This story is mainly dedicated to SpringRiverImagination, the most amazing and awesomely epic person I've ever met! :D
^^To other readers: please don't feel jealous though, this story is also here for your enjoyment. :)
Warnings (MUST READ BEFORE STORY): I've only read the first book. I'll try to connect this story to the theme of 'Vampirates', but I don't know. I'm giving this a try, so please be patient with me. Also, the twins will both be boys; a certain user who might be reading this right now will probably know why I'll keeping it that way. You know who you are. XD (It's because I hate romance.^^) But anyway, here's the most important thing for people reading this- there might be spoilers for the actual novel and for those who haven't read it yet and wish to read it. If you are one of those people, I suggest you read this later. But other than that, if you don't really care or mind, and you're looking for a good story to pass the time, please read this!
For those of you who have read my 'The Bird's Betrayal' series... I KNOW I should be uploading another chapter... I'm just bored, and busy. Even right now, as I'm writing this, I'm procrastinating on my studies and homework. My science teacher loaded us and kicked us out with a bunch of graph crap to complete, my English teacher expects us to be doing a LOT more homework because me and some other kids are on a higher level than some other students, yada yada yada. Please accept my excuse. I'm trying to be as realistic as possible.
But seriously.
Disclaimer: As always, I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn. But if Amano-sensei ever does leave the rights of owning the manga, believe me, I'm off to Japan. Or wherever she's selling it. By the way, do manga authors earn a lotta money? I'd like to know.
Nevermore
Two boys quietly sat upright in their bunk beds, unable to sleep. The boys and their father had eaten a hearty dinner but thirty minutes ago- a container of sweetened butter corn, a lump of mashed potatoes in another little box and drizzled with gravy, and a lump of roast turkey complete with the perfect savory stuffing to end the meal. It was hard to sleep when their stomachs had been stuffed just a little while ago.
It was a quiet night, that fateful day. The little family, two boys and their father, lived in a lighthouse, and their family had lived in it for generations, inhabiting the wondrous brick marvel that had withstood all of Mother Natures ferocities- surging waves and billowing hurricanes, the crackling of lightning fuming and striking land in the distance, sparking and dying just as quickly in the furious flurry of storms and typhoons that lit up the sky as the family slept. It was normal for them; the incredible masses of debris clumping and whirling with the sand in enormous mounds, pounding against the crumbling walls protecting the foundation within. Since the two were tykes, they were able to live without crying in the face of Nature's raging madness, and were taught the precautions to protect their beloved home and each other from her violent wrath. Everyday, the sky was a velvety black, like the silken drapes and creases of a lady's gown, dashed with hints of violent, and spotted with constantly blinking stars. For hundreds of years, the family tried to find out- were the stars humorously playing with them, incessantly winking as they did? Or were they shedding tears when the clouds let lose torrents of rain?
But that day, it was quiet.
Strangely, eerily quiet.
"Hey, Obsi," a voice quietly whispered from the upper bunk.
"Yeah?" came a gruff, annoyed grunt from the bunk beneath.
"Wasn't this the kind of day it was when Ma died?"
"Whatever. I don't care what kinda day it was, and I don't give a crap about weather. The woman died and left us, and we have to live with a dad who expects us to sleep with stupid fairy tales and huge armfuls of food who hides the real reason why he's still living with us and why we're still in this old, dumpy lighthouse. Happy?"
"No."
"Suit yourself." Obsidian shuffled in his covers and rolled over quietly. Above him, Onyx sighed. Both twins knew that the lower bunk inhabiter wasn't sleeping, and that the other knew. It was a twin thing. Each of them could just randomly read the others' minds and copy their actions at the exact same time, even though they were fraternal. Obsidian was big and had a powerful, muscular build, with sharp, daring charcoal eyes and rust-colored, backward-pointing hair. He didn't care about what he wore or said, nor did he care about his grades in a shabby school miles away. He excelled in athletics. Meanwhile, his twin, Onyx, was entirely opposite. He had golden hair slicked forward and hazel eyes flecked with green. He was very slight and easily missed, making him an easy target for bullying- when there were people other than his brother or father around him. He was very quiet and self-conscious about his appearance, and mastered in the arts. Both, surprisingly, had quite good academic grades, and both would stand up for each other whenever it was needed; though usually it was Obsidian protecting Onyx. The one thing he would never get over in this world, in his life and the next, was people hurting his brother.
"Obsi," Onyx started again.
"What?" Obsidian grunted, rolling over, sitting up, and smashing his head against the upper bunk for the millionth time in recorded history. Though Obsidian didn't mind the pain; it gave him endurance for excelling in football with the other kids in his level.
"Can we please go listen to father's stories again?"
"Aw, man, you gotta be friggin' kidding me! Those lame, boring fairy tales? I just told you, nothing'll ever happen!"
"Maybe they won't, maybe they will, but there's nothing better to do, is there? And anyway, father'll butcher us alive if he sees us reading without the light."
"That's exactly why we need electricity in this goddamn place," Onyx heard his brother grumble underneath his breath as he rolled off the bed. Onyx himself clambered clumsily down the ladder and slipped on his home slippers.
"What the hell are you?" Obsidian retorted, lumbering behind his brother. "Trans-gendered or gay? Guys don't wear slippers."
"They're mom's."
"Then give'em to dad or chuck them out the window."
"Dad's too big for these shoes, and I don't litter."
"Bro, you're impossible."
And that was the end of the argument as the two shuffled silently along a narrow hallway. Finally, the two reached a certain door and pushed it open. Both of them winced as the old, un-oiled door screeched on its' hinges and creaked along the floor. As the two quietly walked in, they sat snugly on the dusty deck and their father smiled at them, his eyes twinkling mischevously like the stars hanging and dancing in the sky. Onyx shivered and Obsidian grunted. Both of them were slightly uncomfortable around their father; it was as if his eyes could see through their very minds and bore through their souls.
"Today, I will be telling a slightly different story," their father said with his smile still on, knowing what the two had come in for. "It's a poem called The Raven."
Obsidian frowned. "Isn't that the poem? The four-paged poem called by some dude named Poo?"
"Poe," Onyx snapped, ever-so gallant about his brother's half-heartedness. "Edgar Allen Poe."
"Meh," Obsidian grumped, leaning back against the dark wall and kicking his feet out rudely. "Just get on with it, Pops."
Their father closed his eyes, smiled, and leaned back. From there, a strange tale of angelic darkness was recited:
" 'Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door -
Only this, and nothing more.'
"Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, `Lenore!'
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, `Lenore!'
Merely this and nothing more.
"Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
`Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,' I said, `art sure no craven.
Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the nightly shore -
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.' "
And thus, Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven went on and on, and both boys were straightened up and listening at rapt attention, trying to decipher the dark, yet beautiful words flowing out of their father's mouth. And by the time their father finished with the last nevermore, the boys still remained stuck to the walls and the floor, enchanted by the melodious rhythm of the beautifully sculpted words.
"How was it?" their father asked after a while, quietly observing his sons.
Onyx was surprised when his brother commented first. "...Beat every one of those lame fairy tales you told us before, that's for sure," Obsidian remarked, closing his eyes and stretching his arms above his head.
Onyx nodded. "Mm-hmm. It was very... riveting."
"I'm glad," their father said. "Now, you two go to bed. It's late." he ushered the twins out of the room, but not before the two of them caught sight of the suspicious sillouettes of two ships against the illuminated moon in the faraway distance.
And that was when they felt the rumble.
The Fateful Day
It was around three-o-clock in the morning, and it was seemingly still as dark as midnight when Obsidian squinted through the musty windows.
He couldn't sleep. His mind was haunted with the poem about the Raven, and he couldn't help but think about the purpose of the poem. Why had his father chosen this usual night to recite this poem? And why had the day he said it perfectly coincided with the two ships' arrival beneath the moon? And finally, why did the father seem worried to get them out of the room quickly? Did he want them to leave? Obsidian tried to strain his eyesight to see through the window, but the never-replaced chunk of glass did not let him. A foul curse escaped Obsidian's lips.
He glanced behind him at his brother, who was sound asleep in his upper bunk. "Can you feel it?" Obsidian muttered. For some reason, a strange knot was coiling tightly within his stomach.
The same kind of knot that curled up the night before they witnessed their mother's tragic death.
Onyx sighed, giving up pretending he was asleep. They were twins, after all. "Yeah," he agreed. "I can feel it."
And then, a rumble shook the earth underneath, teetering their lighthouse. Books fell off rickety wooden shelves and the bunk rattled. A box of pens fell and clattered to the ground. And just when the shaking stopped, it came again, this time even more rough- the tough old desk tipped over and smashed against the cloor, creating a slight crack, and a sliver of the window opened.
This, in all their years, the boys knew, had never happened. This was bad.
Obsidian kept a strong grip against the window ledge, and the second the rumbling stopped, with one large leap, he bounded over to the bunk where his brother lay. "Just climb down the ladder slowly," he murmured, protectively spreading his arms across the entire width of the bunks. "Take your time. We're gettin' outta here."
Onyx pursed his lips, the knot in his stomach getting tighter and making him feel like puking- he couldn't shake off the feeling that it was his father's fault this was all happening.
This time, a sharp cracking sound echoed throughout the upstairs room and split his ears. More of the floor gave way and crumbled into the abyssmal trenches of the lighthouse's old foundation below. The desk slid downard as the immense tower creaked and slowly leaned against one side sliding everything and dropping and breaking everything the boys considered their own. Onyx screamed, but Obsidian bravely stood up, still holding tightly onto the bunk. Perspiration dripping down the side of his face like small, transparent beads, he roared loudly to be heard over the din, "ONYX, I'M STILL HERE! JUST GET THE HELL DOWN, I'M HERE TO PROTECT YOU!"
"But- but father-"
"STOP BEING SUCH A DAMN GIRL AND MOVE, GODDAMMIT!"
Onyx knew he was driving his poot brother over the edge, and quickly scrambled down the ladder.
"Now hold on tightly," Obsidian growled. Onyx immediately latched his arms onto his brother's more stronger one and followed him upto the window. "We've got no other choice," Obsidian muttered. He turned, expecting his brother to be there.
He was gone.
Obsidian's heart thumped furiously against his ribcage, his blood racing through his body as the floor cracked even more.
Nevermore. Shut up, Obsidian thought.
Quoth thy raven, 'Nevermore.' Shut UP, Obsidian's brain roared.
And then, quoth the raven- 'Forevermore.' "Shut UUUPPPP!" he roared, raising his fist to smash the window down, when it clattered into crystalline glass shards right before his eyes. "What-"
"I'm right here, Obsi," Onyx reassured right beside him. "I used your lacrosse stick."
"Don't scare me like that again," Obsidian murmured, drained and exhausted mentally. But he regained his strength as the unnaturally strong, howling wind stung him in the face.
And then they saw the flames.
The two ships they saw before were now side-by-side and seemed closer than the boys could ever imagine. Rainbow-colored flames danced and sparked and lashed and whipped at an enemy ship right in front of it. In complete harmony, but in different styles, the flames gnashed and clawed at the opponent.
"Right there..." Onyx whispered quietly, despite the ferocious moaning of the winds and the stearing stings of sleet streaking past their skin. "...those flames... is that heaven?"
Obsidian growled. "We'll stay alive," he said, "And we will stay together! Now, JUMP!"
And once the two boys hit the water, and sunk deeper; deeper, deeper, deeper, Onyx's grip still tight on his brother's, all they could hear was-
Nevermore.
Fin~
Hehe, I hope it was an epic cliffhanger! I'll try uploading the next chapters as quickly as possible. I'll try my best, all right?
Some things you need to know about this chapter: Onyx and Obsidian are actually two types of black stones with tinges of red and white in them. They're dark, but very pretty. You can look them right up in Google Images. Also, the poem used here was actually the real form of Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven, the piece that brought him to fame. I thought it would be excellent for this story because it fits the plot so well, and not only that, we're also focusing on Edgar Allen Poe's writing in school! So, might as well do a little piece about it. If you would like the link as to where I got the poem (for free XD), just PM me and I'll send you the link, or you can just Google it or use Bing. Or whatever search engine you use. Keep in mind, I did omit some sections of the poem from here or the story would be way too long. :)
Many, many thanks to SpringRiverImagination! She's an amazing person, and I REALLY urge you to read her one-shots and the series she's working on- it has some of my favorite topics on Katekyo Hitman Reborn.
And thanks all of you for reading this! If you like it, don't just favorite or follow it; please review as well. It takes just a little bit to make someone happy! :)