Twenty-nine: No Time
Characters: Merlon, Nolrem

The grand tar- and violet-colored doors closed with a soft creak of finality. The two brothers looked at the other, one standing by each side of the door. Behind them, the sky was gone. In its place was a quietly roaring vortex; the sucking wind it produced pulled gently at their cloaks.

The twin dimensions-in-between-dimensions were silent. All of the residents, Flipside and Flopside alike, were at home with their loved ones, or despairing at their ultimate loneliness. Perhaps there would have been a few suicides had death been any escape from this nightmare.

Nolrem was afraid. It felt like the wind was trying to tear him apart atom by atom. Malevolent and hungry, it likely was. How a black hole could want anything, how it could be conscious at all, was beyond him, but Grambi, it was aware… He could feel how much it hated him, how much it despised every molecule of everything that had ever existed. He numbly wondered if, in the end, it would still exist, ravenous with nothing left to consume, or if it would cease to be as well to create the true nothingness it embodied.

Void. Darkness. Chaos. Could Hope, Light, and Love even stand up to such an unholy trinity?

There were earthquakes every other second now. He looked at Merlon, his twin, his opposite, his former brother in everything but actual blood. Not many people knew that he was a descendant of the Ancients, nor that he himself was from the Tribe of Darkness. Not many knew of the towns' history at all, or that there even were two towns.

But Merlon and Nolrem had known. They had known each other ever since they could remember; they were instant best friends from the moment they met. Their predecessors did nothing to foster the friendship, but did nothing to hinder it either, as long as it did not interfere with their duties as guardians of the dimensions in between dimensions. They were a rare example of how well the two tribes could get along.

It didn't last. They saw less and less of each other as they grew older, and then not at all except in times of need. They began to disagree, got into fights, and eventually parted on ill terms. They hadn't talked for years, until Merlon finally asked for his help with this crisis.

The shaking became ceaseless. "The worlds tremble… Has… Has the end finally come?" Merlon wondered aloud. Looking at him, Nolrem could see how terrified he was. He was scared too, had been scared for a while now, unable to hold quite as much hope as his counterpart had.

Colors were beginning to fade away. "How unfortunate…" Nolrem said, hesitating, then stepping closer. Meeting his brother's eyes, he quietly took Merlon's hand and held it firmly, regretting that there wasn't time for the apology the other truly deserved. Merlon's expression said that it was not needed.

Everything was silent as time stopped.