Author's Note: This Narrator is a character of the story. He's not me. No breaking of 4th walls here.

The Twist

"No!" Heath exclaimed. "I will not let you use another soul in this damned ritual."

"Alright! I'll think of something else." I went out the building of the Hamelin prison and went to the river. Queen Aureole and her brothers followed me.

When I arrived there, I looked at it and checked its deep darkness. "Yep. This is it. I'm right."

"What did you see?" The queen looked at the river, trying to see what I saw.

"A doorway. Still open but undisturbed." I slowly dipped myself to the cold river.

"What are you trying to do?" The young queen's brother Gregory asked.

"I'm going to open it wide so we can enter."

"Wait." Heath began to think it was a bad idea. And he is right. "Are you not suppose to close it? We don't know what's out there."

"I know. Don't worry. I know what I'm doing here." I'm giving them some assurance. "I'm just going to open it wide so we can get through."

"We?" The brothers began to move two steps back away from the river.

I dived in and went straight to the deep under the dark waters of the Hamelin river. There I saw the black doorway, twirling like a vortex of evil. I touched it and pushed my hand through. When my hand got to the other side, I feel nothing. No heat. No cold. My hand is not even wet. Completely nothing.

This proves my theory. That bastard Piper used children to open a portal to get to the Great Void, killed me and took my stone. Why did he took it?

Does he have plans for it?

I have a theory that is so worst that I don't want it to be true.

But enough of over-thinking things, I'm going to open it up with my enchantments. Even in my mortal form, I can still make spells. I just have the correct words and pronunciations. "Klaatu! Barada Nikto!"

After that, a beam of dark magic burst out from the Hamelin River and pierced the sky. The water began to float as if gravity was absent. The entire town of Hamelin floats three feet above ground. I called Heath and Gregory to join with me. "Guys, let's go."

"No thanks." Gregory said.

"I don't want to." Heath tried to get away.

"I'm coming with you." Aureole went towards the big black hole and swam towards it.

I gave her a warning. "You know this is a one way trip."

The young queen seemed to understand it. "I know. If this we are doing is to save the world, I want to be a part of it instead of squabbling around like cowards." She turned to her two brothers moving away from the river.

"Alright. Here we go!" Both of us dived into the black hole and disappeared.

We are at the center of nothing. The center of the Great Void. Well, there is no center actually. It is just blank space. Right below us is a blue river flowing towards a blue light. The young queen and the former thief were amazed at the place.

"Where are we?" She asked.

"Outside Time, man. We are outside Time itself." I answered as we float above the blue river.

"And what is that?" Queen Aureole pointed at the flowing cosmic river.

"That is Time in physical form." I wanted to start a tour, guiding them where to go. But we have to time. We need to find the Piper and stop him from doing something incredibly disastrous. "In liquid state, I mean."

"This is incredible." The queen was impressed. She took a closer look at it and saw her reflection aging forward and then back. "I still look pretty when I'm old."

Then I stopped her. "No. We have important things to do."

"Right." The young queen turned away from the river and looked at the great pitch darkness. "So, what to do next? I don't see anything."

I felt a presence nearby. Then that presence spoke to us, "What do we have here?"

We turned and saw the Piper appearing to be standing on the Void along with the Shadow People lurking behind him.

The young queen and I prepared for a fight but then I noticed we didn't brought any weapons. We are fully unarmed. "Urgh! I forgot we have no weapons! Why did I forget that?"

Then the Piper spoke. "Enough of this lie, boy! You have something that we want."

Aureole asked him, "What are lie are you talking about?"

The villain replied, "Your brother's death. The murder of the Time God. Light bomb of secrets which caused the arrest of the former thief. Everything happened because of a lie that you made!" He pointed his finger at me. The young queen turned at me and started to wonder what lie is the Piper talking about.

"Oliver? What is he talking about?"

Now I'm speechless.

How?

How did the Piper find out?

It must be the light. He must've seen my secret.

Then the evil Piper continued, "Can't you tell, my queen? Well of course you can't. You have not seen him as a young boy. He reverse his age, turning him younger and unrecognizable to you."

Aureole looked at me and tried to see what the Piper was talking about.

I stared at her for a second until she got the hint.

"Benjamin?" She finally recognized me.

TO BE CONTINUED