The midnight hour was silent. No darklings roamed the streets. The three midnighters slept, albeit not soundly.
Dess woke, suddenly. A cold shiver went down her spine. Something was not right. The midnight blue shone around her, and she shuddered.
The death of the darkling king…for what?
Melissa sat straight up on the couch, straining in her casts. She'd broken all the bones again in the battle with the king, but hadn't felt the pain until the adrenaline ran dry. It was so hard for her to get around these days, that Dess had to do all the driving.
"Dess…do you hear that?" Melissa asked softly.
Dess closed her eyes and concentrated. Nothing.
"It's a humming noise. It's like nails on a chalkboard, Dess." Melissa clutched her ears. "Make it stop!"
Dess rushed over to Melissa. She didn't know what to do. Obviously Melissa could hear this with her mindcaster abilities, an area Dess knew little about.
"Block it out Melissa!" Dess grabbed one of Melissa's hands and pulled it away. "I'm here."
All of Melissa's shouting woke Jonathan.
"Dess, what's going on?!"
Dess didn't reply. "Come on Melissa, block it out. You're tough! You can do it!"
"Why does all this crap happen to Melissa?!" Jonathan yelled as he ran over as well.
"SHUT UP!" Dess shouted at him. She turned back to Melissa. "Come on, we're here!" Dess had no idea what Melissa was seeing, with her eyes squeezed shut, or what she was hearing, but it had to be awful.
Jonathan worriedly stood up and wrung his hands.
Tick. The numbers on the clock moved to 12:01am.
Melissa relaxed, her arms falling slack. Her eyes un-clenched and she fell into a deep sleep.
"What was going on?" Jonathan whispered.
Still holding one of Melissa hands, Dess said, "I..I don't know."

Rex and Aris stood next to what seemed to be the edge of the world, and spoke to a being that hovered almost 12 feet away into the abyss.
Aris fell to her knees. "Master, the Darkling King is dead. The wild darklings are no more."
Rex yanked a steel chain, and a whimpering darkling slid forward from behind him, writhing in pain. He looked at it with slitted eyes, disgusted.
"Another pet for your collection, sir. They are now an endangered species."
"You have done well," the being whispered, the sound reverberated around the entire area, almost bringing Rex to his knees as well. The darkling screamed.
Rex kicked it, after regaining his balance.
"There are only two things left that I need you to do," the being continued. "To continue your work with the machine…and to capture the midnighter called Melissa."
In unison, Aris and Rex replied. "Yes, Lord Ragalus."

The next morning, all three of the remaining midnighter team members woke up way before sunrise.
"I can't stand it," Jonathan said. "We're not going to be sleeping. Let's just go."
Dess and Melissa agreed (for once) and they all packed up and left before sun up. They were on the road as the orangey globe finally cleared the horizon.
"I had almost forgotten the sun…" Melissa murmured, closing her eyes ever so slightly.
Jonathan resisted the urge to grab her hand, and tell her that everything was going to be alright. His broken heart beat slowly, as he thought of Jess. He quickly spoke, to get his mind and heart away from the pain of the past.
"So what's the game plan, Dess?" he asked, as cheerily as he could muster.
Dess glanced sideways. Melissa was sitting in the back, so as not to draw attention, which meant Jonathan was riding shotgun.
"We continue our mission. The midnight hour is still out there, even though we defeated the king. Maybe…maybe he was just a test."
"A test? Who are we proving ourselves to?" Jonathan looked exasperated. He was tired. He was also tired of being in the dark.
"To God, maybe. I don't know. The death of the king was supposed to end midnight." Dess looked back at the road, and tried not to cry. She hardened herself, a trick she learned from Melissa.
"Well, who told us that?" Jonathan asked darkly. Melissa, asleep now, stirred from the tone of his voice.
"Rex," Dess growled.

The road ahead was black. The sky was dark blue. Nothing moved. There were no darklings. There were no voices.
But there was a sound.
She heard the noise from miles off. She headed toward the noise, the beacon staving off her insanity. She had heard the sound before, but it was always an undercurrent. Always just out of range of her perception. Like it was protected, or hidden. But now that protection was gone, and she could pinpoint the direction it was coming from.
And Jess was going to find out what it was.

It was noon. Dess jumped as she saw the numbers change to 12:00. Jonathan and Melissa were resting by a fountain in a busy town square. Dess wanted so badly to lay low, but Jonathan assured her that being out in the open was the best disguise.
It was summer break for the kids in town, but everyone knew they didn't belong anyway. As the warm mid-day sun beat down on her, Dess could feel the accusing glances and glares. She stood next to a newspaper stand, eating a sandwich.
Jonathan and Melissa were in the shade, but Dess felt like working on her tan.
Not.
She was observing the people. It was something she liked to do.
That was the hundredth person to pass under than arch. That was the 13th time the vendor shouted his slogan. Dess shook her head. They had rested long enough. Time to go.
She was about to head over to Melissa and Jonathan, when she felt someone's eyes on her back. It wasn't the normal feeling either. Dread coursed through Dess' veins like ice. She froze on the spot.
After a minute, she shook it off and went to get her friends, even though she knew she was still being watched.
Aris, from atop a building, smiled.