Somewhere in the not-so-distant outskirts of town, sometime within the twilight hours of daylight’s break, an inconspicuous whirring black sedan had just pulled over in the driveway of a two-story house that stood uninhabited for what seemed like ages.

“This is the place?” Irene asked.

I looked again at the hasty scribblings on the slip of paper I was given. It was very non-descript if anything… it was just an address with little tidbits like ‘left here’, or ‘straight there’.

Well, we did went left here, and straight there too… plus there weren’t really any other houses in sight, so…

“This is the place,” I answered.

The view seen from the dashboard window wasn’t able to fully capture the scope and size of the place. The view outside the dashboard, however, was just… really something else.

The house wasn’t exactly the magnum opus of a world-renowned architect-guy, nevertheless, presentation-wise, it was still far better looking than most I’ve seen in my lifetime… lifetimes.

Granted, I lived in the countryside for most my life but that’s beside the point, point being, I liked what I saw. The stupid impressed grin aching my cheeks was there to show for it.

While I stood there by the car still marveling over the wondrous wonders of modern architecture, Ria and Irene were already making their way along the smooth-cobbled pathway towards the front door.

“Open sesame, please!” Ria called out.

Her face, her voice… they really do seem not to harbor any animosity towards me, which was unsettling in itself, her indifference towards me… I really do not know what to make of it.

“On my way,” I muttered, forcing a smile of my own, the thought pushed to the back of my mind.

A quick fiddling with the lock later, and the door swung open to a darkened interior. Then just right before you could start asking yourself about where the hell the light switch was, God came in swooping and declared with a flicker of white, “Let there be light,”

And then there was light.

“Automatic,” whistled Ria, giving a mischievous side-glance my way. “Those mob guys spared no expense with you, did they?”

“I don’t trust them,” Irene said, taking the first steps in, her tone brimming with disapproval. “You shouldn’t either.”

Don’t know why Irene was telling me that. ‘Trust’ along with ‘Mob’ are words that are galaxies apart from one another.

“Irene, darling, you’re a detective, distrust is like your main motto,” Ria scoffed, taking the second steps into the deserted hall. “Everybody lies, right?”

Everybody lies… as I’ve come to realize more and more through recent events was a statement that couldn’t have rung more true… surprisingly, with parents being the worst offenders.

What a bitter pill to swallow.

“Coming in?” Ria had herself spun to me, her smile warm, her expression inviting.

Was that a lie, too?

“Yeah, coming…” I smiled. I lied.

Two bedrooms. One guestroom. Two toilets. One kitchen. A big-ass living room. Closets for days. Two balconies upstairs. And to top it all off, every room was already furnished to the brim.

We got electrical appliances by the dozens, A/C units no matter where you go, even got a chandelier hung high above the TV space.

Naturally, the first thing that crossed my mind was, “Oh my holy God, the bills. I’m dead.” but that concern was immediately abated once I came across the sticky note plastered onto the door of the smart fridge.

>

It wasn’t even a month ago when they were practically starving me out of house and home. Now they were filling me up with all the houses and homes I could ever want. Next thing you know, they’ll end up getting me a replacement for my broken phone too.

>

Oh.

I know it’s getting really redundant at this point, but I seriously cannot emphasize enough just how surreal everything was at the moment. It wasn’t good. It was making my head hurt bad. I needed a distraction.

“You want to go take the Elf and the Vampire out of the car, now?” Irene asked, her gleaming scarlet eyes poking through the doorway.

“Good distraction, let’s go,” I said.

“What?”

“Nothing, let’s go.”

A little while later and we had ourselves a full house. With Ash, I made sure to place her into the most comfortable room and bed I could find. Carrying her up the flight of stairs wasn’t easy, but I wasn’t going to complain, especially not with Ash.

In regards to Adalia… needed her in close proximity to me always, so we’ve situated her onto the living room couch, where I could keep an eye on her easily.

By the time we had everything settled, we were greeted with the chilly breeze of dusk’s ascent with the dark canvas in the night sky twinkling a few stars shining bright.

For a moment, just for the one minute moment, I had that sense of normalcy again. The belief that the only magical moment in my life was the time my dad dressed as Santa Claus and knocked on the front door. Then I saw the glow of phoenix fire twirling around the garden with a whimsical tune playing in a hum, caught a strong whiff of enticement temporarily clouding my senses and I was instantly brought back down to my new version of normalcy.

“You’ll be fine?”

Irene spoke from the driver-side window of her car. She had to go, she claimed. Duty calls. She wanted to go and make sure all the victims were accounted for.

“I hope so,” I said, bending down to level with her gaze. “More worried about you, actually. You’re still very red and very, uhh… smelly.”

“Glamour will come back eventually. Don’t know how long… but it’ll be back. I’ll just be watching from afar, no one will see me… hopefully...”

“And the victims? Isn’t there a chance they might remember something? Wouldn’t be nice if they started spouting about vampires and phoenixes and stuff like that now, would it?”

Irene smiled at that. Hadn’t seen her smile for so long now.

“You really think anybody would believe them?” She raised her eyebrows. “Would you have?”

“You really want me to answer that?”

A sigh, a tired one, left her lips with a shake of her head. “You’re normal. That’s good. Frankly, if I were the one in your shoes… getting dragged into all this… I don’t think I would have come out of it the same.”

It was my turn to sigh. “Who says I still am?”

Her stare was somber again, that smile… all but faded. “Back then… I knew you trusted me. I’m sorry I lied. I’m sorry about what I said. The Elf… everyone… you’re right, they weren’t just numbers in a statistic.”

“Heat of the moment,” I said. “I know you didn’t mean it.’

“I did,” she said, looking away. “Still do. This time was a fluke. Next time… if there is a next time… you might just not be able to save everyone. And then once you realize that… then numbers will be all you have to go off of…”

‘Is that how it was?” I asked, angling down a bit further trying to meet her expression. “Kronocia? Is that how things are decided? And what of those you left to die? I mean, do you even care?”

“I care…” Her voice went soft. “I cared. But eventually, in time… you’ll reach the point where you cared so much that you end up just not caring at all anymore.”

“You - “

“It hasn’t happened to you yet,” Her eyes on mine as the car engine whirred to life. “Pray it never will. Take care of Ria for me.”

And before I could say anything else, she drove off, stirring dust in her wake as she shrank into the moonlit horizon.

I’ll pray, Irene, I’ll pray...

“Irene just left…”

Up the paved cobblestone path, beyond the tall grass and some bushes, frolicking in a meadow of flowers, Ria could be found staring away into the endless sea of the starry night sky, the smoldering strands of her hair like a beacon of light in the darkness.

“Yeah,” she said, turning to face me. “I didn’t even get a goodbye. I’m hurt.”

“Are you?”

“Nah.”

“Thought so,” I delved my hands into my pockets, feeling a shiver run down my spine by the drop in temperature. “You coming in?”

“Nah.”

“You staying out?”

“Actually,” she squinted her eyes at me. “I’m thinking of leaving.”

‘Say again?”

Her smile grew wider. “I’m leaving.”

Surprised was the first, spreading my eyes wide. Panic was the second, making my words come out in stutters.

“Wh-what? You’re leaving? Why? How - how come? Was it because of before? About what happened? If it is, I’m sorry… I’ll try not to - “

“Whoa, whoa, whoa… relax, my guy. It has nothing to do with that! I told you there are no hard feelings. It’s just… 50 years in an amulet, you tend to miss out on a lot of things. I didn’t really have the luxury of stretching my wings. I just want to see the sights, explore the world… maybe get some things from a gift shop or two.”

I wanted to believe her. I really, truly did. I wanted my worries to just disperse into nothingness. She claimed there were no hard feelings, her smiled claimed it, her words did too.

But she was always smiling, always deflecting. It was getting harder to distinguish what she was really speaking beyond words. How can I know when she’s serious when she’s never serious?

“This has nothing to do with… how I used you?” I asked.

“Not even a tincy wincy bit.”

“Really?”

“Come on, if you’re feeling guilty, then that’s your own fault. I already told you there were no hard feelings.”

“Well excuse me for worrying,” I said. “You drop something like that on me and you expect me to just brush it off?”

She chuckled. “I would have.”

“I’m not you.”

“Okay! Alright!” She raised her arms in the air. “Let’s pretend that I am upset with you, okay? Really upset, like - ‘Boo, master, I hate you! I never want to see your face again! Hmph! Baka!’, you with me so far?”

Though mildly taken aback as I was, still, I went with the flow and nodded my head.

“Then isn’t this your perfect shot at redemption?” she explained. “You let me do what I always wanted. You, the benevolent, kind-hearted master, allow me to explore the world, see the sights, be free, and all is peachy again.”

Trying to appeal to my altruistic nature, there’s gotta be a better way of convincing me to do what she wanted… thought I won’t deny that it wasn’t working. It actually was.

“You really want to do this, don’t you?”

“I’m a phoenix,” she said. “Flying is kind of what I do best, second only to setting things on fire.”

“And what if you’re seen?” I inquired. “Hard not to spot a flaming bird in the sky. You’re bound to pick up a few onlookers.”

Once again, I was the only one that shared in the concern, Ria simply laughed it off.

“Oh, come on,” she said, her tone mildly patronizing. “Don’t tell me you’ve never seen a top ten unsolved mysteries video before on the internet. Irene practically lives off the stuff.”

That got a chuckle out of me. “Alright then, fair enough… you’ll come back though, right?”

“Oh-no-no-no, don’t worry. I won’t leave you all alone in a cold, heartless, Ria-less world. I’ll be back from time to time, or when you call for me. Just think of me really deeply in your heart of hearts and I’ll be there for you. Metaphorically speaking.”

Permission was granted. Ria had full authorization to take flight. She readied herself, her eyes upwards to the limitless skies… but then -

“One other thing...”

I had to interrupt. My worries had to interrupt. She turned to face me. One look at my expression was all she needed to understand the reason for my abrupt interruption.

No click of the tongue, no voicing of any qualms. Her smile was soft and gentle.

“You don’t want to be alone, do you?” she said, her eyes drifting to the big, empty house. “More specifically, you don’t want to be alone with her.”

Right on the money.

“I just…” I paused, my eyes dreading to even glance at the open doorway. “After everything… how do I even talk to her? I’m a mess, she’s a mess… I just... don’t think we should be alone together right now.”

“Look,” Ria reached out, placing a hand on my shoulder. “I’m not the right person you should be asking. But if you wanna know what I think. I think you’ll be just fine. Whatever relationship you have with her isn’t just gonna go crumbling the moment you see each other again. Not after what you’ve done for her, and certainly not after what she’s done for you.”

I mentioned before just how difficult it was to distinguish the words behind her words. It wasn’t difficult at all here. For the first time, she was being straight, she was being sincere.

“Look even if you are clueless as to what to say to her now, you’ll definitely find the words. Even if you can’t find it now, you’ll surely find it later.”

She unclasped her hand and took a step back, her smile as genuine as it ever was.

I simply shook my head. “You know, I really wish you would talk like that more often. You just moved my heart there.”

Another round of chuckles.

“Make a recording next time,” she said. “It’ll last longer.”

And with that, in a bright spiral of flames, Ria finally took flight, soaring into the darkness, casting it all away with her blinding glow.

I watched her until she was nothing more than just another shimmering dot painting the brilliant night sky before I conceded to the freezing cold and finally took the steps into the doorway open wide.

New home, new friends, new circumstances.

As I let the door swung close, I heard the creak of wooden floorboards, the thud of heavy footsteps, and the sound of breathing, shallow, and strain.

A second later… a voice. A familiar, nostalgic, comforting voice resounding aloud in the deathly quiet.

“Mas...ter?”

I missed that voice.

“Ash…”

I missed that sight.

I never realized how much I missed the glow of her emerald eyes staring back at me, to see her be so expressive again… to be able to look at her, and actually see her.

Could have brought a tear to my eye. It didn’t. Joy wasn’t an emotion I had yet. Happy and relieved, yes. But it wasn't enough.

Ash had a hand grasping firmly onto the stair handle, mid-way down the steps, her body hunched, her skin pale as snow. She must have just woken up, and yet her first instinct wasn’t to stay still and recoup, she came looking for me.

But I didn’t feel joy for it. I wanted to feel joy.

“Master… I…” Ash heaved, “What I have done to you… the despicable things… I didn’t…”

“Don’t apologize, please,” I said at once, walking deeper into the hall. “Please don’t. You aren’t…”

“Sis...ter?”

I stopped dead in my tracks. I spun to the left.

The living room had one other that had roused to consciousness. Adalia sat upright, her misty clouded eyes scanning the room from right to left before finally catching sight of me by the doorway.

“Where is… my sister?” she asked. “Where… have you brought me?”

Both eyes were on me now. Ash and Adalia’s. Staring, inquiring… almost as if burrowing into my soul.

Ria’s statement rang true. I was utterly at loss for words.

Find your words… you’ll find them. All will be explained. In time. They’ll understand. Get them to understand.

The front door slammed shut. An echo resounding in the night. It was almost like an affirmation of a fact that I already knew.

As I took in a breath, as I open my mouth wide, as I stared back at them with a newfound resolve.

I knew that life will never be the same again.