A Jamais Tombé

Arty – Man, I'm actually starting this chapter before my next one gets posted! I'm sorry there aren't more chapters out! But I need to reply to reviews!

Yaumi – I love replying to reviews! I love getting reviews.

Akuma – Of course you do. I hate it when Arty really gets on a roll and starts to forget she's just writing a review reply.

Arty – Just shut the fuck up right now.

Note: Rei will be making reappearance.

Review Replies

WhiteSpirit04 – Thank you! But I'm worried Chris and Arty might suck up too much writing. Because I love those two, they're like my babies and they are based off real people.

Kittikatkai – I'm happy you're that eager to read my story! Hugs

Kaiesha – Thanks. I'm working on what will happen to Tala. But I'm so happy that people accept Chris and Arty. I was worried people would think I was trying to make the story more interesting by making them like a side quest. But the truth is they tie in with the plot very well. Because let's say, Kai is a very suspicious person, and that Arty and Chris are doing something odd.

September Whisper – I love you my friend! My first review on the chapter and my best beta! I don't think there is a better beta in the world! Heck you can take as long as you want beta reading my chapters! You do such a great job!

Random Review – I'm very happy I was able to get such a reaction out of you! Ha, yeah I never really did like stories where people were angels, unless there were as far from angelic as you could get.

Destinys Hand – I have cousin's who are twins. One's a boy and one's a girl. They are pretty damn close to being identical, but there are obvious differences in them. There are obvious differences in this chapter too between Arty and Chris. I mentioned them… But thanks anyway, someone else pointed out to me that they were confusing so now I'm hoping to correct that problem. I found out a while ago that I couldn't e-mail you… T.T Oh well. I'll defiantly read your story. It may not be soon but I will defiantly read it. So right now I think I'll shamelessly promote it. Destinys Hand's story rocks my socks! LOL, Slipknot is a good band and the song I used is a really old one of theirs…. It's probably one of their most famous. Shhh! I can't go around giving secrets about the twins! wink

Thanks to all my other reviewers! I'm sorry this is so late in coming! I got addicted to video games. Sad really, I have some sick obsession with video games. I stop eating and sleeping just to play them.

Chapter 4 - Découvrir des Ames (Baring Souls)

Homeroom

Arty sat down in her seat, still in a daze, while Chris was busy taping a few other people the twins considered acquaintances. They made faces at the video recorder and laughed at themselves but then snapped to attention when the static of the morning announcements came on. Grudgingly each student stood up to salute the flag. Then at the end of the pledge, students plopped down loudly into their seats.

Suddenly Arty remembered her real reason for being in the main office that morning. She leaned her head back onto the desk behind her and winked at the video camera and her older brother. Chris smirked at how lucky his brother was to be, viewing this latest achievement of Arty's.

A few more static squawks and the customary, "Is this thing on? One... Two... Three. Oh! Ahem," then Arty almost laughed out loud. The idiot reading the announcements today would read her version, not the real one. He wouldn't even notice the difference.

And suddenly the announcements were quiet. There was no static blaring from the speakers. No crackling of power. No nothing. As far as Arty could tell the microphone she brought worked perfectly. Well that was an oxymoron; a broken microphone without batteries could run at all. But then again that was the purpose of the microphone.

There would be no announcements that morning or for the rest of the day. It would take them a while to find the microphone, which was left under a rarely used office desk. Thank God for the guy who ran into Arty.

Tala ran towards the cafeteria and made it in before the bell rang shrilly. Tala's face was flushed but he was happy. He strode past the teachers who gave him withering glances. What they wouldn't do to give someone detention! That was in fact the question; Tala could remember times when the teachers gave out detention for the stupidest reasons. Someone could be walking down the hallway and shuffling their feet after passing time and they would get detention. It was a miracle in itself that Tala had never gotten detention. And yet the teachers hated him, he got beautiful grades, never got in trouble and never started fights. The only reason Tala could think of for their dislike of him was: they hated everyone, or, they hated whom he hung out with. For example, The Dowde twins. (By the way Dowde, is pronounced Duh-ow-duh)

Plopping himself down, he sat in the chair that was his permanent seat. Tala threw his notebooks on the floor, none too lightly. Suddenly Arty stood up in her seat and slammed her fist down onto the table. She must have been mad about something. Then Miriam stood up and slammed her fist on the table. They both glared at each other and Ozuma sat laughing with an extremely annoyed and envious looking Chris next to him. As Tala sat down, Johnny came over and sat down to Tala's left, sinking into his chair tiredly.

"Thank God that Hillary doesn't have lunch with us. I'm going to order a restraining order on that dumb bitch," Johnny grumbled as he let his head fall into his hands. Tala laughed and patted Johnny on the back. "Hey, Tala, do you see the look on Chris's face? I wish I had a camera. Every time I tell him how jealous he looks he always denies it. I need to take a picture of him with that look."

Tala laughed, "You don't know how lucky you are. You see that black bag next to Chris?" Johnny nodded. "Hand it over to me. Quickly!" Johnny slowly inched his hand over towards the black bag. When he was close enough he grabbed onto the strap and slowly dragged it closer to him. In his jealousy, Chris didn't realize that the bag was missing. With a triumphant look on his face Johnny handed Tala the bag.

With careful fingers Tala removed the tiny and expensive video camera out of the bag. If Tala had looked over at Johnny he would have seen him rubbing his hands together like a child on Christmas morning. Tala set up the camera and focused the viewfinder on Chris's face. Then, he slowly moved the camera towards the reason for Chris's jealousy. Tala could hear Arty yelling something about eyeliner and piercings being better than hair and tattoos. He didn't really care, for he was too wrapped up in taping the look on Chris's face. It was one of pure jealousy, although he was trying to hide it pretty damn well. Tala figured Chris had one helluva 'sister complex'.

Getting a sudden idea, Tala stood up and tried to walk quietly behind Chris so he could tape what had annoyed his friend. Unfortunately for Tala he failed to notice who was walking his way.

The jocks in the school were notorious for hating people like Tala. They teased him and his friends constantly. They had always teased Tala even when he was in elementary school. That was before his gang days though. It was the time when Tala's nasty emotional problems had just been starting. He had a bad temper and would get annoyed easily over nothing. He would feel immensely sad one moment and then sickeningly happy the next. Elementary school was labeled in Tala's mind as 'the time when there was just black and white'. After his gang days he realized there was gray too.

During Tala's gang days he really opened up. He was taught to care for the other people in the gang, which were like family to him. That's what King and Queen told him. Everyone would look after Tala liked a beloved younger brother. And they did; they looked after Tala better than his own parents could. Hell, they probably would still be looking after him if it weren't for that boy. Tala didn't know his name but he had a feeling that he owed him his life. Sometimes Tala hated that boy with all his might.

The jocks started picking on him again after he went back to regular school. It seemed they too had managed to graduate the sixth grade…Amazingly though.

Tala might have actually been able to tell someone that for the first time in many days, today might actually stay good. He forgot about Murphy's Law, and most importantly, he failed to see the jocks to the right of him nudging each other in the ribs with their elbows. Poor Tala thought the jocks were incapable of pulling off a prank.

Suddenly icy cold milk was running down the back of Tala's neck. Some dripped along his shoulders and down the front of his shirt. It mostly stayed on the back of the jacket that the school issued all of its male students to wear. The milk mixed with red Jell-O and pizza on the back of the blue jacket. A jock that had dumped the remainder of his lunch on Tala sniggered like an immature child reading about sex. Then like a little child he ran towards his other friends, where in the comfort of numbers, his sniggering turned to full out laughter. His eyes danced with a deranged sparkle and in their own way they seemed to be mocking Tala, challenging him to do something. But they knew as well as Tala did that he would do nothing. If Tala had still been in a gang there would have been hell to pay. Now Tala was nothing more than a has-been, a washed up gang member, now reformed and wearing a school uniform and acting like a mature 17 year-old going on 18. If only the jocks were like Tala.

Luckily, Tala noticed that no one else realized what had taken place behind him, but Johnny was the exception. He wasn't smiling, but his mouth was drawn in a thin line, making his lips almost invisible. There was something in his eyes and the way he was sitting that almost made Tala feel bad for the jocks. He placed a comforting hand on Johnny's shoulder and shook his head no. They didn't deserve Johnny's time. They didn't deserve anyone's time, which was why Tala was happy that no one else saw. He hated it when others stood up for him like he was unable to come to his own defense. And as much as he hated to admit it, Arty and Chris treated him that way.

Something would happen to Tala and they would jump to his defense before he even had a chance to say anything back. It made Tala feel like a user. Even though unbeknownst to them, Tala stood up for them probably more than they would ever do for him. His old gang threatened to hurt his friends and loved ones unless he did numerous illegal things. Things like buying their drugs, stealing alcohol and stealing things from stores. Really, it was only petty thievery but eventually it would amount to something that might cause Tala to be locked up for life. Luckily it hadn't come to that yet.

Tala offered Johnny a small smile, one that showed how he truly felt. He felt haggard and somehow happy. Maybe he was just happy to be alive. He didn't know and he didn't rightly care. There were so many things in the world he couldn't control and only now was he just getting used to them. He walked out of the lunchroom doors and wasn't even stopped by the teachers on lunch duty. Ether they didn't care whether he left or not, didn't notice, or maybe they happened to see what Tala had just gone through. Tala felt like for once luck and God were on his side.

Tala walked down the desolate hallways of his school. Not a soul was in site, which was odd because usually you saw a lot of students walking around when it was not passing time. I guess because the PA system is off, they usually have to send students down to the office. I like it this way, the halls are more quiet, Tala though. Suddenly he noticed a boy his age looking around quizzically with headphones in his ears. The boy kept looking at his sheet of paper and then back at the row of lockers. Tala felt sympathetic and decided to help the boy. He walked over to the black haired youth and tapped him on the shoulder. The other boy whirled to face him, his hair swinging around behind his head like a whip. He looked surprised, but then relieved, when he saw it was just Tala.

The boy took his head phones out of his ears and smiled at Tala. "Can I help you?" He spoke in a voice that was higher than most boys. His eyes were a golden hue and as he spoke, Tala could have sworn he caught a glimpse of fangs in the boy's mouth. "I'm Rei." Tala snapped out of his studying and extended his hand.

"I- I'm Tala. Do you need any help? Are you new here?" Tala stuttered a little in the beginning but slowly he regained his composure. Rei had a strange way of unnerving him. It was like he knew something about Tala that Tala didn't know himself. It was odd.

"Am I that obvious? God, I thought the headphones would help. I haven't used headphones in so long." He smiled reassuringly at Tala, as though he sensed that he might be scaring him. "Can you help me find my locker? I'm kinda lost." He handed Tala the sheet when he nodded.

"A little lost? You're on the completely wrong side of the building. But that's where I'm going. I have to change my jacket and shirt…I think." Tala grimaced as he motioned towards his back. "I was going to ask you why there was food… all over you," Rei laughed. He couldn't help himself. He knew Kai had been assigned to watch the boy, but he wondered if Kai even talked to him. No, probably not, Rei decided.

Tala motioned Rei and walked on ahead, turning the corner. Rei walked a little faster to keep up.

They had been walking in silence for about a minute, working their way around the empty school halls. Tala could hear Rei's music blaring out of his headphones and he wondered how the boy couldn't be deaf. "What are you listening to?" He finally asked. The song seemed familiar, but Tala never knew the names of songs.

"Here, you listen." Rei handed Tala a headphone and looked a little surprised when Tala started mouthing the words. Then he watched, more interested, as Tala's smiled fell. He handed the headphones back to Rei. "You know that song?" Rei asked.

"Yes and I don't really like it. My friend likes it and I can't understand why. It is such a nasty song. And I don't mean it's nasty because it talks about fags and curses repeatedly. I think it's disgusting because the guy continually puts himself down. Why would someone listen to that?" Tala started rambling on and on. Telling Rei, someone he had just met a minute ago, what exactly the song made him feel.

Rei looked a little confused but then a knowing light shined in his eye. The song obviously brought up memories for Tala. And Rei had a feeling he knew who the memories involved. The song also made Rei think of Kai. Rei liked it because he could relate to the song. He was gay after all. But Rei thought he had Tala all figured out. Ether Tala liked Kai, found out he was strangely attracted to the boy, or hated him. Tala also had major issues with self-esteem; he probably tried to kill himself once. Hell, doesn't every teenager these days wanna kill themselves? They think they have the crapiest life in the world, when they don't know shit about being fucked up. Just because you got dumped doesn't mean you can become an angst ridden teen. Rei for some reason though things were a little different when it came to Tala. Is he like Kai? Does he have that same chemical imbalance? Rei could only wonder, but with a shake of his head he turned to Tala.

"I can find it from here on. You should go back and change your shirt. You should have changed before walking me around. Classes will be let out soon, and it would be embarrassing to be caught with food all over your shirt," Rei laughed lightly. His laugh reminded Tala of something. The laugh sounded like an old laugh. No, he wasn't saying that Rei was old, he was just thinking that it sounded like a laugh from when people were forced to act polite and do things against their will.

Tala dimly nodded his head; it seemed he was always lost in thought lately. Slowly, Tala walked away and the hint of red in his cheeks drastically increased when he realized that Rei was right, class was about to be let out.

Kai sat up on the rooftop with a little figure perched on his shoulder. The figure looked like a Gothic Lolita doll, with platinum blond hair and a Gothic Lolita style dress. But what could captivate a person more was whom the little fearie-ish thing was perched on. He wore a normal Japanese school uniform, even though it was freezing out and starting to drizzle. Kai sat still as a statue waited the remaining hours it would take for school to let out. He had been having a weird feeling all morning long that something important would happen to him right after school. Usually when Kai got these feelings he knew someone was going to die.

Sitting up on the school roof made him feel like he was living again. It reminded him of the times when his grandfather forced him to wait for people in steak-outs so that Kai could leap out of the trees and murder someone. It almost made Kai cry every time he even thought about hurting anything. Killing a person had seriously messed up Kai's sense of right and wrong. Right to him was wrong, and wrong to him was right. He would kill anyone that crossed him, leaving them to go on with their puny little lives as they scrambled around for a meager living was just too horrible. Kai had spent many nights thinking over every little thing in the world. Anything that crossed his mind became a topic for an internal debate. Topics reigning from drug taking to illegal fishing could have found a home in his head. He realized the importance of life, but at the same time he realized how pointless it was to live. Like himself, there were some people who were born to die. Kai was doing much better in helping the world now that he had been dead for a few years. His life was less than a second compared to the Earth's. Hell it was even less than the time it took to blink an eye. If someone died, the Earth wouldn't even notice. We were nothing. The dinosaurs maybe took up a minute's time, which is disturbing. Because when you look at the whole picture, dinosaurs were on the Earth for millions and trillions of years. It was ridiculous. It was hardly fathomable. Kai thought things like this up every single night.

He had loved to argue over every single detail with himself. He loved challenging everything people said or did. Only he never did it out loud, it remained in his head. Kai's mind was brilliant but it worked in a different ways than most people's did. He meticulously approached the problem from the bottom and worked his way towards the center. He liked to think of it as a spiral formation.

Kai sat upon the school roof and unintentionally shivered. The rain was freezing and it had started to come down heavier and was drenching his black hair. Kai was shocked for a second. The last time he had black hair was when he died. He had colored it black just to go against his grandfather. When he died he chose to stay in a body that was free of the abrasions that marked his body when he was still living. Now he was back in his regular God-forsaken body.

The same black hair permanently straightened to fall around his face, same tattoos shaped like shark fins making a home on his cheeks. Grey eyes stared out at him as Kai caught his reflection in a puddle next to him. The phoenix tattoo his grandfather had given to him while he was in private school was still on his shoulder. The earrings were still in his ears. All of the holes, the ones he did himself and the ones professionals did. The chains, hoops, balls and industrial piercings were in his ears, turning them into a mass of metal both silver and gold. Kai almost made himself sick when he looked in the mirror everyday when he was living. People would stare at him and whisper things behind his back. They thought he was a bad kid because of all the earrings and tattoos. He was automatically labeled the gothic outcast. He was without friends and people to love him, yet he seemed perfectly fine.

It all made tears come to Kai's eyes, and a couple of the tears leaked out of his eyes and slid down his face. The salt of his tears mixed with the fresh rain, which was still coming down harder. The figure on his shoulder, Manna, looked startled at seeing his tears. Apparently even when they mixed with the rain the second they fell, she still managed to see them. Kai thought it was a personal talent and not one gifted to her whole species. She gently flew up and a strange blue glow surrounded her ethereal body as the raindrops bounced off a reflective shield around her. She whipped away a tear with her tiny hands and suddenly the same blue glow was around Kai. He too was now repelling the water. He smiled at her a sad and tired smile, but it was a true smile and she smiled right back. And the two sat there in comfortable silence. They didn't have to speak to understand each other. They could just enjoy sitting with the other, then they could die happy. Such a carefree friendship could make one's heart truly ache.

The last bell had finally rung and Tala was home free, he had scored, won. It didn't matter, for all he cared about was going home. He remembered that school seemed to go on forever but today seemed like forever and a year. As he walked out of his eighth period class, by far his least favorite, he spotted Chris walking among the crowd. Chris still looked a little put off by what Arty had said in lunch. It made Tala wonder what was really going on in Chris's head. Suddenly Tala didn't have any time to wonder. He was roughly pulled aside by Miriam and had a hoodie thrown in his face.

"Here," was all Miriam had time to get out before the crowd swept her away. Tala could see her waving back towards him as she walked towards the gym for her sport's practice. Tala held the hoodie up in front of himself and looked at it. Luckily, Miriam hadn't tried to give him a girly one again. Even a pretty boy like Tala could get embarrassed walking around in a pink sweatshirt. Instead it was a black with gray writing across the chest reading, 'I believe in angels'. Behind the writing was a bloody angel feather. Pure white in color.

"Where in hell did Miriam get this sweatshirt?" Tala wondered out loud to himself. Usually Miriam handed him plain sweatshirts or ones with band names on them. Tala always managed to forget a jacket even when it was snowing out. After realizing that no matter how sick Tala would get from forgetting it, he would never remember it. So Miriam took it upon herself to every day lend him a jacket or sweatshirt. It had been warm enough this morning to go without one, but now that it was raining, the temperature had most likely dropped. It was only early spring. Then like Miriam, Tala found himself swept away with the crowd.

Once he hit the main entrance doors Tala had to shield his face from the rain that pelted down on him. It blurred his vision and distorted what he saw. But still he was able to make out the figures of his best friend and his friend's twin. Walking up to both of them, they waved at Tala, but it looked a little strained. Still, Tala knew things would get better within minutes between the two.

They all walked on foot because it was too hard for the twins to skate board. Tala slouched down against the wind and quickly his eyes flitted over his friends to make sure they were all right. Chris stood, standing as straight as he could with his silver hair whipping around his face, clutching to his side the two skateboards. Further behind them was Arty's small form moving slowly. She held her brother's backpack, plus her own, and she looked miserable. Tala couldn't tell if it was just because of the fact that she was having trouble walking or because she hated the rain. Tala stopped walking, and so did Chris so Arty could catch up with them. Then they started walking again. They had less than half a block to go. Arty slowly slipped her sweatshirt covered fingers around Chris's arm and walked closer to him and in his shadow, her face was hidden. But Tala smiled to himself, for he knew things would get better between the twins. They always did.

Chris opened the door to their house and held it open for Arty and Tala to trudge through. Tala sighed in relief and dropped his backpack onto the linoleum-tiled floor. His school pants were sopping wet at the bottom and were causing his socks to become damp. Arty removed her boots and they dropped to the floor with a squishing noise. She then cracked her toes. Chris just gave up on putting things down and flopped right on the floor and closed his eyes. He smiled; he was just happy to be home again. Arty took Tala and her own sweatshirt and threw them over the heating vent. They would dry quicker that way. Soon her backpack, and Chris's, joined Tala's on the floor.

"Chris, you had better put those skateboards in our room and get out of that sweatshirt and pants. They're dripping wet. You'll catch cold," Arty started droning onto Chris about doing things. She and Tala walked up to the twins' room. "Yes Mother!" Chris called up after Arty. He finally got up off the ground and took his things off. He wandered into the kitchen leaving a wet trail behind himself. There, taped to the fridge, was a note from their mother.

Arty & Chris,

I have to take the late shift tonight! I won't be home till three. There's dinner in the fridge for Arty to cook and Tala can eat over. Don't forget to write that note to your brother! There is supposed to be a bad storm coming!

Love,

Mom

"Fuck," was the only word the silver haired boy spoke when he saw the part about the storm. Chris slid the apple-shaped magnet off the piece of stationary and placed it on the table. Then as he started walking back towards Tala and Arty, he suddenly realized how wet his pants really were. The back of his pants was stuck to his legs and had soaked his socks. His usually messy hair was plastered to his head, most of it hanging in his eyes. His hair had gone from bright silver to dark graphite, darkened by the water. He smiled to himself; some times even he was amazed at his ability to be completely oblivious. He trudged up the stairs and opened his bedroom door. There he was greeted with the lovely sight of Arty bending over and Tala next to her, also bending over.

"Just what I want to see: Arty's and Tala's asses," Chris laughed. Tala swiveled his head around and gave him the middle finger in a good way. "Didn't know you felt that way about me Tala," Chris said with a laugh.

Tala just grinned and played along with his best friend. "Every night I dream of making love to you. Oh Chris!" He started laughing. Chris fell onto the bed and Arty just smiled. "How sweet, gay lovers," she mumbled.

"Here Tala, these should fit you. You might need a belt though, you're too thin," Arty said as she handed Tala a pair of black pajama pants that she had gotten from Chris's drawers. Arty then grabbed another pair of Chris's pajama bottoms and headed into the bathroom to change.

"What Arty, you're not gunna change in front of me anymore?" Chris yelled and Arty's come back was, "You sick little child." Chris turned to look at Tala and realized his friend had already changed and was holding his pants in one hand. "Damn you're quick. Aw, shit. I sat on Arty's bed with my wet pants."

Tala smiled and placed a hand reassuringly on his friend's shoulder. "Well, better get off now. It might dry before she notices it. By the way, what did you mean by 'you're not gunna change in front of me anymore'? It kinda sounded weird."

Chris got up off the bed with a moan and grabbed his pajama bottoms from his upper bunk bed. He always left his pajama's there. "She thought I was sleeping this morning and she started getting dressed. She freaked out when I said something to her." Tala nodded and grabbed one of Arty's pillows. "You shouldn't have been watching her."

Chris sighed and unbuckled his studded belt. "I know. But she's just my sister right? I mean we used to take baths together and sleep in the same bed. I've seen her naked and she's seen me naked." He removed the belt from his pant loops and threw it onto Arty's bed.

"Yeah, but does she let you see her naked now that she's almost eighteen?" Tala asked with a knowing look. "Well, she doesn't let me." Chris answered as his voice began trailing off. "I didn't think so," Tala replied.

Chris laughed, "You must read minds too." He slipped his pants off and threw them at Tala. They landed in his face and then fell to his lap in a wet 'flop'. "Did you have to?" Chris just ignored him and put on his pajamas.

Arty sat on the floor of the TV room. She switched alternately between weather channels and the music channels. So far she had yet to see the weather being forecasted and she had yet to see a music video that didn't involve naked women shaking their asses. She ran a hand through her long silver hair that was halfway between being brushed. She just didn't care enough to finish the rest. She never liked to brush her hair when it was wet. That just added to the individuality that made Arty, well…Arty.

She had been Christened as Artemis Faith Dowde, born just a minute and a half after her older brother, Christopher Hope Dowde. They were embarrassed by their middle names all through elementary school. In middle school they had met Tala Valkov for the first time. He was thin and tiny, with bright red hair that made him look sickeningly pale. His beautiful turquoise eyes had a hard edge about them, and it had taken months before Tala could finally hold up a steady conversation with the twins. There had been rumors going around that Tala was nuts and that he had once been in a gang. Ether the Dowde twins never heard those rumors, or they didn't care about them. Most people would vote on the first selection. Arty managed to be oblivious while paying attention. You could talk to her and she would ignore you, but she managed to repeat word for word what you said. Chris on the other hand was attentive and cared about what others said, yet he couldn't tell you what you said to him. He would never remember. Chris and Arty were similar but also at times exact opposites.

Chris was tall, as where Arty was short. They were both thin in a way that was just short of being anorexic, which was odd because they ate so much. Chris had short silver hair reaching up to about his chin, and almost always it was gelled down. Arty on the other hand and long grayish hair, reaching a little past her behind, and it was usually down but decorated with ponytails. Their bangs were always messy and hanging in their eyes. Both twins had industrial earrings and lip rings. The twins almost always wore pounds of black eyeliner around their eyes. Occasionally they had black nail polish. Arty had little upside-down crosses draw in under her eyelashes. She tended to lean towards Gothic Lolita type outfits, where Chris wore regular gothic outfits. Although if you asked them both they would claim to be run of the mill people, not fitting into any stereotype. And they didn't. Arty and Chris were very hyper, always moving around, touching each other and talking. The bond between the two was just mutual friendship and understanding but it seemed like more. Arty tended to think odd things and occasionally drifted on the verge of anorexia and depression. Chris tended to like self-mutilation. Both could be described as sick individuals. Their thoughts always seemed to involve gore, death and knifes. They had a weird obsession with living life on the edge, both having tried suicide 'because they were curious'. They kept many secrets from their friends yet still managed to act normal. They smoked, and from time to time did drugs, but their friends never knew this. They were in a way the 'kids from the wrong side of the tracks'. They always made jokes that Tala was 'Lady' and the twins were 'Tramp'. They had seen too many Disney movies.

Arty and Chris sometimes acted like they were more than brother and sisters, like they were lovers or best friends. But more accurately put would have been that they were two halves of people, destined to fit together. In a way it was creepy how they acted; most people don't see people like the twins often. The twins were the type of people who would follow you home, and when you confronted them they would just stare at you. Then the next day they would follow you again and somehow know your darkest secret. They could unearth skeletons in God's closet if they ever got the chance. Unearthing secrets in their closets was something they didn't dare do. So many weird things happened to the twins that they just gave up on trying to find answers. They thought life was too short to be spent finding answers to unanswerable things.

They felt that their time on Earth was short, shorter than it was meant to be. They knew something big was coming, and they didn't really want to see it. Whether it is the rise of a Hitler wannabe or the death of their pet cat, they didn't want it to happen. As each day goes by the twins slowly begin to realize something is wrong with Tala and themselves.

Arty – Ta da! We finished this chapter, though I'm a little worried that I got off topic. I'm also a little worried that not as many people are going to be reviewing my story any more. Well if anyone has any suggestions for me…. I'm open.

Yaumi – Arty wants to apologize cause she was sick, or this chapter would have been out sooner.

Akuma – Arty also wishes to say that even though the characters in her story are suicidal, it doesn't mean that it's cool. Think of it this way, suicide is a coward's way out. And our characters are at times cowards. Also, no drug doing! Arty and Chris might do it but they are seriously, mentally disturbed. Kai has a bad past and killed people, but don't kill others because they tricked you. Kai also has a few mental problems. He also has a chronic depression that is caused by chemicals. It causes lack of sleep, which leads up to heavy depression, suicidal thoughts, anorexia, bulimia, murder and just bad thoughts.

Arty – Yeah, watch out cause I used to be an insomniac and they think it was caused by chemical depression. It caused me to think about hurting myself and I guess I become mentally disturbed. I'm worried because now that I'm getting help for it, that I won't be able to finish writing this story like it was meant to be.

Yaumi – Chemical depression is involuntary, Arty's not trying to make Kai's depression come from a bad past. That scenario has been done to often! And a little birdie told us that Chris and Arty were hard characters to understand so we hope this might help. And as for them suddenly appearing, well I hope this helps too. Watch out! Arty's a psycho!

Arty - thwack