Note: Here follow two fairly short chapters which will essentially be made of dialogues in which Rowena and Axel tell each other what has happened to them.

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Rowena's Tale

The two of them walked along the beach, throwing glimpses at the rising sun. It had been a silent walk until Axel had finally broken the silence by asking:

"What happened?"

"When?"

"Ever since I left, what has happened?"

The beach was warm, although it was still early morning. The damp wind hadn't changed and it blew their red hair into their faces constantly.

Rowena sat down opposite the sea and watched it passively. Then she started talking.

"Do you remember how we used to wake up at ten o'clock and come diving into the water and see if we froze or not?" she asked dreamily." Mum and dad were already working and they wouldn't be there to tell you off for giving me ideas. Sometimes we invited your friends and sometimes we invited mine. Do you remember?"

"I remember" muttered Axel as he did, indeed, remember.

"One morning, we'd gone to bed after a midnight swim, I heard mum and dad leaving for the office and I sneaked up to your room to wake you up, as I always did. I knocked and didn't get the usual, annoyed groan you always gave me so I came in and you'd disappeared.

From what I could see you'd never gone to bed. Obviously I panicked and ran to Kiren, you remember the old neighbor? He was a weird man but he helped me. I was only fifteen and I lost my big brother, can you imagine how lost I felt?

Anyway, mum and dad were warned and they notified the police. I couldn't do much but watch them, although in my heart I knew they weren't going to find you. You weren't the person to hide for fun, but when you did hide in any circumstance, you were amazingly good at it. So I always knew they would never find you. I kinda think I was a little girl in a fairy tale before and just after you left.

Like I said, I never believed they'd find you and if you ever came back you would have chosen to come back. And I was right. Look, here you are and you chose to come back, didn't you?"

Axel tried to turn away so that he wouldn't have to stare at the shiny, happy face next to him but he had no choice. She was beaming down at him. It was impressive how she'd grown.

"What happened to you" asked Rowena after some time.

"Wait" said Axel, a little too fast for comfort." What happened to mum and dad?"

"Well…" started Rowena, swallowing and turning away." After you'd left dad was devastated. He had always really appreciated you more than me for being a son and not a daughter. He never really recovered and two years after you disappeared he resigned from his job leaving mum to work on her own. Dad stayed at home and I think he went mad, in his own silent way. He could have lived on though but like you know Moyara Nova, it's not always a happy place."

"They were killed by delinquents?" asked Axel amazed and furious.

"This is where I'm not sure. One day, this must have been not even a year after you'd left; a tall man clad in black with long blond hair visited us. He knocked on the door and I answered seeing as mum and dad were at work. He said he needed to talk to them and I told him foolishly they worked and I said most of the things I knew about them. But it was so strange…"

"What was?" asked Axel briskly.

"The man seemed to know you. He said he'd known you since a little after you'd vanished. He said you owed him a lot of money. After that he came every week once mum and dad had left and he talked to me. When I was eighteen I pushed him away, even though dad was at home and all that. I never saw him again and that's when it happened"

"Mum and dad…?"

"Yes. I can't claim there was a link but it was a very strange coincidence. Later that day, not two hours I found a suicide letter written by dad and the police recovered mum's drowned body. That's as much as I know"

Axel swallowed. The description of the man who had seemingly killed his parents sounded familiar. It made him think of someone important but he couldn't recollect who. It must have been someone from another world… but whom?

"I took over the house even though I'd practically been living in it by myself ever since you were gone. I worked almost day and night and time went by fairly quickly. Once the closest people to you are dead it feels as though there is nothing left to live for. I was never tempted to commit suicide but I had no particular motive, no aim to live and to live for. It was all very mixed up and then I saw you in your clothes and they were exactly like this blond man's. It made me panic and then I recognized your hair. Nobody has ever had hair like yours"

Axel grinned but he didn't feel like doing so. The blond man of whom Rowena had spoken was part of the Organization, or at least, he had been part of it until Axel himself had taken care of him a very long time ago, in Castle Oblivion. They had been mortal enemies ever since, even though the man in question should have been anything anymore. He should have been "eliminated" for treachery. His name was Vexen…