Twirling around, I glared at the the vampires as they were trying to sneak up on me for the tenths time already. Apparently, they made some kind of game who could get closer to me unnoticed, not realising that as soon as one of these silly girls was more quiet then usual, I could immediately turn around and end their game right there.
“Concentrate.” I said a bit disappointed and turned around once they had saluted. They were still on their pirate trip, taking their most favourite hats with them at all times.
“We are going to have massive troubles with our heroes after this.” Hannah whispered into my ear which naturally made the twins behind us curious.
“I’m aware.” I mumbled quietly into her right ear.
“Should we get rid of them after the fight against the demon king?” Hannah proposed which probably wasn’t the worst idea I ever heard.
“I don’t want to hurt Sofie … but the rest is probably better off on the sea floor if nothing changes.” I whispered back.
“What are you plotting?” Clara asked curiously, running towards me until she was right beside me.
“Nothing.” I said quietly. I didn’t know if I could trust the twins yet and even if I could, I doubted they were able to shut their mouth.
“Detective Clara, it’s time to investigate.” Clarice said, appearing right beside Hannah.
“Clarice, I smell a trace of … blood!” Clara revealed right away and giggled alongside her sister.
“And maybe we should punch some sense into them as well.” Hannah proposed and looked at the shocked twins right away.
“Agreed.” I nodded along, at least until the twins fell eerily silent. Looking into their puppy eyes, I couldn’t help sigh a little and just wanted to say something as Ellie shouted out loudly in front of us.
“We found a village. They are all dead.” resounded through the otherwise quiet jungle.
“Lucy, can we go?” Clara asked hopeful.
“Do you need my approval for everything?” I went through my hairs with a bit of desperation in my voice. I didn’t want to raise these kinky little freaks and I also didn’t want to control them.
“Yes?” Clarice answered which made me sigh a little. They were truly pressing me into a role I didn’t want to have.
“Fine … then go.” I said and shooed them away. Laughing, they both ran further ahead following the small trail we were on.
“How can you interact with them so easily, especially when one of they switch out in the middle of the conversation?” Hannah asked and scratched her cheek in confusion. Well, so far I was really the only one who got along with the twins.
“It’s easy. See them as one person and you are good to go. They feel exactly the same, do exactly the same stuff and even bite the same way. The only difference is their soul, but even based on that, it is rather hard to distinguish them.” I explained. Even though they were two persons, they still attempted to copy whatever the other did, which was quite weird in the beginning, but actually a coping mechanism they developed.
“Lucinda … I think they are doing good for you right now. But please don’t try to fix their problems. It’s obvious nobody can help them at this point.” Hannah stepped out of that jungle into a rather large clearing with twenty or so burnt down huts standing in a circle.
“I’m not good at repairing … I’m more like the destructive type.” I explained, knelt down beside a corpse and moved its limbs effortlessly.
“Good to know.” Hannah looked around, noticed several paths leading away from the small village and walked towards one of them while I strolled towards the nearest house and dragged the twins out just as they were attempting to open a bottle which smelled rather strongly like alcohol.
“Does being old make you abstain from alcohol?” Clara asked all giggly once more.
“No. And I’m not that old.” I grumbled, still pulling them by their collar towards Hannah and the others.
“We found a sigh that says ‘Labyrinth of Corsk’ … and could you please silent the two of them?” Ellie asked annoyed and pointed at the wriggling giggly mess behind me.
Looking back at them, I saw them playing Rock Paper Scissors loudly and shook my head. They were having fun together and I couldn’t bear to take that away from them at that time.
In fact, I envied them to have each other because I lost the person I could fool around with like they did. Luna was gone.
Turning around once again, I shook my head with my heart clenching and stepped to the side. If anyone of them would want to tear them apart themselves, they were free to do so. But nobody did so. All they could do is to look at me with disappointment in their eyes.
“I think I have heard that somewhere before … maybe. I’m not so sure.” I stated, rubbed my hurting head but failed to remember when I heard about that exactly.
“So we’ll go there?” Sofie asked, looking at the twins rather conflicted. On the one hand, these two had no problem murdering people. But on the other, they were still like kids, crazy kids, but still children. And that made it insanely hard for Sofie to judge them, even after all she had seen them do.
“Let’s go then.” Ellie said while I was still occupied with my own pain in my chest.
Sighing a little tired, I walked after them right away, with Hannah beside me.
“A labyrinth? It seems someone decided to bully you.” Hannah smiled deviously, pinched my side as I wasn’t reacting at all and then put her left hand onto my left shoulder as I was still silent. “Let’s travel when this is all over.”
“Hmm?” I asked quietly.
“Let’s just ignore the problems we’ll have in the kingdom. Just … I don’t know? Us two, visiting awesome places? How does that sound?”
“Hmm …” It honestly sounded great. I wouldn’t need to deal with the royal family, could avoid looking into Mary’s eyes … I could have free time. So in a sense, it didn’t sound that bad.
But I also had a responsibility for Albert and Tom. I couldn’t leave them behind.
Closing my eyes a little, I pushed Hannah away from me and stepped aside, causing both twins to sail through the air in between us. They puffed their cheeks bummed out as we strolled past them through the thick, still deadly silent jungle.
The only sounds were literally the cracking of the twigs beneath our feet and the twins giggling. As soon as we had gotten closer to some kind of temple though, I quickly grabbed them by their necks, squeezed a little until the shut up and dragged them with me.
Naturally, they did struggle a little as their attention span of a walnut drove them the check out the surroundings but I wasn’t having none of that.
Ellie looked at me strangely relived, while Sofie had a rather complicated expression on her face. She didn’t approve of my methods to get them in line, probably because they were a bit too violent.
I only let go of the twins once we had reached the temple fully and all of us checked it out. It was made of some black stone I had never seen before and definitely wasn’t native on that island. It felt cold to touch, definitely colder than the surroundings were and seemed to suck up all the noises we made. As such, it was rather quiet inside, especially as the twins didn’t fool around at all.
“It’s a dungeon.” There was one of these teleportation obelisks inside the which we had already seen in the dungeon of the capital. But unlike there, there was only a single one, making the trip through the end either tediously hard, or short.
“Well then, shall we?” Schwarz asked, already grabbing Louis and Sofie’s hand. Nodding towards him quietly, I took Hannah’s and Clara’s hand, forming a snake of people in the room.
“First floor please!” And with Louis touch, we were all flung through space. I reappeared in a rather dark space, with glowing moss on the ceiling gifting us a minimum of light. I wasn’t alone for sure, and yet I wasn’t with all the others. My right hand was empty while my left was clenched hard.
“Cla … Cla … Clarice?” Clara asked weakly and trembled by my side.
“Clara?” I asked concerned as she sunk down to the ground, let go of my hand and hugged her legs. She whipped back and forth, her eyes darting everywhere but to me. Soothingly, I kneel down in front of her on the cold stone and swiped a few strands of her out of her face.
“Clarice …” She mumbled in desperation and finally gazed as me as I placed both of my hands on her soft cheeks.
“We will find her, okay?” I said, hoping she would get it in her crazed state.
“Clarice!” Clara shouted out, tears running down her cheeks while I took her in my arms.
“I know exactly how you feel right now. I want to cry as well, trust me. But you have to keep quiet for now, okay?” She hugged me back, wept into my bosom while I caressed the back of her head, fighting my own tears quietly.
“Clarice …” Letting go of her head, I smiled reassuringly, turned around and picked her up. Out of instinct, she clung to me right away while she continued to weep onto my shoulder.
“Is okay … We are going to find her.” I muttered, grabbed her thin thighs and followed the tunnel we were in right away. And soon enough, I understood why this place was called a labyrinth. We quickly found ourselves in a crossing with no markings whatsoever.
“Do you have any idea where your sister could be?” I had hoped for some mysterious magic binding them together into all eternity, but all I got was more tears on my skin. “I guess that’s a no. You know what? I need your sword right now.” Letting go of her thighs, I drew her sword, put it in my left hand and the black sword I had retrieved from a dead person back on the mainland into my other hand.
“HEY!” I screamed loudly and waited for an answer that would never come. “Alrighty …” Placing the tip of my blade onto the right wall, I made some horribly loud noises while following that wall. Hours later though, there was still no exit in sight and even worse, we haven’t found anyone. And yet, we went through the whole labyrinth once because we were back where we started, a faint cut in the wall revealing my method of travelling.
“Oh? Really now?” I asked loudly and seethed Clara’s red sword. Placing my hands against the wall, I imagined how I would design a labyrinth in the evilest way possible … which was probably not to include any exit whatsoever. And yet, there had to be one.
Clicking my tongue, I swung my sword onto the ground, sending a few small stones flying right away.
“Sorry Clara, but could you please sit down?” I asked, knelt down on the ground, but she only intensified her hug and trembled uncontrollably. “Okay, never mind.” Being left alone was probably her worst fear at this point, so I didn’t try to peel her off me. Instead, I renewed my attempts to dig a hole into the floor, at least until I heard something crashing into the ceiling from above.
“Who might this be …” I mumbled and continue making noises while the person above me was apparently much more successful than I. Pebbles fell down on us ten minutes later, the sounds being dampened by that strange stone right away. And then, a spear struck though the ceiling, creating a small hole to communicate through.
“Ellie?” I asked loudly, right as the hole was widened a little bit.
“Lucy? Is there someone with you?” Ellie asked, stopping her attempts for the time being.
“Clara is.” I stated and looked upwards into Ellie’s eyes.
“Thank god.” She said and was quickly pushed away by a young girl.
“Clara?” And from one second to the next, the weeping stopped.
“Clarice!” Clara said happily, jumped down from my back and tried to touch the ceiling to be as close to her sister as possible. But then, she looked at me stupefied.
“How did I get on your back? And did you cry Clarice?” It was as if she didn’t remember anything since we teleported down here.
“No I didn’t? You cried!” In fact, both of them did. And none of them could remember.
“Clarice, could you get away from that hole so that Ellie can widen it?” I asked friendly while Ellie tried to push Clarice away from the hole.
“Sure thing! Clara cried ~ like a baby ~” And then, they were extra loud, even communicating about trivial stuff while Ellie and I hammered onto the ground. I hadn’t even made a hole yet as Clarice jumped down into the arms of her sister.
They hugged each other tightly and even started kissing wildly, at least until I kicked them a little. I knew Ellie’s opinion of them was low, but at least most of their actions could be attributed to them being vampires.
Making out in the dungeon though … that was hard to justify. Luckily Ellie saw none of that and jumped down with her backpack in her hands.
“Should we talk about it?” Ellie whispered quietly, looking at the girls with pity.
“What?” I asked a little confused.
“Their mental illnesses?” She asked quietly. I was so short of asking which one of the many she meant, but didn’t do so in the end.
“Oh … you stayed with her?” I asked instead.
“I’m not that heartless to leave someone crying behind, demon or not. But I couldn’t get her to move at all.” Yeah, that wasn’t very surprising. Clarice didn’t like her after all.
“That mirrors what I had to live through as well.” I mumbled and glared at the twins as they started throwing pebbles at each other.
“I have to admit they look and act kind of cute, but I’m not so sure if I’m content with what’s behind that façade. They fit insanely well to you if I’m honest.” She gibed, half joking and half truthfully.
“I’m sorry, okay? But telling someone I was raised by the god of death isn’t easy.” I complained and looked away from her towards the twins who were drawing on the walls in faint lines using the rocks in the ground.
“I’m aware of that. But it still makes me question you. I have the feeling I don’t know you anymore. You act like usual, but sometimes you are also fooling around with the twins and I feel constantly lied to. It makes me wonder what part of you we still haven’t seen.” A part that they would hopefully never see. Because I didn’t want Sofie to know, just like I wanted to protect Luna from all that shit around me.
“Then let me say this … I hope you will never see the other facets of my personality. Because if you do, then it means I lost all chains binding me to some sort of normality. This isn’t a threat Ellie, because I don’t want that to happen. I would rather go to school again than … you know.” I admitted there were some more dark secrets surrounding me and Ellie would dig. But she would do so anyway. At least she could put it into perspective after this. I didn’t want this to end badly for the heroes. But if they threatened to destroy everything I had build up so far, I would retaliate fiercely.
It was their choice to make. They just had to do it before we got back to civilisation.
Twirling around, I glared at the the vampires as they were trying to sneak up on me for the tenths time already. Apparently, they made some kind of game who could get closer to me unnoticed, not realising that as soon as one of these silly girls was more quiet then usual, I could immediately turn around and end their game right there.
“Concentrate.” I said a bit disappointed and turned around once they had saluted. They were still on their pirate trip, taking their most favourite hats with them at all times.
“We are going to have massive troubles with our heroes after this.” Hannah whispered into my ear which naturally made the twins behind us curious.
“I’m aware.” I mumbled quietly into her right ear.
“Should we get rid of them after the fight against the demon king?” Hannah proposed which probably wasn’t the worst idea I ever heard.
“I don’t want to hurt Sofie … but the rest is probably better off on the sea floor if nothing changes.” I whispered back.
“What are you plotting?” Clara asked curiously, running towards me until she was right beside me.
“Nothing.” I said quietly. I didn’t know if I could trust the twins yet and even if I could, I doubted they were able to shut their mouth.
“Detective Clara, it’s time to investigate.” Clarice said, appearing right beside Hannah.
“Clarice, I smell a trace of … blood!” Clara revealed right away and giggled alongside her sister.
“And maybe we should punch some sense into them as well.” Hannah proposed and looked at the shocked twins right away.
“Agreed.” I nodded along, at least until the twins fell eerily silent. Looking into their puppy eyes, I couldn’t help sigh a little and just wanted to say something as Ellie shouted out loudly in front of us.
“We found a village. They are all dead.” resounded through the otherwise quiet jungle.
“Lucy, can we go?” Clara asked hopeful.
“Do you need my approval for everything?” I went through my hairs with a bit of desperation in my voice. I didn’t want to raise these kinky little freaks and I also didn’t want to control them.
“Yes?” Clarice answered which made me sigh a little. They were truly pressing me into a role I didn’t want to have.
“Fine … then go.” I said and shooed them away. Laughing, they both ran further ahead following the small trail we were on.
“How can you interact with them so easily, especially when one of they switch out in the middle of the conversation?” Hannah asked and scratched her cheek in confusion. Well, so far I was really the only one who got along with the twins.
“It’s easy. See them as one person and you are good to go. They feel exactly the same, do exactly the same stuff and even bite the same way. The only difference is their soul, but even based on that, it is rather hard to distinguish them.” I explained. Even though they were two persons, they still attempted to copy whatever the other did, which was quite weird in the beginning, but actually a coping mechanism they developed.
“Lucinda … I think they are doing good for you right now. But please don’t try to fix their problems. It’s obvious nobody can help them at this point.” Hannah stepped out of that jungle into a rather large clearing with twenty or so burnt down huts standing in a circle.
“I’m not good at repairing … I’m more like the destructive type.” I explained, knelt down beside a corpse and moved its limbs effortlessly.
“Good to know.” Hannah looked around, noticed several paths leading away from the small village and walked towards one of them while I strolled towards the nearest house and dragged the twins out just as they were attempting to open a bottle which smelled rather strongly like alcohol.
“Does being old make you abstain from alcohol?” Clara asked all giggly once more.
“No. And I’m not that old.” I grumbled, still pulling them by their collar towards Hannah and the others.
“We found a sigh that says ‘Labyrinth of Corsk’ … and could you please silent the two of them?” Ellie asked annoyed and pointed at the wriggling giggly mess behind me.
Looking back at them, I saw them playing Rock Paper Scissors loudly and shook my head. They were having fun together and I couldn’t bear to take that away from them at that time.
In fact, I envied them to have each other because I lost the person I could fool around with like they did. Luna was gone.
Turning around once again, I shook my head with my heart clenching and stepped to the side. If anyone of them would want to tear them apart themselves, they were free to do so. But nobody did so. All they could do is to look at me with disappointment in their eyes.
“I think I have heard that somewhere before … maybe. I’m not so sure.” I stated, rubbed my hurting head but failed to remember when I heard about that exactly.
“So we’ll go there?” Sofie asked, looking at the twins rather conflicted. On the one hand, these two had no problem murdering people. But on the other, they were still like kids, crazy kids, but still children. And that made it insanely hard for Sofie to judge them, even after all she had seen them do.
“Let’s go then.” Ellie said while I was still occupied with my own pain in my chest.
Sighing a little tired, I walked after them right away, with Hannah beside me.
“A labyrinth? It seems someone decided to bully you.” Hannah smiled deviously, pinched my side as I wasn’t reacting at all and then put her left hand onto my left shoulder as I was still silent. “Let’s travel when this is all over.”
“Hmm?” I asked quietly.
“Let’s just ignore the problems we’ll have in the kingdom. Just … I don’t know? Us two, visiting awesome places? How does that sound?”
“Hmm …” It honestly sounded great. I wouldn’t need to deal with the royal family, could avoid looking into Mary’s eyes … I could have free time. So in a sense, it didn’t sound that bad.
But I also had a responsibility for Albert and Tom. I couldn’t leave them behind.
Closing my eyes a little, I pushed Hannah away from me and stepped aside, causing both twins to sail through the air in between us. They puffed their cheeks bummed out as we strolled past them through the thick, still deadly silent jungle.
The only sounds were literally the cracking of the twigs beneath our feet and the twins giggling. As soon as we had gotten closer to some kind of temple though, I quickly grabbed them by their necks, squeezed a little until the shut up and dragged them with me.
Naturally, they did struggle a little as their attention span of a walnut drove them the check out the surroundings but I wasn’t having none of that.
Ellie looked at me strangely relived, while Sofie had a rather complicated expression on her face. She didn’t approve of my methods to get them in line, probably because they were a bit too violent.
I only let go of the twins once we had reached the temple fully and all of us checked it out. It was made of some black stone I had never seen before and definitely wasn’t native on that island. It felt cold to touch, definitely colder than the surroundings were and seemed to suck up all the noises we made. As such, it was rather quiet inside, especially as the twins didn’t fool around at all.
“It’s a dungeon.” There was one of these teleportation obelisks inside the which we had already seen in the dungeon of the capital. But unlike there, there was only a single one, making the trip through the end either tediously hard, or short.
“Well then, shall we?” Schwarz asked, already grabbing Louis and Sofie’s hand. Nodding towards him quietly, I took Hannah’s and Clara’s hand, forming a snake of people in the room.
“First floor please!” And with Louis touch, we were all flung through space. I reappeared in a rather dark space, with glowing moss on the ceiling gifting us a minimum of light. I wasn’t alone for sure, and yet I wasn’t with all the others. My right hand was empty while my left was clenched hard.
“Cla … Cla … Clarice?” Clara asked weakly and trembled by my side.
“Clara?” I asked concerned as she sunk down to the ground, let go of my hand and hugged her legs. She whipped back and forth, her eyes darting everywhere but to me. Soothingly, I kneel down in front of her on the cold stone and swiped a few strands of her out of her face.
“Clarice …” She mumbled in desperation and finally gazed as me as I placed both of my hands on her soft cheeks.
“We will find her, okay?” I said, hoping she would get it in her crazed state.
“Clarice!” Clara shouted out, tears running down her cheeks while I took her in my arms.
“I know exactly how you feel right now. I want to cry as well, trust me. But you have to keep quiet for now, okay?” She hugged me back, wept into my bosom while I caressed the back of her head, fighting my own tears quietly.
“Clarice …” Letting go of her head, I smiled reassuringly, turned around and picked her up. Out of instinct, she clung to me right away while she continued to weep onto my shoulder.
“Is okay … We are going to find her.” I muttered, grabbed her thin thighs and followed the tunnel we were in right away. And soon enough, I understood why this place was called a labyrinth. We quickly found ourselves in a crossing with no markings whatsoever.
“Do you have any idea where your sister could be?” I had hoped for some mysterious magic binding them together into all eternity, but all I got was more tears on my skin. “I guess that’s a no. You know what? I need your sword right now.” Letting go of her thighs, I drew her sword, put it in my left hand and the black sword I had retrieved from a dead person back on the mainland into my other hand.
“HEY!” I screamed loudly and waited for an answer that would never come. “Alrighty …” Placing the tip of my blade onto the right wall, I made some horribly loud noises while following that wall. Hours later though, there was still no exit in sight and even worse, we haven’t found anyone. And yet, we went through the whole labyrinth once because we were back where we started, a faint cut in the wall revealing my method of travelling.
“Oh? Really now?” I asked loudly and seethed Clara’s red sword. Placing my hands against the wall, I imagined how I would design a labyrinth in the evilest way possible … which was probably not to include any exit whatsoever. And yet, there had to be one.
Clicking my tongue, I swung my sword onto the ground, sending a few small stones flying right away.
“Sorry Clara, but could you please sit down?” I asked, knelt down on the ground, but she only intensified her hug and trembled uncontrollably. “Okay, never mind.” Being left alone was probably her worst fear at this point, so I didn’t try to peel her off me. Instead, I renewed my attempts to dig a hole into the floor, at least until I heard something crashing into the ceiling from above.
“Who might this be …” I mumbled and continue making noises while the person above me was apparently much more successful than I. Pebbles fell down on us ten minutes later, the sounds being dampened by that strange stone right away. And then, a spear struck though the ceiling, creating a small hole to communicate through.
“Ellie?” I asked loudly, right as the hole was widened a little bit.
“Lucy? Is there someone with you?” Ellie asked, stopping her attempts for the time being.
“Clara is.” I stated and looked upwards into Ellie’s eyes.
“Thank god.” She said and was quickly pushed away by a young girl.
“Clara?” And from one second to the next, the weeping stopped.
“Clarice!” Clara said happily, jumped down from my back and tried to touch the ceiling to be as close to her sister as possible. But then, she looked at me stupefied.
“How did I get on your back? And did you cry Clarice?” It was as if she didn’t remember anything since we teleported down here.
“No I didn’t? You cried!” In fact, both of them did. And none of them could remember.
“Clarice, could you get away from that hole so that Ellie can widen it?” I asked friendly while Ellie tried to push Clarice away from the hole.
“Sure thing! Clara cried ~ like a baby ~” And then, they were extra loud, even communicating about trivial stuff while Ellie and I hammered onto the ground. I hadn’t even made a hole yet as Clarice jumped down into the arms of her sister.
They hugged each other tightly and even started kissing wildly, at least until I kicked them a little. I knew Ellie’s opinion of them was low, but at least most of their actions could be attributed to them being vampires.
Making out in the dungeon though … that was hard to justify. Luckily Ellie saw none of that and jumped down with her backpack in her hands.
“Should we talk about it?” Ellie whispered quietly, looking at the girls with pity.
“What?” I asked a little confused.
“Their mental illnesses?” She asked quietly. I was so short of asking which one of the many she meant, but didn’t do so in the end.
“Oh … you stayed with her?” I asked instead.
“I’m not that heartless to leave someone crying behind, demon or not. But I couldn’t get her to move at all.” Yeah, that wasn’t very surprising. Clarice didn’t like her after all.
“That mirrors what I had to live through as well.” I mumbled and glared at the twins as they started throwing pebbles at each other.
“I have to admit they look and act kind of cute, but I’m not so sure if I’m content with what’s behind that façade. They fit insanely well to you if I’m honest.” She gibed, half joking and half truthfully.
“I’m sorry, okay? But telling someone I was raised by the god of death isn’t easy.” I complained and looked away from her towards the twins who were drawing on the walls in faint lines using the rocks in the ground.
“I’m aware of that. But it still makes me question you. I have the feeling I don’t know you anymore. You act like usual, but sometimes you are also fooling around with the twins and I feel constantly lied to. It makes me wonder what part of you we still haven’t seen.” A part that they would hopefully never see. Because I didn’t want Sofie to know, just like I wanted to protect Luna from all that shit around me.
“Then let me say this … I hope you will never see the other facets of my personality. Because if you do, then it means I lost all chains binding me to some sort of normality. This isn’t a threat Ellie, because I don’t want that to happen. I would rather go to school again than … you know.” I admitted there were some more dark secrets surrounding me and Ellie would dig. But she would do so anyway. At least she could put it into perspective after this. I didn’t want this to end badly for the heroes. But if they threatened to destroy everything I had build up so far, I would retaliate fiercely.
It was their choice to make. They just had to do it before we got back to civilisation.
