Twinkle's Story: Chapter 32

*This is so awkward. I'm typing a new chapter now (less than one day later), and I'm all alone in my house.*
*I've been home alone for hours. I'm trapped. Help.*
*Oh, oh! I've finished that drawing of them. Yay! :)*
*But I can't post it because my stupid iPod broke again! :(*
*Poor characters. Sniff, sniff.*
*Okay, okay. I'll allow you to read the chapter now. XD*
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CALLIAH

I sigh. I honestly don't know what to do anymore. I failed my life. There is no hope left. I blink slowly as I look at the pool of tears that have collected in my cupped paws. I look in puzzlement as I suddenly see a cloudy purple color reflect in my tears. This time, however, I'm prepared.

I stand up, my tail brushing the hard wall's slightly damp surface. I stand in a fighting stance, shoulders raised, arms stretched out in front, tail swishing in a circle. I shout without any hesitation, "Back off!"

As he takes a step back, I get out of my fighting stance. "Calm down, Calliah," he says as he takes slow breaths.

I just give me a cold hard glare. A glare that I, myself, actually meant. Where he isn't controlling me. "I want nothing to do with you, Fierdan."

He gasps. "Whoa there. Chill, chill. It's going to be okay, my love."

I take a step closer to him, and I slap my paw across his face, claws extended. I tilt my head up toward his face. "Listen here, you little scumbag. I'm not going to fall victim to your fake "love" again, and you're the cause of everything not being okay!"

"What are you talking about, sweet?" he asks as he's about to nuzzle the side of my neck.

I step out of the way, which results in Fierdan stumbling. "I don't fall for your lies, Fierdan. You never truly loved anybody, and you made me hate my own loved ones."

He just laughs. "They're all complete lies. They all killed themselves."

"If your reason has any common sense in it, it would be because they couldn't stand to live with you while they were still alive."

Fierdan grins as he pats the area where I slapped him with the back of his left paw. "No, I'm pretty sure that's not it."

"That's because it isn't. I know what you did," I take a pause and then continue, "Duke will never sink all the way down to your level in the underworld. Ever."

"Don't assume everything. Don't make assumptions, Calliah."

I stomp my left foot, hard into Fierdan's foot. Since he's a spirit, he can't feel the pain. If he even is a spirit.... "I know the real reason why all your previous loved ones "left". I know it inside out, so don't even dare to deny it."

This makes him smile. "Ah okay. As long as you're keeping me distracted for the real reason I came here, go with it. Oh, wait. Oops...." He throws his paws in front of him, them nearly touching his knees.

Aggravated with him still being here, I say, "Fine. Why did you come now?"

"Oh, yay! You're curious now."

"You better tell me or else I'll punch you so darn hard that you will feel the pain," I say as I keep my claws extended out.

He raises his eyebrows. "Okay, okay. Just chill already!"

I sigh reluctantly, and lower my shoulders. At least he continues- telling me the information he so desperately had to tell me now.

"I met up with him again, but this time we were both had our phantom powers activated. Well, him. My phantom powers are always activated. Our meeting didn't exactly go as planned...."

His sudden pause makes me uneasy. "What did you do to him?" I gasp, wide-eyed.

Fierdan blinks. "He brought up Zios, that darn kid. Of course I had to teach him his first phantom lesson."

"Which was?"

Fierdan answers casually, "Making his bright orange flames turn against him, of course."

 It makes me visualize Fierdan pour invisible gasoline all over Duke, causing him to be burned alive, surrounded by his very own flames. It makes me cringe.

I never should have let Fierdan go away with activating Duke's previously concealed phantom powers.

As if reading my mind, he replies, "Too bad his phantom powers can't be deactivated. What a shame!"

I perk an ear up, and give him a suspicious look. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Duke can never escape from his demonic phantom side. Haven't you not listened to what I told you?"

He's trying to manipulate me with all the tricks up his sleeve again. I don't fall for them, this time around. "You haven't told me anything of the sort."

Ignoring me or not putting into consideration what I just said, Fierdan goes on. "The only way for Duke to ever escape the fact that he's part phantom is....."

He doesn't need to continue for me to know what he means. I feel acidic tears collecting in my eyes again. "You... You're the cause that he is part phantom."

This makes his eyes sparkle. "Oh, Calliah. You're one to know how much I love being witness to others' sufferings."

I roll my eyes, but then take a breath as I finish that sentence. Fierdan doesn't have to say anything for me to know I'm right. Besides, why should I rely on him to get hold of the truth? He's just going to try to manipulate me with his demonic schemes again. My voice shakes as I say the last remaining words of that sentence. "... if he dies. The only way for him to be free from the corrupted prison you created, which is life, is if he leaves it."

"Oh wow. You're a pretty good guesser. But not quite. For Duke to fully get rid of the phantoms would be if he actually does get rid of them. Know what I'm saying, hun?"

I know what he means. To get rid of the curse, his only option is to cut through the cursed phantom flame on his heart. But since that means breaking his own heart- literally and figuratively-, that would surely kill him. Killing himself as the only way of true escape.

I ask him a question. "If he k-kills himself, would he come back to life cursed-free?" I pray that the answer is "yes".

Unfortunately, the truthful answer is "no". He says, "But remember he already is a reincarnation- my reincarnation. He can't just simply "come back to life". Reincarnations can't be reincarnated."

I feel myself breaking because I know Fierdan doesn't lie as he says that. The truth hurts.

"Well, I think you've got the gist of it. I better be going. I'll be back!"

Fierdan vanishes yet again. Leaving me all alone as I cry my heart- not influenced by his eternal curse- out.

Pain. That's all I'll ever know.

Knowing the truth is the one thing that hurts more than anything else. More than pain itself. Because the truth brings along pain.

And they'll always be my two true enemies I always have to fight against.

The painful truth.


TWINKLE

"Of course this isn't actually home. Not mine either. I live all the way over in that direction," Dawn continues as she points a finger in the direction of the horizon, "Home is where we'll all train for the next great war. But we'll still continue on towards my home."

I feel Duke's fur against mine bristle. "Why should we trust you? You're a complete stranger."

I quickly reach up on my toes to whisper into his ear- that's perked up, alert- what I think. "Don't be so rude, Duke. We might not know much about her, but she obviously knows something about us that we don't."

He whispers back. "That's why she's making me so uncomfortable, though....."

Our side conversation subsides as Dawn speaks again. "I know this area where....."

Duke interrupts her. I gently elbow him in the side for doing that. "Your name's Dawn. You are a fox. Why doesn't your name follow the code?"

She removes the explorer's hat on her head, revealing pale brown wispy hair that reaches down to the middle of her back. Her face is still covered in casting shadows, though. But her ears surprise me the most.

It surprises Duke as well. "You sure are weird," he pauses before saying her name, "Dawn. And what's up with your ears? They're not black-tipped or anything."

"Ha, I'm different. I've always been different....."

Duke and I just stare at her blankly. That's nothing we should feel sympathy for. Our lives....

Dawn giggles. "I'm also a Fennie."

"A what?" Duke asks, raising his voice yet still sounding uninterested.

"A Fennie. I guess you Jamaasian foxes have never encountered seeing such a fox subspecies as me," she pauses for a moment, "Not that I blame you. I'm not exactly a "Jamaasian fox" myself."

I, too, don't know what a so called "Fennie" is, so I ask her the same question. "What is a Fennie, Dawn?" At least I asked her more kindly than Duke did. Perhaps that's why she answered me.

"A Fennie is just a short little nickname for Fennec Fox. My ears make that up. That's why mine aren't black-tipped, and are larger than yours."

"Oh..." Duke and I reply in unison.

"It's fine, though. I've always felt like explaining this to someone other than myself."

Duke takes a step away from me; closer to Dawn. "Is that why your name isn't Jamaasian?"

She hesitates before answering. "Well, uh... Not exactly. That part is a small part of it, though. I'll fully explain why, later. Not now."

Another question enters my mind about Dawn. "Do you live with anyone else? Or are you..."

"Isolated?" Dawn finishes my sentence, and then puts her hat back on. "Yes, yes I am. No worries, though. I've managed to live through it. No worries...."

She doesn't feel comfortable talking about her past. Just like Duke and me. Perhaps we aren't as unlike her as we first initially thought.

We then go on and on talking. Awkward as it may be, it fascinates me.

What I saw of Duke last night almost escapes my mind.

But let's be honest here.

How am I ever going to forget those black flames of death and destruction?

How....


DUKE

She's hiding something. I'm sure of it. The way she refuses to look at Twinkle and I straight in the eye. But why?

I know why, though. She's the "green". She's that fox in the prophecy dream I had. If their eyes match, then I know for certain that that's the same fox. The bright, piercing emerald eyes. Eyes made of the stone gem.

But why doesn't she fully say out loud that she is the green fox? Does she- deep, deep down- not trust us much as what Twinkle and I think? Twinkle, herself, is clueless about knowing about the eyes.

I look down at my black jacket that showed up ever since the black flames came. Is the element of this jacket, concealed black flames?

That thought makes me choke in my head. I lower the part of the zipper that moves up and down, so it no longer is pressing against my throat.

As Twinkle and Dawn go on talking about whatever, I get lost in my mind again.

Who am I?

A fox? A demon? A monster? A phantom?

Where do I truly belong?

Not in this world. That's where.

I flash back to reality as I hear Dawn say, "You see, I want to know what you're capable of. Train you; prepare you."

Then, Twinkle's voice. "What type of training?"

"I may have began my training before both of you, but that doesn't mean I'm fully trained either. Let's just say it'll be quite the experience!"

"'Quite the experience', eh?" I say just in case they start getting suspicious about why I stopped talking before. I click my tongue.

Twinkle glances back at me, and then at the ground. "Oh dear Zios. You really have to stop doing that, Duke! Oh Zios, Duke, why!?"

I find myself starting to laugh. Laugh? "What did I do?"

"I can't, I just can't...."

"Erm.... Okay?"

Dawn just giggles at our mini conversation.

But I have to admit. The idea of us three- the three foxes with element powers: fire, ice, and whatever Dawn is- training does interest me. Showing off our powers, using actual weapons at this secret base that only Dawn's been to before....

Who wouldn't be interested at such an opportunity?

I also know why I must train.

I need to train myself to be loyal to my good powers, and never my bad ones.

I must train.....

Train...

Or else I don't know our fates.

Train...

Or else I'll be behind the reason why the world broke apart.

But I won't let that happen. I'll never let Fierdan get away with this.

Not ever.