"Who are you? Where have you brought us? Why are we here?" Anthony yelled into the empty air of the big, old house.
Suddenly, the beautiful piano music that had been filling the air cut off. Now there was nothing to guarantee that there was anyone besides us alive in the mansion. The six of us waited in fear, listening to the light, barely discernible footsteps coming down the stairs.
Then, quite unexpectedly, the little girl from the classroom was in front of us. She looked about 10, this time. She wore a long, flowing white dress, with her long, white-blond hair in pigtails. Her eyes were black this time. That seemed to be their normal color.
"I brought you here," she murmured in response to Anthony's question. "This is my home." Her voice and eyes were too old to belong to a child.
"I brought you here for the help you can give me. And only you six can give me the help. I need your help to save my brother, Thanatos."
We were shocked. This little girl, who we had seen only a few times in our lives, most of the time when she was following us, had just asked us to help her save someone we didn't know, and were all sure that he wasn't human.
However, to all of our surprise, Ame was the first to talk. "Is that right," she hissed, harshly. "You're going to make us help you find your brother? We don't even know you!"
The girl had a knowing look when she answered. "Well, I know you, and better than you think. And no, I'm not going to make you help me save him." After a moment she said, "No, I won't make you help me, but I'm begging for the help." The scariest thing about what she said was that her eyes, while she spoke, turned a dark shade of violet.
She didn't look violent or lethal now, just a sad little girl.
"Oh! Of course we'll help you!" I could tell that Ame now felt some of the greatest empathy for the child, having been alone enough of her own life, and from seeing all the deaths.
"But you owe us an explanation," Amanda growled through her teeth. I sighed softly to myself, knowing that she would be the last to help. Again I wondered how twin sisters could be so absolutely opposite from each other.
"You will know, soon enough. For that I am truly sorry," the child whispered, bowing her head, as if in prayer. After a moment she murmured, quietly, without looking up, "For all the Sights, for all the Admas, I am truly sorry."
Of course that was total nonsense to us at the time.
“What?” Anthony asked, so confused, like the rest of us.
Her reaction was completely unexpected. She looked down, her breathing a little disconnected, biting her lip. A few tears slid down her face, for just a moment. But they were black. Instead of the clear water path tears would normally make on someone’s face they left slightly gray tracks, like dirty water. “Never mind, right now.” She turned to leave, scrubbing her eyes with the back of her hand.
“Hold on!” I cried out. She turned to look at me. “How the hell did we end up here?! Meaghan and I were just working on our project and than we were HERE! What happened?” The others’ eyes widened. They hadn’t even noticed themselves suddenly jumping from one place to another. Their minds seemed to have filled in a little of a gap.
“Smart one, aren’t you? Like Thanatos w-is. He was always a smart boy. He just thought he had lost consciousness, though. You really do get it, don’t you, Samantha Kirktrace.” I was shocked she knew my name.
“Oh, don’t be that surprised I know your name. I’ll explain some other time. The point is I changed your location with a bit of power. That will change your time, but no one will notice. You might miss a gap or two, here or there, but nothing major.”
“How does that work?” I asked.
She sighed, exasperated. “I don’t have time to go into this right now. It’s very complicated. I’ll explain things to you in a few hours, but now you need to wait. I’ll take you upstairs.” She turned to leave again, but this time telling us to follow.
"Wait a moment. You haven't told us your name yet," said Meaghan quietly.
The girl cocked her head to the side for a moment, as if deciding what to say. "My name is Twilight Dawn Whispers. I am a Creation."
Then she turned again and started walking back up the staircase. We followed numbly, in shock. We finally knew her name, and yet all the mystery we thought would be resolved with that knowledge was nullified by all that had happened since we had first seen her. We only knew her name now that we found the extent of how far this thing went, and how unexpectedly deep she had gotten us into it.
The house was huge. There were at least three floors, not including the attic, and, if there was one, the basement. There were probably more, considering it went along off to the sides and most of the floors seemed to be somewhat split-levels.
She walked more quickly than a girl who seemed her age would, but not as quickly so it would be hard for us to keep up, with the much longer legs.
“How old are you?” Kevin asked Twilight. I knew he had been burning with curiosity to find the answer to that question.
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I haven’t been keeping count. How long has the Earth been around?”
“W-what?!” he cried out.
“There’s your answer, Kevin McKinnon.”
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