And the shorter stories continue.
"That's it, I give up sleeping," I seize the thin blankets and throw them off me in frustration. I sit up, digging my head into my cold palms. That's the third nightmare I've had in one night and I'm not getting any sleep. The first one I had was a man hammering a nail into my chest repeatedly, the second one was another man much older than the first one standing by the younger man as he dug, with his bare hands, into my body, searching for my heart. The last one wasn't that bad, I was lying on the ground and I couldn't move and there was a man dressed in blue who stabbed himself with a dagger and his pain and suffering gave me the ability to move. But before I could reach the suffering man he disappeared without a trace. Weird dreams like these have been bothering me ever since that incident that happened with Don and the dying man, his friend I think. But something tells me that I walked straight into danger again and didn't handle myself well.
If it had to do with Seth I wouldn't be alive right now, that's for sure. I know he's way better than me and even though it makes me sad to think that my training went to waste, at least I can struggle before he ultimately defeats me in the end. I pace around the creaky bedroom before eventually returning back to bed; a random pang surges in my breast as if it's now oversensitive. I've been sprouting blue hair in more places and have been getting sore breasts even before that strange incident and it's only a matter of time until I start to bleed down there. Since Mom was long dead, I've had to read about these things on my own. I sigh deeply as I slip my legs back under the thin covers and turn off the lamp.
I used to make fun of the villains on TV with the big, curly mustaches 'cause I thought they looked ridiculous. Karma is getting me back with a few hairs growing out in the mustache area. Subjugating my life into total Darkness hasn't saved me from puberty's cruel hand. Someone knocks on my bedroom door and there are only two people who ever knock on the door, Nate and Xevia. Speaking of which, Nate hasn't been around here lately, he's probably been assigned to wreak havoc in some world for Master. "Who's at the door?"
"It's me Seth!" Xevia joyfully replies.
"What is it?"
"Master wanted me to come get you the meeting room. He wants to have a talk."
"With me? Why?" does he know that I have Shadow's Kiss and he wants to punish me for it? I meant to put it back in his room but I never got around to doing it. Xevia's girly giggle appeases my fears.
"He wants to talk with all of us-can I open your door?" she starts pushing it open anyway.
"No, get back!" I protest, frantically getting my clothes out of the closet.
"Oh my-I'm so sorry Seth. I didn't you were naked in there, I just don't like having a discussion through a door. It reminds me of when my sister would try to talk me through closed doors and I would ignore her because she knew that I didn't like that and I was trying to teach her a lesson. Oh well, she never learned anyway. Are you dressed now?"
"You can come in now." Even though I give her permission, she slowly peeps her head into my room covering her eyes with her hand. "Xevia, it's good." She uncovers her eyes and fully opens the door. "Are dresses appropriate for our mission Xevia?"
"I asked Master the same thing and he insisted I wear it. Do you…like it?" she asks sheepishly with a blushing face. It was a black see-through dress that reached down to her ankles embedded with gold sparkles. To keep her body hidden, she wears snug, deep violet under garments, but I notice her shoulder bands have an abstract, vertigo-inducing design on it.
"It looks good on you," I admit once I take my eyes of the shoulder bands and gaze at her chest, her breasts prominent and developed. Thinking about them makes me feel so good when I've got nothing to do-thinking about her naked is really stimulating too. She is pleased at the compliment, oblivious to me ogling her chest. Then I remember why she came here in the first place, "What did you want to tell me?"
"Master is waiting for us downstairs, we should head there now," explains Xevia as I slip into my sneakers. Together we leave my bedroom and descend the steps. "Do you know where Nate is?"
"No, he's been gone for a while now." Her shaped eyebrow twitches, ready to jump off her face. "Is there something wrong?"
"No no, I was just wondering about where he was that's all." She whispers, "did you get my present?" Shadow's Kiss, how could I leave it upstairs? Xevia distracted me, I was going to put in my pocket and return it to Master without Xevia or Master knowing. It would probably make her feel-wait, does Master know? Is that what this meeting is about?
"Yes I did."
"Did you like it?" her face is drained of any color as she anxiously waits for my answer.
"Yes, thank you for the wonderful gift," I fib and feign a convincing grin, bringing color to her peachy face again.
"Nate said you would like it," she says softly.
"Nate?"
"No, what I mean-I'll talk to you later." We reach the meeting room and meet with Master, sitting at the head off the discussion table. Sitting beside him is a person, very unclear on whether it's a boy or a girl, covered in a deep green and black suit of spandex armor.
"Students, please have a seat, there is something rather devious going on here and I'm about to exploit it," he says in an unpleasant tone. His black pupils shrink in his blue sclera, confirming his crossness. Xevia and I sit next to each other, petrified in our seats; she nearly gasps when Master's pupil contracted. "I am missing precious items from my chamber when I told you two and Nate not to go in there."
"Wh-what's missing?" sputters Xevia. Stupid girl doesn't know when to keep her mouth shut. He usually lightens his tone with Xevia but it's harsher than before.
"Shadow's Kiss and the Keyblade of People's Hearts-two things I was going give to Seth-"
"Are you accusing me of something?" I preemptively assume. I do a horrible job at hiding my guilt-wait, what do I have to be guilty about? Xevia's the one who took Shadow's Kiss and I have no idea what happened to the black Keyblade.
"In fact I am."
"Well I didn't take your-"
"I'm so sorry Master, please don't take it out on Seth, it was me," cries Xevia, slamming her head on the table and covering it. "Nate told me you wanted Seth to have Shadow's Kiss and that you wouldn't give it to him until we planned on attacking one of the worlds on our own and-and he said that you would want Seth to have it early so that none of us gets jealous when you give it to him so I-I-I took it and gave it to Seth so-so that he'll li-eep!" her wails finally cease after three minutes of sputtering and sniffles. She wipes her tears on her arms and has the courage to finally look directly into Master's eyes. Master taps the table habitually and makes no other sound until I speak up. "Where's Nate?"
Master looks up at me, his pupils still tiny. "Nate is dead." Xevia gasps loudly, covering her mouth with her hands and shaking her head in disbelief. "He didn't die by my hand we can confirm that. He was killed by someone I barely remember, Luxeroh."
"Who's Luxeroh?" I ask urgently, having an innuendo that it's got something to do with Mia.
"I met Mia's older brother once a long time ago. Didn't seem capable of harming a fly but he murdered Nate and re-possessed the Keyblade of People's Hearts."
"Mia had a brother?" I wonder aloud earnestly. She failed to mention him to me, she always told me that she was an only child, I guess she had her fair share of secrets. It's either she didn't want anyone to know or she had no idea herself. "So we have to go after him."
"That would be in vain, for he died that same day Nate did, the shadows told me."
"What kind of story is this?"
"Nate was going to turn against us by taking Mia's heart and using its power and the Keyblade's to defeat us all. But Mia's brother was the vessel to protect that from happening and he defeated Nate and freed his sister heart, saving her but in the end sacrificing himself and destroying the dark Keyblade with his pure heart."
"But that can't be," insists Xevia, half composed. "Nate couldn't have survived in World 75 long enough to take Mia, because the Light from that world could have been too much for him."
"He used Shadow's Kiss," says Master matter-of-factly. When Xevia shakes her head, her dark auburn hair bounces.
"That's impossible, I gave it to-oh! He said he would give it you Seth so how did he take it from you again?"
"He must have kept the real one and given me a fake one, that little snake," I bang my hand on the table, violently shaking it. "So Shadow's Kiss is gone so we can't go to World 75 and the Keyblade has been destroyed." What gets me the most is that he told me what he was going to do. I'm going to use the Keyblade to extract her heart and make it mine to control, that bastard told me. He was confident enough to know he was going to get away with it and that I wouldn't do a thing because-I don't want to think about it. Even when he's dead, he's still playing with my feelings with Mia. I'm glad that bastard is gone.
"Not all hope is lost, for a new Keyblade can be crafted from a unique heart," assures Master as his pupils slowly dilate to their normal size. "We must find her and make a new weapon from her heart and that is where he comes in."
"He?" Xevia and I ask.
"This," he raises his hand to the silent, covered person in the black helmet. "He is Gineam and he will replace the traitorous Nate on your upcoming mission."
"Nice to meet you Gineam, my name is Xevia," she warmly accepts the new worker. The silent person only opens and closes his hands. "Don't be shy."
"He's shy but a very powerful fighter. Be kind and welcome him to our family. Xevia you can show him to his room upstairs and I need to talk to Seth down here." The covered person doesn't say word as he rises from his seat and follows Xevia out of the room wordlessly, his flexible armor not making a sound. Xevia is too talkative for this "Gineam" and there's something shady about him I can't put my thumb on. Honestly I'm scared to see him on the battlefield. "Seth why didn't you return Shadow's Kiss?"
"What're you talking about you? Nate gave me a fake, why would you I give you the fake?"
"Before you knew it was a fake, why didn't you bring it back to me like a loyal student would have?"
"I will always be loyal to you Master!" I insist. It started with a taste of what true power was and it burgeoned the longer I stayed in servitude to Master. If I stayed with Mia in that estranged house I wouldn't have grown stronger-loyalty to the right people always counts. Master said that to me the first time I encountered him in Moonlight Town. "I just figured I could go back to that world and fight with Mia and start the plan early."
"I appreciate your alacrity to move forward Seth but you have to tell me these things. Be as open as you were with Mia about these things," he says with a patronizing smile. "Promise."
"I promise."
"Good, you may leave now."
"Can I at least ask what's wrong with our new recruit?"
"Gineam? There is nothing wrong with him," replies Master incredulously. "He's quiet but productive."
"What world is he from?"
"World 9, close to the Darkness."
"There's something-I don't know, familiar about him. Forgive me for speaking so casually but I have a weird feeling about him."
"I'll talk to you about this soon my pupil. In some way, you already know him."
J.G.P.