡¯t it? That means Nick died. I didn¡¯t get to see him before he died¡­ How about Thomas? Am I the only survivor?

    ¡°Still seems like a coincidence¡­¡± Jessie says.

    Kiera smiles. ¡°The year became known as the year of the red demon, since the books say the red one went crazy after the golden one died. Killing, destroying, burning houses, he did a lot.¡±

    ¡°He was ten, the stories are definitely lying. A ten year old can¡¯t win of multiple strong adults, he would¡¯ve died just like that.¡± Sophie points out.

    ¡°That¡¯s why it¡¯s the year of the red demon, he was unbelievably strong and fast for a ten year old. They didn¡¯t kill him until a year later, and then the place was hit by a tornado.¡± Kiera says.

    ¡°A tornado? That¡¯s really weird. But still, what does that have to do with magic?¡± Jessie asks.

    ¡°1688, the year where the last survivor amongst them turned eighteen. The blue one was a girl, she went missing shortly after the church captured one of her friends. She managed to set her friend free, with suspected inside help.

    And the last part, told by just one witness. No rumours, no other witnesses, just one story.

    The blue demon, she had another girl with her. The other girl had glowing yellow eyes, her face covered in blood. They seemed to have escaped something, and wore clothes that weren¡¯t for their size or gender.

    The witness thinks they must have been walking for a while, since people were aware of them being there before hand. The town prepared a large crowd of young, strong men, and gave them pitchforks.

    The crowd met the two girls in an open area, so they could surround the girls. Instead of surrounding them right away, one man stepped forward, telling them to stop and that they wouldn¡¯t be allowed to live any longer.

    The one with the yellow glowing eyes, she responded with a tilt of her head and something too soft to hear for the witness. The man responded with that they would exterminate them in the name of God or something.¡± Kiera says.

    ¡°Who the hell would agree with being exterminated? Those times were so weird.¡± Sophie responds.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think they agreed with it. The yellow one jumped in front of the blue one, taking all the hits. She quickly fell and her eyes stopped glowing. The blue one shouted April, with tears in her eyes.¡±

    ¡°Although it¡¯s a sad story, I don¡¯t see magic. Glowing eyes? Are they crazy? It might have been the light, reflecting in her eyes.¡± Jessie murmurs.

    Kiera waves her hand to stop Jessie. ¡°The real magic is what happened after. Apparently the shout managed to knock the crowd away. The blue one fell down with her hands on her head, the crowd tried coming back to attack her, but they couldn¡¯t.

    When the blue one removed her hands, her eyes were glowing blue, and void of any emotion. The crowd attacked again, this time breaking the pitchforks. The blue one made a sword appear out of nowhere, slashing the crowd easily.

    It went so easy, as if they were made of butter. The crowd started running away out of fear, but the blue one didn¡¯t let them. She started smiling, drenched in blood, and disappeared from her location, appearing near the running crowd.

    She killed the whole town that day, it¡¯s estimated to have been around six thousand people. The only ones she didn¡¯t kill were those below the age of eighteen, and the witness was one of those. The witness was one of the kids who didn¡¯t hide, and thus saw the whole event.

    After killing the town the blue one went back, she kneeled next to her fallen friend, kissing her.¡± Kiera is interrupted by Jessie. ¡°Kissing a dead friend after murdering a town? That hardly seems like the right time for it¡­¡±

    ¡°Her dead friend woke up after the kiss, as if nothing happened. Apparently the blue one said welcome back, and after that both of them went silent. The yellow one cried to the blue one, and like that they disappeared into nothing. Leaving a slaughter behind.¡± Kiera says.

    ¡°So because of one kid saying that suddenly we believe in magic? Seeing a lot of dead people can be traumatic and change the story.¡± Sophie tilts her head.

    ¡°His story was proved to be true. That¡¯s the thing, guards were writing letters about the escape, ready to send them. The guards talked about the glowing yellow eyes too, and how she killed their master.

    The area where it happened had people everywhere sliced in half. Pitchforks lying around broken, they broke as if they hit a wall.

    Anyway, the day the blue one went missing tsunamis arrived in the country. Somehow the tsunamis didn¡¯t hit the town that was slaughtered, and it has been abandoned ever since. Which means if you wanted to, you could visit the place and find all the broken pitchforks. Although I think they closed the place off just for historians.¡± Kiera explains.

    ¡°Okay, so what if there were stronger than normal people, and coincidental deaths with natural disasters. What makes you believe in magic?¡± Jessie asks.

    ¡°Tell me the date today.¡± Kiera orders.

    ¡°23th of August, 2024.¡± Sophie easily answers.

    ¡°That means the so called demons were born 354 years ago. Do you know what happened four years ago?¡± Kiera asks.

    ¡°No?¡± Both Jessie and Sophie shake their heads.

    ¡°Four years ago, on the 21th of August, it stopped snowing, and farming industries have been booming ever since. Normal people here don¡¯t notice, since the global warming made snow rare anyway. Weather specialists are clueless though, so that¡¯s why my teacher brought it up.¡± Kiera smiles.

    ¡°That¡¯s unsettling. Are you saying new demons have been born?¡± Jessie asks.

    ¡°It¡¯s even more unsettling, the one witness made a painting of the blue demon.¡±

 Chapter 31 - Peace of Mind

    A painting? That means Kiera knows? Well fuck, I guess they¡¯ll exterminate me again, in the name of God or whatever. This won¡¯t help in completing my so called mission, and I won¡¯t see April, Julie, Vince, Kate, Eve, Natasha or Ray ever again. If they even were here.

    ¡°What a coincidence, the witness turned out to be a master painter, and perfectly captured the moment. Makes sense...¡± Jessie says skeptically.

    Kiera laughs, ¡°It¡¯s called practice, I¡¯d say the witness was a bit obsessed with making people believe them. The whole reason the story is so detailed is because they wrote it down themselves as well. To make sure it¡¯s readable it was written again with time, and I think they switched to digital now.¡±

    ¡°So that witness has been alive for 300+ years?¡± Jessie points out.

    ¡°Nah, their descendents, my teacher is one of them. That made him interested in teaching history, so I guess it worked for something,¡± Kiera says.

    ¡°So, where¡¯s that painting? I¡¯m curious to see how a so called demon looks,¡± Sophie asks.

    ¡°My teacher has it at his home, I can ask him to make a picture tomorrow. That is, if you¡¯re still interested in it,¡± Kiera smiles, she¡¯s staring at me. Can she not be so creepy?

    ¡°Then, did you see it? Did it include horns? Or at least black blood?¡± Jessie jokes.

    ¡°I did, but no such things. The only part that wasn¡¯t normal was the glowing eyes. Her skin was pale too, but that¡¯s nothing out of the ordinary. Also, the ¡®odd¡¯ eye colour, it became normal after that. It¡¯s still rare, like it¡¯s less than one in ten thousand. For scale, one in ten thousand is 0.01%. So it would be less than ten million people alive right now,¡± Kiera explains.

    ¡°Blue eyes isn¡¯t really odd though? I mean last time I had biology lessons it told me 17% of the world has blue eyes,¡± Sophie points out.

    ¡°It¡¯s not normal blue, it¡¯s azure blue. For now it¡¯s unknown how it started, since the demon didn¡¯t have any kids to pass it on. So maybe it¡¯s a coincidence and someone else had the mutation. Ironically, my teacher has the azure eyes,¡± Kiera says. She didn¡¯t mention me?

    ¡°Eh, I don¡¯t know all the blue shades. Hold on, I¡¯ll search a picture on my phone.¡± Jessie grabs her phone, doing whatever magic they use on a phone.

    It¡¯s quiet for a moment while Jessie does her magic. After that moment she stares dumbfounded, looking up at me. She holds her phone next to my face, switching in between them.

    ¡°That¡¯s amazing, I didn¡¯t realize she has such a rare eye colour. I mean, I did think it looked different, but that it¡¯s just blue,¡± Jessie says.

    A noise comes from Sophie, she isn¡¯t the one creating the noise though. She grabs her phone and holds it against her ear. ¡°Hello?¡±

    Who¡¯s she talking to? Jessie and Kiera aren¡¯t responding, instead they are staying quiet, or whispering to each other.

    ¡°Ah, yes. That¡¯s fine, you should see us right away,¡± Sophie says. ¡°Alright, see you soon.¡± She puts her phone on the table, as if she didn¡¯t just talk to no one. The others don¡¯t seem to care either, so I guess it¡¯s normal?

    ¡°Anyway, what were we talking about?¡± Sophie asks.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ¡°Short memory problems?¡± Jessie laughs.

    ¡°Don¡¯t judge me for that!¡± Sophie laughs.

    ¡°I mean, we will judge you. That¡¯s what we¡¯re here for,¡± Kiera adds

    They keep mindlessly talking about uninteresting things, I don¡¯t understand them anyway. It¡¯s boring again, what am I supposed to do so that I won¡¯t get bored? Sleep it is, I¡¯m going to be asleep for most of my life this way.

    Maybe I can go to my soul space, but I don¡¯t know how that looks to outsiders. I don¡¯t want to stand out more while Kiera is creepily smiling at me. There¡¯s no way she doesn¡¯t know, so why is she playing around like that?

    Tomorrow the rest would know too, and at that point the whole world might know. What would happen then? I can¡¯t fight back, I¡¯d be punished for it. Would they kill me? And if they did, would I get punished for it too? That would be horrible, returning to the point before they kill me just to die again and again. I don¡¯t want to. I don¡¯t want to die. There¡¯s nothing I can do here, they found out not because of my mistake.

    I can¡¯t be punished for that, it¡¯s unfair. The so called system should protect me from this, how else am I supposed to do those missions? This whole thing is unfair, why should I do this?

    It¡¯s hard to sleep like this, I can¡¯t help but panic every moment I don¡¯t distract myself.

    My skin is feeling hot, I¡¯m definitely sweating. Combined with that I¡¯m getting nauseous. Who knew this would feel so terrible. I want to get out of here, any possible way. You know what, dying sounds perfect. If I don¡¯t get punished for that, or else it¡¯s terrible.

    Now I¡¯m chilly, I think I¡¯m trembling. My hands and feet are freezing, and that while I¡¯m still feeling like I¡¯m sweating. It¡¯s weird, I never felt like this before. Even though part of me is sweating, the cold feeling is worse. I want to jump in a fire, but I think that won¡¯t work.

    I try moving my hands towards the sweating part of my body. Sadly I found out it doesn¡¯t make the cold part warm, it makes the warm part cold. At the same time, while my coldness is expanding, I¡¯m still feeling sweaty at the now cold part.

    Do they know how I¡¯m reacting to them? That might be a give away¡­ A chill moves my body, what a terrible thought. Not like everything here isn¡¯t terrible.

    Please, I just want to run away. I don¡¯t want any of this, please let me go. Before I start crying, I don¡¯t want to get punished for anything.

    This feeling of not being able to do anything, it¡¯s terrifying. I can¡¯t do this, I can¡¯t do anything.

    I just need one person, one person that can help me finish my missions. A person where I can feel safe¡­ So that even though I can¡¯t do anything, it won¡¯t be a problem. If I have to nothing to do, I don¡¯t need to do stuff.

    Sadly I have no one here. No one who understands. But no one can understand, I can only ignore everyone. Ignoring is hard, I just want to be able to distance myself from all this, so I won¡¯t get bored again by staring into nothing and not listening to people.

    Maybe not caring about what people think, and what they are doing. If I don¡¯t care, it won¡¯t hurt me, right? But how would I stop caring? This is hard, I¡­ I just can¡¯t. I yawn, I guess it is tiring. Maybe I can finally escape this place.

    <hr>

    I wake up in my bed. I guess ¡®dad¡¯ brought me home. It¡¯s still night, that¡¯s what happens when you sleep at day time. Okay, no more sleeping to escape, being awake at night is terrible. Let¡¯s go back to my soul space, at least it¡¯s day there.

    Still the same as always, no matter how much time passes by. I guess it¡¯s some stability in my life, some sort of back up plan. It would be better if there were people I trust here, but this place, I control every corner of it. There can¡¯t be any monsters here, it¡¯s a safe place. My own little safe place.

    I didn¡¯t realise how much this place would mean to me before all this happened, I guess I¡¯m glad I made it with April, it¡¯s great memories. And since there¡¯s souls around, I can still see them I guess.

    Now I wonder where they are, their souls are still here and well. No broken souls, so I guess they¡¯re still alive. The story said both April and I disappeared, did the rest stay or not? If not, would they be here?

    Would searching for them be communicating? When can I start talking again? It would be nice if I can talk after finishing my mission, since then I can do what I want again. Hopefully¡­

    Spending time here is so easy, I just need a way to know if it¡¯s morning yet. Or maybe I don¡¯t and I can stay here forever.

    What would make this place better? Just reading might get boring. Maybe I need to go outside and find things that would fit here.

    Oh well, that¡¯s all for later. For now, let¡¯s read some fun books.

 Chapter 32 - Soul Space

    If I could read the books at school, would they have fun stories too? Or would it be a clone of the stories here?

    Maybe it depends on where April got these stories from. I never questioned it before, but I¡¯m guessing she came from a time like this. I¡¯ve seen the showers she mentioned and more, is she a time traveller or did she have future visions? Who knows.

    The books are in a language I can read, so if April didn¡¯t translate them it would be from a place with my language.

    Although I guess we¡¯re still in the same country, maybe the language changed through the years.

    I¡¯ll figure that out later. Not a lot I can do now¡­ This might even be my last day, who knows.

    Spending my last day all alone, reading books. I guess part of it is relaxing, but also quite sad.

    <hr>

    I should head back now, it might be day. Or maybe I should stay here forever, could I though?

    Maybe I can run away, to a place they don¡¯t know me. Cut off my hair to make sure they don¡¯t recognize me. The mission never said anything about where I need to graduate, so it might be fine.

    I¡¯m getting hungry and there¡¯s no food here, guess I¡¯ll have no choice.

    <hr>

    Luckily for me this place has convenient storages for food, apparently every house has something called ¡®fridges¡¯. Keeps the food inside fresh, and it¡¯s easy to get. No rats or mouses that try to steal it either, so we can have everything for ourselves.

    The sun welcomes me by shining brightly, or actually blinding me. At least it¡¯s day, so that¡¯s a good thing.

    Okay so let¡¯s smoothly head towards the fridge, hopefully no one will block me.

    Walking in the hallway apparently doesn¡¯t alert anyone, which is nice. Moving onto the next point, why is ¡®mom¡¯ standing in front of the fridge?

    She hasn¡¯t seen me yet, so I¡¯ll just have to wait until she leaves.

    I guess she¡¯s also scavenging for food, or is she protecting it against me?

    ¡®Mom¡¯ seems to be done with whatever she was doing there, and heads into my direction. Wait what?

    This isn¡¯t good, she¡¯ll see me if I stay out here. But where do I go? I quickly look around and find no hiding spot.

    Uhh. I¡¯ll just stand against the wall and hope she doesn¡¯t look around. Seems perfect to me.

    Just in time, ¡®mom¡¯ appears in the entrance. She still hasn¡¯t spotted me, so let¡¯s hope it stays that way.

    She walks past me, not looking back. Well I won¡¯t wait for when she does, so I¡¯ll go towards the kitchen.

    The rest is uneventful, I eat some kind of snack and manage to get back without being noticed.

    Since doom doesn¡¯t seem to be happening right now, I¡¯ll just go back to my soul space. Maybe I won¡¯t notice it then.

    I should check to see if the others are still alive. That would be pretty nice to know. Or maybe it doesn¡¯t matter, but it can¡¯t hurt anyway.

    They should be at the courtyard we made, or at least that¡¯s what April calls it. It¡¯s behind the throne room, we added it some time later. With big trees, lots of grass and fancy tiles it looks amazing, to end it off there¡¯s a fountain in the middle. Because I didn¡¯t really know where to place the soul pieces, I temporarily put them in the courtyard. Even though I say temporarily, I haven¡¯t changed it in a long time, I still have no clue.

    The sun shines brightly, giving the courtyard an even prettier look. It seems so peaceful, and everyone¡¯s still alive.

    Although it¡¯s quite creepy to be surrounded by people that stand still with their eyes closed, with this sunlight they just seem to be enjoying the sun.

    It¡¯s making me sad. They seem so close, yet they aren¡¯t here and I¡¯m all alone.

    I reach out to them, as if that could pull them closer. I wonder if I can touch soul pieces, or if my hand goes straight through them, not that it makes a difference, I guess.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    Julie is standing the closest to me, so I¡¯ll grab her hand to see if that works.

    I¡¯m pleasantly surprised to actually feel her hand, I could almost cry. To change things up, I hug her instead, at least I got familiar people here.

    Turns out, hugging a soul piece makes my vision go black. Who knew? I don¡¯t mind though, I would still do it.

    After a short time my vision comes back, it¡¯s not Julie I see, but the sky. Since when am I looking up?

    Oh, since down isn¡¯t the courtyard either. I¡¯m sitting on a tree, and there¡¯s a lake nearby. Isn¡¯t this the lake Julie had in her soul space? Is this her soul space?! That would be awesome!

    Next to me Vince stands on one leg, with his goofy smile. I guess you can add expressions and poses to the soul pieces, I didn¡¯t know that. But it does make it feel realistic, it¡¯s like he¡¯s actually here and having fun.

    Natasha and Ray are near the lake, Ray is splashing water on Natasha. There¡¯s so much detail on their face and their pose. It¡¯s like Julie knew exactly how Natasha would respond to the water.

    Eve¡¯s doing pull ups on another tree, it¡¯s on the opposite side of me. There¡¯s a wooden sword with a weird edge hanging on her back, even with the weird edge it looks like the perfect weapon for her. Maybe I should change my sword to look like that, can I do that?

    Kate is sitting against the tree where Eve is, looking up at the sky. She¡¯s holding a book open, like she is taking a short break from reading.

    All of them have their eyes closed, but Julie managed to fit it with their positions. I should definitely do that, so that it doesn¡¯t look creepy.

    I find Thomas a little behind the rest, keeping his distance and looking bored. I thought he died? Wouldn¡¯t that break the soul? And if that doesn¡¯t, then what does?

    Let¡¯s check this place out a little more, before seeing where his soul place leads. I haven¡¯t even found April, I wonder where Julie would put her.

    After a few more minutes looking around, I realised she¡¯s leaning against the tree I¡¯m sitting on. It¡¯s a bit hard to see from my position, but she¡¯s there, looking up at me. Well, with her eyes closed.

    She looks so happy and gentle at the same time. I¡¯m gonna put in time to make my place perfect, just like Julie did.

    Wait, what expression did she give me? The moment I came here my expression already changed¡­ Maybe I can ask her somehow, after the missions are done.

    I¡¯m guessing she won¡¯t be here, I can¡¯t put myself anywhere either.

    Well, let¡¯s see what¡¯s in the soul space from Thomas.

    I jump off the tree, this space is a great place where everyone can fly if they¡¯d want to.

    As I fall to the ground I see an unfamiliar person, it¡¯s a taller boy with short golden hair. Who¡¯s that? Did Julie make a soul contract with him too? I¡¯ll figure that out later, now Thomas.

    Should I hug him? Is that how I get to his soul space? Oh well, it¡¯s not like he¡¯ll notice.

    I hug him, and just like with Julie everything turns black.

    When my vision returns I¡¯m greeted by my own soul space. So I can¡¯t travel through someone else? I know this is mine, I can feel that.

    Wait, I see Thomas here¡­ And he has his eyes open. I don¡¯t get it?

    Behind him Nick stares at me, also with his eyes open. Since when are they here?

    I carefully take a step towards them, and they take a step too. Nothing more than a step though. Why aren¡¯t they talking? Do they have the same rules as me? I thought it was just going to be me, like that system said¡­

    There¡¯s an awkward silence, I would wave at them but that counts as communication, I¡¯m sure of it.

    Well, this is even more awkward. What should one do when they meet supposingly dead siblings. I start scratching my head, unsure what to do. As I raise my hand, they do too. Exactly the same way.

    What?

    Wait, didn¡¯t Thomas say something about this before? Like a long long time ago¡­ Remember it, I can do it, come on.

    It was through Julie¡¯s vision, right? Or no, Julie was visible, so not Julie.

    Oh that¡¯s it! Something about losing control when near me, right? Would that be it? Or is it something else? Well, I can¡¯t figure it out by standing here.

    I¡¯ll leave, and then see if they moved. That sounds like a plan.

    Okay, let¡¯s check out April¡¯s place, I wonder what she did with it.

    As I move towards April, I realise Thomas and Nick are following me. If they go out with me that would ruin my plan.

    All I need is for them to stay here, is that too much to ask? What else can I do?

    That seems to work..? They stopped following me the moment I thought of it, I guess controlling is easy.

    Now that I got rid of them, let¡¯s hug April and see what she did.

    Same thing as before, my vision goes dark.

    This time I open them and see the throne room we made. I know this isn¡¯t my place, it smells like April, I guess? Something about it makes it clear that it¡¯s April¡¯s place, and not mine.

    I¡¯m sitting on the throne, in front of me are the others, standing with their hand on their heart.

    Eve isn¡¯t there though, where did April place her?

    As I turn around I realise Thomas is hanging on the back of the throne. His eyes are closed though, so he isn¡¯t here. When did April make a contract with Thomas?

    I step off my throne, where should I go next? I know this place, unless she changed it.

    Well let¡¯s head to the courtyard first, get some fresh air or something.

    Ah, there¡¯s Eve. She¡¯s standing with her wooden weird edged sword in her hands, how come Julie and April have the exact same sword? Do they know something I don¡¯t?

    The wooden sword points at someone else. It¡¯s the the guy with the golden hair again, how come even April has him? What secret life do they have? Or maybe they met him in another world, without me¡­

    Ugh, I don¡¯t want to know anymore.

 Chapter 33 - Recordings

    April talked about a secret room under the throne before, she might have it here too.

    I''ll ignore the unknown guy, I guess people have a social life without me.

    Stepping back into the throne room made me realise how obvious the ''secret'' room is. Only thing it misses is a sign ''secret room entrance here!''.

    There''s a button on the back of the throne, it''s blue, just like everything else. It has some marks on it to show it has been used before, so I guess April actually uses it.

    Well, let''s press the button and see what happens. A small part of the the throne opens and shows a ladder going down, it''s really small. Do I have to go in there? It''s okay, there''s no monsters here. April wouldn''t do that, right?

    I shiver as I try to collect my courage. Here goes nothing.

    Step for step I climb down, careful to not slip. Not that it would hurt me in here, but my heart can''t handle that at the moment. Falling isn''t something I have good experiences with, so I rather avoid it.

    Soon enough I reach the bottom. It''s good to be alive.

    The room is completely white, with all kinds of white desks and equipment. There''s containers full of weird liquids and other stuff, I''ve never seen something like that.

    On one of the desks there''s something that looks like a phone, April uses one too?

    I pick up the phone, so how do you use this? The front lights up and shows a picture of a cat. Sophie had a picture of a person there, so maybe it''s something they can choose?

    At the bottom of the picture there''s a bar with text on it. It says "Slide to unlock" with an arrow pointing to the right. It''s in the language I know, maybe Sophie''s phone says the same thing?

    From what I saw you touch the front with your fingers, and then stuff happens. So let''s slide this to the right.

    Some letters appear at the bottom of the screen. The top reads "Type password to unlock. Hint: Colour name." how odd.

    Am I supposed to write a name with these letters at the bottom? The hint says it''s a colour name, is it yellow? Like her eyes at the end?

    As I touch the y, a dot appears below the top text. I guess I filled it in? An OK stands next to the dot.

    I''ll write the rest, all the letters are there. Should I touch the OK now? I got nothing to lose.

    Bzzt. Ah, the phone reads "Wrong password, two attempts remaining." I guess there is something to lose now.

    I don''t know any other colour names, right? Or would she mean my name? That''s worth a try.

    OK. There we go, it unlocked. Why would she pick my name though?

    This time the picture behind is the sky. It''s a pretty picture, I can see why she would like it.

    There''s a lot of smaller pictures on the sky, contained in little see through squares. Below them there''s a text, I guess it says what it is.

    "Research."

    "Fun."

    "Recordings."

    "Diary stuff."

    "IMPORTANT."

    What would happen if I touch one of those squares?

    The square starts to fill the phone, making the pictures inside bigger. Each picture has text under it as well. I think I touched "Research.", so this should be filled with that?

    "Notes."The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    "Calculator."

    "Documents."

    "Find It."

    "Timer."

    "Sound Recorder."

    "Flash Light."

    "Translate."

    I don''t know what half of the stuff is. Make that bigger actually, I know like two.

    I accidentally touch part of the square, and it shrinks again. That''s easy to get rid off, really convenient.

    Now the next square. I think that should be fun.

    The pictures here are really colourful.

    "Bounce."

    "Guess The Image."

    "Guitar 3: Last String."

    These make even less sense. Considering April named it Fun, I might try it later.

    I''m not sure what recordings are, but I''m about to find out.

    Hmm, all these have dates on them. Starting from 12-04-2020. They seem to be daily, the last one is at 24-07-2024. Sophie said it was the 23th yesterday, so that''s today right? So April was here today¡­

    Did I just miss her? Can I even run into her here? Oh well.

    I''m really curious as to what those dates mean, so I''ll tap the first one.

    April''s face appears on the phone! How did she get there?! She has the bright yellow eyes from before, they''re not glowing now though.

    "Well, day one. Another restart, surprisingly it''s still the same world. I might run into myself here, nah let''s not do that," April starts talking, it''s not towards me, and it seems to be in the past. It''s really odd magic, kinda like that video Sophie showed me before.

    "But that''s off topic, I need to keep this pure facts only. I got diary to complain in, so I can keep everything sorted. I''m so smart," April scratches her head with a slight laugh, it seems kind of awkward.

    "So, fact is, I''m still on Aliv. The old me should be like six here, I guess. That means I know future events, which is great actually. If only I was interested in lottery numbers," This time April laughs with a bit more confidence.

    "I know where Blue is in fourteen years, and I won''t be there. I don''t remember meeting my future self early on, just at the end. No use changing that, wouldn''t want to know what happened to myself anyway," April smiles. She knows where I am in the future? Oh wait, is it because I''ll meet the ''old'' April then? I wonder though, is it from her dreams?

    "Another fact, the others are still alive. I''ll try contacting them, they might be walking around on this world too. It might not be the same country, I did start in Neskan again though, so I expect Blue to be in Espia.

    "White definitely isn''t from this world, I talked to her about it before. Apparently her planet was called ''Earth'' and she was born in 1996. She met Blue when she was twelve, it makes me feel old. Although it means at one point Blue switches to ''Earth'', I hope I''ll get to see that." All this talk is confusing me, who''s White? And I met her? I guess I''ll see it in the future¡­

    "Green was quite useless for info, I didn''t expect anything else. He had no interest for dates or names. He doesn''t even know his age, he just doesn''t care. When I asked him about his previous life he answered me it was much better in that form than two paw form. I don''t think he''s a human, or well, not mentally.

    "I''m thinking he''s either a cat or a dog, it would explain his playfulness and how he loves cuddling. It could be other things too, I don''t know a lot about other animals though. I hope he''s a cat, I love cats. I know so many people who would pay for a cute kid with cat ears and a tail, we could get rich from that." April has a slight blush on her face. Green, animal? Kid with cat ears? I hope there''s clues later on, cause I don''t know what it''s about.

    "Amaranth, hereby called Amy, seems to be from a far future. She talked about robots replacing most human jobs, hoverboards, and more cool stuff. Not this world either, her planet is called Beganod. It''s a mouth full, I wonder which idiot came up with that.

    "The reason she could help White before was because she studied health. But with the backwards healthcare in the old times, it''s a first time for her.

    "Since she met Blue without a mask and not us, she didn''t actually recognise us at first. The point she did recognise Blue, she felt like we''d hurt her enough. I can''t blame her though, it''s been pretty hectic." Amaranth? What''s that? Couldn''t she use easy words?

    "Apple actually is amazing, I knew she was smart and strong before, just didn''t realise how much. She''s probably the one who''s the furthest back in the past. At least I haven''t met any cavemen or anything.

    "Apple comes from a war torn period, she''s the only one with fighting experience. Something about village being slaughtered by bandits and her crossdressing to be accepted into the army. Quite the story, she met Blue when she became the youngest general ever.

    "Like I said, amazing. If I ever need a tactic for whatever reason, I know who to find. I can''t imagi- oh, off topic," April sheepishly smiles.

    "Now then, Orange. He actually hates his colour, and tries to hide it with contacts. He comes from the same place as Amy, with some talking they realised they were old neighbours. Quite the coincidence, since most of us don''t seem to be close.

    "Orange programmed robots, Amy said he also was a suspected criminal for a lot of hacking crimes. It seems that he''s pretty dedicated once he starts something. He won''t stop until he has all the info he needs or finished the project," April says while holding her chin with her hand.

    "Neither him or Amy gave info about dates or where they met Blue. They might have met her together, or maybe the neighbour thing and meeting Blue is a total coincidence.

    "We''ll get that info soon enough. Anyway last but not least, Pink. She''s an original, no new body or anything. She met Blue the same time we met her.

    "She''s a stubborn child, that''s for sure. But she''s also really curious and creative. She won''t stop making odd things that are supposed to make things easier," April says, then stays silent for a while. She has her usual gentle smile, she hasn''t changed one bit.

    "That should be it for now, I''ll make other vids later. Although I need to do it as soon as possible, before I forget everything. Well, bye," April waves and the phones goes black.

 Chapter 34 - Colours

    She did all this magic to remember some people? I wonder when she met them. Wait¡­ This is the first day, she couldn''t have been anywhere to meet new people at all¡­

    Maybe the next one will have answers to that. 13-04-2020, here we go.

    April''s face appears once again. "Ehm hello, let''s talk about the trying to see who''s where from before," She starts slightly hesitant.

    "For now, it seems it''s just me and Mint. I could contact him just fine, and I found out he''s been here for six years already. I''m guessing it''s on birthdays, which would make us first. I mean I was born on the exact same date as my original birthday, yet again." It''s weird, she has this weird smile on her face, it looks sad.

    "White should be next, but that''s still three months away. She''s, surprisingly, born in July. If only we had a May and June to to fill the gap, would be quite the joke. All names based on the month we were born, how original. I''m glad we threw that away- Wait that''s off topic." Again, she has this sad smile on her face. Even though she seems to be joking, it''s hurting her.

    "Pink is our age too, even though I expected her to be younger. Anyway, that would make Green the last one, with two years.

    "I''m not sure when Blue would arrive, she didn''t seem to know dates at all. We did teach her about that, so hopefully she knows them now. Apparently the only reason she knew her age was because her sister told her. It''s so weird for people not to learn their kids things like that," April pauses for a second.

    "Or maybe I was expecting too much from a child, I don''t know what they''re supposed to know. Never been a mom or anything, nor did I do anything with kids. I worked in business, not child care." Oh, she''s scratching her head again. It''s kinda cute when she does that.

    "Ah, before I forget: Mint. This guy, he has this holier than thou aura around him. Even his old name felt holy, Michael. Since that is the name of that one Archangel.

    "I met Mint one night, when I was sneaking out of my house. I think I was four at the time, that would make him ten. He wasn''t even surprised to see me, a little toddler walking around. I, however, was shocked. This guy has golden locks that seem to shine. His eyes were bright gold too, not like Gold''s darker gold.

    "And even his skin, it is flawlessly white. The only one coming close to that is Blue. He just didn''t have wings or a floaty circle above his head. It wouldn''t surprise me if he had.

    "Oops, got distracted there. Back to the point, the holier than thou Mint ran away from his parents after a fight. Couldn''t return no matter what, and his parents couldn''t come here either. Quite complicated, he became lonely and regretted running away right after." April shakes her head with a slight laugh.

    "I promised him to meet him every day I could, just to talk and keep him company. And I did, together with White, who joined a bit later. Until we were kidnapped, I still don''t know what happened to him after. Well, I know he''s here too, and awakened.

    "Probably will say the rest in the diary part, or maybe not," April holds her hand in front of her mouth, holding back a laugh.

    "For now the facts I know about him. He said he has memories of a past life, kinda like us. There''s a chance he met Blue there, and that that brought him here. I can''t confirm that though, since he doesn''t know.

    "He does seem to know the future, since he became sadder every day. The day before we were kidnapped he told me not to go.

    "Personality wise he''s like this big gentle giant. He''s really careful and friendly. Treating us as if we were made of porcelain. He seems to be depressed, but who wouldn''t be after regretting a life decision. It''s hard to make him happy, and he doesn''t talk a lot about himself.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    "He made it a point to avoid questions and instead talked about us, and offering advice on problems we had. And he was so easy to talk to, I think he knows more about me than I do." April is blushing again.

    "That is all I have for now. So next point," April claps.

    "I have a lot of free time, since I can''t do anything at all. So I made the decision to start researching things, figuring out how the soul space works and trying to make my study worth it." Her eyes shine as she says this, and she''s talking quite fast.

    "This soul space is so useful, I can do a lot of research about outside topics here, since I just have to make the items I need out of nothing. Even books can be made, and I don''t need to know every single word of it. A few words is enough and it somehow fills in the empty spots.

    "It works for the rest too, I just need to know what the layers are and that''s enough. Not even what it''s made of, I guess it might get the info from my soul or something. I''m still working on the limits, so I''ll find out soon enough." The video ends there, without a bye or anything. I''m guessing Mint is that guy I saw outside, and April knew him longer than she knows me.

    I watch a few more of her videos, it''s her being excited about things she found out. Some are about the soul space, others about complicated things I can''t even remember the word for.

    She talked about how Mint was fine with being the test subject until White would be there. That they could visit the space without being near each other at all, and with practice their reach for using the mind talk increased.

    With White''s help they went more into the personal side of it. April realised that the soul space is actually the entrance to the soul, and the soul contracts are the people guarding it.

    Apparently there''s a secret door somewhere that leads to the soul. Once you reach that part all soul contracts will be alerted to it, unless the invader is stronger than the so called guards. Or if you use the sneaky way, that apparently won''t alert them either.

    The sneaky way is accidentally stumbling into the entrance, so if it''s your plan to find it you can''t do it. Once you reach the main soul you have access to everything of that person, without needing their permission.

    April compares it to being in the area that''s controlled and supervised at first, and then being in the control room itself.

    You could manipulate their thoughts and they wouldn''t notice. The only ones who could notice are the outsiders, seeing that the person has changed.

    April looked quite scared, and she said that this is the reason we shouldn''t make contracts with just anyone. Insiders are the ones who can easily invade, for outsiders she doesn''t know if there''s a way in. She assumes there''s probably some kind of soul attack, but she has no one to test it with.

    All the things she found out, it''s quite big. And what did I do in these four years? Absolutely nothing. I''m useless, why didn''t I think of using my time like that.

    She worked so hard, it''s amazing. I haven''t watched all the videos, but I''m assuming all of them are about her doing work.

    A white bar appears on the phone, it reads "Click the green button, thanks." What green button?

    Then the whole phone turns white. There''s a big text with "Main 1 is calling¡­" and two buttons below it, one red and one green.

    Oh, that green button. I touch it, and the phone changes to April''s face yet again. Did it start another video?

    "Hey there Blue, it''s been a while." April stares at me with this big smile on her face. I see a little corner on the phone with my own face there, moving with whatever movement I''m doing.

    "I know it''s mind blowing and all, but I''m actually talking to you right now. I can see you, like you can see me," April waves.

    I feel my face get warm and damp.

    "Awh, don''t cry. I missed you too, you know." I see tears appear in April''s eyes, even though she told me not to cry.

    "I would meet you in real, but with you going through my private stuff it''s kinda awkward¡­" She scratches her head with a slight laugh.

    "All that stuff is so embarrassing, I can only cringe at it. But well, it''s me stumbling over words and failing at talking to a camera." Her face changes into a red hue. I don''t get what''s she''s talking about, besides her not being happy that I went through her phone.

    I didn''t realise that it was off limits, would Sophie dislike it too then?

    "I guess it''s stupid to make the password so easy to crack. Even the others would know it right away¡­" She doesn''t seem to be mad at me or anything, more like she''s blaming herself. Why would she blame herself for something I did?

    I wonder, does she trust me with this soul contract? She found out the risks attached, and then saw that I was looking at her things without her permission. Is she regretting it now?

    Or well, if I wanted to harm her the rest would be alerted, unless I''m stronger. I don''t know if I am though, all the others seem way better than me.

    "So, I''ll tell you now, but I''m somewhere in this castle too," She ends with a wink.

 Chapter 35 - Reunion

    She is? Then where is she? I look around me and see nothing.

    A laugh brings me back to the phone. "If I were behind you, wouldn''t you hear my voice behind you?" Oh, yeah that makes sense, I''m stupid. I feel my face turn hot.

    "Wanna find me? Go to my favourite spot." April smiles happily before disappearing. The phone makes a few beep beep noises before it''s back to how it was before.

    April''s favourite spot? In her soul space? At least I know that this isn''t it now. The courtyard? The throne room? The entrance? What else did she make?

    The kitchen? I don''t think she likes food that much that the kitchen is her favourite. The common room? That could be it, I guess. There''s books there, and it''s nice to relax.

    No use staying here, she won''t come here. Should I take the phone with me? Just in case? April can reach me through that, so it should be with me.

    I pick up the phone and climb the ladder. She''s not in the throne room, also not in the courtyard. Good to know, so now where is she?

    Not the common room either. I checked all the halls on the way here, and there''s no one. Where would she be?

    All I can do is aimlessly walk around, hoping to accidentally find her. Think, what would be her favourite spot?

    She told me she liked the sun, but her soul space doesn''t have it. Instead a full moon stands in the middle of the sky.

    That reminds me, they renamed the sun to Kena here, didn''t they? April called it a sun too, maybe it''s just the language here?

    The language changed a lot, it''s not what I used before. It''s why I can''t read anything here, it''s too different.

    Back to the point, April. The soul space seems to be a copy of mine, I don''t know if she changed anything or not, didn''t go to the secret room before.

    If she made another room to be her favourite, I wouldn''t know about it. She should know that, that means it''s just the rooms we know about.

    The rooms we made, I made the bedrooms. She wouldn''t pick a random bedroom as a favourite though, I wouldn''t be able to check all the rooms.

    That would leave the room I made for her, right? But I didn''t show her, so how would she know about it?

    I got time, so I should head there just to be sure. It''s the highest tower, easy to find.

    As I arrive there, I find the door open. Does that mean this is it? It''s been a long time since I last saw this place.

    A laugh appears next to me as I walk in. "It took you a while."

    I turn around and see April stare at me, she''s sitting on the big bed. I want to jump in her arms to hug her, but I''m not sure if I can.

    She, however, has nothing holding her back. She smoothly jumps off the bed and stands in front of me.

    "Hey there, Blue. I missed you." She places her hands on my shoulders, before dropping her head on one of them.

    The place she dropped her head is quickly stained with tears. "I told you I would follow you everywhere, and I failed. We''re in this new place, and I¡­ I couldn''t find you for four years. If anything happened to you in those years, how could I live with myself? We all left you hanging for so long¡­" April talks fast, but not loud.

    I would calm her or say that I''m fine, but my hands are tied. I''m powerless, I can''t help the people I like at all. It''s so frustrating, I want to do everything I can to help, and I end up being useless.

    I clench my fists, and lower my head, silently crying to myself.

    We stand like that for quite some time. I''m glad to have her back, and I don''t want to let her go again. It''s been lonely without anyone else who gets me.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    She didn''t force me to talk even one time, as if she understands that I can''t.

    A new voice speaks from behind me. "Hey leader, long time no see. I hope I''m not disturbing you at a bad time."

    I look at the source of it and see Julie smiling at me, with her teasing smile.

    April takes one step back from me and nods at Julie. "Hi White, look who I found," she says through the tears.

    White? I stare at Julie and realise her eyes are white, is that the reason for the White? She looks different from before, like she''s not a little kid anymore. There''s an air of confidence with every move she makes, it was there before, but a lot more now.

    "Great, now we don''t need those missing posters anymore." Julie laughs.

    "What would you put on the posters anyway? Missing child, isn''t ours but bring her to us?" April teases.

    With a few words of Julie, April is back to her usual self. I should''ve been the one doing that, but of course I can''t.

    "So, leader. Can I get a bit of love too? Or is that reserved for Yellow only?" Julie taps my shoulder. The tap doesn''t feel like a teasing one, even though she''s still joking around. The tap is calming somehow, telling me it''s okay.

    As I turn around to face Julie, something pushes my back and I hit Julie.

    "Don''t tease me like that, White!" April shouts. I''m guessing she pushed me.

    Neither of them uses any other names than White or Yellow. Did they throw all that away?

    "Don''t be rude, I didn''t ask you!" Julie laughs. She pats my back a few times before stepping back. "Whatever it is you''re doing, we''re here to help. Although I''m guessing we''ll be useless. Go ahead and finish what you''ve started, don''t worry about us."

    Did she call herself useless? She''s been more useful in these few minutes than I have been in my entire life.

    "We''ll be waiting for you, just give us a sign." April finishes Julie''s speech.

    "Now go out there, you''re stronger than this. You don''t need to run away from your problems, you need to face them head on." Julie gives me another pat on my back, and then disappears.

    Surprised I look around, April waves at me and disappears too, leaving me alone in her room.

    How does Julie always know what''s going on? It''s like she has a speech prepared to reassure everyone at every time.

    I need to get out of here, they''re waiting for me. I can''t let them wait for nothing.

    With a deep breathe I leave.

    <hr>

    I open my eyes and feel something cold in my hand. Quickly moving my hand up so I can see what I''m holding, I stare in surprise.

    It''s April''s phone. I forgot to give it back to her¡­ But I can bring items from the soul space here? I need to hide this, I can''t let anyone find out.

    The phone disappears into my body, it''s like the sword, isn''t it? Did I make it with my soul? Or since I brought it from April''s space, is it made with her soul?

    Whatever it is, it''s good to know I can use the items in my soul space.

    The door to my room opens. "Honey, it''s time for school." Sigh, I need to do this.

    I prepare myself mentally and physically. It''s just a bunch of kids, they can''t do anything to me.

    We''re going with the same monster as always, it''s easy and quick. If only we had it back in my old world, traveling would''ve been so much easier.

    It starts to rain, it''s accompanied with a ticking sound against the windows.

    "Luckily we brought an umbrella, your mom has prepared us well," ''dad'' says.

    Never heard of that before, they have all kinds of useful inventions here.

    "Okay honey, we''re here now," ''dad'' announces as he opens the door. I hop out by myself, almost getting drenched by the rain.

    Before that happens there''s a huge shade hanging over me. ''Dad'' holds up a stick with some kind of fabric above me.

    It stops the rain, and like that we reach the school without being drenched.

    "Here, I''ll put the umbrella in your locker. Don''t go outside without it." ''Dad'' opens something he called a locker and puts the umbrella in. Then, how will he get back without an umbrella?

    Of course I can''t ask him and he leaves without showing me.

    The day goes by uneventful, because of the rain we aren''t allowed outside at break time. It''s boring, but if this is how it will be for the rest of the time, I won''t have a lot of trouble finishing.

    The whole school ends at the same time, and the doors are filled with kids running outside.

    I take my time and grab the umbrella, it''s not like I can go through all the kids anyway.

    With a few minutes all the people are gone and I stand at the door, looking for ''dad''. I don''t see him anywhere though, did he leave?

    All I see is a lonely figure standing in the rain. Upon further inspection I''m surprised to say that it''s Sophie. What is she doing here? All alone in the rain¡­

    With my umbrella in my hand, I run towards her. I''m trying to outrun the rain, it''s not working though.

    As I reach her I put the umbrella on the ground. That should give her the hint, while not breaking any rules.

    She looks at me confused as she picks up the umbrella. "Uh, thanks?" It''s probably too late already, it doesn''t look like there''s a dry spot left.

    "Your father asked me to pick you up, he couldn''t make it or something." Really? What a coincidence. Especially since you should''ve seen it by now¡­

    "And uhm, I don''t have a key to your house or anything. So you''ll be going to my home for the time being."