To think that a demon, capable of obliterating hundreds of human lives in a matter of minutes, possessed the capacity to help end the suffering of a little girl... Let's just say I couldn't quite wrap my head around it. To my surprise—and certainly to my relief—my healing abilities seemed to come quite naturally, though unfortunately this also went on to increase the guilt that had already settled within me...the guilt about refusing to help Niall when he needed me. Not for a moment did he appear offended or damaged in the slightest, and it were as though he had never expected me to do so for him anyway.
Nathan's tiny, audible gasp tore me from my train of thought; I looked down to find him bouncing in place, noticing that Eliana's eyes had begun to flutter open. The two young siblings didn't hesitate to lean towards each and huge one another tightly, both smiling warmly with pure joy and relief.
"It's a miracle for us to see your eyes again," said Edith, and she smiled as well. "Welcome back."
"But how?" Eliana groaned, rubbing her round blue eyes with the palms of her hands. "How can I be awake right now? How is the weird stuff in my arm gone?"
"It's all thanks to master Hanako," answered Niall, and despite my name having been mentioned, Eliana seemed to completely overlook my presence, her expression brightening upon seeing Niall's face.
"I know you!" She hopped out of bed and stumbled over to the table, then climbed up onto Niall's lap. "You're Edith's brother!"
"That is correct." He laughed softly. "But how could you know, seeing as we've never seen or met each other before?"
"Edith's told me about you before!" She beamed proudly. "Said you always wear funny clothes 'cuz you have a horrible faskin' sense!"
"D-..." Niall made a face, then gradually lifted his eyes to gaze at Edith. "Do you mean fashion sense?"
"Yeah! Edith always says you must've got dressed in the dark. Or with your eyes closed. I forget."
"Eyes closed," whispered Nathan, and Eliana let out a soft, 'oh yeah.'
Edith cleared her throat loudly and averted Niall's sharp glare, which was so shockingly powerful enough to make his sister falter her words.
"T-that's enough, you two, you shouldn't–"
She was cut off mid-sentence by a knock at the door.
"I'll get it!" Morgan offered, pushing back his chair before sprinting over to the door. We all waited patiently and curiously as Morgan struggled to unlock it. As if he were afraid, he opened the door just a crack, so we couldn't quite see who was on the other side. But before anyone could even think to ask, Morgan slammed the door shut and spun around, wide-eyed and nearly hyperventilating. "Two big...scary men...out there..."
"Scary or not scary, you shouldn't have done that," Jeremy scolded. He released a deep sigh of disappointment and made his way over to where Morgan was standing. "Who knows, they could be forest rangers or state patrol or something."
Morgan scrambled to get away as Jeremy gently placed his hand on the knob—then, ever so cautiously, he opened it.
There was a moment of silence.
"...well, you are certainly not forest rangers or state patrol," I heard him say, right before shutting the door in the visitors' faces as Morgan had previously done.
"Who were they?"
Jeremy reclaimed his seat at the table and stared harshly into Edith's eyes.
"Bad news," he said. "Very bad news."
"H-how so?"
"Edithania, the twins have arrived."
Those four simple words following Edith's name seemed to hold a mysterious power of their own, one that possessed the ability to strike fear into her heart and render her immovable.
"That can't be right," she whispered, almost inaudibly. "How could they have found this place?"
"Beats me, but there's no doubt about it." Jeremy narrowed his eye as he glared vengefully at the door behind him. "That's them, alright."
"Who is 'them'?!" I demanded.
"My twin brothers," replied Niall, turning to me with such sobriety of expression. "Members number 2 and 3 of the Midnight Legion: Karm and Charis. I suspect that they've come for you, Hanako."
"K-Karm and Charis?" The names alone sounded threatening. Karm and Charis...like the names of ancient gods.
"That's right," Niall confirmed. He turned again to his sister. "We must face our brothers, Edithania. If they managed to find this place, then that must mean that they have come a long way—and you know the twins. They will never give up on a chase."
Edith seemed to have long since given up on the idea of emerging from this quandary a victor, and out through the gaps of her teeth fell words tainted with hopelessness.
"It would be nothing but vain effort to stand up to them-"
"Well, we have to try!" Niall proclaimed. It was virtually impossible to look past the clear-cut disappointment in his tone—I knew Edith could sense he was slightly upset at her for what she had said. "For the protection of master Hanako, I would do anything—even if it means sacrificing myself to stall them while he escapes."
This time she said nothing in response. But I could see a change in her eyes, a change that let everyone know she would be following through with Niall's heartfelt desire.
Another powerful series of knocks came from behind us, shaking both the cabin and the very core of my being.
They aren't serious about going through with it, are they?
Niall gently tucked a piece of Eliana's hair behind her ear, then kissed her on the forehead. "You stay here with your brother, okay?" Eliana was visibly trembling with fear as well, but she put on a brave face and nodded firmly before jumping off Niall's lap to join Nathan.
Edith and Niall both rose from their seats and made their way over to the door, now seeming to have acquired an aura of purpose blended with a hint of reluctance. Niall glanced at Edith, nodded, then opened the door.
I made sure to conceal my presence, while at the same time not wanting to miss my chance of seeing the twins; I dared to get as close as possible, teetering between a mere risk and a huge mistake—who knew what those two would do if they found out I was here?
I looked at the man on the left. Chestnut, shoulder-length hair hung gently over his charming, yet menacing face, heavy hazel eyes set deep with their sockets gazing intently at the ones who opened the door to him. He had a scar, one that started in the space just beneath his left eyebrow and ran across the bridge of his nose, scarcely coming short of his right cheekbone. The man on the right was not as similar to his brother as I had suspected, for I happened to be one of those idiots who often forgot not every pair of twins were identical.
This man had much darker hair which had been combed neatly off his forehead, almost seeming to brag at the pristine condition of his face as opposed to his unfortunate brother. His sapphire eyes had the same mysterious gleam as the other man's as they became fixed on Niall and Edith. Both men were wearing long, charcoal-gray coats along with matching maroon pendants locked in golden chains hanging from their necks.
So these are the twins, huh? Morgan was right...they are scary-looking...
"What business do you have here, brothers?" Niall snapped.
"I could ask you the same thing, Niall," the chestnut-haired man remarked. "I can see you're still as naive as ever. Quit calling us brothers, alright? We have names for a reason, you know."
"Fine..." Although his back had been turned to me, I felt as though I could still see the furious twitching of Niall's eye, as well as the gritting of his clenched teeth. "Charis," he said, "what are you and Karm doing in a place like this?"
"Looking for the Shadow Keeper, of course," Charis answered. "And I know he's near..."
"You're wrong," Edith insisted defiantly. "I've already searched this entire forest for the Shadow Keeper, but he is nowhere to be found."
"Quit lying to me..." Charis leaned forward and flicked Edith's nose with his index finger, then let out an irritated scoff. "I just saw Ironmage here a second ago, so I know you're hiding him in there."
"Just hand him over and we'll leave you alone."
"I'm afraid I can do that," she replied. "Now I suggest you two leave unless you want to get hurt."
"Is that a threat?"
"Or maybe a challenge~?"
The twins threw out their arms and joined hands, then brought them up closer to their intimidating faces. Karm sneered. "Do you really want to test your luck?"
"Because I don't think you have a chance..."
"Was that supposed to be clever?" Jeremy butted into the conversation, still seated at the table. "Oh, ha-ha. Karm and Charis, the twin demons of luck and chance. I swear, if I had a nickel for every time I've heard you say that, I'd probably have two nickels, considering this is only the second time I've had the misfortune of meeting you two."
"Ironmage!!" The twins exclaimed in unison, releasing their grip on each other's hands.
"Buddies!" Jeremy replied in a sarcastic tone. "How you been lately?"
"We're not here to play around, Ironmage," snapped Charis. "We know you're hiding the Shadow Keeper."
Crud.
I pushed myself further into the corner to avoid the eyes of the twins. I glanced at Morgan, who was in the other corner of the room, his face in his hands and his entire body trembling. Oh, Morgan, you coward...wait. I'm doing the same thing...why again am I hiding...?
"I have no idea what you're talking about," said Jeremy, and he stood up and walked over to join Niall and Edith. "Hey, it's a bit crowded here at the doorway, so what do you say we take this outside, huh? Sound good?"
"Whatever'll make you talk..." Karm muttered. After that, the five of them put some distance between them and the cabin after shutting the door quietly behind them.
I let out a deep breath I hadn't known I had been holding. "Morgan...Morgan!" My dazed friend shook his head and looked up at me. "They're gone, Morgan. It's okay."
"I never...I never knew how...I...I..."
"Don't you dare cry now." I crawled over to him and sat beside him, my back pressed to the wall.
"S-sorry," he said, wiping his misty eyes. "It's just...I never knew just how complicated your life was. All these people...looking for you...trying to bring you harm...and here I am, completely and utterly useless to you. Jeremy is your guardian, Niall is your loyal follower, and Edith just wants to protect you. I'm just a silly little human who's trying his best to hold on to the last thing he's got. But the truth is, I don't have any special powers. I don't know how to fight. And I can't protect you from any of these people. I chose to tag along, but...I was just being selfish...and I-..."
I was getting tired of listening to him ramble on about something I didn't want to hear, so I just slapped him to make him shut up. "That's enough..." I muttered. "You're my best friend, so you're far more important to me than any of them, you got that?"
"But-"
"No buts." I pressed my finger to his lips to hush him. "Now be quiet, I want to listen." I jumped up from my seat and hurried over to the window, then popped my head up so that my eyes could just barley see what was going on outside. I reached my hand up and quickly unlocked the window, then opened it slightly, so that I could hear their conversation. Morgan soon joined me, a hint of curiosity kindling in his eye.
"Why won't you take this seriously, huh, Ironmage? You used to be this great warrior that even Satan himself feared, but look at you now. You've really sunk deep, haven't you?"
"I still have no idea what you are talking about," Jeremy insisted.
"And you, Niall. I would've expected more from you. Still unsure of yourself, right? You were always the stubborn type."
"Thank you, Karm."
"Edithania..." The hazel-eyed man gazed into his sister's eyes. "I suppose I can understand your situation, but whether or not you were appointed the job of a guardian, by no means should you ever forget your true purpose. You betrayed our father, and now you're teaming up with Ironmage? You should be ashamed of yourself."
"I never said I was teaming up with him..."
Jeremy put his hand on his hip. "Ugh. Hurtful..."
"Karm, Charis, I'm going to have to ask you to leave," Niall said calmly.
"Not without the Shadow Keeper," hissed Charis. "Hand him over, or we'll be forced to take him from you."
"Is that a threat?"
"Indeed it is, brother Niall."
"Well then..." Niall slowly reached up his hand and ran his fingernails down his cheek, forming a group of four strange scars that began to glow with a mystifying light. "I am unsure of what the outcome of this battle will be, but I shall accept it with dignity and confidence. Do not hold back, brothers."
"Niall! Wait, don't-!!" Edith warned, but she was interrupted by a blinding flash of light.
Morgan and I ducked our heads behind the windowsill and covered our ears.
"What the heck are you doing, Niall!!!" I unintentionally shouted.
"That voice..."
"Charis, that's the Shadow Keeper! I'm sure of it!"
Several moments later, the bright light faded, and it appeared as though an entirely different person had taken the place of Niall. He still had his blue hair, but practically everything else had changed. He was now wearing a black vest in place of his blazer, and his khakis had been replaced with a pair of loose, bulky pants. In his hands was a three foot long, decorated blade, having golden rings and a lighting bolt stretched from the tip of the blade, all the way up Niall's bare arm and to his left eye. Draped around his shoulders was a silk, navy blue scarf.
"See, Ironmage? You should be more like Niall," laughed Karm.
"Do not mock me, brother!!" Niall shouted. "I shall take you both on if necessary!"
"No, I shall assist you, Niall," said Edith, and she placed one hand on the right side of her face. "The night is on my side."
But it's the middle of the afternoon...?
"What about you, Ironmage?" said Charis, who also seemed to be seeing this whole thing as a joke. "What will you do?"
"I'll do what I was born to do..." Jeremy turned his back on the twins. "My job..." He then cupped his hands over his mouth and shouted, "Hanako!! You don't have to hide anymore! We got your back!"
So he goes and signals me out...what a guardian he is... "Aye, sir!" I called, not hesitating to rush outside and join the others.
"So it's true, the Shadow Keeper is just a boy..." Charis cracked his knuckles and glared into my eyes. "Even still, I dare not underestimate you."
"You shall bring no harm to him," warned Niall as he brought his blade up to eye-level. "Accept my challenge, Charis. And Karm, you accept Edith's. If we defeat you in battle, then you must flee back to father and cease your pursuit of the Shadow Keeper. If you succeed in defeating us, then I leave you in Ironmage's capable hands."
"Excuse me?" Jeremy piped in. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Protecting Hanako, of course," said Edith. She slowly uncovered her face, only to reveal that the entire right half had been turned completely black, and a dark red circle surrounded her eye.
"For master Hanako..."
Yet again, there was a bright flash of light, and I was rendered unconscious.
+++
"Welcome, welcome, welcome..."
"To our game of chance..."
"Our game of luck..."
"Our game of life and death..."
The twins' distinctly dark voices echoed around me as I sat in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere. Other than the darkness, the only things I could see were many colorful floor panels beneath my feet. Red, Orange, and yellow panels formed a line that zigzagged in what seemed to be a pathway in front of me. "What the-? Where am I?"
"You're in a pocket universe," Karm said. "A pocket universe we created specifically for our gaming purposes."
"You can create universes?"
"Well, not exactly, but we'd like to think of it as one."
I shook my head to snap myself out of my daze, then tried to focus on the problem at hand. "Where are my friends?" I demanded.
"Hey! Table and chairs! Keep Hanako out of this!!"
"Jeremy?" I spun around and discovered that Jeremy was standing just a far off from me, except he was trapped on a single red platform surrounded by a black darkness. "Jeremy!"
"Table and Chairs?" Karm scoffed. "Well, I guess it's not as bad as Karma and Chairs."
"Either way, I get called a chair."
"Well, your name does sound like 'chairs'."
"Karm, I will strangle you when this is over."
"Understood."
"Will you imbeciles quit arguing and pay attention to me?" Jeremy yelled. "And why are you being such cowards? Show your faces!"
Suddenly, two platforms lit up in the air, and perched on each of them were the demon twins. Karm was sitting down, his legs hanging over the edge of the platform, swinging idly back and forth while he rested his chin in the palm of his hand. Charis was standing tall and firm, his arms crossed, and eyes fixed on nothing in particular.
"Ah, I see how it is..." Two spotlights appeared in the sky and shone down on Niall and Edith, who were both somehow scarred and in chains. Niall lifted up his head and looked at me. "Please don't worry, master Hanako. I will protect you, I promise."
"W-what?!" I shouted, staring with wide, astonished eyes at the wounds he was covered in. "H-how did you get those?!"
"That doesn't matter. What matters is keeping focused and not letting our guard down, right Edith?"
"Right," Edith nodded. The right side of her face was still entirely black, which honestly frightened me to say the least, but I knew she had her reasons. Maybe this was how she expelled her strength, I thought. "Hanako, since you have no choice but to participate in this game, would you like for me to explain the rules?"
Rules? Game? What game?? "Uh, y-yeah, sure..."
"Very well then. I shall do just that. As you can see, Hanako, we are on a giant playing board. We are the game pieces. Starting with the player the twins choose to go first, he or she will roll the given dice and move that many spaces. Then...then you must either answer the question or perform whatever act is on the card, no matter how silly, pointless, or cruel it may seem. Whoever reaches the end first is declared the winner."
"You seem to know an awful lot about this," I pointed out.
A painfully nostalgic look dawned on Edith's face, but only for a moment. "Yes. I have been forced to play as a part of this game long ago, so I am quite familiar with the concept. But even now I am unsure of its purpose, other than to hurt others."
"Are all you players ready for the game to begin?" Karm called. "Whether or not your answer is yes, the game is about to start. So get ready!" A laugh of delight escaped the lips of the hazel-eyed man as he threw a set of black and white dice over to Jeremy. "Ironmage...I think you should start us off."
"Whatever," scoffed Jeremy, and he snatched the dice up with an irritated look on his face. He shook them in his hands for several seconds, then dropped them on the ground. One of them landed on the 3, the other on the 2. Not a second later, 5 panels lit up in a straight line in front of them, and Jeremy skipped along until he was on the last one. "Now what?" He said irritably.
"Now we get to see your fate," Karm cackled. Suddenly a thick stack of playing cards fell into his hands, and he took a card of the top of the deck and observed it closely. "Hmmm. Oh! What a great way to start off the game!"
"Huh?" Jeremy squinted. "What does it say?"
A devious smirk appeared on Karm's face as he read aloud what I guessed was some sort of riddle. "Abandoned by several, left all alone, I live in a land that has been forgotten. Short I may be, short as my temper, though I am small, large is my willpower. Who am I?"
Jeremy blinked slowly and heaved a prolonged sigh. "Let me guess...is it the Ortega kid?"
"Ding ding ding!" Karm exclaimed enthusiastically, and he was suddenly ringing a dinner bell the size of his thumb. "That's correct, Ironmage. Now would you like to meet him?"
"Not really..."
"You're not being a very good sport," said Karm. "Now be a good boy and say hello to...." The chestnut haired man suddenly froze as his brother had leaned over and began whispering something in his ear. "Hmmm..." He put a hand thoughtfully on his chin and hummed quietly to himself, then let out an exasperated sigh. "Oh, why must this always happen while we're in the middle of a game?"
"What is it?" Jeremy asked. "Have to leave so soon?"
"Duty calls," said Charis disappointedly. "It appears that our father is in need of us. I apologize for having to end the game so abruptly. We shall leave with you a parting gift. How would you feel about us dropping you in the middle of Ortega's home?"
"No!!" Niall shouted furiously, and I noticed a sweat drop of blood run down the side of his face. Jeremy and I turned and gazed questioningly at his distressed face. He soon relaxed, took a deep breath, then glared at the twins. "I-I mean...you don't have to leave us with anything. J-just let us go and we'll finish the game some other time, okay?"
The twins exchanged curious looks, then began chuckling devilishly to themselves. "Nah, I know he'll be happy to see you," laughed Karm.
"Indeed," agreed Charis. The twins reached their hands into the air and closed their eyes, ignoring the shouts of desperation coming from their blue haired brother. Then, all at once, they brought their hands down with one, forceful motion, and the ground beneath my feet began to crumble, until Jeremy, Niall, Edith and I fell into the abyss below.