Shattered Memories

A Work-In-Progress YA Fantasy novel.   Rosa wants to live like any normal teenager with an annoying sibling despite her amnesia, which also strangely affects the voice in her head which calls itself Rio. However after meeting some seemingly familiar people, her and her younger sister Lily's lives get flipped upside down. And when they are both dragged into demonic conflict and her sister is taken from her for seemingly no reason, she cannot find her on her own. 

[nocturnalmemories]

Chapter 18: Family

As they arrived at the house, Rosa stared at the scenery, slowly taking everything in. It appeared to be a modest, quiet house, with beautiful flowers decorating the front garden. Judging by the large fence that stretched from the sides and far back, the rear garden was much more sizable than the cute lawn leading to the house.

“You live here? It looks like an oversized fairy tale cottage…”

Black laughed and fiddled with a key, unlocking the front door. “Phoen’s grandfather loves cute things, he fell in love with this place as soon as he saw it.”

Rosa glanced around, hearing the quiet chirping of birds. She hadn’t expected her friend to live on the outskirts of town, and it didn’t seem like there were many houses at all in the vicinity as they arrived here on the bus. It took them an hour to get here. She wondered how long it took Black to get to school. “Seems like a nice quiet place… Guess you don’t have to put up with barking dogs here,” she joked and a small smile twitched on his lips before he shook his head and led her through.

Rosa counted the rooms as they went through. Three rooms on the ground floor, one of the doors were open showing her it was the kitchen. Just next to the stairs she could see another door with a window she could see the sky through. Door to the garden?

“So down here are the kitchen, lounge room and the ‘guest’ room. Phoenix and Mikhail mostly use that though… Upstairs are the bathroom and mine and his grandfather’s rooms… And we’ll be using the garden in a bit,” he explained, gesturing to each room. She briefly wondered what he meant by ‘using’ the garden as he guided her into the living room.

Walking in, she saw her uncle sitting on the sofa, in deep conversation with someone who looked strangely familiar. Quickly scanning the room, she noted the amount of flower pots was only outnumbered by the number of fox statues decorating the room. Some of them were more detailed and painted black or red, whilst others were carved out of wood with strange markings and slits for eyes. “There’s a lot of foxes,” she mumbled to herself before she looked over at the person sitting next to Mikhail, who had finally noticed her.

The woman looked to be in her late twenties or early thirties, with ivory skin and long black hair tied into a messy but beautiful ponytail with a crimson ribbon. That seemed to be the same shade as those soft eyes blinking at her before a serene smile graced her lips. “Hello Rosa, long time no see.”

Rosa tried to wrack her brain for when she saw this woman before, and she could see an amused smirk on Mikhail’s face as she did so. She looked familiar, and she knew she saw her with Mikhail many times before, even if she couldn’t remember. A girlfriend? No, she had the feeling that was completely wrong.

Hearing the door open again, she saw Phoenix poke his head round, mumbling. “Hey Gramps where did you put the…” He trailed off as he saw Rosa and flashed her a sheepish grin. “Oh hey Rosa, Mike said you’d be here today.”

Rosa stared at him, then the woman who now had the same smirk Mikhail did. The gears started to turn in her head, and two questions fought in her brain. She settled for the more important one. “I know you and Black said your grandfather looked young, but how the hell does he look this young?!”

The feminine man laughed, crossing his arms. She had the feeling she would have never figured out his gender if Phoenix hadn’t flat out revealed it. Because not only did his grandfather look like a woman, but he seemed to dress the part too. That flower patterned robe looked very beautiful to say the least. “No ‘nice to see you again’? You don’t quite remember me, do you? Although you and Phoenie do seem to have a little ‘problem’ remembering each other too.”

Rosa looked at Phoenix, who looked away as if embarrassed. She assumed Black had filled him in, about her amnesia that seemed to have affected his memory too somehow. Because considering their corresponding guardians were close as they grew up, they really should remember each other too. “No… I… I think I remember I called you uncle too, sir? I remember seeing a boy in one of my ‘memory dreams’ though… Maybe it was you, Phoenix?”

“What a pain in the ass this is, if I knew you for 10 years, how could I suddenly forget about you?” the older boy mumbled, avoiding her eyes. “Not like my memory is amazing but… There’s no reason…”

His grandfather shook his head, a wry smile on his face. “This isn’t your fault Phoen… We don’t quite know the cause of this memory loss, it may be a curse though.” He looked at Rosa. “I doubt I’ll be able to cure it but… I might be able to find the nature of the curse, at the very least. May I give you a check up?”

She gave a shaky nod. “O-Of course… Thanks sir..” ‘

He smiled gently at her. “You may call me Uncle Yuma if you wish.”

As the man rested his slender palm on her forehead, Rosa felt nervous. Something bothered her. Yuma was a grandfather, and looked 30 at the most. Mikhail looked young too but she chalked that up to him being a fallen angel. What made Yuma look so young? Was he a witch? Was he another species? And what would that make Phoenix?

He mumbled some comforting words and she tried to relax. Don’t freak out. Learning the origin of her amnesia would be very much helpful.

His fingers glowed a bright violet and she felt her mind go blank for a moment. She could hear some words faint in her head.

'Don't… Stop… Don't hurt me!'

Yuma jerked away, gazing at her. "Are you okay, Rosa?" She stared at him and flashed a crooked grin .

"Y-Yeah, sorry, just nerves." She mentally messaged Rio. 'Are you alright?'

'He was touching my soul… It's so warm… I was scared he'd burn me away…' Rio sighed. 'Okay… I'll avoid him this time… Tell him to try again.'

Rosa nodded for the perplexed man to attempt again and he repeated the procedure. Her mind blanked again but Rio did not panic.

When Yuma stopped, he looked worried. "It doesn't seem to be demonic but… You have a protective barrier blocking your memories."

Rosa tilted her head. "A… Protective barrier?"

Yuma looked at Mikhail, who sighed and explained. "There is a way to block memories rather than erase them, whether temporarily or permanently. Protective barriers are a form of holy magic that are… A little controversial… But they're used in treating ptsd. They block the memory until the individual is well enough to process it." He rubbed his temples. "They're only for select memories, they're not supposed to be used to block out even the person's memories of themselves. And they… Ah… Can only be lifted by the creator of the barrier. Unless we find the caster, or they die… The only way you're getting your memory back is slowly through the cracks. Which is how you get those dreams."

Rosa gazed at her feet, thinking. "But if we have no idea who did it… Do you think I could get all of them back eventually over time?"

Yuma pursed his lips. "Well… Based on how protective barriers work… The memories don't come back until you're 'ready', and if it's over a year's worth, they resurface over time to not put pressure on your mind. But you've had 10 years worth of memories sealed… There's really no telling how long they will naturally take. And we shouldn't interfere with the barrier because well… No one's ever tried to break a barrier open. It could end badly."

She thought to herself then shook her head. "I'm going to focus on Lily, then I'll see if I can do anything about my memory.” Something continued to bother her but she decided to ask later. “Hey Mike… Did you fix that bracelet?”

Mikhail took it out of his pocket. “It still needs a lot of work, I’ve managed to make it last an extra 10 minutes at the most. But I’ve figured out a way to strengthen it… If it’s blessed with a fire angel’s feather, it will increase its ‘run time’ by up to three hours…” He sighed. “Depending on the angel’s rank. A cherub will increase it by two hours, a seraph by three… Any other angel, by an hour.”

Black frowned, tilting his head. “Can a fallen angel just ask a random angel to borrow their feather? You… Can’t even enter Heaven, can you?”

“He asked Sky. Sky and Star are still affiliated with Heaven,” Phoenix said with a shrug. “They both work for the same cherub fire-angel, but well… He wouldn’t help Mikhail if his life depended on it,” he mumbled with a weak grin as the fallen angel looked away, expression stormy. “So we’ll have to cross our fingers that they can persuade someone else.”

Yuma shook his head and strolled over to the door, smiling angelically. “Hey, how about we do some training for now then? Waiting is only going to increase the run time, not the overall power. If you want to use that effectively Rosa, you need to practice, hm?”

Rosa nodded and as Mikhail held his hand out she took it, letting him clip the bracelet on her wrist. Pressing the red gem seemed to make it lock in place, she’d need to remember that. Watching Black and Phoenix follow Yuma, she asked her former guardian a question. “So Mike… Sorry if it’s rude to ask but… What made you fall from Heaven?”

Mikhail stared after Yuma then shook his head. “Well, you knew before so… I’ll tell you after ‘training’, okay?”

Stepping out into the garden, Rosa’s jaw dropped. She knew it was big, but it looked to be twice the size of the house. The first half of the garden seemed perfectly normal, a few deck chairs and a small body of water, she couldn’t tell whether it was a pool or a pond. The other half however, was different. Flowers surrounded a huge patch of land where the grass seemed to be paler, a rectangular shape with each edge having a strange metal pole buried into the ground. The poles stretched up far, beyond the already tall fences of the garden, and were silver in colour, etched with odd red markings.

“What are those things?” she breathed.

“You see… These poles create a forcefield which are lethal to lesser demons if they try to leave. How we’ve always trained against demons well… Yuma summons a demon in here, where it’s safe to do so. We try to kill it and if we can’t, we just pass through the field before the demon can get us. If it tries to go through well… Bad news for it,” Black mumbled

Rosa looked at them, noting a thin outline in the grass. Was that a demon summoning circle? “But can a demon get in it?”

“Pretty stupid for it to as it can’t get out again, but it’s happened before,” Phoenix said. “Because it’s only a one sided ‘barrier’, it’s not the best thing to use defensively. If a demon can use long range magic well… You being in one of these won’t protect you.”

She nodded in understanding and watched Yuma step into the summoning circle. “Wait so… Are you going to summon a demon, Uncle Yuma?”

He nodded and, seeing the concern flash across her face, smiled. “Hey don’t worry, I’m only summoning a low level demon. However, for the purpose of this training session, I’m trying for a weak but fast one. See if you can hit a fast target, eh? If it gets too tough, you just need to step outside of the forcefield.” He looked at Mikhail and winked. “And then Mikey can fry me up a chicken, hm?”

Mikhail rolled his eyes and sighed. “Fighting a level 1 demon will just be an insult to me. You could handle it, right Blake?”

Black gave a shaky nod and Rosa looked anxiously at the bracelet. “So… I just need to shout ‘Fire’ right? If I do that a lot… It’s going to murder my vocal cords.”

“I think blessing it with a strong enough angel feather might help,” Mikhail mumbled. “I mean… I could probably create a ‘dark lightning’ bracelet too, but that’ll be harder to control than fire and well… Fire magic is weaker but still works in the rain, because divine magic is stronger than nature. Lightning magic will become stronger but also much more dangerous.”

“Fingers crossed Sky comes back with a cherub feather,” Yuma said with a laugh before closing his eyes. A spark jumped between two of the poles. “I’ll get to summoning the demon… I’ve become strong enough with magic I don’t need blood anymore, at least.”

Rosa watched as the poles charged with crimson energy and the lines of the summoning circle set on fire, flames dancing harmlessly around Yuma. “How exactly can he do this…? Is he a witch or something?”

“Gramps has been practicing magic for over a century, this is just second nature to him by now,” Phoenix explained before smiling sheepishly at the suspicious look Rosa was giving him. “Let me guess, you’re wondering how he’s been alive this long, Rosie?”

“That and… He’s your grandfather, do you have any of this weird power either?” she mumbled. “Are either of you two even human?”

He went quiet, watching smoke erupt from the summoning circle. A wing broke through before a loud caw echoed as the rest of the creature came into view. Rosa felt her heart race staring at it, taking in the beast. It appeared way over 6 feet tall, with razor sharp wings and talons. It attempted to claw at Yuma, who caught it by the leg and pushed it back before leaving the field. Rosa gawked at him as he smiled at her. If Yuma could face a creature over a foot taller, maybe she could too.

“Are you ready? It’s a fast but pretty big target, I’d say.”

She gave a nervous nod and approached the forcefield. A strange cold sensation hit her as she passed through, feeling some air pressure before it yielded to her. The demon glared her down and she gulped, taking a deep breath to calm herself. Don’t freak out. If you stayed close to the edge, you could duck out whenever.

She yelped as the crow dove at her, quickly dodging and holding her hand out. “Fir- Ah!” She barely evaded its talons and blasted the spell, watching the fire dissipate against the barrier as the crow swooped upwards. “Fire!” Her attack shot into the sky as the demon descended on her, forcing her to throw herself out of the way. “God damn it, stay still!”

“I don’t think a demon’s going to listen to you,” Black said with a weak grin which she countered with a sharp look before narrowly dodging another claw to the face. There had to be some way to catch it off guard, or slow it down. It was hard to hit the demon, and it wasn’t just the speed. Every shout gave her away after all. Would whispering make the spell work?

She got her answer as she tried after missing another strike. She desperately prayed whatever feather they got would help. There was no way she was pulling any sneak attacks with this magic otherwise. Her mind raced but she tried to calm herself. She needed to get it off guard at least, to have a chance in hell of even hitting it with fire. Then as the bird attacked again, she got it.

The crow stabbed at her with its beak and she slammed her fist into it, feeling pain ripple through her arm as the crow staggered back. Such a weak attack, but it surprised the demon enough as she shouted. “Fire!” And with that, she torched it as it tried to retaliate. The high pitched squawk ripped through her skull and she fell back as the demon burst into smoke. It died so easily, but what a nightmare to hit. Her ears rang however and the world spun as she tried to get up, feeling faint.

The forcefield disintegrated and Yuma rested his palm against her forehead, she saw his mouth move but she couldn’t hear anything. A strange feeling spread through her body before her hearing returned, the headache dulling instantly. “I should have probably advised against close ranged attacks but good job Rosa, I think you should rest now,” he said with a bright smile, she nodded tiredly in response.

“That… Hurt…” she mumbled pathetically. “Do bird demons typically cry bloody murder when they die?”

“Yep, it can be very disorientating,” Black said, laughing. “Phoen’s been banned from fighting them because he only attacks close up and always gets hurt like that.”

“Stupid bird demons, real birds are cool but they’re just… Stupid,” Phoenix mumbled pathetically and Mikhail snorted.

“We’ll continue training when we upgrade the bracelet Rosie, for now…” An evil smile graced his face. “I can tell you embarrassing stories about Yuma.”

“H-Hey, don’t you dare!”

Shortly after, Sky had returned with a feather and Mikhail took Rosa’s bracelet, stating he’d bless it and return it to her when it was done. In 20 minutes, she had seen both her uncles turn red at least five times each as they shared humiliating stories about the other in ‘revenge’. Yuma told her about the time Mikhail had tried to marry two sheep together and Mikhail had in return said about the time Yuma tried to play on a Gameboy in a pool. Apparently it ended badly.

Her mind continued to flicker between having fun and thinking of the ‘plan’ however, which was non-existent. She wondered how long she truly had to save Lily.

“Hey Mike, could you do me a favour?”

Mikhail and Yuma stopped their playful argument as he looked at her. “What is it?”

Rosa looked at Black, seeing if he’d catch on. “Well, we need to know more about Azura… You have your co-worker's number, right?”

Mikhail raised an eyebrow. “Did Chloro… Actually agree to help you? Wow, what did you pay him with?”

“Nothing yet… Would apples work as currency?” Black mumbled and the fallen angel laughed.

“I’d say £20 and 5 bags of apples to be sure. You need to arrange a meet up with him? I can do that.” He frowned. “Though you might need someone to supervise you… In case you piss him off. Phoen, would you be okay going with them?”

Phoenix looked annoyed. “The incubus? Why me? Why can’t you go with them?”

Rosa stared at him confused. “Do you have a problem with him?”

“He hit on his girlfriend once and it pissed him off,” Mikhail grumbled. “He’s got a partner now, he’s not going to try anything again. Relax.”

He did so. “Oh, okay then. I can go with them.”

She gave him a grateful smile and something else crossed her mind. “By the way Mike, could you tell me about… Uh… Angel stuff?”

Realising what she was insinuating, Mikhail nodded and got up. “Sure, I need to get something from the kitchen though, so, talk in there?”

Following him out of the room, she noticed Yuma didn’t take his eyes off him. That look on his face was strangely familiar, however she couldn’t work out what it was.

Stepping into the kitchen, she watched her former guardian raid the cupboard and take out a hilarious amount of vodka bottles. “So, is this about my fall?”

Rosa stared at the bottles. “Um yeah… How many bottles does it take for an angel to get drunk? Do you even have livers?”

“Our physical bodies replicate those of humans to fit in but we can’t die from alcohol poisoning, no. We can still get drunk, although how many it takes… Well, the first shot can get you drunk if you’ve never drank before.” Mikhail tapped a bottle. “Now though, it takes about 3 bottles. Yuma… Can drink about 5 before getting drunk.” He paused and shot her a look. “By the way, that’s us being a bad influence . Don’t drink before you’re 18, young lady. Especially not that much.”

“Right…” she mumbled weakly. “I think that much would put a human in the emergency room. If it doesn’t flat out kill us.” She shook her head. “So um… How long have you been on Earth, Uncle?”

He counted the bottles. “Rosie, what’s 10 times by 2?”

She stared at him. “20? Is that how long you’ve been on Earth?”

He shook his head. “Nope, that’s how old I was when I fell from grace. I’ve lived on Earth ever since.”

Rosa gazed at him. “You… Fell from Heaven at 20? Is that in human or angel years?”

“Technically, angels mature at different rates. Because of the war between Heaven and Hell, many younger angels had to grow up faster than the first generation… So human and angel years might as well be the same for me… Get it?” His words puzzled her, however she found herself nodding. “Cherubim are born to be soldiers… The moment I hit 16, I was expected to devote my existence to Heaven’s army.” His eyebrows furrowed at his own words. “I never had a choice, my father might as well have signed away my free will by raising me up there.” A growl rumbled in his throat, but Rosa could see the glimmer to his eyes, as he fought to keep his voice steady. “In the end, he was the one to cast me out. Because I ‘sinned’ and broke the law.”

He was tired, she deduced as she stared at her uncle. Though his body was young, his glassy eyes were not. Maybe he was not so much fallen as beaten down, she pondered as she felt her chest grow heavy. Could her uncle really have done something so terrible? “What was that law, Mike?”

Mikhail glanced through the open door and she followed his gaze to see it on Yuma, the man rambling to Black with words incoherent from there. Finally, the fallen angel sighed. “I met him on the battlefield. He saved my life, he showed me there could be more to my life than pointless bloodshed… So when my fellow soldiers tried to kill him, I…” His skin flushed. “I threw everything away, to protect him. I fell, for him.”

Those words had a double meaning, she realised as she looked at her former guardian then at the beautiful man, feeling the blissful happiness radiating from him. How long ago was that? Why would angels try to… That thought trailed off as it clicked. “You two… You two were supposed to be enemies? So that law was…” she whispered, and her uncle finally looked away, an exhausted smile on his face.

“The reason we’re on Earth together… I deserted Heaven, and he abandoned Hell.”

[nocturnalmemories]

Chapter 17: Bitter Dreams

Nearly a week after initially meeting Mikhail again, Rosa finally managed to set up a time for them to meet again, and possibly for him to teach her to fight. Annoyingly, despite calling his number twice a day since the day after they met, Mikhail had only picked up yesterday. He blamed it on ‘work’ but Black had told her that he had been getting drunk with Phoenix’s grandfather for the past few days. Because the bar being demolished meant he was on paid leave whilst the builders reconstructed it.

So the reason she, or her father, had been unable to get a hold of him at any point was narrowed down to either work or alcohol fuelled situations. When Rosa had come back that night of course, her dad had been outraged, and her mum was terrified upon seeing the demon-inflicted damage to her jacket. She lied and said it was done by a dog. But she confessed she had gone to meet her uncle. And as soon as her dad started going on at her about being out alone at night, she had to sheepishly admit she was with Black the whole time.

Thankfully when Rosa arranged to meet Mikhail again, her father was fine as long as he knew, and as long as she was back before it was dark. However when she told him Black would be ‘picking her up’, as she was meeting Mikhail at his caretaker’s house, he insisted that he meet and ‘have a talk’ with her friend. Upon telling Black this, he almost had a panic attack on the phone.

The morning of the ‘dreaded’ day however, Rosa had a dream. One that was very much unlike her usual memory dreams. Because this memory she saw was not her own.

“There you are!”

She turned to face the speaker, watching him stop in front of her and rest his hands on his knees as he caught his breath. His messy black bangs fell in his eyes as he did so, and as he brushed them back and stood up, she felt tiny compared to him. Even if he was still slouching, his height was only one of the things that intimidated her about him. How those ice blue eyes of his seemed so eerie was another, although she knew the colour was more natural than the colour of her own eyes. Whether her biological parents had golden eyes, she would never know. “Oh um… Hey Tsu, did you want me?”

“Your angel friend asked if I saw you, he said you were upset…” He sat down next to her by the river and she tensed as he patted her shoulder. “Did that fool hurt you again?”

She took a deep breath as she gazed at their reflections in the water, seeing her cheeks stained red like her hair. His skin looked completely colourless in comparison, he could surely camouflage in the snow that had fallen overnight, she joked to herself. He was the same age as her but he looked older, with those tired eyes and rugged features. She couldn’t remember if she had ever seen him without a scar or even a bruise, blemishes that made him stick out in the otherwise peaceful area.

“Isn’t it blasphemy to speak of our prince like that?” she whispered, seeing his expression change in his reflection. Although the villagers called him a thug, she had forever seen differently. A thug would not look at her with that face, his brow furrowed and eyes soft.

His voice was a murmur as he spoke, however she could hear that familiar growl to it. “Who cares if he’s a prince? That bastard has no right to treat you like that. All he does… All he does is make you cry, why do you put up with that?” She looked away from their reflections to face him, watching him clench his teeth. She did not need to look at his fists to know what he was thinking, his voice raising in volume. “I don’t understand it at all, why don’t you hate him? Why can you still defend him?”

Gazing at him, she opened her mouth before shaking her head. “Tsu… I don’t know why I can’t hate him, I wish I could... But you don’t understand, I’m not…” She exhaled. “I know what he did, I know it was wrong, I’m not defending him.” A smile trembled on her lips. “You should have seen the mark I left on his face… I’m not some little girl, Tsu. I know we both made mistakes, so I’m giving him the chance to make amends. I’ve not forgiven him yet.”

He regarded her quietly before turning his attention to their reflections. He ran his hand through the water, watching it frost over. “Blair… He’s just going to hurt you again. Why give him another chance? All he does…” A soft sigh left his lips. “I know you’re not a ‘little girl’, we’re not children anymore. But if he hurts you again, there won’t be a third time.” She anxiously watched the ice spread, before dissolving into crystals. Rinse, repeat. That was not a mere threat.

“He’s not going to hurt me again.” The words spilled out in a rush as she jerked his arm away from the pond before it became solid. As their eyes locked, his mouth fell open as if he wanted to speak. However no further argument left him, he just stared down at her fingers clamped around his wrist. “Please Tsuki, trust me. He’s… He’s my friend, and I won’t let him hurt anyone again.” She flashed a crooked grin. “That is what friends are for, correct? We look out for each other. And if me and Signa get burned, well… That’s our fault.”

He gazed at her then yanked his arm out of her grip. As she flinched, his cool fingertips lightly grazed her palm, soothing the sting. “I won’t let you burn. I’ll…. I’ll try to trust you for now.” As she stared at him, he got to his feet, turning his back on her. “But if he slips up again, the Kurona family will need to find itself a new king.”

Watching him disappear, she turned back to the glistening water. Her red stained cheeks greeted her as she whispered. “Yuki… What have you gotten yourself into now?”

Rosa stirred awake, gazing up at her bedroom ceiling. The house was so quiet it unnerved her, as if she could somehow hear the silence. “What was that dream?” she said aloud to herself, turning to her side to see the kitten plush on her bed. Holding it tight, she heard Rio whisper.

‘That memory… It can’t be…’

‘That was a memory, Rio?’ she asked the voice, as she desperately tried to recall the details that were already drifting. ‘But… That boy called you Blair…’

A mental image came to her head, of what looked like an older version of herself shaking her head. It was how she would occasionally imagine Rio, as she could not truly see her. ‘No… That was not me he was talking to. That girl… I saw the world through her eyes, but I always felt so lonely… She would suffer but I could never reach out to her… That’s all I remember of that past… You were surely not the first I lived within. I… I had at least two lives worth of memories, funny for me to lose them both, hm?’

Rosa was quiet, looking at her cat plush. ‘So I lost 10 years of memory… You might have lost hundreds for all we know. And most of those, you weren’t even living through by choice… Who was that boy?’

Rio went silent. Rosa assumed she was trying to remember. Then she responded. ‘All I know… Is that he reminds me of someone important… He… Kind of looks like Phoenix though. And Blair looks like you, but older...’

Rosa hugged the plush tight. ‘Maybe she was related to me… My ancestor? That boy Tsuki… He does look like Phoenix... … Maybe both our families were around at that point, how long ago was that memory from?’

Rio thought. ‘My mind… Is shouting a number at me. Maybe it’s what year it was…’

Rosa tilted her head. ‘What is it?’

‘Seventeen hundred and something?’

Rosa almost fell out of bed. ‘17- You mean you think that happened over 200 years ago?!’

‘Possibly… You were born in 2005… So if she was my last ‘body’, there might have been a 200-odd year gap between you two.’

Rosa paused. ‘Maybe… We’ll work out what you are once we get our memories back…’ She checked the time. Half 9. ‘Wow, long sleep… Black will be here in a couple hours…’

‘I wish I could live my own life, do what I want to do…’ she heard Rio whisper. ‘Who does that boy remind me of…. The same person Phoenix does… Maybe if we find out about Phoenix and his grandfather, it’ll help both of us… Phoenix doesn’t remember you as he should but maybe his grandfather does…’

‘Mikhail said we’re going to Phoen’s grandfather’s house so… We’ll be able to learn everything there.’ Rosa got up to go downstairs for breakfast. ‘You know Rio… You’re weirdly interested in him.’

Rio went quiet again. It wasn’t until Rosa returned to the room that she finally spoke. ‘That boy and Phoenix… They… Both have the same sad eyes.’

Shortly after, Rosa answered the door to let Black in. He gave her a timid smile as he walked through into the corridor, eyes shifting to take in the unfamiliar environment. She could tell however he wasn’t soaking everything in. He was looking for doors. “Hey so uh… Mum and Dad are in the living room,” she mumbled, and she gestured to the corresponding door. “Mum’s nice… Dad… I ah… Told him to go easy on you,” she said flatly.

He let out a weak laugh, nervously eyeing the door. “Does he… Usually do this when you make friends?”

“Nope, just to the guys,” Rosa stated awkwardly. “Considering we had a friend come over with her girlfriend before… I’m surprised he’s still only worried about guy friends.” She laughed. “Although in my old school, most of the guys heckled me. I’d complain, and guess that’s another reason he’s paranoid about male friends.” She blushed. “Besides the obvious uh… Lovey dovey crap.”

His cheeks lit up and he took a shaky breath before grinning sheepishly. “Guess you should pray you never actually bring a boyfriend home then?”

Rosa pulled a face. “Of course not, I’m never bringing a boyfriend or girlfriend home. That’s gross.”

Black remembered what happened at the bar. “You know… It’s okay to find people hot, incubus or not.” Before Rosa could complain, he cut her off. “Finding someone hot doesn’t mean you ‘like’ them. I mean…” Rosa stared at him as she noticed a pink tint to his cheeks. “Incubi are rather cute…” He noticed the strange look Rosa was giving him. “H-Hey, just saying! Attraction doesn’t equal ‘lovey dovey crap’!”

Rosa continued to stare at him. “Are you… Uh… into dudes, Black? If you were, Dad might not flip out so much actually.”

He quickly shook his head. “N-No- I don’t know- I mean-” He sighed, blushing. “I’m not sure, but I still like girls so, well, your dad would still try to murder me.”

She gazed at him then looked nervously at her feet. “So… Uh… If you still find girls cute… Do you uh…” What the hell was she doing? If she asked, it would be like a straight girl asking a bi girl if she was into her. “N-Never mind! How about uh… We get this over with so we can get going.”

He anxiously nodded and they entered the living room.

Black shuffled awkwardly in his seat as the gaze of Rosa’s father skewered him, scanning him from head to toe. Rosa tried to decipher the expression on her dad’s face, seeing his eyes narrowed but the hostility seemed to be overwhelmed by confusion.

“So… Rosie called you Black?”

“M-My name is Blake, sir,” Black mumbled, fidgeting under the intensity of his stare. “We go to school together and…”

He put his hand up to gesture for him to stop talking. “Please do me a favour, kid, stand up for a second?”

Black gave a shaky nod and got to his feet, he did the same. Walking over to the teenager, he took in the details of his face. How his jaw still seemed rounded, devoid of facial hair. His gaze flickered to his thin figure before he rested his hand on his head, making the boy squeak. Rosa idly noted that her dad was not a particularly tall man, but he made Black look tiny.

Finally, he spoke. “Have you even finished puberty yet?”

Rosa stared at him.

Her mum stared at him.

Black squealed. “Wha-What kind of question is that?!”

“That’s a bit rude, Kyle,” Rosa’s mum said sheepishly, and she smiled sweetly at the flustered boy. “He’s a little… Small? But he looks kinda cute like that, right Rosie?”

“Sure, whatever,” Rosa mumbled, not because she felt anything at all regarding her friend’s height. If anything, she liked that he was only a few inches taller than her. It made her feel less tiny.

“I’m still growing,” Black mumbled weakly. “So um… It was nice meeting you, sir, miss..”

“Not so fast. Sit down.” The older male glared at him and he yelped, sitting down. “So you two are friends… But you were sneaking around together until it was past dark the other day?”

“My um… ‘Caretaker’ is friends with Mikhail,” he said awkwardly and the man’s expression softened.

“Caretaker hm?” He looked at Rosa and she could tell what he was hinting at, silently answering him. “So you don’t live with your birth family either?”

He gave a shaky nod. “My best friend’s grandfather has pretty much raised me. And well… He’s friends with Mikhail and Rosa wanted to meet him so I thought I’d help her out.”

Kyle sighed and rubbed his temples. “That is admirable but it’s dangerous for two kids to be out at night. Your ‘guardian’ must have a lot of faith in you to stay safe.”

Black shook his head, smiling. “He’s been giving me self defence lessons since I was 10, he knows I won’t be too stupid though.”

He nodded in understanding before crossing his arms. “Alright, now I know what happened then… I have… Another important question though.”

Black watched Rosa hide her head in her hands and braced himself. “Yes sir…?”

Kyle looked him dead in the eye. “Now… You know I’m a cop right? Rosie probably told you at some point. Now you seem like a nice kid, so I’d hate to report an ‘unfortunate incident’ if you’re planning to… ‘Deflower’ my daughter.”

“D-Dad that’s gross!” Rosa groaned into her palms as Black covered his face blushing bright red.

“O-Of course not, I-I haven’t even had my first kiss yet!”

Her mother gave an awkward laugh, shooting a glare at her husband. “Dear, that might… Be a bit extreme. He doesn’t seem like the type…” She smiled at her daughter and said-daughter’s terrified friend. “Don’t mind the idiot, I trust you two won’t do anything rash. Don’t give me grandchildren when you’re still in school, okay Rosie?” Rosa nodded dumbly. “Okay, have fun you two~”

The teenagers left the house, avoiding eye contact with each other. “That… Was absolutely horrifying,” Black gasped out.

“I’m… So sorry,” Rosa grumbled, hiding her flushed face. “I knew Dad would be paranoid but…” She held back a squeal of disgust. “N-Never mind, let’s go to your place and see Mikhail.”

[nocturnalmemories]

Chapter 16: Captive

The house was quiet when he woke up, silver eyes blinking tiredly as he stared at the time on the clock. 8am, Sky had probably left by now. Phoenix usually woke up late, or that was what his housemate thought. On his days off he’d pretend to be asleep until 11, all so Sky would leave him alone.

It gave him time before Sky would interrogate him about being out until 3 in the morning.

Yawning, he got out of bed and stretched his sore muscles. The room was pitch black, other than the glowing digits on the clock, but he knew something was off. He did not need the light on to realise his guitar was missing.

“Oh crap in a bucket,” Phoenix groaned, before freezing up as he heard music.. Listening carefully, he considered two explanations.

One, an intruder had snuck into his room and stolen his guitar. Perhaps his only valuable possession, so it made sense. . If it was a thief, he would choke the life out of them.

Two, Sky had decided to put off his patrol, took his guitar, and decided to have a play with it. If it was Sky, he would still choke him for worrying him.

Searching the room, he grabbed a pole he kept for self defence and slipped out. The corridor was illuminated by sunlight. He could hear the rustle of the trees as he peered out of the window and down at the ground. Checking for any suspicious vehicles.

He startled back with a yelp as something dove past the glass, stumbling back and quickly gripping the bannister to stop himself falling. Staring down at the stairs, he let out a shaky breath as haunting laughter echoed through his mind. Frightened by a seagull again. He hated the feathered rats. “Calm down, I didn’t fall this time,” he mumbled to himself, ignoring the wave of dizziness as his eyes calculated the drop. Never mind that, if that wasn’t Sky, he needed to stay calm

That eerie chuckle continued to taunt him as he snuck downstairs, hearing the melody clearer now. Whoever had decided to invade, they were talented to say the least. He was sure he vaguely remembered the tune though, it felt… Oddly nostalgic to Phoenix. And as he rested his hand on the door handle leading to the living room, his sensitive nose picked up a strong fragrance. ‘Perfume? Are they trying to hide their scent?’ he thought to himself before shaking his head and gripping the pole tight.

He kicked the door open and his brain registered the sudden movement before his eyes could make out the person who had leapt off his sofa. As the pole swung down, the girl swiftly gripped it, flinging it up and over her head to clatter harmlessly on the carpet. As he stared at her stammering, her hands gently clasped his and squeezed as he jolted.

“F-Fira! When- When did you get back?” he gasped as the girl flashed a wry smile, amber eyes locking with his gaze. Her soft red curls bounced as she leaned up to wrap her arms around his neck.

“I got back last night, sorry for scaring you Phoen. I just couldn’t wait to see you,” she whispered, and she nuzzled the growing bristle on his jaw as he gathered his thoughts. “Trying to grow a beard Phoenie?”

He hastily shook his head, his smile trembling as he wrapped his arms tight around her and buried his face in her hair. “No I… Sky hid the razors from me again, paranoid idiot... Please can you warn me, Ra? I could have hurt you,” he murmured, feeling his heart pounding in his chest. He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. “You disguised your scent too… Prank gone wrong, again?”

She let out a weak giggle, pulling back and carefully picking up the guitar. “I wanted to surprise you with a song… And I’m trying a new perfume, sorry if it hurts your nose.”

“Not at all, it smells nice,” he mumbled before sitting down on the sofa. “I’m sorry, I’m a bit grumpy… Last night… No… Just yesterday, it was all kinds of crazy.”

She frowned and sat next to him, feeling him tense up as she rested her legs over his before he exhaled. “What happened? Was it work or… Demon trouble?”

“I guess you could say both,” he mumbled, and he sighed blissfully as she soothingly rubbed his bare shoulder. “A regular at work got in trouble with the police so we all got interrogated.”

“Oh God, that must have been stressful ,” Fira mumbled. “What did the regular do that was so bad, you all got dragged into it?”

He gazed at her and mumbled. “Black made a new friend. Her sister was kidnapped by this guy… He might have been a demon all along.”

Her eyebrows shot up before she composed herself. “Black’s… Friend? Well, that would explain why he seemed stressed when I crashed at your grandpa’s… But you couldn’t tell this person was a demon at all?”

Phoenix shook his head, resting his chin on his palm. “He had none of the signs. No fangs, no short temper, he didn’t even smell like one… Then again, that flirtatious prick didn’t, either.”

A weak laugh left her as she gently stroked his ear. “You mean that incubus? It was nearly a year ago. He backed off as soon as I said you were my boyfriend.” She gazed at the ceiling light. “Hey, are you sure this ‘kidnapper’ is a demon after all?”

He stared at her, tilting his head. “Sky said he could have hid his aura… He definitely wasn’t an elf though, or human… He had the ability to change form though, maybe I haven’t been seeing his true face all along.”

Her brow furrowed, and she opened her mouth to speak when he suddenly jolted, head jerking to look at the door as his hand squeezed hers tight. “What’s wrong Phoen?”

“Did you hear that?” he said breathlessly, and she frowned as she listened.

“I don’t… What was it?”

Getting up, he opened the curtain, wincing as the bright sun hit his eyes. Scanning the street he saw a few people walking by, but nothing else of interest. “I thought I heard someone screaming… It was so loud, though…”

Joining him, she hugged him from behind and peered outside. “Your hearing is better than mine… He might be playing tricks on you though…” She felt him freeze. “Do you still want to check it out?”

“It might be dangerous, if someone’s getting attacked… Maybe you should stay here, Fira,” he mumbled and she shook her head, frowning.

“No way. Even if I’m not allowed to fight, I’m not leaving you on your own,” she grumbled.

He let out a pathetic laugh. “Well it’s dangerous just being with me, but you never leave me alone.”

After Phoenix threw on a shirt and shoes, the two of them decided to scope out the strange noise. Walking down the street, Fira looked around as Phoenix sensed the area. Nothing looked out of the ordinary to her, she could only see a couple walking their dog and a few kids playing out with a football. However Phoenix’s grip on her hand tightened and he whispered. “Maybe it’s in my head… Maybe I’m imagining it…” His nose wrinkled. “No, I can smell blood… Think someone’s been hurt.”

Fira sniffed but all she could detect was her own perfume. “Your senses are amazing… Guess it can be a disadvantage in some cases though, right?” she said with a giggle and he chuckled.

“You mean when I can hear people doing stuff they shouldn’t in the college bathrooms? Times like that, I wish I could bring alcohol to class.”

“Wait until your birthday and we can go get drunk together,” she said with a wink, grinning as he started laughing. “And Sky won’t have to nag about ‘underaged drinking’ anymore, hm?”

“As if he’s never gotten drunk before, I had to carry him back from Mikhail’s once.” Phoenix snickered. “Star got so pissed at him.” He picked up more screaming and gripped her hand tight. “It’s coming from… This way… If it’s a demon, please leave it to me.”

“Even if I wanted to fight it I couldn’t, your grandpa took my gun off me after ‘that accident’,” Fira grumbled, and she flashed a golden blade. “I have this for self defence, but if Dad found out I was fighting… He’d probably never let me visit the city again,” she laughed.

He snorted, and she followed him as he started tracking down the sound. “Considering what happened last time… You nearly scared me to death, you know? Black was crying, for heck’s sake.”

She glanced away from him, watching a few cars pass by as they walked. “I’m sorry… I couldn’t leave you back then, though…”

“And you won’t leave me alone even now, though you’re constantly in danger,” Phoenix said with a pathetic laugh. As they continued tracking the noise, a sad smile came to his face. “Thanks though. I wouldn’t know what I’d do without you and Black.”

They soon bumped into someone, but it wasn’t an enemy. Rather, Phoenix literally bumped into a tiny teenage girl. Fira stared awkwardly as she looked at the girl grumbling curses on the ground, then at Axel as he stammered a quick greeting before helping her up.

“O-Oh hey Phoenix, hi Fira!”

“You’re built like a bloody brick wall, you know that?” Kyoko mumbled as she got back to her feet, brushing imaginary dirt off her shorts before putting on a smile. “What’s up? Seems a bit early for a romantic stroll.”

“Sorry about that, we’re… Looking for something. What are you kids doing out at this time?” Phoenix asked, grinning sheepishly.

“Checking out a Code 6,” Axel said with a shrug.

Fira laughed, raising an eyebrow. “I’m… Really surprised those dumb codenames caught on.” She looked at Phoenix with a faint smile. “Well, maybe that’s the screaming you were hearing earlier…” She shuddered. “Good thing you didn’t imagine it but at the same time… Someone might be hurt… Or worse…”

“I snuck out whilst Big Brother was sleeping and heard screaming too, I found Axi on the way,” Kyoko said with a giggle. “So we were going to fight the demon together, wanna join us?”

Axel tilted his head, frowning. “Fira, you’re not allowed to fight anymore, right? After what happened with that bastard?”

Fira averted her eyes, a shaky smile on her face. “I know but… I can be moral support? I want to be useful somehow…”

Phoenix and Kyoko both jerked their heads towards a split in the road and looked at each other. “Did you hear that?” he mumbled and she nodded.

“Uh hm, wanna go in kicking and swinging?”

“It’s amazing what they can hear that we can’t,” Fira murmured as Axel laughed.

“I know, right? I can… Sense something demonic this way though. Let’s go.”

When Phoenix and Kyoko tracked down the sound, the four of them found themselves in one of the many parks in the city.

“This city has so many parks, it’s crazy,” Fira mumbled as they looked around, her eyes landed on someone laying on the ground and she squeaked. “Is that a little girl?!”

Kyoko and Axel checked her over whilst Phoenix searched the area, growling. “Where the hell did that noise come from? Is… Is she injured?”

Axel checked the girl’s pulse, feeling it strong. Kyoko looked at her untouched skin, taking in the details of her appearance. She didn’t seem so ‘little’ to Kyoko, maybe 12 or 13. She could see she was clutching something though, and as she pulled the sheet of paper from her hand, she noticed her finger was smeared with blood. On the sheet was a crudely drawn magic circle. “No, she’s just asleep but… I… Have a bad feeling about this,” she mumbled weakly as the blood drained from her face. “W-Wait… Phoenix, Fira, I think she tried to summon a demon… Where’s the summoning circle though?”

“The sky isn’t going wacky either,” Phoenix mumbled before freezing as he heard a roar. As he and Fira turned, they were face to face with a group of pitch black tiger-like creatures, their bodies marked with crimson stripes. “Well… Those tigers aren’t hiding from anyone with those stripes.”

Kyoko grinned and jumped to her feet, her hand becoming cloaked with fire as she approached the demons. “This is going to be fun… You two watch the girl, okay?” She winked at Axel. “Don’t want you getting a headache, hm?”

“The headache I get from fighting is nothing compared to the headache Star’s lecture gave me the other day,” Axel said with a chuckle, standing protectively over the girl. “If anything gets close to us, I’ll fling them away, pain or not.”

Fira gave a tired smile, checking the girl over again. No injury other than her finger… Which seemed to have healed suspiciously quickly. “Axel… Can you sense something off about this girl?”

The tigers pounced and Phoenix caught one by the jaw, slamming his knee into it before throwing his fist down on it’s skull. The creature collapsed with a roar as the others attacked in retaliation. Kyoko grinned to herself as she stretched her burning hand out, the other hand igniting as she cupped them. “Alriiiiiight let’s go!” Leaping up, flames shot at the monsters, setting their fur alight and making them scream as several of them burst into smoke. As another demon charged at her through the smoke, she dodged and kicked at it, eyes darting towards her friends as more demons appeared out of nowhere behind them. “A-Axel be careful! There’s more coming!”

Letting out a sharp curse, Axel jumped up to face the predators approaching them. “Is the summoning circle still active? No, that’s impossible, the summoner’s unconscious.” He took a deep breath and looked at Fira. “I… Have an idea. Do you think you could look for and deactivate the summoning circle? We’ll make sure the demons don’t attack you or the victim.”

Fira nodded and took her gold knife out of her pocket, holding it close to her as she quickly scanned the area. “Right… Shame it’s not dark, or it’d be easier to see,” she joked before her eyes landed on a strange faint glow in the distance and she took off.

As a tiger dove at her, it suddenly halted mid-air and she glanced at Axel to see his blue eyes had turned pale as he held his hand out. “I’m going to end up with one hell of a headache when this is over with, eh?” And with a fluid motion, he flung the beast into another, sending them both flying back into a lamp post.

Taking advantage, Fira ran up to the target, seeing a pentagram etched into the rubber tarmac next to the swings with dry blood. Sinking the knife deep into the tarmac, she jerked it until she was able to slice a thin line, making the glow promptly fade. “There… That was… Too easy,” she mumbled to herself before her jaw dropped as she watched the girl they had been protecting stand, pulling out a knife. “Axel, behind you!”

Axel turned around just in time to catch the girl’s wrist as Kyoko took out the demons that pounced at him. His jaw dropped as he noticed the girl’s face. Her eyes were glowing green, a deranged grin as she twisted her hand out of his grip, forcing him to evade the knife swinging at him. “Aww I missed~ Why did you have to kill my pets?” she asked with a giggle.

Axel’s eyes lit up again and he stretched his hand out as she lashed out again, keeping her suspended above the ground. “Guys, I think she’s possessed… What do we do?” He grimaced and his arm faltered as he took a sharp breath. Kyoko quickly disarmed the girl as the telekinesis broke, dodging another demon attacking her that Phoenix quickly knocked down.

“We can’t deal with her with these demons here… Keep her restrained for now,” Kyoko mumbled.

Phoenix looked at Fira as she ran back over. “Sky’s on patrol… Try calling him, Ra?”

She nodded and took her phone out before pausing as she watched Axel struggle with the thrashing girl, who was laughing in a maniacal cliché manner and cursing him out. “Hey, try this.”

Axel stared at her as she flung a bundle of rope at him, gazing at it then back to her. “Do I… Want to know why you had this?” He shook his head and narrowly dodged a kick to the crotch before getting to work on restraining her.

After hanging up the phone, Fira watched Phoenix wrestle another tiger, seeing the blood dripping from where it had torn his shoulder with it’s claw. After what had happened the last time she had visited him… She was strangely glad that it was his own blood splattered over him this time.

Helping Axel finish the job, she dodged the possessed girl’s teeth and took a deep breath to calm herself. Don’t freak out, maybe this girl could be saved. Maybe this girl had a chance, unlike… “Hey, demon! Why are you controlling her?” She squealed and shielded her face as said demon spat at her, strange giggling leaving her.

“What, she’s entitled to a body but I’m not? She’s nearly a perfect fit too… Reminds me of myself, you know?”

Kyoko jerked around as soon as she heard her words, barely evading an attack. “W-Wait… This demon… Oh God, please, not her,” she groaned and Axel stared at her quizzically as the demon noticed her.

“Oh, it’s Kyo-Kyo, how you doing? Wow, you’ve grown since I’ve last seen you hm?” she chimed and Kyoko went red in the face, snapping at her.

“It’s been like two months, you bitch! Get out of that girl, now! I’ll call Big Brother on you if you don’t!”

“Uh Kyo… How do you know this demon?” Axel mumbled.

Kyoko backhanded a tiger before crossing her arms. “Because she’s a body-hopping cow? Stop possessing little girls, you brat!”

The girl pouted, tilting her head as she watched the rest of the tigers fall. “There go my cats… What’s wrong with a ‘little girl’ possessing other little girls? I’m technically younger than you, you know?”

“And technically older, how long have you been doing this for? Two centuries, you old hag?”

Kyoko and the possessed girl started glaring at each other, Phoenix awkwardly watched them. “I am so confused right now.”

“Guess it’s nothing new, hm?” a familiar voice spoke, and they turned to see Sky. His gold eyes set on the demon and she started sweating profusely. “Oh… It’s you again.” He let out a heavy sigh. “I wish I could kill demons without killing the host, it would make my job a hell of a lot easier. Way too easy to accidentally kill preteens…”

“Hey, wait a minute!” The demon suddenly smirked. “Unfortunately for you angel, I’ve learnt some magic tricks! If you... If you take my soul away, I’ll take her soul with me!”

Sky stared at her and quickly shook his head. “No, you’re bluffing. You tried me with this before and it didn’t happen.”

Fira and Phoenix exchanged panicked glances. “But what if… She has latched onto her soul, Sky? It might be dangerous to try to exorcise her,” Phoenix murmured.

Sky took a deep breath and glowered at the demon. “No… You’re still looking for the ‘perfect vessel’, aren’t you? Soul binding is no easy thing to do, you’re saving it until you find it, aren’t you?” Watching her glowing eyes widen, his palm shone with light and she stammered over her words.

“No, I’ve given up, if you send me away I’ll send the girl’s soul with me!” she exclaimed. Feeling his palm tap against her forehead, he started mumbling and she sighed. “Well crap, guess you called my bluff.” She smirked. “I will find her though, and when I do, what will you do then? How many more girls will you let get so badly injured before you finally decide to kill one?” He tensed and she giggled. “Oh angels, you’re so strange. You rather let hundreds die before killing one person yourself. All for the sake of ‘sin’, hm?”

“Shut up!” he snarled before light exploded from his palm. The girl jolted, eyes rolling to the back of her head as she fell unconscious. Taking a deep breath, he noticed the worried look on Fira’s face before smiling. “Hey, she was bluffing. Don’t worry.” Tapping the young girl’s forehead, she shifted and hazel eyes fluttered open.

“Uh… Where am I? I was sleeping… Wasn’t I?”

Fira and Phoenix let out a sigh of relief as Axel looked to Kyoko, raising an eyebrow. “So…” He rubbed his head and gritted his teeth. “Damn, my head hurts… Never mind that, you knew that demon Kyo?”

“Sadly,” Kyoko mumbled before smiling weakly as the girl looked scared at her.

“W-What? D-Demon?”

Sky sighed and rolled his eyes. “Thanks you two now I’ll have to erase her memory of that conversation.” They grinned sheepishly at him and he mumbled a spell leaving the girl blinking and looking around.

“Isn’t this the park? Why am I here?” She looked at Sky and squealed. “W-Wait, what happened?!”

“Some strange person kidnapped you from your room, but you’re safe now,” Sky mumbled. She stared at him in disbelief for a few moments before nodding and smiling timidly.

“O-Oh, thanks then sir.” She quickly looked around. “W-Wait, how am I going to get home?!”

Sky sighed and looked at the teenagers. “I’m going to take her home. Phoenix, you better be home yourself when I come back.” The dark haired boy tensed up. “And you’re going to explain to me why the hell you were out until 3am this morning.”

“R-Right,” Phoenix mumbled, and he watched them leave. “Uh… Guess we should get heading back then, Fira?”

Fira nodded and Axel looked at Kyoko as she squeaked and stared at her buzzing phone. “What’s wrong Kyo?”

“B-Big brother’s calling, he must have woken up… I’m supposed to be babysitting today… I need to get back now,” she said with a faltering grin.

He nodded in understanding, smiling awkwardly. “Alright, how about I walk you back? But… I’ll drop you off the street before so he doesn’t try to kill me.”

Fira and Phoenix watched the younger teens go before Fira mumbled. “Hey Phoenie… Could you maybe tell me what happened last night? It… Definitely seemed to bother you earlier.” Seeing him tense up, she whispered. “Was… Was it him again?”

“We’ll talk when we get back,” he murmured. “Until then, no use panicking.” She knew he was saying this to himself more than anything. Even so she smiled and gently patted his shoulder.

“Right… You know… I’m here if you need me.”

He gazed at her and a faint smile lit up his face. “I know… Thanks.”

[nocturnalmemories]

Chapter 15: Spring and Winter

“Are you sure about this Rosa?” Black asked in a hushed voice as he followed her lead, gazing at their prey ahead of them. Ironic to describe them as such, as demons were usually the predators. Demons usually stalk humans. Not the other way round. Yet here they were, two young teenagers tailing two adults. If it had been swapped around, the scenario would be very worrying, Black realised.

Yet here he was, persuaded by his friend into stalking an incubus and an ice demon who had pretty much stopped them being lion fodder.

Rosa nodded as her bright red eyes fixated on Chloro and Hiro, watching them chatter in a lively manner. Considering how abrasive Chloro had been until the other demon came round to the bar, she was a little unnerved by his behaviour now. For one, he hadn’t given Hiro a single death threat. “Yup, I’m sure. Chloro knows Azura, he’s hiding something.” Her gaze flickered to the puddles on the ground as she carefully avoided them. It must have been raining earlier. She prayed it wouldn’t start again. “And if whatever he knows can help me save Lily… I don’t care if he tries to murder me for following him,” she murmured.

Black gazed at her, seeing the frown on her face as her eyes focused again on the goal. “If anything… I think if either of them hurt us in this scenario, it’d be accidental.” He thought. “Maybe he can indirectly help us if he’s scared of getting maimed? At the least, maybe we can get a motive…”

She nodded. “Yeah maybe… Like why would Azura take my sister? If he wanted to kill her, he would have just left her on the street like me, right?”

The dark haired boy was quiet, continuing to watch their targets. Strangely, they seemed to be talking about birds. He could hear Chloro ranting about seagulls with some very rude words. “Is your sister special in any way? Like does she have magic?”

Rosa shook her head, noticing the puzzled look on her friend’s face. Sadly for her, she couldn’t hear the odd conversation several feet away from them other than occasional sharply spoken curse words. “No, Lily’s always been pretty normal… She’s just as annoying as every other 11 year old girl,” she deadpanned and Black wheezed in response. “I can barely hear them, let’s get closer… Hey, do you think Chloro’s friend knows Azura too?”

Black looked the demons over, hearing the tone of the conversation change again from angry to cheerful. His eyes idly flickered downwards and he raised an eyebrow as he noticed their hands. Well, that explained a lot. “I don’t think they’re friends, Rosa.”

Rosa stared at him and tilted her head. “What makes you say that?”

“Hands.”

“What about their hands?”

Black gestured to their intertwined fingers. “That.”

Rosa continued to stare at him. “What about that?”

Black wondered if she was pretending to be dense, or if she was that oblivious. He shook his head and his hand tightened on the toy-looking sword’s handle. “Never mind, let’s get closer and see if they mention that demon?”

She nodded and they snuck closer, the conversation became clearer. “Uh… They seem to be talking about geese,” she said flatly. “Oh wait, they’re… Debating who would win between a goose and seagull?” she added, her face twisting with confusion. “What the hell- Is this what demons talk about when they’re not fighting??”

Black let out a quiet laugh. “Hey, demons have lives too. They don’t just murder things all the time.”

“They’re still bloody weirdos,” Rosa said, rolling her eyes before sighing. “Maybe we’ll have to flat out ask them? But then Chloro might refuse to tell us… Think that sword works on humanoid demons?”

Black stared at her, the blunt sword, then at the two young men minding their own business. Then he squealed. “Are you saying- Threaten him? Two adult demons against one barely trained kid isn’t going to go well!”

“Yeah, shame I don’t have that bracelet thing now,” she murmured. “We might have had an advantage using fire against a plant and snowman.” She absentmindedly pondered how they hadn’t heard her whispering yet, she had the impression demons would have good hearing. Especially Hiro because his long ears reminded her of a lop bunny. Were they that distracted? “Hey Black, can demons be part rabbit?”

Black gave her an odd look. “If he’s part rabbit, attacking him will feel like animal abuse. Please don’t put that in my head.”

Rosa frowned, cocking her head to the side. “But fighting lion demons and the like doesn’t…?”

“Correction, attacking a demon will feel like animal abuse if it’s a cute animal like a fox,” Black clarified and Rosa nodded in agreement. She had the feeling if a kitten attacked either of them, they would die sheerly because they wouldn’t want to hurt it.

“Okay then, so if we have to engage them in combat… Try a carrot?”

Black stared at her.

“Just kidding.”

“Right…” He stopped with a frown and looked around at their surroundings, narrowing his eyes. Rosa quickly noticed it was eerie quiet, not a single car had passed them since they turned onto the street. It was lined with rundown stores and the streetlights seemed to be flickering on occasion. “Rosa… I think something’s wrong. Maybe we should uh… Abandon ship?”

She gazed at him then looked at the streetlights, furrowing her brow. “Maybe it’s just faulty… This street does seem… Kinda dead. And if a demon or something attacks, they should be able to kill it right?” She shook her head. “Alright, if we don’t hear anything soon, we’ll give up. Mike might be able to get something out of them?”

They continued to tail them, tuning in as the conversation changed. “So… Arial and Storm came over earlier,” Hiro mumbled and Chloro tilted his head.

“I thought we were all going out tomorrow, what did they want?”

“Well for starters, Storm decided to give Torey ‘permission’ to decorate the oven with permanent marker,” he deadpanned.

The incubus brought his hand to his face grumbling. “Of course, bloody jerk… It took ages to get it off last time!”

“Arial said she’d force him to clean it tomorrow, they were just dropping by to give an ‘update’. Their mission is going well, compared to ours…”

Rosa and Black exchanged puzzled looks. “Mission?” she whispered, furrowing her brow. “This… Sounds suspicious, huh?”

Black nodded, a feeling of dread sneaking on him as they eavesdropped.

“...Wasn’t going too well, was it? I think I found us a lead though, no need to worry, eh?” Chloro said with a wink, Hiro stared at him before a small smile came to his face.

“Finally, I thought we’d never…” His ears twitched and Rosa quickly grabbed Black and hid. He stared at the spot they had been before mumbling. “Uh… Did you hear that, dear?”

The dark haired man followed his gaze and shook his head. “I don’t think so… I was a little distracted by your voice,” he said with a sheepish grin, and the pale haired man rolled his eyes, chuckling.

“Dork.” Hiro glanced warily down the street as Rosa and Black stayed silent, hidden behind two shops. “Maybe it was a cat… But… Could we maybe go a different way?”

Chloro nodded and they continued walking, Rosa watched them as Black glanced at her nervously. “I really don’t know if this is a good idea… In the best case scenario, we’ll get lost… In the worst case… Ah… Our lives will be lost.”

Rosa sighed to herself, debating. She couldn’t save Lily if she was dead… But she knew these two were hiding something. “Well… If we did die suddenly, Mikhail would probably be able to trace it down to them and beat their asses. So if they do see us and get pissed… We have that.”

“Lovely, blackmailing demons,” Black murmured before shutting up at the sharp look Rosa sent him.

They continued to follow their targets, Rosa planning her ‘interrogation’ whilst Black observed their behaviour. Chloro carried on their conversation but Hiro had gone silent, just nodding along as his eyes wandered. With the amount of times he was checking over his shoulder, it was very convenient that this street was full of bins and alleys to hide behind.

‘I’m starting to feel bad about this,’ Black thought to himself after the fourth time hiding from the man’s darting gaze. He was certain ice demons didn’t shiver from the cold. “Hey Rosa can we maybe… Just straight up ask them? I think we’re going to give him a panic attack.”

Listening carefully, Rosa could hear the breathing of the man in question grow heavier with each passing second and frowned, watching from their hiding place. “He’s scared? What does a demon have to be scared of?” She watched Hiro mumble to Chloro, still trembling, and sighed. “Okay… I’m feeling kinda crappy now. Maybe we should…”

She muffled a squeak and ducked as the incubus looked back and shouted, “Oi, get your asses out here, you twats!”

Rosa and Black jumped and exchanged frantic glances. “Maybe we should do what he says, before he accidentally murders us,” Black mumbled and Rosa nodded in agreement before they sheepishly stepped out of the alley between two abandoned shops.

“Oh, it’s just those kids,” Hiro murmured, taking a shaky breath to calm himself as Chloro sighed.

“You two… Do you know what happened to the last guy who stalked us?”

“Uh… Did he die horribly?” Rosa asked.

“No but… Last I checked he’s still having therapy for what Chlo put him through,” the pale haired demon mumbled and his friend snickered.

“He ran away screaming from flowers, how pathetic.” He looked the younger teenagers up and down. “So… You two do know stalking is illegal right? Give me one reason I shouldn’t rip you apart for nearly giving my boyfriend a heart attack?”

“Maybe that murder is also illegal,” Black deadpanned as Rosa stared at her friend then at the two adults, looking again at their joined hands.

“Ohhh that’s what you meant by ‘I don’t think they’re friends’,” she mumbled weakly.

Black brought his hand to his face.

Rosa sighed and crossed her arms. “Okay uh… Sorry for stalking you Hiro, but we need to talk to Chloro.”

Hiro mumbled a confused acceptance of her apology as Chloro frowned. “You know… It’s better to go for someone your own age who isn’t taken.”

Rosa spluttered and stammered, glaring at him red-faced whilst Black wondered why he had agreed to this. “N-No, you idiot! That’s not why- You’re going to tell us about that bastard!”

"That… Bastard?" Hiro murmured, tilting his head.

Chloro let out a weak laugh. "They had a bad run in with Azura. Let me guess, you think we're working together?"

Rosa crossed her arms, trying to put on an intimidating glare. Sadly her red eyes didn't seem to affect demons. "I think you used to work together at least… You know more about him than you're letting on, don't you?"

"Nothing I'm telling you," the incubus grumbled and Black pointed the sword at him, hand quivering as he gripped it.

"Something we ah… Need to make you tell us?"

"You’re shaking like a puppy, what the hell can you do to us?" Chloro exclaimed, however his gaze lingered cautiously on the seemingly blunt sword.

Before the younger teenagers could threaten any further, the air turned icy cold and Hiro punched the claymore out of Black's grip. "Excuse me but could one of you please tell me what the hell is going on?!"

Rosa winced as she noticed the ice demon had caught his fist on the blade. That answered her query whether it worked on humanoid devils. "That… Looks like it hurts."

Now aware of the blood streaming down his hand he quickly cast a healing spell on himself. "Azura's back in town? Did you know about this Chlo?"

"Nope, only found out when these two hunted down Mikhail asking for his help… Apparently he kidnapped a little girl," Chloro said flatly.

"Oh. Great… Well, I wouldn’t worry about what Azura would do to her,” Hiro stated and Rosa gawked at him.

“Are you crazy? Why wouldn’t I worry? My little sister’s been taken by some weirdo!” she barked, eyes blazing. Black awkwardly held her back by the arm mumbling.

“Calm down… If they really know him… Why shouldn’t we worry? Why would he take her in the first place then?” he asked.

The two demons exchanged glances and Chloro sighed. “Look… I wouldn’t worry about who took your sister. I’d worry about who wanted her.”

Rosa tilted her head, furrowing her brow. “Who… Wants her? You mean… You think Azura took Lily because someone else told him to?”

“Pretty much… Azura isn't the type to desire much at all." Hiro pulled a face. "Especially children… He might have a knife to his throat."

Rosa and Black looked at each other, and the latter frowned. "But if he can change his appearance… Who could pose a threat to someone like that? Why should we believe you about this?"

Rosa mumbled. "I mean, I want to believe it certainly isn't uh… Because she's a child. But you two know more about this than you're letting on, don't you?" Again she wished her glare worked on demons because she had the impression she looked like an angry kitten at best.

Chloro made to speak before a deafening roar ripped through the air. Rosa and Black gazed speechless ahead of them and he groaned. “You have got to be kidding me. Alright… I’ll help you kids, but you’ll have to get me through Mikhail… And pay me. Now go home.”

Rosa looked helplessly at Black. “Easier said than done… I have no idea how to get home from here.”

Black gave an awkward smile. “I don’t either.”

The adults simultaneously facepalmed. “Great ah… I’ll call them a taxi then come help you fight?” Hiro asked and Chloro nodded with a lopsided grin.

“Sounds like a plan. Don’t keep me waiting too long, Bunny.”

He rolled his eyes, smiling. “Of course not, dear, don’t want you nearly losing your eye again.”

“Like Kura? I mean, his eye patch is pretty sweet.”

“What are they talking about?” Rosa mumbled and Black shrugged. “For demons I thought… They’d be more menacing? Thought they’d rather kill us than help us.”

Black scratched his cheek, watching the exchange. "You see… If they're 'domesticated' demons, they tend to value survival over sin. So to keep on the good side of angels, they kill feral demons if anything. I still… Wouldn't get on their bad sides though. Push a demon enough and well… Even the pacifists will bite back."

Rosa watched the incubus run off after the screeching and crossed her arms. “I can’t trust them but… I need to find out more about Azura if I have any chance of saving Lily."

[nocturnalmemories]

Chapter 14: Between Heaven and Hell

Rosa and Black quickly dodged a flying corpse before entering the main area, and she took in the strange sight blinking. There were a scary amount of demons of different shapes against three people, two she knew as her uncle and his co-worker and the third unidentifiable, but that wasn’t what drew her attention. In some places the floorboards were completely wrecked and vines were lashing out at beasts, whilst in most other places the ground was frozen over along with the wall. And she thought the hallway was a mess.

Her eyes flew to her uncle as he dove at a struggling canine creature, shining sword slicing clean through its back before it burst into light. Foot tapping an unscathed floorboard, he leapt up to strike another pterodactyl-like creature, light dancing around him as it exploded. As Rosa stared at him in awe his foot landed on an ice patch, leaving him rather ungracefully flying into the wall. Chloro and his other ally looked away from a tangled-up disintegrating corpse and ice statue to laugh at the sight of him trying to pull his stuck sword out of the wall.

“Struggling there, ‘Mikha’?” the incubus shouted as he slit the throat of a beast sneaking up on him. Mikhail glowered at him watching its blood spill as it perished before freeing his blade and cutting down a bull-like demon.

“Call me that again and- I told you to stop turning my bar into an ice rink!” he snapped at their ally, who flashed a crooked grin in response. He appeared to be around Chloro’s age, and Rosa felt embarrassed to admit she had to double check he wasn’t a ghost. His hair was snow white, and his skin seemed even paler.

“I told you to learn to skate…” As he dodged a tiger pouncing at him, his pink eyes landed on Rosa and Black before darting back to Mikhail. “Hey, uh... These two kids didn’t evacuate.”

Mikhail looked over and almost slipped as he stared at them. “Blake, Rosa, I told you two to stay hidden!”

Rosa quickly dodged a demon that launched itself at her upon noticing them. “S-Sorry but I can’t just hide! I want to help!”

Black swiftly slashed the demon as it jumped again, hearing its scream as the visibly blunt sword split its flesh. “S-Sorry, she wasn’t going to listen to me… And a demon kind of destroyed the door,” he mumbled weakly before gesturing to the bracelet around her wrist. “But I gave her a weapon so…”

Mikhail’s eyes narrowed but he kept his sights focused on the enemies. “That’s stupid, you know kid? Alright but if she gets hurt, you’re going under house arrest.” He glanced back at his puzzled allies. “Protect them. Chloro, if my niece gets even a bruise, I’m torching you with a flamethrower.”

Fear flashed across his face and he nodded, clawing another demon’s throat open before taking a protective stance in front of the younger teenagers. By the sheer amount of blood coating his uniform, Rosa would feel terrified of him if it wasn’t wiped away by confusion within the next minute. “Alright, if me and Hiro die though, my sister’s suing your ass.” He turned to the other young man with a bright grin that was a stark contrast to the harsh behaviour he had been putting on around them. “Wanna play Tower Defence, Snowy?”

“What the hell is a ‘Tower Defence’?” Rosa mumbled to Black as she watched her uncle cringe.

“I think it's some kind of video game,” Black muttered as Hiro covered their backs and scanned the room.

“What a mess… How much more wrecked do you think the bar’ll get, Chlo?” he mumbled, staring up at the broken spotlights. Rosa pondered how much it cost to fix the bar back up after every chaotic battle.

“I don’t think it’s possible for it to get any worse,” Chloro said with a snort before cursing as a demon spawned into existence right in front of him, forcing him to put his claw through its chest before it could do the same to him. Rosa anxiously searched around the room as more demons appeared, seemingly out of thin air. He said about a summoner earlier, where were they? “Where is that freak?!”

“Please calm down Chlo,” Hiro murmured as Mikhail’s eyes darted around in response to the demons that had ambushed him.

“Just be patient… I’ll wipe them all out, just buy me time.” He closed his eyes as he took a deep breath. Before any of the enemies could make contact, black lightning exploded around him and threw them all back. Rosa gawked at him as he raised the shining blade above his head and it started to surge into it. The pure white light was slowly growing darker.

“M-Mike, what’s going on?” she stammered, only to get no response. The expression on his face perplexed her though, as his eyes opened again. Eerie calm, his aqua eyes had darkened to teal. His soft voice echoed through her mind.

‘Please forgive me.’

She was dragged from her thoughts by screeching as the beasts charged at them.

Before any could trespass within a foot of them, spiked vines tore through broken floorboards and lashed at the creatures, knocking away the majority and ensnaring the rest. Mind racing, Rosa pointed her palm towards the trapped demons. "Fire!"

Powerful flames scorched the vines as inhumane screaming left the bound beasts, returning to ashes. Out of the corner of her eye she watched Chloro slide back and as his foot stomped the ground, more vines ripped through the earth creating a shield from an imminent attack.

"How the heck can you do that?" Her next words stupidly stumbled out. "Are you part tree?"

Chloro and Hiro both stared at her before bursting into laughter and Black slowly blinked looking at the vines then at Chloro. "That isn’t possible… Is it?"

"Are you asking if my father shagged a tree?" the incubus snorted, sniggering as the barrier shook with each attack to it. "It's nature magic. I can use it offensively and also defensively but not for long.” He counted down on his fingers. “The vines are going to tear just about…" Several demons tore through the shield on one side. "Your turn Snowy!"

Hiro nodded and with the wave of his hand, frost engulfed the enemies, Rosa gaped as she heard their muffled screeches die before the ice erupted into what looked like millions of ice crystals. "Holy crap what just happened?!"

"I think they quite literally froze to death," Black mumbled, watching the crystals scatter harmlessly around them.

"It's actually a mix of freezing and suffocating to death," Hiro murmured. Due to the method of ‘slaughter’, he had hardly any blood on him compared to Chloro or Mikhail, only his own leaking from scratches. Despite that, Rosa felt a chill run down her spine, and it wasn’t from the freezing air.

“Please remind me never to upset an ice demon,” Black whispered to Rosa as he caught an attack with his sword before stumbling back and clumsily plunging the sword through a beast’s forehead.

“What is Mike doing?” she muttered back, however he did not answer her. Did he not know? Or did he not want to tell her? Instead she was taught never to be distracted during battle as a demon struck out at her, catching her jacket before her friend swiftly executed it. Least it was her clothes torn rather than her skin, she joked to herself. Not only for her own sake, but she got the feeling Mikhail was serious about torching Chloro.

More demons continued to appear, but the two young adults made quick work of them, with attacks so fast Rosa couldn’t see half of them get struck or hit with frost before perishing. Desperate to be useful, she called her own fire magic so much her throat felt raw from screaming, ending those that slipped past the thrashing vines.

Any demon’s attempt to strike at Mikhail was foiled by the dark electric barrier, which continued to feed into his now pitch black sword. And finally he spoke, his commanding voice booming through the room. “You four, take cover!”

Chloro threw up his vine shield just in time as the sword exploded as a powerful bomb of lightning, ripping through every demon in its sights. They screeched as they returned to nothingness, leaving only a single figure standing, now they weren’t hiding behind the beasts.

The sole survivor was covered by a cloak and wearing a skull mask, resembling a reaper. Distorted laughter left them as they pointed a skeletal-appearing finger at Mikhail. Rosa noticed the odd appearances of the bones and realised it was a costume, rather than the demon being a straight up humanoid skeleton. “Oh, you found me, huh?” The voice was masculine but clearly fake, a cover up of the man’s true voice. “Took you long enough, angel.”

Rosa gaped as she looked at her uncle, who avoided her eyes as they set on his new appendages. He had two pairs of electric wings, quietly buzzing as the navy blue current surged. The lightning danced around his arm as it travelled to his sword, which he held out threateningly against the demon. “Why are you here?”

“Do I need a reason?” the man asked, and although his face was covered, they could hear the smirk in his voice. “You are way more impressive than the boss made you out to be.” The only visible part of his face, gleaming amethyst eyes, set on Chloro and Hiro as he continued. “He just said you plant-boy attack like a mad man whilst your little friend hides behind you.”

“Mad man- That’s absolute garbage, you wanker!” Chloro snapped, and Hiro grabbed his arm before he could prove the stranger’s point to be true.

“H-Hey calm down…” The white haired boy swallowed hard, voice shaky. “You… Wouldn’t happen to be working with that creep and Eifa, right?”

Judging by the amused tone of his voice, Rosa could guess the summoner’s facial expression. The typical cocky raised eyebrow and smug grin. “If by creep you mean Sh-”

“D-Don’t you dare say his name!” the ice demon snapped and the skeleton laughed, as magenta fire formed in his palms.

“Oh right… He said just his name freaks you out, what a baby.”

Rosa stared at Black as she noticed the perplexed look on his face. “What’s wrong, Black?”

“This guy speaks weird for someone with a Darth Vader voice,” her friend mumbled as Mikhail swung his sword, and a shockwave flew at the intruder.

“Get the fuck out of my bar and don’t leave another one of your ‘pets’ here ever again,” he snarled as their enemy dodged, who looked at his crackling wings then at Chloro as he flashed his bloody claw.

“Oh, looks like I might need to make a… What’s it called again?” the summoner murmured as he tilted his head. “Ah right, a strategic retreat! Try not to die before we fight again, hm?” The fire extinguished before black smoke erupted from his bony gloves instead, obscuring the room.

When the smoke cleared, Mikhail stared at the now vacant spot he had been standing. “He ran away… What a coward.” He shook his head and looked at Chloro, watching him mumble to his companion. Although the reaper was gone, Hiro still appeared very alert, eyes darting to take in their wrecked environment. What’s going on here? I think you’ve mentioned this ‘Eifa’ before, Chlo?”

“That’s right, she’s caused us trouble a few times...She’s a bitch,” he grumbled as he idly looked at his bloodstained hands.

“Did you mean to say that or witch?” Hiro whispered, composing himself as he took Chloro's hand and examined his bleeding arm, hearing him snort.

“Both work, Snowy. Oi Mike, I’m going to clean up in the bathroom, I don’t think walking around like this is ideal. You look kind of battered, do you need healing?”

Mikhail shook his head, watching as the ice demon’s palms lit up white and closed a deep slash wound on the incubus’ arm. “It’s mostly the enemies’ blood, the rest of it will heal itself. I’ll clean up then check up on the evacuated customers when you go, and we’ll talk about the ‘situation’ on our next shift.”

Rosa watched the two young adults disappear into the back, mumbling. “Demons can use white magic? Never mind that…” She turned to her uncle, staring at his electric wings. “He… Called you an angel? Are you really…?”

Mikhail glanced away, as his eyebrows furrowed. “It’s complicated… But I should tell you. I am technically an angel but…” The lightning protruding from his back fizzled away before four black feathery wings broke out of his blood stained shirt, Rosa gawked at them and looked at his ashamed expression.

“Y-You’re… Are you a fallen angel?” she gasped out, feeling her head grow light. From the little she knew about angels, she knew that angels fell from Heaven because of ‘sin’. Her uncle… Was… She quickly looked at Black, as he startled. “I-I thought you said you didn’t know any ‘evil’ angels…”

“That’s because fallen angels aren’t necessarily evil,” Mikhail mumbled, walking around the trashed room. “There are many kinds of sin, but they’re in accordance with angelic morality, so what some fall for, humans may not see as ‘sin’. The majority… The majority do serve Satan so I guess that’s where we get our bad rep,” he said with a weak grin.

“Did I… Know about this before I lost my memory?” Rosa whispered, he nodded and held out his hand, she hesitantly took it and he gently squeezed hers.

“I used to fly around with you when your hand was half the size it is now.” His other hand ruffled her hair. Despite the sudden revelation, she felt safe with him, her heart calming. “Your father helped me out before you were born and well… I didn’t have a family so he invited me to join yours.” He gave a lopsided smile. “I made some great memories with you so I hope I can bring yours back some day, Rosa.”

She gazed at him, as she felt a wave of sadness overcome her. After all these years apart… She met him again. She longed to remember her past with him, with her father. And Phoenix and his grandfather would have been involved too yet… How come he didn’t remember her, too? She wanted answers. “Mike… Can you tell me about what happened? Before we got separated, I mean.”

Mikhail stared at where the door leading to the back had been. “I… Could tell you some stuff, but not now. I don’t know if learning too much would trigger your memories, or if whatever caused your amnesia could harm you.” At her disappointed face, he chuckled. “Don’t look at me like that. How about you take my number and we’ll arrange a time to talk? I need to sort out the customers then work out how to fix this mess.”

Rosa nodded and he took her phone, typing into it. “It was… Nice to see you,” she murmured shyly and he laughed, patting her shoulder.

“It was great to see you too, Rosie. Hey Blake you’ll look after her for me, right?” he asked, winking at him and he blushed, quickly nodding.

“Of course!” he squeaked before redirecting his attention as they heard their ‘helpers’ come back. “Wow, that was quick.”

“I’m a quick person,” Chloro said with a shrug, and he looked at Mikhail who nodded at him. He was no longer covered in blood, as he had changed out of his uniform, and any trace of the injuries he had been inflicted with had vanished. “We’ll be off then. Sorry about the floorboards.”

“I’m honestly more pissed about freezing the floor,” Mikhail grumbled, shooting Hiro a pointed look as he looked away with flushed cheeks. “Either way this will be a pain but… At least we have demon-insurance right?” he continued in a jokey tone and Rosa looked at Black puzzled.

“Is demon insurance an actual thing?”

“I have no idea,” Black mumbled before looking at the blunt sword in his hand. “Hey Mike, mind if I steal this? Yuma took away my last weapon because I accidentally cut his flowers in half.”

Mikhail nodded as he watched his co-worker leave with his friend, before looking at Rosa. “I’ll see if I can fix that bracelet for long term use, then maybe you can use it to defend yourself Rosie.”

She unclipped the magic bracelet and dropped it in his outstretched hand, before giving him a nervous grin. Although she couldn’t remember the years they had spent together, she realised how much she had missed him. “Alright we’ll be going too then. See you later.”

As Rosa and Black left the bar, she glanced down the street to see the two demons that had helped them. Something about Chloro nagged at her. Then she realised. “Hey Black… How much do you think Chloro knows about Azura?”

Black stared at her then at the incubus, watching him deep in conversation with his companion. “Well if he was a friend of a friend… It could be a lot, or as little as his favourite colour,” he mumbled before looking at Rosa. The gears clicked in his head. “Uh… Why?”

Rosa flashed a devilish smile. “Fancy stalking them?”

[nocturnalmemories]

Chapter 13: Intrusion

Black wondered if Mikhail was allowed to use the staff room as a meeting place, watching him console Rosa, at least to a level where she became coherent. Seeing her flushed red cheeks, he jerked his gaze away to examine the unfamiliar environment. It was rude to stare, especially when he couldn’t do anything to help the situation.

The small fridge buzzed loudly, drawing his attention to the bottles stashed on top of it. The workers’ ‘rations’, he guessed. The table they were sitting at was littered with fast food wrappers and empty cans, the aroma still lingering in the air. His stomach rumbled roughly the same time that Rosa’s did, and he noticed her eyes go wide before she blushed darker.

“Oops uh… I forgot to have dinner before we came here,” she mumbled sheepishly to Black and he gave a weak laugh.

“Same here…” he murmured and Mikhail chuckled, lightly ruffling Rosa’s hair. As he tried to do the same to Black, he whined and ducked his hand. “M-Mike I’m not a little kid anymore!”

“Since when is there an age limit? Phoenix and Yuma don’t care,” the man said with a snort and the teenage boy sighed.

“Well yeah but that’s because Phoen thinks he’s a dog and Yuma is… Yuma.”

Rosa stared at him. “Is Phoen a furry?”

At the confused look on Mikhail’s face, Black quickly shook his head. “N-No, he’s not!”

“What’s a furry?” Mikhail mumbled. The two teenagers exchanged helpless glances before Rosa coughed into her fist.

“Hey Uncle, can I steal one of those apples there?” she asked, pointing at the fruit bowl on the other table. It contained an unholy amount of apples.

“Sure, just don’t let Chloro know I let you,” Mikhail said with a laugh. At the mention of his name, her face turned stormy.

“He’s… That guy right? The guy that fetched you? Of course the weirdo would have a weird name too,” she grumbled.

Mikhail raised an eyebrow. “Yeah… Did he upset you, Rosie?” he mumbled.

“He tried to kick us out, it didn’t end well for her,” Black stated as he took some of the apples and passed some to Rosa.

“Stupid ink bus,” she grumbled under her breath.

“It’s ‘incubus’.”

“Oh shut up.”

Mikhail tilted his head. “How… Do you two know he’s an incubus? What did he do?”

Rosa mumbled, heat rising to her face. “One, he existed. Two, he tried to use this ‘charm’ spell to make me leave the bar.”

The man silently stood up, a dark look in his eyes as he rolled up his sleeves. The smile he gave them made chills run down their spines. “I’ll be right back, okay?”

Rosa and Black awkwardly watched him leave the staff room before returning to their stolen food. “Uh… I get the feeling I just endangered that guy,” she said flatly.

“Seems like it,” he said with a weak smile.

Rosa stared at the door before her eyes went wide and she almost choked on the fruit. “W-Wait a minute! Mike is working with a demon- And he knows- Why?!”

Black patted her shoulder, panic clear on his face. “H-Hey calm down, you’ll choke… He might be keeping an eye on him… Or he’s not dangerous… Who knows?”

She gawked at him, as if he had grown a second head. “Not dangerous? He’s the same creature as the one that attacked us, and the one who took Lily… I’m not believing that for a second.”

He sighed and looked at the door. “Well… He doesn’t seem hostile at least… He might be ‘domesticated’.”

She frowned. “Can you explain that to me in as little words as possible? I’ve already had several info dumps today.”

Black looked at the fridge and took off four bottles, two red, one blue and one purple. He set them in front of her. “Alright so incubi basically exist to make more demons. So they…” He put a red bottle next to the blue one. “Seduce a human and usually leave them with their child.” He set the purple bottle between them. “Because the hybrid is raised by humans, they usually end up less evil than those raised by demons. Get it?”

Rosa nodded and picked up one of the red bottles. “Think I get it… Hey is this coke?”

“I wouldn’t drink that,” Black mumbled before they heard a loud crash.

“Mikh- What are you-” Another crash shook the building followed by a shriek .

“Don’t you use that thing on my niece again!”

“H-Hey I thought she was a random kid sneaking in, how would I know?!”

Said ‘kid’ stared at her friend before mumbling. “Wow uh… Mike’s more violent than the demon, huh?”

“Mikhail can be a little aggressive,” Black stated with a lopsided smile as the crashing and banging continued.

“F-Fine, I’ll apologise!” they heard the incubus yelp before the door opened again.

Mikhail noticed the spooked looks on the teenagers’ faces as he dragged Chloro in, giving them a weak grin. “Oh sorry kids, did I scare you?”

“I’m pretty sure it sounded like you were murdering me, I’m not surprised,” his co-worker grumbled, rubbing the red marks on his face. Rosa noted, to her irritation, that his tanned skin being bruised did not stop Rio squealing. The ‘hottie-induced’ headache was slowly murdering her. He noticed the younger teenager staring at him and sighed, putting on a playful smirk. “Hey I know I’m hot, but I’m a bit old for you, don’t you think?.”

Her cheeks burned red as she stumbled over her words, glaring intensely at him. “What- You’re not ‘hot’ at all, you perverted demon!”

He tilted his head, furrowing his brow. “Uh… Besides the fact I’m not a ‘pervert’... Why are you calling me a demon?”

“Because she knows you are one, you plant-pot,” Mikhail deadpanned, sighing as the incubus went pale. “You really should be careful when using your magic, if you don’t want to risk the angels finding you. Most people wouldn’t notice, but don’t be so reckless.” He crossed his arms. “By the way, I think you owe someone an apology?”

Chloro sighed and faced the annoyed looking Rosa, voice flat. “Sorry I used my charm on you, next time don’t go to a bar without an adult.”

Mikhail glared at his co-worker as Black let out a weak chuckle, murmuring, “That was the most insincere apology I’ve ever heard.”

Rosa shook her head, exhaling heavily. “As long as you never use that damn thing on me again, I’ll forgive you. Uncle, why the hell do you work with a demon?”

“Well… He pissed off a demon, I saved him, and he charmed me into helping him find a job.” He gave the incubus a pointed look and he quietly sniggered. “After he tried to hit on me.”

“Well sorry but people only tend to help me if they get something in return,” Chloro said with a shrug. “I thought you wanted something, what can I say?”

“I did not want a 17 year old hitting on me!” Mikhail snapped before coughing into his fist as he noticed the younger teenagers staring at him. “S-Sorry about that. Anyhow… Blake.”

Black suddenly went as white as a sheet. “Y-Yeah?”

The man crossed his arms as his gaze fixated on the boy, eyes sharp like an eagle’s. “Is there… Any reason Rosa knows demons exist in the first place? I was hoping she’d never find out.”

Black shook his head quickly as Rosa’s face fell at the memory of that first attack. “H-Hey, neither of us could help it! We… Stumbled upon a demon attack in the park a while back,” he mumbled. “She… Wanted to see you about a demon actually.”

Rosa looked away as Mikhail’s harsh stare turned curious. “T-The other day… My little sister…” Her eyes started to brim with tears. “I-I couldn’t save her, she got taken from me…” she sobbed out as her uncle and the young demon exchanged looks.

“By a demon?” Mikhail asked, and Rosa gave a shaky nod as the rest of her body started to shake. Before the tears could start falling, he gently patted her shoulder and she stared up at him. Strangely, she felt calmer seeing that smile, like everything would be okay. “Hey don’t worry, I can help you out.” His eyes flickered to Chloro and he froze up. “And you can help us too, right? Demons can usually track down others easily.”

He anxiously shuffled on the spot as his eyes wandered. “I-I don’t know… I do have a family to look after, you know?”

“I’ll get you a pay raise and 3 bags of apples,” the older man stated, and his co-worker's eyes lit up.

“I’ll have a look at my schedule.”

Rosa stared down at her feet, clenching her fists and taking deep breaths. “This demon… He pretended to be me. He could make himself look exactly like me, even sound like me… His ‘real face’, I don’t even know if it is real… The only thing either of us know is that he’s called Azura.”

Mikhail’s eyes widened and a frown came to his face. “He… Could disguise himself? To the point of even copying your voice? I heard of shapeshifting demons but most of them can’t duplicate someone to that extent.” The floorboards creaked and he turned to glare at Chloro, seeing him freeze up as he halted in the doorway. . “Where do you think you’re going?”

“I uh… Just remembered Snowy wanted me to leave work early today,” he mumbled with a wavering voice, prompting Mikhail to snort.

“Screw ‘Snowy’, step out of that door and I’ll cut you. Do you know this ‘Azura’?”

“Uh nope, never heard of him. Hey, do you hear shouting? I think the regulars are fighting again, maybe I should-”

“Sit down,” Mikhail commanded.

The incubus quickly sat down.

Rosa stared at him and her eyes narrowed. “Are you ‘involved’ with this guy?”

Chloro tilted his head. “And by ‘involved’ you mean… No, no, we were just acquaintances.”

Mikhail raised an eyebrow. “An acquaintance or an ex?”

The incubus took a deep breath. “Just because I’m an incubus, it doesn’t mean I get with everyone I meet, you idiot. He used to be close to one of my friends, who will murder me if I hurt him. That’s all I’m telling you.”

Rosa sighed, feeling her stomach sink. “Well… You’re going to be useless then.” She looked at her uncle with pleading eyes. “I… I can’t just stand by when Lily is in danger. Black said you taught him to fight, could you teach me too?”

Mikhail’s mouth fell open before he quickly shook his head. “What- No, that’s too dangerous! Even a low level demon can be fatal to fight… I’m not enabling reckless behaviour, end of!”

“But Mike, if you could teach me, why not Rosa?” Black squeaked.

Mikhail crossed his arms and sighed, composing himself. “Look… I’ve been training you for way over two years. There’s no way I can teach Rosa to pick fights and win against demons within a matter of days, or even weeks. I never even heard of a shapeshifter who can change themselves to this extent, we can’t risk anything without more information.” He rolled his eyes and looked at Chloro, who avoided his eyes. “Which someone won’t give us. It wouldn’t harm you, if you won’t be ‘hurting’ this ‘Azura’ directly.”

“He’s not a ‘shapeshifter’ but an illusionist, if you want any more info you can call me at 07-666-BITEME,” he grumbled before his eyes flashed bright and he frowned. “And I’m out of here.”

Before Mikhail could act, he was gone. Rosa and Black stared at the swinging door as he groaned. “Pain in the… Sorry about him. I’ll interrogate him later. So can you tell me about this demon? You mentioned his ‘real face’?”

Rosa nodded, chewing on her lip. “Yeah… I couldn’t tell of course if it was his ‘real face’ but we saw him at a café using it… And Lily recognised it too… He had these blue eyes, and that part of his ‘illusion’ seemed to break when I tried to attack him… With a wooden cross,” she finished flatly and Black let out a weak laugh.

“Oh so.. That was what the obliterated sticks on the ground were. Phoenix said he saw him at work a few times, ‘playing as the boss’ lap dog’ as he puts it. Nothing else he knows about him is useful…” he murmured as Mikhail raised an eyebrow.

“Phoenix’s boss? I might want to ‘talk’ with him then.”

“Dad says his co-workers tried and failed, apparently he’s one hell of a flirt,” Rosa deadpanned. “Mike, is there… Really nothing I can do about this?” she whispered and Black looked at her with a sad smile before looking at the adult.

“Even if you can’t train her to fight… She’s in danger just knowing demons exist, can’t you teach her to defend herself at least?”

Mikhail looked at Rosa’s begging expression and his face twisted into discomfort. “You have a point, I don’t want her picking fights but…” He trailed off as they heard a crash. It was soon followed by a woman’s blood-curdling scream, joined with a chorus of panic. “What the hell was that?!”

The hallway was polluted with heavy footsteps, Rosa and Black stared wide eyed at the door as Mikhail cracked it open and shouted out at someone. “Oi, what’s going on?”

“It’s a Code 6!” was one of the workers' responses and he swore loudly as Rosa looked between him and a frightened looking Black.

“What the hell is a Code 6?” she squeaked.

“A Code 6 is uh… A small scale demon attack. We tend to add a 6 for each danger level,” Black mumbled weakly.

Mikhail let out a heavy sigh. “The customers are being evacuated then… Through the back so the demons must be coming from the front… How nice of them to use the front door, eh?” he said with a lopsided smile.

“They’re not using any door,” Chloro mumbled as he greeted them again, rubbing his cheek. Rosa caught a glimpse of the bleeding claw mark and looked at his arm where his sleeve had been shredded. His forearm was streaked with blood but based on his nails which had grown sharper and were now dripping… She wondered how much of it was his own. “They’re just… Kind of poofing out of nowhere, think someone decided to play summoner?”

Mikhail sighed and brought his hand to his face. “A summoner…? That’s just great. How many demons are there now?”

“Well I cut down three but more came, there’s about 12 now? I called Snowy to help.”

The disgust on her uncle’s face did not go unnoticed to Rosa. “Do I have to put up with that posh twat again?”

“Unless you fancy bleeding to death, yes,” the incubus grumbled. “And if you keep up with that, I’ll be killing you before any of the other demons can even tap you!”

Rosa flinched and inched closer to Black.

Mikhail shook his head and a shining blade spontaneously appeared in his hand. “Fine, let’s sort this out before it gets too dangerous. There’s a weapon hiding behind the fridge Blake, hopefully you won’t need it though.”

“M-Mike where did that sword come from?” Rosa stammered.

He shook his head and watched his co-worker leave. “Don’t worry about it Rosa… Stay quiet and stay here, the demons shouldn’t find this room… But if they do, please protect her Blake.”

Black gave a shaky nod and before Rosa could question, the door was closed. They heard a click. “Oh great… We’re locked in and there’s demons lurking about,” she said dryly and he let out a weak chuckle, checking behind the fridge.

“Looks like… We should be safe here but in case… Oh, there it is .”

Rosa raised an eyebrow as he pulled the sword out. It resembled a claymore but was closer to a toy than a deadly weapon, with its edges smoothed out. “That couldn’t cut paper, could it?”

Black shook his head and hit it against the fridge. “It’s an anti-demon weapon… It’s designed to kill demons without it being able to be used against humans if the enemy got a hold of it. It would only really hurt humans if they were bludgeoned to death with it.” Rosa grimaced. “But it can cut through demon flesh.”

Rosa gazed at it then at the door. “The workers seemed… Prepared… Is this a common occurrence or something?”

He looked out of the window. There was zero trace of the moon or stars, hidden by the darkness. “Demons really don’t like Mike. The presence of a demon working here probably attracts them too, but at least Mikhail doesn’t have to fight them on his own anymore.”

Rosa looked out at the window then at Black’s face. His eyes didn’t seem to be staring at anything in particular anymore. She lightly tapped him. After the third attempt, he snapped out of his daze and looked at her. “I was just wondering… You seem weirdly calm about this,” she mumbled and he laughed, avoiding her gaze.

“Do I? I’m… Honestly a little scared. But Phoen can’t protect me whenever there’s a demon… I need to be able to fight for myself, and be able to protect him too. And maybe… I could protect you too until you learn how to…” he murmured, cheeks flushed red.

She gazed at him then hid her smile. Her mind flickered to his message from only a few days ago. What they were both missing… “Hey Black… What did you mean by that text?”

He stared at her and tilted his head. “What do you-” He cut himself off as they heard a crash. Rosa’s heart started racing as a creature broke through the door, filling the room with inhuman screaming.

Similar to her first demon encounter, this fiend was a beast too, resembling a black skeletal pterodactyl. Blood red beady eyes glowered at her as the monster revealed giant needle-like teeth then pounced.

Black quickly caught its bite jamming the sword in its mouth as Rosa staggered back, her eyes darting around. Maybe he could handle it himself, maybe she would only get in the way. But she needed to help him. The pterodactyl leapt back, jaw charred, before striking out with its clawed wings, the boy quickly stumbling out of the way. As the beast crashed into the fridge Rosa quickly realised the disadvantage it suffered. Whilst its prey were small, its body was too large to properly navigate in the tiny staff room.

As the creature prepared to strike she grabbed an abandoned glass bottle. “Hey, birdbrain!”

It stared at her as the glass shattered harmlessly against its skull. It squawked and she squealed as she dove to the side, making it crash into a bookcase. As the shelves collapsed, a case toppled to the ground sending the contents sprawling next to her. Her heart skipped a beat as she quickly grabbed the silver handgun. Whilst it was very convenient for it to fall, she wondered why it was there in the staff room.

With shaking hands she shot the demon in the base of its wings before it could lash at Black, the recoil throwing her against the wall as light exploded from the barrel. This… Wasn’t a normal pistol. Black’s wine red eyes stared at her before he stabbed the beast through the jaw watching it scream before disintegrating into light.

“What… What the hell was that?” he breathed as his gaze set on the firearm. “The box was unlocked and the safety off? Accident waiting to happen…”

Rosa shook off the dizziness prompted by the impact. Her shoulder was roaring with pain and she put the gun down to feel under her shirt. Her fingers were tinted red when she pulled them away. “Damn… That thing sent me flying,” she muttered as Black picked up the gun and clicked the safety back on. She scanned the room. Books and smashed glass were everywhere, and there was a huge hole where the door had been. It couldn’t be safe to stay in here, not if a demon had gotten past the front area before. “How the heck do the customers not remember constant demon attacks? Do their memories get altered?”

Black nodded, looking the gun over. “Mikhail studied memory spells, there’s many that erase memories but it’s harder to restore someone’s memory… At the same time he can help erase the customers’ memories, he tries to find a ‘reversal’ spell… He’s never been successful though,” he murmured.

Rosa tracked down the gun case, finding strips of tiny gold bullets. “I see… I guess getting my memory back might be hard eh?” She suddenly shivered and dropped the case, holding herself and biting her lip. “W-Why did it s-suddenly get so c-c-cold?”

He tilted his head. “Cold? It feels just fine to me.”

“Even with that jacket, you have to feel it,” Rosa grumbled as she peeked out of the corridor and her jaw dropped. “U-Uh Black… Was there a blizzard just now?”

Black followed her over and his eyebrows shot up. The inner door between the bar and staff area was completely destroyed and ice decorated the hallway. “W-Wow uh… Must be an ice demon.”

They both yelped and ducked back into the room as a lion shaped ice statue was launched at them, crashing and smashing into a million shards upon hitting the wall. “That… Isn’t how freezing something works, is it?”

“No ah… The demon must have disintegrated inside it.”

Before the boy could protest she took the pistol off him. “Well I’m not staying a sitting duck, I want to help.”

Black quickly grabbed her wrist before she could go off. “Are you crazy? You don’t even know how to use it, you could hurt yourself!”

“I’m not just going to do nothing, I need to help Mike!” Rosa winced as he pulled the gun out of her hand then dragged her back. “Bla-”

“Stop.” The cold tone of his voice silenced her, leaving her watching him stash the gun away. “I know you want to help but you’ll just get yourself killed like that.” He looked at the wrecked shelves then the ground, crouching down to pick up a tiny red chest. “Thank God Mike still has this… Ah… Rosa, what’s your date of birth?”

She tilted her head feeling her anger die down. “20th of August, why?”

Black fiddled with the four digit lock setting it to 2008 and a faint click was heard. “Well, that was easy. I should try that on his phone…” He took out a red and silver bracelet and held his hand out. “Fire magic might be a bit destructive but less likely to backfire on you than that thing.”

Rosa blanked. “I uh… Thought you had to be born with the ability to use magic. What is that?”

“Mikhail created this, it allows the user to use magic for 20 minutes then it needs to recharge for 24 hours… Not very useful but it’ll do. Just need to put this on your wrist…” She hesitantly extended her hand and he clipped it on. “Okay, if I remember right… Hold out your hand and shout fire. Try on the wall? It’s already kind of smashed…” he mumbled and she nodded looking at the remains. Hand shaking she raised her voice.

“Fire!” The bracelet lit up and fire incinerated the target. As she stared at her hand, Black let out a chuckle and retrieved the sword.

“Okay… If you get even a scratch, I will drag you back in here, okay?”

Rosa sighed and stuck her tongue out. “Whatever you say, ‘boss’.”

[nocturnalmemories]

Chapter 12: Infiltration

By the time they got off the bus, the sky had quickly turned dark. Black nervously looked up at it then at Rosa, watching her eyes settle on the door. Now they were here, he was starting to get doubts.

“I’m not sure this is going to work Rosa…” The red haired girl looked at her timid friend then back at the bar, thinking to herself.

“It’ll… It’ll be alright if we just ask for him right, Black?” Rosa had never imagined she’d be going to some strange bar to hunt down her uncle. She hadn’t even dreamt she’d be able to meet any of the family she had long forgotten. Her body was trembling with excitement at the same time her mind raced.

Black glanced at the door mumbling. “We’re gonna be kicked out, there’s no way we can pass as 18 even to a blind man...”

She looked through the window, seeing it was packed but looked relatively peaceful. Despite the fact that she could hear the rowdy customers from outside the building. Maybe it wasn’t really a good idea to sneak into a bar to meet an adult man she hadn’t seen in 4 years. Maybe she was reckless, but too much was at stake to be overly cautious.

She had to find out how to save Lily.

Taking a deep breath she put her hand on the handle. “I know, we’ll just… Have to hope someone will fetch him I guess. I don’t see him through this window at least…” She knew at least what he roughly looked like, because of her dreams. Her friend’s description of him was all too familiar too. She glanced back at Black, seeing him fidget. “Ready?”

“Y-Yeah… Is this legal though?”

“We’ll be in and out… We’re not drinking… It should be fine right?” she murmured and, taking a shaky breath, she pushed the door open.

The stench of alcohol assaulted her nose almost as much as the volume of a sudden argument did her ears. Rosa and Black covered their ears as they scanned the bar, eyes locking on the two women snapping at each other. Every other customer at the bar appeared to be ignoring the fight. A few of the customers saw the teenagers and raised an eyebrow but didn’t care enough to raise their voices, instead continuing to drink and chat with their friends.

Rosa deduced that the owner of the bar was very confused about their intended target audience, based on the décor. It looked mostly old fashioned and homely with mahogany furniture and a group of customers playing darts.

Despite this old fashioned look, there were flashing rainbow spotlights that were certainly too bright. The workers navigating the bar were trying to avoid them and cringing whenever they got struck in the face.

Rosa and Black exchanged glances before Rosa mumbled, “Is this place aimed at 20 year olds or 50 year olds?”

Black shrugged and they watched the two women continue to bicker until a man interrupted them. Judging by the uniform, he worked as a waiter, and he barely looked old enough to work there. “Hey, what’s the problem here girls?” he said smiling at both of them, and although the women looked at least in their thirties, they started giggling like school girls.

“Oh nothing, it’s fine,” one of them chirped as the other looked the boy over. Rosa briefly wondered how many of the women here were cougars, based on these two.

“Just a little spat, you know how we are,” the other woman said with a wink, and the server laughed, however it sounded a little forced.

“Just reminding you two, if it happens again, Mike will kick you out,” he stated and Rosa’s ears pricked up as the women pouted.

“Oh no, we’ll behave,” the first one replied as a strange look came onto the second one’s face.

“Don’t be like that, we were just having fun.” She winked at him again and Rosa watched his eyes quickly scan the room. “When does your shift finish by the way?”

His eyes set on them and neither of the teenagers could quite tell if that was annoyance or relief on his face. “Please excuse me.”

As he approached them, Rosa scanned the room again. There were too many people for her to focus on every one of them, but in her initial look she couldn’t see anyone that looked like her target. She hoped this guy wasn’t going to kick them out.

He crossed his arms as a sigh of exasperation left his lips and Rosa’s stomach sank. Of course. “Please leave, kids can’t be here without an adult.”

Rosa quickly shook her head. “No, we’re looking for…” She trailed off as she locked gazes with him, and her breath caught in her throat as her cheeks grew warm. Why the hell was he working at a bar? He looked like a model!

Black looked at her, seeing her gaze turn vacant, and frowned as he waved his hand in front of her face. “Rosa? Are you okay?” No response. Glancing at the man he noticed his emerald green eyes were faintly glowing, and he gestured at the door with a slight smirk.

“Be a good girl and leave, okay?”

“Okay,” Rosa mumbled in a trance as she turned. Black quickly grabbed her hand before she could waltz out.

“R-Rosa stop, we need to see Mikhail remember!” he squeaked. Upon his words, the spell seemed to break and she looked at him puzzled.

“What just happened?” She looked at his hand and quickly pulled her hand away, blushing. “C-Can you not?”

The bar worker let out a faint chuckle however he looked perplexed, staring at them. “Did you just say you’re looking for Mikhail?”

Black nodded, as Rosa tried to figure out what happened. The last thing she remembered was looking into his eyes. He looked like an elf though, having a lithe figure and pixie-like face. And those eyes were very pretty, along with the rest of him… What the actual hell was she thinking?! “Yeah, ah… He’s my friend’s uncle, it’s impossible to get a hold of him so… We came here,” Black mumbled and the older male laughed.

“Sounds like Mike, getting him to pick up the damn phone is a nightmare. He’s on a break though, so it might take a while to get him.” He grumbled under his breath, “the last time I distracted him, I got a Bible thrown at my head. He’s not even Christian, why...” Noticing the teenagers were now staring at him he excused himself. “I’ll be back, just… Stay here. I’ll be telling security to keep an eye on you though, so don’t do anything stupid.”

Rosa nodded and smiled as he disappeared into the mass of customers and workers, it fell off her face however as she turned to Black. “Okay, what the hell is he?!”

Black tilted his head. “What do you mean?”

Her face went red and she mumbled, noticing one of the nearby workers was now staring at them. “Look… That guy… Did something weird. All I did was look at him, and I was almost out the door!”

Black looked around, noting there was no one within whispering range. “Was it like he put a spell on you?” She nodded warily. “I… Have an idea what happened then. You… Might not like it though.”

She raised an eyebrow. “What… What is it?”

He took a deep breath, as if preparing for her rage. “I… Think he might be an incubus.”

Rosa frowned, blinking slowly. “A… What? Ink bus? What’s that?”

“It’s uh…” He shuffled awkwardly as his cheeks turned crimson. “An incubus is a demon that sleeps with women to make half-demon babies with them.”

Rosa stared at him. All the noise of the bar customers arguing and chatting loudly faded into the background. Black was about to ask her if she was okay when a loud disgusted squeal left her. “Y-You’re kidding! No- No- There’s no way I got seduced by some devil!”

Noticing the concerned looks they were getting from some of the workers, Black patted her shoulder putting on a smile he only hoped was more useful than he felt. “H-Hey, no, it’s nothing like that!” He lowered his voice. “That wasn’t seduction, that… Isn’t a magical thing they do. I think he… Used a Charm spell on you.”

“What’s the difference?” she murmured, trying to reason with herself. The word ‘charm’... Sounded way less dodgy than ‘seduction’. Which if it wasn’t magical… Was it basically flirting?

“Charm spells are basically commands, but they’re very limited. They put an idea in your head and sometimes the target will act on it, sometimes they won’t. So…” He gestured to some customers drinking. “If he wants you to tip one of those glasses over someone’s head, it’s likely you’ll do that. They don’t work for seduction purposes though.”

Rosa looked relieved. “Alright… Uh… What if you go into a trance looking at them? Is that a spell too?”

Black stared at her. “No uh… I think that’s just you finding him hot.”

Rosa gazed at him as heat crept up her neck before she squealed again. “No way, that’s disgusting! I don’t find anyone ‘hot’, eww!”

He raised an eyebrow, noticing the annoyed looks from the workers at her outburst, and whispered. “Have you never ‘liked’ someone before? I thought teenage girls were obsessed with that kind of thing.”

“Sorry but I’m not,” she grumbled feeling nausea. “It must be because he’s an incubus or something, I don’t, I don’t feel that kind of thing. Eww. No.”

He continued to stare at her before shaking his head. He had the feeling if he pushed this, he’d get a punch in the face. “Hey, do you think he’s still trying to get Mike?”

As if on cue, the suspected incubus returned. The second Rosa looked at him, she heard squealing inside her head and it was both physical and mental pain that plagued her. Rio had finally made herself known. Maybe she was why Rosa was having this stupid strange reaction. “He’s coming, don’t worry.” He mumbled under his breath again, rubbing his head. Rosa wondered how hard he had been hit as she noticed a little blood coming off on his hand from his black hair. “If he doesn’t stop with the Bibles, I’m burning them all in front of him.”

“Sorry Chlo but if you didn’t want a paper cut, you should have knocked first,” they heard a smooth voice murmur and Rosa looked to see the man approaching them from the crowd. Emotion surged through her. He looked just like he did in her dreams, albeit a bit older, appearing in his thirties. His short dark chestnut hair was dishevelled, his jaw covered in heavy stubble and his mouth set into an arrogant smirk.

‘Chlo’ rolled his eyes, throwing a retort back. “Oh so if I slit your throat, you should have moved out of the way?” Judging by the expressions of their co-workers, Black could deduce this happened often.

Mikhail just snorted and looked at the teenagers before his aqua green eyes widened upon resting on Rosa. His jaw fell slack for a brief moment before he composed himself, and a soft smile appeared on his face. “Long time no see, Rosa.”

Her body reacted before her mind, and she latched onto his waist feeling her eyes become wet. He held her close as her words left as gibberish. “Why- Couldn’t find- Dad said-”

He shushed her, as he gently ruffled her hair and whispered. “Calm down, it’s okay now… Let’s talk, alright?”

“I’m just happy to see you again,” Rosa managed to choke out and he let out a chuckle.

“I’m happy to see you too Rosie, it’s been… Far too long… Blake, you come with us, okay?”

Black noted the disturbed expressions of his co-workers, other than Chlo who didn’t seem particularly surprised. He wasn’t surprised by this, himself. He knew both his façade and his true self. He nodded, looking at Rosa. He knew she’d need him there. “Of course.”

[nocturnalmemories]

Chapter 11: Hidden Memories

When Rosa returned home and told her parents what had happened, the reactions were as expected but it felt even worse. She had of course omitted the fact that Lily’s kidnapper was a demon because as Sky said, the public knowing about the existence of demons would just lead to mass panic. And surely the possibility of a demon kidnapping a child was even more terrifying than a human doing so.

Even so her mother cried into her father’s arms and Rosa briefly wished the roles had been swapped. Her little sister was in danger. The little sister she should have been able to protect as an older sibling.

“It’s not your fault Rosie, what could you do against an armed man?” her father had told her but she couldn’t hear him through the tears. She had failed Lily. She failed her as soon as she asked her to go home alone that day their worlds turned upside down. If she had never been exposed to all that trauma, would she have blindly clung to her, too frightened to face the outside world alone?

That night she climbed into bed and stared at the winged kitten plush watching over her. And as the misery returned she clutched it to her chest and wept.

The next few days her parents had excused her from school, and her father followed the only lead she had. That man who took Lily from her was often seen at that small café in the city plaza. And so the police decided to investigate not only the manager but all of the workers and the regulars.

The first day, Rosa found she was only able to bring herself to leave her room to use the bathroom and eat. With the curtains obscuring the daylight, she sat on her bed holding the cat close as she did some research. It was the only thing that could keep her mind occupied. Give herself some hope she could fight a demon, maybe several, to save her sister.

“Are these two the same guy or different demons?” Rosa grumbled to herself as she switched between the two tabs, eyes narrowed. Why were Lucifer and Beelzebub the same according to one text and different beings according to the other? Was the devil even called Lucifer? Were any of these demons real or were they made up?

‘All this research is making my head spin,’ Rio mumbled in her mind. ‘Who the hell is Lilith married to, Samael, Satan or Asma… Asmo… Asmogai… That guy?’

‘We’ve been doing this for 10 minutes,’ Rosa deadpanned and she heard Rio awkwardly laugh. Thankfully Rio was being mostly quiet, giving her time to be with her own thoughts. But at the same time being trapped in her own head made her feel worse sometimes. ‘And I think you pronounce it As-moe-dee-us?’ She shuddered. ‘Well if it is him, apparently they endlessly have kids so… Lilith would be constantly pregnant. Ewww.’

‘You’d say eww even if they didn’t Rosie~’

“That’s because sex and love are disgusting things.”

At noon that day she got messages of varying tones from her friends, starting with Black.

‘Axel and Kyoko have been asking about you and Lily, they seem pretty worried… Do you want me to keep ‘that’ secret Rosa?’ his initial message stated.

‘You can tell them… If I make excuses for Lily, they’ll figure it out eventually anyhow,’ she had responded and she received his reply seconds before the others.

‘Keep me updated on the police situation, then maybe when you’re feeling better we can work something out? Hope you’re alright’

‘Yeah… Thanks for your help’ she typed and as she hit send, a thought occurred to her. They had established they both felt familiar to the other, maybe that was why he seemed to feel comfortable with her now. But he barely knew Lily, was it really worth him getting on a demon’s bad side to help her? And before she checked the other messages, she sent a quick follow up. ‘But why are you helping me, really?’

Mentally berating herself for the potentially hostile message, she looked at Axel’s and Kyoko’s. Axel’s seemed normal at least, the usual apology one would get from people with nothing to do with the problem. An offer to come round later with Kyoko too. Provided her brother didn’t find out, he had added amusingly. She wasn’t too interested in company at that moment though, so she responded maybe she’d be up to spend some time with them when she felt better.

Kyoko’s message prompted her to raise an eyebrow though, and she stared at the phone screen.

‘Hey Rosie, Blacky said a demon kidnapped Lil? That’s horrible :( How about we find him together and set him on fire?’

Never mind the apparent pyromania, Kyoko knew about demons? And was offering help… She couldn’t fight a demon could she?

Why was she surprised? She hadn’t known Kyoko that long. She certainly looked and acted like the type that would have a fist fight with Satan.

‘How do you know about demons, Kyo?’ she asked before returning to her research.

The research was not going well, and Rio was happy to point it out. ‘Oh dear, all these demons… Which are real?’ The voice in her head pondered and threw out a thought she never needed to consider. ‘They say Lucifer was the most beautiful angel right? So would you say as the devil he’s ‘hot as hell’?’

Holding her head as she silently cringed, her ears perked upon hearing the gentle buzz of her phone. Glancing at the glowing screen, she saw the notification.

She opened Black’s message and silently read it.

`Guess you could say it’s for a selfish reason Rosa… I want to get close to you so I can find what we’re both missing’

A brief thought crossed her mind. What they were both missing… Their memories of each other? It felt like there was more to those words though…

Either way she couldn’t blame him for being ‘selfish’. She tried to get close to him for a purely selfish reason too. To find what she had lost, all those years of her childhood.

However as that occurred to her, she realised her ambition had dimmed. She wanted her memory, but she wanted her sister back more.

It was the night of the third day that it happened.

When Rosa’s father returned, he ignored the food waiting for him in the kitchen microwave. The first thing he did upon walking through the door was visit his daughter in her room, frowning as he noticed the only light was from her laptop screen.

“You’re going to hurt your eyes like that, kiddo,” he said as he flicked the switch and Rosa groaned, rubbing her eyes as she watched him sit down on the bed.

“Could have warned me Dad…” she murmured, watching the serious look on his face turn to bemusement as his gaze set on her laptop screen.

“What kind of school work is this? What the hell’s a Bel… Bella… Belial?” he mumbled. She gave a weak laugh, shutting the lid.

“I don’t even know…” She looked at the cat plush sitting by her. Holding it close she looked her father over, noticing the tired look on his face. How hard it must be to work on your own child’s kidnapping case. “How was work today?”

He shook his head, a perplexed look on his face. “It was… Interesting? We visited the manager you told us about… He started flirting with my co-workers. And the idiots fell for it.” Rosa pulled a face and he let out a weary chuckle. “We’re resuming the conversation tomorrow, it’ll take a while to track down and interview all the workers and regulars though.” At her disappointed face he lightly ruffled her hair and put on a lopsided smile. “We’ll find Lil, Rosie. These wise guys always crack.”

She nodded and hugged him before cringing away, seeing his confused expression. “You smell gross. Have you been drinking again?” Seeing him avert his eyes, she sighed.. “Did you drive back home?”

He quickly shook his head and the smile on his face was clearly one of shame. “No, I uh… Stopped at a bar on the way back and got a lift from a co-worker. She’s driving the car back later. I had business there.”

She furrowed her brow, frowning. “Was this ‘business’ getting drunk with your friends?”

“N-No, not at all! I accidentally had a drink. Or three. It was on the house,” he mumbled. He let out a heavy sigh. “I… I have something important to tell you, Rosie. I didn’t… Just move us over here for work.”

Her eyes went wide before she quickly composed herself. “Wait- What… What are you saying, Dad?”

Without another word he left the room and she stared after him, debating whether to follow or not. After a brief moment she went to get up when he returned, clutching something. Placing the envelope in front of her he sat back down but gently stopped her from opening it. “Please wait, let me finish. I’m… Sorry for hiding this from you, but it was for your own safety,” he whispered, she stared at him tilting her head.

“I don’t get what you’re saying Dad… What’s in here?”

He avoided eye contact. “When we first found you… When we were looking for your family… We got this letter from a man who claimed to be your uncle.”

Rosa gaped at him and opened her mouth to speak, however she found the words were jammed in her throat. Her… Uncle?

Seeing she was unresponsive, he continued. “The letter… He told us to find you a new family. That being with him would only endanger you. There was no return address, no clue to track him down, but we couldn’t risk it anyway. Then… Another letter was sent to the police station, when you were 13.”

“And what did this one say?” she whispered, staring at the letter and feeling her eyes grow wet.

“He wanted to meet your new parents, said he worked at a bar in this city, and I agreed. I scoped him out for a year, and… He was the one to raise you until you lost your memory, he was truly your legal guardian before you were separated,” he stated.

Rosa clutched the letter, as her head went into a spin. Her father found him all those years ago… And only told her now? At the same time though, it only made sense to investigate him first. “And he’s… In this city?”

He nodded and gestured towards the letter. “I wanted to make sure he was safe before you met him again… Unfortunately I haven’t been able to get in touch with him in a week, but meeting him… Might do you some good now.”

She quietly opened the envelope and scanned the contents. It was messy, but despite that it felt perfectly coherent to her. As if she had read this handwriting many times before. And she read the closing message as a strange blend of emotions dwelled up in her. “Protect her with your life. Mikhail Aries…”

The next day, Rosa asked Black to meet her at her house after school.

Black stared at the map on his phone then at the building in front of him, peering over the gate to see a woman tending to the plants in the front garden. This was the right place, correct?

“Umm excuse me Miss… Does Rosa live here?” he mumbled and the woman jumped, dropping her shovel. “S-Sorry.”

She stared at him, scanning over his uniform then setting her eyes on his open hooded jacket. “Oh uh… Yeah, I’m Rosa’s mum. You’re Blake right? She said to look out for a boy in a hoodie…” As he nodded, she gave him a smile that didn’t seem to meet her eyes. “Alright just wait here, I’ll get her for you.”

As she went inside the house, his eyes drifted to the sky. It was autumn, so the sky would start to turn dark earlier. Right now it was only 4pm, and it was so bright the darkest corner of the city would be illuminated.

The text Rosa had sent him had been startling but vague.

‘Can we go for a walk? I just found out something important.’

After a short wait, the girl swung the front door open and flashed a small smile as she jumped over the steps. Black stared at her as she almost fell over doing so and started cursing. “Oh come on feet, can’t you let me be cool for once?” Rosa grumbled and he let out an awkward laugh, glancing her over. Well, it was nice to see her smiling at least. And the tears weren’t making her cheeks red this time.

“It’s nice to see you too, how has your ‘holiday’ been?” he murmured.

She sighed and glanced at the open door, quickly closing it and frowning. “It… Could be worse… Mum’s been coping worse than me… She keeps calling Lily down for dinner.”

Black winced. “Oh… That sounds painful… Has your dad looked into the café yet?”

She nodded and gave him a lopsided grin, prompting him to shift as she kicked the gate open. “Yeah… He’s learned literally nothing so far.”

“Sounds like my average Chemistry lesson,” he deadpanned, wriggling a giggle from her as he followed her down the street. “Uh… So we don’t get lost… Where are we walking?”

“Just to the library and back I guess,” she idly murmured, sticking her hand in her pocket and sighing in relief. “I didn’t leave my phone… Thank God, I don’t want to terrify Mum…” She looked back at him. “Dad told me something important… By the way, you’re kinda slow.”

He quickly sped up his walking so he was beside her. “S-Sorry… I’m a little tired, heh… What did he say? Is it about the case?”

She shook her head, eyes drifting to the pavement. “No… It’s about my family, before I met Lily.” He gazed at her. “Dad… Found the man who raised me before they took me in. He said my uncle lives in this city.”

Black stared at her and let out a little chuckle. “Wow… Guess something good happened in this horrible day and age, eh? Have you met him yet?”

Rosa looked ahead, watching people pass them by. “Not yet… His name is Mikhail Aries though.” Black stopped. She turned to look at him and raised an eyebrow. “What’s wrong… Do you know him?”

“What did you say his name was again?” he mumbled and she tilted her head.

“Mikhail… Am I pronouncing that right? Mi-kai-el?”

“Yeah… He’s… My and Phoen’s ‘battle’ teacher,” he finished flatly. She gaped at him.

“You mean… You know him?”

“Since Phoen’s grandfather took me in… Phoen’s known him all his life, if Mikhail raised you… How come Phoenix didn’t remember you? How old were you when you were adopted?” Black murmured.

She went quiet. This could be a problem. She was 10 when it happened. Her amnesia would explain everything on her side, but why didn’t Phoenix remember her? If they would have known each other for a decade… Black would surely notice forgetting 10 years of your life was not normal.

She would have needed to tell him sooner or later.

Rosa took a deep breath and looked him in the eye. “The thing is… Dad found me when I was 10 years old. I don’t remember anything that happened before he found me.”

Black went silent, staring at her. She could see the gears slowly turning, as his wine red eyes went wide. Finally he spoke, his voice a soft whisper. “You… Lost your memory? Ten years of it?”

She nodded, smiling weakly. "Yeah… A whole decade of it. I wanted to meet him because I want to see if it jogs any memories but…" Her mind flashed to Lily. "If he taught you and Phoenix to fight… Maybe he could do the same for me."

He nodded in understanding, gazing at the path ahead of them. “Yeah… I was going to ask him so, guess if your dad didn’t tell you, you would have found out eventually,” he said with a light laugh before frowning. “There’s a huge… Problem with this news though… If Mikhail raised you… And Phoenix doesn’t remember you… Do you have any early memories at all?”

She bit her lip, racking her brain. “I… Didn’t even know my name until I dreamt of it. Every single thing I remember comes from dreams… Everything else is a black void. It’s just… I can feel something’s there but I can’t access it, you know? There wasn’t any physical trauma or anything, I just… It’s just gone.”

Black was quiet for a brief moment, eyes shifting to the sky. “I… I don’t think you ‘lost’ your memory, Rosa,” he murmured, locking their gazes together. “It sounds like something’s blocking it, instead… And for Phoen to not be able to recall it either… I think you might be cursed.”

She stared at him, as her brow furrowed. “You… Think my amnesia might be magic-induced? I never thought of that… But why would someone block my memory and someone else’s memory of me? And if my uncle still remembers me…”

He shook his head. “Curses don’t always make sense. But if it’s not a physical thing… It’s really the only explanation, I think. Maybe meeting Mikhail will help, as he might be the only one to remember you.”

She nodded, as she wondered. A curse… Would that have affected Rio too? Did Mikhail know about the other being inside her? “Dad said he has a hard time getting in touch with him… Where would I be able to find him?”

Black took out his phone and fiddled with it before showing her the screen. “He usually works at this bar, otherwise his schedule is all over the place… It’s about half an hour away by bus from here?”

Her mind was set. “Alright, are you coming with me?”

He blinked. “P-Pardon? You… Want to go see him now? That doesn’t sound like a good idea.”

She stared back down the street, seeing her house had long disappeared into the distance. She wondered where exactly she had lived before her father found her. “I know but… It might be difficult to find him otherwise, I need to meet him… Not just for me but for Lily,” she whispered as the tears started to return. He quickly nodded, awkwardly patting her shoulder.

“A-Alright… We might get kicked out because… Well.. It’s a bar… But we’ll try at least…?”

[nocturnalmemories]

Chapter 10: A World Apart

“Psst, Rosie!”

Rosa stopped eating her pancakes at the kitchen table and turned to see Lily peeking her head through the door. “Mmm?” She swallowed the food in her mouth and coughed. “Yeah?”

Lily giggled, and she looked at their parents. Their mother was trying (and failing) to fry some bacon whilst their father was sitting at the table with his feet up. She presumed their mum hadn’t noticed because last time he did that, she threatened to cut his feet off. “You left your phone in my room again. Buttt I can’t get it because it fell in a tiny gap.”

Rosa grumbled a curse and abandoned her pancakes. Hopefully their dad wouldn’t eat them. “Alright, I’ll come get it.”

She followed her to her room, carefully stepping over the stuffed animals splurged across the floor.

“How many teddies do you need?” she mumbled and Lily snorted.

“You’re the one who keeps buying them for me, sis.” She pointed at the tiny space between her bed and drawers. “It’s down there.”

Not remembering bringing her phone into Lily’s room that morning, Rosa cautiously crouched down and slid her hand in feeling around. Her fingers touched something silky and she awkwardly felt it. What an odd shape, it felt like… She carefully pulled it out and stared at it. Little angel wings, with two tiny string loops in the centre. “Lil were you making yourself a doll or someth…” she trailed off as she stared at the adorable kitty plush Lil put in front of her, a huge grin on her face as she took the wings and slid the kitty’s arms through the loops.

“Happy birthday Rosie!”

As Rosa regained consciousness, an unfamiliar voice reached her ears.

“I think she’s waking up.”

Footsteps boomed as she tried to get up, feeling light-headed. Her whole body felt numb, but she could feel tears dwelling in her eyes and she wasn’t quite certain why. Opening her eyes, everything seemed to be duplicated. She was almost certain the man sitting by her had a twin until she realised the chair he was watching her from was affected by the double vision too. Chairs did not usually overlap like her eyes thought. A feeling of nausea plagued her, and her eyes landed on a boy she knew too well as he stopped before her and looked her over.

“Rosa, are you okay? How many fingers am I holding up?” She knew Black did not really have seven fingers but she couldn’t tell how many he held up.

“I don’t know, three?” she mumbled and as she tried to stand, she staggered back onto the couch she had been resting on. A cool hand touched her forehead and light flashed through her eyes before her vision and strength returned. She could finally make out the man who had been watching her “Who are you? Where am I?”

The man’s voice was soft as he spoke, and she knew it was to try not to send her into a frantic panic. He had tan skin and sandy blond hair with bright golden eyes she had never seen the likes of before. “My name is Sky, I’m Phoenix’s housemate and well.. You’re in our house right now.” She had the impression that her expression had been one of true puzzlement as he went on to elaborate. “I don’t know what really happened, but Phoen and Blake found you collapsed on the street last night and took you back here.”

Rosa put her hand on her stomach, feeling nothing but confusion. What had happened last night? She swore something was wrong with her stomach… And why were her eyes wet and getting more so by the second? “I can’t remember… Something feels wrong… Why am I…” Then she remembered the crippling pain she had felt before she fell into slumber. The voice of someone important to her crying. And before she realised, she was crying too. “L-Lily… W-Why…”

Black awkwardly patted her shoulder as he sat next to her. For once, Phoenix looked troubled. “We ah… Found you bleeding out, you were in a pretty bad state. What happened?” Phoenix murmured. She took a shaky breath, the events of the previous day flickering through her mind. She was understandably in shock but she needed to try to be calm, if she wanted to make sense of things. But Lily… She was… She let her…

“I-I… Found Lily but… She was tricked by a demon pretending to be me.”

Black stared at her surprised and Phoenix looked guilty. “Crap… She asked me if that was possible but… I didn’t know it was…”

Sky shook his head, and as he gave Rosa a sympathetic smile, she felt oddly calmer. “I wouldn’t blame yourself, Phoenix… Neither should you… Rosa, I think they said your name was? There are very few demons that can shapeshift, neither of you could have known.”

Black looked at him then at her. “This demon… Did you see their face or…”

She nodded, but she looked conflicted as she stared at her knees. “His face might have been an illusion for all I know… Or is he actually a shapeshifter… But remember that magician we saw the other day? She wasn’t real either…” She let out a shaky sigh and tilted her head back up, meeting Phoenix’s gaze. “That guy from the café… Azura… He’s a demon.”

Phoenix stared at her with a blank expression for a moment. The room was so quiet she could hear the clock slowly tick. Then he let out a strange noise that would be comical if the situation wasn’t so serious. “Eh?! That guy’s a- No way, no, he’s a weirdo but I never sensed anything demonic about him!”

Rosa tilted her head. “Sensed…? You can tell when someone’s a demon, Phoen?”

“When you encounter demons enough, you can start to pick them out from humans, even if they look perfectly normal,” Sky mumbled. “They just… Have a dark air about them. Some demons can conceal their energy though, maybe this ‘Azura’ hid it from you, Phoen.”

Rosa thought, what happened to her sister? If Azura simply wanted to kill her sister, he would have left her bleeding like he did with her. Instead he had tried to lure her away… Why? What did a demon want with her sister? “Phoenix… How did you learn to fight demons in the first place?”

He stared at her and frowned. “My grandfather and his friend taught me… Please don’t go trying to hunt that demon down, Rosa. Don’t, it’s dangerous.”

She quickly shook her head, eyes narrowed as she tried to stop her mind from catastrophizing. On one hand, she could guess her sister was being kept alive if he hadn’t killed her on the spot. On the other hand, she really didn’t want to think what a demon of all things would do to a helpless girl. “But I can’t just- Lily’s been taken, because of me! She thought she’d be safe with me, he must have known that… I can’t just leave her like that!” As she jumped to her feet she felt a strange burn in her knees and she collapsed backwards onto the couch again, finding she was suddenly unable to move. And as she looked at Sky she noticed his eyes were glowing. “What are you-”

“Calm down little lady,” he mumbled and as he snapped his fingers, she found her complaint abruptly stopping. She couldn’t speak. “I know you’re worried about her, I’d be too if my sister Star was in danger. But rushing into this kind of conflict head on will only get you killed.” His voice went low. “And if your sister knew you got hurt or worse whilst trying to save her, it would haunt her for the rest of her life.” She stared at him and Black sighed.

“Yeah but… Did you have to take away her voice to tell her that?” Sky gave him a blank look and snapped his fingers again, Rosa’s words spilled out like a waterfall.

“How the actual hell can you do that? What the hell are you?”

The corner of his lips tilted up slightly. “The ‘hell’? I’m the opposite of a devil, thank you very much. And I’ve been fighting them my whole life. So I’m very much qualified to tell you that you’re being too reckless about this.”

She gazed at him as her mind processed his words. “Ah… Black, you said angels existed right…?”

“Uh yep… Sky’s one of the few that we know,” her friend mumbled awkwardly and she gawked at him then quickly looked over Sky seeing his smirk on full force now.

“Wait- He’s an angel?! You look like a human in every way!” she squealed, prompting him to chuckle .

“I guess you could say angels were the prototypes for humans? Although cherubim have four heads along with four wings, pretty inconvenient when each one has its own brain… Luckily I’m just a simple two-winged angel, hm?” And before she could ask, two golden beams of light shot out of his back before splitting and forming vague wing shapes.

“Huh,” she murmured and he raised an eyebrow.

“Something wrong?”

“No uh… I just thought angels had feathers,” she mumbled and he shrugged.

“We do, angel wings can swap between physical and spiritual forms. The feathered wings… Pretty much destroy our clothing. And I just got this jacket so I would rather not.” He crossed his arms as his wings disappeared. “Angels can make themselves invisible to humans, some demons can turn themselves to shadows but otherwise… Thankfully they can’t go killing humans like some kind of poltergeist. So you wouldn’t need to worry about getting killed out of nowhere but fighting demons untrained is still a horrible idea.”

Rosa sighed and looked down at her feet, bringing her knees to her chest. “But Lily was taken… I don’t know if I have time, I have to find her soon!”

Black looked helplessly at Phoenix who looked away, then he sighed and mumbled. “Hey Rosa… I have an idea. Your father works for the police right? Phoen’s boss seems well acquainted with Azura, we should get the police to investigate him.”

Rosa stared at him and her eyes lit up. “You mean we might be able to get a lead… But what if the police don’t find anything?”

Despite the warning look both the older boys gave him, Black made a proposal. “I’m still learning to fight but… Maybe I can introduce you to Phoen’s grandfather’s friend? He might be able to teach you too.”

“Blake, please don’t encourage this,” Sky grumbled. “There’s no guarantee she’ll be able to learn quick enough, just leave this to me and Star.”

“But if he can hide his aura, you might not be able to find him. Me and Rosa know what he looks like at least,” Black murmured.

Sky groaned as Phoenix sighed, responding. “Alright. If the police don’t find anything, go see our teacher I guess. I’ll keep an eye out for Azura at work, in the meantime.”

And so it was decided. If the police and angels couldn’t save Lily, Rosa would do whatever it took.

When Yuma decided to visit his friend at the farm he was looking after, he found him in the field fighting some demons. Or more specifically, smacking the living daylights out of them with his staff, whilst the sheep cowered behind him. Staring at the all too familiar sight, he just smiled and sat down on the grass waiting for the purging to end.

Once all the demons had been bludgeoned to death he snuck up on his friend as he turned to check the traumatised sheep, not noticing his presence.

“Stupid bloody devils,” he grumbled as he examined the blood staining the sheep's’ wool. The demons hadn’t even touched them, it had been the sheer force of his staff against the fiends’ bodies that splattered himself and the animals in dark fluid. “How will I explain this to Bill… Guess it’s bathing time.”

And as the staff-wielding brunet turned, Yuma pounced on him prompting a yelp as he rather roughly hit the ground. “Heya Mikey!”

“Y-Yuma, I told you not to sneak up on me!” his friend snapped as he stared over at the lamb curiously poking the crook. “Last time you did that, I nearly crushed one of the sheep!”

“Sorry El,” he chirped and Mike scowled, pushing him off him and brushing the mud off his trousers.”Wow someone’s catty!”

“Stop calling me that, please,” he grumbled and he glanced at his friend’s attire, unimpressed. “Didn’t you just buy that suit ? Not the kind of thing to wear to a farm, Yu.”

He chuckled and started petting the lamb, ignoring the dirt on his clothes. “Let me look fancy , eh? At the end of the day, I’m the one who’s going to suffer cleaning it.” The lamb licked his pale cheek and he laughed, Mike stared at him and sighed, covering his smile with his fist as though stifling a cough.

“Right… Come to try get me drunk on duty again?”

Yuma shook his head, his silky black ponytail swaying with the movement. When they were both young adults, he had initially mistook Yuma for a woman he was embarrassed to admit. Now they were best friends, Yuma had his life together, and they still looked the same. Surprisingly, neither of them had ended up brutally murdered yet. “Of course not, I promised I wouldn’t after what happened with the sheep last time.”

“I also made you promise never to bring that up again,” Mike grumbled, heat in his cheeks. It had involved two sheep, paint and a priest. Bill had almost banned him from ever looking after his sheep again.

Yuma just laughed and let the lamb return to grazing with its family, passing him the staff. “Alright, I’ll try not to. What I wanted to talk about…” His grin twitched. “It happened again, a few days ago. Blake’s pretending it didn’t but… There were claw marks on his side again.”

Mike went silent, watching the sheep. What he would give to have no worries like them. “We’ve searched for nearly 18 years, at this point I’m surprised you haven’t lost hope Yu,” he eventually whispered and his friend shook his head, that smile still on his face. With all he had to deal with, he was surprised Yuma could still do so.

“I mean… I can’t. I won’t give up like Kai did, not until the curse is broken.”

[nocturnalmemories]

Chapter 9: Torn Apart

Lily idly waited in the living room, where her mother was watching the same movie for the third time that week. Apparently it was ‘so beautiful’ it had to be appreciated multiple times. Staring at the same sappy scene she had seen when she and Rosa had returned from the café the other night, she rolled her eyes and held back a particularly tempting yawn.

She was waiting for Rosa to get back from the shop, due to a sudden shortage of cookies. The two of them were going to the park, however it was now postponed until her older sister returned, because their mother found an empty wrapper in the cupboard and Rosa would not own up to it. Partially because they both agreed it was most likely their father who had emptied the previously full packet.

Lily was snapped out of her thoughts by someone throwing a blanket over her, and she let out a squeal as she wrestled it off. When her vision was back she shot a glare at her laughing father. “Dadddd why?!”

“Sorry Lil, you looked a bit cold there,” he said with a laugh as he sat on the couch with her mother. He took one look at the tv and cringed. “Sara, this is the fifth time I’ve seen you watching this movie! You got the DVD last week!”

Her mother crossed her arms as she snapped, “Come on, this movie is a work of art! It’s better than cop shows constantly, don’t you want to get a break from work sometimes?”

“They are hundreds of different episodes, very different to watching the exact same thing over and over,” he mumbled and they glared at each other. Lily sighed, knowing what was coming. And she was glad she’d probably be out for the whole duration of it because she didn’t need any more scarring for life.

“Hey Mum, have you found my phone yet?” she shouted over her mother’s retort.

She paused to look at her then shook her head. “Not yet, I’ll have another look tonight. Rosa will have her phone when you go out together right?”

Lily mumbled curses under her breath and watched her parents leave the living room. She knew what was coming, Rosa better be back to save her soon.

As if on cue, she heard the traffic outside as the door opened before it was hushed by it slamming shut. Rosa dragged herself into the room grumbling under her breath about cats before giving her a tired smile. “Sorry I kept you waiting, ready to go?”

“Yep, come on let’s…” Lily trailed off as she heard a strange thump and her face grew warm as Rosa stared at the ceiling tilting her head.

“What was that?” she asked, Lily quickly shook her head and pushed her back out of the living room.

“You don’t want to know, let’s go.”

When Rosa returned, the door was locked. As she opened it, she noted the house was eerily quiet. Shaking the thought off she stepped through to the living room and her eyes set on the tv, where the movie had been paused. The same movie she was getting sick of seeing on the screen.

“Lily?” she called as she opened the door to the kitchen noticing the lights were on, although it was not only unoccupied but also bright outside. Everything in the kitchen was tidy as usual, unlike most of the rooms in the rest of the house.

The next place she checked was upstairs, and she realised she could hear some strange banging noises now. At first she wondered if there was a burglar but then she listened closer. And let out a loud squeal of disgust.

Almost immediately footsteps sounded and a door cracked openly slightly before her father poked his head round looking panicked. “What’s wrong, did something happen?”

“Oh nothing, you just scarred me for life again!” Rosa barked as her eyes darted around. Lily should have started teasing her for shrieking like a little girl by now.

Her father rolled his eyes, snorting somewhat. “We were just making out, stop overreacting.”

“I’ll stop overreacting when you stop being disgusting!” She quickly composed herself. “Ugh whatever, have you seen Lily?”

He frowned and mumbled something before walking out. Thankfully he was wearing pants under the bathrobe, so maybe what her ears detected wasn’t quite as bad as it sounded. “She was waiting for you in the living room, maybe she’s in the…” He trailed off as they stared at the open bathroom door. “Was the door locked? Maybe she nipped to the shop.”

Rosa nodded, however her stomach felt sick. Lily wouldn’t go out by herself, not after what happened to her. No, maybe she was overthinking things. The corner shop wasn’t far at all, she could go there alone at least. “Yeah it was so… Alright… I’ll… Wait for her.”

When she went back downstairs, she called Lily’s phone. Faint ringing reached her ears and she followed the sound to the living room, finding it hiding far back under the couch. And a feeling of horrifying dread hit her.

The front door slammed behind her.

Her shoes bashed against the pavement as her eyes desperately scanned the streets. It was broad daylight, and passers-by were watching her with confusion plain on their faces. Surely someone wouldn’t dare hurt Lily? She hadn’t been around the corner shop like their father had suggested. Where could she be?

The wind whipped harsh against her, and she quickly brushed her hair out of her vision. She had soon ended up in the plaza, and she’d need eagle eyes to be able to find Lily in the crowd. Her heart pounded in her chest, and her gaze ended up on the café. The last time she looked for Lily, she hadn’t been alone. Glancing through the window her eyes searched for only a few seconds before they set on a familiar tall boy. She hoped he wouldn’t mind being distracted from work.

As the ring rang, his silver eyes turned to her and he grinned reflexively. “Rosie what’s up…” He trailed off as he heard her sharp breaths and saw her trembling body, the smile fell off his face. “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

“I-I think Lily’s in danger again,” she gasped out, trying to stay composed as customers stared at her. “She wouldn’t go out without me after…” She did not need to finish her sentence, Phoenix just nodded and flashed a weak smile.

“That sister of yours… You really should put her on a leash. I’ll tell the boss there’s an emergency.” He lowered his voice. “Then how about you call Black? It might be best to split up, we’ll find her sooner. But if there’s a demon, call me.”

Rosa nodded and as he went to speak to his boss, she took out her phone and dialled. After a short moment, Black picked up. “Hi Rosa, what did you want?”

She kept her voice level. She couldn’t afford time repeating herself. “Lily’s gone missing again. Do you mind helping me out again?”

It felt colder than it was yesterday. Lily hugged herself as they walked, her coat oversized but it just allowed more space for the wind to sneak up, it appeared. She stared at the back of her sister’s head as they walked in silence. Something felt a little off.

She was used to Rosa getting lost in her thoughts, but not to this extent. She seemed almost completely unresponsive, eyes set not straight ahead but on the ground. Even when she had ‘accidentally’ stepped on the back of her shoes, she had made a rushed apology instead of snapping at her.

“Are you okay sis?” she asked and the older girl turned around gazing at her before nodding.

“Yeah… Sorry, I just have a bit on my mind,” she mumbled.

“What are you thinking about?” Lily asked. The way she was acting, she seemed almost depressed. And from all the years they lived together, she knew her sister only got like this when she was thinking about her lost past.

She did not answer her, instead she looked back at the path and continued walking. She could hear a faint whisper though, and she wasn’t sure whether it was intended for her to hear it or not.

‘I wonder what happened to my family’. Perhaps if her sister had been blood related to her, this would have raised suspicion. But she could remember what happened when Rosa joined their family, even if she had only been 7 herself. By the time their parents took her in, the police had given up all hope of finding her parents. Perhaps because of that letter she found stashed in her father’s room a few years later.

“How far is the park now?” she asked, in an attempt to start a conversation. When Rosa got deep into thought, it was best not to linger on negativity.

“I think… A few minutes away now?” she responded, but she sounded uncertain. They hadn’t planned to go to a specific park, they had only decided to stay the hell away from the one the wolf attacked them at. Thankfully she had remembered that at least, but it seemed they were on the other side of the city by now. She hadn’t explored this part yet. And judging by the puzzled look on her face as her eyes searched, she hadn’t either.

“Did you get us lost, Rosie?” she murmured and her older sister froze before quickly looking around. They had passed the last shops a while ago, and this general area didn’t look very populated at all.

“N-No ah… I’m pretty sure the park was around here?”

Lily gave her a blank look. “Yes, I think you got us lost.”

Instead of stubbornly denying it like she expected, she continued to look bewildered then forced a smile. “Yeah ah… I guess I did.”

Yep, things were feeling off to Lily now. Rosa wasn’t really acting like herself. What had she been thinking about so deeply before? It seemed like she had been so lost in thought she didn’t really pay any mind to direction at all. Lily sighed. “I know you daydream a lot but… Try to look where you’re going? Or you might end up in gang territory or something.”

She stared at her. It wasn’t one of the usual annoyed looks she got, it was completely vacant. “Well, it’d be my own fault for being careless, hm?”

Lily gave her a strange look. “Being so careless you’d get yourself killed? I know you’re reckless but… I thought after what happened with that demon you’d be more careful…”

And before she could reply, Lily heard a familiar voice call her name.

“L-Lily, there you are, why did you…” Rosa trailed off and her jaw dropped as she saw the girl with her younger sister. “I-Is that me?!”

Lily quickly looked between the two as the doppelganger stared at her, echoing her expression. “What the hell is that?!”

The newly arrived redhead ran over to them, and Lily stood in shock as the girl she had been walking with pulled her back behind her. “R-Rosa, what- T-There’s two of you?!”

“Way to state the obvious Lil,” Rosa droned with a flat expression on her face before it changed to anger as she looked at the girl posing as her. “What are you doing with my sister and why the hell do you have my face?”

She frowned, tightening her grip on Lily’s sleeve. “You mean ‘my sister’, you freak? What are you doing with my face?”

They glared at each other then Rosa sighed, resting her hand on her hip. “You know, if you’re going to look like me, you should at least try to act like me.”

Her apparent clone tilted her head. “What do you mean?”

“You’re a terrible actor,” she grumbled and the other shrugged.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

And as she turned away, Rosa felt a sharp pain across her stomach and her vision flashed red. Staring down, she saw blood soaking through her now ripped shirt. She had never seen her pull out a weapon. “W-What…” She looked at Lily’s face, seeing it twisted in fear. “How…”

The fake Rosa shook her head and looked at Lily. “She’s a demon, don’t worry she won’t be able to hurt you.”

She realised. “Hey. Asshat.” And as the girl looked at her, she summoned her quickly fading strength to fling something sharp at her.

The wooden cross struck her face and her eyes flashed blue before she covered her bleeding cheek. “Did you… Just throw wood at me?”

“It’s a cross,” she murmured weakly, just thankful her attack had been a slash rather than a stab. Did the demon intend to immobilise her or kill her? It hurt to move but… At least she could still breathe… “You’re a demon yourself, aren’t you? We saw you yesterday, didn’t we?”

Her doppelganger stared at her, eyes continuing to flicker between red and blue. “You… What are you talking about?”

Rosa looked at her sister, frozen still in her grip. She could no doubt see through the illusion now, but she was too scared to act. “Lily knew she saw you before, Miss Magician Lady? That was an illusion too wasn’t it…?”

She was quiet for a moment, then she closed her eyes and exhaled. When they opened again they were a shining azure colour and she spoke quietly. “I guess I might as well be a devil, hmm? Sorry Lily… I wish I could mean that.” As Lily stared at the doppelganger stunned, the disguise distorted as their appearance changed. Gawking at their true self, Rosa tried to find words. They seemed vaguely familiar, and Rosa knew if she hadn’t been told otherwise, she’d be unable to identify their gender. Like that time, his porcelain doll-like body was bruised up but his expression seemed devoid of any true emotion. And as she tried to remember his name, she saw the look of betrayal on Lily’s face.

“A-Azura, why?” And from her sister’s voice, Rosa realised Lily was more than vaguely familiar with him.

He never answered her question. And before Rosa could make another sound, pain shot through her abdomen. The last thing she heard was Lily screaming her name before the world went silent. And alone with her mind as darkness consumed her, she had a single thought.

‘I failed her’.

[nocturnalmemories]

Chapter 8: Illusions

They were running.

She could hear her heart in her ears as they ran through the field. Her hand clutched Lily’s tightly as her eyes searched. For somewhere to escape to, somewhere to hide, anywhere. The field seemed never-ending however as their shoes tore up the grass underneath them.

If they weren’t busy running for their lives, Rosa would have made some stupid witty comment about the state of the field, namely that it was all grass no flowers. In other words, it was extremely boring to run through. She would not dare make the joke to Lily though, not until they were safe.

Her sister’s breathing was frantic and her hand burning with sweat as she kept a death grip on Rosa. She could see the tears in her eyes threatening to fall.

Growling echoed as the beast loomed closer. Neither of them dared to look behind them because they knew. If they stopped for even a second it would get them.

"R-Rosie I'm scared," Lily whimpered. Rosa wanted to tell her it would be alright. She wanted to get them away safely. But any attempts would be futile. Because if she told her it would be alright, it would be lying.

Her heart stopped as Lily's hand slipped out of hers.

Rosa woke with a start, keeling over and crying out as she held herself. Her body convulsed violently, and she repeated the words as she clenched her eyes shut.

"Just a dream… Just a dream… Lily's safe…"

She took a deep breath to calm herself, hearing Rio's voice a whisper. 'Are you okay Rosa?'

'Yeah I'm fine.' She knew it was a lie.

'Fine? That's the third night this week!'

Rosa appreciated Rio's concern. But did she really have any right to feel so scared when it was Lily who nearly died? She should be able to stay strong for her. Her sister seemed to be recovering but still wouldn't go anywhere without her. Even if she accidentally overslept Lily would rather be late than wait at the bus stop by herself.

Her mind flickered to Black. How he had needed to wake her up during registration yesterday. His sad warm eyes as he asked her softly 'what's wrong'. She felt almost as bad for worrying him as she did with Lily.

Maybe she shouldn't keep these fears internalised. How would she keep Lily happy if she couldn't even smile in the morning?

Rio's voice chimed again. She had heard the same words in a teasing tone before the nightmares started. 'Why don't you ask Black for his number?' She paused and further clarified. 'You'll have someone to talk to about demons.'

She thought. Black had gone through similar to Lily and was still… Mostly functioning? Maybe him just talking to Lily would reassure her. That stubborn teenage girl part of her brain briefly thought about the implications of asking for his number though. Kyoko would definitely tease her.

‘That might be a good idea, Rio…’

When Rosa sat down next to Black in Registration, she raised an eyebrow as she noticed his sketchbook was absent. Instead he seemed to be writing something. She looked at Kyoko and she shrugged.

“Hey don’t ask me, I don’t know what he’s doing.”

Rosa lightly poked Black’s shoulder and he jumped before staring at her. He subsequently sighed in relief. “P-Please don’t do that.”

“What’s this?” she asked, gesturing to the notebook, and he frowned.

“Homework. Only got it yesterday and I couldn’t concentrate at home.” His voice became a whisper. “Phoenix had his girlfriend over… It’s impossible to work with lovey-dovey stuff happening around you.”

Rosa shuddered. “Oh. Perfectly understandable.”

Kyoko gave a weak laugh. “Yeah I’ve basically trained myself to ignore it at this point.”

Rosa briefly glanced at the work and pulled a face. “Maths? Eww numbers.”

“Least it’s not Chemistry,” Black said with a shrug. “I usually ask Phoen’s grandfather for help with that, it makes… No sense.” He paused and took his bag out from beneath the table before handing her a black feather. She stared blankly at it.

“Uh… What’s this?”

“I told him I had a friend who was having trouble sleeping, he said to tell you to use this. Phoen puts one under his pillow if he’s too stressed to sleep.”

At Rosa’s unbelieving expression, Kyoko laughed. “Yeah I met him… He’s a bit strange. He recommended one for my little brother, it does seem to work though.”

“What’s his name again, Corey?” Black asked.

“Torey,” Kyoko replied.

Rosa tilted her head. “Have you not met her brothers yet Black?”

Black shook his head and Kyoko gave an awkward grin. “Big brother doesn’t want me inviting boys over, especially if he’s there.” She grumbled, “Because he ‘knows what guys are like’. Most teenage boys haven’t kissed more women than there are days in the year.”

Rosa smiled weakly. “I… Guess I should be glad I don’t have an older brother.” She absentmindedly thought about Rio’s advice. “Ah… By the way… I haven’t asked either of you for your phone numbers yet have I?”

“Nope, though you have been kind of out of it this week,” Kyoko said as she pulled her phone out.

Black scribbled two lines of digits on the corner of the page and ripped it. “Phoen has been kind of worried about you and Lily since the ‘incident’, he can help you if you need anything,” he mumbled and Rosa nodded, staring at the numbers. She hadn’t seen Phoenix since that day, but he crossed her mind occasionally. Mostly because Rio was trying to work out how the two of them knew him. It was odd to her that the voice seemed to remember the same two boys to different degrees, when they perhaps inhabited the same body for just as long.

“Right… Just wondering, is he working today?” Rosa asked.

Black nodded, glancing back at his homework before his gaze returned to her and he timidly smiled. “How about you and Lily come to the café with me after school?”

Kyoko pouted. “Hey no fair Blacky, what about me?”

He sighed. “Didn’t you get grounded for breaking someone’s sunglasses?” he murmured and she cringed.

“Right… He shouldn’t have left them on the kitchen counter though!”

Rosa laughed and got her phone, quickly adding the phone numbers before messaging Lily. “I’ll see if Lil’s up to going.” She gave a weak smile. “But if she isn’t up to it… I can’t leave her on her own.”

Black nodded in understanding. “Hey if you can’t… Maybe we can catch up some other time.”

At the end of registration, Rosa got her answer. “Lily said she’ll think about it.”

After the last lesson of the day, Rosa met Lily outside her classroom.

“I hate my History teacher,” Lily mumbled as they walked down the corridor, glancing behind them as if to check that the teacher wasn’t hanging around. “She suckssss!”

Rosa nodded in understanding, fiddling with her phone. “Miss Hardy right? I think Hell would freeze over if she smiled.” She remembered how in the last History lesson, she had subsequently ruined any joy History had once brought her. She was in her early twenties but acted like a middle aged woman, with an expression that said ‘I hate my job’. Her phone buzzed and she read the message. “Black says he’s waiting outside the main entrance… Are you sure you’re okay with this Lil?”

Lily nodded, however her eyes were trained on the floor. “Phoenix is that guy who wrestled the wolf right…? Pretty stupid even by my standards but… I need to thank him for helping to save me.” She managed a cheeky smile. “And I can embarrass you in front of them!”

“Don’t you dare!” Rosa snapped but she couldn’t help but laugh. Seeing her sister down had been painful. “Behave yourself and I’ll pay for both of us okay?”

Lily nodded and flashed a grin. “Whoever is last to the exit is a loser!”

And before Rosa could say anything, she took off. She stared blankly after her before sighing and smiling tiredly. “Little brat…”

When she left the school building, she was greeted by the sight of Lily bouncing on her heels next to Black. The boy looked a little intimidated by her apparent cheerfulness, but at the same time relieved. “Hey Rosa, are you ready to go?”

“Of course,” she said and they started the short journey to the plaza.

As they walked along the street, Black glanced at Lily a few times before mumbling to Rosa. “Your sister seems happier than the last time I saw her.”

“I told her there’ll be cake, and I’m going to be the one paying if she doesn’t annoy me,” she mumbled with a slight giggle. “I’m just… Glad she’s smiling again.”

Black was quiet as he looked at Lily again. She was humming, eyes focused on the path ahead of them. Then his gaze turned to Rosa, watching her watch her sister with a slightly lopsided smile. “You know… It’s okay to need help too, Rosa,” he whispered and she froze up for a brief moment staring at him.

It went quiet, the only sound being the occasional passing car and the soft humming. Her smile brightened faintly. “Thanks.”

The plaza was loud with cheering when they arrived, Black covered his ears as Rosa looked around furrowing her eyebrows. “What’s… Going on here?”

The plaza itself was home to many stores so it was expected to be a little crowded sometimes in places. It stretched out far and wide, so the chance of being smothered in an unholy amount of people was drastically lowered compared to smaller spaces. However Rosa had never seen so many people crowded into one small part of the massive area.

The trio drew closer, Lily slipping in between the tiny gaps like only a child would. She ignored an adult barking about ‘cutting ahead’ as she stared at the sight. Rosa and Black awkwardly tried to peer over some people’s shoulders, fairly difficult considering most adults were taller than them.

In the heart of the centre there stood a young woman with short dark brown hair and porcelain skin. Her bright blue eyes were focused on what appeared to be a strangely coloured dove perched on her dainty hand, its feathers streaked cyan on one wing and pink on another.

With a swift wave of her hand, the dove shifted form. Rosa stared open mouthed as the tiny bird grew into a massive avian creature, feathers changed into roaring flames. The colour scheme briefly made her crave cotton candy before awe turned to panic as it dove at them.

Her vision was obscured with colourful smoke as she turned to see the bird break through the other side of the crowd before taking to the sky, exploding into a shower of harmless flames. “What was that?” she breathed watching the disintegrating flames pass through her arms.

Black stared silently as they dissipated without reaching the ground before looking at the woman. “I-I… Was that magic? I’ve never seen anything like that before…”

Lily gazed at the woman as the stunned crowd started cheering. The magician locked eyes with her before turning away, violet smoke forming in her gloved palm. When she faced the crowd again she released a jet black wolf cub and Lily had to hold back a squeal. The joy was immediately disrupted however upon someone shoving through the crowd and pushing her to the ground in the process. “W-What the?”

Rosa quickly slipped through the people in front of her to help her sister, cautiously watching the perpetrator. The woman stepped back against the wall between the café and pet store, eyes staring intensely as the man staggered closer. He was clearly drunk despite the fact that the sun was still out, movements slow and unbalanced as he approached. “Um hello sir, what can I do for you?” she asked.

“Don’t give me that,” he started as he pulled out a knife. Lily clung to Rosa as she backed away. “You’re a witch, aren’t you?”

The magician stared blankly at the knife then back at the man’s face, his features twisted into a scowl. “You… Would kill me in front of all these people? That’s pretty stupid.”

“Answer me you bitch!” he shouted and the sisters both flinched.

The woman just gazed back, doll-like face expressionless as she tilted her head. “There’s children around, please dial back the language and violence.”

As he clutched the handle of the blade, it became painfully apparent his surroundings meant nothing to him. And before anyone in the crowd could act, he clumsily swung at her.

A bloodcurdling howl rippled through the air and Lily hid her face in Rosa’s side as the knife redirected into the drunk’s thigh. Rosa and Black just stared in shock as they watched the man crumple to the ground. Another male was stood in a protective stance in front of the woman, who stared at the writhing man. No one had seen the ‘rescuer’ arrive, but all it took was the nudge of his arm for the drunkard to impale himself.

Rosa could vaguely hear some children being shielded by the sight asking curiously about the sudden event. All she could think was thank God they couldn’t see this. The blood was creating its own swimming pool.

“Nothing to see here, clear off all of you,” the newcomer stated, and by the tone she knew it wasn’t a request. As parents quickly hurried off with their children before they could see, he turned to the remaining stragglers. “If you’re going to stand there gawking, you could call an ambulance.” Leaving them stumbling over themselves, he locked eyes with the magician. Rosa wondered as she glanced over him if he was a cosplayer. Under the mess of dark hair she could make out an eyepatch, and that coat was ridiculously long. But that was overshadowed by his build. He was crazy tall and visibly ripped. “Are you alright?”

The woman slowly nodded, however the emotionless mask had broken upon seeing him. For the first time since even before the attacker arrived, she looked surprised. “Y-Yeah uh… Thank you.”

As she quickly closed her jaw and composed herself, he looked her over and his visible right eye narrowed. “You… Look familiar.”

She shook her head, however her words left a little too fast. “I hear that a lot, I look like a lot of people. T-Thank you again.”

And before he could say anymore, she seemed to disappear through the wall. Rosa and Black looked quickly between the space she had been and the man. He gazed at the wall before turning away, shaking his head. Rosa caught a glimpse of his face however as he left. There were many ways she could describe that expression, thin lips in a frown and his visible eyebrow furrowed. The first thing that came to her mind though was ‘sad’.

“Well… That was unpleasant,” Rosa mumbled to Black once the crowd had fully dispersed, some kind citizens having moved the unconscious drunk to a safer place to watch over him. No one had made a move to stop the strange man, who looked young enough to still be called a boy by most of them.

“That was… Strange…” he murmured, and his eyes drifted to the café. There had been people sitting out at the front but the ‘attack’ had scared them off. “Think we could definitely use some cake after that.”

Rosa nodded in agreement, turning to Lily. Her younger sister’s crystal blue eyes were concentrated on the wall where the woman had disappeared. Her mouth opened as if about to ask a question, however quickly closed . Of all the strange things they had seen that month, a magician phasing through a wall was a little less so but still peculiar. “Are you alright Lil?”

Lily shook her head and gave her a smile, it did not seem to reach her eyes though. “She… I just felt like I’ve seen her before.”

The café seemed more peaceful than it was the other week, and it was probably because the boss wasn’t, well, bossing the employees around it seemed. Rosa couldn’t see him anywhere, but she did see that the waiters seemed a little more relaxed now. Lily was staring around with her mouth open, and her older sister swore she was drooling a little at all the cake in their sight.

“Rosie, how come we’ve never been here together before? Everything looks so tasty!” she gasped and Black chuckled as he looked around. He frowned somewhat and scurried over to one of the workers. Rosa scanned the room as she realised the issue, Phoenix was nowhere to be seen either.

“Weird… I hope he isn’t getting lectured by that man again,” she mumbled to herself before hearing Rio chime in, words dragging.

‘Hope he didn’t leave early without telling us, that would suck~’

Black soon returned, pointing to a table. “Phoen’s in the back right now, let’s sit down and order for now?” He laughed quietly. “All the workers seem much happier, the ‘tyrant’ went out for an errand he said.”

Lily tilted her head as she sat down and took a menu. “The boss of such a cute place is a meanie? Figures, huh?” As Rosa sat next to her, she looked at her with a snide smirk. “Hey you said you’d treat me because I behaved myself right?”

“Oh right.... Crap,” Rosa mumbled as Lily started laughing. Despite the growing hole in her wallet though, she couldn’t help but smile. “Alright, Mum will be pissed if we don’t eat dinner later though.”

Lily started cheering and immediately scanned the cake section. Black covered his smile with his own menu as he kept his eyes trained on the door to the staff room. “Having a little sister sounds fun… But also a bit of a pain.”

“That’s an understatement,” Rosa said as she rolled her eyes. “She’s sweet sometimes but… Only the other day she hid my phone behind the toilet. I only don’t get revenge because she’s Mum’s favourite, I swear.” She leaned over the table and whispered to him. “I always get the blame when the cookies go missing, Dad knows better though.”

Black laughed, murmuring back. “Living with Phoenix wasn’t any easier. He and Fira love putting my strawberries on top of the fridge because they know I can’t reach.” His smile turned lopsided. “And the ceiling’s low enough that if I jump for them I end up banging my head.”

“He seems cool and all but he sounds like a bully,” she giggled. She raised an eyebrow. “Why do you like strawberries so much anyway?”

“I don’t know, I mean if I need to eat to survive, it might as well be something tasty,” he said with a shrug. Rosa nodded in understanding before seeing Phoenix leave the staff room. Upon seeing her he waved at her, however when she made to greet him he held his finger to his lips.

“Fair point, what’s your other favourite food then?” she asked as the older teenager quietly approached them. For someone so tall he was surprisingly stealthy.

Black glanced up in thought, blissfully unaware. “Maybe chicken? Chicken curry is amazing too, especially with strawberries mixed in.” Rosa stared at him as Lily pretended to retch and he huffed. “Hey don’t judge me.”

“There’s some things you just shouldn’t do, Black,” Rosa mumbled and he crossed his arms.

“Oh don’t tell me you haven’t mixed things together befor-” He squealed as Phoenix pulled his hood down over his eyes and the sisters started laughing. “P-Phoen I told you to stop doing that!”

“Sorry, couldn’t help it,” he barked through laughter as he slid into the chair next to him. “Hey Rosie, and Lily right? How are you two?”

“We’re okay,” Lily said, giving him a shy smile. “Thanks for saving me the other day.”

“I mean that woman stole my spotlight but you’re welcome,” he said with a chuckle.

Rosa slouched in her chair, putting the menu down. “Do you wrestle a lot of demons, Phoenix? You… Seemed pretty confident,” she mumbled as she remembered what Black had told her. He had witnessed many demon attacks but his friend always saved him.

He shrugged, glancing at his busy co-workers and keeping his voice hushed. “I’m… Just used to it I guess. Even before we moved to this city I’ve been fighting them, I just never saw the sky go like that before. Grandpa honestly knows more about this kind of thing than me, he’s studied the occult since he was my age.”

Lily tilted her head, however Rosa could tell she was relieved. “So he’s known demons all his life but is still alive… How old is your grandfather?”

Phoenix frowned and stared into space for a moment. “I don’t know, old? If you ask him though, he always says 20,” he snorted.

“He does look a little young but not that young,” Black said with a laugh. With a fluid movement he bopped Phoenix on the nose with his menu and the older teenager let out an oddly high yelp. “I’m going to order, have you and Lily decided yet Rosa?”

She looked at Lily who grinned and showed her a cake on the menu, she nodded. “Yep, I’ll go order with you.”

Lily watched after them as they got up before turning her gaze to Phoenix. “Hey ah… So you’ve seen a lot of demons right? Is there… Such a thing as a demon that can pretend to be someone else?”

He tilted his head, still rubbing his nose. “Not that I know of, why?”

“Well you see, there was this magician girl…”

[nocturnalmemories]

Chapter 7: Mysteries and Sunflowers

The couple were idly waiting in the café when their friends joined them.

“Oh there you are!” the pink haired girl chirped as the two young men sat across from them, the dark haired boy grumbling curses under his breath whilst the white haired one smiled wryly.

“Sorry, traffic happened,” he said as the other glared at the table.

“Stupid lights, took the green man forever to pop up,” he grumbled and the blond man next to the girl snorted, crossing his arms.

“You are so impatient, Chloro.”

“Shut your damn mouth Storm, you could sing ‘Happy Birthday’ twenty times with how long it took.”

The girl laughed awkwardly as her boyfriend and Chloro glared at each other, looking at their other friend. “Shame neither of you drive, hm?”

“I mean, I know how to drive,” he mumbled, “I just wouldn’t trust me to.” As she gestured to his eyes, he quickly removed his sunglasses. She passed him the menu as he swapped to regular glasses and smirked as he instantly went to the dessert section.

“Hey, isn’t it a bit early for cake Snow?”

“There’s such a thing as too early?” he replied with the tilt of his head and she giggled.

“Touché.” She immediately took another menu turning to the sweets and Storm snapped out of the glaring contest.

“Wait what are we doing?” he asked and she flashed him the menu. “Cake this early?”

“It’s never too early for cake,” the two stated and Chloro laughed.

“That’s true.” He looked at Storm with a smirk. “Oi Thor, how about whoever finishes last has to pay the bill?”

“Fuck right off with that,” he grumbled. “Last time we did that, we both almost choked to death. Thankfully Snowball knows first aid.”

“Arial, please tell your boyfriend to stop calling me that,” the pale boy said with a sigh and she gave a tired smile.

“Stormee, you know better than to joke about Hiro’s…” Arial looked for the right word. “Disorder? Or is that too rude?”

“I mean that’s literally what it is,” he mumbled and Storm raised an eyebrow.

“Yet Plant Boy can call you Snowy and Bunny?”

“They sound a hell of a lot cuter than Snowball, enough said,” Chloro said with a yawn.

Storm rolled his eyes. “Alright, how about this? We have an arm wrestle and the loser pays.”

“Are you mad? You’d break my arm again!” he squeaked and Arial shook her head.

“Let’s… Just split the bill? No bets.” She grinned. “Then when we’re done we go back to your place and play video games?”

They all agreed to this and ordered. The peace thankfully remained as they waited for their food.

As the other three invested themselves in their cake, Storm’s blue eyes idly scanned the café. Being a Saturday, there were quite a few teenagers and possible college students such as themselves around. He wasn’t particularly fond of cafes, but Arial looked happy enough that he wasn’t going to complain. His sensitive ears hated public places, however. Everyone’s conversations were open for him to accidentally eavesdrop on.

He caught the words ‘animal’ and ‘park’ from some gossiping high school girls. “Hey you two… Did you hear about that animal attack on Monday?”

Hiro paused mid bite, pink eyes staring curiously. “You mean the one in the local park?”

“I checked it out, after charming the officers of course,” Chloro said with a shrug. “Some stupid kid drew a summoning circle out of blood. You can do it with paint, it just has to be red or black.”

Arial frowned. “Stupid kid? The poor girl was murdered.”

“And I feel bad for her, but doesn’t change the fact she was stupid enough to use blo-” He cut himself off as Hiro lightly elbowed him in the ribs and grinned sheepishly. “Sorry.”

Storm sighed. “Your empathy could really use some work. Sure paint is safer but… Every book a curious teenager would use mentions blood. It’s a rookie mistake. Sadly, it was one that killed her…”

Arial was about to speak when she heard whispering, she looked to see some younger teenage girls talking and occasionally staring at them. Specifically at Hiro. Raising an eyebrow she tapped his arm and pointed at them. As soon as he caught them staring they squeaked and instantly looked away. “They keep staring at you.”

“They think I look weird don’t they?” he mumbled and Chloro poked his long pointed ears watching them twitch.

“Nope, they probably think you’re cute. Teenage girls are into elves and all that.” He sighed. “Thankfully my ears are normal, or I’d have even more stalkers.”

Storm snorted. “And this would bother you why? Though it’s funny when he’s not even an elf.” He rested his chin on his hand and glanced out of the window. The sun was harsh enough that he could feel the heat through it. “Humans are weird, teenage girls go gaga over creatures that could easily kill them.”

“Maybe that girl got killed trying to summon a hot demon boyfriend,” Chloro said bluntly as he sipped coffee and Arial glared at him, puffing her cheeks out.

“Chlo! Too far! Do you even know how to spell empathy?”

The green eyed boy stared up at the ceiling. “Em-path-ee?”

Storm brought his hand to his face and looked at Hiro. “What do you see in him again?”

“Don’t mind him, he had a bad time at work last night,” he mumbled. He glanced at the window before immediately looking away and rubbing his eyes. “Stupid fucking sun, it can fuck off and die.”

Storm stared blankly at him before deciding to change the subject. “How is the mission coming along by the way?”

“Absolutely trash, how about yours?” Chloro said and Arial laughed weakly.

“Same. The museum guard kicked our ass. . Have you not found him yet?”

“Nope, it’s kind of more difficult to find someone you can’t see,” Hiro murmured before shuddering. “Also, neither of us want to run into that freak again.”

“Understandable, I wouldn’t want to deal with that creep either.” Storm grumbled and he noticed Arial was pouting with her spoon to her mouth. “What’s wrong Airi?”

“So conflicted,” she whined. “I want to eat but I want to hold your hand at the same time… Damn being right handed!”

Chloro laughed and leaned back in his chair. “And that’s why you get a left handed boyfriend, then you can both eat whilst holding hands.”

Storm curiously peeked underneath the table. He looked back up at Hiro, tilting his head. “Hiro, why are you flipping me off under the table?”

“Because I knew you’d check,” he said with a shrug.

Arial giggled to herself, staring at her reflection in the shiny silver spoon. Her chocolate brown eyes stared back at her as she whispered. “How about before we go round to your place Chlo we check out that crime scene? They might have destroyed the circle by now but… I want to know what kind of demon was summoned.”

“Sounds good to me, and if the police are still hanging around, leave it to me,” Chloro said with a wink.

Storm sighed. “If you get tasered again, it’s your own damn fault.”

The world became uncomfortably bright as the young man stepped out of the forest’s shade. Shielding his eye from the intense sun rays, he peered down at the vibrant grass sneaking up his boots. It had been a long while since he set foot in New Leaf’s neighbouring meadow.

As a quiet beep came from his coat pocket, he blocked the sun out with his gloved hand and switched his phone on. A message from one of his friends, who he was planning to visit. His eyebrows furrowed as he read the words. ‘Want to meet at Snowball and Plant Boy’s house at 2? We’re going to snoop on a crime scene first, unless you want to tag along Rai?’

His friends were still struggling with the concept of abiding by the law, the man mused as he contemplated. He could not really judge them however without being what they would call a ‘huge fucking hypocrite’.

Glancing up as the birds flew over his head, singing a beautiful melody, he made his decision. ‘I’ll see you guys later, try not to get in too much trouble this time.’

Looking back at the forest, he knew he was in more danger here than anywhere else in the country. However, something always called him back here, and he was always uneasy upon his return.

What a beautiful aroma the flowers surrounding him gave off, a sweet scent that fought with his tension and tickled his nose. As girly as they were, as much his late father would tease him for it, flowers seemed to be one of the few things that truly relaxed him. Sadly peace and stress-relief was never guaranteed with his friends, when two of them had short fuses and one was a better doctor than mediator. The headaches that ensued.

He checked the time on his phone as it pinged again. Just past noon. He had time to mentally prepare. He squinted at the letters on the screen, protecting it from the light. ‘Alright, see you later Kurai’

With a quiet exhale, he removed his coat and sprawled out on the grass, feeling the rays on his pale skin. They were pleasant, however the burns from carelessness would prove painful. Stay awake, he reminded himself. As much as he wished to get the sleep he failed to receive last night, his body would hate him for it.

Closing his eye, Kurai listened to the singing of the birds. And as he inhaled the scent of the flowers, he heard humming join them. Cracking his eye open, he rolled on his side to be greeted by a strange woman.

He was unsure whether ‘woman’ was the word for her, when he could not tell if she was the same age as him or younger. She seemed to be unaware he was laying there as she skirted around the trees framing the meadow, an endearing tune drifting from her lips. He barely registered it as a nursery rhyme he had heard as a young boy, taught to him by the first person who called him family.

Clearing his throat, he spoke up. “I don’t think there are any sheep around here.”

She turned to see him, and although he was sure she was smiling, he caught her mouth falling open for what appeared to be only a split second. “Of course there aren’t sir, this isn’t a farm,” she responded, prompting him to raise an eyebrow. What a strange feeling he got from this girl, the hair on the back of his neck prickling. However she did not seem dangerous, he noted to himself. Those blue eyes of hers were blinking slowly, a colour that produced an unpleasant pang in his chest.

“How old are you?” He swiftly added, “I’m not a ‘sir’.”

She cocked her head to the side, taking a step towards him. Her movements seemed skittish, leg shaking as she approached him. “I’m 21, sir, why?”

“A year older than me… Don’t call me that.” He found however that he could not lock their gazes, a strange heat in his stomach as he tried. She looked innocent, non-threatening even with her tiny figure and sandy blonde hair, but those eyes made his legs itch. “‘Sir’ is for people older than you.”

She stared at him then nodded, flashing a smile. However it looked crooked on her pretty face, as if she was unsure how to do so. “If you don’t like it then, I won’t call you that.” Her eyes took in the flowers, as she inhaled the aroma. “Pretty… Do you like flowers too, mister?”

His eyebrows furrowed at the word, however he let it go. Strangers did not have a particular need to know his name. “I guess I do…”

A brief memory came to him. The first time he had been to this meadow, with him. Kurai had never seen his eyes shine so bright, as he clutched an armful of flowers to his chest. He had hated how he could not stop that dumb smile coming to his face as that boy held out a sunflower to him, and Arial would never let him forget after she snapped the photo.

He swallowed hard. “What’s your favourite?”

“I don’t know,” she responded as she knelt down, fingers touching the soft petals of a rose. “They’re all really pretty… They smell and feel really good, you know?” He followed her eyes as she looked at a distant flower, it appeared to be spherical in shape with its many pink petals. “What’s this one?”

Taking a closer look, he carefully felt it. Having a friend raised by an elf, he was bound to know a few flowers. “I believe this one’s a dahlia flower.” Watching her curiously scan the various flowers, he surprised himself with an offer. “Are you going to be sticking around? I have an hour, if you want me to teach you.”

Although she looked just as surprised, a smile quickly came to her face. It felt much more genuine than the previous one. “Please!”

He observed as she explored the meadow, feeling an aura of joy radiating from her that he could not quite ignore. However he also felt heat in his stomach as that sad reminder struck him. She reminded him of someone he had once loved and lost.

[nocturnalmemories]

Chapter 6: Light and Dark

They were standing at the bus stop waiting for the bus to arrive.

Rosa glanced between the road and Lily, seeing her eyes focused only on the ground beneath her feet. After the incident yesterday they had been taken back home by their father, who it turned out was investigating the ‘wild animal attack’ anyhow. The both of them had been chewed out for being out in the dark but not even their father could rationalise how the sky went dark for less than an hour.

Lily was still shaken up, but thankfully completely uninjured. She insisted she still go to class but honestly Rosa wasn’t sure if she would be able to cope.

To her chagrin, the annoying sappy couple from the morning before were there again, and Rosa resisted the urge to yell at them to stop making out in front of her despondent sister. Maybe ‘making out’ was hyperbole but she still felt it was inappropriate and it wasn’t because she was a ‘prude’ as Rio would say.

Idly waiting, she overheard the couple talking and her blood ran cold as she deciphered the words. “Did you hear about the ‘animal attack’ yesterday Stormee?” the young woman whispered to her partner. Rosa could hear the quotation marks in her speech.

“I did, thankfully there was only one casualty. What a terrifying fate however,” he mumbled. “That poor innocent girl, no one should mess with power like that.”

Times like this, Rosa really hated her good hearing. It was bad enough to hear people whisper innuendoes to each other. Now she wondered what ‘power’ they were talking about.

Rosa looked at Lily again. She hadn’t said a word since they left. And not a single thing about the ‘attack’. Did her little sister see the victim get ripped apart? She sighed seeing the bus arrive and whispered to her. “Hey, you don’t need to tell me what happened but how about we stay together for lunch?”

Lily gave a shaky nod and they got on the bus.

The only time Rosa shared with Black that day before lunch break was in registration so she was forced to wait to talk about the ‘situation’. Mainly because they were both distracted by Kyoko’s rambling and ranting about her older brother. Apparently she had tried one of the old pranks Lily had pulled on her, which involved replacing toothpaste with edible red blood. But it had backfired horribly because her little brother used it. And so, Kyoko had more chores to do.

Rosa couldn’t quite tell if Kyoko hated or idolised her older brother, as although she called him some variation of idiot every other sentence, she still had warmth in her words. And talked about how amazing he was when he wasn’t pissing her off.

Black was drawing as usual as Kyoko chatted, and sadly Rosa couldn’t honestly say they seemed any good. Childishly cute would be the nicest thing she could say about it, as she took a quick glance. It seemed to be five figures, all but one with black hair of varying lengths. One of the two figures with long black hair seemed to have a halo, whilst the figure with colourless hair had horns.

She did not have to ask as Kyoko noticed it and asked for her. “Oh what’s that Blacky? A family portrait?”

He stared at her startled before quickly shaking his head. “Oh ah… No uh… Yeah but… Kind of?”

Kyoko tilted her head. “Kind of? Ah right… You don’t remember them do you?”

He shook his head again, more calmly this time. “No but… I guess this is how I imagine it? Just because you were talking about family and all, I guess I got… Inspired?” He paused as he looked at Rosa before turning the page in his book and scribbling a message he flashed at her. ‘Is your sister okay?’ She wasn’t so sure after this morning. Nevertheless she went with a nod and he gave a weak smile. Mind drifting back to the night before, she gestured at the page and he hesitantly passed it to her, letting her write a quick message.

‘Can we talk about the ‘wolf’ later?’

Kyoko stared between them curiously before sighing and smiling. “Hey… Could you maybe leave the flirting until I’m not here?” Black hid his face and Rosa glared at her, prompting her to giggle. “Just kidding.”

Lily was quiet as she sat with Rosa and her friends at lunch, and judging by Kyoko’s glances Rosa guessed that she could tell something was off. She did not ask however though, instead she was too busy arguing with Axel. Apparently Axel being in the year below them meant he had no right to complain about school work being difficult, Rosa could tell it was all in jest though. In fact, she couldn’t tell if Kyoko was teasing him or outright flirting, judging by the amount of touching and how flustered Axel seemed all of a sudden as he argued his point.

Staring at her food, she found her appetite quickly fading as she peeked at Black. He wasn’t drawing for once, he appeared to be listening to Kyoko and Axel’s debate. Not completely focused however she realised as she caught him looking at her. He nodded at Lily and Rosa got up from her seat.

“Hey Lil, I got to go for a minute. Will you be okay?” Lily gave a shaky nod in response before blinking as Black tore a few pages from his sketchbook and set them in front of her.

“Try drawing something, it cheers me up,” he murmured before blushing somewhat and smiling sheepishly. “Although I’m not so good at it.”

“Thanks,” she whispered as she put pencil to paper and got to work.

Rosa hadn’t realised the school had its own music room. The room was dimly lit by the sun shining through the unusually small windows, her eyes could barely make out the flashy looking instruments on the walls before Black flipped the light switch.

“We won’t be overheard here,” he mumbled as he sat on top of one of the tables, eyes flickering to a guitar on the wall. It looked way too over-designed for what was basically an ornament, with strange green shapes on the black and white polished wood. “Music club has been only on Thursdays since I was in year 7. Used to wait outside for Phoen, it was always so noisy… His grandpa banned him for playing the guitar at home for a while because he was so bad,” he said with a light chuckle and she giggled pulling herself up on the table.

“So you’ve lived in the city for a while then?” she asked.

“Since I was 11, yeah… That attack from yesterday was far from the first,” he stated and she stared at him, jaw slack.

“You mean… Weird dogs attacking people is common?” she gasped out.

He shook his head, eyes focused on her. “Not just dogs. Those creatures… Come in many shapes and sizes. Sometimes… Even human.”

Rosa found she could not stop her legs from shaking as she spoke. “‘Those creatures’... There’s more of them? What are they?”

Black went quiet as he pulled a sheet of paper out of his pocket and passed it to her. She raised an eyebrow as she scanned it over, tilting her head. It was, of course, horribly drawn, but still strangely cute. A cartoonish devil with terrible proportions, its ‘curly’ horns were far too angular and the wings oversized.

“De… Demon?” And before she realised, she was laughing. He glared at her, red faced, and snapped at her with balled up fists.

“W-What’s so funny? I-It’s not that bad!”

“I-I’m not laughing at that! Y-You- You’re kidding right? Demons don’t exist, you dope!” she stammered through laughter, however Black quickly realised her eyes were watering.

“I’m sorry Rosa but… They do,” he mumbled and she quickly shook her head.

“Nope, you’re pulling my leg. You have to be, they’re just a fairy tale!” She could not deceive herself any longer however and she gripped the table end so hard her knuckles turned pale. “T-There’s no way…” The sounds leaving her no longer resembled laughter. “L-Lily… That thing that attacked her was a demon?”

His hand faltered before resting on her shoulder. Glancing up at his face Rosa found she was unable to pull away once they locked gazes. Something about those soft red eyes was comforting, but not enough to stop her shaking. “Elves aren’t the only ‘fairy tale’ creatures to exist alongside humans, you know? There’s a lot out there you don’t seem to know about… But those attacks aren’t frequent. That poor girl… Might have been tricked into summoning it.”

Nausea rose in her throat but she forced it down. That girl lying dead in the park… She was maybe their age. And only for the first time did she consider how that girl felt. The fear of knowing she would never see the light again. That cold, inconsiderate part of her just thought ‘thank God Lily’s safe’. “Demons are summoned… So… They’re not so common then?”

Black nodded. “They’re still dangerous but… Just don’t stay out when it's dark. If the sky does… What it did yesterday… Get somewhere safe. Someone else will deal with it.”

Rosa tilted her head. “But who… The police thought the attack yesterday was an animal. They don’t know about demons do they?”

“I don’t think so… Don’t worry about it. The elves don’t like it when demons invade their territory.” He laughed awkwardly. “The elves are honestly scarier than the demons to me. If they didn’t tolerate us, we’d all be dead for the state of the Earth.”

Rosa remembered when she first heard about elves. Far from the stereotypical elves Santa had, they were fierce warriors who lived in harmony with nature. She had never met an elf personally but she felt that she would both admire and be terrified of them. “So there’s elves… Demons… Wait, what about angels?”

He frowned somewhat. “Well if I knew you were going to bring them up, I would have done a drawing. Angels exist but… It’d take ages to explain, all I’ll say is it’s rare to find a holy angel on Earth. And the fallen… Are more dangerous than any demon can dream to be.”

“So demons aren’t fallen angels then,” she mumbled to herself. She knew little about demons and even less about angels. All she thought was that demons were ‘bad angels’. “We… Don’t need to worry about them, do we?”

Black shook his head. “I’ve never seen an evil angel personally. I wouldn’t worry about them.” His eyes shifted to the clock. Not much time had passed but he felt exhausted. “I… Can tell you more at some other time but… I’d just say be careful and don’t go out at night, and you’ll be fine? Your sister is probably thinking I killed you right now or something,” he said with an awkward laugh and Rosa nervously smiled. After yesterday, she wouldn’t blame her for being on guard. But now she knew even a little about demons, maybe she could keep Lily safe.

“Yeah, we should probably get back,” she murmured, however a question nagged at her. And as they were leaving, she asked. “So… How do you even know about this stuff? That demons even existed?”

Black paused, hand on the door. He was silent for a moment. Rosa was about to repeat herself when he spoke. “Phoen… He saved me when we first met. And every time after…” He laughed, but it sounded hollow. “I try, but my feet still freeze. And he gets hurt again…” He shook his head and opened the door. “Please Rosa… If you do see a demon, don’t attack it. Run. Or you might get more than a little hurt.”

She stared after him before quickly scrambling out. So, demons existed. Bad. But so did angels. Good? And what happened to Lily… Might have happened to him. All she could do was pray Lily didn’t get put in danger again. And as a big sister she had to make sure that didn’t happen.

“So what were you and Black talking about earlier?” Lily murmured as they waited at the bus stop together. Rosa tore her eyes away from the timetable to look at her younger sister. When she and Black had gotten back from their conversation, Lily appeared to have cheered up a tiny bit because of Kyoko. According to Axel, Rosa should watch out for more possible pranks. Even so, she had still been looking over her shoulder and walking a little faster than usual.

“Just… Stuff…” She wondered. How would Lily feel if she knew what had attacked her? On one hand she’d be able to understand what happened… But on the other hand knowing something as ridiculous as demons existed… Would she even believe her?

Silence passed as they watched the road. Another reason Rosa couldn’t tell her right now, they were not the only ones at the bus stop. Maybe when they got home. Looking at her downcast expression, she had an idea.

“Hey, how about we go to the beach together on Saturday? The weather is supposed to be pretty good.”

Lily stared at her, eyes sparkling somewhat. “Can we have ice cream too?”

Rosa faked a snort and crossed her arms. “Sure but it’s coming out of your pocket money.” Never mind that she had plenty of money left over from her birthday a few weeks ago. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to do with it, maybe buy a new cat plush. But if it’d cheer Lily up, a little wouldn’t hurt.

Lily gave a bright smile. It was the first genuine smile she had seen all day. “Right. Ah Rosie… Can I ask you something? It’s been kinda bothering me.”

She tilted her head. “Sure, what’s wrong?”

Lily pointed over at the school entrance, and Rosa saw Black and Axel talking to an unfamiliar figure. They appeared to be an adult woman with long black hair, wearing a strange robe. They were a little taller than Black but shorter than Axel. “When did you meet Black? I’ve… Never seen you warm up to someone so quick.”

“Warm up to someone?” Rosa echoed, raising an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“Well… You’ve wandered off with him twice now, with no questions asked,” she murmured. “I’d understand if you were friends for a little bit but… You never mentioned him before. And you’re not… the friendliest person.”

Rosa was quiet, watching the boy in question. Whatever the woman said must have been really embarrassing as he was currently hiding his face and cringing. Axel seemed to be laughing at his pain. “We ah… Met on Sunday. But… We’ve met before then, we’re sure of that. Just… Not when, and how.”

Lily’s eyebrows shot up and she quickly looked between the two. “You mean- You might have known him before you lost-” She quickly realised others were around and corrected herself. “You might have known him before Mum and Dad adopted you?” she mumbled and Rosa gave a slight nod.

“Possibly… The feeling I get around him… I don’t think we were just acquaintances either. He’s… A bit of a weirdo.” She thought back to their talk. Telling her about something as ridiculous as demons existing. Then back at the park, with the demon attack. He had been absolutely terrified of that wolf demon, yet he still tried to fight it for Phoenix. Then there was Phoenix himself… Forget herself thinking he was kinda familiar. Rio thought he was familiar too. “But I feel like I can trust him somehow.”

She wasn’t so sure about Phoenix. Maybe she could, he did risk himself saving Lily, although he didn’t know her. Either way… She wanted to know both of them better. Even if it was for such a selfish reason as figuring out if her memory was playing tricks on her.

As they got off the bus, Rosa saw something fall out of Lily’s pocket. She quickly picked the folded piece of paper up and took a peek whilst her sister wasn’t watching. A sketch of a magic circle, with an inverted five pointed star. Squiggles were marked around each point and she realised. Lily had seen the girl summon the demon. She would have seen the terror on her face as she realised her doom. And if they hadn’t come in time, Lily would have met her doom too.

[nocturnalmemories]

Chapter 5: Devil Bares His Fangs

As Rosa ate her strawberry cheesecake she watched Phoenix work, seeing some of the female customers were clearly very taken with him. Maybe it was the ‘tall dark and handsome’ thing, but he was so in a different way to most of the other workers. Whilst they were tidy looking and polite but quiet, he was somewhat dishevelled and also polite but talkative. Which seemed to make the more timid looking customers more comfortable with him strangely, maybe because he actually acted his age unlike the other workers and seemed like someone you could easily befriend.

Her eyes drifted to see the guy in charge lecturing one of the workers in front of some customers, and that look on their face seemed like pure terror. The customers stared at him though with adoration and she wondered if the man was indeed cruel but also charming or if he was just too bossy for his co-workers' comfort.

“Hey Black, do you know who that guy is?” she mumbled pointing at the brunette man and Black shook his head.

“He’s Phoenix’s boss. Phoenix constantly complains that he has a superiority complex but the job pays well enough he doesn’t care too much, I guess. Until he quits as soon as he turns 18, his grandpa’s friend has a job opening reserved for him at his bar. He’s bossy too but… Doesn’t make his co-workers hate him like this guy,” he murmured and she gave a weak laugh.

“Tortures the workers but the girls seem smitten… He sounds like a psychopath.”

Black nodded in agreement, checking the time on his phone. Rosa had asked him what cake was the best and she now had the idea that he was a little obsessed with strawberries. As soon as they got their cakes he started picking them off and out of the cake. As strange as it was, he looked the happiest she had seen him all day. “Well Phoen will be finished very soon…” He turned his head to see someone limp through the door, Rosa followed his gaze feeling a strange sensation in her gut.

Whether the person who had walked in was male or female she couldn’t quite tell but they had messy hair as dark as the bruises on their face and their ripped jeans were covered in a thin layer of dirt. Despite the obvious pain they were in it didn’t show on their face, blue eyes searching. Rosa noticed although the customers acknowledged the newcomer, they didn’t seem surprised by their battered state. In fact some of the young girls greeted them in a manner that was both cheerful and pitying.

“Oh hey Azzie!”

“Aww Azzie did you get into a fight again?”

They didn’t respond, instead staring ahead at the boss who turned around upon hearing the girls. The man’s violet eyes landed on them and he let out a sigh. “Azura, again? We went over this, boy.”

Phoenix paused from working and disappeared into the back room. Black stared after him before mumbling to Rosa. “Is that a boy…? Maybe he works here…”

Although they referred to him as a boy, they couldn’t quite tell if he was indeed a boy or an adult. Azura simply pulled something out of his hoodie’s pocket and put it in the man’s hand. “Got the sugar, Mr Night.”

Silence broke out before ‘Mr Night’ broke down laughing. “Got the sugar? You got a black eye too, you idiot! Back room, now.”

Azura nodded and did not say a word as he walked away, swiftly dodging Phoenix as he darted out.

“O-Oh sorry I just got the…” Phoenix trailed off as Mr Night swiped the first aid kit out of his hand, passing him by.

“I’ll sort him out. Your shift is over now, yeah?”

Rosa and Black exchanged looks as they watched the two men disappear into the back, and Phoenix mumbled to a co-worker who swiftly followed their boss. Turning towards the two younger teenagers he gave a tired grin, backpack loosely hanging off his shoulder. Must have grabbed it with the first aid kit. “Alright then… Want to walk and talk, Blacky?”

They left the café, and Rosa noticed to her embarrassment Phoenix kept glancing at her. “Ah… Why do you keep looking at me like that?”

He stared at her like a deer caught in headlights before letting out a shaky laugh. “Oh… Ah… Sorry. You just look a lot like Fira, don’t you think so Black?”

“I thought so for a moment too,” Black mumbled. “Apart from the eyes, of course…” He read the annoyed look on her face and smiled sheepishly. “Uh… Yeah, we should probably tell you who that is. Fira is Phoen’s girlfriend. That’s why he freaked out when he saw you.”

Rosa blinked. “That’s… Actually understandable but… People get older, not younger.” She sighed. “Right… We didn’t introduce ourselves properly did we?”

He gave a slight chuckle and nodded. “I don’t think we did. Alright, let’s pretend we met just now instead of 20 minutes ago? So I’m Phoenix, and I’m Black’s best friend.” He looked at Black pouting and the younger boy gave a nervous laugh. “Unless Axel took that spot?”

“Of course not. We’re good friends but… 5 years is longer than 3 years hm?”

Phoenix grinned and faced Rosa. “So that’s me, and what’s your name kiddo?”

“Again with kiddo?” she mumbled. She listened in her mind for Rio but heard no remarks. Why was that voice interested in this guy, she wondered. Nothing was too weird about him other than how he treated teenagers two years younger than him like kids. Whilst acting extremely childish himself. She shook her head. “I’m Rosa, and as you already know, his classmate.”

Phoenix stared at her before wordlessly looking her over. Black tilted his head and gently nudged him. “What’s wrong Phoen?”

“Did we meet before? I’m getting some weird feeling…” he mumbled. “It’s ah… What’s it called…?”

“Deja vu?” Rosa mumbled, and she tried to wrack her brain. Maybe that strange feeling Rio had was familiarity? ‘Hey Rio, does he seem familiar to you? Less than Black but…’

‘You didn’t feel it earlier?’ she heard her whisper. ‘He… Reminds me of someone… But who…’

She shook the thought off. “I do get the same feeling.”

Black murmured quietly, fidgeting. “We both… Kind of have that feeling about each other. I was hoping you’d know her considering… Memory problems.”

Phoenix shook his head, a weak smile on his face. “I wish I could help you but… It feels like a very distant memory.”

“But we can say without doubt I knew both of you?” she mumbled.

He shrugged. “I can’t say I’m 100% certain. But I vaguely remember your name and appearance at least.”

Black glanced back at the cafe, a slight frown on his face. "Phoen… Who was that boy? You know, the battered looking one."

"You mean Azura? He's some boy Mr Night hires in exchange for a place to live, I heard," Phoenix mumbled. "Real strange kid."

"You call him a kid although he's probably older than you," Black mumbled, eyebrows furrowed. "Does he usually look like he's been caught in a turf war?”

“I honestly don’t believe he feels pain at this point. I’ve seen him get kicked by thugs… Fall into tables... Get coffee accidentally spilled on him… Doesn’t even flinch,” the older boy murmured, glancing back at the café as it disappeared into the distance. Rosa idly noticed he seemed rather unfocused, looking around every so often. Black seemed to notice too.

“Are you alright Phoen? You… Don’t seem yourself.”

Phoenix stared at him and let out a slight laugh. “I told you to stop worrying about me Blacky. I’m fine. Work is just… Stressful.”

The tense air was broken by a cheerful tune and Rosa scrambled around for her phone, almost dropping it as she answered the call. “Hello?”

“Oh hey dear,” she heard her mother’s voice say, and she frowned as she heard a quiver in her voice. “Is Lily with you?”

She shook her head before mentally berating herself. She was surprised Rio wasn’t mocking her right now. “No, I… I was busy talking to a friend so she decided to take the bus herself.”

“O-Oh… She told me she was almost home about half an hour ago. I-I haven’t heard from her since.” At her words Rosa’s blood ran cold. Although Lily did have a habit of staying out a little later than she should, she always answered her phone.

“Maybe she went off somewhere and her phone died,” she mumbled, however her brain quickly flickered through the bus route home. It was a simple route, and only passed through one main road. Delays were never more than 5 minutes judging by the various test runs she and Lily had done before school started. “I’ll go look for her Mum, she might have stopped at the library near home?”

She heard her mother’s shaky breath. “R-Right. If you can’t find her, I’ll call your father. Keep in touch please.”

The line died and she pocketed her phone giving Black a weak smile. “I’m sorry I’d love to stay and chat but… I need to find my sister.”

“Is she okay?” he mumbled and she shrugged.

“I… Have no idea. Hopefully. I’m sorry to ditch like this…”

Phoenix glanced up at the sky and the three of them realised it had gone strangely dark quickly. “It’s only a little past 4 isn’t it? It’s dusk already… Maybe you shouldn’t be wandering around by yourself.”

Rosa quickly shook her head. “I’ll be fine, don’t worry about me.” The boys stared at her. “I’m serious, I can do this myself. Not like I’m going to run into a vampire or something right?”

Black and Phoenix exchanged glances. Then before Rosa could blink, Phoenix had taken her phone off her.

“H-Hey what are you doing?” she squeaked as he slipped it in his pocket then crossed his arms.

“Your mother told you to keep in touch right? You can’t do that if you end up dying. It’s too dangerous for kids to be out at night by themselves, we’re coming with you.”

“I’m not a kid! I’ll be perfectly okay by myself!” she snapped.

Black grinned nervously. “Sorry about him but… He’s right. You and your sister will be safer if you’re not alone in the dark.”

She sighed in defeat. “Okay fine, just- Give me my phone back!” She sent Rio a mental message. ‘Can we really trust him? Phoenix I mean.’

‘He doesn’t seem like a bad person to me, Rosie.’ Her voice was again a quiet whisper and Rosa felt her heart race as she snatched her phone out of his hand as he held it back out to her. His skin was cold but strangely sent warmth through her too. ‘He’s strange but… I think he’s genuinely worried about you. Tonight isn’t a normal night, Rosa.’

Before it reached 5pm, the sky had turned pitch black.

“We’re in September right?” Rosa mumbled as they reached the busy main road. Her eyes anxiously watched the cars drive by, Black glanced around at some other passing strangers staring at the sky who were clearly wondering the same thing. “It’s not winter yet…”

“It’s not a natural sunset, that’s why,” Phoenix mumbled and she stared at him tilting her head.

“What- Do you know why this is happening?”

Black gazed at the moon, and finally Rosa noticed it had a red tint to it. “Well there’s magic to make artificial sunlight… Elves are pretty much experts at nature magic… Think there’s a spell to create artificial night Phoen?”

“Yep, this ain’t an eclipse. Seems the kind of spell a werewolf would use, if they were real that is,” the older dark haired boy mumbled in response before sighing. “Which is a shame because werewolves are cooler than elves, the lucky bastards.”

Rosa gave Black a confused look before noticing the traffic light turned green. She scrambled over the road quickly calculating their route. From here the library was a short walk away. If Lily wasn’t there, the park wasn’t too far. “So if werewolves don’t exist, why would anyone need a spell to make it ‘night time’?”

“Let’s see… Make it easier to sleep… Confuse the shit out of people… Kill someone under the cover of darkness… Yeah I’d say that last one’s probably why.” Rosa stared at Phoenix horrified as Black shot him a glare. “Not that someone might use it to murder your sister. Maybe they’re just having a horrible time sleeping.”

“So reassuring, thanks…” she mumbled however now her stomach was churning. She could feel her heart beating in her ears.

Black gave her a nervous smile and lightly patted her shoulder. “She’ll be alright. We just got to find her quickly.” He narrowed his eyes at Phoenix, crossing his arms. To Rosa, he looked the opposite of intimidating. “Phoen you’re faster than me, how about you go ahead and see if she’s there?”

Phoenix frowned. “I would have done that already if I knew what Lily looked like.”

“Long dark brown hair, blue eyes, wears the same uniform as us,” Rosa deadpanned. She had already shown him a picture of her in case he spotted her but he seemed to have forgotten that. “Or you could just go in the library and scream ‘Is Lily Caster there?’”

Black tilted his head. “Wait… Your last name is ‘Caster’? Are your parents wizards or something?” Rosa shot him a pointed look and he cringed. “Sorry, bad joke?”

Phoenix chuckled and mumbled a bye before taking off. Rosa’s jaw dropped as she watched him sprint far out of sight within a matter of seconds. “What the- Is he an athlete or something?!”

“Pretty much?” Black shook his head, walking in front of her. “We’ll find her Rosa, don’t worry.”

And as they heard a distant scream, Rosa prayed it would be alive.

Following the sound of the scream, Rosa and Black watched people run past them in a frenzy. Amongst the panicked chatter Rosa could only make out one frantic word. ‘Beast’.

And arriving at the park they found her.

Sitting on top of a high climbing frame, Lily trembled as her wide tearful eyes stared at the creature circling the object. Rosa paid little attention to the monster at first, gaze darting to her hyperventilating younger sister clutching the bars she was perched on with white fists. Then as the creature turned to her, she was forced to acknowledge it.

The canine-like beast was such a dark shade it almost blended into the night, however its bright silver eyes contrasted greatly with its sleek fur. Razor sharp fangs were caked in blood like its claws, and following a barely visible blood trail it led to an immobile body slumped on the stained grass.

“I-Is that a wolf?” Rosa stammered. “Did it escape from the zoo or…”

“That’s no regular wolf,” Phoenix grumbled as he stepped through the gate to join them. The wolf snarled at him as it sized them up, saliva dripping from its mouth. He growled at it and its fur stood on end as it shifted into an attack stance ready to pounce. “Alright I’m going to distract it, you get your sister down and run,” he whispered to Rosa and she stared at him, jaw slack.

“You have to be joking, it’ll rip you to shreds!” she hissed however he shook his head and gave a wide grin.

“Don’t worry about me, I’ve fought bigger.” He glanced at Black, who was frantically looking between the older male and Rosa. “Right Blacky, help Rosie and her sister, okay?”

Black stared at him like he had grown another head, shaking violently. “W-What? But- I can’t move!”

“What do you mean you can’t move?” Rosa exclaimed and he blushed bright red, staring down at his feet.

“I-I’m stuck. My legs won’t work. I-If I move, that dog will get me,” he mumbled pathetically.

Rosa helplessly looked at her sister, seeing her stare back on the brink of crying. She knew if her sister made a noise it would attract the wolf back to her. The wolf would go for her too if she moved. But Lily would have gotten home safely if she had just stayed with her. She took a shaky breath and faced Phoenix before nodding.

She ran towards the climbing frame and the wolf pounced. Phoenix tackled it to the dirt just before it could plant its fangs into her ankle. She spared not a glance to see him wrestle the beast to the ground, instead grabbing Lily as she clumsily climbed down the frame. Her younger sister clung to her sobbing as the wolf thrashed around under the teenage boy’s hold, snapping at him.

Rosa felt her heart jump as the beast overpowered its attacker, claws digging into Phoenix’s shoulders and teeth striking for his throat. Within a split second Black slammed a panicked kick into its jaw and it howled crashing against the earth violently. “R-Run! Get out of here quick!” he shouted and Rosa squeaked.

“But what about you two?”

“We’ll be fine, just go!” Phoenix shouted as the wolf leapt at them again, quickly delivering a kick to its chest.

Rosa and Lily scrambled out of the gate as someone sprinted past them.

They saw the flashing light before they heard the gunshot, swiftly turning to see the monster collapse to the ground smoke seeping from a bullet wound in its head.

Lily squeezed Rosa’s arm as she stared at the shocked boys then at their apparent rescuer, who was clutching a gun tight. The young woman turned away from the corpse to grin at her, clicking the safety on and pocketing the gun somewhere Rosa quickly averted her eyes from. “Well, aren’t you kids lucky I came along?”

Phoenix was the first to speak, crossing his arms and barking, “Kids? You look my age!”

“Now you know how we feel about being called kiddos,” Black mumbled weakly and Rosa laughed nervously. Lily just watched the girl speechlessly.

Rosa was getting some odd vibes from this woman and she could tell Lily felt the same. Her long copper locks and green eyes would be otherwise normal if said eyes were not practically glowing in the dark. The dark that soon rapidly faded as the artificial night died, leaving the sky in its golden dusk colours. “W-What was that?” Rosa mumbled as she looked from the woman to now see the corpse was quickly crumbling into black smoke.

“Nothing you need to worry about now,” she chirped before pausing. “Well actually, if I didn’t come to this place looking for my brother you’d be all doomed probably.” Her smile changed to a childish pout as she walked around the park, casually stepping over the human body lying in the grass. “And he’s not here, damn it. Welp, thanks for the free kill!”

Before any of them could say anything, the woman left as quickly as she came. Phoenix stared after her stunned before quickly shaking his head and smiling awkwardly. “Well… That happened.” He mumbled under his breath. “Shame, I could have done it myself… So… Should one of us call the cops about this?” he said, gesturing to the human corpse.

As if on cue, sirens sounded in the distance. Black quickly looked at Phoenix. “U-Uh Phoen what if they think…”

“What if they think… Oh, you mean if we did this? No, I don’t think we need to worry about that…” He grimaced as he clutched his bleeding shoulder. “It looks like a wild animal attack anyhow.”

“E-Excuse me but…” Rosa shook her head and raised her voice. “What the hell was that thing? How are you so calm about this?”

Phoenix let out a little laugh. “Guess you could say I have practice. But what it was… Ain’t quite the thing that’s easy to explain, right? So let's tell the police the animal ran off. Bit more trouble for them but… They won’t think you’re crazy hm?”

Lily looked frightened at the body as she tightened her grip on her older sister. Rosa realised in the light that the victim seemed to be a young teenager. She looked at Black and he stared at his feet, expression downcast. “I’ll… I-I’ll fill you in some time. But not right now. You two need to get home and Phoen needs to see a doctor.”

She nodded. “But you will tell me right?”

“O-Of course.”

Rosa realised something that day. There was something out there that was more dangerous than any mere criminal could be.

[nocturnalmemories]

Chapter 4: Blurred Past

When the bell rang for lunch time following a Science lesson, Kyoko dragged Rosa back by the arm as she tried to leave. “Hey Rosie, wait! How about you sit with me, Black and one of our friends for lunch?” 

“I told my sister I’d sit with her,” Rosa mumbled, wincing at the tight grip on her arm, Black laughed nervously and pulled Kyoko off her. 

“Kyoko try be a bit… Less aggressive? Your sister can sit with us if you two want to join us, it’ll just be us two and our friend Axel.” 

She nodded and took her phone out. “I’ll see if Lil’s alright with that then…” She had the feeling she should worry more about herself though, Lily would probably agree just for the opportunity to embarrass her.  Almost instantly after she sent the message, she got a response. “She sent me an evil smile emoji. Maybe I should be worried,” she mumbled pathetically and Kyoko laughed. 

“I take it your little sister can be a pain sometimes?” 

“That’s an understatement,” she murmured as her phone received another reply. “She says she’ll find me in the cafeteria.” 

“Okay let’s go then!” Rosa and Black yelped as Kyoko dragged them along with amazing strength.

Rosa idly listened to Kyoko and Axel chat excitedly about their summer breaks as she tried to figure out what Black was drawing. He appeared to be a very cheerful boy, however Rosa had to assert self-discipline to stop staring at his hair. It was bright blue and spiky, probably dyed to match his eyes. And judging by his uniform, which was missing the ‘senior student’ badge, he was younger than them. However she had noticed as soon as he stood up to greet them that he was taller than all three of them.

Black looked more comfortable with Axel there but she had the feeling the loudness of his friends was overwhelming him right now, as he kept pausing to rub his ear with a pained look on his face. Glancing at the two caught in conversation she mumbled to Black. “Hey are you okay? You look a bit… In pain…” 

“I’ll be fine… My ears are just kind of sensitive,” he whispered, looking down at his sketchbook. Whatever he was drawing, it looked like a snake but also a dragon. And she couldn’t tell if it was creative or a complete accident. 

“You really like drawing don’t you?” Rosa asked. Then she mentally berated herself. Of course he did, if he even bothered in the first place.  

He stared at her before shaking his head and turning the page covering it from her sight. Maybe he was still sore about the cabbix thing. 

As she was caught in thought, someone attacked her from behind causing her to scream as arms locked around her neck. The other students stared at her before redirecting their attention as they realised she was not being murdered but instead being suffocated by her younger sister. “Hey Rosie, are these your new friends?” Lily chirped, Rosa let out a strangled curse before pulling her hands away. 

“Lil- Don’t do that!” 

Lily giggled and looked at the three other teenagers at the table returning Kyoko’s grin. “You guys don’t mind me sitting with you right?” 

“Of course not!” Kyoko chirped. “So you’re Lily right? I’m Kyoko, but you can call me Kyo.” 

Axel did a mock salute, a wide smile on his face. “I’m Axel, and this quiet guy,” he poked Black on the nose and got a weak glare in return, “is Black.” 

Lily tilted her head looking at the dark haired boy. “Black? That’s a weird thing to call your kid.” 

“My name’s Blake, Black’s just my nickname,” he murmured as he continued to scribble something. 

“Well, nice to meet you all.” Lily sat down next to her sister, subtly pinching a chip. Kyoko stared at her then Rosa who was, as always, pondering life. She reached for a chip and Rosa snapped out of her daze, lightly swatting her hand. 

“What are you doing?” 

“You daydream a lot,” Kyoko mumbled, prompting a laugh from Lily. 

“My big sister’s always been like that. Does it so much she’s walked into five lamp posts in one day before,” she piped up. Rosa glared at her, cheeks warming up, then sighed. 

“I just… Have a lot to think about sometimes,” she murmured as she looked at Black seeing he was completely despondent now. “Um Kyo… Did I upset him somehow?” 

“Nah, he’s just shy around new people,” Kyoko said with a shrug. 

Axel laughed. “You should see him with Phoenix, that guy never shuts up but he listens to every word he says.” He leaned over and nudged him, gently so whatever he was scribbling wasn’t ruined. “Hey Blacky what are you drawing?” 

“Nothing in particular,” he mumbled. He turned the page and put pencil to paper before pausing. “... Crap, how do you draw fish scales again Axe?” 

Lily watched the blue haired boy tutor his friend, a puzzled look on her face. “By the way Kyoko… Are your eyes real?” 

The girl in question nodded, grinning. “My eyes are real, yeah. Ah yeah, Rosie told me you like pranking her!” Rosa gave her a pointed look and she ignored it. Lily nodded with a grin and Kyoko’s eyes sparkled. “My big brother can be real annoying, could you teach me to get back at him?” 

Rosa watched them chatter excitedly, shaking her head. Well, at least Lily had a friend. But she prayed her little sister wouldn’t get any more ideas. As Axel watched, Black stopped drawing and nudged Rosa. She turned to see him flipping back a page and showing her a message. 

‘Could we maybe talk after school?’

The end of the school day couldn’t have come sooner. Rosa found that her new school was much more pleasant than her previous one, however she had been restless wondering. What did Black want to talk about? Was it related to their talk yesterday? She still could not remember where she had seen that boy before, maybe he could however. 

Lily met her as she left IT, the one class she had that day without either Kyoko or Black. She found out Axel was in the year below them, meaning no lessons together obviously.  Her younger sister stared at her blinking with a big smile on her face as she followed her. “So you’re meeting Doodle Boy now?” 

Rosa looked at her with narrow eyes. “‘Doodle Boy’? Have you forgot his name already?” 

“No,” Lily stumbled, looking away. “His name is Blair right? But his nickname is Black?” 

The red haired girl sighed as she continued walking towards the exit. “Blake, Lily. You got the nickname right though. He wants to talk… What about though I’m not sure.” She inwardly hoped it was something to confirm they either knew each other or that he had simply been mistaken and she was just overthinking things. The sooner it was resolved, the better. If they really did know each other she did not want to spend weeks trying to remember when. She was good at remembering voices despite her prior amnesia, but not faces and locations. 

As soon as she opened the door Lily chirped up. “Oh wait, maybe he’s asking you out!” 

Rosa made no attempt to stop the heavy door slamming into her sister’s face. 

“Oh hey Ros- What happened to your sister?” Black mumbled as he looked at Rosa then at Lily who was rubbing her sore nose and whimpering. 

“The door happened,” Rosa deadpanned. “So… Where did you want to talk? Guessing not here, lot of people around.” She gestured at the chattering students around them and he nodded, glancing at Lily. 

“Well… I was thinking of going for a walk but ah… can your sister get home by herself? This… Is a little private,” he murmured and Lily stared at him, interest piqued, before Rosa lightly elbowed her. 

“She’ll be fine, she knows how to take a bus. You don’t mind going home by yourself right?” 

Lily nodded, a grin on her face. “Of course! Have fun on your date!” 

She dashed off before either of them processed it. Five seconds later they were both bright red and Rosa was shouting after her. “Shut up you little git!” 

“Y-Your sister’s weird,” Black stammered covering his face and she exhaled sharply glaring after Lily before giving him a lopsided smile. 

“Yeah… She’s a pain in the ass. Sorry about her. So where are we going?” 

He pointed at the street in the direction Lily had took off, hand shaking somewhat. “We can just walk around town… Phoen works part time at a café in the city plaza, so I was thinking of visiting him too… You don’t mind right?”  

“Sure,” she murmured, feeling the heat disappear from her face. If Lily was still there, she would definitely pipe up about café dates. It was strange to go off on her own with someone she barely knew, but that part of her nagged that she didn’t ‘barely know him’ after all. 

For a good while they were walking in silence, and whilst usually silence would be awkward she was kind of thankful. The only things she could hear were the sounds of their footsteps and birds, as well as the occasional chatter from people passing by. If anything, it was strangely comforting. Glancing at Black every so often she noticed any trembling had eventually stopped, and he looked more calm than when they set off. Having the time to rearrange her thoughts instead of blurting out questions was much appreciated. 

Rosa could see the street open up into the plaza when he finally spoke. “I’m… Sorry if I was abrupt about this. Something was on my mind and… Phoen always says I shouldn’t put these things off.” 

“It’s fine, what did you want to talk about?” she asked. 

He turned to face her, meeting her eyes for the first time that day. At the same time heat rushed through her she felt a strange pull. That same pull which told her that yesterday had not been their first encounter. “Did we go to the same primary school or something? I… I know we’ve met before.”

That hadn’t occurred to Rosa. The familiarity wasn’t like how you’d remember someone you talked to once or twice. It felt like they had known each other for a good amount of time. However, she quickly realised why she could have forgotten him if that was the case. “Primary school… Maybe… I…” She cut herself short as she realised what she was about to say. That she couldn’t remember. And before she could filter it out, words fell from her brain and out of her mouth. “I don’t remember what school I went to. Even if we did know each other from there, I wouldn’t remember it.” 

He tilted his head gazing at her before the switch flipped and his eyes went wide. “You… Don’t remember? Even the name?” She shook her head and he looked down. There was silence for a brief moment. Then he broke it with a weak laugh and crooked smile. “Guess I don’t have to feel bad for forgetting about you too then maybe. My memory’s pretty bad too.”

She wondered if he had misunderstood her. Forgetting about events in a school from 5 years ago was fair enough. Forgetting everything entirely though, even the name, was not normal. At that point your memory wasn’t ‘bad’.

Maybe she’d tell Black one day, but not today. 

Rosa gave an awkward grin, feeling her heart race. “Maybe we were friends before, who knows? We’re not complete strangers at least… So how about we get to know each other again?” 

“T-That…” he nodded, smile turning bashful. “That would be nice. I… have another question though, if you mind?” 

“Shoot. Ah…” She faltered. “Don’t literally shoot of course.” 

Black laughed, walking ahead. Rosa quickly followed. “You remind me of someone I know, are you related to a girl called Fira?” 

Crap, another question she couldn’t remember the answer to. Well… She had a solution to this without spilling the amnesia, but she hated the pity that usually followed. “I don’t know,” she mumbled. “I don’t know anything about my biological family. My parents never knew of them either.” 

He stared at her and she braced herself for the incoming awkwardness and pity. The fake smiles of sympathy she was used to. Why did strangers pretend to care about someone they didn’t know, she never knew. The sorrowful smile he gave her though was different. He didn’t pretend to understand. “You’re the same as me then. Phoen’s grandfather raised me, I know nothing too.” He shook his head. “Maybe we’ll remember each other eventually, we’ll see what happens. Mind if we visit Phoenix now?” 

Rosa nodded, an odd feeling in her chest. Even though they couldn’t remember the other, she felt a strange sense of understanding. Whether they were connected or not, she wanted to know more about him. 

As they stepped into the plaza she realised Rio had not made a single remark. 

The café was packed full of customers, and Rosa could see people of all ages sitting at the tables. The alarming majority however were young women, which she understood when she noticed most of the workers were young looking men. If Rio was acting herself, Rosa would not be able to block out the gushing. Glancing at Black she watched him scan the area before his gaze landed on a tall and dark haired worker delivering some girls their order. 

As soon as the young man turned to walk away, Black whistled and he instantly looked at them before darting over. Rosa quickly realised tall had been an understatement. He was about a foot taller than Black and made her look like a dwarf in comparison. His gray eyes seemed to sparkle like silver upon seeing him.

“Hey Blacky, nice to see ya-” He cut himself off as he looked at Rosa, staring at her. A few seconds of silence passed and Rosa wondered if he was alright before he suddenly shouted in surprise and staggered back a few steps. “Wha-!” A few nearby customers stared at him puzzled before he quickly composed himself and looked the red haired girl over. As he locked eyes with her, he let out a sigh of relief. “Oh… For a moment there I thought Fira became 12 again. Who’s your new friend, Blacky?” 

Black grabbed Rosa’s wrist before her fist could make contact. “For God’s sake Phoenix… Again, it’s impossible for someone to turn into a child. You need to stop with the horror movies. This is one of my classmates… She’s the same age as me.” 

Phoenix gave Rosa a sheepish grin, and she took a deep breath reminding herself assault was illegal. And whoever this Fira was, somehow he had mistaken her for them. “Oh… So you’re 15. Sorry about that kiddo.” 

She raised an eyebrow, looking him over again. Whilst he was tall and somewhat muscular, uniform clinging to his figure nicely, he didn’t seem that old. Maybe barely old enough to drink. “Kiddo? You… Don’t look that much older than us.” 

“Phoen’s a bit of a weirdo,” Black mumbled. “You can’t call us kids, you’re not even 18 for nearly another two months.” 

Phoenix laughed before freezing up as he noticed one of his coworkers glaring at him. “Touche… Hey ah… I still don’t finish for another 20 minutes, mind waiting?” 

They nodded and Black glanced at an empty table before giving Rosa a nervous smile. “Umm… Do you want to get a cake or something with me? Or do you want to go home soon?” 

Rosa glanced after Phoenix as he hurried back to work, and for the first time since that morning, Rio piped up. However she noticed something instantly off about the other person in her head, her voice uncharacteristically soft. ‘Hey Rosa… Could you maybe stick around with him? That boy there… I can tell there’s something off about him.’ 

Tilting her head she watched him closer, seeing him talk to an older looking man who seemed to be in charge. The handsome pale-brown haired man had a bright grin on his face but Phoenix looked disturbed talking to him. The other workers were keeping their distance too. Maybe he was a horrible boss, who knew. From the moment she caught Phoenix’s eyes though she felt something was strange about him. ‘If there’s something ‘off’ about him… Shouldn’t I avoid him?’ 

‘No. I want you to stay around when he finishes his work.’ Rosa felt her blood run cold. She had heard Rio whine, she had heard her fangirl, she had heard her sadness about not remembering the past like her… She never heard such authority in her voice though. 

Noticing Black was watching the scene with her, she shook the thought off and flashed a smile. “I can stick around a tiny bit longer. ”

[nocturnalmemories]

Chapter 3: Wandering Lily

As the youngest daughter of a police officer, Lily had been slightly coddled by her father and subjected to his (rightful) paranoia from a young age. However upon her 11th birthday her mother had decided some freedom should be granted to her on the condition she was not out past 4pm and carried her phone on her at all times. Her father had argued but it was impossible to win an argument with the ‘woman of the house’ as she called herself. 

There of course was the unspoken, obvious, condition all children and young teenagers should follow. That condition however Lily had broken without a second thought shortly after they moved to the city. 

“Hello!” Lily piped up as she skipped up to the young man curled up against a café wall. He slowly raised his head, azure eyes blinking before focusing on the child. 

“Oh, it’s you again?” His voice was soft and timid, Lily remembered back when she first saw him camping out here she had mistook him for a girl.. He wasn’t particularly feminine but she had assumed otherwise when a shoplifter caught him with an attack that would leave most guys keeling over. Male or female however there was something strange about him. 

“Just thought I’d see if you were still here,” she said and her mouth curled into a frown as she looked him over. The day she had stumbled upon him, he had been covered in bruises. Over time she had noticed when each healed a new one would replace it. After watching him stop the shoplifter she had concluded he must have gotten them from fighting. “You’re hurt again. You really should see a doctor, or stop fighting.” 

He stared at her, visibly stiffening. Lily noticed many weird things about the man. For starters, not even an enraged dog’s bite made him flinch. He could overhear people’s conversations on the other side of the plaza, she remembered when she watched a couple row he told her that the husband had likened his wife’s sister to a pig. He talked to her but his eyes always stared past her, glassy like a doll’s. 

One of the most strange things about him, however, was that the man did not seem motivated to do anything but sit around or wander until the café owner set him on an errand of some kind. The café owner was an older man who was still youthful and always smiling. She had heard the rumours, that the cafe owner was his only ‘home’, and so she wondered where he was on the days she could not find him.

His voice left as a whisper but the emotionless mask did not twitch slightly. “Stop fighting… I don’t think that’s possible.” He looked back up at the child. “You always seem so happy, how?” 

Lily tilted her head, pale blue eyes blinking innocently. “I seem happy because I am. Does nothing make you happy, mister?” 

He stared at her as he tilted his head, unkempt dark hair falling into his eyes. “I don’t know… Maybe flowers? What makes you happy?” 

She paused before crossing her arms thinking. “Well… When it’s sunny, when my sister takes me to the park… When Mum makes us pancakes… When Dad’s not singing…” She grinned. “Oh and magic tricks! Could you show me that cool trick again?” 

The man’s expression twisted into puzzlement and he nodded, cupping his scratched up hands together. A snowy blur formed in his palms before it focused, materialing as a fluffy looking white rabbit. Lily squealed as the rabbit sniffed at her then appeared to jump away scurrying into the crowd. The passing townsfolk stared at it curiously before it poofed into nothingness again. “Did that make you happy?” 

She nodded, smiling brightly. “So cool! Are you sure you can’t teach me that?” 

“Only I can do it as far as I know,” he said with a shrug before staring as they were suddenly crowded. 

“How did you do that kid?” 

“So cute! Can you make a cat?” 

“Make a dog!” 

Lily felt a sense of claustrophobia but it was the illusionist who quickly got up searching for an exit. “I… I need to do an errand. Bye.” 

Before she could blink the crowd was parted by an unseen force as he disappeared. “Was… That a magic trick too?” 

The disappointed crowd dispersed and Lily got up feeling strange. That was probably her fault, did he get scared? At the very least the magic tricks didn’t make him happy like they seemed to do everyone else. Did he know what it felt like to be happy? 

Never once had she seen him smile. 

Her parents told her not to talk to strangers but if she could somehow brighten up people’s lives, she would break the rule every time. 

The next day, any excitement Rosa had for her first day at her new school was destroyed when the bus became 15 minutes late. To make matters worse, the only other people currently at the stop were a sickeningly sappy couple.  She wished she hadn’t lagged behind whilst Lily left earlier. Unlike her, her younger sister had been prepared and wanted to arrive early to get a good look at her classes. Rosa on the other hand didn’t have a plan but to wander around aimlessly and latch onto classmates for help in getting places. 

“Oh sweetie, you’re so cute~” 

“H-Hey, who are you calling cute?!” 

Rosa rolled her eyes, trying desperately to fight back the nausea. She hated couples. She hated romance in general. How even the toughest person could turn into mushy peas if they liked their partner enough. She tried to return her attention to her phone but her concentration was soon broken. How on Earth could two people make so much noise eating each other’s faces?! 

‘Sounds like you’re jealous Rosie!’ Rio chirped in her mind and Rosa resisted the urge to punch the bus sign. She would have suffered less if she walked to school, even if she got lost. It would be less painful than listening to this couple stretch the borders of acceptable PDA. 

‘I’m not jealous, they need to get a room!’ If the two lovebirds knew she was even there, Rosa wasn’t sure. The girl looked like a model though with her smooth dark skin and silky pink hair. The guy wasn’t too bad looking either although his spiky blond hair seemed like an anime character’s. They looked like they came out of a Hollywood Rom-Com. And they should go back there instead of grossing the public out. 

She breathed a sigh of relief as the bus arrived and made sure to sit far away from the couple. Tomorrow she was bringing her headphones. 

The only free seats were next to people and she made a quick decision walking over to a girl who seemed to be her age. The girl was idly texting on her phone occasionally having to brush her long black fringe away from her face. “Hey uhh… Mind if I sit here?” 

The girl tilted her head to look at her before grinning. “Of course!” 

Rosa sat down just as the bus jerked to life. She found herself gripping the bar and the other girl giggled. 

“Buses are evil, aren’t they?” Their gazes locked as the girl faced her. “You go to the same school as me don’t you? Senior too?” 

Rosa slowly nodded although she was a little distracted. This girl had dark hair, pale skin and wine red eyes. She had met two people with red eyes in two days. The girl however radiated fiery confidence unlike the timid boy she had met yesterday. “I ah do…. You kind of remind me of someone,” she mumbled. “Do you know a boy called Blake? Goes by Black, in our same year.” 

The girl’s eyes lit up and she nodded, smiling brightly. “Blacky? Yep I know him! Quiet boy, fun to terrorise.” She gave her a glance. “I don’t think I recall seeing you though, what’s your name? I’m Kyoko.” 

“I’m Rosa,” she mumbled as her thoughts diverted. “I’ve just moved here. Nice to meet you.”

“It’s nice to meet you too,” Kyoko whistled as she returned to her phone. “So… On a scale of one to ten how much are you dreading classes?” 

“For everything but Maths, probably a five…. For Maths I’ll give a 27,” she mumbled. “My last Maths teacher was evil. Numbers are evil. Everything about Maths is evil.” 

“Maths is nothing compared to English,” she said with a snort. “What the crap is Shakespeare even saying? My little brother was more coherent at 4.” 

“It’s just how they talked back then,” Rosa said with a shrug. She took her time table out of her bag and looked at it with a frown. “Hey ah… Would you mind helping me find my form room when we get to school?” 

Kyoko peeked at the paper and nodded with a wide grin. “You’re in the same room as me and Black! We’re in some of the same classes too… Just stick with me when you can and you’ll never get lost.” 

“That’d be great,” Rosa mumbled as her mind drifted. Wow, already. She’d see Black again even before her first class. And she had the feeling she’d want to get to know him better. Maybe being around him would spark some kind of memory, he recognised her name at least so they had to have had some kind of past together. She glanced out of the window seeing cars overtake the bus. “Could you fill me in a bit about school?” 

“Of course!”

Kyoko had warned her that their form tutor was a demon so Rosa put her guard up as she followed her into the classroom they would meet at for registration. The man at the front desk stared at her hair then her eyes before looking away grumbling under his breath. As Rosa stared at the tutor, puzzled, Kyoko snickered. “I wouldn’t worry about him. Probably just annoyed at another red-eyed kid in his form. He constantly thinks me and Black are making fashion statements.”

“Right… He looks like my old Maths teacher,” she mumbled as she looked at his salt and pepper hair and perpetual scowl. “What’s his name again?” 

“That’s Mr Clarkson,” Kyoko stated and Rosa sighed. 

“Oh God… He’s my Maths teacher’s twin ain’t he?” 

Kyoko laughed and skipped over towards the back, Rosa followed her to see Black sat in the corner scribbling in a book. “Hey Blacky, long time no see!” 

He jumped and the pencil clattered against the desk. He looked up at the other dark haired teen wide eyed before letting out a shaky sigh. “K-Kyoko please don’t do that. I told you to leave me whilst I’m drawing…” He trailed off as he noticed Rosa then went red in the face quickly covering the sketch book page. “O-Oh hi ah Rosa! I-I didn’t think I’d see you again so soon.” 

“Same here,” she replied as she tilted her head. “Are you okay? Are you always this jumpy?” 

“He’s always this way,” Kyoko said with a shrug. “Take it that summer break didn’t help you relax at all?” 

“I spend way too much time with Phoen and his grandpa to be anything but terrified,” he murmured. As Rosa looked confused, Kyoko laughed. 

“His best friend’s grandpa is… Strange, I heard. Makes a living as a ‘ghost talker’, all the ghost stories would scare me.” 

Rosa imagined an old man conning paranoid people by claiming a ghost had possessed their lights. Her father had dealt with con men like that before. “Sounds… Scary… What were you drawing?” 

“Nothing important,” he quickly said and Kyoko sniggered. 

“Black only lets me see his drawings because he knows I’d just take the book otherwise. Just let her see it, Blacky.” 

“B-But it’s crap,” he mumbled and Rosa gave him a lopsided smile. 

“I won’t judge. … Well I’ll try not to anyway.” 

As Black tried to protest, Kyoko shot him a look, he sighed and nervously showed her. 

Rosa tilted her head as she tried to decipher exactly what the drawing was supposed to be. It seemed to be some kind of creature that was a blend between a cat, rabbit and fox. “Ah… Is that a cabbix?” 

“C-CABBIX?!” Kyoko howled, fighting back tears of laughter.

“What the bloody hell is a cabbix?!” Black cried, flushing bright red.

Their outbursts drew attention from the teacher who walked over to them glaring. “This is a classroom, not a zoo! Quiet down!” 

“S-Sorry sir!” Black squeaked and Kyoko echoed him. Rosa smiled awkwardly, noticing the other students in the room staring at them. This would be fun to tell Lily when they united at lunch time. About how she got two people in trouble on the first day. 

“I’m ah sorry sir, my fault,” she mumbled and Mr Clarkson gave a heavy sigh, rolling his eyes. 

“Of course… I wish there was a rule against red contacts.” He returned to his desk. Rosa watched him go and shuddered. He didn’t even need red eyes to have a terrifying glare. 

“I’m sorry about that guys,” she murmured and Kyoko giggled. 

“It’s all good. Lesson’s in ten minutes so let’s sit and trade silly stories eh?” 

Before Rosa could protest, Kyoko dragged her into the desk next to Black’s and sat on the other side of her. She gave Black a helpless look and he flashed a weak smile before returning to his drawing, idly listening to Kyoko’s rambles. 

Rosa concluded that although Kyoko was very friendly, she was also way too energetic.

[nocturnalmemories]

Chapter 2: A Fated Meeting

Rosa stared at the suddenly flustered boy as he promptly jumped off her, watching him stumble and stammer apologies.

“I-I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to run into you, are you okay-” Her vacant stare and lack of response was obviously freaking him out more. “Are you hurt? Need a doctor? How many fingers am I holding up?”

The speed and panic that the boy spoke with gave Rosa the impression that he was going to pass out from stress at any minute, however she found herself rendered mute as she took in his appearance. He seemed to be her age with messy black hair and snow white skin, vaguely reminding her of the fairy tale character. However what caught her attention was his wide eyes that seemed to sparkle with fear. He had red eyes, like her. “Are you a vampire?”

Those eyes blinked slowly before the boy gave a shaky sigh, composing himself. “Thank God you’re okay. I’m uh… Not a vampire. It’s daytime. And I’m not sparkling like a fairy.”

“I totally did not notice that,” she droned, sighing as he seemed to tilt his head in confusion. Don’t layer the sarcasm on with strangers. “I’m being sarcastic.” He let out a nervous chuckle and held his hand out. She grabbed it and almost fell back down as she tried to stand, gritting her teeth. Something wasn’t right. Glancing at her foot, her white sock was stained red around her ankle. A sudden wave of dizziness came over her as she grumbled a curse under her breath. “Well, that doesn’t look good.”

The dark haired boy took one look at her foot and freaked out, stammering over himself. “I-I’m sorry! Do you need a bandage?”

“Calm down, it’s probably just a scra…” Rosa trailed off as a roll of plasters appeared in her vision. “You are really prepared, aren't you? Do you do sports a lot?” Not that he looked too physically impressive, even though he was a little taller than her. Which was not a spectacular feat with her own height being an inch below five feet. Despite that, his hoodie was rather baggy, maybe he wasn’t so frail underneath it.

He shook his head. “No, one of my friends is very… Ah… Accident prone.”

She couldn’t help but smirk slightly ignoring the throbbing of her ankle. “Would this accident prone friend happen to be you?” His skin flushed pink and he gave a quiet laugh and a crooked smile.

“Okay I’m kind of accident prone too…” Giggling she took the roll and sat on a nearby wall propping her foot up. The boy flinched as she pulled her sock down showing a small patch of cracked skin and blood. “Again I’m so sorry, that looks painful.”

She shrugged and took a plaster idly patching herself up. “I’ve done worse.” Up close she noticed a thin red mark just missing his left eye and tilted her head. “How did you do that?” He raised an eyebrow and she gestured at his eye, his thin hand covered it and he gave a weak chuckle.

“Oh ah… It’s just a… It’s just a cat scratch. Taking longer to heal than I thought it would…” he mumbled and she frowned.

“What did you do to the poor thing?”

“Nothing, I like cats… The cat just didn’t like me.” He stared at her and she felt her skin burn. There was something off about this boy. Maybe it was his eyes giving her this odd feeling, it had been long hammered into her head that their eye colour wasn’t normal. She couldn’t just ask a stranger ‘hey by the way why are your eyes red’ though, could she? She had the nagging feeling it wasn’t the first time she saw him though. “Um excuse me but… Are you wearing contacts?”

Thank God he asked first. “No uh… My eyes are natural. Yours?” He nodded and silence broke out. Rosa was never the best socialiser and it didn’t seem like this boy was either.

Then Rio broke the ice for her chiming in her head. ‘Wow Rosie, first time you talk to a boy in weeks and you’re screwing it up!’

Her body instantly heated up and she almost fell off the wall. “Shut up!”

The boy startled, looking at her with wide eyes. “I-I didn’t say anything!”

Feeling her face turn red she looked away. “I didn’t mean you! I meant…” Well, crap. She couldn’t tell a stranger about an annoying voice in her head, could she? But something told her this boy wasn’t a complete stranger. “I-I’m sorry, I daydream a lot.” She cracked a weak smile. “I was just imagining my friend seeing us just standing here like this and telling one of us to spit something out already. I’m… Not good at small talk.”

“Same here…” he mumbled and Rosa mentally scolded Rio.

‘Couldn’t you have left the talking until later?’

‘Sorry Rosie but you’re the one who couldn’t keep your mouth shut~ Come on, just ask him if he goes school around here, you need more friends~’

‘Thanks for that…’ She took a deep breath and gave a shaky grin. “So, do you go to school? I, uh, mean school around here. Of course you’d go to school, unless you’re home-schooled or something… Though that’s still kinda school…” She brought her hand to her face. “I’m sorry, I guess I’m a little flustered.”

He laughed, shaking his head. “It’s alright, I get like that too… A lot… I go to Marine High, you?”

“Same, I’ve just transferred,” she said and he smiled somewhat.

“So we might see each other from time to time… I’m in year 11, you?”

“I’m in year 11 too,” she mumbled.

He raised an eyebrow. “You transferred schools for your last year? That… Has to be awkward.”

“It is, blame my dad’s boss,” she grumbled. “Hey what’s your name anyway? Pretty silly we’ve been talking and…”

He chuckled, nodding in understanding. “Yeah… My name is Blake, but mostly everyone calls me Black. You are…?”

Rosa cocked her head. He looked familiar but that name didn’t fit. Well, she could understand where his nickname came from when his hair was as dark as it could surely get but… Maybe she was mistaken, she was sure she had seen those eyes before though… “My name’s Rosa.”

He stared at her then scanned her over, the heat of his gaze made her feel slightly uncomfortable. It felt like she was slowly burning but without the pain. “Rosa…?” He suddenly went red in the face, quickly looking away. “I-I’m sorry but- Have we- Do we-” He shook his head, giving a faltering smile. “I’m sorry, it’s nothing”

She raised an eyebrow. “Hey what’s wrong?” She had a strong feeling he recognised her. But as he silently avoided her gaze she found it was her turn to take charge of the conversation. “You know… Have we met before?”

His wide eyes locked with hers, his jaw slacking. “Wha… You think so too?” His next words were an almost incoherent mumble as he turned away. “But I’d remember someone like her …” Someone like her?? She could not help but wonder in what way he meant that. He looked back at her, eyes blinking curiously. “Wait, so you just transferred to the school here right? Did you move from another town?”

Rosa thought to herself trying to ignore Rio’s irritating voice. ‘Uh so he does kinda know you but not? Maybe you went to the same school? Church? Or maybe he’s a friend of a friend...’ Sighing, trying to externally conceal her frustration, she launched a mental message at the voice in her head. ‘Shut the hell up!’ Hearing Rio yelp she shook her head wondering for the tenth time that week if she’d have to suffer with this irritating ‘partner’ forever. She had played video games with partners less annoying. “Yeah Dad’s boss sent him here, it’s annoying but nothing I can do about it…”

Hearing her phone beep, she took it out and switched the screen on to see a message from Lily. ‘Mum said get back ASAP, she seems pissed at you!’ Followed by a laughing face of course, and Rosa swore. If this was about the empty cookie jar, she wasn’t going to let Lily project the blame onto her again.

“Shit,” she grumbled as she hopped off the wall, ignoring the sting of her ankle as she swiped her bag off the ground. Barring the chocolate bar she quickly pocketed, everything else had been saved from their initial collision. “I’m sorry, I need to run.”

He took out his own phone and paled, giving a nervous giggle. “S-Same here. 12 already? Phoen’s going to be pissed…”

Rosa tilted her head. “Did you just say ‘fin’? Like a fish fin?”

Black shook his head, pocketing his phone and looking at the passing cars. “No… It’s a nickname for ‘Phoenix’.”

She gave him a strange look. “How the heck do you get fin from Phoenix?”

Black shrugged. “How do you get ‘Dick’ from ‘Richard’?”

She sighed. “Okay, you’ve got me there. I’ll see you around then?” Deep down she knew she had met Black before. However right now, neither of them knew how.

He flashed her a shy smile, which she returned. “Right, see you around.”

And as they parted ways they both knew it wouldn’t be for long.

The street lights were acting up again.

The man crossed his arms as he stared up at them, a frown on his face as it was illuminated then hidden again as the darkness fought off the light. A suitcase rested against his shin before his sore arm reached out for it, and he brushed imaginary dust off his crinkled uniform.

Another hard night working overtime, another night the street lights decided to malfunction. The City Council did not appear to care much for the North West side of the city, between the rundown buildings and faulty infrastructure.

Then there were the rumours, of the bloody murders down every alley, whispers of a killer on the loose. Such a phenomenon should inform him that walking home at night was a terrible idea, however he had missed the night bus once again. Besides, he was smart enough to avoid such obvious murder spots like alleyways.

With a groan, he dragged himself back down the street. Every muscle in his body felt strained, limbs heavy. Who knew when you worked a desk job that you should get up to stretch every now and then?

Cars whirred as they passed by, illuminating the pavement with the flash of their headlights before they disappeared out of sight. As one such light struck him in the eyes, he glared after the car, before his gaze was drawn to the opposite side of the road.

Her head was pointed up and her eyes closed, arms swinging by her sides as the sound of her humming reached his ears. Despite the source strolling several feet away it sounded so clear, a cheerful melody.

His eyes fell to her dark blazer and matching skirt, catching a glimpse of white as the street lights flickered. She was wearing a school uniform. On Sunday night. Surely, he was mistaken. Nevertheless, he made the decision.

The young girl stopped humming as he stopped by her side, green eyes blinking as they scanned the man. Up close he estimated she was about 11 or 12, wearing a high school uniform yet not having reached her teenage years yet. “Hello mister.” She flashed a sweet smile, however her mouth soon twitched. She averted her eyes. Wary.

“What are you doing out so late at night?” He lowered his voice as she took a step back in response to his words. It occurred that his words sounded accusatory. “Are you on your way home?”

She stared up at him before glancing away again. Her voice was sweet but quiet as she whispered. “Mum told me not to talk to strangers…” Her eyes scanned their surroundings and she bit her lip before she added. “Wait, where am I… I think I’m lost.”

Call the cops, his common sense told him. However he found the words falling out without a thought. “Do you want me to walk you home?”

Her eyes lit up as he wondered why he had asked such a thing, however the conflict seemed to melt away as she nodded with a giggle. “Please! Do you… Do you know where Springwater Lane is?”

The girl had gone back to humming as she skipped ahead of him, light brown hair swaying with her every movement. Her name was Chloe and according to her uniform she went to Marine High, and that was all a grown man really needed to know about some girl he was escorting home. The man still wondered why he did not just call the police, however whenever his hand went for the phone she would turn and smile at him. And strangely, he would find himself stopping.

“How much further about are we, mister?” she chimed, and he squinted as he peered down the road ahead of them. They had steered far away from the main roads, deeper into the ‘dark corner’ of the city where every other lamp post was broken. All those complaints appeared to go ignored by the Council, when the pavement was uneven and the road in need of work. The occasional house they passed was marred by boarded windows, a sight that sent chills down his spine no matter how many he counted over the months. He could not wait to move to the south side, where the Government seemed to care about the state of the city.

“I think we’re almost there.” He knew exactly where Springwater was, when he had been scared off from renting a property in the area by an elf who swore to him that it was a bad idea. Move down South. However he had ultimately failed to heed that second piece of advice.

As Chloe continued to cheerfully swing her arms to the made up tune she created, her sleeve fell back. He saw the marks. They were symbols he did not recognise, in the form of raised red scars.

“How did you do that?” He could not stop himself from asking, however the sight of them made his blood rush, his heartbeat pick up. And as she opened her mouth to answer, he found himself looking for escape.

“Oh I saw these shapes in a book, I had to copy them! But I had no paper.” She gave a shrug, and he found his breath swiped away from him as moonlight flashed off the blade she pulled out. “Do you like them? I can draw them on you too!”

His attempt to step away turned into a stumble, as he grabbed onto a dysfunctional street lamp to avoid the tumble. “N-No, I’m good!” Were her eyes glowing before? Were those scars glowing with them? However the glamour appeared to break on him as he realised. “Hey, how about I call the police? It’ll be safer than walking in the dark.”

She tilted her head, as her lips curled into a frown. “Aw, but we’re almost there! Come on, don’t be boring!” She flashed a grin as her eyes cut through the darkness. And suddenly, he was unable to move. “I can drag you there if you want~”

Then it happened.

As he tried to protest, a voice drowned him out, footsteps reaching his ears. “What exactly do you think you’re doing, Eifa?” He could not whip his head round to face them, only watch as they stood beside them. His blood ran cold.

The girl just smiled at the young man as he cut in. He returned it with a calm stare. He was much taller than the businessman, although he appeared many years younger, with a mess of black hair and shining icy blue eyes. “Hello Tsu, what’s the problem? This lovely man is just helping me home.”

‘Tsu’ crossed his arms, as he raised an eyebrow. He appeared rather disheveled, but he was a good-looking lad. And for some reason, that made the businessman’s fear skyrocket. “Right, and I’m walking my dog. Drop the charm. We both know what your plan is here.”

She let out a whine that was obviously fake. “Oh come on, Tsu, let me have my fun!”

Before the businessman could blink, ‘Chloe’ was up against a wall, being held up by the throat as the boy’s eyes bored into hers. The adult noted that the girl did not seem frightened at all. If anything, that expression made it apparent she was trying not to break down laughing. “You can have your fun when you learn to be more discreet, hm? We can’t afford to be caught.”

The man stared at him, mouth open and body frozen as the girl huffed and turned to salute him with a giggle. ‘We’. “Alright, you’re the boss! See you in Hell, Mister!”

She skipped away, however the fear only increased as the boy faced him, now the charm had worn off, every red flag came flooding to him. “I’m sorry.” The boy’s voice was low as he took one more step towards him. “But we need to keep our secret, hm?”

And as the man tried to look behind him, he got the strange feeling it was no longer just the two of them.

The man’s screams remained unheard by the city.