Chapter 1: Holiday

" May I check now sister?" Chandra stumbled around in the darkness looking for her sister, she was worried sick. The power was off for 2 days, Chandra wanted to find her sister and fast, it wasn't like Selene to just run off. In the distance Chandra heard a candle stick dropping to the ground. Chandra scurried to the sound as fast as she could, she kept one hand on the wall, this closet had many curves and twists to it. As soon as she found her sister she was were she always resided in, her laboratory.

Chandra watched as her sister took an old match and lit it against the hard, brick walls. A flame light up the chamber, Chandra could see her sister's cot laying in the corner, tossed green sheets were rolled in a ball. Her sisters pieces of scrap littered the floor, nothing was in order cogs laying on the floor screws even, Chandra looked downwards before she dared take a step. Her sister was at her table tinkering on something, she set the match in a glass vase, Chandra watched as her sister made a lantern out of a couple of items, her sister was very smart however Chandra never understood science. Selene was hunched over her table on it she was taking apart an old leather belt, beside it were pieces of glass that were faintly scratched. Chandra stumbled closer as she watched Selene take off the belt buckle and toss it on the floor.

" May I go outside now Selene?" Chandra asked timdly, Selene turned around her eyes were dark and she looked away.

" No not yet" Selene said, even though she was a nice older sister her tone always sounded like razors cutting glass. Chandra looked down and tried to smile, she peered at her sisters back. She had long blond hair tied into two curly ponytails held together by two black ribbons. She wore a black vest with a grey dress that was equipped with a black tie, she wore olive green shorts, Chandra called them clown pants because they were so big on her.

" Why not? I don't hear a guard or people or anything anymore" Chandra protested, honestly she wanted to check on her mother, even though after what their mother did to them when they were kids. She stared into the dark hallway, it seemed like the darkness was less safe then it usually was.

" I'm not letting you go until your equipped with my equipment that is" Selene turned around so Chandra could see her dark blue eyes that always looked grey, she handed her the glass with the match in it. Selene nodded and turned around to her workshop.

" Just hurry back, the glass will get hot and the match will go out soon" Selene then began working on her invention.

Chandra smiled and turned to walk away, she walked through the darkness with the light seeping through it. Chandra made her way towards the door. The door that would alow her to see the world for the 1st time in years, guards usually watched them and never let them out. Chandra knew they were gone so she could go out for a minute or two and stumble back to Selene. She knew Selene would worry about her if she took too long, she'd stop and pick a flower to make her room look more like a room instead of a cell, Chandra smiled as she pulled on the handle tightly and opened the door.

It was a boring morning in the library, they read every book, they could act them out if they could, instead they laid down on the books and stared at the marble celing. 4 turned over towards his older brother 3 and say that they both wore they boring look, flickering his eyes once at the ceiling 4 heard 3 reclunently turn over.

" What is it 4?" 3 flickered back, he really didn't want to be bothered by his younger twin brother right now, he was board enough.

" Remember that talismen? The one that took 2's soul away? Well 9 was wondering about it do you think we should go examine it?"

" What? and have 7 yell at us because we left our ground? And to risk our lives?"

" Well...sure what else do we have?"

3 pondered for a moment and thought about what else to do.

" Sure I'm game"

The two twins dashed out of the library and into the courtyard. 3 looked around as 4 checked behind every statue, they didn't want 7 to be watching as they broke their rules. To the others they were just children but they were the 3rd and 4th oldest, in fact they were older then 7 herself. But they were still children so they had to listen to rules, when the coast was clear 4 nodded to 3 and they both took off towards the fabrication machine's lier.

The walk through town was hard enough, with all the piles of trash and rubble piling the place, 3 kept flickering his eyes as he scanned the ground. 4 ran ahead he was the brother who liked to cataolge items and explore but he was very skittish, he didn't like to be scared so he counted on 3 to save him. 3 looked out towards the flaring boilers that were sending black fumes into the skies, 3 then ran off ahead as 4 tried to keep up with him.

The old factory used to be an old mining corporation, 3 read it before in a town history book, this place used to be flourished with many people, shops and many other necessities. What stood so strong had been destroyed completely. 3 watched as his brother had found a dark tunnel leading into the building. 3 ran towards him as they peered inside 4 clutched onto his back, his eyes scared as he looked in the darkness. 3 nodded and both of them ran inside of the dark tunnel. Using their eyes they saw how curvy the tunnels had been, not knowing where they were going 3 ran all over the place, jumping over ponds of oil, stepping on huge pieces of stones, running threw aisles of bombs on converter belts, 3 came to a place where a huge spider looking machine stood all day and made machines in order to destroy them, 3 peered as it looked like the machine was making a new machine. How grand! They'd be able to tell them and the stitchpunks would be one step ahead. 3 ran ahead, 4 stayed behind hiding beside a huge cracked nook. 3 turned around and glared, he flickered to him.

" What are you doing? Come on we need to see that talismen"

" It's too dangerous we need to head back"

" Don't be a big baby 4 were going to that machine"

3 walked over and grabbed his brother's arm. He pulled him behind the machine careful not to make any noises, they finally came close enough to the fabrication machine that they could touch it. Feeling start to tremble, 3 walked ahead. 3 walked towards the talismen. It was in front of the machine and it was deadly indeed, all he needed was a couple of minutes to catalogue it. 3 had made it close enough to the talismen when suddenly it started glowing, stepping back 3 saw as the machine peered down towards the talismen and saw that it opened. Inside of the talismen was a hologram of two humans, the machine was puzzled and to be frank so was 3, he squinted his eyes to peer closer, as soon as he was about to catalogue it a big huge stream of green light threw itself at 4.

3 turned his attention to his brother who was flickering madily, the green light was illuminating him and it was making him float towards the ceiling, 3 ran over now he had the unwanted attention of the machine, the fabrication machine snarled as it used it's hands to try to grab 3, 3 was speedy he knew that himself he ran and grabbed his brother's leg only to be dropped, another stream of green light blinded the fabrication machine and gave 3 enough time to run away, instead of running away the green light hit him as well and he started floating like his brother. 3 looked down as the fabrication machine shook his head and stared at the twins who were floating towards an enormous hole in the ceiling, it snarled as they both floated towards the outside. If 3 had a tongue he would have blown a big raspberry at that moment.

They both floated above the old wooded area, as soon as they hit botton 3 felt funny. His head started to spin and his vision went blurry, worried about passing out he stumbled towards a tree stump and sat down, he watched as his brother closed his eyes and in a couple of minutes so was his.

When 3 opened his eyes, he blinked a couple of times, he felt so different, what was wrong with him? As soon as he opened his eyes he looked for his brother, he shook his head until he remembered where he was, peering that way 3 was surprised to see something else in the place of his brother.

A human.

The human had short, scruffy blond hair, he had pale white skin with tiny brown freckles dotting his cheeks, as he slowly opened his eyes 3 saw that they were of a blue color, the human noticed 3 right away and stared almost in panic at him. Both of them at the same time scuffed away from each other, 3 put his hand out to protect himself when he got a good look at his that is. Wrapped in his usual blue robe was a hand, this was an unusual hand though, this one looked like a human hand he had read so many times in books. It had long 5 fingers and was as pale as the human that was staring at him, when the human stopped staring he looked at his hands too, he panicked as he touched his face and his mouth became panicked. Slowly he looked towards 3 and came closer. 3 now noticed that the human had wore a robe as well, it was blue with a blue hood off of his head. His robe had green,yellow and red stripes running down it, as he crawled closer he noticed a black painted 4 painted on the left side of the chest. 3 looked confused as the human slowly touched his face, looking panicked the human held out a piece of 3's clothing, confused by how he wasn't grabbed all at once, he was shocked to find his robe on him grew. Underneath his robe were two long skinned legs with feet, 3 was starting to panic as he saw the human smile calmly as he pointed towards his robe right at the number 4. 3 watched as the human slowly pointed towards the number 3 painted on the right side of his chest, then the human embraced 3, surprised and still a little confused, 3 realised that this human was his brother 4. They both turned into humans somehow, 3 put his arms around his brother as he felt his brother shake in his arms, pulling him back he saw his brother's eyes starting to spill with water. 3 remembered reading about human emotions in a book once, tears were drops of water that when the human felt sad or overjoyed they'd cry. 3 smiled and hugged him again. They both stood up and looked at each other, no way they could go back to the cathedral like this, no one would recognize them. Both smiling at each other, 3 lead this way as they found went to find a new place to live.

Chandra never thought that the world had looked like this before, as she walked upon the crashed marble staircase, she saw as her old house had been reduce to a pile of trash. The once strong banisters and staircases fell to the ground deposing a bunch of pieces of rocks and marble on the floor. Chandra walked as she blew out the match, she didn't need it as the sun seeped through the smashed stained glass, she watched as her step as her flats could rip easily on such conditions. Chandra looked down once at the ground, big mistake. A guards body was laying on the floor, his eyes popped out in terror as a piece of glass was sticking out of his chest. Chandra felt her legs speed up as she made her way towards the backdoor, the backdoor was off of it's hinges and it looked broken in too. Chandra stepped outside to see the whole outside of the house was just as bad as inside. She had only ran through the whole house a couple of times but she never remembered it being this way. Chandra looked at her backyard to see it was just like inside, crumbled foundations of buildings still standing, the whole sky was green and the air smelled vile. Chandra gagged a bit on the air but still managed to breath correctly. She watched her step as she walked towards her family gazebo, she wanted to make sure that just her neighborhood was damaged. She watched her step as the wind brushed through holes making eerie whistling noises. Chandra's dress got caught on every jagged out rock or debree that she passed, she finally made it to the gazebo full of tears and shaking as she saw the rest of the town. It was the same as her house, her neighborhood. Everything was the same. Chandra looked around again, this couldn't be real, it really couldn't. Against her will, Chandra fell down on the ground, hurled herself into a ball and closed her eyes.

After a while when she reopened them she found herself in the company of two people standing beside her. Two twin boys dressed in robes with numbers painted on their clothing.