Chapter 6: The Purple Demoness

"Finally, we're home!" Amy proclaimed to the near-empty house.

The house was faintly lit, as it always had to be. In the nightlife town on Comodo, there was no sun, ever; therefore lamps always lighted Barrett and Amy's house. It was a small house, fit for two people. The floors were made of wood, the walls were wood, and the ceiling was wood… If it weren't for the few colourful rugs positioned under tables and beds to keep the floors from getting any marks, the house would have been fairly bland. There were only four rooms, both siblings having their own room. The rest was made up of a lone room that acted as a combined set of the living room, the kitchen, and the dining room. Of course, these rooms weren't too large or fabulous. Given the fact that Amy was the only one who worked, they only had so much zeny to go by. The rooms had all been set up, though, and the Wingfoot siblings were ready to start their life again.

The living room was rather quiet. It only seated around five people, with two chairs and a three-person, fold out sofa. A little ways in front of the sofa was the coffee table, which was decorated by a freestanding vase, filled with exotic flowers, and a colourful, oval-shaped rug rested beneath the table. This area was on the ease side of the small home, the kitchen and dining room being on the west side. The dining area itself was rather small, only having a table, which could seat six, and a rug beneath the table and chairs to keep the polished, hardwood floor from getting marks. Even if no dinner had been planned, the table was always set and kept clean by Amy. The kitchen was on the northwest end, and consisted of a small area squared off by counter-space, and high up cupboards that were connected to the ceiling. Since it was in the corner, there weren't many cupboards, but there was certainly a lot of space on the counters. The only thing that would take up space on them was the sink. On the north wall was the range where meals were cooked, and in the corner was the refrigerator. For such a small home, it seemed rather well off.

Standing in the open space barely between the kitchen and the living room area were the Wingfoot siblings. Also, there were a few other women; dressed in large dressed with white aprons and frilly headbands. They were kafras – Amy's co-workers and friends. They all wore the same outfit as regular kafras… a long brown dress with short, puffy sleeves, white aprons, frilly white headbands, white gloves, and footwear of their choice. But each one was different in their own way. Barrett and Amy had known them for years, and they had visited often in the past. Not only that, but being kafras, they all seemed to be very beautiful. If one were to wonder why, most would have assumed it was a job requirement.

"We're so glad you've finally come back." One of the kafras said. She had straight brown hair that reached her shoulder blades, and bright blue eyes.

"Thank you Jasmine." Amy responded.

"We really missed you while you were out." Another of the women said. That one had shorter hair that barely reached the bottom of her nape. It was a fair blue in colour, and her eyes were a blue-ish green.

"We missed you too Pavianne, didn't we Barrett?" Amy responded, looking to her brother.

"Yeah." Barrett sounded out of it - even someone as simple-minded as him was rather taken away when three beautiful women visited his house.

"Yes, we all missed Barrett too, didn't we girls?" Jasmine asked with a smile.

"We did!" Pavianne answered. "Right Leilah?"

"Certainly." The third kafra, with long pink hair and violet eyes responded, though she didn't sound like she meant it.

"Well I'm glad we were missed." Amy giggled. "But it's getting late…"

"Yes, we should really be getting home." Leilah stood up first. "It was nice seeing you again."

"Really." The other two women responded as they got to their feet.

"I'm glad you stopped by." Amy stood up and bowed politely before seeing them to the door. "You should come by again soon. You can bring Blossom and Roxy next time, and we can have an all-girls night!"

"It sounds fun." Jasmine smiled. "I think we'll do that."

"Good. See you later girls!"

Amy saw them out. As soon as they were gone, Barrett helped himself to one of the seats in the living room area. He slumped into it and sighed with boredom. Amy knew very well why. Upon leaving, Barrett had given up being a Knight. His sword was hung on the wall as decoration, and his armor had all been stashed away in the closet within his room. There he sat, in a blue, thick, long-sleeved shirt and brown jeans, and white socks – he felt rather plain. Amy moved over to him and sat down on the couch. She was wearing a white tank top, and blue jean short shorts, and a pair of sandals. They had both gotten comfortable, and Amy just looked at Barrett for a moment before beginning to speak.

"Well, glad to be back, huh?" She asked, giving no hint of being bothered by his boredom.

"Yeah, I guess." Barrett responded.

"That was a nice welcome-home committee, don't you think?" Amy asked with a small giggle. "I know how much you like the girls coming by."

"I do not." Barrett looked at her as if she were insane. "It's always tea this and girly stuff that… A guy like me just can't be interested in stuff like that!"

"Um… you always talk with us about things." Amy responded.

"I pretend to know what you're talking about." Barrett responded.

"Oh come on, I know exactly why you try." Amy grinned coyly. "They're all around your age, aren't they? I think you should just go and ask one of them out if you feel that way."

"I don't feel that way!" Barrett responded quickly. "I mean, that's silly, they're just… well… they're just…"

"Beautiful and sweet?" Amy spoke flatly, crossing her arms.

"… Yeah." Barrett nodded. "That's it."

"Well, it doesn't matter." Amy laughed. "What are you going to do now that you're home?"

"Hell, I don't know!" Barrett answered Amy's question as he simply rested his cheek in his palm.

"Well, I've got work… Maybe you should get a job!" Amy suggested with a sweet smile.

"A job?" Barrett looked at his sister quite curiously.

"Yeah… How about a Smiley Assistant?"

Barrett simply shuddered at the thought.

"God no." He responded.

"Oh… Yeah I guess you're right." Amy giggled slightly. "Well, I guess you'll be job-hunting tomorrow."

Of course, in the land of the eternal nightlife, it was difficult to know just when "tomorrow" was.

So, when Barrett woke up, he set out to find a job. This was dealt with in the traditional manner. One would get presentable, and inquire at different places for a job. For Barrett, Amy made him dress up rather gentlemanly. Barrett dressed up in a pair of black dress pants, and a tucked in, white dress shirt. There wasn't a wrinkle on his whole outfit, and he even put on a red and black diagonally striped tie. Then of course, he wore white socks and black shoes. He was ready to go out into the world and find a professional, work-place job. But he had no resumes, or anything of the sort. No, Barrett Wingfoot was definitely out to get a job in the most peculiar way possible.

Barrett had this way of doing things. When he thought he might have been good at something, he simply went and did it. This caused some problems. He would do jobs without being hired. At one point in the day, he went to a bakery and simply started working along-side one of the employees. Nobody seemed to mind or notice. He worked there for several hours, and while nobody questioned his presence, the employer really noticed the increase in productivity. After three hours of work, the manager came into the kitchen to speak with the two employees that should have been there. She really wasn't expecting a third.

"Wow, I have to say, we've been keeping up today!" The manager said as she congratulated her employees. "Who do we have to thank for this? Mandy? John?"

The two other employees stood quiet and baffled before the male, John, spoke up.

"Uh… This guy, Ma'am." John pointed to Barrett, who was standing between John and Mandy, hands behind his back, a big, proud grin plastered on his face.

"Oh well thank you!" The manager said, but then she paused, glancing at Barrett. "What… who ARE you? You don't work here, and I don't pay you. Get outta here!"

The young man ended up being thrown out of the Bakery flat onto his face. But his spirits weren't daunted. He simply picked himself up, brushed himself off, and kept going.

At one point, he thought he could be a treasure hunter. There was a cave at the northern cape of Comodo said to be full of monsters and treasure. So, still wearing his handsome clothes, and without any weapons, Barrett ventured inside. It wasn't even fifteen minutes before he began to notice that the monsters inside were tough. Most of them were poisonous, and to a man without any weapons or armor, they posed a rather large threat. It wasn't long until they chased him out of the cave. The young man was sent running with his arms flailing, shouting bloody murder and proclaiming that the monsters were in his hair. It was a very sad sight to see. But, Barrett was still undaunted, and continued his search for employment.

Amy watched her brother run about for the entire day. While she did her job aiding travelers that came through, she watched Barrett as he suffered failure after failure. He was thrown out of the juice bar and the performance stage. He didn't get any money no matter how much he begged, and he wasn't hired by any of the travelers for anything. He wasn't allowed to deliver things from Comodo to other towns, and he was denied the right to write articles for news or entertainment. He couldn't offer any services of his own either. He just didn't seem to fit in anywhere he went. He couldn't even take after his father and build or repair things. It seemed that all he was ever good at, he had left behind, and was now in quite the situation. Amy could see this rather clearly as she watched him until her shift was over. At that time she left to try and get him a job, any job she could. When she left, he was still looking for something to do.

Barrett had searched for a job for eight hours straight, and just didn't have anything left in him after that time. He just moved to a table set up in a small fenced area at the far west of the town, pulled up a chair, and sat down. He yawned, resting his elbow on the table, cradling his chin in his palm as he gazed out at the sea. The night stars were reflected in the clear blue ocean, and all he could hear was the breeze. He had a lot of time to think in that situation. He was getting discouraged. At that point, he'd covered almost every available job on the island. In his mind, he couldn't see himself getting hired at any point in the near future. He let out a soft sigh. He was certain that day could not have gotten any worse… That was until a shadow was cast over him. He looked back reluctantly, getting quite a shock.

"Barrett? Is that you?" A woman asked.

This woman looked rather youthful, and wore a light suit of armor. She had to be a Knight or Crusader of some kind. A light blue tunic, ending just at her waist, covered her torso. Chain mail that she must have worn beneath the tunic reached down to about her knees, keeping her modest. She wore a sort of cloak, a cape that reached her mid-back that had a chain mail collar. Her arms were covered by polished plate armor that covered her hands, forearms, elbows, biceps and shoulders, all connected at the joints loosely for mobility. Beneath the plate, on the undersides of her arms, the chain mail tunic was obviously long-sleeved. Aside from that, she wore a hairpin in her hair, a crescent moon shaped ornament on it. Her hair was a long violet colour, her eyes being a deep jade green. Her skin was fair and gave her a Caucasian look. Barrett froze up at the sight of this woman his own face running pale with fright.

"V-V-V…" Barrett couldn't even spit out her name.

"It's me!" The woman said, looking to be about his age as she scooped his head into her arms and held it against her bosom affectionately. "It's been so long! I've missed you!"

"Valyrie!" Barrett shouted as he tore away from the woman and stumbled back in shock. "What the hell are you doing here!"

"What do you mean what am I doing here!" Valyrie, as Barrett called her, seemed utterly offended by this. "I was just passing through! I'm a Knight you know."

The violet-haired woman looked next to her. Sticking out of the ground was a large lance, made entirely out of metal and was taller than she was. Barrett looked at it, then back at the woman and laughed nervously.

"Good for you!" Barrett said with a sappy grin.

"And then, I remembered that you lived here and decided to look for you!" Valyrie said, smiling excitedly back to Barrett. "And here you are, all dressed up for me!"

"For you?" Barrett shook his head. "Oh no, no, no! I didn't do this for you! I was looking for a job!"

"Oh don't be so modest!" Valyrie giggled as she folded her hands behind her back and leaned in close to Barrett. Barrett leaned away from her in nervous response. She got right into his face then. "You must have seen my coming in the stars and got ready for me! Remember when I first asked you out?"

"More like dragged me out!" Barrett stated in loud retort.

"We made such a cute couple…" Valyrie said dreamily, ignoring Barrett's comment.

"Back in second grade? Hell no!" Barrett responded.

"Seventh grade!" Valyrie shot at him, her mood on the flip side from when she first saw Barrett.

"Man, was I off!" Barrett laughed nervously again.

"You forgot!" Valyrie seemed awfully mad now, grabbing her Lance and stepping back to hold it at Barrett's throat. "Are you telling me I wasted all those months just to be forgotten! I spent years after that thinking about you, how could you be so heartless?"

"Whoa now, hold on…" Barrett stepped back, pushing Valyrie's lance down out of harm's way. "Aren't we being just a little bit obsessive?"

"Obsessive!" She brought the lance's tip nearer to his throat.

"Maybe I worded that wrong…" Barrett laughed nervously.

They spoke back and forth like that for quite some time. Barrett was slowly taken back into his memories of the time he met Valyrie years before. He remembered how she treated him… Was she even aware of what she did? She was horrible, as far as Barrett was concerned. She nagged him constantly, trying to shape him into her perfect vision of a male partner… She was very high-maintenance, and very needy, and Barrett tried as hard as he could to cater to these needs for the sake of a relationship… But, in the end, she lost her liking for Barrett and acted cruelly towards him. Barrett did what his instincts told him and ran away, avoiding their "relationship" altogether until she just forgot… Valyrie didn't forget, and he had to break it to her at one point. It was then that She proceeded to make his childhood a living hell. Valyrie was probably half the reason Barrett wanted to become a Knight so eagerly. He must have wanted to get away from her awfully quick. Now she was back, and back to her old antics once again.

Amy was sitting at home, her shift long past, reading a book in the living room. She had begun to wonder where Barrett had gone. He'd been out for nine hours straight… A feat she normally thought was impossible. But it wasn't long before any suspicions she had would gain answers as Barrett came bursting through the door. He slammed it shut as soon as he could, leaning back against it. Amy stood up quickly, about to ask what her brother was up to, but a quick pounding on the door cut her off. Barrett seemed to be in some sort of danger! She came to his aid quickly, coming to hold the door shut with him while this pursuer bashed the door trying to get it open, yelling all sorts of profanities.

"Barrett, what's going on!" Amy yelled to be heard over the other's yelling.

"Well, you remember that one girlfriend I had?" Barrett yelled back over his pursuer's yelling.

Suddenly the tip of a lance crashed through the door right by their heads. They screamed in fright and held very still as the lance was pulled away. Outside, Valyrie stormed to the hole she had left and tried to look inside.

"Barrett Wingfoot, if you don't come outside right now, I'll never speak to you again!" She yelled inside.

"Good! That's exactly what I want!" Barrett yelled back over his shoulder.

Valyrie was furious, kicking the door once with a slight cry of frustration. She then turned and stormed away as onlookers watched in puzzled awe. Inside the house, Barrett and Amy let out a relieved sigh and slid to a sitting position against the door. After a while, they looked up to the hole Valyrie had left, and then at each other, sighing in unison once again. Curious villagers came to their door, wondering what was the matter, wondering what exactly had happened.

"Valyrie…" Amy sighed. "Still can't get over you, can she Barrett?"

"You know, your Kafra friends are suddenly thousands of times more appealing than they wore when I went to bed last night." Barrett responded as he bought his hand to his forehead, rubbing it in frustration.

"Well, I have good news." Amy smiled. "I got you a job so you can start saving towards a new door."

"What! Me!" Barrett looked to his sister in disbelief. "It's not MY fault that Valyrie's a psycho!"

"… What am I doing, anyways?" Barrett then asked with a sigh.

"Well…" Amy responded with a sort of grin.

Barrett saw that look in her eyes, and feared for the worst.