• Yumi Nereza Keiko
    (20) A demon's wish


    I tapped the pencil against the wooden surface of the light brown table, biting my lower lip. I stared at the blank sheet of paper in front of me, shrugged, and started drawing lines.
    "What do you suggest?" I asked, not looking up from my drawing. He passed behind me, looking over my shoulder at my drawing.
    "Well, we'd need a few leads to know where they could be." He sighed, plopping down on the chair beside me. "I wish we weren't at this alone; it's so damn hard."
    "Why don't we ask Mother for help?" I asked.
    He eyed me sceptically.
    "How the heck do you expect us to do that?" He asked.
    "Magic, big brother." I rolled my eyes and put my pencil behind my pointed ear. "A flick of the finger is all it takes. Watch and learn."
    I drew a circle in the air, passing my hand along the surface. It shimmered like a mirror and solidified, floating in midair.
    "Connection to Amaterasu." I said. The face of the mirror shimmered, and showed the face of my Mother.
    "Mother!" I smiled. Kilunar came to stand behind me. "How are you?"
    "Hmm..." The picture of her thought a moment, and jerked. "I could be better. We could all be better."
    "Mother, is something the matter?" I asked, instantly alert.
    "Well, I'll give you the short version. The King of the Dark Ones used the reopened portal when you exited it, and before I finished closing it, his whole army barged in. Day in, day out, they pour in here like a tidal wave. We've been hiding in the Underground Safeway ever since. The other settlements of DarkNite have done the same." She sighed. "We can't fight them."
    I turned to my brother.
    "Lets go." I said, worry lining my voice. "They'll die."
    He nodded, and scurried off.
    "Be safe, Mother." I told her. She nodded.
    "Be careful, and don't worry about anyone but you and your brother."
    I looked over my shoulder briefly.
    "I will."
    And just like that, the mirror dissapeared, along with the face of my Mother. I spun on my heels and went to change.


    "Hiyah!" I yelled, starting my mare into a sprint. At my waist was my sword at the ready, thumping against my leg. Behind me was the sound of Shadows' hoofs, in rythm with Lunars'.
    When I'd tried to materialize my white dress, instead of the elegant white fabric behing in my hands, I had held black material. I'd put it on anyways, though.
    The dress was jet black, as dark as night and holding my figure perfectly. At my bellybutton the middle split and flowed along to my thighs in a wave. There, it ended at tips, and at the back it reached up to touch the other end. The part covering my collarbone was a soothing purple, and two dark purple ribbons flowed down the dress in the center, following the splitting line as well. Three brown belts were around my hips. My hands had black gloves, which left my fingers exposed. I also wore black tights, which had golden diamond patterns along the sides of my thighs.
    The boots were jet black, with the top end having a purple trim. The laces were purple and zigzagged together to the tip.
    "Almost there." I said with a scowl, as the purple mist of the portal swallowed us in.


    Kilunar Julien Keiko


    The fire that burned inside her eyes kind of took me by surprise. I guess she really cared about DarkNite. Further proof that she had Mothers' blood in her veins.
    The mist looked more evil than before, swirling with darkness, threatening to swallow us into it's unforgiving midst. I follwed Nereza though, knowing that she knew what she was doing. There was the stone archway at the other end, and the portal inside of it was wide open, for anyone to pass. She galloped through without a second thought, I stayed at her heels.


    As soon as I got through, she spun her mare right around and pointed a finger at the portal. A black line of magic flowed from her finger and struck its center. The mist shifted and rolled, collapsing in on itself.
    "There. Now to get the rest of the Dark Ones." She spun her mare back around, looked at me with a smile, then sprinted along the village. I glanced up at the once proud standing castle.
    Dark magic swirled around the towers, like an inpenetrable barrier. I saw her grit her teeth as she pulled Lunar to a halt a few centimeters from the black mist.
    "He's in there." She spat out, and I brought Shadow up to stand beside her. She glanced at me. "I'll never forgive him."
    "Neither will I," I placed a hand on her shoulder, stroking it. "But don't loose sight of everything, okay?"
    She nodded, dismounting and whispering to her mare.
    "Go. And be safe." She said softly. She watched as both horses sped off, and then, hand in hand, we stepped through the Darkness.

    The halls echoed with the emptiness, the normal bustle of maids and such no longer present. Each of our footsteps echoed off the walls and were thrown back at us with twice the intensity. The walls seemed to be mocking us.
    I stiffened, seeing my home like this. Every usually beautifully lit chandelier had gotten all the candles snuffed out. The diamond facets were dull and did not throw off any light.
    "This is horrible." She whispered, for fear that her words would be thrown back too hard, and she'd snap. Her hand tightened on mine.
    "I can't believe how different this is." I said just as softly, afraid of the mocking walls.
    "But the worst part is not that." She spoke the thought we both had aloud.
    "It's that like the light, we'll dissapear too." I finished as we pushed open the grand wooden door at the top of the staircase we'd been climbing.
    The room was dark, not a single torch lit. She stepped closer to me, so I stroked her hand with my thumb.
    And all at once, every single torch in the room burst into flames, lighting up the room dramatically. We glanced towards the lavish thrones our parents had sat on for thousands of years.
    A man in a black cloak sat there, his head leanign against his hand. In the shadow of his hood, we could only see his smile. He smiled an evil smile, showing pointed vampire fangs. Red eyes peered at us from the shadows.
    "Welcome to my castle." He said, standing up and sweeping his arms in front of him dramatically.
    "Save the formalities." I spat out, as Nereza drew her blade. I held mine out at the ready.
    "Now, now, my naive little children." He flipped his hood over his head, exposing his black hair. "Be nicer to your elders."
    I gasped, and Nereza's teeth clenched.
    Father brushed off his sleeve.
    "You traitor!" I yelled. He placed his hands in front of him, as if holding an invisible ball.
    "Now, be kind. Your father has been dead for a few weeks." He smiled, and an orb of Dark Matter formed in between his hands. "My name is Amarok, and this is my Age of Darkness!"
    Nereza's sword lit up with an emerald light all of a sudden, and mine with a golden light. We both looked at them in question.
    "I don't knwo what this is," she said, then looked to Amarok with an evil glint in her eyes. "But I won't let you use my fathers' body for your so-called fantasy!"
    From the distance we were at, we slashed our blades out in front of us, and the light on our swords flew out towards him.