Caught In Some Trouble Accidentally on Purpose

Sitting on a flight of stairs overlooking the waterpark, Domitian and Adrian rippled open another package of popsicles. That was dangerous in a hot water pit teeming with little kids but Domitian couldn’t focus on them.

Was it going to be under the shadow of the trees? Hiding under the arches of the park, or would it be kneeling in the shade of his younger brother?

It had been too long and felt too good being free. At any moment, it would return with a vengeance, dragging him away for who knows how long.

“You’re paranoid,” Adrian snickered, biting into the soda-flavored ice bar. Domitian turned to him so fast, he could almost feel his neck breaking from the speed. “But you know, I’m the same,” He looked far off, the bags under his eyes dark. “I never told Yoichi this but there’s something haunting me.” The confession sounded too familiar to Domitian.

“I look for it but it’s always the one watching me first,” Domitian replied hugging his knees to his chest. “What do you see?”

“It’s not watching me from afar,” He tapped on his head. “I think it lives inside. That’s why I haven’t slept or even blinked in three days.”

“Are you okay?” Domitian grabbed him, worried his little brother was going to die from sleep deprivation.

“Oh I will be,” Adrian turned to his elder brother, fully believing that everything that was happening now was possible. “But cross your fingers. I’m going to check.”

Out of exhaustion and the sickness of hope, Adrain locked eyes with Domitian, burning the sunny park into his mind’s eye before slowly blacking out.

He saw nothing in the dark.

The first time Jian had felt the shade was when the bratty eldest of the cousins and siblings was recovering from a particularly bad cold.

After a…close encounter of sorts, Jian found himself looking for Domitian again.

‘Why would a lazy pillow hogging oaf go to so much trouble to rub his nose in wet grass?’

The sour thought had come to Jian when he found the eldest of the five curled under the shade of a tree, hidden from the morning rays. At first glance, it seemed like Domitian had gone off to be alone and fell into a sleep plagued by fever and a cold sweat. It wasn’t until he knelt that Jian realized the way Domitian was laying was clumsy; like he had tripped and fallen.

His eyes were wide open, hazy like translucent glass.

The fact that Domitian had snuck miles away to be alone, beating the sun to the forest, wasn’t something stupid anymore.

This was dangerous.

“You’ll have to deal with this,” Jian set about scooping Domitian into his arms, ready to sprint back to the home as fast as possible. The moment he wrapped his arms around Domitian’s shoulders, he felt heavy.

Air was squeeze from his lungs and his bones creaked from the effort to stay upright. All of this from a simple downward gaze.

Accustomed to being watched, Jian pinpointed exactly where the watcher was.

Every living creature had an instinct, including beings like Jian. A tug at their gut could tell them they were being spied. Sometimes, the instinct would go out of control, causing creatures to flee from their own shadows. It was only in this time, with Domitian’s eyes staring through him, when Jian knew he had to fear the shape connected to his feet.

Turning his chin up, Jian’s eyes widened at the shadow towering over him and Domitian, peering into the shade’s eye as it dissipated to the sound of a sharp bang.

Ripped out of the hazy memory, Jian found himself sitting against a stone wall, covered in a sheen of rain. By his feet was a gaping hole, leading down into a room that had crumbled into itself.

Below were shadows, the dark greys of stone, and a dampened red carpet, making Ashling’s golden hair easy to pick out.

His younger brother was crouching beneath a crevice in the wood and rubble, huddling in the dark. Jian had half a mind shout for him but the other half told him to stop. Look around before it’s time to jump.

The sky was slightly less gray than the deserted castle and towers stood, a few being fully intact, surrounding Jian and the courtyard just over the wall. For a rude awakening with no hint as to how he had ended up there, this wasn’t so bad. It would almost have been a by the book heroic amnesia case with the only oddity being that there were arrows littering the ruins like it had been hailing them.

A recent battle could easily explain what happened to his surroundings, making Jian the warier of the situation. But, as it looked, the place was deserted save for him and Ashling.

Or actually scratch that. Young green sprouts were springing from the cracks between the stones too fast to be anything other than magic.

Ashe was never far behind Ashling. Though she was the frailest of them, Ashe was acting first which could mean she had an idea of what was going on.

“Jian?” A voice called his name, echoing from within the long hall below, lifting Jian from the ground. “Jasper?” The next name made Jian slump back.

That made five people and Jian should feel relieve for that. He should.

Sighing, Jian cupped his hand and began to yell through them.

“Dom—“

The sprouts burst from the wall, wrapping Jian’s hands against his opened mouth. Ashling’s chin jerked up at Jian. The boy pressed his fingers to his lips, shaking his head vehemently. From afar, Jian heard the same loud hallow bang that rang through the memory he had dreamed of.

Jasper was the one who had woken Domitian and scared the shadow away with the noise.

‘They’re all like this. Turn my back for one second and he got lead away again. Fuck me, I should have told you—‘ About the thing that was haunting Domitian.

But Jian had seen that shade; looked right into its core and saw it looking back.

How does someone haunt themselves?

“Jasper?” Domitian’s voice called to his cousin. He was close enough for Jian to hear the scratching. Domitian was dragging something along the wet carpet, slowly swerving around to follow after Jasper. “Jas…” The voice dropped to a murmur; the same hoarse voice that had mumbled into his ear when Jian was trapped by the weakened young man. “That won’t work on me again.”

The shadows of the halls’ ceiling shuddered. It was the only warning the voice gave and Ashe acted immediately. Releasing Jian, Ashe forced vines to erupt from the floor, barring the darkness from reaching Ashling as the boy made his escape. The dark flood of fog pressed against the organic wall, slowly seeping through to grab at boy climbing the rubble.

“You…you…you…” Domitian’s voice repeated over and over. “Tell me how badly I want to hear your heart—“ The shadows pooled at the hill of rubble’s base. Ashling was faltering, grasping at his throat like he was choking. To Jian’s horror, his little brother’s grip slipped and he rolled back over the sharp rocks and splintered wood. “—and how much I want to rip it apart.”

All at once, Ashe’s barrier was blown to pieces. The wisps of shadows lunged for Ashling’s limp form, colliding against Jian’s hook swords. He had acted fast to defend Ashling, making the split decision to leap down and face this spirit head on.

This entity was indescribable; both a darkness that strangled Jian without touching him and an invisible breath that was dreadfully calming. It felt ancient, unknown, but as familiar as the fevered warm arms that had clung to him for dear life.

The lump in Jian’s throat gave the voice form.

Smokey hands gripped Jian’s swords, pulling them down for a bulging mass of a head to emerge from the fog. Leaning close enough to touch its ephemeral figure to Jian’s forehead, the voice decided its eyes should glow green.

“I was given so many faces,” The voice crooned in a manner Jian never wanted Domitian to rasp, pained and resenting. “I can’t remember them all. But you. But you. But. You.”

Jian’s swords were shuddering, not from the effort to push back. He was trying to take them away but the voice refused to release the blades biting into its transient hands. Panting hard, Jian couldn’t look away from this thing.

That’s what everyone had been calling it but from the very first time Jian had seen the shade, he knew exactly who it was.

“Domitian?” Jian whispered, earning a low chuckle from ‘Dom.’

“I remember you.” The swords crinkled in its hands.

‘Run.’

The warning came from Hu.

‘The dead…’

Jian was shaking his head, standing his ground.

‘…It rules the dead.’

Jian wasn’t moving but the moss at his feet were.

“Who is this?” The voice asked, attention turning to Huian. “She’s like you. Used to be,” Jian felt the spirit waver, existence flickering like the flame of a candle as the voice’s figure grew sharper. That finally set him off.

“No,” The voice clutched Huian. “It dropped you here. You should stay here. Here.” The figure with Domitian’s voice vaulted over Jian’s only defense against it only to have the vines that had gathered at Jian’s feet flung him and Ashling away.

Suddenly, Jian was high in the sky, freefalling with Ashling alongside him. Freeing his hands, Jian dived towards his little brother and latched on. Ashe had thrown them far enough for the hole they had escaped from to look like a dot. Jian aimed for a nearby tower but the cloud of black smoke shot out of the ruins, chasing after them.

Rolling away, grazing dangerous against the entity flying past them, Jian tried his best to land somewhere safe. The rotting courtyard was the best that he could do. Flipping, he positioned himself boots down, preparing to roll when he hit the cobblestone.

Ashe was there to catch them, scrounging what was left of the vegetation to cushion their fall. The shapeshifter bolted to their side the moment they touched the ground, ramming them out of the entity’s way.

“I’ve been watching Dom since he was on all fours, shoving him back in his crib when this thing tried to lead him off a cliff.” Jasper narrowed his eyes, watching the entity fight to regain some of its form. He let Jian push off of him. Ashling remained daze, gripping Jian for support. Just being near that monster was ripping his concentration to shreds, scattering the pieces in all directions.

“Finally, there’s an actual ass to kick. Sort of.” Jasper twisted his mouth and shrugged.

The entity, writhing on the overgrown stones, had come together to fashion a crude head and set of arms. Its wisps had yet to shape legs but it could crawl fast and pounced almost far enough to scrape at Jasper’s feet.

Instead, it dug deep scars into the ground, energy sparking at its fingertips.

“Jian. Jasper!” Ashling gasped, wracked with pounding headaches. He was seeing the castle ruins and a grand fortress bombarded by lightning existing at the same time.

“I know,” Jian stared, unblinking at the entity lumbering for them. “We can’t stay here.”

“What are you talking about?” Jasper glanced over his shoulder. ‘We just got here.”

Jian wasn’t sure how they got there in the first place but like the entity had said, it had been a mistake. For now, as much as the mix of confusion and sparks of clarity made him want to dig his heels into the ground, catching the entity wasn’t something they could achieve. Not now.

The shadowy body curled on the ground, gathering more of itself while Jian fought the urge to stay.

“Me. Find me.”

“It doesn’t matter where we go,” Jian turned his gaze down. Lichen was spreading below his boots, spreading behind him, deeper into the ruins. “But we have to leave.”

“This entire time, I thought that this thing would never leave us alone,” Jasper shook off Jian’s arm when he tried to tug on his arm. For once, he wasn’t going to joke around but it had to be for the wrong reason. “You got to step in already. Let me have this one.”

The sting of a petty vendetta, chained to both the entity and Jian, made Ashling’s throat close.

“L-leave.” Ashling croaked, refusing to wait for an answer.

The time was 10:50AM and the apartment smelled like pancakes and greasy maple bacon. Over the sizzling in the kitchen side of the two-in-one room, the jingle of the morning news hour played on the TV. For some reason it was in French.

Groggy, Domitian shifted in his seat on the leather couch, sinking deeper into the cushion he hadn’t moved from since the horror movie marathon ended the night before.

Restless, the young man scanned the clean lived in apartment that he had never been in before in his entire life.

“Mom? Dad?” Domitian croaked out first, feeling like he hadn’t spoken for days. He tried again, raising his voice, and Ty jolted awake from under a blanket. Her legs had been resting on Domitian’s lap and her foot just about knocked his chin off of his face.

“Huh?” Ty squinted at her son, dizzied by the sudden awakening. She clapped a hand over her mouth, just in case the couch was in danger of getting stained, and got up on her knees to look over the back of the couch. “Where?” Ty slurred, shaking her head at the confusing scenery. Then, she zeroed back in on one of the things she knew best “Dom!” She elongated the ‘m,’ tackling Domitian into the couch’s arm and whined. “Call for your dad again. Kids are a two person job.”

They both heard snickering from the kitchen.

“Dom’s old enough to go to the bathroom by himself.” Domitian’s younger brother called out to them. The elder brother expected the jab to sting but this voice was softer and slightly pitched higher to what he was used to.

Both he and Ty peered over the couch and the kitchen’s island at the stove. A head of wavy black hair turned back to greet them. He had the same glacial blue eyes as his mother but was just as tall as her.

Despite his dry tongue, Domitian managed a name.

“Adrian?”

The younger brother span the stove’s dials, clicking the heat off. With a smooth flick of the pan, one more fluffy pancake flopped on top of a steamy golden stack towering by a bundle of bacon wrapped in a paper towel.

“You made breakfast?” Ty swung her legs over the couch and began to hover around Adrian and the already emptied mixing bowls and pans. Most of them were already clean. “Aw no, I could have made you guys something to eat. You didn’t need to wake up so early.”

“Don’t worry, Mom. I was bored but I didn’t feel like taking a shower yet.” Adrian shrugged, watching Ty struggle to find something to do. She ended up placing plates out on the kitchen, all ten of them.

“Are we having a party?” Domitian wandered over, noticing that there was a stool for each of the plates. “What am I talking about?” He rubbing his forehead with his palm. “Every day’s a freaky ass party.” His family was like that. In fact, Dom noticed that they were still not enough stools or plates.

“Are you trying to say something about me?” Ty teased, opening the blinds to let sunlight through the window. The weather alone was enough to keep the room lit so Domitian flicked the electric lights off. “If you’re going to blame anyone, blame your dad. It’s his fault I can’t keep my hands off of him.”

“Ew.” Adrian and Domitian grimaced at the same time.

“God, mom. I can’t eat like this.” Adrian slid a stool out, tapping Domitian’s shoulder before he could space out at the open window.

“I can.” Ty stole the seat, raising her brows. It only delighted her more when Adrian stuck his tongue out in disgust. Domitian would have done the same if he hadn’t been checking over his shoulder at the darkened hall.

Gaze darting from there, to the bathroom, and back to the window, Domitian was waiting to catch a glimpse.

Then, Adrian began to snap his fingers by Domitian’s head.

“How many?” He asked, holding the teetering plate of pancakes in one hand and a spatula in the other. Domitian was about to answer but Adrian pushed a third of the stack on to his platter. “Too late. We’re not waiting for the others to let the breakfast freeze.”

“And orange juice,” Domitian’s mother poured a glass for him. “Milk.” She poured one for Adrian.

“And milk.” Adrian took the carton and poured a mug for Ty. “You had your fill of sugar last night.”

Now Domitian was stinging. Vividly, he remembered the movie marathon the night before where his mom had emptied several cans of soda. She wouldn’t drink in front of the kids even though he and Adrian were no strangers to even blinding amounts of moonshine.

All of that was normal. Was it?

“Nnn.” Domitian rubbed his temples with his thumb and middle finger, keeping his eyes closed. They were rolling from one thing to the next, making the boy nauseous. A plastic bottle was slid his way, bumping into his elbow.

“You and mom can share,” Adrian said, spreading butter over his pancakes. The syrup bottle between Domitian and Ty. It was two thirds full which would have been more than enough for three people but hardly a sip for two mouths filled with sweet teeth. “I’ll try not to gag watching you this time.”

“That’s weird,” Ty let Domitian shower his pancakes and already sweetened maple bacon in syrup. “I could have sworn we picked up groceries a few days ago?”

“We did,” Domitian kept rubbing his eyes. Dark spots appeared in his vision from the pressure but it wasn’t the ones he was watching for. “But it’s fine. Me and Adrian can go buy more.”

“Why not all of us go?” Ty asked, dipping her bacon in the pool of syrup she squeezed on to the corner of her plate. In reply, Adrian tapped his empty wrist. Almost choking, Ty jerked her head towards the green LED numbers on the microwave.

“Fuck, I forgot,” Ty groaned, sawing into one of the pancakes with the side of her fork. The breakfast was delicious but why did time have to sour it? “I need to get ready in ten minutes.”

“Fifteen,” Domitian pulled out a drawer, finding a hair brush laying on top of a bunch of coasters. “If you multitask.” He flung the brush and Ty plucked it out of the air.

“That’s a good kid!” Ty leaned over to kiss his forehead but quickly pulled back. “Wait, the other good kid made breakfast first,” She smooched Adrian first, swinging back to lay a peck on Domitian. “And another for both cause your dads’ missing out.” She leaned from one side to the next, smooching them again.

“You’re embarrassing,” Domitian shielded his face from another but he was still laughing and so was Adrian.

The clock seemed to stay stuck at 10:50AM and Ty only had fifteen minutes to head out the door for what felt like a good long time. It was just the three of them, messy bed hair, PJs, and a quickly disappearing breakfast.

“Well, it doesn’t hurt being early,” Ty said once Domitian helped her pick out clothes while Adrian took care of the dirty plates. “Or, only if it makes me look desperate,” She shrugged, pulling a bunch of bills from her wallet, laying them on the tabletop. “Go out and get some lunch later. A movie too.”

“We just watched a ton of them.” Adrian yawned, still tired from a sleepless night.

“It’s different in a theatre,” Ty trapped her sons under her arms, hugging them tight. “Pick up some cuties then.”

“Movie sounds fine,” Domitian muttered through his mother’s sleeve, a face already popping into his head. “A movie is definitely fine.”

“Good! I’ll see you later, then!” Ty tried to head out the door but found that both boys were still clinging to her. “What? Scared the bogeyman’s gonna get you without mommy to kick him out?”

Silently, green and blue eyes turned up at Ty, holding their tongues to themselves. They felt like they should say something but it felt trapped in their throats.

“I…I can cancel today,” Ty offered, hit with a throb of worry. “It’s no big deal.”

Right away, both boys slinked out of Ty’s hug.

“Meh.”

“We’ll figure out something.”

“Hurry up and get out of here already.”

“We can’t get groceries if you only buy mini donuts.”

Clapping the brothers’ on the back, Ty redid the buttons on her blouse and opened the door of the apartment to the chirping of birds and busy traffic. Domitian’s eyes were suddenly darting everywhere, jumping from one shadow to the next. Adrian refused to blink.

“Don’t get into fights you can’t finish.” Ty waved at them, stepping out of the apartment. They both had half the mind to drag her back inside but with tight lips, nodded and watched her close the door.

It was insane how quiet the home had gotten. Domitians eyes and ears hurt and it was the same for Adrian. They needed someone to whack them back into reality but where were those people?

A notepad was thrown at the side of Domitian’s face as Adrian went off to find them.

“I did breakfast and dishes today. You’re making the list and carrying the heavy stuff home.” Adrian said and Domitian grumbled in reply, heading to the barren fridge.

Padding to the hall leading to the bedrooms, Adrian tried to comb his hair with his fingers and called out names.

“Tyler?” Adrian called. That didn’t sound completely right on his tongue and no answer came anyways. “Tristan? Ashe? Val? Lucia?” None of them yelled back for him. There were tons of doors with no one behind them. Maybe he wasn’t calling the right names?

Adrian knocked loudly on the wall, hoping someone was going to emerge from the shadowy hall. There were no windows and all the doors were closed. The boy’s heart started to beat faster.

“Guys?” He chanced another knock and the floor creaked loudly for the first time. A hand grasped his shoulder and tugged.

“Fuck! What the hell?” Adrian whirled around, finding Domitian peering into the dark. “Don’t fucking scare me like that.”

Ignoring him, Domitian kept squinting. Even if it had been pitch black, Domitian would have been able to see fine but something was unnerving. He was looking for something. Perhaps a sibling but it felt like they weren’t here.

So why was he searching every corner?

“There’s another bathroom besides the one down there right?” Domitian asked.

“You live here. You should know.”

“Do I?”

Adrian looked at Domitian like he was crazy but he was the one blinking normally.

“Last time I checked…” Adrian frowned, trying to keep his eyes open. “Sure?” He shook his head. “Yeah. Of course you live here.”

“Use the other bathroom. It has toothpaste.” Domitian lied, feeling safer with Adrian staying somewhere with sunlight.

“Fine. You didn’t have to be so weird about it. Pft.” Adrian blew air out the side of his mouth but went along without fighting. He felt relieved to.

With the brightness of the harvest moon casting a light that that could pass for the rays of a setting sun, sitting under such a sight would be, to most, a delight. Even when frost was gathering on their silver armor and tarnishing their violet cape, it would have still been a lovely peaceful evening.

Though peace and the stench of sweat and blood never went well together.

Sitting at a rusted little table in the corner of the Royal Family’s Doomwood vacation castle, Domitian hung his heavy head. The silver gem encrusted circlet sat crooked in his hair but he didn’t bother to right it. Not that he would care about appearances in a place with no one but gnarled black trees and a starless sky but right at that hour, his mind was drifting far.

His eyes, deep green and older than his years, drifted to the shadow crawling out from the shade where the harvest moon couldn’t reach. A voice was seeping from his throat and from the shadows. As he began to dream, the voice announced its arrival with a breath of frost.

Jian’s sword slammed down against the table, slicing a moth in two and shocking his liege out of his daze and halfway out of his chair.

“What kind of a Prince engages in a duel without a sword?” Jian kept his gaze on the twitching halves of the moths.

The blow was meant to bring his lord back to reality but the moth’s corpse was quickly shriveling to gray. His uchigatana, wreathed in shadows that billowed like smoke, had taken the life of those powdered wings before the steel had grazed them.

The weapon was attributed to no spirit but that of his liege; a blessing of Prince Domitian’s responsibilities on a blade presented by the Queen and King to protect their son.

And yet, Jian had to keep this sword in its sheathe at his side while the Prince brought his fists to a sword fight. The retainer had torn his palm by gripping his sword’s hilt so hard and it got worse with every bruise and cut that living pig sty of a lesser lord dared to mark…

“I can do what I want,” Domitian said as Jian took his mind elsewhere. His sword had left a crack in the circular table. “And I won. Do you see a problem with or did I imagine breaking everything but that ass’s nose?”

Jian pointed at the problems, starting from the large bleeding cut above Domitian’s brow and working his way down as he snuck a bandage close his liege. He brought his hand away when Domitian tried to slap it away.

“Is this what Lady Frydae would have wanted?” Jian asked, at rest with his fingers brushing his sword. Domitian’s mouth curled into a scowl that had been passed down through generations of his royal lineage. It was quite something in combination with his monstrous heritage.

But if Domitian had inherited anything from his parents, above all else it was the sin of wrath.

‘The only thing I owe to a puppet is spit on its shoe,” And the noble did just that to Domitian’s dear Aunt Thursday when he arrived.

That noble was wrong. Lady Frydae’s title, to many and Domitian, wasn’t deserving. She should have been Queen of this wood but long ago the Drakaths had conquered it. Takaiko was quick to offer that land back but Thursday protested until the Queen was forced to accept the logic that she tried to throw away.

What would these dastardly nobles think if the Royalty just handed out land?

And that was the way it worked out. Lady Thursday watched over these dark lands wearing an honorary title with subjects and nobles alike throwing stones at her windows. As of late, the troubles were getting worse and with the rest of the family busy with whatever enemies were scratching at the Kingdom’s walls, Domitian decided to visit himself.

He saw the noble spit at Aunt Thursday.

“If you came out of this a mangled paraplegic, you’d be blessed.”

The Lord challenged him to a duel.

“I’m not wasting steel on you.”

Lady Thursday shed terrified tears while Jian and Jasper stood at the sides of the grand hall. The eldest Prince took a grand thrashing and slashing from the surprisingly swift lord. The two were moving so fast that the chandelier of candles hanging above them swayed from the wind they built up. When Domitian completely disregarded care for collateral damage when a crude remark about the feeding habits of vampires were thrown into the air, Domitian threw the little lord into the air at the chandelier.

The lord caught fire and Domitian put it out by striking it and the lord into submission.

Now, the victor had slunk away into the shadows with his wounds and splinters of his pride.

“Tell me how stupid this was later,” Jasper grasped Jian before he ran after Prince Domitian, using a tone of voice he would never admit to using. “The eldest Prince shed blood in fight to prove a ‘puppet’s’ honor. He proved them wrong. He won. We just have to make sure he doesn’t try this kind of stint when the next duel comes along.”

Jian hadn’t really heard Jasper’s words until his boots were trampling across dead grass in the courtyard, far from the murmuring nobility.

“What did you expect?” Domitian leered at his protector, blinking the stray blood droplets away. “I can tell them ‘nicely’ but we were seeing the same kind of person. A pointy-nosed hick dressed in expensive curtains. A kind of pissrat that wants me to lash out. I did but no one’s going to want to try that again.” The Prince declared with wording that would have made his etiquette tutor hiss.

Jian merely took in those words, considering them from Domitian’s side. The Prince hated that.

“Can you sit down already?” Domitian shifted in his seat, restless as the adrenaline drained from his system.

“Is that an order?”

“No.” Domitian snapped, dragging his thumb over a cut on his chin. That did nothing to stop the bleeding and only succeeded in making a gruesome smear.

“That’s going to scar—“ You fire headed idiot. “Can you imagine what Lady Frydae will think if she saw that cut every time she saw your face?” Can your gas filled skull imagine what I…

The Prince noticed Jian’s hand rest on the back of his chair and move closer as he spoke. That and how Aunt Thursday distraught expression had chased him from the castle made Domitian’s teeth dig into his cheeks.

Realizing that he had leant too close to the Prince’s space, Jian took extra care to slowly step back but Domitian grabbed his wrist.

“Fine…just make it quick,” Domitian glanced up at his retainer expectantly.

The necromancer marched past his fallen comrades. The burning field was littered with dry splintered bones and those were far more useful than the broken but breathing bodies crawling about. More than a few hands reached to tug on his tattered robes for help and he stopped bothering to kick them away.

There was just too much going on to waste even distaste on these worthless, talentless rodents.

Ripping out an entire bunch of his hair, the necromancer let those black strands catch fire. The ash was blown away by the wind, catching on fallen monstrosities. A dark magic shook those carcasses and behind the necromancer, bones gathered and burst from the ground, coming together to form a colossal four legged behemoth that rivaled the one of the biblical stories.

While his creation crushed the remaining lives under its skeletal talons, the necromancer was about to go on a rampage on his own.

“Ty!” He half shouted, half shrieked. “Ty, come back or so help me, I’ll tear your lips off and stuff it into that pretty mouth.” Glancing from one side of the smoking wasteland to the other, finding no sign of that stupid little girl, the necromancer tore more of his hair out. It burned and his monster grew even larger, fueled by its master’s magic and the rising death toll.

“No wait! I’m sorry!” His voice grew light. “All this bad luck’s really has my temper going. Haha, you understand don’t you? We both get like that but we can start again. One more time, ok? I promise.” He muttered, curling his fingers into his palms.

Then, he felt a tug in his gut. One that made him turn around.

Leaning on the house sized claw of his beast was the brother; the blond one who talked with words that stunk like perfume. He had been inspecting his nails when he noticed the necromancer watching.

“Oh, don’t mind me,” Ty’s brother smiled, waving at the necromancer like he was a quirky neighbor. “I’m just admiring the disaster in motion.”

“Eric, where’s Ty?” The necromancer slid one of Ty’s knives out from his sleeve. Carving up Eric’s perfect complexion was going to have to suffice until the necromancer could find Ty. That thought wasn’t lost on Eric. “We just need to talk. Nothing a nice talk can’t fix.”

“My sentiments exactly,” Eric pushed himself off of the monster’s foot and approached the necromancer with his palms turned up. “Ty’s having breather with Alison at a pretty lake somewhere but that’s no reason to head home early. So, have a chat with me. ”

The necromancer laughed in his face.

“So Ty won’t come around but you’ll fuck with me instead?” He went to meet Eric in the middle, spitting in his face. Eric blinked but he didn’t flinch.

“For the metaphorical sense, yes, but if we mean the literal sense, no. Ty and I have around the same standards.” Eric wiped the spittle off of his mouth and cheek with the side of this thumb. “Don’t take it personally. You tried hard, I’ll give you that,” Resting his hands on his hips, Eric took a good look at what came of the necromancer’s efforts. “I don’t know what you were trying to accomplish but hey, it could have worked if Ty didn’t feel like tying up your laces. I mean that metaphorically by the way.”

Eric started walking again, circling around the necromancer. Despite there being more corpses than grass showing on the field, Eric’s path was always clear.

“Were you going for stylish?” Eric asked, inspecting the necromancer’s fallen allies. “Charisma wielded with an iron fist; that’s the old traditional way but it never stops being eye catching. Even when it fails spectacularly.” Eric shook his head, laughing in a way that showed just how tickled he was at all of this.

The necromancer was livid, boiling over with rage under his seared hood. Who was this cocky bastard? By virtue, or vice, of being a part of Ty’s family meant he was a freak like her but it didn’t mean he could leave a dent on the necromancer. Not on him or his creative genius.

“Should have stuck to your guns,” Eric shook his head, close to pitying the waste of potential. “Instead of mana, you use a part of you to raise your undead. A nail clipping, a strand of hair, spit if you’re lazy but they’re always stronger than the usual rotting beast.” He said, rolling a skull away with his heel.

The knife in the necromancer’s hand was about to bend from his death grip. He couldn’t stand the sight of the brother any more. The moment Eric turned back to face him, the necromancer’s hand shot out towards Eric’s eye.

The point of the silver blade aimed at the pupil of Eric’s deep blue eye directed itself away, leaving a thin scratch on the man’s cheek instead.

It wasn’t an unknown force that made the necromancer move but it was truly something disturbing that caused him to miss. Maybe it was the way Eric’s eyes lit up or the way his smile began to show teeth. Maybe it was how Eric was leaning towards the knife but the necromancer didn’t need to know exactly what it was.

He just knew that he needed to increase the space between them. Now.

“Go on.” Eric invited him to do so, watching the necromancer struggle to move his legs. He trashed, jerked himself from side to side, unsuccessful with budging his suddenly lead heavy feet. “But before that, let me make a confession.”

Eric placed his hands on the necromancer’s shoulders and he froze.

“You and me, we were almost thinking the same thing when we first met. You wanted to put holes into my smile and I—“ The blond leaned his forehead against the necromancer’s. “—The moment I saw you putting your dirty little fingers on my sister, I wanted to hold you down, tear your tongue out, and make you drown in your own blood. But, that lost its charms a few months down the line.”

The necromancer’s throat had gone dry but somehow found the nerve to call on his creation.

“Kill him!” He shouted without thinking and the behemoth brought its talons down on him and Eric both.

It halted right above their heads and Eric didn’t bother looking up. But, the psychic’s breath did hitch.

“Oh, when I found out your special flavor of necromancy, I wanted to see how far it could go,” Eric explained himself, feeling the wonderful strain of effort it took to fight off the strength of that behemoth. The necromancer could barely hear him through his excruciating pain. Whatever sickness had overtaken him made it feel like his blood was being ripped from his body. “If a few clippings can do this—“Eric raised his hand and flicked the behemoth’s talons away. A fissure ran up its leg, splitting it in two. “—What can you do when you lose something like…the worst thing about you?”

The necromancer’s pelvis shot out his back, taking a femur and a mix of organs with it in a comical cacophonic splatter.

“Second worst thing I mean,” Eric released the screaming man from his grip and stepped back, not a single red drop staining his clothes. “But there’s nothing interesting about fighting someone that’s literally brainless.”

Screaming more from fury than the crippling pain that wracked him, the necromancer immediately raising five more of his massive fiends, each worse than the last.

The audience of students from all four kingdoms began to disperse once Headmaster Celestia had finished her speech. Ty was still staring at the stage in awe as Celestia walked away from the microphone, each stride as sophisticated as her words.

Maybe one day Ty could hold herself like that.

“Whoops!” Condor leaned over and gently pushed up Ty’s chin. “Your mouth fell open there! Careful, the flies are going to smell your breakfast and come in to make a family!”

“That is quite the disturbing picture, Condor,” Rune frowned but it was a thoughtful expression more than it was perturbed. “It’s impressive.”

“Ah, maybe we watch too many scary shows at night.” Tannim said, glancing around the auditorium.

“Or Ty is rubbing off on you.” Rune suggested and Condor seemed overjoyed by the notion.

“Rub rub rub!” Condor began smushing and squishing Ty’s cheeks at high velocity, giggling along with her partner’s squeaks.

But soon, the four realized that they were quickly becoming the only ones standing around the middle of the room. Everyone else had spread out to inspect the job listings on the holographic screens at the edges of the auditorium.

“Well, leader,” Rune crossed his arms, briefly watching Ash and his team wander towards the listing for escort missions. “Shall we find a Hunter or Huntress to shadow before we get stuck with sentry support?”

“Ooh, I’m going to fall asleep if we have to wall watch,” Condor said, saluting the absent city sentries. “To those of you bravely hiding your snores for the safety of our Kingdom, we salute ye!”

“Aw, they see more action than that.” Tannim patted Condor’s shoulder. “But I guess the less action the better.”

“Hmm,” Ty, cheeks still ruddy from the playful assault, became pensive. There had been something on her mind that made jokes feel way flatter than they actually were. “Can we check the listings for criminal investigation?”

The suggestion caught her teammates’ attentions.

“When Hunters and Huntresses are involved, I’d call that job akin to bounty hunting,” Rune commented, finding Ty’s proposal to be oddly specific. “I suppose we’ve been hunting more criminals than Grim as of late.”

“Doing what we’ve been doing best. Not a bad idea, Ty.” Tannim beamed and Condor raised her leg, resting her heel on Tannim’s shoulder as she did a standing split.

“And we can show off our stuff!” Condor flexed, imitating their guest lecturer’s smirk. In all likeliness, Zhoom would be the Hunter they’d shadow if they decided on that field trip.

“There’s something I’d like to check there too.” Ty spoke and midway through her sentence, she had started to walk towards the sign-up are for criminal investigations. Somewhat puzzled at her behavior, the rest of Team CTTR followed suit.

The sign-up interface was more complicated than many of the other enlistment options available to the students. Not only were locations listed but the names and bios of the crooks on the run were displayed as well.

“They’ve got the cream of the crop!” Tannim exclaimed, catching sight of high risk profiles on the record that Ty was scrolling through. There was the terrorist Vayle, the renegade known as Frostscythe, even Xan who he had faced down in town months ago.

“More like the scum gathering at the underside of the barrel,” Rune said, watching Ty’s finger hover over Drakath’s profile. “Though you are right? Why would they offer these jobs to students? Is there a shortage of hunters?”

Then, Ty toggled the screen to another profile.

It was that of a woman, or what could barely pass for a woman. The scruffs of her hair were what could be called a pale and sickly blonde. Rotten, sundried hay was more pleasant to look at and that was her best feature. The rest of her face was marred but not from scars or bruises. The woman’s features were straight out of a history book from the chapter where people thought that alcohol couldn’t hurt fetuses.

“There she is,” Ty sighed, touching her own face. There was a touch of melancholy that got Tannim and Rune to tear their eyes from the bile inducing visage. “Huh, they haven’t updated her picture.”

“Yuck! Who is that? What is that?” Condor exclaimed, shielding her eyes from the sight. She almost yelled ‘can humans actually look that scary?’ but yikes, that would give her away! “Who is she?” The huntress-in-training squinted at the criminal’s bio. “A pro-li-fic assassin?” Condor sounded out the words. “Well, that face is killer.” Condor elbowed Ty, waiting for a follow up.

“Yeah, mom did have that way about her.” Ty made a smile but it wasn’t happy. It wasn’t exactly sad either but it was there.

Ty’s response didn’t exactly register with Tannim and Condor until Rune spoke up.

“Is it wise to speak of out in the open?” Rune raised a brow and Tannim clenched his teeth to keep from spitting out anything that might accidentally make Ty sad.

“No. Nope, it’s not smart at all but no one’s around,” Ty clasped her hand behind her back, glancing from side to side to find her fellow students engrossed in their own interests. “I just wanted to see if they were still searching for her is all.”

Tannim and Rune held their silence, scrutinizing the profile again. The woman looked nothing like Ty at first glance but then that stare caught them. It was a gaze that could bore holes into steel from miles away and colder than any winter imaginable. They could see a hell in that woman and the demons inside looked back. The duo saw that before they noticed her eyes were the same ice blue as Ty’s.

“Your…real mother?” Tannim asked, hyper aware of the chatters of his peers in the background.

Ty couldn’t properly answer Tannim’s question. She was too busy dwelling on how this was probably the worst idea ever but then, Condor got to her.

“I’m sorry!” Condor crushed Ty’s face into her chest with a hug. She had lifted her partner right off of the ground and was suffocating her with love. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t know! But that’s dumb, even if I didn’t know I shouldn’t have said mean things!”

Being plopped back on her feet, Ty gasped for air, clutching her neck. She was about to get a word out but Condor grabbed her shoulders.

“We’ll find your mom!” Condor declared, tears stinging the corner of her eyes. “We’ll find your mom! And have a mom lunch! And have a mom outing at the beach! And then we could convince her to do some jail time and she’ll be out with you before you know it!”

Rune was about to say something about how a political assassin with a victim list in the triple digits was not going to see jail time but refrained.

“Um! Condor!” Ty bit her cheek for a moment, averting her eyes from her partner’s sincere concern. Oddly enough, her throat felt dry and so were her eyes. “We…we can’t do that.”

“She’s your mom! She loves you!” Condor argued. All moms loved their kids. That was the way humans worked. “She’ll listen for sure!”

“I meant…we can’t catch her. No one can.” Ty murmured. “She’s dead.”

Another uneasy silence fell over the crew.

“It’s been years since my mom’s done anything and they’re still looking for her,” Ty laughed, glancing at her mother’s picture again. It was the first time she’s seen her mom since her death. “I feel like I should tell somebody but then they’re going to ask for proof, there’s going to be tons of paperwork, a lot of nasty back talk, the works. But it’s not like she’s going to do anything again so can we just—“ Ty turned back to her team. “—let that get sorted on its own?”

Seeing that Ty was uncomfortable, Condor stepped back and let her arms fall at her sides. At a loss of what to say, Tannim went to touch the interface but retracted his arm, thinking twice.

“Yeah, let’s track someone who’s actually worth our time,” Ty scrolled back up the convict list. “There are lots of crooks near home.”

“Hmm, I have more of a mood for search and destroy.” Rune began to walk, leaving no room for arguments.  

“That’s an idea.” Ty responded rather quickly and trailed after Rune. Tannim followed suit but Condor stood back.

Taking out her phone, Condor used the only feature she knew how to work. Going back to the profile of Ty’s mother, Condor took a picture of the woman, scrolled away to another bio, and rushed back to her team.

“It’s been way too long since we had a good round of Grim busting,” Ty remarked, watching Rune handle the sign up. Tannim was practically glued to her side but Ty didn’t want to point it out. “Good thinking, Rune.”

Condor grabbed her hand then, squeezing it.

“Hey!” Ty’s tone was unusually high and it was hard for her to look Condor in the eye. “What was the hold up?”