TUoC: Chapter 4

It was now Saturday morning, with the sun starting to rise more and more over the town of Peach Creek. We zoomed in on Double D's house, where we could see Matthew getting ready for the day in the kitchen. As he was making a bowl of cereal to eat, Double D was still asleep in his bed; it seemed like Matthew was a morning person, even more so than Double D.

We then see Double D start to toss and turn a little before he jolts upwards with a gasp. He had woken up from a nightmare in a panic, breathing in and out at a rapid pace. He looked around the room to see where he was.

"A-Another weird dream…" Double D muttered as he managed to calm down his frantic breathing.

He made a heavy sigh to himself, 'Why do I keep having these nightmares? I could barely remember what this one was about… But it terrified me.'

Double D lowered his head in sadness, 'I truly hope these dreams go away soon… All of them make me feel like I'm losing my sense of self.'

He then got out of his bed to get ready for the day, doing all the usual morning routines like normal, getting a shower, brushing his teeth, and putting on his usual attire. Double D walked down the stairs to get to his kitchen, only to see Matthew sitting on the couch in his living room, watching the local morning news, "Good morning, Matthew."

"Oh… morning," Matthew replied when Double D walked in. They could see the news people on the TV talking about the disappearances of the many teenagers in the area.

"This whole week has been awful," Double D stated with a sad sigh, "I can't imagine what everyone and their families are going through…"

"I know, it's really scary," Matthew stated before thinking about something, "It sucks that my sister and I can't remember anything; we could have helped out," he looked to the floor a little with a sad face, "We had that letter with us, meaning we were probably involved with what's happening."

"It's alright," Double D replied, "I'm sure you and your sister will remember things eventually; it just takes time."

"Y-Yeah…"

Double D walked into his kitchen to fix himself something to eat for breakfast, going over to the sink first to wash his hands. As he turned on the faucet and put his hands underneath the running water, Double D could see his hands starting to grow pale white; just like what happened yesterday. He widened his eyes in horror as the water around his hands started to freeze from touching his skin. Both of Double D's hands were now stuck in a small block of ice, with the faucet water still running over it.

"Umm… M-Matthew?!" Double D started to call to him, "I-I need some assistance with s-something dire!"

Matthew walked into the kitchen to see what Double D needed help with, only to see the block of ice over Double D's hands. Matthew blinked for a moment before replying, "You know there's plenty of ice in the fridge, right?"

"This is NOT the time for making jokes!" Double D stated with a bit of panic, "I was t-trying to wash my hands, a-and then this happened!"

"… Really?"

"Yes!"

Matthew stayed silent for a second before he started walking up to Double D, "Hold on a moment, okay? I can help."

Double D looked at him in confusion as Matthew turned off the water coming from the faucet, "Here, put your hands back over the sink," instructed Matthew, which Double D did very quickly.

Matthew then came up to Double D to his right, holding out his hands towards the ice block. It was when Matthew held out his hands that Double D could see the scar on the top of Matthew's left hand; it looked very much like the scar on his forehead, just like Layton mentioned yesterday. Suddenly, Double D could see something coming out of the palm of Matthew's hands; a few small embers that slowly started to melt the ice around his hands. Double D stood there in shock as all the ice melted, with the water from it going down the drain.

"W-What…?" Double D stuttered as Matthew backed away for a moment, shaking his hands a little to make the embers go away, "H-How did you—"

"I don't know," was Matthew's reply, "I found out I could do this yesterday by pure accident."

Both Double D and Matthew glanced down at Double D's hands, only to see how pale they still were before fading away, going back to his normal skin tone, "Do you have any idea about what's going on?" Matthew asked Double D.

"I'm afraid not; I'm just as clueless as you are," Double D replied, still baffled at what was happening, "Does Serena have something like this too?"

"… Yeah, I hurt my arm yesterday morning when I was at the police station," Matthew started to explain, holding out his arm to show that it was no longer injured, "But then Serena came up to me and healed my arm by touching it as if it was a natural thing for her to do. She had no clue she could do that until it happened."

The two teens were silent to each other before Double D spoke, "I guess there's more to us than meets the eye."

"You think so?" Matthew asked.

Double D nodded his head, "Yes, but I'm not exactly sure how or why this would be the case…"

He then walked over to the closet in the kitchen where he kept his cleaning supplies, going inside it to grab another pair of yellow cleaning gloves that were stored there, "It feels like this ice problem is happening at random… Meaning I have to keep wearing these gloves for a while longer," Double D then puts on the gloves as he leaves the cleaning closet, "I really don't want to keep doing this, but I don't want to hurt anyone by accident."

Matthew made a sad face, "Geez, sounds rough…"

Double D shook his head a little, "L-Let's try not to think about that for now," he stated, walking over to his kitchen cabinet to grab the box of cereal from it, "I have to meet up with my friends later today for something that Eddy has planned."

"Really?" Matthew stated with a bit of curiosity, "… Can I come with you too?"

Double D looked towards him with a bit of a surprised look before masking it away with a friendly smile, "Of course you can, Matthew. After all, I'm sure your sister will be joining us, seeing that she stayed over at Jennifer's house last night."

"… I see," Matthew replied.

Meanwhile, back in the living room, we could see on the TV that the news was still on.

"And now, here's our lead meteorologist with today's weather," stated the anchorwoman as the scene changed over to the weatherman, "It looks like it will be a very cloudy morning today with a small chance of heavy rain and lightning, as well as strong to severe gusts of winds appearing around lunchtime. The gusts are predicted to be around 15 to 20mph, so please take caution if you plan to stay or work outside today."

It was now 11:40 a.m. in Peach Creek. We could see the three Eds sitting and standing around the playground, along with Matthew, Zoey, and Marie. They were all waiting for Jennifer and Serena to arrive before they could start to discuss today's plans.

"You know, I didn't expect it to be cloudy this morning," Matthew stated, glancing up at the sky.

"I would take it at this point," Marie said, stretching her arms a little, "It's been so hot lately; we really needed the shade."

"… It would not surprise me if it started to rain, honestly," Double D commented, "I wish I had paid attention to the news this morning to learn about today's weather."

A few seconds passed by them before everyone could see both Jennifer and Serena coming up to them, "Sorry we're late," Jennifer started to say as she approached her friends, "It was really hard for me to wake Serena up."

Serena only responds with a small yawn and her eyes are halfway open; she is still half asleep.

"Aww, that's okay!" Ed replied with a toothy smile.

Zoey made a small smile at them before turning to Eddy, "Well, now that everyone's here, do you mind telling us what you have planned today?"

Eddy nodded his head, "Yeah, of course I will!"

He then began to explain about the junkyard nearby and the abandoned van that was there, telling them how it used to be their hideout/hangout spot for a while.

"Oh yeah, I remember that van," Marie stated, "Sometimes my sisters and I passed by it when we explored the junkyard," she glanced at the Eds with a bit of a teasing manner, "Is that where you three hid from us a lot of the time?"

The three Eds froze a little at that, "Uh…"

Marie only laughed at them, "Not that it matters anymore, I'm just messing with you!"

Jennifer and Zoey stayed silent while Serena and Matthew looked on with confusion, but they did not say anything.

"A-Anyway, Eddy mentioned to me yesterday that he wanted to see if we could restore the van so it could be driven again," Double D explained, trying to brush off the awkward statement, "He wants it to be a project that we could work on over time."

"Oh, that sounds cool!" Ed awed a little with a big smile, "That way we could take it on big, long road trips, right?!"

Double D made a sigh at Ed's enthusiasm, "Well, I wouldn't say it would be for any long trips, but yes, that's the plan."

"Let's get going before it starts to rain," Eddy stated as he gestured toward where the junkyard was located, "I'd rather not get soaked from it anytime soon."

About fifteen minutes passed after the group of teens left the Cul-De-Sac. They arrived at the junkyard; the clouds in the sky were darker than they were earlier, with a bit of drizzle starting to shower down on them.

"Geez, so much for not wanting to get soaked in the rain, Eddy," Zoey grumbled a little to him in annoyance.

"It's no biggie! The van isn't that far away from here," Eddy stated to her, "We'll go there for cover until it passes over! Then we can see what we can do about the van!"

It was when they took a few more steps into the junkyard that the wind around them started to grow stronger.

"Umm… I don't like the looks of this," Double D stated, "Eddy, maybe we should turn back for now until this rain subsides."

"Y-Yeah, I'm starting to think that too," Eddy replied with a sigh, "We'll come back when the weather is better."

Jennifer turned to Double D, only to notice something unusual going on with him. The rain that was hitting the exposed part of his skin started to freeze over slightly; both on his arms and his face. He did not seem to notice that it was happening. She made a concerned face at the sight.

Suddenly, the wind around them picked up even more than it did a second ago, blowing almost everyone off their feet. Everyone started to lie down on the ground to prevent themselves from being blown away. Before he could lie down to the ground for safety, Ed noticed something that widened his eyes in horror; a piece of junkyard debris was about to fall on someone.

"Serena!" He yelped as he pushed her out of harm's way, only for him to fall to the ground along with the debris that fell on him.

"ED!" Everyone else yelled to him as they tried to come over to him, but the strong winds around them were making it very difficult to do so. The others had to stay in place on the ground, or they would be blown away.

Serena was the only one near Ed. She quickly went over to him to see that he was struggling to get the debris off his bottom left leg and foot. Serena helped as much as she could to help push it off him despite all the wind around them. Eventually, they were successful in pushing the debris away from Ed as they lifted his pants leg, only to see the damage done to him. Some of his bottom leg and his ankle were bleeding, but it did not look like anything was broken, it was more like a very nasty cut.

Without any hesitation, Serena puts her hands over his wounds. A weird, but soothing green light started to form in her hands as Ed could feel his wounds starting to close, much to his shock. Ed could see Serena's face starting to grow pale after she finished healing him, catching her before her head hit the ground and holding her against himself to prevent them from getting hurt in the windstorm. She had fainted from what happened.

It took about two minutes for the harsh wind to stop blowing around them, leaving only the drizzling rain falling above them. The group soon got up from the ground, realizing the storm had passed.

"Is everyone okay?!" Matthew asked, looking around to see if everyone was still there.

"I think so," Marie replied, brushing off her clothes a little, "My clothes are freaking soaked!"

"I think I saw my life flash in front of me for a moment," Double D stated before turning to Jennifer, who was not that far away from him, "Are you alright, Jennifer?"

Jennifer did not say anything, she could only come over to Double D and latch onto his left arm in fright. Double D panicked for a short moment before seeing that she was wearing her long-sleeved shirt today, meaning she would not get hurt by his unstable ice powers while she was latched onto his arm like this.

Eddy and Zoey looked over to Ed and Serena, who were both still on the ground, before remembering what happened earlier.

"Ed!" Eddy yelped as he and everyone else went over to him and Serena.

They could see that Ed had somehow fallen asleep while Serena was still passed out; there was a bloodstain on Ed's pants leg but saw no injuries to him at all. Ed was still hugging Serena even when he fell asleep.

Everyone was silent for a moment before someone spoke, "Huh, I didn't expect that kind of plot twist."

Of course, that comment earned Eddy a slap on the back of his head from Zoey, "That is NOT important right now!"

"I know, I know! Geez…" Eddy muttered, rubbing his head.

Matthew went over to Ed to try and wake him up, shaking his shoulder a little, "Ed?"

Ed started to wake up in a groggy way, only to see he was still hugging Serena. He widened his eyes a little, remembering what happened earlier, "Serena?!" he questioned aloud as he laid her down beside him, poking her in the shoulder to try and wake her up.

"Ed, can you tell us what happened?" Double D started to ask, "We all saw something fall on you, but we couldn't see anything after that due to the wind and rain."

"S-Something did fall on me!" Ed gasped as he looked at his left leg, "But Serena cast Cure on my leg to help it!"

"… Serena cast Cure?" Jennifer questioned, "As in White Magic from a White Mage?"

"Yeah!"

'Oh goodie, gamer lingo,' Eddy thought with a roll of his eyes.

Matthew and Double D were silent about what Ed said, she must have used her powers to help him recover; like what they could do with fire and ice.

"Either way, I think we should go back to the Cul-De-Sac," Zoey stated with a sigh, "The rain finally stopped, and I want to dry myself and my clothes before I get sick."

Marie nodded her head, "Good Idea, I think I'll go to Jen's house to dry off instead of walking back home."

Ed then picked Serena up in his arms as he and everyone else left the junkyard.

About thirty minutes passed by after what happened in the junkyard. All the girls, except for Zoey, went to Jennifer's house while the Eds went to their houses to dry off their clothes; Matthew went back to Double D's house. Serena was still unconscious, lying on the bed in Jennifer's guest room underneath a blanket to cover herself up while her clothes were drying.

We zoomed in on Eddy's house, who was putting on his pants after taking a shower to get the grime off him from earlier.

"Geez, what a weird day," Eddy grumbled before making a sigh, "So much for renovating that van in the junkyard. Guess it's not happening."

As he went to grab his shirt and started to put it on over his head, he could hear his house phone start to ring in the living room. Eddy groaned a little as he tried to rush to answer it but was a little late to do so before the answering machine picked up. He was about to walk away before he heard the voice message being recorded on the other line.

"Evan? Eddy? It's your mother."

Eddy widened his eyes a little as he turned back to the phone.

"We're sorry we haven't been able to contact you until now; there wasn't that good of a reception for our cell phones on the cruise ship we were on," his mother said, "Are you okay? I hope everything is well for you two!"

Eddy furrowed his eyes in anger at his phone, forcefully restraining himself from picking it up to scream and yell at his mom on the other end.

"We just wanted you to know that we will be coming back home sometime this month," his mom continued to say, "It's been so long since we've seen you, Evan. We can't wait to come back home and chat with both you and Eddy! See you later, goodbye!"

The answering machine came to a stop with a clicking sound, his mother hung up on the other end.

"Yeah, what a great 'welcome back' party you'll both get," Eddy growled to himself as he clenched his right hand into a fist.

It was very clear that both of his parents did not get the news that Evan was arrested. He also knew that his parents were clueless as to how Evan truly was, a raging alcoholic. Even before his brother left the Cul-De-Sac to live on his own, Evan drank a lot and took most of his anger out on Eddy. He was relieved when Evan finally moved away and had hope that his brother would get better when he did. But as Eddy and his friends found out last month when they ran away to find his house, Evan never got better. His brother had hurt both him and his two friends before knocking himself out, showing his true colors to everyone. When he and the rest of the teens came back to the Cul-De-Sac, he never did tell his parents that he went to his brother's house; even when they grounded him for leaving for so long. Eddy knew his parents would not believe him; and if he did try to explain, he feared what Evan would do to him and his friends… Just like what happened a few weeks ago with Zoey in the worst way possible.

Eddy made a heated sigh to himself, trying to calm himself down, "I shouldn't let that get to me right now. I should meet back up with the others."

Meanwhile, back at Jennifer's house, we could see Serena starting to wake back up. She immediately noticed she was only in her underwear, much to her shock. She panicked for a split second before seeing her clothes next to her on the bed; they were all dry now.

"Oh… I guess they dried my clothes for me while I was out of it," Serena concluded with a sigh of relief. She glanced at her hands for a moment, 'Did my healing powers make me pass out like that? I guess there is a limit to using it… Not that I can remember what the limit is.'

Serena hopped out of the bed to get dressed back into her clothes. It was as she was putting her white ribbon back around her ponytail that she saw Jennifer walk in to check on her, "O-Oh you're awake now!" Jennifer gasped.

Serena nodded her head, "Yeah, sorry for the trouble I caused."

"It's no trouble at all!" Jennifer replied to her before turning back to the door, "I should tell everyone you woke up…"

Before she could leave, Jennifer stopped for a moment, "Well, I do have a question I need to ask, if you don't mind."

"Uh, sure!" Serena smiled at her, "What's the question?"

"During the storm earlier, Ed said you used 'Cure magic' on him when he got hurt, like what a White Mage would do in an RPG," Jennifer started to say, glancing down at Serena's right hand, "And I noticed the scar that you and Matthew have are the same. Does he have a power like that too?"

"Oh… Yeah, he does!" Serena replied, "He can cast fire from his hands! But Mr. Layton told us to not tell anyone about it; not even the police know this yet," She looked back at Jennifer with another smile, "But I trust you. Can you keep it a secret as well?"

Jennifer was silent for a moment before replying to Serena with a small smile, "Of course."

"Yay! Thank you!" Serena cheered, "I'm gonna go downstairs and tell everyone I'm awake."

"Umm, only me and Marie are here right now."

"… Oh."

Jennifer chuckled, "I'm sure they'll all come visit once they hear that you woke up."

Serena smiled at her again, "Okay!"

She then dashed out of the guest room to go downstairs, leaving Jennifer upstairs. Jennifer made a worried face to herself, thinking back to what happened earlier. She noticed that Double D had been wearing cleaning gloves all day, and the rain that was hitting his skin during the storm was starting to freeze over it. There was also the moment from last week when he tried to hold her hand, only for her to retract from it because his hand felt bone-chilling to the touch. Jennifer then remembered when Double D was in the hospital; the scar on his forehead… he usually covered it up with his beanie. The scar looked very similar to the ones that Serena and Matthew have on their hands.

'What in the world is going on?' Jennifer thought to herself with worry, 'There's no such thing as magic or mutants, and yet this is happening; this is real…'

She made a sigh to herself to calm down her nerves, "I-I should try to talk to Eddward about this. He might know what's going on."

Author's Note (September 11th, 2023): Whoa, sorry it took so long to make this chapter in particular! Kind of had a roadblock with writing it. But it's all better now! Stay tuned for the next chapter, whenever I finish it!

Chapter 4's Song Title: "The Road is Full of Dangers" - Super Mario RPG