"What is your name?" Ellerslie asked again.
The child looked at him from under her lidded eyes and cocked her head in sleepy curiosity.
"Why are you number three?" she asked.
Ellerslie stiffened. He glanced at his other two brothers and saw the same reserved look on their faces.
[What is this child, Daimone?] Jamal asked.
Seeing the middle brother was troubled, which he rarely was, Daimone felt chills run up his spine.
[She must have senses beyond most humans. If that is the case, I will speak to her.]
[No!] Ellerslie shouted.
Daimone glanced sharply at the youngest and frowned.
Ellerslie gave a small, reassuring smile. [Forgive me for shouting, Daimone. But, I believe I should be the one to speak to her.]
Jamal's brows went up and he exchanged a look with Daimone.
[Already setting up the love race, brother?] Jamal remarked.
Daimone sent Jamal a sharp, mental jab and glared at him. [Do not even play around with words, Jamal. This child has no involvement whatsoever with us, unless she decides otherwise. We will not control her life right at this moment, nor presume she will even begin to deal with us. We are not the Fates.]
"Yes," murmured Jamal. "Forgive me, Daimone, and you, child."
"Forgive you for what?" asked the child, rubbing her eyes and yawning. "Are you all talking to yourselves? No fair. I want to be able to talk like that, too! "
[She is more than she appears, brothers]. "Maybe someday," said Ellerslie with a smile. "Now, may you answer my question, please?"
"Can you answer mine?" she shot back, referring to her earlier question.
[She has a fire in her], said Jamal with a mental chuckle.
Ellerslie flashed his teeth. "After you answer mine, but only because I asked first. Please," he added.
The child looked down, bit her lip in consideration, and glanced up. "I will always ask questions first, then, so that mine will be answered first."
Ellerslie blinked with approval and waited.
The child nibbled on her fist and continued to ponder aloud. "My mommy says when people say please, I should always try to do what she always does. But not always."
[Just how long do we have?] Daimone fumed.
[Patience], Jamal murmured.
[For you, Daimone, some seven years, give or take], Ellerslie reported.
"Come here," the child beckoned to Ellerslie.
Ellerslie glanced at both his brothers and, after a silent approval from the others, took a step forward.
"Your face has to be level with mine. That's what my mommy said," the child added, as if that would encourage Ellerslie.
[Go on], Daimone said hastily. [See what the child wants.]
Ellerslie stepped closer until he was three inches away from her bedside. After another indication from the child, he bent his torso so that his face was level with hers.
"Is this enough?" he asked the child quietly.
"Yes," the child whispered. "Do you want to know what my mommy does when her friends ask her please?"
"Yes," Ellerslie said. And expecting an answer to his question, he repeated it. "What is your name, please?"
[Is there any way to hurry the process?] Daimone asked impatiently.
[Quiet, brother!] Jamal scolded.
[I agree with Jamal. Daimone, you should—]
Ellerslie broke off when cold, small hands grasped his face. He broke his mental connection and focused on the child before him. She was staring at him from under her eyelids like any typical, sleepy child would, but he detected something was off.
"My mommy does this," the child whispered and kissed Ellerslie.
That was all it took for Ellerslie, and, for a moment, he was thankful he had shut off the mental connection with his brothers. Images blasted past in a blur, and although he recognized him, his brothers, and familiar places, he did not remember any of these flying scenes.
In a flash, he realized these were events soon to play out. A breath left his lungs just as noise erupted. Voices buzzed all around him, and he struggled to pinpoint one and identify whose it belonged to.
The sound pressure was just beginning to crush him when, just as fast, a warm heat hit him. He found he could not compare it to the heat emitted from the sun; it was more wholesome, and it touched even the deepest parts of his own secret self.
Just as he was going to grab the warmth into his arms, one by one, the voices fell silent, until only one remained, one that made him feel everything at once. It said, whispered, and shouted his name until his knees wanted to buckle, and he wanted to rip out his unfamiliar twittering heart.
An image appeared before him at the same time he was painfully wrenched back into reality, into that small room, with his brothers...and the girl.
As the girl pulled back and let her hands drop from Ellerslie's face, Ellerslie realized two things: one, what he had experienced had lasted less than a second, and two, both his brothers were whispering his name furiously, mentally and verbally. Quick hands suddenly clamped on his shoulders and moved him a safe distance away.
He pulled himself mentally and physically together—all the while the girl watched on—and opened his mind.
[I'm fine.]
[What was that!] Daimone demanded. [What happened? For a moment, you cut us off, but then I felt a break even deeper than that. It was like—]
[Like you weren't...there anymore], Jamal finished.
[Let us find a less dangerous...love, shall we?] Daimone suggested.
[What about your seven years?] Ellerslie suddenly asked.
Daimone broke his connection and whirled around, catching the girl's attention. She tilted her head and hid her yawn.
"Why is the first mad?" she asked.
Daimone turned back so suddenly that Ellerslie put a hand out to defend the girl.
"How do you know about our order?" demanded Daimone coldly.
"Brother," warned Ellerslie.
[Something is off!] Daimone thought furiously.
Jamal stepped into Daimone's view and stared into his eyes. [Brother, I know you are impatient about finding your cure, but right now, you are not clearly thinking. You might hurt the child.]
[Can she even be hurt?] Daimone growled out.
[ENOUGH. You are making assumptions, brother], Ellerslie grounded out.
"Ellerslie," Jamal cautioned.
[Did that kiss cure you, then, Ellerslie?! Is that why—]
[Only seven years' time will tell if it has cured us all, then, won't it, Daimone?]
[Ellerslie!] Jamal snapped. [That is enough! You too, Daimone!]
A tense moment passed before Ellerslie lowered his head a centimeter in apology. Daimone blinked and finally shook his head.
[It is I who must apologize, as I was the one who…instigated Ellerslie's anger. And it was aimed at me rightly so, since I may have, er, been in the wrong. Forgive me, brothers.]
[Forgiven], muttered Ellerslie and Jamal.
[Very good], Jamal said. [Now, why should we bicker between ourselves when the child before us holds all our answers?]
"I don't have all the answers," countered the child.
All the brothers stiffened and swiveled towards the child. She glanced at all three of them and stared at her blanket with a shy expression. "I—My name is Darrow."
The girl paused and looked up at Ellerslie. Wondering if she needed some sort of encouragement, he awkwardly gave a small nod, to which she smiled sweetly.
Daimone and Jamal did not have to see their younger brother's face to know he was embarrassed.
"Darrow Farlan. And now it's your turn. Why are you number three?"
Before Daimone could caution Ellerslie, Ellerslie told her they were brothers and he was the youngest out of them all. That was why he was "number three".
[She did not have to know that.]
Jamal sighed. [She is a child, Daimone. Let it be.]
"I so too didn't have to know that," Darrow piped up, alarming them once again. "Since that mad man arrived here first, he was first. That man in front of him arrived second, so he is second. And then the pretty one arrived last, so he is third."
Jamal grinned and mentally laughed at Daimone. [Daimone, Daimone, Daimone. You and your superstitions; how could she have known the order to which we were born? You have just set off a bomb that should have never been set!]
"So, that's how I know your order, Mister Mad," continued Darrow.
Jamal couldn't keep his chuckle in this time, and it echoed throughout the small room. Darrow looked at Jamal in awe.
"Beautiful," she giggled, her hands in her laps.
[This child is the devil], Jamal grinned, pleased.
[Her flattery will put her nowhere with me], Daimone said privately to his brothers as he crossed his arms.
[Then she is going somewhere, after all.] Ellerslie looked at Daimone. [This girl is—was, from the start—involved as soon as we looked at her and she, at us. She is the one.]
[Aye.] Jamal agreed.
[What did you see?] Daimone asked Ellerslie, realization dawning on him.
Ellerslie only gave him a mysterious smile and shook his head. [Find out yourself.]
[Surely, you are not telling me to kiss a child?]
Ellerslie only gave him a look, to which Daimone cleared his throat and glanced at Jamal. Jamal merely raised his brows and flashed his teeth.
[I guess there is no harm to it, then. Fine, I will kiss the child.]
"I will not kiss you," Darrow interrupted.
Daimone almost tripped over his own two feet. "Wh-what did you say?" he sputtered.
"I said I will not kiss you!" exclaimed Darrow. "Or him!" She pointed at Jamal, and Jamal made an indignant noise.
"Now, go away," she huffed. "I have to go to sleep!"
"But, why?!" demanded Daimone and Jamal at the same time. Ellerslie looked down at the girl with a thoughtful expression.
"Because I have decided I will not kiss you! Come back another day, or I will scream at the top of my lungs and tell my mommy there are pedophiles in my room!"
"Including me?" Ellerslie couldn't help but ask.
The child yawned and, with a sneer that sent red sparks across their visions, said, "No exceptions. I will go to sleep now."
"How spoiled," Daimone remarked in a dead voice as they traveled back to their home empty-handed. "I never thought my life would end at the hands of a four-year-old brat."
"I like the challenge," laughed Jamal.
"You can never tell a challenge from a danger," sighed Daimone bleakly.
"There is always tomorrow night," Ellerslie reminded them. "Tomorrow night, we will visit again."
"And just how infinite will that be?"
[Until she loves one of us.]