Twinkle's Story: Chapter 73

RISAK

We have been in this forest for hours. Even before the sun had set, darkness fell and surrounded us. Tall trees tower over us to our left and right. Most of the leaves are a dark green color, but there are some starting to change colors. Focusing on the few oranges leaves is easing my mind on the mission.

The beginning of September means the beginning of autumn. Everything going on is chaotic. Phantoms are all over central fox territory; the numbers of injured and the dead are higher than they've been in a long time. Though I hate having to admit it, the wolf is right. The world is slowly falling apart. However, I consider this time of year to be when nature is most beautiful.

The One-Pawed Savior is going to save us all. That teenager is the root cause for the recent destruction of fox territory. He is young, but he supposedly holds more power than any regular person. He is this generation's Fierdan. The One-Pawed Savior will put an end to the one called the Duke Fierdan.

We won't let fear and despair come back. Darkness won't consume us ever again. We won't let Fierdan end any more lives.

Capturing the Duke Fierdan is going to reduce the number of phantoms located in central territory. That's what the One-Pawed Savior told me.

Since we aren't exactly sure how much power the Duke Fierdan holds compared to other people due to his identity and unnatural body chemistry, we are going to isolate him from everyone and everything.

The One-Pawed Savior told me that he has a special area set up in the basement of the Tall Tower. We are going to bring the Duke Fierdan down there as soon as possible.

The One-Pawed Savior is counting on me to be alone with the Duke Fierdan in the basement. He wants me to torture the Duke Fierdan, to break him in every way possible.

That is where I drift away from the One-Pawed Savior. The trust between us is unbalanced. He can keep his secrets from me, and I can keep my secrets from him.

From the very start, I've had my suspicions on Taurel. He scares me. Ever since he called himself the One-Pawed Savior, the amount of fear I have toward him has escalated. How can someone willingly break and chop off their own paw, and have their sanity or lack of unquestioned?

I lied to him in order for him to like me. I told him things that were sure to please him. Time and time again, I said I couldn't wait to get my paws on the Duke Fierdan and start breaking him apart. However, that was all bluff. Torturing someone, even if that someone is supposedly Fierdan, is insane. I won't torture him for as long as I can.

Instead of going through all that, I'm going to skip right to the part where the Duke Fierdan is done for.

I'm going to skip all the unnecessary torture and go right to the execution.

DUKE

"What the hell were you thinking?" I growl while forming my paw in and out of a fist.

It's as if females are only around to frustrate me. I've had it with those two. I had loved and hurt them physically and emotionally beyond repair. I had it coming. I should have known that one day they would work together to go against me. I can't forgive my mother, and my actions can not be forgiven. I'm unforgivable. It's too late to right my past wrongs. People are getting hurt because of me, and I can't put an end to it.

"You said it wasn't safe to go outside on our own. Then why did you let her go?"

I'm alone in the kitchen. Even though I'm directing my words to Dawn, I'm only really saying them to myself.

"You're just like me. We're just filthy hypocrites. Filthy, filthy hypocrites."

Hypocrite. Hypocrite. Hypocrite. Freaking hypocrites.

Every time I repeat that word in my head, I shoot out orange fire from my right paw. I continue forming my left paw in and out of a fist.

The plates I have lined up on the counter get shot down one by one. A fist-sized ball of orange fire pierces through the center of each plate. The orange turns black as it comes in contact with the plates. In a matter of seconds, all the plates have gone from white to black.

I'll break everything in here if I want to. I'll burn it all. 

"Darn it. Why?!" I say, raising my voice. "Why, why, why, why, why, why?!"

I wonder if I throw fire down my throat, it'll feel dry and raw again. 

"I wanted to protect you, Twinkle. You're way more important than I'll ever be. I was prepared to die in order to keep you from harm, gosh darn it!"

After a few more shots to the remains of the last plate I had lined up, I collapse on the floor.

The cold tiled floor chills my stomach. Then I sit up and pull my shirt down as I bring my knees to my heaving chest.

I'm way too emotional. 

That's when the tears come.

ARDERE

I quietly slip my way into the kitchen. Once inside, I immediately notice Duke sitting on the floor next to a table leg.

"Hey, I have some news. Dawn said we can start going back through the forest tomorrow morning," I say trying to keep my voice calm.

I bend my knees and look right at the top of his head when I'm in front of him. The smell of fire fills the air.

I watch him in silence. After a minute, he says, "Huh?" in a muffled voice.

Even when Duke lifts his head up to face me, hair still covers his eyes.

When he runs a paw through his hair, I see his eyes. Only then do I take notice of the wet trail on the left side of his face.

While the iris of his right eye is amber, the iris of his left eye becomes dark purple starting from near the pupil outward.

"Being killed isn't the only way to die, huh?" he says quietly.

What does that mean?

Duke bares his teeth. Now the iris is entirely purple.

"What a freaking lie."

Suddenly, my eyes widen. Duke doesn't seem to notice.

Every person dies by getting killed. The only difference is how. Will it be because of weapons, or will it be because of time?

People can die emotionally over and over again, and yet they can still be considered alive. However, people get killed when they physically die in one way or another.

You and me, Duke. We will die for each other. Which one do you choose? What's our fate?

Which one of us will die physically, and which one will die emotionally? 

I wonder which one is more painful. 

I shake my head and stand up after Duke.

The iris of his left eye turns amber again as he smiles at me.

"I love you like the brother I never had," we say at the same time.

DAWN

My right eye twitches as I clench my fists. I'm finding it really difficult to calm myself down.

"Why did you do that?" I yell at Duke while pointing to the broken plates lined up on the counter.

He dares to laugh at a time like this? What a jerk.

"I've been known to be rather irrational and emotional," he says while scratching the back of his neck.

I get up on a chair, so I become taller than him. I point an accusing finger down at him.

"Is that so? I thought Fierdan had Soulless under control. I guess that since Soulless is permanently a part of you, you will always get irrational and destructive at times," I say.

"I'm very destructive. I ruin everything, so I guess you're right. It's all thanks to me being Fierdan's magical experiment," he says, smiling. "I sure do love being not a real living person. It sure is great being a result of some complex dark magic. I love being that freaking demonic creation that Fierdan made with his abuser. It's so freaking great, Dawn."

A few orange flames shoot from his knuckles. A few swear words spill out of his mouth.

I sigh and jump down from the chair.

"You love being dramatic," I say, rolling my eyes.

TWINKLE

Mom, Dad, I'm sorry I've been away for so long. I have been on quite the adventure with Duke. I guess you could say he was my boyfriend. However, that was a thing of the past. Our relationship is over, and so is our adventure. 

I missed you guys. I'm finally coming home. I can't wait to see you again.

Love your first daughter, Twinkle.

I shake my head. "How am I going to word everything? I don't want to mess anything up."

I don't know why I bothered to speak out loud. It's not as if the trees in the forest can answer me.

After a few minutes, I hear a familiar voice. I groan and look at a tree branch near me.

A black bird is perched on the branch. Then the bird transforms itself into a black fox. It's Black Raven, my strange bird affiliate.

"Ah, we meet again! Twinkle, my dear, I have missed you," she announces.

"What do you want with me now?" I growl at her as she leaps down from the branch. She gracefully lands on the ground.

She smiles mischievously. I sigh, emphasizing my annoyance at seeing her again. Unfortunately, she doesn't get the hint.

"My dear Twinkle wishes to see her parents again. Well, I can make that happen much faster than she thinks."

"What do you mean?" I ask her, my suspicions rising.

"The forest isn't the best place for you to be right now. Enemies of the Duke Fierdan and the other ones with Elemental Powers are approaching this way from the opposite side of the forest."

Taurel and his gang.

I make my wings appear. "I should teach them a lesson then," I say before lifting off.

Black Raven climbs to the top of the tree she had come from. "No, you must not do that! You should go back and warn them about the enemy's approach."

"No, I'm not going back there before seeing my parents."

Black Raven gives me one of those looks. "You could regret your decision, Twinkle."

"I don't regret a thing," I tell her.

I'm about to fly higher, but her words stop me.

"Remember how I brought you into the ice castle? Well, I can transport you to your home in a matter of seconds. I can make you avoid your collision with the enemy."

I stay still in mid-air. I breathe in and close my eyes.

When I breathe out and open my eyes, I'm standing in front of my house.

At least what's left of it.

It's nothing but rubble now. The surrounding houses have also fallen to the same fate.

No one is in sight. Panic rises inside me.

"Mom, Dad, where are you?!" I scream, tears welling up in my eyes.

This place is deserted.

"I'm home," I whisper as my voice starts to tremble.

FAUNA

My gut feeling tells me that Fierdan has been telling me the truth so far. Even though I find certain parts disturbing- like how he explained what his father made Dawn and Ryen go through- I believe him.

What I find the most damaging is how Fierdan said his father didn't make him do anything to please him. In the human world, Fierdan was the one who didn't get abused. Neglected, however, was a different story.

I guess Fierdan got his fair share of abuse from Soulless. I find it ironic how Soulless was supposed to be a friendly guide in Jamaa for Fierdan. But of course, Ryen altered the coding for the program that resulted in Soulless existing. Their father forced Ryen to do things he didn't want to do. He was manipulated in so many different ways. He was overworking himself, and he wasn't even ten years old yet when it started.

Fierdan was considered too weak and pathetic to be useful to Zios. He told me that his father only told him that he was proud of him the day he was killed.

Fierdan said that day, Zios told him that he never hated him. That he was proud of his younger son. Hearing that had damaged Fierdan, but he never let his feelings about that out. That is until he told me.

Zios was only proud of Fierdan because he abandoned his way of life as a human child. Fierdan became just like him. A person who others feared, a person who held a lot of power, a person who could kill others that didn't agree to their plans for the world. Zios and Soulless corrupted the mind and heart of a boy. They ruined Fierdan in every way imaginable.

Before Jamaa, Fierdan was known as Daniel. However, he was usually referred to as Danny. He was a boy who wasn't traditionally masculine. His best friend was a girl, and that girl was Dawn. They would do lots of activities together. They would draw and paint pictures, and they spent a lot of time in the indoor garden. They both loved the flowers in the garden, and they even attached some to their clothing and hair. About his clothing, he wore colorful clothes and never black ones. He also put on Dawn's clothes a few times. He was so sweet and gentle that he wouldn't hurt a fly. Because of all those things, Zios thought Danny was weak and a pathetic excuse of a son.

Of course once he and Dawn have been in Jamaa for years, everything took a flip. Fierdan was definitely not seen in the same way as he was as a human child.

Ryen and Daniel were child geniuses. Their father was extremely smart, after all. I also believe their mother must have also been very smart.

Twinkle used to constantly say that in school, people were smart in one of two ways. This divided people to two groups- the people who were smart in math and the people who were smart in language.

The two brothers showed that clearly. Ryen was excellent at math. That was why Zios took him to be an assistant when creating the Jamaa project. It took a whole lot of coding and a whole lot of numbers. Daniel was the genius of language and art for his age. He knew vocabulary that people twice his age were struggling with. He was also a pretty good writer who wrote poetry and song lyrics. He would occasionally show Dawn his works while they were alone in the garden, and Dawn would turn her favorite lines of his into quotes.

I almost stumble when I hear Fierdan's voice.

"I'm glad that I'm able to use my outfit changing ability for good. Every other time I would use it, it was for evil. I would use it to remove the clothes of my victims. I burned people, and I kept their clothes."

All is silent again, but that doesn't last long.

"Ugh, why do I keep on doing that? I'm trying to be a good person, but the words I say are making that impossible. Soulless staying inside of me and manipulating my mind caused me to be so evil. I was so sick and gross. It's hard to deal with the fact that I turned into such a monster."

I take out the white bows from my hair. I look at them as I hold them in my paws. They have a silver flower design on them.

"For being evil for so many years, it's going to take a while for you to become a good person. You've been pretty nice to me so far," I say and smile at him.

Fierdan smiles back, but it looks more like a nervous one than a happy one.

"Okay, you said we can help each other. What do you mean by that?" I ask, a few minutes later.

He responds by turning his back to me and picking something up from the ground. He slaps it, and black goop falls off it. Then he puts it over his head.

Oh, it's a shirt. I guess that makes sense.

The look on his face is totally different than what it was a few minutes ago.

"I can help you live with your sister again," he starts. "However, you can help me with something else that can also make that possible."

"Oh, that's okay. What do you need me to do?" I ask, tilting my head.

His dark brown eyes stare into mine. "I need you to make me appear as a physical person in the living world."

"I don't know how to do that," I say, taking a step back.

Fierdan places a paw on my shoulder. "That's okay. I have faith in you."

I remove his paw from my shoulder. It feels cold and thin.

"There isn't much time left. September has recently begun, and we have to get this done before the middle of December. Before December 19th, to be more exact. That's my birthday as well as Duke's. He won't live to his next birthday. It will wear off once he turns eighteen."

I interrupt Fierdan before he can continue. "Eighteen? Duke is only fourteen."

Fierdan hesitates for a moment. "Oh, oh that's right. I have to explain that stuff as well."

"Explain what?"

He doesn't reply; he just goes right to the explanation.

"There is a three year age shift from the human world and Jamaa. The age of people in Jamaa is the equivalent of an additional three years in the human world. You said you're eleven, right?"

I nod my head slowly.

"Okay. So that means you would really be fourteen. Since Duke and Twinkle are fourteen here, they would really be seventeen."

"Do you by any chance know how old Dawn is? In this life?"

"In this life, huh? Well, Dawn was born almost a year after I was born. My best guess is that she is thirteen, which would mean she's really sixteen. But of course the multiple lives thing is only for me and her. If you ever heard that you were involved in our lives in the past, then that was a lie."

Dawn is younger than Fierdan, than Duke? And only they had past lives? 

Fierdan flicks off more black goop from his body as he says, "Of course I had my new life start before Dawn's. Right now, I'm sixteen, or nineteen as the human equivalent. I created the fusion known as Duke after being in Cincernum for two years."

"Wait, does that mean you created the fusion of you and Soulless when you were two?"

He laughs. "Oh no. That's not how it works. The age shifts and lives for Dawn and myself are very complicated. Neither of us truly understand them. Our lives didn't restart for many years. I have the feeling that they'll stop for good once we're in the human world."

Wow, all that sounds way too confusing. 

Fierdan stretches his arms. Watching him makes me want to do the same. I copy him, but I keep my paws in fists to keep the white bows from falling into the black goop.

"I've been noticing that all of the Others- that's the name for those of us with Elemental Powers- in Jamaa have been becoming more and more like their human age equivalents. All of you, myself included, are being affected by this three year gap more now than ever before. Every part of this indicates that Duke won't be alive much longer in his current form."

He takes a deep breath.

"I have to go to the living world in order to perform the counter-spell to the one that created Duke. In doing so, I will make Duke's soul- his soul is completely a part of me since his outer body holds parts of Soulless- fuse back into my own. And once that happens, the Jamaa Mist barrier will break, allowing us to leave a devastated Jamaa behind and enter the human world."

Fierdan's eyes stare into my own again.

"You can bring me to Duke. That is why I chose you. You're the only one who can do it. And, I know it's pretty ironic for me to say it, but it could even save the world from the destruction I originally began."